PF 2023 od Admina

Dear readers, fellow presenters, friends,


home has been filled with schnitzels, carp, potato salad, in the relentless certainty that another year is "just around the corner" ... A year that in many ways surpassed the bad things we told ourselves last year. Who remembers the covid or babiš government? We have a year of huge inflation, rising energy prices, and of course war. Something we could hardly have imagined a year ago, that another barbaric war would rage in Europe, has become a reality, and the consequences are enormous, none of us can completely avoid it.


Yet, or perhaps because of it, I always like to come back here, among "my own", among people who are not indifferent to history and the present, and who help to write, edit, moderate, create. I appreciate you, my dear friends, for the diligence you put into our pages day after day and for the fact that you do not keep the knowledge you have acquired to yourselves. I am speaking through the mouths of those silent 1.6 million visitors (12% more than in the covid era!) who search for, visit and consume content from valka.cz / armedconflicts.com like potato salad They don't speak often, but when they do, I hear nothing but praise, and I'm very grateful for that.


My only regret is a fact that is repeated at each of our reunions, more so with each passing year - that we are few in number, and that new additions to our "clan" simply aren't. History doesn't seem to drag as much as watching youtube or facebook, the inability to compose a thought longer than 150 characters and not containing only smileys is becoming a sad reality. I don't know how to turn this around, every time someone gets in touch saying they are willing to get involved, I reply, explain, offer help, but then, the deed is done. We don't bite, we don't tear our IDs , valka.cz will be entering its 25th year of existence and in that time a system has been established here that allows even those with little knowledge but enough desire (and time) to get involved in more or less any area. Join us, help us make history, make your own. The content on valka.cz remains a lasting reminder of those who are no longer with us, but who wrote and created with us in the past. At every reunion we remember them, and every day we get more hits on their texts. Few places are as immortal as the Internet.


Last year, I stated that we had 180 thousand untranslated posts (into English), but we have reduced the deficit to "only" 150 thousand, including all the new ones that have been added this year (and thanks to the war in Ukraine, there have been plenty of them). The translations are more or less routine operations, where you just click and then check the result to see if it turned out to be a mess, because even artificial intelligence is not always able to distinguish all the nuances of our two languages, their abbreviations and various slang. So 30,000 translated posts this year alone I consider a huge success, and with more hands and more eyes, it would be even more. More contributions in English means more readers and who knows, maybe even some of those authors or fellow moderators!


The Chronicle is already in maintenance and expansion mode, the big data edits have been completed. From time to time some new feature, template will be added, as the development of military technology demands. The British units section is being re-digged and added to, Soviet, Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish units are being tirelessly filled in, as are personalities, decorations, combat equipment. Where the aircraft and helicopter tables have been completed there has been space for tabulating the drones which have proved to be a decisive factor in the current fighting. I am experimenting with different types of advertising to make sure that next year there will be enough funds to run our server, which has already increased in price by 100% year on year, thanks to the rise in energy prices.


I'm glad that the concept of a "premium account" has caught on, which is a win-win situation for both parties, the reader gets content without ads and the unnecessary data ballast associated with it, and we get a certain income. Compared to the 1.6 million visits per year, the figure of 17 paying users with 7827 CZK (net of system fees) is quite insignificant, but even Rome was not built in a year and every penny, no matter which way it arrives, is needed. So the other channels are donations and, of course, advertising and related services.


But the greatest gift is time, the time of all those who create valka.cz and those who give meaning to this work by drawing on our information and using it for further work or orientation in matters of military history. I thank everyone for this invaluable gift, and I wish everyone that in 2023 we will still find a lot of time for our common hobby, to keep ourselves in good health and mental condition, despite all possible tensions in our society and the feeling that the world is turning upside down


Enjoy the Christmas holidays, and all the best for the new year!


Yours
Radek Havelka
HM Admin v.r.