Recent Debates/Problems/Etc on Forum

[Brian G.]

I was thinking one of these:

1) something akin to what ThemeParkReview does. The first post gets edited every time major news shows up and basically summarizes the whole forum. Or the first post could link to all the major update posts in the thread.

2) a new thread made specifically for summarizing everything that is known and rumored at this time that can be updated weekly. Maybe have a different one for each Company and place it where the park threads are listed.

That's... actually a really good idea. Me likes it.

We actually used to do that. Former Moderator Tbadd was really good at keeping the threads updated. Just being pressed for time has not let us keep that going since he left. If it's something you guys would like to see return to help keep everything updated, than I can see about getting that going.

As a daily reader but extremely rare poster I thought this may be a good time to throw my 2c in when the topic may be so prevalent to people who read but possibly never post/join:

Dumb Tourists / Knowledge - Possibly not something many of you will realize you are even doing whilst posting, and I totally understand why, given I do understand what you mean by so called "dumb tourists" on occasion, but please do not tar us all with the same brush! This will be my 5th year in a row spending a small fortune over at least 2 weeks travelling over from Ireland, and it really disheartens me when I am traversing the forums and see the umbrella reference to "dumb tourists".

This (and one or two others) is where I come to to hear people talk about/discuss rumors regarding HHN, Skull Island, Hulk re-opening etc. When I eagerly open the forum during a quiet 5 mins at work to hear the latest news and check my countdown (178 days yay!) to the next trip, I see these negative comments regarding how dumb tourists won't understand what is going on, and I quote *edit: had a quote in before I posted, but thought I should not single somebody out as I have seen it many times*.

I would consider myself pretty knowledgeable on all things Orlando, however, upon once asking a question here regarding a simple difference in EU and US policies, I felt chastised at my lack of knowledge.

End rant, hope not to alienate/annoy anybody, these are but my personal musings, seen plenty of UK/EU posters round these parts - maybe they just know not to tar themselves with the dumb tourist brush and I need to do the same

An expanded Trip Planning/Help thread may be a great option!

 

[epcyclopedia]

A note on settling things like adults...

Being an adult is not all a game of doubles tennis. Not everyone is going to get along and people will say things that will offend each other and sometimes people will even grow to greatly dislike each other.

Very few wars started by children.

So my advice is to pull yourself up by your bootstraps (or wadded up panties as the case may be) and grow a thicker skin.

It's words on the Internet. Quoth RuPaul: Bitch, get stronger.

 

[Fatality]

A note on settling things like adults...

Being an adult is not all a game of doubles tennis. Not everyone is going to get along and people will say things that will offend each other and sometimes people will even grow to greatly dislike each other.

Very few wars started by children.

So my advice is to pull yourself up by your bootstraps (or wadded up panties as the case may be) and grow a thicker skin.

It's words on the Internet. Quoth RuPaul: Bitch, get stronger.

All t, all shade, all pink lemonade, BUT

 

[Mad Dog]

Sorry, but I prefer the kindly, gentle OU we've all grown to love. And that's what has differentiated OU from the hostile forums prevalent on most other theme park sites.

 

[P@n!K_Sw1tC#]

I'm a big proponent of settling arguments with thoughts and opinions. When you call people names on the internet, you're accepting defeat because you cant rebut with intelligence. So while I agree with RuPaul, my takeaway is more or less "Bitch, you need to get smarter!". And please, for the love of God, do not model your community after Theme Park Review.

 

[Brian G.]

I will say this:

Having a different opinion is just fine. I welcome it.

Being an obnoxious ass.hole about it is not, and is something I won't tolerate.

 

[martymcflyy85]

Ok, gonna tell you my story. I found this website because of Hate to Fly's famous King Kong post. Until that time, I never realized there were forums out there with "insiders" like this. I had always gotten my knowledge from Screamscape (which is a cuss word on this site). And the only theme park community forum I knew was the DIS, which in my opinion is full of super nice people who genuinely try to help each other with theme park questions and they tend to be a very patient bunch with things like repeat questions. We could learn a lot from them. I was also part of one other community, and that is merqurycity.com, which is a video game community for fans of the snowboarding game, SSX. And if you've ever been to that site, its a place where you actually feel like "family" and everyone treats each other equally and with great respect. So obviously when I joined this site, I just expected it would be the same.

