Here's a little history of the initial pioneers of "Space-A on the Internet."
- Mid 1990s: Pepperd.com message board was born. Created by Dirk Pepperd (then Active Duty Army and now retired).
- Mid 1990s: A Space-A FAQ maintained by Doug Oard was hosted on some Veteran’s Newsgroups on the blossoming World Wide Web.
- Late 1990s: Roy Buckman (Ret USA) started a discussion forum similar to Pepperd.com at spacea.info. In addition, Roy created the initial online signup service.
- Late 1990s-2001: Doug Ourd’s FAQ became outdated as new Space-A policies appeared so John D. created the “Space-A FAQ” (as we know it today). Roy Buckman hosted the Space-A FAQ on his spacea.info web site.
- Spring 2003: Vandals, spammers and hackers prompted Dirk to move to a “members only” discussion board (the format Dirk just transitioned from).
- May 2005: Roy Buckman passes away suddenly leaving the future of his web site in limbo.
- Summer 2005: Military Living vowed to continue Roy Buckman’s website (as a tribute to Roy). However, little effort went into continuing Roy Buckman’s legacy and Roy's forum and signup service ceased to exist. Roy's web site only continued as a commercial front for Military Living’s business to market their Space-A publications.
- Summer 2005: Since Roy Buckman’s signup service was no longer being kept updated by Military Living, Rob G. stepped up to fill the void and created takeahop.com (not available as of May 2025). Rob G made several improvements over the initial concept such as allowing one to signup for up to 5 locations at once. Rob also added a fax capability for locations that did not accept email signups and mobile apps in 2012.
- Fall 2005: Since spacea.info was now being used to market commercial publications, John D. decided to host the Space-A FAQ on it’s own new web site and www.spacea.net was born. Since that time, www.spacea.net has grown to more than a FAQ and now includes helpful links and location pages with detailed info helpful to any Space-A traveler.
- June 2010: After 7 years, Dirk moves the Pepperd.com discussion forum to the current Pepperd.com Forum.
My dates may be a little off but you should get the gist of it and I hope it clears things up a little!
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