Firstly, hearty congratulations to Pramodh & Narayanan on their awards. It makes us immensely proud as RailFans, to be associated with them.
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As for the Admin group, the observation is correct. The group is being maintained primarily for sentimental/nostalgic reasons ONLY.
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-@Satish...
more... Re# 2:
In the age of the internet, people are actually continuously assessing whether they are getting value from some site. People are able join, login, logout, quit, rejoin, requit, literally, in an instant. There can never be any forced allegiance whatsoever. A person should be honest and truthful to his/her own hobbies, passions and interests, and nothing else. This is to clarify, once and for all, that IRI is not some "political" organization, and there is no "pledge of allegiance" or "declaration of membership in IRI" that members/Monitors/Admins have to undertake. (needless to say, "confession" of membership in IRI is allowed at the members' own discretion!!!)
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Conversely, sites like IRI also cannot stagnate - they need to continuously change and evolve with the times. In fact, many sites completely pivot and change their entire mission focus, in their struggle for survival. The changes may not be popular, leading to members quitting the site because of disenchantment. This cannot be helped. In course of time, consequent to the changes, some sites will see an upward trend (google, netflix, facebook), and others will slowly become "endangered species" (aol, yahoo) and then totally EXTINCT (myspace,..., iri?). This is part of the normal cycle of evolution. IRI may well be taking the latter course, but we MUST, nevertheless, continue to change and embrace the consequences. In any case, we shall still be RailFans, and cherish our friendships and camaraderie.
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Once again, congrats to all current and erstwhile members of IRI who made this community of RailFans proud.