Wow. So March 11th was the day we took the site a little more public. I must say, the uptake and the feedback from the site has been well beyond my expectations. I really started this thinking that there’d be a few people who would appreciate the approach suggested here, but with no real idea as to whether there was a real need, or even a real demand for another place to discuss Check Point issues.It seems that even with just a small amount of word of mouth, it’s grown significantly.

Already we’ve achieved a number of notable items :

• 500+ posts of content
• Set up a number of senior members, CP Partners and CP staff (both past and present) who have already become active contributors.
• Appointed a set of moderators to assist with killing spammers
• Found by spammers – it’s amazing how quickly that happens!
• Made an agreement with Tobias Lachmann to be a sister site to his excellent blog (see link on right), so that people can use this forum to comment on his blog posts
• Became the new official home of danjun’s excellent UTM-1 Edge FAQ – this is far anad away the best public resource on Safe@ and VPN-1 Edge devices.
• Made contact with the developer of SmartSPLAT, a cool new(ish) utility for SecurePlatform administration. We hope to do more in this space.
• Set up Live Chat functionality
• Set up Tapatalk integration
• Set up a Twitter feed
• Debated a lot about a logo – my kingdom for a graphic designer!

I owe a big debt of gratitude to a number of people. To lammbo, boldin and tobbela for offering to assist with moderation (lammbo’s axe is truly to be feared, although the antispam measures are actually working pretty well now!). To phoneboy and others who have placed mentions on their own social media and blogs. And to the senior membership who have guided me in making suggestions for forums and features, as well as seeding plenty of good and interesting things to read.

I hate to end on a slightly sad note, but there has been one negative through this. It seems that the largest CP User Community site out there, CPUG, has decided that this site is some kind of threat, and has actively censored any attempt to spread the word of what we’re doing here. I am saddened and disappointed that the owner of that site has chosen to compromise his own stated principles on forum management and administration, and chooses to see this site as some sort of “competitor”. My perspective is simply to provide a resource to the Check Point community that I’ve been actively involved in for many years now, and I think it is truly disappointing that his actions are motivated by self-interest rather than by being a part of the community he claims to represent. CPShared doesn’t sell anything here, and we’re happy to promote any and all resources that make using Check Point products and services better and easier, including CPUG itself.

So join in all – the Perfect Setup projects are just starting to get some momentum. Post an intro and tell us a little about yourself, and we’ll get this thing rolling.