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Thu-30-04-2020, 10:27 AM
Psoriasis Club is 10 in May 2020
The year is 2010 and a thought popped into my head. "I can do better" I wanted a place where I could talk with others about psoriasis, but everywhere I looked it was money money money. Drug companies, scammers, or people wanting donations. I wanted to have a place away from the money side of things, and I certainly wanted somewhere that was friendly and supportive.
So during the month of May 2010 I set about trying something I had never done before and started playing with a free hosted forum. I called my forum psoriasisclub and started posting news about psoriasis and my own story about living with and treating psoriasis, I had made a few virtual friends on another (unfriendly) forum and some of them also joined my forum and started posting. Unfortunately it attracted some very nasty people from that (unfriendly) forum that joined with the intention of making psoriasisclub fail.
There were many a time I would think it's just not worth it, but I started getting new members from elsewhere and slowly the good members started numbering more than the bad and some nice comments about what I had done started getting posted. I started getting support from my members and some encouraged me to keep fighting.
There were times when some people still wanted to try and disrupt psoriasisclub but the more they tried the more it drove me on to fight back, so I came up with the idea of making psoriasisclub my hobby. By making it my hobby I would put a lot more effort into it, and I set about my plan of making psoriasisclub the only totaly independent psoriasis website where genuine people could share support and information.
I decided to make it work I had to move from a free hosting service to one where I had complete control, so I purchased the domain name psoriasisclub.org and my own hosting. Whilst keeping the free hosted one open I spent a lot of my time learning how to build and run a website (something I had never done) it wasn't easy, but I still had the support of a handful of members, Mrs Fred and my newly found hosting company. That hosting company helped me a lot when I first started and today Psoriasis Club is still with the same host.
Then in September 2011 I closed the free hosted forum and opened Psoriasis Club up for registrations. A few followed over, some good some bad, but now I had control of everything I could see a pattern from those new members joining and it wasn't long before I learnt I could throw some out the door before they even got a chance to post. I did make a few mistakes at first but I have always said that everyone is welcome to contact me and discuss things if they wish.
As the years (I can't believe I'm talking years) went past Psoriasis Club started building up a reputation of being friendly, safe and free from any outside influence. We had no sponsors, no advertising, no scammers and our members would never be asked for a donation. We started picking up some great members, the ones I always knew were out there. My hobby was working, the nasty people had gone the spammers, trolls and scammers were getting thrown out of the door very very swiftly and the place was building up a buzz about it. A nice friendly buzz that is still there today.
There have been some ups and downs and I have sometimes asked myself why I keep it going. But I only need to log-in and read a few posts from our members to get a reminder that this is exactly the place I set out to create 10 years ago. I have achieved my thought of "I can do better" having said that I couldn't have achieved it without the help from some amazing people.
So I'm going to mention those people below, but first I want to thank KyPrincess (aka Sarah) she joined Psoriasis Club not long after I first started it, she has been here almost as long as me and today she still takes the time to post a welcome in new members introductions.
Thank you to all our current members: We have almost 1000 members, we could have more but I do remove inactive members with no posts within a years membership. Anyone is welcome to join and they don't have to post, but it's quality not quantity that is important.
Thank you to our active members: The ones that take the time to keep their threads updated or give support and answers to others, you are the engine of Psoriasis Club. Even one post now and then helps keep us active, if we keep active we encourage others to join in.
Thank you to the reporters: You know who you are, you are the ones that keep an eye out and will report spammers, trolls and scammers so I can act.
Thank you for the Off Topic posts: Our off topic boards are very popular and give our members somewhere safe where they can get away from psoriasis for a while. From games, quizzes, photos, hobbies, journals, music, recipes, jokes, poems or just parts of your everyday lives etc you never fail to amaze.
Thank you to the forum helpers: Caroline, Jim and Kat give up their time to help me keep an eye on things and make sure all our members are kept away from and spammers or scammers. They are also there for you our members, they help new members settle in, they can answer a lot of your questions about the forum and they will listen to any complaints or problems that you have whilst enjoying the forum.
Thank you to Mrs Fred: Although she doesn't post on the forum, she does take a big interest in Psoriasis Club and it's members. She has always been there encouraging me to keep this place going.
We should all be very proud about what we have built here at Psoriasis Club, you all play a part and it's here not just because it's my hobby, it's here because of you.
Thank you all.
![[Image: 10thb.png]](https://psoriasisclub.org/images/10thb.png)
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Thank you Fred, Mrs Fred and all of you lovely helpers for making Psoriasis Club a wonderful place