Hey there. I started Dimensions Magazine, which initially was NAAFA's FASIG (Fat Admirer Special Interest Group) publication, back in 1984. Later I also started the Dimensions Chat, and then this forum.
Just to answer a few of your questions:
Initially, the FASIG was just a black and white newsletter, and it was "printed" on a copy machine. In time I changed the name to "Dimensions -- Where Big is Beautiful". The first "real" magazine -- 40 pages of glossy paper with the first all color photo cover -- came in 1991, issue #42. From then on, Dimensions grew and grew, helped by appearances on several of the major talk shows of the day. Dimensions Magazine continued for another 11 years. The final issue, #88, was published in 2002. Dimensions was always "semi-professional." I ran and produced it, but we had a number of regular contributors and columnists. Photo features were mostly done by enthusiasts. We often had hundreds of personal ads, and each issue had 64 pages. Dimensions was always about celebrating the beauty and appreciation of the fat body. There was no explicit nudity in it, ever, and not even a nipple. When printing a glossy mag as a side job became simply too expensive, Dimensions Chat, one of the earliest real-time interactive streaming chat systems, became very popular. The current forum began, if I remember correctly, in 2005, and I ran it first on my own servers and then on a dedicated host until around 2015, then passed it on to what I believe is still the current owners. I've now been away for over seven years and occasionally stop by. It warms my heart every time to see that my creation is still alive. I am not sure if I know any of the current moderators. We all used to be a closely-knit family. I am attaching a very compressed PDF version of the final issue.
