The Dark City's 2nd anniversary & forum awards

May 14th, 2013, marked The Dark City's second anniversary.  Over the course of the past year, our forum has continued to grow at a steady pace and we have almost exactly doubled our membership, from 1,221 denizens at the time our first anniversary to 2,440 today.  We have maintained this same 100-new-members-per-month pace throughout our existence and show no signs of slowing.

A huge reason for our continued success has been the amazing work done by TDC’s very own The Eye of Error, formerly known as Lucky No. 5.  Having originally designed and created the unique banner that symbolizes The Dark City, The Eye of Error almost completely redesigned the rest of the forum’s graphics during 2012-2013, including our background, thread icons, menu buttons, and more.  The result of all of his amazing hard work is the best-looking 40K forum on the web, for which we are all extremely grateful and proud, and for which he is once again a recipient of Sky Serpent's Special Recognition Award.

And he is not yet done, as you will see after these awards are complete.

Sky Serpent would also like to acknowledge the technical help provided this year by Erebus with another Special Recognition Award, thank you very much.

Two other reasons behind our ongoing popularity are the Chatroom, which was added just over a year ago and has proven to be a boon for denizens to chill and get to know each other a bit more.  It is also become an excellent portal through which new members can ask for advice and get familiar with the forum before actually signing up.  The Mod team for the Chatroom is constantly kept on their toes by the volume of traffic there, and by the more ‘relaxed’ atmosphere it engenders, but they continue to maintain a very user-friendly environment for all who use it.

And then there is our team of excellent tacticians who are, if not the heart and soul of the forum, then pretty close to it.  An informal grouping of veteran players, young and old, they are ever-present and willing impart their extensive 40K and Dark Eldar-specific knowledge to help every player who asks for advice.   They don't always see eye to eye - not all of them are firm adherents to the school of 27 Reavers, or the 9-Venom doctrine - but they universally agree that Kheradruakh is utterly useless, so denizens can rest assured that they are getting excellent help even when they end up with multiple options to choose from.

The Dark City remains the friendly and respectful community that all members, mods and denizens, have striven to achieve since the very first day.  The welcoming atmosphere is just as much the reason for our growth as the actual content, but the amazing modeling and painting projects to be found here certainly don’t hurt, nor does the standout fan fiction.

What really sets the forum apart, though, is the advice given to members and guests, and not just for tactics.  Always well-reasoned, denizens are more than willing to discuss any topic in a rational manner, irrespective of each other’s level of experience.  Whether it is for an army list, a specific piece of wargear, how to run a tabletop league or how to use an airbrush, you can count on a meaningful and respectful answer.

To help celebrate The Dark City’s second anniversary, we have again completed a public nomination and voting process for our Dark City Forum Awards.  Obviously, there are many denizens deserving of recognition, not least all of the runners up in each category, but the individuals listed below were singled out by you, the forum members, for their hard work and dedication to their fellow True Kin.

And so, here are the winners, as voted by forum members of the 2013 Dark City Forum Awards.  This year, each winner will receive a special honour to be displayed in their profile, so keep watching for those:

Best Work of Fluff – Lady Malys - "A Rendevous in Aelindrach", a truly wonderful stand-alone tale, full of emotion and vivid imagery.

Best Quote – Kinnay – picking up a Santa gift from the German Customs Office (scroll down the page).  Feels like you are there in the room.

Best Strategist - Mushkilla, the variety and volume of advice is matched by his quality.  Always more than willing to share his experiences and offer helpful hints and tips, even if it doesn’t involve deploying 27 Reavers!

Best Rules Interpreter - Tiri Rana, steadfast since TDC’s early days, always offers clear and level-headed interpretations without judgement, that are both firm and fair to all concerned.

Best Battle Report(s) – Mushkilla - "The Black Buzzards" series, an always entertaining and informative series, replete with pictures and modest self-analysis.  Valuable lessons for all who read them.

Best Painter – The Eye of Error – a genuinely inspiring body of work spread across several project logs, Haemonculi Coven Models, Wych Cult of Red Death, Asdrubael Vect - High Lord of Commorragh, and other TDC project logs.

