Ridding the Toxicity

May 10th, actually.

 

For several months now I've had the feeling that everyone on these boards needs to take a chill pill. I've been here nearly 10 years. I have never seen the amount of bickering we've had here lately.
Between the Pandora thread and the Volcano Bay thread I've been hard pressed to find a place where it doesn't dissolve into polarized arguing and near vitrol, for a differing opinion, from anyone.
I love this place. I am moving to Orlando in two weeks and I am thrilled to finally live near and hopefully work within the parks.
Part of the reason for that is the fact that I have grown up on this forum and I have found a community of people who share this passion for theme parks. We're all here, we all have good and bad ideas, and I hope we all love theme parks because if you don't I think you're on the wrong forum.
I am pretty disappointed in most on this board right now. I had thought these issues might be resolved following the issues within the Pandora thread but it seems they have increased ten-fold within VB's discussion.
Can everyone please think a little more about whether what they are posting is truthful, necessary, and polite toward others. We are known for being laid back, and for joking around fairly lightheartedly with one another. I love this place - and much of that is for the wonderful discussion to be had here! I remember a ton of debates over whether Diagon Alley could really happen when the rumors initially began. I guess what I'm asking for is a deeper consideration for our fellow users, all of us. This place is awesome, so are the parks. Thoughtful critique can be great and necessary. Positivity and enjoyment are obviously why we go to the parks. I'd love it if we could avoid losing site of that, because Inside Universal is an awesome place to talk about theme parks and I'd hate to see it go downhill because we couldn't stop fighting with one another.

 

I agree with the above post heavily, and I'm not replying to it individually. But I've seen people point out the rise in arguments who tend to paint this current argument of sorts as a lot more one sided than it actually is.

There are people who are being overly vicious about their feedback at times (what most people are currently talking about from what I've seen), but there are also people who take any form of criticism as an attack and paint people throwing opinions out as impossible to please, that they hate Universal or need to calm down. These can also often be getting done in very belittling or insulting ways.

I at one point in a thread posted "if this is true it'd be a HUGE disappointment" and was told I made assumptions, was being unreasonable and needed to chill when all I did was say IF a certain thing was true it'd be a disappointment. The whole message felt very condescending as a whole in all honesty. Not only that, the post that replied to me received a lot of likes, showing it reflected how a lot of people in that thread felt. That was I believe the first time I posted anything that could be perceived as negative and I had been being very positive about the project too.

There are also a lot of people getting treated like they must hate Disney or Universal over feedback, and I think both sides are currently pushing each other into a corner where it's getting worse and worse.

This isn't my forum, and I can't tell you how to run it especially when I'm newer. But I have ran some of my own smaller communities of sorts, so this is my point of view on it. I think that personally it'd be a good idea to start also trying to do something about the people who overreact to criticism no matter which thread it's in, along with the people who are being vicious so to speak with their criticism.

If this has been attempted and I'm just misunderstanding sorry, but it from point of view just feels right now like only one half of the issue is attempting to be dealt with. I really do respect you guys for taking the time to run these forums, it takes a lot of time and effort. I just wanted to post my view on it as well.

Nothing in this post of sorts was supposed to come off as rude, passive aggressive, etc.
So I apologize if it does come off that way (I get a bit anxious when it comes to my wording with feedback/posts like this).

 

I think IU tends to obviously have a bias toward Universal and I'm actually okay with that as long as users get treated fairly, and typically I believe that's the case here. For the most part I think the mods and Brian do what they can. Honestly, I feel a lot of it comes down to us as users. They can only police so much interaction before it comes down to censoring opinions which I'm positive they really don't want to do.

 

Totally agree with both your posts. Very well said. And I think having a Universal focused site like this is important. But we definitely want to avoid becoming like some of the other pixie dusting forums out there. I think Brian and Company do a fanatic job, but like you said, it's up to the users to be better.

 

I do not envy you all, I see in Brian's posts sometimes a level of frustration that could lead to him just saying "it isn't worth it" and closing the forums. What then? I can't do Disboards :censored:, so there would not be a meaningful Universal forum. Please everyone just think, if you intend to stir the pot step away from the keyboard and give it five to think if that is really what you want to be known for.

Often we seem to need to be right or the best but in the end we are just people on the internet voicing our opinions and if you want to be "that guy" then I don't think this is the place for you.

 

That is what worries me, we almost had the boards close a few months (years?) back only for enthusiasm from the community to keep it open. I really love the sense of community here and I love all of the inside information we gather with such an assortment of indespendible members. I'd be truly sad to lose that.

 

I remember right after I officially joined this old guy, @Mad Dog , welcomed me to the very civil OU forums... remember the good ol' days!

He's always keen to give people the proper welcome, i.e.

 

Old guy. Old Guy. :angry:....Just kidding. .......More like, Old Dog......Heh, thanks for the kind words....But, even I get a little mad (Mad Dog name, rep, & all ) & uncivil sometimes.....I think things will settle once people get to actually experience these new lands, attractions and parks. You Tube videos have a habit of bringing out the negativity in people since they aren't "true" "experiences". Sometimes I wonder if some people ever actually go to the parks.....Get the theme park "happy surroundings" fix, "fun" is intoxicating.....Universal & Disney are doing a lot of wonderful things that no one expected during the "theme parks are a mature industry in Orlando" incorrect business analysis times. Fun times, they are a booming. More great things on the horizon.

 

I trust you both to handle it well, in the past you guys have prove yourselves to be pretty reliable. Once again, thanks for putting in the time with these forums. Not just that, but I can personally vouch that it's never fun to be the party pooper so to speak. People don't seem to realize when you're dealing with other people who are passionate about similar things to you, being "that guy" sucks.

 

Well, since i've no idea what has transpired i think i'm safely not involved. Yay.

 

I remember you were the first to welcome me, also. Much respect to you.

 

Thank you for the good word.

 

There's been an absolute ton of stuff that's happened in the theme park world in the past weeks.

* The opening of the most divisive theme park land in recent memory (Avatar)
* A water park opening that's had a divisive start (VB)
* A ride opening based on a divisive concept (Guardians in Cali)

Everything that the community has argued about over the years has opened in the past couple weeks. Then, add on some of the inevitable growing pains with the merger.

I'm sure that all of this will calm down in a couple weeks and people will go back to normal.

 

The biggest issue with our discussions is that some on here just can't seem to handle opinions of others that don't align with their own.