Looking back at 2022

Though we’re already in the second month of 2023 (January went fast!), we thought it would be fun to take a look back at some of the highlights of the past year:

• The site continues to attract a huge amount of visitors from around the world. The archive saw roughly 3 million hits from about 1 million visits in 2022.
• We published 21 new samples, from 12 countries.
• We welcomed Zambia to our family of nations and Coahuila to our family of Mexican states. But we’re still looking for more new places. See our Wish List to find out our top priorities.
• We welcomed a new associate editor: Jacqueline Springfield, who has provided valuable contributions from the southern United States.
• Congratulations and thanks to the following associate editors for their submissions in 2022: Connie de Veer, Barrie Kreinik, Lynnae Lehfeldt, and Jacqueline Springfield. And to Senior Editor Deric McNish.
• Thanks to all our other contributors, too. In fact, 2022 saw almost as many submissions from non-editors (contributors and self-submitters) as submissions from editors.
• Because of the efforts of IDEA Executive Editor Cameron Meier, most IDEA pages are now easier to find online and more conducive to sharing on social media. In addition, most pages have a brief description at the top summarizing the subject, which makes it easier and quicker to find the essential information. (All pages will have this new information by the end of this year.)
• My podcast, In a Manner of Speaking, now in its sixth year, continues to be extremely popular. A favorite feature is the “Guess that Accent” quiz, in which listeners are challenged to identify a brief extract from an IDEA sample. My 2022 episodes featured the work of David Nevell, Kathleen Mulligan, Jacqueline Springfield, Tanera Marshall, and Helen Gent. My thanks to them.
• Our fall fund drive prompted generous donations from several first-time donors. Our deepest thanks to all who gave. However, as is typical of such drives, the percentage of users contributing was very low: just 0.000018%. It’s never too late, of course, to support IDEA, the free research resource you have come to value. The Support IDEA button is a permanent fixture on the site.
• We continued to expand the cultural and ethnic diversity of IDEA. While the website will always focus on English (it’s in our name, after all), we now strongly encourage all ESL speakers to speak not just in English but also in their native language on their IDEA submission. This doubles the value and cultural representation of IDEA, as IDEA visitors can hear not just the subjects’ English-language accent but their native-language dialect too!

Happy New Year to all our IDEA friends!