OK
#3 Quotes are comin
I didn't want to do it again. I swear. But someone had to do it... someone had to document the long and strange journey of Newschoolers.com from obscurity to greatness. I pray that I won?t have to document the road back.
So here we are, on the third installment of the great History; you have happened on a story where a group of bored freeskiers with utterly no social life log onto a baby-blue Internet site and wreak havoc. This site consumes them so utterly that they call their friends by their screennames; indeed, many of their friends are purely online connections. The site consumes these skiers so utterly that they will even fly hundreds of miles to ski with people they?ve never met before, and will spend hours writing silly histories. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is the power of Newschoolers.com. It will make you its bitch... and you will love it for it.
This volume of the History picks up where the last left off- that is, the summer of 2002... May 1, to be exact. At this time, Newschoolers.com was still the relatively close community that many of us remember it as; an undiscovered gem amongst the vast chaos of the Net. But all of that changed over the course of one summer and fall. No single event can be attributed to the Rise of NS, besides the overwhelming intrigue of the site itself. With a site built, maintained, and supported by skiers, it was inevitable that sooner or later things would take off... and they did. Through the help of its diligent members, NS stayed on top of the skiing world in news and media, and the forums as always provided a medium of communication for knowledge-starved skiers across borders and across oceans.
Some basics... Matt Harvey (for the uninformed, the founder and owner of this site) went to Whistler over the summer, getting the chance to meet and ski with some of the site?s influential members on the West Coast. Perhaps through these connections, Harvey landed some insides with the ski industry, and eventually was employed to create the websites for both Poor Boyz Productions and budding ski company Armada. Poor Boyz in particular has stepped up to support the site- you?ll notice the PBP logo on the right side of the page, as a Sponsor. Matt has been working hard to keep NS a home for us, and an occupation for himself.
That sponsor box is among many new things that have appeared on NS in recent months. I?m sure I?ve forgotten many, but here they are as best as I can remember. The Ski Equipment forum was added to stop countless ?How are the Scratches???? threads from clogging up the Ski Gabber... and in turn, the Classifieds section was created to provide a useful medium for buying, selling or trading- not only ski equipment, but stuff like Roces skates and Pioneer subwoofers.
Another sign of the changing times is the final disappearance of the Skier?s Stock Exchange. In a mock stock market, members were given a base sum, and could buy shares of the world?s top freeskiers. Regulated by a new code, the SSE worked better than ever, until the everpresent glitch came. Overnight, people made and lost trillions of dollars... and soon after, the SSE was gone forever yet again (for the third.... maybe fourth time?). But in the site?s current position, there?s no need for an SSE to occupy our attention- with massive forums and ever-bolstered video and picture sections, there?s an endless supply of skiing media at the fingertips and eyeballs of members.
All good things must come to an end... be they yellow, or blue. For years, members who continually contributed good information, advice, and media to the site were recognized by a yellow user name. At their height, over 40 ?yellow? members frequented the site... but as the scale got bigger, the yellow usernames were removed, for three main reasons: 1) in the interests of equality among members, 2) to stop newbies from asking why screennames were different colors, and 3) to prevent said newbies from constantly messaging Harvey, entreating him for yellowness. Many of these original yellow members have since faded away, and their names have been forgotten... but here follows an incomplete list of all those who helped get NS where it is today.
Rapt0r
WJBSKI
Freestyla_01
Mike_hunt10
Quebecfreestyler
Kamikaze
Yeti
Rebel
Harvey
Kev
Tele-Jibber
PhattTim
Yellowsnow4u
SkierX
Schwags
LineWeapon
Five40Guy
Emilypotterskis
Balz
Skigirl
Ski_Instructor_Mike
Co-Flow
Powderprincess
Flanker
MDFresh
MacMahoooon
resnick13
ductapeboy
sweetcoz
Lindsay
Gone also are the days of multi-colored user names, and of guys with pink names. Black also made an appearance on the Online list: when a member logged in, anyone on that member?s friend list who was currently online would be displayed in black. Nowadays, the only real distinction within the Online window (which, by the way, was moved from a separate frame onto the main page itself) is the small dollar sign next to the names of donators. The donation program itself is new to NS. Matt finally gave in to our offers and opened a page for members to donate money to the site; since then, well over a thousand dollars has poured in. The costs of running such a huge site on a massive server quickly add up; but between donations, sponsors, advertisements, and profits from the Store, NS has managed to keep its head above water.... although I still don?t know if Harvey has pulled even on his investment.
