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KIextreme Closing


Captain Nemo
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In a post update from our friends at KIE:

https://www.kiextreme.com/forums/index.php?/topic/7073-kiextreme-is-closing-monday-june-14/

"It’s been a heck of a ride, but all rides eventually reach the final brake run.

 

18 years after the first idea and earliest plans for the site, originally intended to be a photo gallery using the name PKI Pictures and evolving throughout 2003 into the full-fledged fansite Extreme PKI, launching during the busy final months of 2003 and rebranding to KIExtreme in 2007, the time has come.

 

Sometime this upcoming Monday, June 14, 2021, KIExtreme will be closing its doors for good.

 

This final decision comes after a lengthy period of considering the site’s future. In the age of social media, fans of Kings Island and other amusement parks around the globe have taken advantage of the convenience of these platforms for the rapid sharing of information, news, photos and videos. Kings Island itself maintains active social media profiles, embracing the direct reach to consumers in the same way as virtually every park, ride designer, and event in the amusement industry has done.

 

While my opinion is that the traditional fan site approach still very much has a place for itself on the internet, as activity has slowed on KIExtreme over the years and news updates are now mostly just parroting what has already been delivered by the park directly, via social media and live-streaming new attraction announcements, the simple truth is that the time, effort, and costs involved with maintaining this site are, after thorough review, simply not viable anymore.

 

As most people have probably noticed on the front page, the site has been undergoing preparations for renovation for some time now, but after two years of slow progress and technical hurdles, the next generation of KIExtreme is ultimately not to be.

 

My personal passion for Kings Island has not wavered, and is not a factor in this decision to close. I will continue to support the park and contribute to fan communities, but the time has come to wrap up KIExtreme.

 

Kings Island will be celebrating its 50 anniversary next year, and I am excited to see what is to come. I hope you are too!

 

Until the site officially closes on Monday, the Photo Gallery, History Gallery, and Forums will be staying online. Check out photos from the start of my journey with digital photography in the gallery, the original catalyst that led to the site’s creation. Explore the rare historical photos dating back to 1972. Read back through forum posts, taking a ride through the history of the site itself, from the early days through the exciting peak period of time when construction began in Rivertown for what would become Diamondback, and all the speculation, rumors, and excitement every time a new concrete foundation was spotted.

 

I’m posting this now to provide a full weekend to enjoy the site for the final time, and that’s not all. I still have one batch of photos, from Halloween Haunt 2011, that got lost in time for a while and will be uploaded as soon as tomorrow as the site’s final update. These will appear in the Halloween Haunt category of the Photo Gallery, so on this grand finale weekend, keep an eye on the Last Uploads section of the gallery for Haunt 2011 and anything else that could accompany Haunt in that batch of photos.

 

It’s been a heck of a run with KIExtreme, but the future for Kings Island and park fans is a bright one. Ride on!"

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This is sad but I completely understand. For example Pointbuzz is darn near dead yet the Cedar Point reddit is alive and doing well. I'm sure there are facebook groups too but they usually get toxic so I don't bother. The exception to the rule so far seems to be this very site. King's Island has a reddit too but it does not seem to be very active.

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Unfortunately, this isn't the first park fan site to shut down and unfortunately it won't be the last either.  Social Media like Facebook and Reddit sites are taking over and has a bigger audience.  It allows people to only have to use one platform for all of their interests instead of several.

Personally, I find forums like this easier to navigate and find information.

Facebook and Reddit is filled with dozens of the same questions every week as apparently the GP do not know how to use a search function LOL.

How many posts per week does the KI Season Passholder page get asking the same thing: "What is the best day to go to the park"; "What are the wait times today"; "Should I get a Fast Lane for a Saturday"; "What are the hours of the park", etc. Certainly the layout and organization of a FB page contributes to the constant barrage of people creating new posts asking the same things over and over again, but it is clear very few people use the search function of FB before asking a question.

Contrast that with a site like this that has a wait times thread, so it is easy to find and people can post and see right there.  We don't have to scroll through dozens of the same question asked 50 different ways and 100's of responses to flip through. 

