by Mike Gillard, Kitelife Publisher
Well, here we are again! Thanks
for joining us for the third issue of Kitelife. The last month has been eventful, with
Spring in full bloom there are kiting events every weekend to keep track of, and report to
you. On the Sweepstakes Entry form, we left a place for you to tell us what part of
Kitelife you like best. The clear favorites were event coverage and photos, and we are
doing our best to bring you as many of these features as we can.
Your response to Kitelife has been phenomenal. Traffic to the site has
been over twice the amount that we had anticipated, with over 265,000 hits to the
'zine
since April 1. Here's a sincere THANKS for your support. Thanks to you, we are the
most-read kite magazine in the world. Also, a big thanks to our sponsors - Cutting Edge
Kites, Avia Sport Composites, The Kite Studio, Precision Kite Company, and Peter
Betancourt Sportkites. Please show your appreciation to these fine companies for making
this magazine possible, and tell 'em that you saw them here in Kitelife!
As you may have seen already, we have made a few changes to the lineup
starting with this issue. Most of these changes are in response to input from readers. A
new feature we are adding this month is "The Best of Rec.Kites". Recent months
have seen this newsgroup sink into the swamp of flame wars and idiocy that seems to be the
destination of most unmoderated Usenet newsgroups. We will be culling the rec.kites
newsgroup for interesting and relevant kite-related posts and posting them on a weekly
basis. I have heard that many readers of the newsgroup have quit participating in it
due to the poor signal/noise ratio, here, they will be able to get most of the signal with
little or no noise. We hope you enjoy it. We have deleted the "Discussion Page"
starting with this issue due to lack of participation. If enough people request it, we may
revive discussions in combination with the rec.kites coverage.
So, kick back, pour your favorite beverage, and spend some time enjoying
our efforts. We hope you like this issue, and, as always, let us know of any suggestions
you have, or any contribution you can make. See you in the sky!