Yeah, advertisements- that reminds me. The banner ads over Newschoolers.com have included: Progression ski camps, Level 1 Productions, Jibtech Productions, Ski Bum Productions, Blue Mountain, ON (a major NS sponsor), d-structure.com, 2 Track Productions, and many, many more.
The Store has also greatly expanded: the 2002/03 line of NS clothing features a logo designed by graffiti artist LoKash on hoodies, T-shirts, and long-sleeves. Previously, the store only offered hoodies. Also available now are numerous videos. (LoKash also drew up a wicked mint tag for the site?s header, but after complaints that is was unreadable, the tag was replaced by the bold ?Newschoolers.com? that you see today.)
The Quick Chat window debuted on the night of November 21, 2002, and was an instant hit. With a small chat window open for everyone and constantly refreshing right on the sidebar, Quick Chat allows members to shoot the breeze with friends and strangers alike, allowing for faster communication, and sparing the forums from needless and short-lived threads.
Other new features on the site include, but aren?t limited to: the MyThreads page; the About NS, Games, Help, and Movie Reviews setions; picture and video comments and ratings and divsions into separate sections (Jumps, Rails, etc.); the Premium Content, Features, and Announcements sections of the News page, a new menu bar at the top of the page, a new site layout (the dark blue around the edges was BLACK!), the ability to remove media, new profile layouts including member number... and probably a bunch of other stuff.
A new face on the site, and a welcome one, is that of Chris K O?Connell, who is now a co-operator alongside Harvey. The two originally collaborated to produce the Media Kit, and Harvey said ?things just clicked.? Chris (cko) is a great help to Matt and to everyone, and his voice can often be heard over....
NS RADIO!!!!!!!!
Yeah... this is quite possibly the biggest thing since sliced bread on Newschoolers.com. After rumors abounded about a partnership with MTV, Matt Harvey proudly presented NS Radio, an online streaming radio broadcast dedicated to Newschoolers.com. Members have the opportunity to create and upload their own shows, and Harvey and Chris O?Connell hold regular live broadcasts where they take requests and screw around in general. I just tuned in to their live broadcast from Montreal... I think they were drunk. The first show contributors to NS Radio were sirjibsalot, madd_trixx, skodeo7, ductapeboy, skier_boy26, Five40Guy, Pipe_Munkey, Diabhal, and kamikaze. You can check out NS Radio through its page under the Media header, or look for the flashing ?On Air? graphic in the Quick Links bar. Stephen_beast claims to be the first ever listener of NS Radio, as well as the first to get an on-air shoutout.
Another significant addition to the site, more than worthy of mention, is the Regional Forums. A topic often discussed by members, the idea was finally implemented; now, members can choose specific forums to discuss issues in their areas. Beginning with basic continental and national divisions, the regional forums divide into subgroups of 38 different areas all across the globe, all with their own dedicated forum. This new development has helped to encourage the sense of community on NS, bringing skiers together not only from across the world, but from across the street.
