Coaster related websites- getting less and less?

About a week ago I read a thread here on Coasterbuzz that spoke about what the author viewed as a growing number of coaster-related sites. However, I have seen lately what seems to be the end of many coaster sites. For instance a look at the DNET sites today showed that only one site is still active (Badnitrus), and even they haven't made many updates recently and have said that they will be rare. Also, Thrillride! closed, and awhile ago, the actual rollercoaster.com. It might be that new sites are popping up and I haven't noticed them but I am also looking at the links on my website, and have noticed that it seems that a lot of the sites are also down. Is this the end of the great number of coaster sites era? Are people less interested in making sites with the great amount of work it takes, or just looking at the current downturn in the economy and not spending money to keep the sites up anymore?
------------------------------
Matt B
http://www.6flagsohio.com

One thing I have found about a lot of the new sites on the net is that they all come up with an amazing look and all this high-tech stuff, but none of them ever really have any content or anything. Its always forums or something like that, and they usually don't succeed, because why use them when there is somewhere like coasterbuzz? I've been running my site since 99, and I hope to keep running for a long time, but I try to just have content. Original content too. No one wants to see the same galleries they see on another website.

-------------
Top Gun: The Jet Coaster Flights in 2001: 50
Coaster Tracks Ridden: 53
www.starcoasters.com

I see myself in an interesting little content kind of situation. I have been running my site since the end of '99, and when I started it, I looked around and couldn't find another site on the then Geauga Lake. Well then I found another site that had already existed but we existed really as friends and in peace. Now this summer a number of new SFWoA sites have popped up. This makes my content unoriginial, however I don't have money to travel all around the country getting pictures from other parks and don't have enough time leftover to devote myself to another topic for content. I instead however enjoy running my site and as I have said before, am just in it for fun. As long as I get complements on it and someone likes it, I'll try my best to keep it going. (This post shouldn't be taken offensively to any other SFWoA site :))

-------------
Matt B
http://www.6flagsohio.com

I don't see your site in that kind of situation. You have good info on the park and its coasters and some nice pics.

-------------
Top Gun: The Jet Coaster Flights in 2001: 50
Coaster Tracks Ridden: 53
www.starcoasters.com

I have seen many sites that do have good content, but not good graphics. Unfortuneately, mine is like that. I think that is why a lot of people wont put it in the directories. Its hard to maintain, but its fun to do

-------------
http://www.islandguide.8m.com
all about PKI
the Beasts` Den

I think the previous topic (about lots of coaster-related sites) may have been referring to more personal sites, rather than huge boards with forums and tremendous galleries and such. Me, personally, I don't have many pics (just those that go with my coaster profiles, suited to whatever I'm talking about) because I know that you can go to dozens of fantastic sites that have great photographs. I focus more on content, that's why I chose the behind-the-scenes approach, since I've worked at Cedar Point. There really isn't another site out there (that I've found) that shows so much from the employee's perspective. I don't have a lot of time to work on my site, but I am always trying to expand on it. Because it's just a hobby, it may only get a real update every 3-4 months, but I make certain that it's worthwhile when it does, rather than "look I uploaded new photos" or "I went to a park last week..." and stuff like that. Some sites are really good like that, but I prefer to be more unique.

-------------
Po!nt of View: A different look at Roller Coasters.
http://www.crosswinds.net/~justmayntz/thrills/index.html

Thats one nice thing about running an Astroworld tribute site, very little competition (grin)..

Panther Modern
SixFlagsHouston.Com

I really haven't updated my site much this summer, but that's because it is summer and many roller coaster webmasters would rather be riding the real thing now, you have to realize the differance between the amount of updates between summer and winter.

-------------
www.geocities.com/coasting_ohio for Real/Defunct/mini coasters and parks for RCT

>many roller coaster webmasters would rather be riding the real thing now

And then there are those of us who update our sites from work in lull peroids because we'd rather be doing anything associated with coasters than telling someone how to map to a network printer or something.

I've looked at the sites that people have talked about here and I must say that they're all great. I was just making a general comment, not trying to say that a site should be updated all the time or anything.
P.S.-Thanks for the compliments StarCoasters
-------------
Matt B
http://www.6flagsohio.com

The big coaster sites tend to be disappearing with rising costd of the bandwidth needed. Jeff was saying in another topic how much he pays per month and it was huge and this has killed a lot of big sites off.

Overall however there are more andmore small sites being set up with unoriginal content. Most are on Geocities with informatin of six rides at the nearest six flags park and the pictures of Joyrides or CoasterGallery. Now sorry but this is a waste of time since none of this info is original and therefore the site is not adding to anything.

I personally write mainly reviews on my site. I have expanded to do resorce sections liketypes etc... Theonly content on my site which has appeared before are the pictures on the element pages because i couldn't get photos of those elements. Even then I try and change that.

Also like with the sfwoa sites there are hundreds of Alton towers sites. Only a few are actaully good and contain worth while info. Most jus have pictures of Nemesis and some stats.

Sorry to go on

John Wilkes

-------------
JawCoasters - Site for UK Coasters
www.wilkes2536.freeserve.co.uk

Actually bandwidth is getting cheaper, not more expensive. The problem is that it's not cheap enough when your site starts to get popular.

That T-1 to the house will certainly help... :)

-------------
Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"From the global village... in the age of communication!"

Matt yah, him and I partnered up to make our own forums, there are a lot of SFWoA sites springing up, including mine. ;) Some look like they will be hits and some look like zits. ;) But Matt's site is really cool and it's easy to look around! Maybe some more SFWoA pictures eh? ;)

-------------
Ryan
Webmaster/Admin SFWoA.com
http://www.sfwoa.com *** This post was edited by SFWoA.com on 7/22/2001. ***