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Features We'd Like to See on the New Forum

Not so much a feature, but a suggestion for the forum and I wasn't sure where to suggest it.

As much as I loved reading TTF, it was often somewhat chaotic and unstructured with its (on topic) topics and organisation with massive amounts of repetition and frankly daft topics. Future of......

This new start gives an opportunity for a more sensible and user friendly set up with info much easier to find. In the Towers on topic why not start a thread for each attraction and each area, then lock (or strictly mod and merge) it and get people using these threads? Same with 'past' (as in defunct attractions) and 'other parks' etc.

You want to talk about the future of Charlie, use the Charlie topic. You want to talk about the Air tunnel, use the Air topic. You want to talk about Thorpe, use the Thorpe topic. etc etc. I can think of no time when a whole thread is needed to discuss a small element of an existing attraction, it just clutters things u and makes it a mess.

Just an idea, What do you think? If it is going to be done though it needs to happen before 1001 Charlie topics are created and it is too much work to sort them all out!
 
And thinking about structuring as above, when the main site comes on line a live copy of the relevant forum thread could live under each article, integrating the forum and main site. kind of like comments on a news article.

Could encourage passing traffic to join in and help grow the site.
 
I've always thought the issue with being restrictive like that on a forum means that people feel scared to create new threads, and without new threads, boards do not grow.

Whilst most discussion on an attraction can take place in one thread, if multiple discussions are taking place at once it can be difficult to keep track. Also, if the thread disappears off page one it would inevitably mean people would create new threads anyway.

I think on forums discussion needs to be more organic than structured but that's just a personal opinion.
 
Dont know if TTF had one but other forums I use (rs owners) have a google map where you can pin your approx location (i say approx as you dont want some stalker turning up at your door!) in the country and all registered members can view, makes it easy to contact like minded people in your area.

Just a thought?!
 
Small thing, but can the shoutbox be edited sometime to show more than the current number of posts at any one time? It's moving so fast I'm missing loads :p.
 
Since I've finally had chance to go through the forum last night and catchup on things, I'll attempt to answer some requests :)


Games and RCT section
I can pretty confidently say these will return, although we are waiting a little while to see how the current forums pan out in terms of popularity. We didn't want empty forums lying around doing nothing! Once we get new boards/sub-forums then we'll obviously move any existing topics into there that are suitable :).

Trip Planning
We now have these forums online!

Topic creation for individual attractions etc
In theory, this would work great but has the possibility of it being too restrictive in allowing people to post what they want to post and restricting discussion somewhat too. In theory, once topics start being created the ones which are suitable will be dealt with by the team, ones which aren't popular should sink down the forum page, so stuff like this shouldn't normally be needed.

Wiki
Definitely in the plans but not a priority at the moment!

Site/Forum integration
Nice idea Pluk. Site/forum integration was something I was keen to have on TT, it's just the daunting prospect of the site guys dealing with the redesign kind of prevented this happening. We'll definitely be looking into some sort of integration between the two though, along with more utilisation of the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.

Google Map
A possibility but not a priority at present, we'd need to see what the community's reaction would be to such an option before going ahead.

Shoutbox
Increased to 40 messages now, should be a little easier :)

Topless member of the week
Oh dear......... :p
 
Not immediately important, but I would want to see some of the best answers to the BISON question from the team applications. Just a thought, doesn't have to be done for a while- but I want to see some.
 
First of all: The new features are amazing! Well done TST Team!

Now, I have one suggestion, which has been done on TTF, but not like this.

I call it 'Le Creative Zone.'

Basically, it's an area of the forum where you can design your own rides, themes, games, and theme parks, and share them with the world. They would be aimed at Alton Towers mainly of course, so you would have to be imaginative with height restrictions and all of that, but you could also design new things that aren't to do with Alton. New ride concepts could be posted here, so people can discuss them easier, and so you can monitor your creations easier.

It would be a way of sharing your ideas with everyone, in a simple way, and so you can compare ideas easily as well.

Just a thought. :)
 
Also, we should bring back RCT and No Limits contests. They sort of stopped a while ago, but more people use them now.
 
Danny said:
TST Wiki? :)
Click to expand...

I doubt this would happen as it would replicate the pages and humour created by the articles. I'd like some form of goofing around about or world though somewhere in the Tavern maybe.
 
Longy said:
First of all: The new features are amazing! Well done TST Team!

Now, I have one suggestion, which has been done on TTF, but not like this.

I call it 'Le Creative Zone.'

Basically, it's an area of the forum where you can design your own rides, themes, games, and theme parks, and share them with the world. They would be aimed at Alton Towers mainly of course, so you would have to be imaginative with height restrictions and all of that, but you could also design new things that aren't to do with Alton. New ride concepts could be posted here, so people can discuss them easier, and so you can monitor your creations easier.

It would be a way of sharing your ideas with everyone, in a simple way, and so you can compare ideas easily as well.

Just a thought. :)
Click to expand...

Did you think the botched French would make it sound more intellectual ;) :p
 
We do not currently have a spell check function on the forums, and it is unlikely we will introduce one either unless demand is high for one. :)

There are a lot of browsers that have built in spell checkers these days (such as Google Chrome and Safari) so we do not feel that the forum needs one as built in ones are already widely available.
 
Longy said:
First of all: The new features are amazing! Well done TST Team!

Now, I have one suggestion, which has been done on TTF, but not like this.

I call it 'Le Creative Zone.'

Basically, it's an area of the forum where you can design your own rides, themes, games, and theme parks, and share them with the world. They would be aimed at Alton Towers mainly of course, so you would have to be imaginative with height restrictions and all of that, but you could also design new things that aren't to do with Alton. New ride concepts could be posted here, so people can discuss them easier, and so you can monitor your creations easier.

It would be a way of sharing your ideas with everyone, in a simple way, and so you can compare ideas easily as well.

Just a thought. :)
Click to expand...

I kind of like this idea but I'd take it a step further. How about The Creative Zone becomes the new RCT and NoLimits Sub-Forum?

This will have two advantages:

1) As Longy suggested people have a way to post their ride ideas without having to put them in a less appropriate section of the forum. It also means that any non-Alton specific ideas don't feel out of place.

2) If a new game comes out based around Theme Parks (bound to happen eventually) it'll fit into this Sub-Forum much more easily rather than having to rename it RCT, NoLimits and something else...
 
To add to James above, I'm fairly sure Firefox does too, and if not there'll be an extension for it.
 
Browsing through the forum I notice that some topics have had symbols such as thumbs up or smiley faces added by the topics creator. I don't know if these are planned to stay but if they are can I suggest a symbol for RCT3 and NoLimits. I think it'd be a good way to distinguish between creative posts and normal discussion posts when looking through all recent posts.

Obviously this isn't something that needs doing now, just an idea for a future improvement.
 
James said:
We do not currently have a spell check function on the forums, and it is unlikely we will introduce one either unless demand is high for one. :)

There are a lot of browsers that have built in spell checkers these days (such as Google Chrome and Safari) so we do not feel that the forum needs one as built in ones are already widely available.
Click to expand...

Also on a previous forum we found the spell check feature caused alot of slowdown on the forum.
 
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