Thanks to donaldb for the new graphics. As you've probably noticed, you can now browse through the newsletter in linear order, if you want to. Thanks to the person who suggested this feature quite a long time ago, and apologies for forgetting who you are so I could credit the suggestion.
Thanks to chris2001, enarra, hotpink, jeanmanco, jordancpeterson, jtaylorj, lissa, magne, robowar, rwkat, spectregunner, totalxsive, and the World/Deutsch team for their contributions to this issue, and donwiebe for his valuable proof-reading and corrections.
To make sure I'm not writing "Slower than an elephant pregnancy" in the next issue, get writing, and send your submission in. We're aiming for... well, another issue really.
Over the past nine months, dmoz has received a lot of nice new shiny hardware. Three optical mice, two soundcards, and a box of top of the range 3D accelerators are amongst the items on the purchase order.
The spare cash has been spent on a bunch of new servers, including a new editor machine, a new forum machine, a new machine for editor tools, and a selection of other machines for search, public pages, the RDF, and Robozilla. The forum software has also been moved from UBB to PHPBB.
You can find more information about all the changes in a variety of threads, most of which are located in the Bugs and Features forum, and in lissa's newsletter article.
VOTE, n. The instrument and symbol of a freeman's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country.
ACHIEVEMENT, n. The death of endeavor and the birth of disgust.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
We don't deliberately time these newsletters to come out straight after editor awards, but, as usual, as I'm writing this, we've just had some editor awards.
Voter turnout was poor, there was more campaigning than you can shake a stick at, and rumour has it people were peeking in the ballot boxes not thirty seconds after the opening of voting. It was shamefully apparent that some voters were doing their best to tie awards, giving late voters a deciding vote in many awards.
World/Deutsch and Regional/UK editors faired well this year. As did orlady, but we can't find the 'vote for orlady' thread, though it is possible there was some UK confusion.
The inciteful forum thread award did in fact contain a typo in the title, though most nominators seemed to have worked out the corrected title, and it was corrected before posting the final results.
The special achievement award was won by "All editors who perserved (sic) through the ODP's own version of "rolling blackouts" over the past many months, and continued to support the project and the community in the face of adversity. I think everyone who kept up a positive attitude and championed the project, in spite of it all, deserves a special award." Quite a lot of self-voting, I fear. Though a worthy winner.
In the cutest couple poll, newwave and a bloke beat newwave and a woman (and at least two married couples) by three votes.
Congratulations to the winners, runners-up, nominees, and everyone who should have been nominated but was forgotten. 
The complete list of winners can be found in the relevant forum thread. We didn't get a single acceptance/rejection speech or comment, not one, so, that's all folks.
Do you play Bridge? Interested in playing along with other ODP editors? You might be interested in http://forums.dmoz.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=900948.
- rpfuller (Newsletter Managing Editor)
