As we begin to close out 2009 and the decade, we look back at all the things that have occurred in a three-part series…

• General happenings and ThrillNetwork
• What happened with thrill rides — what’s new and what departed us
• The seemingly dwindling Biz of Fun

In this part, ThrillNetwork’s Steven Heicher looks back at the decade with what happened concerning ThrillNetwork and the rest of the thrill seeker community.

As I was watching the morning news before I started to write this, I saw along the news ticker that many have called this decade the worst decade in 50 years.  Thinking about that, I don’t think I could agree any more.  Of course, I’ve only been alive for three out of those five, but being the history buff that I am, I understood the assessment.  We have been through a decade where the common theme seemed to be negativity, such as terrorism, war, recessions, cutbacks, and so on.

At the end of this decade, everything seems to be at a crossroads, and the amusement industry and its enthusiast community is no exception.  Negatives have offset many positives, and it’s worn down on us.

As I write this, I only hope that we can remember what happened so that we can avoid the pitfalls and missteps that have occurred during this decade… as an enthusiast community, as individuals, and as part of the national and global communities.

A decade to remember, A decade to forget

We started off this decade on fear and paranoia (well, most of us did) with the misplaced fear of the year 2000 and the glitches that would shut us down, and it seems that we are ending it on the same note, this time through fears acts of terrorism.  In between, we had 9/11, wars, a tsunami in the Indian Ocean, hurricanes causing record damage and death tolls not seen since the beginning of the 1900’s, and so on.  Toward the end, the global economy took a nosedive, and many of us found ourselves unemployed for extended periods.  2009 was ruled by bankruptcies and bailouts, in which, despite some small signs, the latter has yet to bring forth any real results of recovery.

On the flip side, we’ve become a more connected global community through technology.  Mobile devices, social networking, and the like have allowed us to be closer to one another.  After several decades, going “green” has finally become cool once we realized how much money we could save by thinking about the environment, mostly due to rising oil and resource prices.

The enthusiast community grew in the early 2000’s.  Many new sites were started, and existing sites grew.  On the same token, many sites also dwindled and went away as fast as they came.  These sites, in many cases, allowed enthusiasts to connect in a crude social networking fashion with one another.

A new site arises

In early 2001, Thrillride.com was a very popular site in that it was the definitive source for roller coaster reviews and rumors written by Robert Coker. On May 3, 2001, a new forum section (running phpBB) was launched under the supervison of Alex Westerman. The first thread (in General Talk) was started at 9:18am that day, but its popularity exploded in a short time. Yours truly didn’t join until June 14, 2001 (contrary to what some of you might think, I started out as a member like many of you… I was formerly MaqAttaq on the forums).

However, Thrillride.com did not last much further, going until July 20, 2001. When it closed, CoasterForum.com was launched. Within about a week, a sister site, CoasterChat.com was launched. Between the two, It was strictly the forums (now running the familiar vBulletin software) and an IRC-based chat system, and both the forums and chat used the default vBulletin color scheme of purple at the time. Thrillride.com itself did reopen a couple of years later, but it doesn’t see the traffic that it once did in its heyday.

On August 30, 2001, ThrillNetwork.com was officially born. ThrillNetwork.com started out only as a news site and a coaster database, with the forums and chat still residing on their respective domains. There was a lot of talk regarding a 2nd phase, which would’ve added more to the database (such as a coaster count) and other features. However, 9/11 and other issues largely scuttled the plans at the time. When the login system worked, people could actually go there and comment on stories. We also introduced a special forum section called SpeedZone, which that section is around today.

Shortly after the launch, we also tried to launch a coaster club called TNT (ThrillNetwork ThrillSeekers). The club had a few members, but after several issues popped up, the club was discontinued, and members that had joined received refunds.

However, with the technical issues and the people sticking to the forums (this has been a common thing among ThrillNetwork members), it wasn’t seeing its potential traffic. So, in mid-2002, work on project codename TNv2 begun, which worked to heavily modify and redesign ThrillNetwork, as well as merge the forums and chat. It also brought more color and a new logo to resolve criticism that the site was too reliant on blacks and grays, and it finally introduced a park and coaster database.

