YMX, Its History, and closure.

Since about 1996 a version of YMX has existed. At first it was the ole listserv. Started by Mikey of Mikey's Funnies. In 2003 it became the YS Forums

After a few years, and YS wanting to do an upgrade to their site ... the forums shut down for awhile in June 2005.(After YAC died in October 2003 the tribute and forums were the busiest) Meanwhile a few of the community started in Dec 2005 YMexchange.com

At first I was critical, saw Competition, Disagreed, Cynicalthen became Positive.

One of the coolest things about YMXis not only the community but the articles, reviews and the tons of links.

In  June of 2008 Youth Specialties had acquired YMX.

Several of my articles are featured over at YMX including 2 in the Top 10 features.

(How cool is that?)

So why do I mention all of this and YMX's history?

Today I came across a Master's Thesis based upon some of the YS listserv now YMX in my library.
The thesis is "A Community of Legitimacy: How Youth Workers Use an Electronic Forum for Ideas, Support and Camaraderie by Kyle L. Griffin. Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Arts. Major: Communication Studies under the supervision of Professor Ronald Lee. Lincoln, Nebraska. May. 2003.

(Myself and a few others got to see this and help make any edits - I even sent a copy to YS - Very amusing.) (I have both a rough draft and the final edition in a binder)


Just thought I share some of the history of YMX.  YMX is soon to close November 15th. Most of my articles will be hosted over at YouthSpecialties.com. In the next few weeks, I'll be posting those articles here on my blog as well as links to them at YS to share online in other venues. I do know a Doctorate program that has used my articles in some of their classes. (How cool is that?) And one of them is published in a recent Zondervan book.

Thanks to everyone I've met along the way in this journey. I remember being a moderator - and it wasn't easy ...but also remember most important about Grace, forgiveness, and the lessons my friends taught me along the way (Mostly me swallowing humble pie)