When and why did this forum die?

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When and why did this forum die?

Post by pOWER » Tue Jun 14, 2016 3:08 pm

^title.

I used to love coming here a couple years back and being excited about the tons of discussion around here. Is there any chance of a resurrection?

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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by jup » Tue Jun 14, 2016 11:28 pm

Probably several good reasons. My number one suspect is that there simply isn't any fresh Knight Rider things going on. KR 08 is aging it's way to being ten years in the past. Most hope for a new movie kind of died when Glenn passed away. Sure. David still makes the occasional advertisement and news line. But the futuristic view of Knight Rider is ever blending in with the world of today. The show doesn't age quite as well as, say, I Love Lucy has. It's had lots of rebooted sequels...like Star Trek. While that is an amazing feat, all of them had short life spans.

Which leads to my second suspect, no fresh blood. (So to speak.) With the show not attracting too many new viewers in these recent years, there's not a whole lot of new people to come in and chat about Knight Rider related anything. Many of the older members have gone their way and that leaves the hard core car collectors and a few old fogies, such as myself. After all, there's only so much one can talk about to tear apart scenes on how turbo jumps and sudden stops and 'Thing' opening the door. Or notions about the imagined tech or the lore of the show. That is this site's whole one trick pony act. And when all the 30/40/50 somethings have seen the act a million times over and next to nobody younger even gives a crap, it's kind of hard to point fingers as to why the ticket sales are so low.

A third suspect is something I'm sure that some here would rather not talk about. But, this fading fandom has undergone some fractured alliances, due to friction and discussion and other such politics. Why, some of the more hard core fans no longer want anything to do with this web site. I've never intentionally taken sides on that issue. My stance is that I found this place, back in it's Hedgehog days and I was in love. And I've always been in full support of Neil's aim of making a place for all fans of KR to have a place to talk, gather and gain references about the shows. Maybe I'm just an old fool for coming back to keep supporting this place. But, that's just fine by me. It's been a good, long run. And I have no plans on changing that support, regardless of whatever Neil's opinion of me may happen to be.

Why, just the other week, I actually thought Neil gave up on this site. For the URL was going to some generic screen that stated the URL was up for renewal/sale. Wouldn't blame him for giving up, either. I know that the majority of this site's traffic is now bandwidth wasting spam bots that never give up, no matter how many failures they nail.

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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by KITTfan » Wed Jun 15, 2016 12:53 am

Maybe some new Knight Rider merchandise could wake up the discussion, for example the new DVD releases, Blu-Rays, Hotwheels Super Elite 1/18 model if it ever gets released and so on? Facebook and other modern social media may take it's share also from forum discussions? Have seen some other forums go pretty quiet too, for example in model car hobby world.
It's amazing accomplishment for any website to operate over 20 years. Congratulations Knight Rider Online.com :)
I too remember the hedgehog version but wasn't member back then yet, used to just visit the site.

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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by pOWER » Wed Jun 15, 2016 12:09 pm

jup wrote:...
Yeah, I can't but agree with the stuff you've said. It's sad and all. I'd say a resurrection would be possible if some of the old community returned and stayed around, but a new sequel or something would probably be crucial in order for that to happen. Until then, what's there for us to do?

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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by KFCreator » Wed Jun 15, 2016 3:17 pm

I agree with jup on all of his points, although the biggest one for me that I've never figured out is why the KR community seems to have splintered into various alliances that go up against one another instead of embracing the fact that our shared love of Knight Rider is what originally all brought us together in the first place. Sure, some of the same things happen within our franchise communities (Star Trek, Star Wars, Firefly, etc) but I have to say that I'm surprised at the level it has happened with the larger KR fans.

I don't think Knight Rider is dead or should be written off by any means. I think there is still the potential for much life in it, if only those avenues such as a new series, movie, etc are allowed to be explored properly by Universal. But with Glen's passing, it remains to be seen what will ultimately happen with the rights and if something can be done, assuming the will is there.

I will say I was encouraged that the new Lego Dimensions 2.0 game will feature Knight Rider amongst the many 80's characters. It's a small new thing to celebrate but a welcome one nonetheless. It means people out there still have a heart for Knight Rider and want to see something new with it.
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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by jup » Thu Jun 16, 2016 5:29 am

I do firmly believe that in the right hands, the phoenix that is Knight Rider could rise up from the ashes and become a truly great action-adventure show or film. It really does require the right hands, however. Perhaps, Knight Rider 08 makes for a great source to dive into, in order to figure out where things went right...and all so horribly wrong. I most certainly know that when they caught KITT on fire and this led to a strip tease of an excuse, I most certainly felt that something had gone horribly wrong. I also remember that KARR, the one minute transformer thing was a total strike out. Alas...to even try and go much further on that bit would require that I figure out where the season set of DVD's has gotten to. I barely remember anything about that show...aside that they drew some conclusions that I did for where the next generation of the Kitt series would evolve to.

