spacemt354
Chili's
Thread Legends
Part 1 - The Early Days (2001-2010)
Beginning on June 4, 2001, wdwmagic.com introduced a new sub-forum to their website; The Imagineer Forum...with the tagline of:
"Discuss any aspect of Imagineering here. Why not post your attraction ideas here?"
The sub-community began activity with several individual brainstorming threads. With these two threads being the first ever on the Imagineer forum
Dna by @woofboy111 and Greek Mythology by @JBloom1029
These individual brainstorming threads influenced others to chime in with their ideas and soon an imagineering community filled with creative minds was being built before our very eyes.
One of the prominent, influential members of the time was @Chad. Chad was paramount in the creation of "team" based projects, where people would work together on projects instead of just individual threads. This team concept would soon morph to form a larger community, even with Member List threads.
As the community became closer, Chad decided to form a "club" called SOJI
SOJI - Society of Junior Imagineers - was an outlet for people to have a group of avid armchair-imagineers to get feedback on projects, and work together on ideas. It actually branched further off the Imagineer forum (which apparently had 4 "sub-sections" at the time) and did its own thing on their own website.
While still promoting ideas and activities on the Imagineer forum, from 2001-2003 SOJI was a major hub for creativity.
As more members began to flock to (or discover) the Imagineer sub-forum, Disneyland Virginia was one of the most successful threads, being the first to eclipse the 100+ post mark for a thread, ending at 315 posts.
And yes....I have to mention this one ...
The Britney Spears Adventure
just goes to show how long these forums have been around. And how we can have....interesting ideas. 
With many great contributions from members such as @KentB3 (who's still active to this day I believe) and the introduction of another legend of the forum @mharrington - imagineering concepts were flowing out over the weeks, months, and years.
Fast Forward to 2004, and the first ever Imagineering Challenge concept was posted, with another in 2005. This was the very early stages of what would evolve into full scale imagineering competitions we know today.
2005 brought the evolution of @stitchcastle as well, famous today for the longest running active thread on the Imagineer forum If I could change WDW... and 2006/7 the introduction of @KingMickey - who was also a member of VisionsFantastic and the SYWTBAI game.
Which brings us to the late 2000s/early 2010s after much turnover in activity and contributions from several people, the forums seemed to have a niche of consistently contributing members over months and years at this point.
That evolution in long-term members would lead to our community today. One that, while constantly evolving with new imagineers cycling in and out, remains a community that people return to on a consistent basis to interact with others who share common interests and work together on creative ideas through brainstorming, team projects, and forum-wide competitions
Part 1 - The Early Days (2001-2010)
Beginning on June 4, 2001, wdwmagic.com introduced a new sub-forum to their website; The Imagineer Forum...with the tagline of:
"Discuss any aspect of Imagineering here. Why not post your attraction ideas here?"
The sub-community began activity with several individual brainstorming threads. With these two threads being the first ever on the Imagineer forum
Dna by @woofboy111 and Greek Mythology by @JBloom1029
These individual brainstorming threads influenced others to chime in with their ideas and soon an imagineering community filled with creative minds was being built before our very eyes.
One of the prominent, influential members of the time was @Chad. Chad was paramount in the creation of "team" based projects, where people would work together on projects instead of just individual threads. This team concept would soon morph to form a larger community, even with Member List threads.
As the community became closer, Chad decided to form a "club" called SOJI
SOJI - Society of Junior Imagineers - was an outlet for people to have a group of avid armchair-imagineers to get feedback on projects, and work together on ideas. It actually branched further off the Imagineer forum (which apparently had 4 "sub-sections" at the time) and did its own thing on their own website.
While still promoting ideas and activities on the Imagineer forum, from 2001-2003 SOJI was a major hub for creativity.
As more members began to flock to (or discover) the Imagineer sub-forum, Disneyland Virginia was one of the most successful threads, being the first to eclipse the 100+ post mark for a thread, ending at 315 posts.
And yes....I have to mention this one ...
The Britney Spears Adventure
just goes to show how long these forums have been around. And how we can have....interesting ideas. With many great contributions from members such as @KentB3 (who's still active to this day I believe) and the introduction of another legend of the forum @mharrington - imagineering concepts were flowing out over the weeks, months, and years.
Fast Forward to 2004, and the first ever Imagineering Challenge concept was posted, with another in 2005. This was the very early stages of what would evolve into full scale imagineering competitions we know today.
2005 brought the evolution of @stitchcastle as well, famous today for the longest running active thread on the Imagineer forum If I could change WDW... and 2006/7 the introduction of @KingMickey - who was also a member of VisionsFantastic and the SYWTBAI game.
Which brings us to the late 2000s/early 2010s after much turnover in activity and contributions from several people, the forums seemed to have a niche of consistently contributing members over months and years at this point.
That evolution in long-term members would lead to our community today. One that, while constantly evolving with new imagineers cycling in and out, remains a community that people return to on a consistent basis to interact with others who share common interests and work together on creative ideas through brainstorming, team projects, and forum-wide competitions