So I joined...and my first post was something that I had in my head for a really long time (years) and now I could finally tell people about it. So I created a thread basically saying wouldn't it be cool if one day someone decided to build a VIDEO GAME theme park? Well...I got trashed. I mean I literally got destroyed. And dude..it broke my heart. I was thinking to myself, wow this place is full of some really arrogant, cold-hearted people. It was a dose of reality for me. I went away telling myself I'm never coming back to this evil place again. But then I was like...man, I want to find out more about King Kong though. So I came back. And for a long time, I would just read only and never post. I finally got the nerve to post again. And now I've been here a while and I am not a noob anymore. And I see how they like things done here. I learned that this forum is for a certain sub-set of people. This is not a forum that is really friendly to questions like "where is guest services located" and things like that.

And every time I see some NEW person post here I cringe because I know the zing is coming from the veterans. And I want to just reach out to this person by private message and save them from being hurt. I want to tell them, hey you should ask that question over in DIS. In general, this forum only gives respect to those that have "inside" knowledge. And you can't be a new person with inside knowledge because you'll automatically be shot down because you don't have a high post count. And instead of giving the person a chance, they are made to feel like they are a liar because they said something that Teebin or Jungle Skip didn't say (just throwing those 2 names out there as examples...not trying to call them out).

That is my ONE BIG GRIPE about this site, is that there are about 3 or 4 really cocky arrogant posters who want people to hang off their every word, or who make sarcastic comments putting others down, or both. And there are those who get upset when someone says something that they don't agree with. And they resort to name calling and then it goes to a back and forth until it devolves into seeing which one has the biggest measurements. And to me, some of the biggest offenders are the ones who have the most knowledge and have been here the longest. So it seems like they get a bigger leash than someone who hasn't been around as long. And that's understandable, and in a way I have no problem with that. Because without the insiders, then this forum wouldn't be nearly as active. But still, it does not mean that they should be able to get away with everything in the book just because they have power.

I really enjoy the recent trend of people saying "welcome to the forums" when a new poster arrives. That is something that was never done when I joined. And over the time I've been here I've seen some really nice people get run off because they were accused of being a false insider for stealing other people's inside information, or basically because they had the gall to bring up DC land or dare I say it...they actually say something nice about Disney. So the fact that there are some of us who are NOT insiders and we are still here, I see it as a badge of honor. We made it through the boot camp. And my skin is much thicker now thank you very much.

I keep reading comments about nice this forum is. I am a member of WDWMagic, but I never post there. So I guess compared to that place, this place overall is pretty nice. I specifically want to call out Mad dog. But in a good way. That dude is like one of the nicest people you'd meet anywhere. For one..he "likes' everything. hahaha. And two, he always makes his posts friendly, even when he disagrees with someone. We need more people like that here. And they are out there, but they are afraid to join. I think this forum needs to be more friendly to newcomers, specifically those from the "DIS" mindset. I once made a comment saying that when Nintendo comes, this forum will be full of soccer Moms. And the comments that followed were basically saying things like Oh please no, hopefully not. Why not? Don't they have a voice too? Its a whole segment of the population that could make this forum even greater, but they are turned away by the few bullies who think they own the place.

 

[Mad Dog]

Ok, gonna tell you my story. I found this website because of Hate to Fly's famous King Kong post. Until that time, I never realized there were forums out there with "insiders" like this. I had always gotten my knowledge from Screamscape (which is a cuss word on this site). And the only theme park community forum I knew was the DIS, which in my opinion is full of super nice people who genuinely try to help each other with theme park questions and they tend to be a very patient bunch with things like repeat questions. We could learn a lot from them. I was also part of one other community, and that is merqurycity.com, which is a video game community for fans of the snowboarding game, SSX. And if you've ever been to that site, its a place where you actually feel like "family" and everyone treats each other equally and with great respect. So obviously when I joined this site, I just expected it would be the same.

So I joined...and my first post was something that I had in my head for a really long time (years) and now I could finally tell people about it. So I created a thread basically saying wouldn't it be cool if one day someone decided to build a VIDEO GAME theme park? Well...I got trashed. I mean I literally got destroyed. And dude..it broke my heart. I was thinking to myself, wow this place is full of some really arrogant, cold-hearted people. It was a dose of reality for me. I went away telling myself I'm never coming back to this evil place again. But then I was like...man, I want to find out more about King Kong though. So I came back. And for a long time, I would just read only and never post. I finally got the nerve to post again. And now I've been here a while and I am not a noob anymore. And I see how they like things done here. I learned that this forum is for a certain sub-set of people. This is not a forum that is really friendly to questions like "where is guest services located" and things like that.