And...I think that I know why a new KR in the right hands could work. Fast and Furious.

The Fast and the Furious was a powerful stunt movie, way back in the day. Then, there was an eventual reboot. One that just kept going. It's up to...what? Number 8, now? And, I wouldn't be surprised if they crank out a 9, given the right deals are struck. Lots of fast, dangerous, action packed stunts just drive those movies. And that is what KR had. It wasn't just about the futuristic look or the advanced tech or the mystery of the week. It was about the stunts. Stunts on a television budget, no less. Stunts still sell. And darned if I know the ratio of stunts to CG work to corny Human interaction scenes that '08 had in it. But, all I'm recalling is a physics defying stop that made me want to disbelieve in that particular series.

Yea...I do believe it really could do the job. Don't be so driving with the tech side. Give it a strong plot and a ton of action...believable action. Not driving down the road with three Skype chats, a GPS window and two more HUD's of CoD going on junk. It's got to be believable and biting action. So what if it's Siri with Google on board? If the AI's got a bite and actually cares about things, it's still more then Siri inside a Google car. It's the spirit of Kitt. After all, Google car is slow and safe. Siri's half illusion. Kitt was never either of those. Heck...one could say that Kitt mocked the 80's version of Siri before the world ever had a chance to. (Guess I should add that to the things that KR predicted in becoming a thing. Artificial voices over the phone that act as an interface.)

I've always felt that once Daniel Craig became James Bond, the franchise got it's worthy face lift and went with serious stunts and such. Whereas, it almost felt like the whole series of movies was losing it's grip. It worked for Bond. Perhaps a gritty, modern Kitt could revive the franchise for Knight Rider.

It just takes the right hands to make it happen.

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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by jup » Thu Jun 16, 2016 6:26 am

Well, here's something that's totally unrelated...and yet not.

Classic gamer Spidermwa invents a new challenge game. Every time he loses a life in a very classic game on a classic system, (both from the 80s) he must shove a bunny marshmallow into his mouth and say 'David Hasselhoff'.

https://youtu.be/dY6mTnSyKlg

It just came up while I was typing in these replies and have YouTube on the main TV. So strange, this is the kind of stuff I just could never make up.

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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by RicardoRibeiro2000 » Thu Jun 16, 2016 4:27 pm

A way to resurrect this forum is to upgrade KnightRiderOnline.com page completely into a modern version of the site with better designs, more content KR related and clean of errors and etc.

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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by jup » Fri Jun 17, 2016 3:40 am

Neil's the one and only person with the responsibility of performing that action. And...erm...not sure what he's doing with his life, right now. This site was his school days dream.

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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by pOWER » Fri Jun 17, 2016 8:52 am

I would say that a revamp of the site would definitely be a possibility and probably the way to go. A more appropriate design would surely attract more younger viewers to the site, forums and possibly Knight Rider as a whole. Even if Neil wasn't involved, with a decent team this could be very well done. Thoughts?

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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by neps » Fri Jun 17, 2016 11:58 am

Firstly - thank you all for the kind words about the site. :) Really means a lot to hear that this site still means a lot to many.

The site's strongest return driver has always been the message board functionality. And fractions of community aside - other sites, like Facebook, has made it easy for anyone to create a "message board" - and have infinite amount of resources to create websites and apps to build communities. I think that has also been the challenge. Why come to a website when we can easily make a Facebook group with the specific people we want one could argue...

I've always tried to keep KRO as open and diplomatic as possible. I've never wanted this to be "the neil show". I've tried many times to recruit others to help with the site. I've also built components into the site in the past that allowed for people (like jup with the links page) to help make the site better.

I'm only one person - but if others are interested there is lots of ways we work together on this site. When I started this, I was in high school learning how to design and code - this site was my "startup". Now I'm married, with three young children and a full time job - and it's hard to find time for hobbies.

Matthew has done a fantastic job with this forum over the years, and keeping a watchful eye if something goes wrong. Michael Pajaro has really taken a hold of twitter and does a lot of updates through there - trying to expand our KRO reach beyond this site and into social. We also try to auto pull updates from Twitter into the Facebook site, but sometimes that breaks.

But if there are people that are interested in helping the site - there are ways to do it even if you can't design or don't know how to code.

the News area is powered by a CMS (content management system) that makes writing a new article as easy as posting to your Facebook "wall" - if you have a good grasp of the english language. :)

same too can be said of the content areas about the episodes guides. if anyone has interest in fleshing out areas there that's awesome too.

if you can design, I'd be totally open to people working on a redesign of the site.

if you can code and have any ideas, i'd totally support that

even you just here right now is awesome to start to have activity in the site.

