History
Founded on February 25, 1991 by moderator Eli "Skip" Shayotovich, the Star Wars Echo quickly became one of the most popular forums within FidoNet.
In November 1994, the Echo launched a monthly on-line newsletter/fanzine entitled Out of the Maw. Echo member Rich Mason also compiled his own fanzine, entitled Starfighter Command.
The Echo pioneered a parallel message forum devoted to playing the Star Wars role-playing game on-line.
Due to the participation of the early Star Wars authors and some current and future West End Games freelancers, Echo members were credited with helping to flesh out some of the early Expanded Universe material.
In late 1994, some members of the Echo attempted to compile a CD-ROM containing all of the Star Wars digital media—images, sound files, text documents, etc. -- that were available on-line at that time (very little by modern standards). It was a non-profit endeavor, asking members to pay only the cost of the blank CD-ROM. However, when members approached Lucasfilm's licensing department for permission to create the CDs, that permission was denied, and the CD-ROM was never distributed. This attempt by the fans encouraged LucasArts to create its first early commercial Star Wars media compilations, and to develop a strategy to deal with the protection of their intellectual property on-line.
When the arrival of the Internet quickly eroded the use of BBS systems and FidoNet, Echo members made the migration and created some of the important early Star Wars fan web sites (such as Echo member Mike Farnham's Star Wars Inter-Fido RPG site), and Echo moderator "Skip" Shayotovich later served double-duty as president of the America Online Star Wars Fan Club. Naturally, many Echo members also became involved in the RASSM newsgroup, and there was a friendly rivalry between the two groups for a time.
Read more about this topic: Fido Net Star Wars Echo
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