NUMBERS It?s nice to have a log of where things stand, for comparison in the future. In May 2002, Newschoolers.com had roughly 6000 members. Now, we?re well over 10,000. The following are figures as of 2:36 AM, January 11, 2003:
Posts Ski Gabber - 169,388
Non-Ski Gabber - 125,916
Site Discussion - 17,239
Media & Arts - 18,454
Regional Forums - 7353
Ski Equipment - 14,087
353,131 total
Photos Jumps - 1534
Big Mountain - 89
Rails - 428
Half/Quarter Pipes -
218 Summer - 309
People - 663
Digital Art - 177
Art - 211
Misc - 350 3979 total pictures
Some old number figures: Harvey was five posts away from reaching 1000 posts on May 27, 2001. He was the first ever to reach one thousand, and was followed by mike_hunt10 and quebecfreestyler (see Volume 2). As of January 12, 2002, the ?Top Contributors? list stood as follows:
1. PhattTim 7966
2. quebecfreestyler 6737
3. mike_hunt10 6631
4. sirjibsalot 4810
5. SkierX 4396
6. Ski_Instructor_Mike 4159
7. Harvey 4001
8. andyrightcoast 3735
9. AppSkier 3710
10. kamikaze 3691
11. Freestyla_01 3679
12. alpentalik 3547
13. martin_snaps 3414
14. Dspin900 3258
15. yellowsnow4u 3249
16. Schwags 3138
17. Nine_Milla_Killa 3044
18. yeti 2868
19. Sean14456 2837
20. LineWeapon 2825
Another glimpse in history: The most ?beutiful? female jibber thread was the first ever to hit 100 posts? and the first to hit 1000! Needless to say, it still lives on in the Ski Gabber, as the debate over this subject is never-ending.
Which brings to mind a little quiz... you know you?re an old member if you remember: - The logout page with random picture, fact and Freeze forum quote - Server troubles! - The ?Most beutiful female jibber? thread - 100,000 forum posts - The alien - When quebecfreestyler couldnt speak English - Phattness
Ahh yes.... Phattness. You see, the second Age of NS is come to an end, and a new Age is here. Gone now are the glory days of the yellow members... of quebecfreestyler and PhattTim... things will never be the same. But now many new members have come to grace us with their presence, including multitudes of professional skiers, filmers, writers and photographers. NS members include Pep Fujas, Andy Mahre, Jeff Thomas, Jeremy Weir, Mike Nick, Dave Crichton, Dave Levin, Craig Coker, Josh Berman, Derek Finn, Eric Spriet, Anthony Boronowski, and Jon Reedy. Seeing a prominent NS member on the cover of the October, 2002 Freeze showed us all just how far NS has spread- congratulations Reedy!
Before I forget, let me talk about moderation. This was a highly controversial topic on the forums some months ago- should NS be moderated? Select members now have the privilege of monitoring the content of posts and threads- highly obscene or otherwise inappropriate material is deleted, according to the moderators? judgement. Although several challenged this new system, calling it blatant censorship, it?s been generally agreed that moderation keeps the forums cleaner and more acceptable for everyone. Many former yellow members have passed on to take on the responsibility of moderation. This includes not only the forums but the picture and video sections as well.
Some other topics of discussion that, in their time, dominated the forum: the hyping of Armada, Oakley (which gained a huge and dedicated following on the site), war on Iraq, the Olsen Twins, Tanner?s gorilla steeze, racers/skiboarders/snowboarders, women (mainly the lack of them)... and many more. To date, the most popular thread in the era of this era of NS has been the ?MAD LIBS ON NS!? thread in Non-Ski Gabber, started by lineski1260. On January 12, 2002, the thread contained exactly 1400 posts. Some excerpts:
?NSers aren?t too good at forming sentences because we are gay since we ski, but we are really good at drinking massive amounts of liquor to get women naked so we can eat poo and get some poopy panties because we like scaring ourselves by doing massive airs and bouncing on trampolines while eating carrots?
The mad libs continued on, detailing cheese incidents, quests for Ron Jeremy, and the adventures of a rabbit and a gnome. Anyway, other great threads of NS include bulgarianfreestyler?s ?Which is the most beutiful female jibber??? (2599), Ski_Instructor_Mike?s ?Random Thoughts/Ramblings? (deleted... the post count will never be known), and SkierX?s ?Random thread V.2? (733 posts).
