I remember when I started it was a week you had taken off or maybe longer. The first couple pages were filled with "where is Raydog" memes. I thought, wow this guy is a big deal around here, from my experience on other sites and their top users I never expected you to reply to any of my comments. I didn't even have the hang of commenting yet and some of my stuff was really random. I made a couple that you laughed at and then we made a couple threads together. I was like holy shit the first comment threads where I was learning how to speak in meme are with the top user everybody is memeing about! We started chatting a bit, I called you home skillet for the first time, then just like that we were buds and I knew this site was something special.
You, John, Invicta, Socrates, and Spursfan, all top users and all a huge part of me learning how to meme and learning that being a part of imgflip is a lot more than just being a name with a number next to it. You guys as well as many others along the way didn't have to take the time to help me develop into a memer. It wasn't only me either, everywhere I looked I saw new users receiving encouragement along with advice to help them in whatever way they could. As my meme comments started to evolve and receive some attention I never saw a hint of anything but happiness about it from all of you. You guys used your popularity to help get me noticed as I developed my own style and fell in love with making people laugh at pictures with captions on them.
So now I do my best to honor you guys by treating new users the same way you all treated me. Now I understand that for most of us this isn't a site about competing for points and trying to keep others down so we remain on top. It's a site about creativity, not only creating memes, creating friends, creating ways to help everybody find that part of themselves they can express through a meme, that gives all of us a reason to laugh. That creates an idea in another persons mind that helps them create another meme for us to enjoy and so on and so forth.
Top users and new users, young users and old users, male and female, all races, all religions, all countries, anybody and everybody that has in them the will to create something in order to make another person smile if only for a minute. What we create here goes far beyond a single person or single meme. Yes I'm trapped, surrounded by endless creativity that I'm honored to participate in and be able to share with others..
