We’ll be honest, we’re not huge fans of rules and regulations! But inevitably for TowersStreet to be a community that works, we have a few things that we ask of our members to ensure everything runs smoothly.
For the artistic amongst you…
TowersStreet Talk enables members to have their own avatars and signatures. We want the discussion to be the focal point of TowersStreet Talk, so to ensure avatars and signatures aren’t overbearing we have a few requests:
Avatars
- Avatar images on our forum are displayed in a circular format, so make sure your image is suitable to be displayed like this
- Avatar images should be 400 x 400 pixels minimum to ensure they’re displayed clearly
- Animation is fine, please just make sure it’s not too distracting. However, do note that the forum does not support all animated images, so you may see some issues depending on where the image is displayed.
Signatures
- We won’t be measuring signatures to the pixel, but please ensure it’s a sensible size. We recommend something no bigger than around 400 pixels high
- There’s a limit set to allow 5 images within a signature and a maximum of 6 lines of text, which should all fit within the guidelines above
- Animation is fine, please just make sure it’s not too distracting. However, do note that the forum does not support all animated images, so you may see some issues depending on where the image is displayed.
Seen something inappropriate?
If you see anything on TowersStreet Talk that you feel isn’t suitable or goes against what we ask below, please hit the flag post button. This alerts the offending post(s) to our ever hard working team who will review and take action as necessary. To save yourself being dragged into an argument, please don’t try to handle the situation yourself.
Spam-a-not!
You may see some spam posts appear on TowersStreet Talk from time to time. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts “human” spammers can often get past the security controls we have in place. We’d appreciate it if you avoided responding to these types of posts (who needs dodgy pills anyway!), and simply hit the flag button so that the team can remove the post(s).
Respect other members
Please treat others how you wish to be treated. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, and although things can get heated, avoid getting into direct arguments with others and ensure you contribute in a mature and sensible manner. If your behaviour is brought to the team’s attention, we might need to contact you to discuss further and/or edit or remove the problem posts. Repeat offenders may risk changes being made to their posting rights – and we wouldn’t want to do that!
Respect for the wider community
Just like our own members, we think other communities out there and their members should be treated how you’d like to be treated by them in return – courteously and respectfully. After all, we all share the same passion of loving theme parks and rides, we just all have a different way of showing it.
And that’s why we ask you to remain respectful and courteous towards other communities whilst on our forums, across our social media, or even on meet ups. Of course we know there will be discussion and perhaps even praise or criticism for others thoughts, ideas and ways – but we ask you to remain respectful and rational, otherwise you may see your posting rights affected again… and we really dislike doing that too, as it happens.
Just remember – treat people how you’d like to be treated, and you (hopefully!) shouldn’t go wrong!
Watch your language
It goes without saying that TowersStreet welcomes a broad range of people of all ages – including some young adults and big kids too! So we’d ask that you get your points across without swearing (including ‘veiled’ swearing – hiding or concealing it as other text or asterisks) as much as possible. The team reserves the right to edit posts where it’s determined that excessive/needless swearing is used.
As mentioned above members should respect each other and the wider community, so swearing being used as insults towards others is not permitted.
Of course – for the more mature audiences – the general exception is that anything goes within the Courtyard Tavern forum board and the TowersStreet Discord. But please, use your common sense and don’t post anything too offensive and certainly nothing illegal.
Using media in your posts
You should ensure that any images that you upload to TowersStreet are either your own, or you have full permission to do so. If this doesn’t apply, please link to the image/website with credit. Any image uploads should also be suitable for all (including uploads within the Courtyard Tavern). The team reserves the right to remove any image uploads hosted on the TowersStreet server.
TowersStreet also has the option to add GIFs to your posts, please use this option sparingly. They should also only be used to add and contribute to the discussion. If members repeatedly use the GIF feature inappropriately, then the option may be withdrawn.
Media embedding, which allows videos from sites such as YouTube to be added to posts is also available on TowersStreet. Videos should only be posted if they add to discussion, and should also be accompanied by opinions or viewpoints of your own. Posting videos without your own views or opinions is considered spamming, and the team will remove posts if found.
Stop repeating yourself, stop repeating yourself!
Have a quick read through TowersStreet Talk and double check using the search function that there’s not a similar topic already. TowersStreet Talk can be a busy forum, and there’s often someone thinking exactly what you are thinking who has pipped you to the post in submitting a topic.
Have you checked your post?
We’re all human (although if you’ve met some TowersStreeters in real life you may think otherwise!). Everyone makes mistakes from time to time, but often giving posts a read-through one more time before hitting that submit button can often result in you spotting silly mistakes made when you read your post the first time.
No one expects perfection, but a post that’s well written is far more likely to be read and understood by people. Most browsers now include a spellchecker, and using capital letters and punctuation helps to ensure your post looks well thought out and much easier on the eye to read. Please avoid txt spk 2 – it cn b dffclt 2 understnd, and avoid posts in all capitals as it can look like you’re shouting!
If you do happen to spot a mistake after you’ve hit submit, there’s no need to post again to add something or correct yourself in your post. There’s a handy modify button above your post which will allow you to edit it.
Make your post count!
Topics can get busy, so try to make sure your contribution is on topic and adds something to the discussion rather than just replying. If your post is only a word or two, or it is off topic then we may need to remove it to ensure discussion flows.
Lucky enough to work in the industry?
If you work in the theme park industry, especially at Alton Towers or Merlin Entertainments attractions, then please be aware that parks can and do monitor online communities such as TowersStreet. We welcome anyone to contribute, but it’s best to ensure before posting that nothing that you say can be interpreted as being representative of the park or company that you work for. It’s worth checking your terms and conditions of employment if you’re not 100% sure on your employer’s stance on employees posting on online communities.
I know something you don’t know…
It’s very likely as you spend time within the enthusiast community that you may find things out that aren’t public knowledge. If you know something and it won’t cause issues for what you feel is a reliable source in revealing it, then by all means feel free to post about it. However please bear in mind that there could be reasons it’s not public knowledge and may get the source of your information into trouble, especially if they work in the industry. If in doubt, check with them beforehand!
If you have got some information and you don’t want to post it because it’ll get that person into trouble then it’s very simple – just keep quiet! Posts that simply allude to you knowing something without revealing that information just comes across as boasting to other members and add nothing of value to the discussion. As a result such posts are very likely to be removed by the team.
Got your own website?
If you have your own website – great! Feel free to include a link to it in your signature if you wish. In general, you shouldn’t advertise your site on TowersStreet Talk itself, an exception to this being if you are linking back to it as a source for a post that you have made which adds to the existing discussion. The team do reserve the right to remove or edit posts that they feel may be solely for advertising purposes.
Want to delete your forum account?
We’ll be sorry to see you go, but you can of course delete your forum account if you wish. You can do this by private messaging an administrator on the forum, or contacting us using the team page. If there’s anything that’s occurred which has caused you to want to delete your account, please get in touch with a team member prior to requesting deletion and we’ll try to help.
If you specifically request your account to be deleted, this will be done as soon as your message is read and is irreversible. Account deletion will result in you being unable to access the forum and any personal information such as email addresses etc will be deleted. Unless requested, any forum posts will remain but will be accredited to a random anonymised username which indicates the account has been deleted.