A cheerio for Joel

Pastures new for the 2016 season and beyond!

After a mammoth spell of creating, updating, breaking and loving the TowersTimes and TowersStreet sites, we sadly say goodbye to our resident breaker fixer-upper Joel.

Joel has decided to enjoy life and theme parks from a different perspective, and this means he has taken the decision the step away from the enthusiast community and the helm of TowersStreet. He has taken us on a very long and proud journey with everything from mini-sites to whole new sites, and we really would not be where we are today as a community without his hard work and dedication over the years.

Real Life (TM) has claimed yet another victim (incredulous, right?), and on behalf of the TowersStreet Team, I extend a heartfelt thank you to Joel for all his passion and knowledge shared with us on this path to 2016.

The site and associated works are in the process of being transferred from Joel to Craig, and I'm watching intently (from behind a glass of wine). For the immediate future, there will be no change to the site or forum setup, and there shouldn't be any noticeable difference in your 'viewing pleasure'.

As a side note, there will be a minimal amount of downtime for the site and forums over the next few days as we move servers, but this will be done overnight while you beautiful people are all (mostly) sleeping.

Don't panic Mr Mainwaring! Craig and I will continue as Administrators for TowersStreet, and may well be sniffing out some new blood to join us soon ;-)

So long Mr Joel, from TT to breaking the censor to Aurora to now. A thoroughly decent fella and undercredited for his part in all of this. Hope the grass is good on the other side.

Thanks for everything Joel! Sazzle isn't kidding when she says TowersStreet wouldn't be where we are without Joel's hard work. From his work on Towerstimes through to setting up Project Aurora (yeah, who remembers that!) to it's eventual birth at TowersStreet, Joel has worked his arse off over the years to create what we have now. We've come a long way from a long sleepless night of mass panic wondering where the hell we as a team go after leaving TT!

Sure I know a lot of people joke about him being the "breaker of all the things", and on occasion he won't mind me saying he was . But without him, we as a team wouldn't have the tools to create the content you see on the site, and you as a member the ability to post and read stuff on this here shiny forum.

I won't hide the fact that I'm beyond gutted he's taken the decision to leave, but understand his reasons completely. So good luck with all that happens in real life Joel, and thanks for everything .

Thanks for everything Joel. You and the rest of the team have built an incredible site and everyone else greatly appreciates it. Best of luck for the future!

I'd be lying if I didn't say how grateful and thankful I am for the sheer amount of effort that Joel has put into running this site from day 1, and also all the work he put in back on TT. As Saz has quite rightly pointed out, TowersStreet would not be where it is today without everything Joel has done for us. I still remember that fateful night back in June 2012 when this site was formed through Project Aurora and eventually evolved into TowersStreet. Even for me as just an ordinary member, that was a major shock to the system and made me feel a bit stressed, so I can't imagine what it must've been like for Joel and the rest of the Team! Still, the most important thing about all that is the website and community that we have today.

Joel, I'm going to be sad to see you leave us, though I fully understand your reasons for doing so. Thank you so much for everything you've done for us over the years, and I do hope that we'll still see you around at some point in the not-too-distant future.

so long adieu auf wiedersehen,
Ta muchly for a place for me to go to escape real life

Joel you're a legend and thank you for all your hard work that's made this site the place it is today. Without your efforts we wouldn't have this place and neither would we have the incredible community that comes with it...

Don't be a stranger!!

Going to step out of rant mode here, and put one of my lesser known hats (on this forum lol!).

Perspective.

Joel, whom I admit I don't know that well, has clearly put in even to an untrained eye like mine, a truly mind boggling amount of work - I just tried to set up a blog, and almost launched my screen faster than Ferrari Coaster Stealth in frustration.

The smoothness, reliability, ease of use, and activity of this forum is something that is clearly beyond the reach of most to create (including Intamin), either in time, money, effort or knowledge - Joel's put all those in here, quite self evidently.

But that's not even the most important part, it's the part he perhaps won't even realise.

He has literally changed people's lives.

Consider the Euro trip last year (which I epically missed), the global road trips, the regular weekend meets - the friendships that have blossomed, the support people have provided to each other through dark times (including to me here), the drunken ramblings, THE RAVE TOPIC , @DiogoJ42's RISK post in the ever beautiful "Hitler Topic".

These are moments of real magic. None of which would have been created in our lives without the creation of this forum.

In many cases they are, genuinely, life changing - providing incredible memories, happiness, and joy... and broken down cars... for us all to smile about for years to come.

