The 2012 FluidAnims-StickPage Merger

Last Edited: 26 February 2022

Disclaimer:
The purpose of this page is to inform users of an important part of the community's history, where "community" is referring to the "Stick-figure animation community," specifically encompassing those affiliated and familiar with past internet forums, groups, and networks such as but not limited to: "Hyun's Dojo," "StickPage," and "FluidAnims". Although this page tries to provide the most accurate, reliable information possible, there is still the possibility of human error. If by chance you find something that needs to be corrected, please do not hesitate to contact Sopple with your wisdom and corrections. Thank you for reading!

Chapter List

Summary

FluidAnims merged with StickPage, resulting in the end of the FluidAnims domain. The announcement was made in January, and the FluidAnims domain started rerouting to StickPage around September of 2012. The merge brought opportunities for many stick-figure animators to make profit off of their hobby. The copyright to RHG was also transferred at this time.

Part 1 - FluidAnims

FluidAnims is founded by Travis Steven, more commonly known by his internet handle "Stone".  Although the website's exact date of first publicity is unknown, the earliest recorded on the Wayback Machine is July 21, 2006.
Commonly abbreviated to FA, FluidAnims is the successor to RockHardAnims, Stone's previous site. Both websites were assembled in Dreamweaver with the intent of hosting flash web animations via. a portal, and interacting with a network of animators centered around stick-figure animation via. a forum. Additionally, thanks to the RockHardAnims site, the Rock Hard Gladiator system is formed, abbreviated to RHG. It was an era of new possibility and discovery in stick-figure animation, characterized by the slogan "Bringing Back Creativity."
As time passed, FluidAnims gained more active members and went through a few page redesigns. Additionally, the FluidAnims Crew grew as its community became more active, both on IRC and on the site. Up until its last days, FluidAnims was at its height in terms of user activity and community.
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FluidAnims' Crew page in 2006 via. the Wayback Machine
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The FluidAnims homepage in 2011 via. the Wayback Machine

Part 2 - The Merge

FluidAnims only grew over the years, and Stone wanted to provide opportunities for people in the community to do animation as a serious profession. He also wanted to provide a more stable site to better host the growing number of new members. However, with his financial status at the time, this was not possible.

In the beginning of 2012, Stone was provided a new opportunity when he was contacted by Jason Whitham, known by his internet handle "Crazy Jay", and the founder of StickPage. Jay had been known to sponsor stickman animators in the past, with animations being posted to StickPage and having the animation contain the StickPage logo in return. Usually, an animation he sponsored would give the animator $50-100 USD, but the deal that Stone was given was a much bigger offer, and to Stone, was an even bigger decision.

Crazy Jay wanted the FluidAnims community. In return, he would give Stone a cut wage, the promise of business opportunities, a bigger audience, and a more stable site.
Stone and Crazy Jay discussed the opportunity, which seemed promising and provided benefits for the both of them. Stone would get a more professional website to host events, and a bigger, more stable site for the FluidAnims community, all while providing the opportunity to let people create animations and benefit off of it financially. Crazy Jay, in return, would get more creators to his own website, which at the time suffered from lack of activity. He would also get a valuable community spokesperson, Stone, who was younger and was a lot more heavily involved in the community, and in turn was a great motivator for the website's potential success.
Stone signed and agreed to Crazy Jay's contract in high hopes that the community that he had fostered would take off to new heights, believing it was the better decision for the community despite it now being under Crazy Jay's control. On January 31, 2012, this agreement was announced. In September of 2012, the FluidAnims-Stickpage Merger happened over the span of a few weeks, and the FluidAnims forums started to hyperlink to StickPage's domain. Now it was Stone's job to get the FluidAnims community that he had started, transferred onto new territory.

Part 3 - Post-Merger

Stone's responsibility was to get the FluidAnims community alongside its site transferred to StickPage. The merge resulted in ~60% of the FluidAnims community transferring, with a loss of ~30-40% of StickPage's existing userbase. With everything now under StickPage, the FluidAnims domain shut down permanently. The excitement of a new era had begun, but it quickly faded once it was realized that Stone wasn't granted the freedom to develop the StickPage website, like he had the freedom to develop FluidAnims.

The FluidAnims website was constantly updating with features such as an integrated portal, tutorial, and an RHG system completely separate from the main forums. The ability to change and update the website was not transferred completely over to Stone on StickPage, as he needed to contact his higher up, Crazy Jay, if he wanted to make suggestions. Additionally, communication with Crazy Jay was not optimal at the time; he often had Stone focus on making games for Max Games instead of community developments, for instance. Although this decision was better for the site financially, changes and improvements were not being made for its members, which was essential for growing and engaging a community. This led to the consequence of StickPage's community forums rotting away without any improvement to it, and led to many prevalent people in the FluidAnims community leaving StickPage altogether.

Consequently, due to his contract, Stone was not allowed to create or participate in any Flash/Stickman communities besides StickPage for half the no. years he worked on the site after his contract is terminated. Stone stopped working for StickPage in 2016, meaning he could not legally come back into or make another community until at least 2 years afterwards. This caused his sudden disappearance, leaving many to wonder where or who Stone was until he can stably re-integrate himself back into the community.
Hyun, who was prevalent in the FluidAnims community and part of the FluidAnims Crew, specifically disliked what the consequences of the Merger was to its members and to Stone, and advocated for the importance of community and creative freedom without the limitations and lack of involvement that Crazy Jay had with StickPage. Thus, the direct result of the Merger was Hyun's Dojo: changed from Hyun's personal website into a forum-based community site with many features that was wanted for the FluidAnims community from its merge. Hyun's Dojo's values favored the community more than commerce, best characterized by its slogan: "Create Together."
The new Hyun's Dojo site was worked on for 2 years after the initial Merger. This was based off of an old project that a former FluidAnims admin, Jeff, had built. This same project was also shown to Crazy Jay by Stone, who in turn is was what allowed Jeff to be hired as a web developer for StickPage after Stone was let go, up until the end of 2017. Jeff was in a similar situation as Stone during his time at StickPage, and did not have the freedom to develop the StickPage website like he had the freedom to develop FluidAnims, often being directed to focus on Max Games as well. This resulted in StickPage's site forums eventually dying since there was nobody to maintain or update it. Jeff still works in website development, and is currently developing Hyun's Dojo 2.0.
The FluidAnims-StickPage Merger ultimately did not work out for those involved, and the name of FluidAnims is lost in the depths of internet history. However, the remnants of its community prevail to this day, continually captivating their audience with a passion for something as simple as a stick-figure moving across the screen. The Merger highlights the importance of community, collaboration, and creative freedom by showing what happens when that significance is taken away. Hyun's Dojo, in turn, carries the legacy of what FluidAnims wanted to be:
to bring back creativity, creating together.
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