And every time I see some NEW person post here I cringe because I know the zing is coming from the veterans. And I want to just reach out to this person by private message and save them from being hurt. I want to tell them, hey you should ask that question over in DIS. In general, this forum only gives respect to those that have "inside" knowledge. And you can't be a new person with inside knowledge because you'll automatically be shot down because you don't have a high post count. And instead of giving the person a chance, they are made to feel like they are a liar because they said something that Teebin or Jungle Skip didn't say (just throwing those 2 names out there as examples...not trying to call them out).

That is my ONE BIG GRIPE about this site, is that there are about 3 or 4 really cocky arrogant posters who want people to hang off their every word, or who make sarcastic comments putting others down, or both. And there are those who get upset when someone says something that they don't agree with. And they resort to name calling and then it goes to a back and forth until it devolves into seeing which one has the biggest measurements. And to me, some of the biggest offenders are the ones who have the most knowledge and have been here the longest. So it seems like they get a bigger leash than someone who hasn't been around as long. And that's understandable, and in a way I have no problem with that. Because without the insiders, then this forum wouldn't be nearly as active. But still, it does not mean that they should be able to get away with everything in the book just because they have power.

I really enjoy the recent trend of people saying "welcome to the forums" when a new poster arrives. That is something that was never done when I joined. And over the time I've been here I've seen some really nice people get run off because they were accused of being a false insider for stealing other people's inside information, or basically because they had the gall to bring up DC land or dare I say it...they actually say something nice about Disney. So the fact that there are some of us who are NOT insiders and we are still here, I see it as a badge of honor. We made it through the boot camp. And my skin is much thicker now thank you very much.

I keep reading comments about nice this forum is. I am a member of WDWMagic, but I never post there. So I guess compared to that place, this place overall is pretty nice. I specifically want to call out Mad dog. But in a good way. That dude is like one of the nicest people you'd meet anywhere. For one..he "likes' everything. hahaha. And two, he always makes his posts friendly, even when he disagrees with someone. We need more people like that here. And they are out there, but they are afraid to join. I think this forum needs to be more friendly to newcomers, specifically those from the "DIS" mindset. I once made a comment saying that when Nintendo comes, this forum will be full of soccer Moms. And the comments that followed were basically saying things like Oh please no, hopefully not. Why not? Don't they have a voice too? Its a whole segment of the population that could make this forum even greater, but they are turned away by the few bullies who think they own the place.

Thank you Marty, you made my day. And you're good people too. Thank you, my friend...

 

[graspthesun]

I think the biggest issue that I see isn't what is being said, but how it's being said. The tone of some commenters comes across as condescending or dismissive and I cringe when I read it. I definitely haven't been posting as much lately because I feel like my musings or opinions don't matter or that they'll be rebuffed as frivolous.

 

[epcyclopedia]

Well in reality all of this is frivolous.

The closest we can say this comes to mattering is on the point of money - there's a lot to be lost or gained based on the concensus of the public.. And little spots like this are where that concensus begins.

There's a whole lot of marketing gobbilty gook to explain how core brand advocate early adopters will sway the general public opinion.. But the simple version is to say I'll tell 5 friends, you'll tell 5 friends, etc...

And you'd think the power would lie with the bigger populations like the Dis but it doesn't. The disboards aren't concerned with the intricacies of the "new" and honestly, many of those people don't form opinions. Rather, they simply adopt the opinions of rose around them. Which comes back to places like this.. Where somE folks also visit the Dis but express the shared sentiment formed over here.. To be cloned by the no thinker.

Where was I? Oh yeah, frivolity. None of this matters. Unless you're worried about multimillion dollar projects. Then suddenly the stakes are much higher.

 

[hishedale]

I just joined not too long ago, but I haven't really been harassed like @martymcflyy85 has.

 

[Frogki]

I think part of the problem is the fact that with some of those speculation threads (and I'm not picking on you marty but you just posted your example) such as your video game park thread, there's this idea that because it's an idea, it should be respected as any other theory. I think this frustrates some of the people who feel that it's better not to discuss than to keep hashing out something that isn't much more than a fantasy. I don't think it has so much to do with being new (and it's been a while since that thread so my memory may be off) as it was trying to reiterate that while it might be a great idea, we know it just won't happen in the real world.