Some more random information to bless your NS heart! Here listed are the first 50 members, ever, of Newschoolers.com:
+---------+-----------------+ | user_id | user_name | +---------+-----------------+ | 1 | Harvey | | 2 | flanker | | 3 | maryspam | | 4 | sweetcoz | | 5 | Lindsay | | 6 | jib99 | | 7 | webmaster | | 8 | bacon | | 9 | srjreid | | 10 | rick | | 11 | Raptor | | 12 | David | | 13 | skibumps29 | | 14 | Butts29 | | 15 | kouts | | 16 | crackbaby | | 17 | salsa | | 18 | koutz | | 19 | BJCSkier | | 20 | Sandra | | 21 | Cinque | | 22 | ola | | 23 | olki | | 24 | fakie_faker | | 25 | dan_789 | | 26 | FRZGene | | 27 | helipiste | | 28 | FRZAnthony | | 29 | eskimo | | 30 | charles | | 31 | pacifica | | 32 | emilypotterskis | | 33 | jarrod | | 34 | wntrwill | | 35 | Mute_Grab | | 36 | skitool | | 37 | Five40Guy | | 38 | abubboo | | 39 | saucerboy | | 40 | ktowng | | 41 | skigirl | | 42 | Stuntman | | 43 | mike_hunt10 | | 44 | Crafty | | 45 | Jenna | | 46 | MacMahoooon | | 47 | jenna | | 48 | NemesisNMP | | 49 | Whitechocolate | | 50 | simmers | +---------+-----------------+
^ and no I'm not going to organize this
As always, the members of Newschoolers.com have reveled in joining clubs and movements on the site. Some of the great factions in NS history include the White Hoodie Revolution, the Crazed Posting Bros, and the Phunkin? Phatt Phreeriders. The tradition continued over the last seven months, with several different organizations popping up, and notably among them:
The Hobo/Bum Posse This group, started by Hobojibber on October 6, 2002, was all about being bums... and hobos.... and beating up other bums and hobos. There were also daily ?bum taxes? implemented... which brings to mind questionable thoughts. As far as I know, membership never got above ten people.
The NS.com Cousin Exchange I don?t know too much about this group, but I think it started after a thread discussing hot cousins... since we aren?t allowed to get with our hot cousins, someone had the great idea of exchanging cousins.
Skiboarders Anonymous Don?t know anything about this, but it seems fairly self-explanatory.
Erich?s Penis Fan Club The EPFC was formed out of two pre-existing clubs: the Penis Posse, and the Erich fan club. Basically, the two were combined, and members began worshipping Erich?s penis. The idea was formed in a Quick Chat conversation amongst lovetoski84, $1080PLP$, and k2skeepimp. Although the organization?s aspirations included world domination, they never got far.
The Silent Army ...was founded, apparently, as a member?s rights organization, to represent members in moderation conflicts. According to club lore, they also broke Harvey out of jail. Lanemeyers was in command. The SA came into violent conflict with moderators, mainly ductapeboy, who reveled in deleting their threads. He eventually formed a rival organization, called the Noisy Army.
The Darkness This group, including Jeff Thomas and his hooligans, attempted to take over the site in May 2002, while Harvey was in Whistler. The perpetrators included willywoozle, hazethealligator and LatinLover. Needless to say, they were rebuked by the valiant defenders of NS, but for some time a pallor of darkness was spread over the site.
The Jism Posse I have no idea who these guys are, but they all have ?jism? in their screennames.
A less attractive development in the forums has been the onset of sick humor? or just plain sickness. The main perpetrators of this have been k2skeepimp (who was banned for his foolerly, returning as $SKEEPIMP$), gateskate, skipimp_, Dirty (Matt Brogan), and alpentalik? who can be decently funny? sometimes. He blessed the forums with such threads as ?Hottest Disney Character Ass.?
As always, random occurrences of debauchery and foolery were prevalent on the forums. Pikachu gathered a dedicated following over several weeks on the site... the only words he ever posted were ?pika?, ?pikachu?, and *zap*..
Another strangely influential member during this time period was witchbaby666... no one is sure where she came from, or if she even skis... or even if she is a girl. Nevertheless, her inane ramblings and philosophical remarks have become a staple of the Non-Ski Gabber.
Harvey was interviewed on biglines.com.... hey, it seemed important.
The hyping of Armada was a HUGE issue on the site through the summer of 2002. Word had leaked out that a new, rider-based ski company was in the works, and misinformation and speculation flooded the Ski Gabber for months. The talk was fueled by the teasing hints of those who were in the know, but didn?t let on. Finally, the Armada site was released in the fall (it was built by Harvey, remember?), and members flocked to view.
