A year ago today this site was created.
P212121 has been more successful than I would have ever imagined. My primary goal has been to help someone in the field of macromolecular crystallography. I hoped that by bring together resources, creating tutorials and answering questions that this website would be helpful.
I also need to say thank you. I have had many readers contribute so much time and effort answering my questions and sharing their experiences. My friends that have share with me more than I given with a comment here, thank you.
If you like numbers, the current RSS count here considering only Google is at 140 as a (probably bad) reference point Acta Crystallographica Section D is at 93.
The blogging community has been wonderful and for fear of leaving someone off of a list, I hope a general thanks will suffice.
A number of crystallographic companies have shown their link love:
Emerald Biosystems
Hampton Research
Microlytic
Rigaku
This site was also recently included in the science Alltop, which is cool resource for finding science information.
What’s next? I have a lot in the pipeline, but before we get there I would love to hear from you. Have an idea or suggestion to make this site better? If we have spent the last couple of months together and haven’t met just a Hi or Happy Birthday 
would be great.
Thanks again.
I have been running a poll here on P212121 and the results are in!![crystallography use How Long Have you Been Using Crystallography in your Research [Results]](http://www.p212121.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/crystallography_use.png "crystallography_use")
There is definitely a diverse group of readers here and perhaps it is a reflection of the content. I plan on posting this poll in the future and will look forwarding to seeing how our community evolves.
Note: Part 1 is here if you missed it.
How was P212121.com made?
I started this blog in February of this year. After making that decision, my first step was to come up with an available domain name. I wanted a name that was related to crystallography and that was easy to type and remember. I finally settled on P212121. I chose this name because it’s the most common space group in macromolecular crystallography.
I bought the domain through 1and1.com for 7 dollars and I was the proud owner of P212121.com for a year. Once you buy a domain name, you can renew your ownership whenever you want. So, you don’t have to worry about someone else buying the name when your year is up. Once I purchased the domain I had set up hosting with 1and1.com so my website could be displayed on the internet. That cost is about $6 a month. So, if you can come up with a name that’s available and make at least $80 a year, you can do this.
The website runs using Wordpress which is convenient since it virtually eliminates the need to learn code. Wordpress is a downloadable program that offers blog templates (here are some free examples). The best part is the coding is already done and many of the layouts are free. You just pick one out. It’s all pretty simple once you get to this point. The layout is really user-friendly.
If you have a message you think is worth spreading by blogging and would like some help, feel free to drop me an email (sean@p212121.com).
Part 3
As promised, I will be posting the main points from my presentation at the American Crystallography Association meeting this year.
Can we improve the way we currently communicate online?
Let’s take a look at how we are currently communicating with each other online. If we have a question about Pymol, we have to sign up for the Pymol bulletin board. If we have a question about Phenix, we have to sign up for the Phenix bulletin board. If we have a question about CCP4, you guessed it; we have to sign up for the CCP4 bulletin board.
The system is currently set up with the program developers in mind. The developers have the community coming to them. Why? Because it is more convenient for them. If you have a question, you seek them out.
Unfortunately, that means you’re going to have to join multiple bulletin boards and get bombarded with spam. It’s crazy what you’ll find in your inbox! Job postings, equipment for sale, auto-response emails letting you know that someone is out of town. Just this month there was even a phishing scam on the CCP4 bulletin board! I think you’ll agree the system needs to be improved.
In an effort to change the way we currently communicate online, I turned to blogging. For those of you who are unfamiliar with blogs, they are a great alternative to bulletin boards. They eliminate spam because they’re not email based. The discussions can be organized by categories and tags so you won’t have to scroll through tons of threads. A blog can also serve as a mutual site for users and developers to come together and interact.
What do you like about the email based bullentin boards? Do you feel there is a place for forums and blogs?
Part 2