06-17-2009, 06:15 AM
Well, well, today, June 17th is our "official" 6th anniversary. Yep, it’s hard to believe but it’s been six months since we opened Big Blue and welcomed all train enthusiasts. When we (Mikey and Don) started to seriously talk about reviving what was once a top-rated train forum, we had some rather large misgivings. Mikey had some eight years on the old Gauge, Don had almost six and it was difficult to leave all that we built up over that time. We really didn’t want to abandon all the information that was there, plus the tutorials and all those great pictures, wow; but mostly we thought about not leaving behind all the friends we made there. The question was, could we save what we had, or did we need to start anew? We concluded that saving the old Gauge was out of our hands and we had hoped that our friends would all agree, so, we decided to start anew. We wanted to make our new forum, look and feel the same as it was, when all our long time Internet friends were members of that close knit forum. Well you answered the question, and you followed us in droves. All of our staff followed us, and most all, joined our new staff. Some old staff members that had left because of the many changes that happened over time even joined us. The first day that we were open to posting here, we had a phenomenal number of posts and it hasn’t stopped since.
We are proud of what we’ve accomplished, it feels uh, comfortable again. We have close to 300 members and we’re averaging 100 posts a day, not bad for a “new forum”. We appreciate your support and your confidence in what we’ve put together here, and we assure you, that we’ll never let these forums get into the situation that has befallen us in the past. No ads, no unreasonable rules. Our growth has been slow but steady, and we think we’ve given you what you want, the ability to post pictures and links, our own chat room, the return of the Big Blue colors but most of all, a friendly place, that feels like home. Now, for those of you that have a hard time with our color scheme, hang in there. We’ve asked Pat to see what he can do to add another color style so you can have your choice, white text on blue, or black text on white. It’s not as easy a task as it might seem and Pat’s been a bit preoccupied, but it is on his “to do” list. Believe us, we listen to you. Some things take longer than others, but this is your forum, we just make sure it runs smoothly.
Aside from thanking you from the bottom of our hearts for being here, we can’t ask any more of you beyond that. Keep these forums what we intended them to be, a family-friendly place where good friends can come to get away from other worldly things and to share their experiences and information on all aspects of railroading.
Don (ezdays) and
Mikey (ngauger)
Administrators and co-owners of Big Blue
We are proud of what we’ve accomplished, it feels uh, comfortable again. We have close to 300 members and we’re averaging 100 posts a day, not bad for a “new forum”. We appreciate your support and your confidence in what we’ve put together here, and we assure you, that we’ll never let these forums get into the situation that has befallen us in the past. No ads, no unreasonable rules. Our growth has been slow but steady, and we think we’ve given you what you want, the ability to post pictures and links, our own chat room, the return of the Big Blue colors but most of all, a friendly place, that feels like home. Now, for those of you that have a hard time with our color scheme, hang in there. We’ve asked Pat to see what he can do to add another color style so you can have your choice, white text on blue, or black text on white. It’s not as easy a task as it might seem and Pat’s been a bit preoccupied, but it is on his “to do” list. Believe us, we listen to you. Some things take longer than others, but this is your forum, we just make sure it runs smoothly.
Aside from thanking you from the bottom of our hearts for being here, we can’t ask any more of you beyond that. Keep these forums what we intended them to be, a family-friendly place where good friends can come to get away from other worldly things and to share their experiences and information on all aspects of railroading.
Don (ezdays) and
Mikey (ngauger)
Administrators and co-owners of Big Blue