a blogger's retrospective

Its strange to think that nearly ten years ago tonight I was toying with the idea of a Project SWORD blog. Being impulsive by nature I won't have decided for sure the eve before it happened. I will have been still collating!

I had already had two go's at online Project SWORD already so I had some form. Back in 1998 I was able to get my toys checklist posted on the Alphadrome and TV21 websites, which was a huge boost for me and I wanted to do something more.

A bit later, maybe 2002, I launched a basic SWORD website on Yahoo. It was just a few pages long but I was encouraged by the contact it gave me with other collectors.

When Yahoo dropped its website service and my site vanished I didn't rush to replace it as I was heavily involved in selling toys on Ebay, which eventually I did full time from late 2005 right through to summer 2008, until the costs rose too high for me to carry on.

I needed another toy outlet especially as I knew winter was coming and I remembered project SWORD! With encouragement from long-standing online chums Bill Bulloch and Paul Vreede and taking inspiration from my nephew's online birdwatching diary I decided to go with Blogger and start a blog as it would allow me to write something whenever I wanted.

I made my first tentative steps into the world of blogging on the 15th September 2008.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my current ace collaborators Scoop and Bill Bulloch, frequent contributors Kevin D, Tony K, Arto and Brian and all our readers around the world who stop by at Moonbase Central.

I wish to also thank Bill Everatt, who allowed us to play with our toys on Celtica Radio. A high-five goes to long-time supporter Andy B too and erstwhile contributor the Philosophical Toad, together with frequent contributor and fellow enthusiast Paul Vreede, who launched his own superb Triang SpaceX website last Christmas, a site I was pleased to have helped with a little bit. Rob Godwin from Canada gets a high-five too as his enthusiasm and help has been significant. If I have missed anyone out I apologise.

There are so many individual readers old and new who I would like to say thank you to from over the last nine years but there are far too many to name. Suffice to say, thank you for your support, comments and time. Without you the blog would just be wasted space.

I hope you enjoy our ninth Birthday weekend.

Keep on SWORDing!

Woodsy