This group is now one years old, and the largest, and most active on OSW. I created this group as an alternative to posting on the sometimes toxic front page box. It's clearly something that people find useful. Thanks to everyone for helping folks who are looking for stuff.

After a year, its time to assess and see what improvements we might be able to make. I know one big issue has been getting your posts noticed, as people may not make it a habit to check in here to see if there is someone looking for help.

The solution I found was to ask that people use our group chat to provide a link to their post to immediately alert people about it. The tricky thing is mentioning what kind of thing you are looking for, so the people who might be able to help are alerted, without saying exactly what you are looking for, which might result in a discussion in chat rather than a response to the post. We aim to be an alternative to asking for help via chat.

I seem to always be on the verge of finding a way to help say what you are looking for, generally, without saying what you are looking for specifically. So far the solution eludes me.

So, other than asking for help coming up with a solution to that dilemma, I'm looking for people to let us know about any other issues and/or suggestions about how to make the group work better.

Also, if someone wants to help plan a one year anniversary party event, let me know. It's an opportunity to get together with the friends you have, and the friends you have yet to meet, and to acknowledge everyone who has offered help in the past year.