To our past and present editors, past and present contributors and, I suppose, the other 95% of passive members. Don't let it be said that all the past contributors are silent! Some of us have strong points of view regarding the sad demise of our cosy corner of cyberspace, EUG.

Before the doors are closed for good, I would like to write a fond farewell to all the people who have taken part in the experience that was EUG. I don't know if this will be received in time to be placed in the last issue of the mag [It wasn't! - Ed]. In fact I had entered a nice long 'goodbye' letter on the Electron, enjoying the knowledge that I was using the machine whilst at least some other people were, but then I went and deleted the file! I then thought I'd try to resurrect it but, due to a certain bug in my disc editing software, I went and made the disc unusable...so in the end I have had to enter this on a PC. :-(

First of all, a couple of points: On the disc/disk debate, I started using 'disc' when I discovered that was the correct English spelling (originally short for discus, I believe). I didn't actually realise it was the standard in the Acorn world. Secondly, where is all this Gus-slagging coming from? I used to write at the time he was the editor and, from what I could see, he put in an awful amount of effort considering his limited time. I am very grateful that he kept the group going. It seemed to me that, if he got any feedback, it was largely negative. I personally enjoyed receiving every issue he produced and was extremely saddened when he moved on. So thank you Gus for all the work you did! I don't think enough praise is given to people who do a good job.

Which brings me to our current editor who I think deserves a thank you for creating a highly professional, slick presentation for the magazine. It took a long time to evolve into what it currently is but I have been consistently impressed with the size of each issue as well as the quality of the contributions. It is a shame that it has to end now but it has been many years since the ultimatum was given: there cannot be a future for an organisation like EUG without continual support from its members. This need never have been a constant stream of new software but even letters to discuss issues would have been welcome.

I can appreciate Dave's disenchantment with the amount of feedback he has received: a lot of work clearly goes into each issue but people never seem to respond! Whenever I considered starting to contribute on a regular basis again, I remembered that I could count the amount of feedback I had received in the past on one finger. It would have been nice to know if anyone liked what I did, so I could do more of the same, or if they hated it, so I could stop. Not knowing means that, once you get bored of writing for your own pleasure, there is little point in continuing. (By the way, I have enjoyed the continual supply of games and teasers from Genevieve Ludinski - good work!)

This isn't meant to be a rant as I have really enjoyed EUG. My first issue was EUG #13 and it seemed to me, back then, that it had already been going for a long time! That was towards the end of 1994 and it has been lovely watching it mature as time went on. Things for me have changed considerably. During 1994, I had a lot of time on my hands so I enjoyed spending time programming. After a year, though, I entered the education system and the amount of time I had spare dramatically dropped. Although I always liked the idea of doing 8-bit programming again, it was never really feasible and so, at this point, I am in the second year of a Computer Science degree at University College, Durham. I can't put off any longer the misery of having to learn modern programming languages (including GUIs!). The days of 6502 hex coding seem so elegant in comparison to our rather dry course...

As I wrap up, I would like to say hello and, possibly, goodbye to all the people I have been in contact with through EUG. Including Alan Richardson - I will write back to you soon!!! It has been a good time and it is sad to see the days of the Electron fading away but I think we can be proud that it has continued, quite well, into the 21st century. Not bad for a machine pronounced dead before the Eighties were through! Although it is best to go out on a high and not just slip into oblivion, it is sad as the Elk was the machine that got me into computing and so I have always had a fond affection for it. It is nice to know that it lives on on the web and I wonder if there is a possibility of having a newsgroup set up on the EUG website? It would be nice to stay in touch! I suppose, though, that just like anything else this would have to be a matter of demand. Finally, thanks Dave, for not just axing the mag in the same way so many others have ended. I liked the countdown (or even the stay of execution).

So thank you and goodbye. Hopefully I'll see some of you in cyberspace one day and please feel free to e-mail me for the next couple of years.