10 Year Anniversary / History of New Element - 2002

^ This entire topic puts a smile on my face. I was active on Danimation in 2002 (making me just 12 then...wow), but I only lurked on NE at that point. I absolutely adored Atlantis and most of Nevis' work, and I still do today.

Hmm... After all this time, I never knew Adix was that rebellious.

If I remember correctly, New Element started mostly as an elite group of parkmakers that would collaborate and assist other park designers. As Danimation was crumbling, New Element filled the void left in the community.

And they even had legitimate RollerCoaster Rappers in the initial bunch. (I am truly sorry for letting Fatha' out into the wild. No one would have known it Without Me...)

Thanks guys. It's great so many still care.

Steve, I tried to hide it but you know me too well.

I'm glad people appreciated those H2H1 parks. If you haven't yet the Park Wars parks listed at the bottom of the post are definitely worth a download: Tussauds, Tyline California, Palmetto Cove and Portico Cove.


When I came up with the text I was in contact with Adix, who contributed his own memories that I am permitted to add here. Fantastic read in my opinion.

It's kind of funny, trying to think of when New Element "started"... I
think it was ultimately a spark of inspiration shared between a few
people at the right place at the right time, and truly driven by iris.
I ask that you forgive my memory... I was active on Danimation around
the time I was 13 or 14, and I was 15 when New Element launched... a
lot of things have happened in the time since.

I'd also like to point out that a lot of the chronology detailed in
the post before this is very NE-centric... but it's important to
remember that without Danimation, we never would have existed. The
first moment I really remember being tied to NE was when Danimation
was seeking new moderators for the forums... iris and I both went for
it, amongst others. I was selected; he was not. This small decision
really was the turning point: iris started a furor in the community, a
lot of people supported him, and the idea of starting a BRAND NEW site
transformed from something being passed around casually to a serious
idea.

At the same time, there was a lot of concern that Dan and Alex were
too strict in their handling of the forums, and a lot of people were
growing unhappy with the community. My last straw was when a
gentleman by the name of "BrandonR" made a post that didn't belong...
it was either inappropriate or the wrong forum, I don't remember. I
woke up the next morning and I was de-modded and BrandonR had received
a formal apology from Dan... some sort of inter-site politics I never
understood.

To my teenaged self, this was the ultimate in debauchery. I made a
long post trying to lead an insurrection against our oppressors. Alex
sent it to my mom. I reregistered as "Buckster" and lurked at
Danimation until I switched entirely to NE.


As all this Danimation forum drama was occuring, there was a secret
chat with myself, iris, and buster and a few others. Iris wanted to
start the site. People shared their ideas and talents. I said that
well, I can code.... and the rest is history. SBoarder did our
original web design and Nessy at Digital Coaster gave us webspace and
a forum as we got on our feet. Iris and I spent hours (most of them
late at night) planning, building and figuring things out. New
Element was built with love, skill, passion, and a lot of angst at the
community we were leaving behind.

We launched with UIX as our centerpiece, the best RCT creation to date
-- only available from us. Looking back, it could be said that we
ripped off the Danimation model from top to bottom.... because really,
we did. However, we didn't see it that way. We saw the community as
ours to have, and we were taking it with us.

To be honest, the success of New Element is a bit of a surprise... I
mean, we didn't even have our own domain at the time. We decided that
dammit, we're going to make a new site, and we did. To see it take on
it's own life, given to it by the next generation of people who
care... is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

Honored to be a part of these memories,

Andrew "Adix" Bates

 

Woah, huge bump.  But this was a super cool read, and interesting as well.  There was a member of SSC (the K'nex Coaster community) who went by the name BrandonRD who was active around 2005-2010, not sure if its the same guy.  But for some reason it makes sense in my head.  This BrandonRD was also sort of a rouge, he tried to build his own site and was somewhat successful for a very short time with his "Best of the Best" videos.  

 

Again, its unlikely that this the same person, but its also very interesting that a crucial person in the creation of  NE and the rise of NE and SSC as the source for the best content of their respective types, could be the same guy.  To me both NE and SSC are very important and represent very similar ideals and views, both were started and reached their peaks around the same times as well.  Although I do think NE has been more successful due to a slightly higher maturity level and larger community than SSC.