Dustin Wilson

My Opera is fast approaching one million users. My Opera is, in my opinion, the best community website on the web to date.

It feels like a long time since I started using My Opera. How I joined My Opera really starts when I first started using Opera. I discovered Opera when it was at version 5, but I didn't use it for my main browser then. I used it as a means to test websites, and really only switched to Opera at version 7 after being persuaded by a friend to do so. He's a persistant little *censored*, so just to shut him up I started using it. Oddly enough (to me at the time) I loved it, and now I don't know what I'd do without it. It was during that time I found out about My Opera, so I joined it. Looks like it was May of 2003 according to my profile.

Initially I joined it to get on the forums to learn the ins and outs of the program. I wanted to make custom buttons and customize the interface to have it work the way I wanted. Initially I wasn't very active. I didn't start a blog here. I didn't even modify my profile any. I would just visit the forums when I needed to ask a question or find the answer to if it was already answered. I guess when I started participating more was when the Mac version of Opera started to become usable (as it crashed and locked up frequently in the beginning). I had a Powerbook at the time, and badly wanted Opera to run on it. I felt lost at school without all my tricks and the custom interface at my disposal. I still poked around the forums then, specifically the Macintosh forums. I edited my profile, and then started my skin. It went over really well with the Mac community. They suggested improvements, many of them good. I did what I was capable of. I think it was the cooperation with the skin that got me going finally.

A lot happened in a short period of time. I made my blog design, got contacted to do some designs for My Opera, and got interviewed. It took me quite a while to do the designs for My Opera, though. I joined N+ through all of this and eventually became a moderator. I've enjoyed Nintendo games since I was a kid, and am a big fan of the Wii and Nintendo DS, especially when I finally got one after being nagged by the other guys on the N+ chat.

That brings me to another thing. On My Opera you'll find a lot of people who enjoy your interests. We can use the tools that My Opera provides us to create a group like N+ where anyone around the world can come to for Nintendo news. Furthermore we get all of this free, and without any ads whatsoever. While others talk about breaking up on their My Space and childishly remove people from their friends list, we all have fun on My Opera.

After becoming a part of My Opera it's become a place to have fun. To me it's more like a place for everyone who uses Opera to hang out. It is the Opera community.

Here's to another million, My Opera. Cheers.