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TowersStreet Progress Discussion

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mrbrightside said:
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Fair enough Craig, Ian and Joel.

But I think that graph shows a worrying decline in the site already.

I remember All Other Attractions being quite busy when the site opened, but now I seem to be the only one keeping it up to date with minor news. The forum as a whole seems a lot less busy than last month. :-\

If I were you (though obviously I'm not!) the way I'd stem this slow decline is to just upload main site stuff literally as soon as I've finished it, and tidy it up later! :)
 
Well about 80% of the regular posters have spent the majority of this month out of the country. That's probably why.
 
Sam said:
I remember All Other Attractions being quite busy when the site opened, but now I seem to be the only one keeping it up to date with minor news. The forum as a whole seems a lot less busy than last month.
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When the forum first started there was an awful lot of spamming of old news which haven't actually been touched since. Now what's being posted is genuine up to date news so there's obviously not as much of it but it's gaining more attention. Also it might be you that's mostly posting it but I seem to remember that was normally the case anyway :p

I also have to agree with Diogo. Most of us have been away and have other things on our mind at the moment. I don't think I've noticed any regular members leaving so as long as we don't all decide to abandon ship yet the forum will stay lively for long enough for the team to do what they need to do.

Now I must get back to writing 2 trip reports...
 
Bare in mind though that there is going to be a slight decline. In the first few weeks a lot was happening, with topics coming up left right and centre. Now we have those topics though there's obviously less new ones to keep creating. We can't be responsible for not much happening in the industry :p It'll be the same for any site.

Discussion happens, and topics are created when big news surfaces. But as with any area news varies. Sometimes you get those weeks where it seems like everything is happening. The next it can be dead as a dodo, with nothing happening. There's not an awful lot we can do to make the industry more exciting :p There will be ups and downs. It's the same for everyone.

Also, bare in mind that those figures are simply for the forums. There are a lot of people who will come to the site just looking for information, and probably never even set foot in Talk, or if they do it will be as a guest. Yes, those numbers give an insight into the forums, but they don't tell you anything about the site itself. We have our theme park info pages which attract individuals seeking a piece of information for their day. These people aren't interested in joining a forum. They've just done a quick Google search for "Alton Towers Fastrack" for example, landed on us, got what they wanted and left it at that. That's how the Internet is. I'm sure a lot of us have done it many times! Wanted to find something, so done a quick Google search and clicked on a site for a simple answer.

Uploading a site and going back to "tidy it up" as we've said is easier said than done. The way we're building this site means there's a lot more going on then it may seem. We're all working flat out. We can't do any more than that. Launching the site unfinished and in an improper state would be unprofessional and send out the wrong message to our unique visitors who will pop on to look for one piece of info before leaving. It's important to make the right first impression with these things if we want to stand a chance of getting more people to become return visitors. If they come and see an unfinished product, with typos, wrong info, and any other things which could arise as a result of a premature launch sends out completely the wrong message about the site, and may discourage them from viewing us again should they need to. First impressions are important.

Obviously, getting a site live ASAP is one of our priorities of TowersStreet, but we don't want to spoil what we've already got. We've been working hard to make our mark with our existing pages, Talk, meet(s) and social network sites. After how much work has been going into that we don't want to throw it away by earning reputation for an unprofessional site. I'm not sure where this idea of the "race" has come from. Naturally, it is good to break something first, but if it comes at the expense of long term consequences then that needs to be considered too. Slow and steady wins the race :p

As Craig has said, we are going to be launching in sections, but the size of those sections is determined by the site structure (And we're not changing that unless you want another few months wait ;) ) so until we have completed the work needed in that section it simply won't work when live. We're all working flat out to get something ready to go live though, and all we can ask is that you bare with us a little longer :)
 
Also on the back of everything - even on TT there was always a "summer dip" as everyone goes out to enjoy the sun rain wind late summer evenings and holidays etc - so I'm not concerned with what I see at all.

But point is we've heard what you're saying Sam, and it genuinely has been a priority for us - we were having a conversation about what we were ready to launch over the last few days and how we're going to do it, so we are almost there now, and as you say we have made some small compromises to launch that, and we knew that before this conversation started too :p

Our spell checking monkeys have their dictionaries in hand and we're whipping them as hard as we can! :D
 
*rubs sore backside*

Yeah thanks for encouraging them on this, Sam :(. I take two days off sick and suddenly Joel is at my door, YELLING AT ME to spell check everything in my dying state. I hope you're happy now.

JOKES. :D!!

There is so much work going on right now it beggars belief. To wake up in a morning to find three team members having been hard at work on the site for hours overnight is astonishing.

We're all chipping in wherever we can - text write ups, image gallery preparation, feature developing, news article discussions, social media prompts, and LOADS more.

You might not be able to see a lot of it right now, but to quote a well known advertising quip "we only let you have it when its ready"!

We're not interested in 'beating' anyone. Our priority is creating and maintaining a worthy site, suited to our fantastic community. We owe it to you, and the interwebs, to provide a functional and informative site that is fit for purpose.

We're close, but as had been said by three or four folk above me, with so many pages linking into one another, it'd be tough to release things in stages and have them in an acceptable state - there's nothing more frustrating than broken or missing links!

No one wants sympathy, just a little understanding that we're all busy behind the scenes with the site, while juggling personal lives that incorporate holidays, jobs and other such commitments :).

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk 2
 
Also you wont frickin believe how much research is needed just to write the Mutiny Bay page, theres more than 30 years of history there and if you get it wrong Squiggs gets the big stick out!!!

:D
 
Since when did the Tapatalk notice pop up whenever you visit the site on mobile? It seems a bit spammy and I don't want to have to see it every time I visit on my phone!
 
I believe Joel was performing some Tapatalk updates last night, so it's probably a result of this. I dare say it can be disabled and he just didn't spot it :p

We'll look into removing it :)
 
Really we dont want to be a location for attacks on TT sometimes plans dont go to timetable and im sure they will update the site well. The history of TT and TS is well known but it is history and we see TT no differently to any other Alton fansite and think competition is healthy.
 
oh im not starting any thing but its not much really after some of the hype
 
Ok, why are we talking about TT technical work on TST? I believe it was back ground stuff being worked on last night :D
 
On a sidenote.... Tapatalk was updated last night, and now integrates further into the forum apparently, and actually has push notifications for PMs I believe (instead of polling/pull notifications)... although don't quote me on that because I've not tried it :p

I've disabled their horrible Javascript popup too... by removing the code from the Javascript source files lol, so you might need to refresh it hard for that to take affect. :D
 
I have to say, and this is not at all a dig, this site really is designed and is beginning to work much better than TTF was. I much prefer the layout and the colourscheme is really unique and befitting with the AT theme.
 
Just noticed the new scrolling SW7 banner on the homepage - very swish and professional, kudos to whoever designed it! :)
 
Still getting this issue at the top of the page, have been for a while - on Chrome :)

problemga.jpg
 
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