It all started many years ago on a Wednesday. It was a pleasant 78 degrees outside with beautiful clear skies  On this Wednesday, September twenty-third in the year two thousand and nine a man named Columbus, Christopher Colum…. wait; a man named Chris Johnson launched BGWFans.com…
 
You know what? Screw this.
 
Hi everyone, thank you for being loyal members of BGWFans.com. We’re proud to have brought you news, rumors, discussion, photos, history, and much more about our favorite theme park, Busch Gardens Williamsburg since September 2009. Earlier this year, BGWFans founder, Chris Johnson, stepped down from managing and administering the site and forums leaving the site to Zachary (formally Swiftman on the forums) who had already been acting as the managing editor of BGWFans.com as well as the head forum administrator. Well, as some of you may know, Zachary came to Gavin and I (Shane) looking to form a committee to manage the site. Each of us have our own strengths that we hope can be used to further strengthen and expand both the site and the community. Below is a list of the current administrators and their jobs:
 
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[li]Zachary: Managing Editor and Community Administrator[/li]
[li]Shane: Community Administrator and Finance Manager[/li]
[li]Gavin: Finance Manager and System Administrator[/li]
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For the most part, things hadn’t really changed on the forums. Earlier this year a new design for the blog was rolled out and since, we have set our sights on making our forums match the main site better than it ever has in the past.  Well, today, we are excited to announce a project that has been in the works for about six months: KDFans and The ParkFans Network. I’ll start with KDFans. As you can see from the header, we now have a Kings Dominion fansite! We’re launching with two main writers (Evan and Reece) and we wish them the best of luck in their new positions and we will be assisting them in anyway they need until things really get going. I’m now going to hand things over to Zachary who will talk about what exactly The ParkFans Network is.
 
ParkFans Network is a…
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Community
In fact, it’s not just a community, but it’s the same community you’ve come to know and love from BGWFans. One sign-in will work across all areas of the forums- no matter how different they may look. Additionally, our community will continue to be just as open as it always has. We pride ourselves in how lax we are with our forum rules and regulations and we plan to keep it that way. We feel that the more freedom we can provide our users with, the better they can get past the red tape and just discuss their favorite park. Lastly, our community-supported Wiki will continue to be expanded to cover all officially covered parks.
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Blog
Though it is far different from your normal amusement enthusiast blog. A lot of sites have gone the route of publishing press releases, getting the occasional interview, and trying to cover multiple parks in once place. We feel strongly that a blog will get its best content from locals who care about their home park. That’s why each park that we cover will have its own blog, its own writers, its own social media accounts, its own color scheme, and even its own name.
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Platform
This is, by far, the most important part of this project to me. I enjoy writing about Busch Gardens Williamsburg but I would have never been able to do so in any notable way if I hadn’t of stumbled upon BGWFans over 3 years ago. Through a chaotic series of events, I ended up becoming a moderator on the forums and then, eventually, became a writer for the site. I simply got lucky. Very, very lucky. I think there are other people out there like myself who would love to provide consistent coverage of their home parks but are discouraged by the steep learning curve that comes with building a website, the fact that hosting isn’t free, or just simply a lack of recognition and members. I want to provide those people who want to write, a place to write. I want to provide a place for those who want to report, a place to report. That’s the goal. We’re not building a website, we’re building a platform.[/li]
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Thank you to everyone who made ParkFans possible and we hope that both it and KDFans are as big a success as BGWFans as been for the past three years.