The layout and organization of a forum is generally better organized and easier to navigate and find what you are looking for, but apparently the GP likes them some FB lol.

I don't know the numbers for this site, but my observation is that the number of new members and posts per year have probably gone down in recent years as the FB groups and Reddit sites have grown and people start going to those sites.  They look at it as being able to get the same information as they can get here, but instead they can get it in one platform that they get information for all of their other interests and thus one less app or site to have to navigate and use.

Hopefully this site is one that can continue to stick around in the ever changing landscape of social media opportunities to find information.

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Before I was a member here, I used to flip back and forth between (P)KI Extreme and here. I think PKI Extreme was the first site I stumbled on and I remember it looking cool (and IIRC, the pictures were more organized), but I ultimately ended up here. Though lots of people go on social media (Facebook,Reddit) for their info these days instead of discussion forums), I feel like I've gone the opposite direction. Aside from having a LinkedIn page, watching Youtube videos, and looking at Smogon (Pokemon site)'s Twitter feed (I don't have a Twitter account anymore), I think this is the only "social media" (if you want to call it that - I think of it more as an online community) that I am a part of. It's unfortunate that the pictures will be taken down from that site when it closes Monday, perhaps @IndyGuy4KI and KIE could work out a deal to host said pictures here in their own separate galleries. It's sad that KIE is closing down, but I'm glad KIC is still here and (hopefully) thriving.

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3 minutes ago, silver2005 said:

Though there were problems with a lot of sites and forums back in the day, I do miss the variety and energy brought to bring them all to life.  It was kinda a cool time to be an enthusiast. 

That it was. It was a family of enthusiasts split between a number of sites, but we were all still family.

I remember going to PKIunlimited for the Forum, KIextreme for the RCT recreations, and PKICentral for the galleries.

At the time, I began mainly on PKIUNLIMITED before they ultimately merged with PKICentral.

I recall there being a fourth fansite for KI but I can't remember the name. Anyone else here who remembers? (Gosh were getting old)

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There was PKI Asylum, then KI Asylum that was the original home of the music pack that I inherited when they closed, and I remember a PKIGuide way back in the day, like 2002, no forums but detailed writeups. I think TR:TR was the last feature they did before fading off.

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18 hours ago, PKIDelirium said:

There was PKI Asylum, then KI Asylum that was the original home of the music pack that I inherited when they closed, and I remember a PKIGuide way back in the day, like 2002, no forums but detailed writeups. I think TR:TR was the last feature they did before fading off.

PKIGuide had forums. Those were the first ones I was on!  Boy was I surprised when one day I went to that site and found they had sold the domain to a pornography company. 

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39 minutes ago, BoddaH1994 said:

PKIGuide had forums. Those were the first ones I was on!  Boy was I surprised when one day I went to that site and found they had sold the domain to a pornography company. 

I think those porn shops simply look for recently expired domains and snatch them up hoping that if even 5% of those looking for the old site then partake in their offerings that they come out well ahead LOL.  I have seen so many sites that turn into porn sites when a domain expires LOL.

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10 minutes ago, disco2000 said:

I think those porn shops simply look for recently expired domains and snatch them up hoping that if even 5% of those looking for the old site then partake in their offerings that they come out well ahead LOL.  I have seen so many sites that turn into porn sites when a domain expires LOL.

Haha that’s what I meant, I didn’t mean the previous owners literally sat down with Larry Flint!! 

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  • 7 months later...
7 hours ago, CorkscrewMcPuke said:

And of course, anybody still wanting to visit parts of the website that were backed up, you can still do so at https://web.archive.org/web/20210613030337/http://kiextreme.com/

Expect dial-up internet speed for pictures though.

Yeah, archive.org is great but the speed for media is, uh, not so great.

1 hour ago, Cedar Fair Fanboy said:

Guys download the entire audio they have!

I’m addition to the gallery archives I also provided KIC with the KiTunes audio and the Phantom Theater soundtrack.

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