SUPilot, PhattTim, gravteck, and other members duked it out in several threads over new American foreign policy, the war in Afghanistan, and the situations with North Korea, and especialy Iraq. The debates were long and bitter, and no side emerged a clear winner, although the forum has a definite liberal tendency.
The second annual Newschoolers.com Festival went OFF at Blue Mountain, Ontario on December 14, 2002. I traveled by plane to join in the celebration.. The event coincided with Blue Mountain?s PipeDreams festival, a competition and festival opening the Badlands terrain park. The skiing was righteous all day, as Newschoolers and snowboarders sessioned the superpipe, kicker, and numerous rails. Overall, 51 skiers and 49 snowboarders registered for the pipe and rail competitions. Afterwards, there was a free movie showing of Mayhem:4 and Strike Three in the lodge, and then the party moved to Jozo?s bar. Everyone had a great time- the park was well-built and the conditions were nice, and for the party the beer was flowing. Jay (rebel) drained a water bottle of vodka on the hill during the day, and passed out early in the evening. Late that night, as the party went off at Jozo?s, Jay was raised from the dead, and returned to join the party and get plastered again. Meanwhile, Jodi was showing everyone at the bar her thong, and a drunken Doug Bishop was convincing a man at the bar of the safety of newschool skiing. The Canadian beer was hard-hitting, especially for my weak American stomach. Dave Pauls was swooning on his crutches. Outside of Jozo?s was cougar-hunting ground, and at least one newschooler was successful in his hunt. I couldn?t have made it there without Corey (roswel), who picked me up from the Toronto airport and drove me to Blue- more proof of the power of Newschoolers.com (we had never met before). At the festival, I met Doug (Mdfresh), Cryss (cravate), mauii, CH@RZSE, Harvey, cko, MacMahoooon, rebel, Greg (Lifejacket), Dave (ductapeboy), Mike (Ski_Instructor_Mike), Marc (resnick13), Snow, Seth (photog), and TOOOOOOOBY!!! Needless to say I had an awesome time skiing and getting plastered with all of the above; and thanks Doug for letting me crash at your place afterwards. Click Here for the official article, pictures, and videos of the event, or check out Aspectimaging.com for pictures of skiing and the party.
An interesting occurrence at the Festival ended up producing a NEW Newschoolers.com mascot! Many of us remember the alien, then the spoons and sporks... and in turn, the phatt dancing penguin. Now, we are proud to introduce... the dead kitten! Yes, the kitten made an appearance at Jozo?s, and of course everyone had fun rubbing the pussy... in the drunken confusion, it eventually ended up in the hands of Chris MacMahon... who also has my toque. And he still hasn?t given it back.
And it seems that this is the end, my beautiful friends. I have said all that can be said, and probably a lot more. If you made it this far, I congratulate you... and if I missed anything of worth, please post it as a comment. As you know, I disdain proper chronology and exercise blatant favoritism.
As I write this, 78 members are online, and 257 guests. YAMATOM9 and skierdood86 are talking in the Quick Chat. Harvey is sponsoring a ?Look At This Hot Girl Wearing A Newschoolers Hoodie? contest. Over ten picture have been uploaded today, and well over a hundred posts have gone up in the forums. Members are checking out the news, the videos, the pictures, the forums, the articles, the events, the classifieds, the games, the links, the store, the reviews... because Newschoolers.com is the ONLY place where you can get them all.
As Harvey said not so long ago... Yes, NS is indeed alive and well. Here?s to another year.
THERE!, it had to be done
thats nothing, try calling the teachers nephew a retard so she freaks out and shoves a meter stick up your ass and tells you to jump up and down on it, towards the end of the year i would call her nephew a retard everyday just so i could bounce up and down on a meter stick, the other classmates even paid to take off my clothes while i did it - Lateralis
f i was a fat black chick, id live in a zoo- Lateralis
have nothing, I dont save anything from ns, i have mostly porn on my comp tho- Lateralis
hahah yeah, if i was able to do a 1620 smoothly with a grab, do you think id still be in a shit ass town with a tiny ass hill?? no id be in mammoth ripping it up everyday repping my sponsors!-Lateralis
I almost broke my penis once, i fell down my gfs stairs naked and with a boner, i was never so scared in my life - Lateralis
-Quazbotch 