It isn't too big an exaggeration to say the effect he's had in being part of the creation of this site (along with others of course), is truly profound when thought about on a deeper level.

I shall return to ranting now about ludicrous Merlin decisions, but when they bang on about "Magic Making"... it's people who create little incredible communities, just because they want to give something to people, who are the real "Magic Makers".

Thanks Joel.

I've got some incredible memories from this place, and some fantastic friends, without your part in creating this site, they simply wouldn't be there.

You just can't put too high a value on that.

All the very best in your future and

"May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back."

Cheers mate dude

What he said.

Joel is a top bloke and none of us will be able to thank him half as much as he deserves for the unbelievable amount of work he's put in over the years. Big up.

I've already spoke to you privately, Joel, but so long, and thanks for all the fish.

And peanut butter jelly.

And more recently dolphins.

Only been on here a year (almost), but even from the start, its been clear to me how much effort and dedication has gone into the site. This site has changed my life, and my perspective of everything; id never even heard of EP when id joined, now I'm planning a visit! I've said things that will affect my life as a result of conversations on here.

Thanks Joel, enjoy real life

Awww Joely

An integral part of the forums both old and new and you've always been committed to keeping the site fresh and new. Sad to see you go and I appreciate the work you have done to make TST the best Alton community there is.

Enjoy your retirement, you've earnt it *hugs*

Cheers Joel. Always a bit of a downer when one of the old heads leave us. Don't worry though, I'll still be here posting useless stuff in 10 years time. Cheerio Joelio, thanks for all your efforts

Thanks for everything you've done Joel! Don't forget about us and hopefully we'll still see you around in Real Life. Thanks for the Joely radios sessions you did! Good luck with whatever is next in your life!

When i read the first posting, i had the feeling you get when you are told someone has died.

It is the end of an era. Joel has done soo much for this community, it is unreal. The towerstreet site is a major piece of work in itself, then you add a forum to that and you have a massive undertaking from a software engineering view point.

Over the years we joke about him breaking the site, forum or both. however when you look behind the joking, you see the time, sweat and stress Joel has put in keeping this site and forum running in good condition and the problems he has had to sort out and fix.

Joel has been a steadfast member of a dedicated team that keeps this one of the best enthusiast website on the web.
And the most amazing thing is, He along with the rest of the team have done this not for money but love for the subject and the community as a whole.

Joel, you are a top bloke and I wish you all the best in your life, and hope you do not become a stranger in this community.

Thanks everyone for your really kind words and appreciation - reading some of your comments brought tears to my eyes thinking back everything we've been through together and how far we've all come. This was a tough decision to make, but ultimately there comes a point when you need to accept that things are different for you now and its time to move on.

I'm sure I'll rear my head at the odd meet or two in the future, obviously I am taking a step back from the community as a whole as its almost been 10 crazy years of non-stop Alton Towers and me and that's a tired relationship now, but hopefully I'll see you all around sometime soon. Or for those that know me too well, I'll probably see you at Phantasialand

I'll still be keeping my fingers in the theme park pie with ridecount too for those that use it, so come and hassle me there lol.

In my swan song act of TowersStreet technical-ness... the site was originally hosted on a server with my company on the side and shared a few bits on the same server, however I decided to move it onto its own dedicated server last night so that I can't accidentally break anything anymore and to ensure you get the best possible service Everything should be working as it was yesterday though, and apologies if you did experience any small interruption to service whilst DNS etc was changed last night.

If you do spot any problems after the move, let the team know here in the Guest Services forum or via Craig or Saz, and they'll be happy to help.

Thanks again all, and see you around

Well if you ever go full Farage and decide to "un-resign" @Joel I can't imagine you'll be anything other than warmly kicked up the arse welcomed back.

Good luck mate in whatever path you choose. I'm sure you'll be incredibly successful based on the phenomenal work you've done breaking creating this site!

Thanks again, from me, personally - I owe you a debt of gratitude (if anything for not banning for tearing you all new ones when I first joined, when my forum, er, decorum, was not quite fully developed )

Peace out dude!

I'm more of a reader than a poster usually but do occasionally post. I just want to thank you Joel on all the hard work you have done on this site as I know you have put a lot of time and effort into what it is today - for that I say a big thank you. I wish you all the best for the future.

And if I may, just want to thank the whole team here at Towers Street for making such a great forum for us all to use. Once again, thanks Joel and farewell.

Who's Joel?