As blender has grown, many new people have taken over the mantle of helper, coder, and artist. and I just want to say these guys know their **** and they are holding down the fort in superb fashion. For years I have been a helper, and blender artist, trough times when there was no ray tracing, documentation, no nothing but archaic knowledge and workarounds, to today, when blender is competitive with the leading 3D software packages, and even better than those packages on some levels. I have only recently gotten a computer capable of handling blenders more advanced functions, and so, am relearning various things, like sculpting, and motion tracking, etc. and I would just like to say, I am very proud of those guys who have taken over the support forums, and ensured blenders reputation, as having the best support community in the 3D world today. You guys rock. And I would also like to express my appreciation for the developers, the largely unsung heroes of the blender community, which are the very meat and potatos that make it all possible. Blender is one of the coolest things out there, period, and it’s us, the community that made it what it is, and made it happen. Apologies for sounding like a fanatic, but you guys really rule. I said many years ago that blender would become competitive with the commercial 3D packages, and got a lot of crap for that, yet every day it takes a new and bigger step toward becoming the standard of 3D production. I have never seen anything like blender. It is a phenomenon, an icon, and an inspiration, and it makes me so happy, and so proud. and I feel honored to have played an insignificant role in its historical legacy. It’s an example, of what people can accomplish through simple cooperation. And thank you to everyone who has contributed to blender, on whatever level. Rock on.
AT LAST, SOMEONE SAID IT ALL!!!
Very poetic, nice, I completely agree…
There’s not a single feature request in your post! You have no place here. 
Thanks for your post, very well put. Rock on, indeed!
Yea…well said Modron So many people, like myself, would never have the opportunity to learn 3d if it wasn’t for Blender. The thought of spending thousands of dollars on the commercial options is just ludicrous, let alone all the extra plugins that are every bit ridiculously priced.
I value everything the Blender developers / community have done with this software and continue to be blown away by the strides they are making.
Nicely said. I’ve only just started using Blender, but I honestly feel privileged to be able to use this fantastic software at no expense and be a part of this friendly and knowledgeable community.
Good post!
Me join!
Ugah!
Agreed! A tremendous amount of thanks is owed to all those involved in making Blender what it is (and that includes the amazing support from this community). It is highly unlikely that I would have ever attempted 3D art without it.
Blender rules?
One for sure. Blender is our beloved 3d application.
And, our love goes to all who participating in this amazing project.
Love follows many paths, still is love though.
Good post indeed.
Yes, definitely Ace.
Indeed, and that, IMO, would also work for pretty much every human endeavor. Great post, thank you.
The Blender community has been the most helpful and supportive I have come across.
Its taken many years, but Blender has gradually evolved into a worthy 3D application. So long as the Foundation and community “stay the course” then even better things will follow in years to come.
Credit goes where credit is due, we can all thank the tireless and sometimes thankless work of the developers for creating what might be the only reason a number of us are even doing 3D (which likely includes myself).
Blender helped me find an area where I can start making a bit of money on my own and be more independent from my parents in terms of what I would like to have.
Thank you devs. for all that you’ve done to make a fully-featured, fully usable creative software app. for free (which is not too common in FOSS).
Thank you blenderers, DevGods, and ForumBrains, Think tanks, thank you bge dev’s,
1 feature request, +1 button on forums for problem solver kudos,
many people have helped me learn python and coding strategies, I learned to code on this forum…
I remember the day i downloaded blender (2.62)… April 1st 2012 (16:35) 
i just kept staring/drooling. It had all these awesome features and built in physics and what not and it was just a 27mb download. And to think I was almost going for a costly C4D when i stumbled upon blender quite by accident… wow!
I’m just glad I jumped in when i did. I’m even happier to be a part of such a great community of selfless individuals.
Indeed. I have been using blender since about 2001 or 2002. For that entire time it’s been my first choice, always. IMO there has never been any real FOSS competition. The devs recently have been even more impressive.
I think Blender is more than a good app, it’s an example of what FOSS can accomplish. There are very, very few examples of FOSS that are maintained so steadily, stay so close to (and sometimes ahead of) feature parity with commercial software, and don’t get abandoned or die after a few years, especially without major corporate funding. Can you think of any others? As far as I know Linux itself is the only thing that beats blender for staying power and quality.
When I first started out Blender was considered something of a joke by “pros”. Now, we are watching project Gooseberry unfold, (maybe controversial, but regardless of your opinions on the politics this entails) we consider it credible that Blender will be used to produce a feature length “pixar quality” movie. This would have been too much to believe in 2001 - let alone rendering on GPU, lol.
The devs deserve 75% of the credit for making this happen, and the users 25%, or maybe more. Without users there is no reason to develop software… the users are the ones that demonstrate the software for the world and prove its capability. Blender users are pretty determined that Blender will be a success and (although we are a bunch of feature hungry whiners) we also believe in blender’s potential and work hard to prove it. So 75% thanks to devs (you rule) and 25% thanks to the talented artists who show what blender can do!
Yes, agreed. Many thanks to the devs, Ton, and all the other people who in some way support Blender. I got a lot out of Blender in the last 8 years, using it for both professional as well as personal projects.
If I think about the amounts of money saved (I used to pay bags of money for a Cinema4d Studio license) - staggering. Which is why I feel more people ought to consider supporting the Blender foundation with a small monthly contribution (Blender Development Fund) and/or supporting the Gooseberry project.
https://cloud.blender.org/gooseberry/
I support them in both these ways! Show your thanks! For the price of one or two cups of coffee each month you will ensure the future greatness of Blender!
Well, is about time blender move in to Renaissance era. More art, more innovation
Its gotten to the point that the skys the limit when being creative with blender. 20 years ago i couldnt even dream of doing what one could do now with a laptop and blender. From the bottom of my heart, thanks to all those who have put effort into blender and letting this old gezza still be creative in the digital world!
I learned about Blender back in '07 through friends in Second Life. Before full blow mesh import, which is available now, they had developed “sculpted prims” which allowed you to create objects externally. Back then 2.49b was still out. Prior to running into Blender, I had some experience with Anim8or, which is a cool program for one-guy development, but once I found Blender, I never looked back.
I discovered Blender by accident in '05 when I was in high school. After making a few animations and models in Blender, it was clear that 3D animation was going to be my life path. This dictated what university I would go to, which in turn would later decide what jobs I would have, who I would date, where I would live, etc. So it is no overstatement to say that Blender completely changed my life.