Did my usual daily check of websites today, and noticed a new version of SoundPlay posted to BeBits.

Looked at the date; aha! Just over 5 years ago, Marco Nelissen posted the first version of SoundPlay, on July 19th, 1999. My how time flies.

Since that time, there have been one hundred and nine thousand downloads from BeBits alone. I'm sure we could easily add another 40% to the total downloads, considering BeShare, BeZip.de, SoundPlay's homepage, and other natural user communication methods.

Consider that number for a moment. It's not some phantom guy who gets a kick out of clicking on these links (the numerous applications available for download at BeBits). The number of downloads at BeBits is truly an indicator of how many people are trafficking their site. If one pays close enough attention to these numbers, one will realize that our community is still fairly healthy, despite declining publicity and no official "company" at the wheel. This is purely an abstraction, my own personal opinion, and it must be stated that I'm not a statistician by any means.

Some might claim that people tend to re-download from time to time, for different purposes, installs, helping friends/family, work machines, etc. I counter that with the fairly obvious other sources of where this program can be obtained, and weigh all of the factors together with a conservative bent.

Food for thought.