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- Late 1990s-2001: Doug Ourd’s FAQ became outdated as new Space-A policies appeared so John D. created the “Space-A FAQ” (as we know it today).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. 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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