Thanks and a few words for all these years.
Having finally completed a major upgrade to this page, both in code and design, adding new features for owners who can register COMPLETELY FREE, and for visitors who can search for the information they need about our area and can contact owners directly without intermediaries and booking fees, I wanted to write some thanks .
As I start writing, I realize that there is a lot I want to say and I have already forgotten it while writing, from the very first words. Sometimes words are cheap, they say, but good words are important, even if only to those they are addressed to.
In 2009, after a few years on the internet, in the pre-facebook era (ancient years), when Google did not monopolize search and YouTube had not yet been purchased by Google and at those very slow speeds we surfed on a network where Forums were a gathering point for ideas, some useful and some stupid, but also a place of free sharing between people who were given the opportunity to communicate with literally the whole world and share their knowledge, for free without asking for money... and leaving behind me over two and a half thousand posts with articles, texts, tutorials, translations of programs and applications into Greek, participation in dozens of opensource programming and design communities, I made a decision that brought me here today...
I decided that since I could and had been captivated by the possibilities of this space, to do something for my village and use the knowledge, the ones that were generously shared by people I didn't know before, to promote it and make it known to the whole world (always a dreamer and romantic :)), so I registered my first domain (domain name) toronaios.gr which was to lead me to sithoniahotels.gr and then to the other domains that I registered along the way.
At the same time, I also participated in the early Google Maps maps by placing the first pins in my village of Sykia and then throughout Sithonia and Halkidiki (later I became a local guide on Google Maps when they took their current form), I had a hand in the development of this beautiful Google Translator application with continuous additions and suggestions to their dictionary for the Greek language, the websites I created for my village, trying to gather its history, its tradition and the uniqueness of its people and digitize it so that it would remain and become known to the world. I believe that in return for all this knowledge that was given to me generously and for free, I also put a small grain of golden Halkidiki sand in all that we enjoy today.
And throughout this journey, there have been some people who helped me in various ways, without asking for anything in return or seeking any benefit... I want to thank these people here.
So for what I have achieved so far and for what I have become, THANK YOU
- My cousin and namesake Dimitris Melissis, who one day somewhere in 2005 or 2006, came and forcibly and clumsily set up my first computer on Windows XP for me in return for my early, first Spectrum computer that I gave him a few years ago (I was partly a denier of the galloping technology, hiding my fear, which was eventually confirmed, that I would become addicted to it.) and put me in this digital world that is wonderful on the one hand and so scary and dangerous on the other.
- The Greek and foreign forums that hosted me in my first steps in this space, with different profiles and usernames, gave me a lot, I met many and many unique friends and we shared knowledge and ideas, solutions to our easy and difficult problems. They say the network can be dark (dark web) but unexpectedly sometimes in the darkness there is that ray of light that illuminates our path. It is in our hands how we will walk!
- Antonis, Kostas and Leonidas, founders of the sharing forum Greemaster.info, who trusted me from the time I started as a simple member and accepted me into their team as the fourth administrator (a great honor for me) and introduced me to my first CMS (Content management system), creating a forum on vbulletin with over seven thousand members, where we chatted, shared ideas in the dark nights, developed and shared the early stages of exchanging pirated movies and software with rapidshare links, (now the site no longer exists), I learned and helped in integrating subtitles into movies that we downloaded from America and all over the world to share with our members for free. After a few years, we were forced to close and go our separate ways.
- Gerasimos, a friend, programmer and web designer from Heraklion, Crete with roots in Thessaloniki, who shared with me much of his knowledge (endless knowledge), taught me that in knowledge there is no virgin birth, that what you thought already exists in the mind of someone else before you who shared the creation or discovery with someone else.
- The Greek and global JOOMLA community for this wonderful open source CMS that they created and developed all these years, all those who behind the anonymity of a username and a profile with an avatar icon, write, test and develop silently and quietly the technologies that we enjoy today. I contributed, as much as I could, to some versions of the code as a member of the documentation team.
- Our photographers, Yiannis Kotronis and Giorgos Tsamakdas for all this material of wonderful photographs that they shared with me over the years. It is an undeniable fact that with their photographs, they took us all many steps forward in our effort to showcase and highlight our region.
I also want to thank all of you who visit and use this website, I hope you find it easy to use and really useful.
You should know that your suggestions and ideas that can improve the functionality and content of the page are welcome and you can contact us at the following email.
@
Your opinions and participation are very important.
Finally, I want to mention some of my websites that will soon be upgraded as well.
Sikia.gr, a page about my village that is going to be merged with art.sikia.gr, koukos.sikia.gr and memories.sikia.gr, creating a complete digital space for this unique and beautiful village.
Sorry to those who made it this far reading, if I've bored you a bit, but I'm done... I think :)
The rest live on the network stream...
Thank you
Melissis Ath Dimitrios