Whats Bigweek news group ?
Air Warrior - the grandfather of the WWII multiplayer games - had a BBS, similar to this one. Those who remember better than I do can correct the following (and please do):
Sometime around 1999, the AW Gods tried to run, for the first time, a very large multi-player mission, coordinating things that hadn't previously been coordinated in an online game, basically trying to emulate the real-life WWII Big Week missions of February, 1944. They set up a separate BBS, similar to this one, for people who were participating in the experiment, to chat among themselves in anticipation of, and in reflections on, the experiment.
The Big Week missions worked, as I recall, although I wasn't able to participate. But the Bigweek BBS was a huge hit, and people made lots of virtual friends. You know who you are.
Then came Y2k. AW eliminated the Bigweek BBS. I was heartbroken, and wrote a piece about it (if I can ever find it). But fortunately, the survivors started a new newsgroup, also named "Bigweek," on a Nutscrape server. That worked out well, for years and years, and migrated to different servers. Many of the people who post on these boards (including Animal) were part of it.
Sadly (IMHO), newsgroups were buried by Facebook, and Trip, who was valiantly hosting the Bigweek NNTS, moved on further in his family's life and couldn't host the newsgroup any longer. Most of the veterans moved to Facebook but, as I've said, I refrain from joining that social heroin needle. I miss them, though. I've met some of them in person over the years (including Shane), and I miss the cameraderie.
But the AH BBS is the next best thing. Don't forget that you're making lifelong friends here, even if you never will get a chance to meet them in person.
- oldman
