Important Information For ALL Members

[The Team]

We, The Team, have been looking at a raft of changes to the current forum setup which we believe will improve the current format, content and user experience.

 

Firstly, our apologies to you for not saying the following sooner. As you can imagine a lot has been going on in the background in the last 5 days

 

Given that we've only had control over the forum for five days, these changes will take some time to discuss and implement. Our first priority was to ensure that, what ever changes we make, we could secure the forum financially and we fully appreciate that making the forum all paid access would be unpopular with some members and that we would lose some, but we also believe that it will assist us in getting the forum back to it's heyday.

 

The general consensus is that the forum was a better place when it was smaller, more intimate, a friendly place  where genuine enthusiasts  could discuss their interest. Unfortunately, the forum has, to some extent, become a victim of it's own success. More members has lead to more trouble which has, out of necessity lead to more rules and more to do for the Moderator Team. We hope that by charging an access fee we can take the forum back to it's smaller friendlier self. We want to lose the tiny, but persistent minority who's only purpose to being a member seems to be take information across to Facebook or to knock the forum or it's members. It hurts to have to say this, but it's basically a case of support the forum or move on!

 

There are many other aspects we intend to address, but as we've said, we've only had control for five days and the take over has taken a vast amount of time and effort. The learning curve has been massive. Please give us a chance. The paid access won't kick in for a YEAR and, if that point, you feel membership isn't worth 20 pence a week, then that's your choice, but at least give us the opportunity to make the forum great again.

 

Other considerations in the pipeline for discussion are (in no particular order and will be done with participation of members) - Is the number of forums and their usage relevant, a complete overhaul of the rules and how they are implemented, what should be stored and for how long, what you want to see, don't want to see, what can be expanded and what can be shrunk or dispensed with. When we have a better idea of the level of financial support, we will look at  what you get for your money (already discussed  is that if income exceeds expenditure then the £10 could be lowered or the period of membership extended - but it's early days yet)

 

We understand there is a lot to do, and you need to understand that changes of this magnitude will take time, especially given that we all have jobs, lives, families and other interests, but we continue to assure you that we have the best interests of the forum and it's members at heart.

 

All we want to do is keep the site alive for EVERYONE's benefit, but it will take us time.

Please keep looking back in this forum for more updates.

 

Regards

The Team

[Paul Needham]

I would imagine the vast majority understand and are happy to give you the time, ill leave it to everyone to ponder who if any, don't seem to consider your position at all😉

[Frank Church]

Bloody hell! That Dutch fella hasn't mentioned money yet.

[Peter van der Knaap]

13 hours ago, Frank Church said:

Bloody hell! That Dutch fella hasn't mentioned money yet.

 

That would be cross posting. A thing which a good moderator would have to act upon, IMHO.

 

Some people here are moaning about the fact that this forum is now restricting them. I personally don't see this, but I do see a tendency that people sometimes don't react by giving good arguments. It's "yes" or "no" and that's it. This is a behaviour which IMHO is damaging to the forums atmosphere. If a member is against (or pro) something, state why you want to do something or don't want to have something. That makes way for a good discussion. To simply say "no" (and sometimes with remarks added that can even be considered to be insulting if the reader isn't in a good mood) is counterproductive.

 

Also: less rules is often better than more rules. Think about it for a moment. If a moderator has only a few rules to follow (such as: make sure the post is in the right place and doesn't contain abusive of plain out false content) it's more easier to moderate. The more lines wasted to make rules, the more work for moderators.

Why can't someone put in pictures hosted on other platforms? Is it important to have this rule or not (now, this is an example of a rule which one might or might not change).

 

There's also the moderating itself which can be important. When is a moderator acting as moderator and when not? On Themepark.nl this is made clear by the moderator himself who puts a color in the background of his post when he has to moderate the forum. It can be important for the moderator to make that distinction in a discussion, since otherwise people might think: "is he now moderating, or isn't he moderating"...

 

Another thing which I personally hate, is when a moderator is removing entire posts. Personally, I believe it's better to react on this by stating why you as a team don't want this discussion to continue this way and put the discussion back into it's right tracks. To me, if a moderator removes posts, the discussion drops dead and that's something you should not want to happen. A forum is a place of discussion, isn't it? So also things you don't like as a moderating team should be discussed, for as long as it is contributing to a better forum in the future.

 

And finally (and this is very important IMHO): accept that it's not always "all the fun of the fair". Things do happen which are not positive for the fair in itself. Some fora tend to go into a "not in my forums" mode when accidents happen of when fans see things they don't like. Don't fall into that trap. Simply make sure that such a topic stays on topic. As long as the topic stays clean of throwing mud, simply let it run. When not, you are running the risk of being put down as a "good news only" site. That should be avoided. Why? Because it does make your forum more credible among the users. When f.e. the accident with the afterburner in the US took place, KMG decided not only to send a letter to the showmen operating this ride, but also put the same letter into the forum of Themepark.nl. Why? Because they decided to give the fans the opportunity to see behind the curtains on how safety is an issue with them. Now, this would never have happened, if the forums would have locked the topic at once, which does happen on other fora. To gain that kind of trust with the industry is what you want, and to get that trust, one should be prepared to say sometimes to the traveling people: "this time, you've messed up a little bit". Now, this sounds strange at first, but you will see that in the end, if the discussions are respectfully done, you will gain more trust among the industry than if you stay silent when things are happening.

 

It's just how I see things. Use it (or lose it). It's my two penny's...

[The Team]

To add, News Just In for you 😊