Best Conversion – The Eye of Error – his Chrono-Gladiator Lelith, Haemonculi, and Raiders from Haemonculi Coven Models and Wych Cult of Red Death are just some of the wonderful pieces created thus far for his two Dark Eldar armies.

Best Moderator – Lady Malys, has graced the Chatroom on a continual basis despite sometimes trying circumstances, through it all maintaining her poise and helping to ensure that the chatroom remains a welcoming portal to the TDC community.

Best Overall Member - Plastikente, newly-captured this year by our shardnet, has worked diligently with input from many other denizens to create the comprehensive Dark Eldar Unit Guide, of great benefit to all True Kin, young and old.


Congratulations to everyone who won, and to all nominees as well.  This forum is of course a product of all its members, whether or not they were nominated, and personally I am looking forward immensely to our third year as we continue to solidify our position within the 40K community online.

Thank you very much.

Awe, guys I'm touched. I truley appreciate the recognition of the work I've done for the forum design and I plan to be here for a long long time

Thank you TDC members that voted for me and especially to the Sky, Baron and Gobs. You guys rock!

Thanks for running the awards Gobs!

Congratulations everyone!

All well deserved...

And... It has to be said indeed... This is the best looking 40k forum! Never really appreciated it untill I read Gob's opening post here above...

Congratz and awesome work guys!

I agree, with all the hard work our Dark Architects and the idea to base on rank etc and theme to DE, makes it the best 40k forum (and home) I know! Thumbs up for you guys who deisgn/create/mod and run this forum/site!

Congratulations to the winners! Really, everyone who was nominated deserved praise in one way or another. I'm glad to be part of this forum, as despite the fact that it's supposed to be dedicated to Commorragh and its dark denizens, it is somehow the most friendly place one could hang out on!

It's an elaborate ruse for the uninitiated, though. Secretly we all hate each other and want their stuff!

Congratulations to all the winners!

This is a truly wonderful forum and I am proud to be a member of it. To the next two years!

Congrats to everyone and especially Eye of Error for his phenomenally painted army, the award is well deserved- cheers!

Congratulations to all winners, happy to see that at least some who I voted got their awards! ^^ But of course everyone has deserved to win for getting so much votes.
Also, love those markers the winners got on under their avatars now! Can I thank EoE for that as well?

Congrats to all the nominees, you guys all deserve a reward in my eyes!!!

And congrats to the winners, you all got your rewards

Also thanks gobs for doing such a great job with not only this, but all of our major events. We would be at a loss without you!!!

So, I tried to post in the forum today and discovered that someone had fiddled with my signature!

Thanks very much to everyone who is involved in this site - I am very glad to be a part of what's going on here.

And I'm with everyone else who's mentioned how amazing the site looks - thanks Eye of Error!

Thanks again everyone, I'm glad to see the Awards Sigs being used, except for Mush who is too good to use the signature....

Ok, so which ones of those will last? The ones under profile picture or the ones in sig?

Congratulations to everybody that got nominated and to everybody that recieved an award.

Cavash wrote:

Congratulations to everybody that got nominated and to everybody that recieved an award.

...
You didn't get any award!!

Mngwa wrote:

Cavash wrote:

Congratulations to everybody that got nominated and to everybody that recieved an award.

...
You didn't get any award!!

That's fine! I'll just have to try harder next year!

dont worry Cavash... we can just "borrow" their rewards someone soon

The Eye of Error wrote:

Thanks again everyone, I'm glad to see the Awards Sigs being used, except for Mush who is too good to use the signature....

But I feel so intimidating with my signature and medals. It's all happening so fast... I can't deal with the pressure. I'm just a regular reaver racer who got caught up in things. I never wanted to be so important. I'm no true borne so I had no parents to instil me with a proper Dark Eldar superority complex.

Thank you all for such a pleasant surprise when I logged in today

My own thanks and congratulations to everyone who helps to make this a site the welcoming, friendly place it is! Long may it continue

Lady, you deserve it.

Mush, bask in the glory of arrogance

Bask in the glow of my outrageous opulence!