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Goodbye Thom, and many thanks!

Bastien

Manager
Posts: 35815

Bastien @ 2021-11-30 10:38:23 UTC

Dear visitors, contributors and editors,

The time has come for one of our most respected editors to step down: due to health reasons CarlDennis aka Thom is leaving the team on December 1st as his energy is slowly but inevitably decreasing.

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Thom enthusiastically joined our project in 2016. As a kick-off there was this pleasant lunch at Café La Pompe in St-Gilles...

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...and from there it was the greatest of rides. Using his monniker CarlDennis, a reference to his admiration of the Beach Boys, he would build a lasting impact on SecondHandSongs and the cover songs community worldwide.

Simply looking at the numbers his legacy is huge:

  • 472.790 entries created (8% of the entire database!)
  • 10.030 submissions processed
  • 42.201 videos added

But Thom is also the editor who made a huge push into indexing more non-English songs in the database: The sheer volume of songs in Finnish, Icelandic, Greek, and many other languages is truly impressive, and this is an important element that opened up this project to the many less represented countries.

However, mostly we will remember Thom for his openness and friendliness. Always in a good mood and always seeing the best in each and everyone us, regularly sailing us through difficult discussions and moments of tensions.

Thanks for your contributions Thom, your legacy will live on.

The SecondHandSongs Team

November 30th, 2021

PS: This tribute was also published on a dedicated page.

PS2: The editors have compiled a series of written messages, recordings and videos that we have sent to Thom personnally. Thanks everyone who participated in this.


To: Sara K.... Pommel Rodders200 casb Clee J Sylvain Guillou Will Moore abbamatic baggish camembert electrique Canary CarlDennis DashBoardDJ856 David King dudek hounddogman Limbabwe microtherion Nap nikitoz555 Oliver One SlimD walt dudek sebcat artsinspired Oldiesmann Mathieu

Last edit: 2021-12-01 06:53:33 UTC by Bastien


Attachments:

casb

Junior Editor
Posts: 384

casb @ 2021-11-30 14:00:42 UTC

Huge sadness. A warm and affectionate hug!


Carlos

SlimD

Retired Editor
Posts: 1377

SlimD @ 2021-11-30 16:23:05 UTC

May your journey continue with faith, optimism, love, authenticity, healing and magic.

Keep the summer alive.

Murray

dudek

Managing Editor
Posts: 1063

dudek @ 2021-11-30 16:31:58 UTC

jojo

New Editor
Posts: 1755

jojo @ 2021-11-30 17:00:57 UTC

Thom,


You always brought good vibrations.


Sail on sailor.


JoJo greets

Clee J

Junior Editor
Posts: 320

Clee J @ 2021-11-30 17:51:06 UTC

Dear Thom (CarlDennis),

On behalf of the entire SecondHandSongs international team, I bid you a very warm farewell.


Sincerely,

Clee J

Junior Editor


P.S. Prayers to you and your entire family and friends.

dany

Junior Editor
Posts: 4789

dany @ 2021-11-30 19:04:45 UTC

Dear Thom, for me you will always be the best.

Thank you and good luck.

Rodders200

Certified Contributor II
Posts: 661

Rodders200 @ 2021-11-30 21:28:15 UTC

Thanks Thom for those times whenever we interacted. The pleasure was mine.

Paul

Bastien

Manager
Posts: 35815

Bastien @ 2021-12-01 16:31:20 UTC

Thanks for those wonderful words everyone.

Service notice: As of today CarlDennis ' level is set as Retired Editor, in order to avoid having error reports assigned to him.

David King

Editor
Posts: 1484

David King @ 2021-12-04 02:39:38 UTC

Thanks Thom, for being such a good friend. I am so happy to see pictures of you, and I am now filled with tears. You are in my, and my family's prayers.

CarlDennis

Retired Editor
Posts: 2752

CarlDennis @ 2021-12-05 11:41:57 UTC

Thanks, former SHS colleagues, for your kind words and best wishes. I will closely follow your efforts................

Kind regards from the Netherlands,

Thom

artsinspired

Managing Editor
Posts: 1393

artsinspired @ 2021-12-08 02:38:03 UTC

Thanks, Bastien, for compiling the tributes.


"Always in a good mood and always seeing the best in each and everyone us" - perhaps the most important thing about Thom that we can try to live up to.

Bastien

Manager
Posts: 35815

Bastien @ 2022-01-27 18:03:53 UTC

We're very sorry to have to tell you that Thom has been released from his pain and suffering. May he rest in peace.

(thanks camembert electrique for the notification)

Canary

Editor
Posts: 7026

Canary @ 2022-01-27 18:09:10 UTC

Very sad news.

Hopes he rests in peace.

I will miss him.


Canary

______
Canary

dany

Junior Editor
Posts: 4789

dany @ 2022-01-27 19:26:19 UTC

Bad news.

Rest in peace.

Forever Thom.

sebcat

Managing Editor
Posts: 7967

sebcat @ 2022-01-27 19:28:56 UTC

We're very sorry to have to tell you that Thom has been released from his pain and suffering. May he rest in peace.

(thanks camembert electrique for the notification)

What sad news. Glad that his memory will live on through the huge contribution that he made to the site.

David King

Editor
Posts: 1484

David King @ 2022-01-28 07:42:28 UTC

I'm so sorry to see you go, Thom, but I'm glad you no longer have to suffer. Best wishes for your family, and the SHS family, for this difficult time.

After looking at his tribute page, I understand why Thom worked so closely with me, for specializing in non-English covers of English-language originals. This is something he pushed for, better representation of other nations of the world, and SHS is much better for it. I am quite amazed at his huge contribution to the database.

Last edit: 2022-01-28 07:52:30 UTC by David King

dudek

Managing Editor
Posts: 1063

dudek @ 2022-01-28 19:32:30 UTC

I was afraid to read a new message in this thread... just a few days ago I wanted to ask how Thom was doing actually. Unhappy I fully agree with your words, David King.

And I would like to pay tribute to Thom listening to On suuri sun rantas autius - "a Finnish song that I dearly love" as he wrote to me a few years ago.