Open to hear more of your thoughts and comments. There isn't really anything here to gain other than having a warm home to chat about a show that we enjoyed over 30 years ago... but thats still something. :)

:kittside:

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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by KFCreator » Fri Jun 17, 2016 11:34 pm

Neil, I would absolutely love to jump on board with helping in any way that I can with this site. Posting articles and news, helping with a redesign, expanding the reach like Michael Pajaro does, anything at all really I'd be game for. Having hung around this site for close to 20 years now, I gotta say that it is near and dear to my heart in so many ways. And you have done a fantastic job over that time, BTW. I've now got a (nearly) 18-month old son myself so I know how it goes with not being able to find time to get things done but I'd be willing to try to carve out some time to help. I've made some fantastic friends here through the years and truly, all the goals you set for this place not only met but far exceeded my expectations every time. Thanks for all you have done (and continue to do), and hopefully this site will live on for still many more years to come!
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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by jup » Sat Jun 18, 2016 3:03 pm

Oh, Neil. In regards to the list of KR sites project...

I thank you to no ends for permitting the hosting of this project. I have since wrapped up all efforts on it. Simply because this world of ours is just too full of ill minded types that have ruined it. When running a thorough search for any and all sites just uncovers multiple bait sites that are aimed to spread viral/trojan attacks and the spam bots dump filth into the submission interface, it's just not worth it. I was camping out at library computers to counter the virtual landmines for the project. But, now that I've moved and the local library is just barely modern, the whole point is lost. I'm not willing to sacrifice personal computers to the effort. Again, I thank you for your generosity. But, the dangerous virtual reality has just ruined it for me.

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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by RicardoRibeiro2000 » Mon Jun 20, 2016 9:34 am

The KRO site and forum deserves a big upgrade and i hope it will get it one this days. :)

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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by jup » Wed Jun 22, 2016 1:57 am

In all honesty, I have no idea what kinds of additions or changes would do anything beneficial for the site. I mean, outside of just giving away all the episodes for the sake of archiving a piece of our history. But, the lawyers and their law would probably have a few things to say about that. Using words like 'Cease' and 'Desist', I would suspect.

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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by RicardoRibeiro2000 » Wed Jun 22, 2016 12:46 pm

Some additions that could have is links to pages where such Amazon or and Fnac where anyone would buy the KR dvd's and even links to pages such Netflix or and Hulu where anyone could watch the series online also a section in the page with KR curiosities and historical facts and other section with wallpapers and screensavers.

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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by pOWER » Sat Jun 25, 2016 4:32 am

If we are able to form a sort of a team to revitalise revitalize this site in every way possible, I, too, would join it and be happy to help with what's needed.

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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by Assasinge » Fri Aug 12, 2016 3:20 pm

Replying in 2016...and sadly I'm disappointed at the way the KR world is looking. I mean, look at it. There's pretty much nothing left of it now other than whatever there is already now. I have to agree that any hope of a KR movie is pretty much gone and even if they did try to make it, I doubt it will have the same charm TOS had. Time's change and we have to deal with it. Not to mention that now the world is busier than ever and technology has come so far now, that KITT doesn't feel like himself anymore apart from his looks, unrealistic abilities and his AI.

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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by KFCreator » Fri Aug 12, 2016 4:12 pm

I disagree that this forum, and Knight Rider as a franchise, are dying.

As far as the franchise goes, I think we're just in a long inactive period. Since the classic series ended, we had a TV reunion movie, and 2 additional sequel series. There was only 5 years between the end of the classic series and Knight Rider 2000 being made, and then just 6 years after that we got TKR. Then we had a long drought of 10 years before the 2008 series. But Hollywood is on a huge 80's kick right now with bringing series to the big screen and I certainly don't think Knight Rider is as unlikely, or as far off, as we might think. Rights issues can be sorted out with time and money, and reboots are all the rage.

As far as this forum, I said my thoughts above, and I voiced my willingness (and eagerness) to help revamp and run this site. There are tons of possibilities for this site. Again, just look at some of the other fan sites out there for other franchises for inspiration. I envision things like a user-submitted artwork section, technical articles and discussions surrounding how modern technology could make KITT's systems real, follow-up interviews with the cast and crew from all the previous series to see what their thoughts are on the work they did and what they're up to now, a section dedicated to the KR replica car community, and maybe even a merchandise section, among others.

On my own, reinvigorating Knight Rider is my whole goal with the fanfic novels I'm working on, which are developing really well and the scope of which is enormous, to say the least. These aren't just stories I'm writing, my aim is to have these be as close to being "official" as possible without actually being endorsed by Universal (although if they want to pick it up and endorse it or run with it, I would happily give it up to them).

