Ok, here I am! Most of my mates from WW2Chat are here, so I'm not going to be left out! I'm interested in both the wars, but WW1 has even more of an emotional pull on me than WW2. I'm not quite sure why; it didn't affect my family so much, but I think it caused a huge scar on the psyche of the nation. I read Biggles when I was a boy, also some of the "Sapper" (Cyril McNeil) stories, so names like Ypres and Polygon Wood and Arras and St Quentin, and of course the Somme, have been part of my conciousness ever since. I was in the second year Juniors, so about eight years old, when I read about Albert Ball VC, and about nine when I read in the Arthur Mee children's encyclopaedia (a 1930's edition of my mothers') about Jack Cornwell VC. Now I'm nearly 50 and these haven't gone away. In the last few years I've been on guided tours of the Somme and of the Ypres salient, and I've joined Cross and Cockade, the society for the study of WW1 aviation history. So I think my problem here is going to be which threads to prioritise my time on!
Looking good so far! Mostly information type threads; discussions will start to come along later. Putting on information threads is the only way of populating such a site; since Annie already has 133 posts, I imagine some of you have been hard at it before the site went public. Is there going to be a social "Barracks" type section? Just one query - why call it WW1talk, when the site from which we sprang is called WW2chat, but there is an unconnected (rival?) WW2talk?
Its was all about available domain names Adrian, I took ww1talk a long time ago because ww1chat was not available.
I'm the one that did the information threads .... but I was hoping that information threads might make people stop and question what they were reading Adrian ! And I was also hoping that the people who are the experts might say .... "no ! thats not right " and start dialogue ! Plus .... maybe Newbies can find out stuff on their own before they ask questions and will feel a little more relaxed about using the site ! At least thats what I was hoping ! ... you "boys " have all the techno knowledge ... but I've noticed that more women and school children are starting to research now .... and I'd love it to be helpful to them too ! Annie
Annie Thanks for all your work! Well, I've made one start with adding to a thread! And I take your point about school children starting to research WW1 - it is very important that we can pass on this knowledge to future generations, not just as facts but as respect for those who lived and died in those conflicts, and to try and redress cliches and simplifications that often crop up. But I must avoid the temptation to get too "heavy" if young people do visit!
Welcome Adrian, Great to see you here. We need someone to nurse us through the rough bits. Any comments or suggestions will be most welcome. Hope you and the family had a great Christmas. Cheers
