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HAPPY BIRTHDAY ACD!!!

Posted: Sun 2nd Jul 2017 08:28 pm
by gromit
great work lem, ACD has help so many rookies out over the years ,...bang up job bro
now light that joint!!!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ACD!!!

Posted: Mon 3rd Jul 2017 12:57 pm
by gapie
:mrgreen:

Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ACD!!!

Posted: Mon 3rd Jul 2017 02:33 pm
by AzLaker
I said it on mchat, but I'll repeat myself here......ACD was a life saving when we 1st went 12 years ago. Printed out a bunch of coffeeshop maps to help find our way around, not just in Amsterdam, but the whole country. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: Thanks Lemming for all your hard work.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ACD :thumbup: :clap: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

AzLaker
8)

Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ACD!!!

Posted: Mon 3rd Jul 2017 02:58 pm
by EasilySuede
:) b-day, acd!
you have indeed put a spell on me

(she's playing the bluesfest tonight, as part of a special acd birthday celebration 8)
http://www.waterfrontbluesfest.com/schedules/july%203 )

cheers

Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ACD!!!

Posted: Mon 3rd Jul 2017 03:28 pm
by OneHighMofo
Happy birthday indeed!
And another opportunity to say thanks to Lemming and all the contributors over the years - many whom's names I've remembered, many whom I don't. Still - the value taken from the combined wisdom has always been golden.
Happy birthday everyone! 8) :mrgreen:

Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ACD!!!

Posted: Tue 4th Jul 2017 01:12 pm
by Drugsbunny
My, how the time flies.

Happy Birthday ACD

Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ACD!!!

Posted: Tue 4th Jul 2017 01:45 pm
by Lemming
Thanks everyone and special thanks to everyone who's sent in coffeeshop reviews over the years.

Yes, the ACD was born on the 3rd of July 1998. Initially it had just four pages, including a map, and listed about 50 shops in Amsterdam. There were no reviews, just a sentence or two from me about each shop.

Many of the shops on that first map no longer exist or have changed beyond recognition. Who remembers the wonderful T-Boat? How about Lucky Mothers, The Wall, Old Style or Smokey next to Central (not the one on Rembrandtplein)?

The first map was not very accurate - the position of Siberie was miles out and the likes of Ballonnetje, Grey Area and Paradox were not correct. Nevertheless the site took off very quickly and I gradually expanded the database to include all of the shops in Amsterdam and then the Netherlands as a whole.

People were sending me information and reviews by email so in April 2001 I began publishing Correspondent's Comments on a redesigned site with a page for each shop. Also in 2001 I bought the domain name coffeeshopdirect.com.

By 2005 the quantity of incoming email reviews was becoming unmanageable so, with a lot of help from the late Slimline, I added this forum on the 5th of March 2005. The main objective was to enable people to post their own reviews directly, especially for popular shops like Grey Area and Barneys, which I was getting bored with receiving very similar comments about.

For many years the forum successfully took some of the strain off the main site. Reviews continued to come in by email for more and more shops throughout the Netherlands with the forum handling conversation about popular shops.

Then, a couple of years ago, the email reviews dropped off dramatically. I think this might have been when Google started publishing reviews themselves but I'm not sure. The site still gets thousands of visitors every day but far fewer of them send me reviews.

The forum has grown in ways I never expected, becoming a sort of social media entity in its own right. To some extent it's become detached from the site that spawned it. Although there is plenty of overlap, I get the impression that there are separate audiences for the forum and the rest of the site. I know many of you never venture beyond the forum and I guess there are many users of the ACD itself who are not interested in the forum.

So, can I take this opportunity to request more reviews by email? Please send me reviews of any shops you've visited recently. There are buttons on the shop pages to make it easy.

I know you post reviews on the forum and they appear on the shop pages too but I think there is something more authoritative about the email reviews. The forum coffeeshop topics tend to be more conversational whereas the email reviews are more concise and on topic.

Anyway, happy birthday to us. We'll be 20 next year so that's a milestone.

Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ACD!!!

Posted: Tue 4th Jul 2017 02:20 pm
by notsofasteddie
Lemming wrote: Tue 4th Jul 2017 01:45 pm
Yes, the ACD was born on the 3rd of July 1998.

Anyway, happy birthday to us. We'll be 20 next year so that's a milestone.
Happy Birthday to Us, Indeed!

Thanks for the ACD history!!

Thanks for all that you do! 8)