After two weeks of downtime to resolve some critical technical issues, the new site was launched in August of 2002. Within a month, SpeedZone received its own dedicated section.

While the redesign accomplished the merge of the three sites, the site was plagued by slowness and other technical issues, many of which weren’t resolved until a year later. By then, work was already underway on project codename TNv3. In addition, SpeedZone had a 2nd redesign in less than six months, and finally made the section popular.

After an 11 month planning and design process, the latest version of ThrillNetwork debuted on December 3, 2003. Redesigned from the ground up (except for SpeedZone), the new site featured the new vBulletin 3 forums, a custom news article section, and a new database. It also received a ground-up makeover, featuring cleaner graphics and a uniform scheme (much of which continues today).

With a now-working site, we moved forward and added new features to the site, such as an improved coaster count, expanded the database to include non-coaster rides, improved SpeedZone, and even an amusement jobs portal. We also added social networking features, such as member photo albums and blogs, some of which are typically found in bigger sites like Facebook and MySpace. With minor updates and tweaks, TNv3 ultimately lasted six years.

In 2004 (and again in 2005), we hosted the official NoLimits contest, which challenged members to compete for prizes each month, with the top prize being a Six Flags season pass. The contest, which required users to work within the confines of the program and using limited add-ons, highlighted the talent of aspiring coaster creators. While initially popular, contest participation eventually dwindled, and the contest was discontinued.

In 2005, we began hosting a coaster club (The Coaster Crew) and a podcast, In The Loop, produced and hosted by Clint Novak. Featuring daily news updates and a weekly discussion panel, the podcast was hosted on ThrillNetwork until 2007, when various differences caused Novak and ThrillNetwork to part ways.

Not to let that get in the way, ThrillNetwork continued on. Eventually, planning began on a new version of the site. Codenamed TNv4, it would work to address some of the issues identified in TNv3. The plan was to go back to the basics, and cut sections that were not doing anything. The first to go was the jobs portal, not seeing any real traffic over its lifetime. The biggest and most felt cut, however, was SpeedZone. Dwindling popularity of coaster games, as well as the section itself, caused it to be cut from TNv4, but the cut was without its detractors. The SpeedZone forums remained, and the content was archived so that one day we may bring back SpeedZone, which in its current plan, looks to be around when NoLimits 2.0 is released.

The biggest highlights included news commenting was finally brought into the forums. Previously, all story commenting was separate, not searchable, and not flexible. By bringing the commenting into the forums, we also were able to minimize duplicate discussions. In addition, the news switched to a blog-style format, simplifying story posting and editing.

After a planned April Fool’s joke indicating that we would start offering “subscriptions” on April 5th, we launched the new version of the site, which also included improved social networking features and capabilities.

Pushing toward the future

Not stopping with the release of current site, I’m already working hard on the next version of ThrillNetwork. Codenamed TNv5, the site will have the tightest integration ever possible, since we will be using vBulletin’s new Publishing Suite. The forum interface will have its first major changes since 2003, and will, for the first time since 2002, move to a different home within the site. However, we will have the capability of turning new threads, user blog posts, and other content into news stories with just a few clicks (and maybe a few edits). Rollout is expected sometime around February of 2010.

In May 2011, ThrillNetwork will celebrate its 10th anniversary. We intend to have a yearlong celebration starting in January 2011, and hope to do things throughout the year, with any biggest events occurring in May.

As we said earlier, we also intend to bring back SpeedZone in a new form, which we are targeting a launch around the time NoLimits 2 is released.  Any previous uploads will be available at that time.

Until then, here’s to a great 2010 and a great decade ahead. We can only push forward into the future!

Tags: 00's, 2000's, community, enthusiast, forums, News, review, thrill seeker, ThrillNetwork, vBulletin, website