Well, it’s that time of the year again. 
I really look forward to this opportunity (and hope I can keep it as a lasting tradition… lol). All of what we’ve felt the whole year, encapsulated in one post. An opportunity to turn the spotlight on the incredible talents that pull and pool us together.
I’ll try not make this a verbose post like last year, but I can’t let the year end without us having an opportunity to collectively say “Thank You”.
This year saw many amazing improvements to Jitsi, one of the most notable being the ability to host up to 500 participants in one meeting. How awesome is that?!?? Then, we have Local Recording, so Jibri becomes mostly optional for capturing meetings. And wrapping up the year with a bang is the introduction of Whiteboard. Coooool… just ice-coooooool! 
The interface (web and mobile) has again enjoyed a lot of impressive improvements, making it even sleeker and more compelling. You can now pin multiple participants and screensharing now runs as a separate stream. Don’t forget the ability to share audio and dynamically suppress noise during a meeting - all really impressive shows of videoconferencing engineering.
There are a ton of improvements in the back-end too, which the average end-user won’t see, but they make for an incredible video-conferencing experience. We now have Secure Octo, so bridges connected through Octo communicate through secure channels out of the box. This list is very extensive and I don’t want to burden you all with a long read, so I’ll just say, check them out at jitsi-meet-release-notes/CHANGELOG-WEB.md at master · jitsi/jitsi-meet-release-notes · GitHub. Such awesome work these guys do!
@emcho as usual, we want to express our profound gratitude to you for birthing this vision. We are all here today because you dared to be audacious. Thank you for believing enough in this baby to carry it to term and to continue nurturing it. We will forever be grateful.
@saghul this year, you were on 
! I didn’t think it was possible to have anyone from the team be more present and available in the forum than Damian, but maaaaaaan, you did the impossible! 
THANK YOU! I wake up every day now to your indelible footprints in the forum, helping even the most petulant. I’ve always felt, of the entire team, your temperament was most similar to mine, but I think you drank a potion at the beginning of this year that made you waaaaaaaaay more patient than I can even ever realistically hope to be. 
Thanks so much for the incredible help you offered thousands this year, while staying neck-deep in the heavy development work in the background. I genuinely appreciate you!
@damencho like the sun on a bright summer day, you remain consistent and reliable. It’s been another year of a labor of love in the community. Your patience is the stuff legends are made of and your knowledge of the environment is beyond admirable. Thank you soooooo much for all you do, both in front of and behind the scenes. We benefit from your presence. Thank you!
To the entire Jitsi team that mostly stays behind the scenes, we know you are the engine behind this awesome application and we truly want to thank you! I’m veeeeeery tempted to mention names like @jallamsetty and @Boris_Grozev who pop in the forum every now and then, but I’m certain I’ll miss out some people, so it’s best to just say “Thank you!” to you all. Please know that we ‘see’ you and we deeply appreciate you. Thank you for believing enough in the vision to keep paddling with the team. Thank you for moving this boat forward.
And to all my fellow regulars who volunteer to help offload some of the load in the forum, thank you for your time, dedication and commitment. You play a very important role in this community and I hope you know you are truly appreciated as well. @csett86 thank you for keeping the Electron project going. Thank you to everyone who stays around to help others in the community!
I really wanted to make this short, but alas! So, I think it’s best to stop now, while I still have your attention. PLEEEEEEEAAAAAASEEEEEEEE JOIN ME IN SAYING “THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!” to the awesome Jitsi Team! Kindly express your thanks in comments below. It’s really important that we let them know how much they mean to us and how much we appreciate them. Personally, I don’t even know what I did with my life before discovering Jitsi. 
Thank you, Jitsi Team! We love and appreciate you!!! Here’s to 2023 and a greater year with greater accomplishments!
P.S: Watch out for the ability to host up to 10,000 participants in one meeting in 2023 (amongst other groundbreaking things)! I’m shivering with excitement just thinking about it! 
being part of this community!
