Great
Adventure Source is proud to be covering its fifth Great
Adventure season. In an internet world when websites come
and go faster than you can type in a web address, five
years is truly an accomplishment. Our true birthday isn't
until September 1, 2005, but since it's our fifth season
it seems right to celebrate all summer long.
First off, let me introduce myself. I'm Peyton Ebbeson,
a sophomore at Syracuse University. I grew
up in Medford, NJ, a small town in Burlington County
that is about 45 minutes from the park. In September
of 2000, I was nearing the end of my third year with
a season pass and I had officially become a coaster
enthuisast. At that time, there were many websites on
the internet devoted to coasters, most notably Coaster
Buzz and Thrill Network, a website that used to have
an extensive set of rumors released weekly. Additionally,
there were several websites devoted to such parks as
Cedar Point and Six Flags Magic Mountain and the like.
However, there was not one site on the internet devoted
exclusively to Six Flags Great Adventure. It was with
this knowledge that I decided to start Great Adventure
Source. It was very basic at first, a small website
on my AOL member pages server.
The website began to get some visitors, which was exciting.
It was a big off season for the park. You see, during
the fall construction was beginning on an unknown roller
coaster in Movietown. Something
big was going to be built and once the park closed in
October, we would be shut out of this world until April.
This was what life was like with no websites devoted
to your home park. By that December, I received enough
visitors to take the site to a "dot com".
Great Adventure Source moved to www.gadv.com on January
1, 2000.
At that point the first
forums were set up on a hosted server on Proboards. This
helped expand the GAdv.com community. As spring came and
turned into summer, Great Adventure Source started its
seasonal coverage, with such features as park information
and the exclusive "Ride Status".
As the next year went by,
the website began to grow rapidly. The forums were moved
onto the gadv.com server. During the summer of 2002, I discovered
Adobe Photoshop and the website began
to feature colorful graphics to supplement the information.
By the end of the 2002 season, word began to spread of a
new roller coaster that would be built during the off-season.
This was followed all summer and it was suspected that it
would be a B&M flyer, similar to the prototype that
was built that year at Six Flags Over Georgia. That turned
into fiction and a loyal contributer, Justin Rogers, worked
out a deal with the park to get exclusive construction photos
for Great Adventure Source.
This coverage of the construction
of Superman: Ultimate Flight became known as "Rog's
Report". This put Great Adventure Source on the
map. That summer, I became familiar with Dreamweaver and
again modified the website.
Today, Great Adventure Source continues to pave the
way in coverage of Six Flags Great Adventure. In 2000,
not only were there no other unofficial websites on
the internet, but the content of Great Adventure's official
site was sub-par. Today there are many Six Flags Great
Adventure fan sites and Six Flags.com has provided extensive
coverage of Kingda Ka's construction. With all of this
on the web today, this website has still found a way
to provide exclusive content. Another contributor, Phil
Kineyko has provided aerial photos of the construction
of the world's tallest and fastest roller coaster that
provided a progress report that we've never seen before.
Great Adventure Source continues to grow every day
and the reason that it is what it is today is because
of you. I am amazed at the level of support that GAdv.com
receives and I want to thank everyone. I promise that
as the park continues to grow and change, Great Adventure
Source, as always, will be right there letting you know
about it.
up in Medford, NJ, a small town in Burlington County
that is about 45 minutes from the park. In September
of 2000, I was nearing the end of my third year with
a season pass and I had officially become a coaster
enthuisast. At that time, there were many websites on
the internet devoted to coasters, most notably Coaster
Buzz and Thrill Network, a website that used to have
an extensive set of rumors released weekly. Additionally,
there were several websites devoted to such parks as
Cedar Point and Six Flags Magic Mountain and the like.
However, there was not one site on the internet devoted
exclusively to Six Flags Great Adventure. It was with
this knowledge that I decided to start Great Adventure
Source. It was very basic at first, a small website
on my AOL member pages server.
Something
big was going to be built and once the park closed in
October, we would be shut out of this world until April.
This was what life was like with no websites devoted
to your home park. By that December, I received enough
visitors to take the site to a "dot com".
Great Adventure Source moved to www.gadv.com on January
1, 2000.
began
to feature colorful graphics to supplement the information.
By the end of the 2002 season, word began to spread of a
new roller coaster that would be built during the off-season.
This was followed all summer and it was suspected that it
would be a B&M flyer, similar to the prototype that
was built that year at Six Flags Over Georgia. That turned
into fiction and a loyal contributer, Justin Rogers, worked
out a deal with the park to get exclusive construction photos
for Great Adventure Source.
