2008 Year in Review

The curtain has come down on 2008. Thank you to each and every one of you who made the year a successful one at Powerlifting Watch.

It was the third full year that the website has served up powerlifting news, information, and discussion. It was also a year in which many new features were added to the website.

The geographic scope of Powerlifting Watch continued to expand in 2008, with reporting on powerlifting news from around the world growing significantly. As you can imagine, the language barrier presents real difficulties to comprehensive reporting. The contributions of worldwide correspondents have helped very much in that regard. To accommodate the more international scope of the website, the World Power Rankings are now being compiled. International lifters were also included in the 3rd Annual Powerlifting Watch Powerlifting Awards for the first time and All-World powerlifting teams were named.

In 2008, the first annual first and second team All-American and All-World teams were named. While feedback isn't yet complete, look for this to be a yearly feature. These awards of recognition are meant to honor those who compete at the highest level against fellow top competitors.

Videos were added to the Lifter Rankings (subs.) in 2008. A video link is included next to each ranked lift (where video of the lifts is available). These allow you to, with one easy click, view the top lifts of the year.

A new Money Meets page was added to the Upcoming Meets section of the website. Here, meets with cash purses of at least $1,000 will be featured. The page offers an easy way for potential competitors, fans, and media to check out what's happening in the professional world of powerlifting.

The year also saw a more aggressive level of moderation at the site. While this is not agreeable to everyone, we're trying to strike the right balance at the site between free commentary and constructive discussion. Thank you to those who have helped with moderation during the year. Remember, that each and every one of you have that ability to moderate comments with the Community Comment Moderation feature that appears in every article.

Perhaps what I'm personally most proud of is that the quality of the reporting continued to improve at Powerlifting Watch. The improvement is solely due to those who contribute to the website. That includes meet directors, federation officials, competitors, writers, collaborators, and fans. Thank you to each and every one of of you. Even more positive, I think that 2009 will bring an even higher level of reporting.

Thanks to the continued support of the powerlifting community, Powerlifting Watch now serves up almost 1 1/2 million pages every month. The over 85% growth over the last year has meant additional server upgrades to accommodate the increased traffic. That should mean that pages are loading faster than ever for you and that your viewing experience continues to improve.

Powerlifting Watch's sponsors help to pay for the higher powered servers that the site requires and are directly responsible for all that the site is able to do. I want to personally thank each and every site sponsor. When you go to make your next powerlifting purchase, please remember that these companies support powerlifting.

AtLarge Nutrition
Quest Nutrition
Iron Gladiators
Eleiko USA
APT
Elite FTS
PL Gear Online
House of Pain
Critical Bench
Anderson Powerlifting
Inzer Advance Designs
Free-Spotter
Sentry Insurance

I want to thank all of you who contributed to Powerlifting Watch in 2008.

Thank you to collaborators and contributors, whose knowledge, opinion, insight, and perspective help shape Powerlifting Watch. That includes those who worked directly with me on projects or articles as well as those of you who joined in a discussion on one or more of the articles which are featured here. I welcome the broad range of positions which often make for lively discussions.

Thank you to federation officials and meet directors who provided me with meet details, article clarifications, and other federation information. Please continue to communicate so that Powerlifting Watch can help get the word out about your federation and meets.

Thank you to those who wrote articles for the site in 2008. Other authors are able to vary the flavor of Powerlifting Watch and often write about subject matters which the site may not have covered.

I also want to appeal to those of you who didn't contribute in 2008. With your help we can bring the reporting and coverage of the site to an even better level. As you contribute, the overall level of Powerlifting Watch rises, as does the resource's value for all powerlifters. If you don't think that the site is covering something that it should be, then drop an email or write an article. It's that simple!

2008 was an exciting year at Powerlifting Watch. 2009 promises to be even better year. In the new year, the website will continue with its commitment to offer a comprehensive and fully inclusive view of our sport of powerlifting.

Thank you,
Jon