As for the comment on 'new insiders', often those who immediately started making claims either said things outlandish, ridiculous and utterly laughable or started arrogantly preaching their statements as fact with absolutely no line of credibility. It's not that we don't welcome new insiders, as I see it. It's more that we're not immediately going to believe anyone who waltzes onto the forum and says "OMG guyz, Universal is getting rid of Marvel!". Particularly when other insiders tell us what they know.

Just to clarify I'm not trying to throw away you're problem with things marty, I understand how you feel and I agree I've seen a certain degree of hostility and I don't think any members of the forum actually want to keep new comers away. I like to think of us as a family myself, and I hope that a majority of posters here feel welcome. I do think some things are justified though, particularly with new "insiders" immediately posting something from left field. If you know your stuff then you'll show it over time.

 

[Jon84]

I enjoy keeping up to date with stuff on here, because the Geek in me loves the construction side of theme parks.

This forum is not a 'Help' type forum like say Disboards (massive bitching fest over there both between each other and towards TWDC in general, with Mods that are so rude and suffer from 'know it all syndrome'). Any newbie who doesn't read some threads first will be in for a shock if they want to post to ask whether the Disney Dining Plan is good value, or when is the best time to book a fireworks cruise for Illuminations. I wouldn't join a Video Game forum that centered around how the games were developed, if I wanted to just ask questions about release dates, and walk through guides. OU certainly has it's place in the Theme Park forum field.

It is very Universal-centric, dare I say sometimes slightly biased, especially in terms of business acumen opinion, which again is fine, but when someone does make a valid point that Universal dared to do something that failed or didn't go as planned, some users keep the rose coloured specs securely on. Some could say that Disney a student who is paying her own way through college and making some bad choices along the way, where as Universal could be seen as the student who has a Sugar Daddy in place paying her rent so she can concentrate on her studies. (Dunno if that analogy worked!!)

Forums always have conflicting personalities an this is far from the worst I've visited.

I think one problem as been the reduction is staff presence recently, not sure where Drew, Mike and Felipe have gone? (We've all got lives and stuff going on I get that, but not knowing they are going somewhere takes away from the community feel of a forum.)

Some people who are 'in the know' about rumours etc can be condescending to users who have not read years worth of posts that show they are a trusted source of information. This does not look good to potential new users, and to a point those with information can feel like they want to keep it to themselves, and just share with a smaller community.They wouldn't want to see a massive influx of new users because they post, then it's all over twitter in minutes, and they don't get their pat on the back for it.

 

[Jon84]

Thank you Marty, you made my day. And you're good people too. Thank you, my friend...

I've gotta agree with Marty, at the moment you are solely the community aspect of this forum at the moment.

 

[Mad Dog]

I've gotta agree with Marty, at the moment you are solely the community aspect of this forum at the moment.

Thanks Jon. You made my morning a happy moment ......You know, when I visited the UK (twice), I met so many really fine gracious people that went out of their way to make us feel welcome. And while playing/coaching/officiating football(soccer) for over forty years, I've had the pleasure of playing along and against many players from the UK, everyone of them excellent people. ...And now, on this OU site, I've again met so many UK'ers that are really good people...Thank you all. :thumbsup:

 

[Jon84]

Thanks Jon. You made my morning a happy moment ......You know, when I visited the UK (twice), I met so many really fine gracious people that went out of their way to make us feel welcome. And while playing/coaching/officiating football(soccer) for over forty years, I've had the pleasure of playing along and against many players from the UK, everyone of them excellent people. ...And now, on this OU site, I've again met so many UK'ers that are really good people...Thank you all. :thumbsup:

No worries dude. I know places where there are UK people you don't wanna meet

 

[Mad Dog]

No worries dude. I know places where there are UK people you don't wanna meet

Now that's funny. I just choked on my muffin.

 

[graspthesun]

Also, I've noticed that swearing is way up since even three months ago. It doesn't bother me, as I drop f bombs all day long at work, it's just been a noticeable uptick since the days where piss was scolded.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Thanks for all the inputs so far.

 

[Brian G.]

Also, I've noticed that swearing is way up since even three months ago. It doesn't bother me, as I drop f bombs all day long at work, it's just been a noticeable uptick since the days where piss was scolded.

I've tried to edit that when I see it. I was actually going to address it in my upcoming post. I'll let a couple "lighter" words slide from time to time but yea, it's gotten a bit much lately.