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Timothy Leaves BlenderArtists

30

balogo.jpgTimothy Kanters, one of the founders of Elysiun/BlenderArtists, has decided to stop managing his website.

BlenderArtists has played a central role in the Blender community, even to the point where Blender.org decided to focus solely on forums for developers and handed over the user forums to them. Even though that distinction was (and is) not always so clear to the users of those forums, having an independent user website was important to the Blender Foundation.

Before that, after Not a Number's second bankruptcy the Blender.nl website went offline and Elysiun became the refuge for the then abandoned community. Despite the success, running a high-profile community site for a long time is a demanding task and you have to develop a thick skin to handle all the feedback.

For more information about Timothy's involvement in the Blender community, read the interview with him that we published last May.

Timothy writes:

6 years ago I started this website with a friend. I've had some very nice times managing this website, but the time has come to say goodbye (what a cliché).

I've decided to stop managing this website. The reasons are diverse, but mostly I've just grown out of it after running a website for this long.

Anyways, don't worry this website won't go down just yet! Roel Spruit (Goofster) who has been an administrator here for a long time will take over completely. He hopes to work on Blender Artists on a solid basis. I know he has some pretty nice plans he's working but you will hear more about that from him. But Blender Artists will definitely stay online!

Finally, I would like to thank everyone who helped out over the years. Of course in particular the Administrators and Moderators, and also all the members of Blender Artists.

Thank you guys for some really nice times I had with this community!

Goodbye,
Timothy Kanters

Timothy, thanks you for all your excellent work so far! I wish you all the best with your future plans. Still, I know that people have a way to return to this community after a while so I wouldn't be surprised to see you around here again! :)

About the Author

Avatar image for Bart Veldhuizen
Bart Veldhuizen

I have a LONG history with Blender - I wrote some of the earliest Blender tutorials, worked for Not a Number and helped run the crowdfunding campaign that open sourced Blender (the first one on the internet!). I founded BlenderNation in 2006 and have been editing it every single day since then ;-) I also run the Blender Artists forum and I'm Head of Community at Sketchfab.

30 Comments

  1. I second Bart's comment. Thank you Timothy for providing a save place for all the blenderheads, especially in the beginning, when blender.nl went down. I won't forget that! :D
    Good luck and all the best to you in the future.

  2. Garland-Waide Bradford on

    Dear Timothy

    Thanks. If it wasn't for Elysuin I would not have learnt what I did. I still have some of the old tuorials on disk somewhere. Thanks for everything.

  3. Dear Timothy
    time to express you my gratitude ( another cliche ).
    Elysiun was ( is) an invaluable site
    Thank you very much, and good luck
    oto

  4. peter (dotblend) on

    hey, havent spoken to you lately, but whatever you're gonna do make sure you do it right!

    remember amsterdam cs, and going to the monsters inc movie? wicked!

    peter (dotblend)

  5. Timothy,
    I remember those early days when you helped keep hope for Blender alive. I doubt it would have made it to Open Source without the community intact. At the very least it would have been a lot harder. Thanks for all you have done! The site is one of the reasons working with Blender is such a great experience. You have provided a place for users to meet and share and critique... Good luck with your endeavors.

    BlendOn!
    mthoenes

  6. Like many on what was Elysiun and now Blender Artists. I do not really know you BUT none the less you have made a very BIG impact on me personally, because like many it was the forms that made it possible for me to learn and continue to learn Blender and for that I think you very much.

    Good luck in your future endeavors

    Michael Trottier
    Matro / Matroblend

  7. All the best for you. Elysiun/Blenderartists is a central piece of Blender's history. Everything i learned from Blender i learned from this website. I made special friends there.

    Sometimes people with the same interest are in different parts of the world. For example you could be living in a huge Sounth American city and met a guy from a small town in south France where people used to fabric tires.

    Thats is just... Incredible!

  8. I would like to thank Timothy for his continuing support to the Blender Community, with Elysiun / BlenderArtists (I'm sure he will always be there to help) and with BlenderBuilds.com, being the maintainer of the Mac OS X Intel builds.

    Thanks Timothy.

    -- Rui --

  9. Thank you for all of your efforts and support!! BlenderArtist and Elysiun have proven to be a great resource for the Blender community. Best of luck in everything you do!

  10. Timothy, we have never been in contact, but I want to thank you a lot, because Elysiun and now Blenderartists have been for me an incredible help.

    I have learned almost anything I know about 3D and Blender thanks of this site, and its great community. I will never forget this.

    Elysiun has been my school!
    It as helped me to switch to a new career, and even if I'm not yet on the rails, I will in a not so far future

    Thank you!

    Philippe.

  11. Thanks, Timothy, for the great resource that Blenderartists has been, and hopefully will always be, for the Blender community. After my initial frustrations with Blender, I happened upon the Blenderartists forums. That encounter was the real beginning of my being able to understand Blender and knowing that I wasn't alone in my adventures. IMO, the community that Blenderartists has supported is one of the main attractions that Blender offers...a place where you can go and know that you're not alone in fulfilling your 3D dreams through Blender.

    Thank You.

  12. I hate to say 'good by' to anyone involved with Blender...but in my heart somewhere I know that we will be hearing from you somehow soon, best wishes and good fortune! I hope that you will stop by and say hay because once a 'BlenderHead always a BlenderHead'! And being apart of this community for me at least, your next endeavor would be of interest indeed!

    Eric aka FTD

  13. Absent the Elysiun / BlenderArtists community, Blender is a complicated program that no-one can easily get inspired to plumb the full depths of.

    If not for the forum with it's tutorials, competitions and advice; I would never have come as far as I have.
    Blender is now my most used application and one that I could not work without.

    We will gratefully continue to revel in your legacy.

    Thanks.

    Jon.

  14. All Blender users owe you a debt of gratitude for all of the hard work you have done. Elysiun was/is the best resource on the net for Blender users, and I hope it will remain so.

  15. Good riddens! The 'tyrant' is gone!

    I have clashed many times with this 'person' over the changes at Elysiun/Blenderartist. To me he was arrogant and condescending!

    I hope that his successor (a decent enough fellow) will reverse the disastrous 'design' decisions that were made and make Blendartists a usable website again! (Lose the ads!!!)

  16. Thank you for the truly important work! I do belive that your work with the community in the early days was critical to the success of the Blender project.

    It might be someone who point at something that could be done different, but it will allways be like that. The most important thing was that someone did it and managed to build the community at that critical stage.

    Thank you. I am impressed buy your work and respect your choise to get on with your life. Your work is done and you succed.

    His work has been of real importance, but Blender is a different project now. The scale of the project is much larger and it is more mature. It might be the right time for looking at other open projects and see if blender can learn something from them.

  17. come on guy's, as much as i read.. (and most likely not enough) he only stops maintaining the site to gain more time for something else (and i wish him luck with what ever it is ;) but i'm sure he will drop by at least a few times a year.. or at least browses the site from time to time! ^_^

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