I know things don't look good for the official KR universe as it stands right now, but rather than being pessimistic (or some might say, being a "realist") about its future, I choose to be optimistic and hopeful that it's not over.
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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by Assasinge » Fri Aug 12, 2016 9:17 pm

Rights issues can be sorted out with time and money,


Talk about rights issues, if they were solved that fast the Beatles would still be up on youtube XD.

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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by Knight Racer » Sat Aug 13, 2016 12:11 am

Assasinge wrote:Replying in 2016...and sadly I'm disappointed at the way the KR world is looking. I mean, look at it. There's pretty much nothing left of it now other than whatever there is already now. I have to agree that any hope of a KR movie is pretty much gone and even if they did try to make it, I doubt it will have the same charm TOS had. Time's change and we have to deal with it. Not to mention that now the world is busier than ever and technology has come so far now, that KITT doesn't feel like himself anymore apart from his looks, unrealistic abilities and his AI.
I know what you mean about kitt belonging in just the 80's. I am grateful to have that joy of watching a new season of KR back in 2008 even if it was with a mustang. Not particularly found of that car. would have enjoyed it more if it was a 2008 Camaro or a 2002 trans am. I used to make some photoshop work of the car I would have preferred to have them use.

Image I would have loved to have this in a gta game with a season 3 dashboard.

Image

Image

Image

Image

You can browse the hundreds more of other car kitt mockup images on my photobucket gallery:

http://s728.photobucket.com/

But as I was saying, kitt belonged to the 80's. These days you don't have a car with a crazy dash, you have a normal looking dash with a virtual screen projecting windshield to save tons on prop design but spend more on CGI. The 90's had cars that said your door is a ajar. We still don't have cars that talk so in a way a car with artificial intelligence would still stand out. But David said it best, KR had heart. the attempt in the 2008 series didn't have it.

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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by Assasinge » Sat Aug 13, 2016 10:34 am

I know what you mean about kitt belonging in just the 80's. I am grateful to have that joy of watching a new season of KR back in 2008 even if it was with a mustang.Not particularly found of that car. would have enjoyed it more if it was a 2008 Camaro or a 2002 trans am. I used to make some photoshop work of the car I would have preferred to have them use.

Yeah, I for one actually enjoyed the 08 series, I feel bad for it because even though it wasn't the greatest thing to have come to TV since TOS, there were many people who were fond of it, as I saw on the archives and the people who petitioned to bring a season 2. If anyone is to blame, it's probably the people who disliked the series and just went out of their way to hate on it and probably piss of NBC about it. Either way, your photoshops look awesome, I actually like the camaro as KITT. It looks a lot like the Dominator in GTA 5...

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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by Kitt_24 » Mon Aug 15, 2016 12:08 am

Assasinge wrote:
I know what you mean about kitt belonging in just the 80's. I am grateful to have that joy of watching a new season of KR back in 2008 even if it was with a mustang.Not particularly found of that car. would have enjoyed it more if it was a 2008 Camaro or a 2002 trans am. I used to make some photoshop work of the car I would have preferred to have them use.

Yeah, I for one actually enjoyed the 08 series, I feel bad for it because even though it wasn't the greatest thing to have come to TV since TOS, there were many people who were fond of it, as I saw on the archives and the people who petitioned to bring a season 2. If anyone is to blame, it's probably the people who disliked the series and just went out of their way to hate on it and probably piss of NBC about it. Either way, your photoshops look awesome, I actually like the camaro as KITT. It looks a lot like the Dominator in GTA 5...
I thought the 08 show was ok. But i think the camaro don't look good as kitt. Mustangs look way better then the camaros.
New 2015 mustang look awesome as kitt.
Image
Last edited by Kitt_24 on Mon Aug 15, 2016 11:53 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by Assasinge » Mon Aug 15, 2016 3:46 am

Which is why I modded my GTA with a 2015 mustang lol.

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Re: When and why did this forum die?

Post by jup » Mon Aug 15, 2016 4:13 am

KFCreator wrote:But Hollywood is on a huge 80's kick right now with bringing series to the big screen and I certainly don't think Knight Rider is as unlikely, or as far off, as we might think. Rights issues can be sorted out with time and money, and reboots are all the rage.
You know...what if the up-and-coming self driving car wave should happen to produce a few really high end cars and one of the makers wants a kind of action advertisement to go with it? (As long as they are willing to deny people requesting a real life 'action model', that is.)

Heh...I'm still convinced that Viper show as purely fueled as an hour long gimmick to show off their car... (How else did it run for so many seasons?)

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