General forum announcements and updates

[Craig]

Hi all,

The new season is fast approaching, and as you’ll no doubt have noticed the forum is getting busier and busier. There’s a lot going on with Nemesis being re-tracked, The Curse at Alton Manor opening and Project Horizon progressing. That of course means topics are currently much more active than they were in the past, with a far greater number of individuals participating.

So apologies for the long post, but to try and keep things ticking along we'd appreciate if everyone could spend a few minutes to read the below:

Off Topic and Repeat Posts​

We apply quite a light touch in terms of moderating here on TowersStreet. In particular, we tend to allow a small amount of off topic replies to allow some humour/banter to be injected. They’re part of the personality of TowersStreet, and the odd one or two doesn’t tend to cause an issue.

With the greater number of people participating, we’ve noticed these diversions off topic are sometimes going on for an excessive number of posts, or on some occasions - for pages! This then results in the flow of discussion being disrupted.

With this in mind, we’re asking for your help to keep discussion moving, especially on the more popular topics. If you could all take a few seconds to consider a few things before hitting that Post reply button:

• Stay on topic as much as possible - First and foremost the majority of your posts should be on topic and add to discussion constructively.
• Ensure you're responding to the most recent discussion points - Topics can move quickly. If it's been a few days since you've participated, try not to quote things from days before when the discussion has already moved on from it.
• Check previous discussion - If you’re popping into the forum after a day or two away, check the previous few pages of the topic to make sure the points/information that you’re posting haven’t already been discussed.
• Avoid dragging things out - If you feel the need to add a humorous reply that could be considered off topic, take a look at the previous posts. If there’s already a couple of that nature, then please don’t post a reply with the same. We're trying to avoid a “pile on” of these posts which drag things further and further away from the actual topic of discussion. Don't forget too, if you find a post amusing you use the reaction feature instead of adding another reply.

Above all, we don’t want to prevent the likes of humorous posts outright - it’s all about striking a balance and we’d prefer this to be “self moderating”, rather than have the team constantly step in. So your support to avoid that happening as much as possible would be appreciated!

Crediting Sources and Media Posting​

A further reminder that our Member Expectations ask that any images that you upload are your own or have permission to post (please say so if this is the case). If this doesn't apply, then please link to the source of the image and credit them. If you're referencing some information you've seen elsewhere - on a website, a vlog or a tweet for example, then please ensure the following:

• That the information is new and adds to discussion. If it's already being discussed in the topic, then please don't post it. Any content posted should add to the topic constructively with new information. For example, it's not acceptable to post a vlog summarising a press release when the contents of it have already been posted and it's available from official channels. Our post specifically about video embedding adds some more information on this.
• Provide a link to the source of the information. You can either embed the content or link to it via the link button on the post editor. None of this "so-and-so's vlog" or vaguely referring to a creator because you're not their biggest fan. People put a lot of time and effort into creating content, and if you consider their information interesting enough to post about, then take the time to credit them properly.
• Add your own views and opinions. Be it a video, website or images - this is a discussion forum, let people know what you think. Ensure that you're giving some context as to what your image/video/link shows that contributes to discussion.

Again, we're hoping everyone will self moderate themselves on this, but the team will step in and remove posts/issue warnings if necessary. Persistent offenders may find limits being placed on their posting ability, such as having posts on approval or being prevented from embedding media/uploading image.

As usual, we'd ask that you use the report button rather than trying to moderate others and if anyone has any questions, please give me a shout. Thanks in advance .

 

[Burbs]

May I add, with the increase in spoilerific posts at present, if you’re spoilering something off-topic (e.g. a post about Alton Manor in a more general discussion thread), it would be great if we could all make use of the spoiler labelling feature.

When adding spoiler tags, format it as such, albeit without the apostrophe, to show the label:
[‘SPOILER=Alton Manor]your message[/SPOILER]

It should appear like this:

Spoiler: Alton Manor

your message

Obviously if you’re in the related topic then there’s no need to add a label, unless you want to. However when we move away from asking you to spoiler-tag everything in said topic in a week or two, it’ll be respectful to those who wish to remain spoiler free!

Many thanks.

 

[Craig]

Screenshots in posts​

As you all know we now have the facility for people to be able to upload images into their posts on TowersStreet. We've seen an increase in image uploads recently where the image is a screenshot that only includes text, which presents a few issues:

Firstly, each image uploaded takes up space on our server. That's not an issue for a single image, but as time goes on it becomes a potential problem when space is at a premium.

Secondly, people who have to magnify the forum or use a screen reader to read the forum may find it difficult to read the text on the image. And finally, having the text in the image also means it's not indexable in the forum search.

So to try and be as accessible as we can be and to save that precious space, please could I ask that people refrain from posting screenshots that simply show text. Instead, please copy and paste the text into quotes. You can use the " button at the top of the post editor or use the [quote] bb code. You should also link to the source of the text underneath in order to credit the author.

Thanks in advance

 

[Craig]

Swearing on the forum​

We updated our Member Expectations quite a few months ago regarding swearing and bad language on the forum:

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.

Basically, as our general age group range has increased over the years, we wanted people to be able to chat a little more naturally without getting posts removed/edited for the occasional light swear word. We made the change on the quiet since we didn't want people having a free-for-all thinking that it's now a case of "anything goes", or having to set out some sort of permitted words list.

However, we've since noticed swearing, including the more offensive f words for example sneaking in far too much outside of the Tavern. All of our forums with the exception of The Tavern are publicly accessible without registration, and there are also plenty of people here who also view the forum while on their work devices where seeing that sort of swearing wouldn't be appreciated. So this is just a polite public reminder to avoid swearing as much as possible - (including *'ing them out!) and to be more considerate in your posting where swearing may not be acceptable to other members, or their employers.

tl;dr - If you want to be a potty mouth, do it in the Tavern

Thanks!

 

[Craig]

A quick reminder relating to discussion about "Family Days" across Merlin parks, when members of the travelling community visit on the same day. The parks often do not serve alcohol on these days (often referred to as ”Family Friendly Days” or similar), with an aim to try and reduce instances of anti social behaviour. These are usually very busy days and you’ll often see an increased security presence across the park to quickly react to these instances as a result too.

They typically occur on a weekend mid-late October or the first weekend in November, and the parks do not officially announce these dates ahead of time. Indeed attempts to pre-empt them has sometimes resulted in preparation for wrong dates and the “alcohol free” restrictions being lifted over the course of the day.

As many will know, it's something that's been discussed repeatedly on the forum over the years with dedicated topics. Unfortunately, those topics and discussion about it almost always ended up with the same repeated arguments being made back and forth, often quickly ending up being outright offensive and inappropriate. We don’t feel there’s a lot else to be discussed about it without things quickly descending into further off topic or offensive discussion.

As a result of this, last year we took the decision as a team to lock any dedicated topics and remove any posts related to it in future.

I know some will not agree with that decision, but the procedures that the parks have adopted to deal with such days is now long established and has changed very little in recent years. It happens, and the park deals with it as best they can under the circumstances with things getting back to business as usual for the rest of the park‘s operating days.

If anyone has any questions or queries related to this decision, I’m more than happy to discuss with them directly, just drop me a private message

 

[Craig]

Just a note on sharing links from social media. When using the share button, some platforms will often issue a custom link which can reveal your username, or in the case of Facebook - your full name. Although some platforms like Facebook advise you of this custom link - it can be missed.

It's best to copy the address of the post rather than utilise the share button if you don't want this information to be revealed. The team do not actively monitor this, so please do your own checks on your links before posting .

Thanks!