GPMA Then and Now
It’s hard to believe, but GPMA first appeared online over 10 years ago. At the time it was an experiment in building web sites and building online communities. I had been following rec.models.scale for almost a year, and I saw how much interest there was in scale models of road racing cars. I also heard about Tamiya/Con in 1997, and I decided to cover it for the website. The response was great, and from about 50 members in the first few months we have grown to over 1100.
As the group grew into its second year, the website received its first facelift. The access to content was good, but the overall design was not quite up to the standards I wanted to maintain.
November ’98 was a major transformation, as bandwidth requirements forced a move from the free website at Earthlink to a hosted website. We experimented briefly with paid membership access, but quickly settled on the free/sponsored site model that has worked very well.
With a few minor tweaks we moved into 2000, still focused on easy access to content and frequent updates. By the year 2001, we had to back off on the monthly update schedule and settle on bi-monthly updates.
As we move into our 10th year, we will continue to strive for high-quality photos and modeling subjects, timely reviews, fun features, and other items of interest to our online community.
Please let us know if we are giving you what you want to see, and remember to send your articles for us to feature on the website, as you members are still our major source of content.
Kevin J. Stewart
May 2007
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