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Recent Debates/Problems/Etc on Forum

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

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.)

Drew has taken an extended break from website stuff. Trying to fix some things personally before dealing with Theme Park shenanigans.

Mike actually left to go to Pixels at the Park last Sept (or Oct?)

Felipe is wrapped up in work/school.

Basically... it may be time to address some needs for the forum and look for more help.
 
It's great to see Hate To Fly assuming a real active role again. He's what originally brought me to the site and I really felt something missing during his "almost" absence. His light handed, friendly approach, plus his knowledge, add so very much to OU. :thumbsup:
 
Dumb ass tourists doesn't personally offend me but I can see how it could others, it could well keep people away from the forums, or even make them think vwice about visiting Florida.

peace :peace:
 
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.

I think it would be a great thing and help alleviate some of the issues people have brought up! If it's an issue of needing someone to tackle that, I volunteer as tribute lol.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions everyone, we're coming up with some new ideas and changes to improve the boards.

I've always been introspective and reflective of my actions and attitudes, so I'm listening to what @martymcflyy85 and @Frogki are saying. One of my first posts I commented on the roughness of the Hulk and one user inferred I was suggesting universal was not performing proper maintenance on the coaster. I clarified my position that it was just the jostling and head banging and the issue was resolved.

One thing I would like to see less of is other site bashing. I feel discussing their issues and bad information is fine when in context, problem is when that starts to roll out of control and into more blanket statements and attacks.

If there are any issues with my posts please call me out. We all have bad days and some of us find ourselves a few beers deep then on the forums, so we don't always have the best filters. :cheers:
 
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.

Wow half of my likes are from Mad Dog, now I don't feel anywhere near as special, the big tart! :)
 
It's great to see Hate To Fly assuming a real active role again. He's what originally brought me to the site and I really felt something missing during his "almost" absence. His light handed, friendly approach, plus his knowledge, add so very much to OU. :thumbsup:

After listening to however many episodes, it was only the last one that I realised that Drew and Andy weren't the same person.
 
After listening to however many episodes, it was only the last one that I realised that Drew and Andy weren't the same person.
Yeah, I get the voices mixed up too....HTF was still pretty actively engaged in the pod casts since his "retirement":) as an insider. He just wasn't posting on the forums much until recently. I've always liked his input, plus he doesn't get snarky, or act superior. He's a genuine good guy. :thumbsup:
 
Yeah, I get the voices mixed up too....HTF was still pretty actively engaged in the pod casts since his "retirement":) as an insider. He just wasn't posting on the forums much until recently. I've always liked his input, plus he doesn't get snarky, or act superior. He's a genuine good guy. :thumbsup:

I always thought that one of the guys was called Andrew and they used Drew and Andy interchangeability for him and they never mentioned HTF's real name to not get him in trouble for all the insider info.
 
Before anything - I want to thank everyone for their input and responses. It's helped us with our discussions about the site going forward. I think it's evident by the responses here, that regardless of our thoughts of how certain recent discussions have transpired, we're still very much a family - just of a unique kind. Maybe not as sunshine and rainbows as other boards, but that's never really been our niche per se.

I totally get where some of you are coming from. Just a couple things I wanna say before we start working on future changes.

To some degree, I think social media hasn't helped attitudes. You can have an insane, asinine opinion with very little repercussions so it can carry over to other places where discussions are held. The good thing about a forum is that there is an all-seeing eye that you don't need to e-mail and wait 2 weeks of investigation for a response.

Still, the internet can be a very hard place to judge tone and intent. I've been guilty myself of assuming something with a post, but the OP's intention was completely different. There are always going to be a clash of personalities on this board, and I'm glad that's the case in some ways. It would be very dull discussion of having everyone saying 100 different ways of "I agree". What I don't like is when the difference of opinion comes off as incredibly rude, as some of you have stated that you feel some posters are guilty of. I don't want any of you guys to feel afraid to post or share your opinion due to fear of "attack". So if you have a particular problem with something/someone, contact me or any of the mods. That's our job to make sure the peace is kept and discussion is civil.

To the new posters: Please always know you are always welcome. Get involved and discuss without an ounce of worry. The staff is here to answer your questions or concerns, along with other helpful members. Regardless of the board or site, I know joining into a discussion is like leaping into the "Lion's Den". You don't want to come off silly-sounding or uneducated. Just remember though, everyone on this board started off at 0 posts and some were just as timid as you may have been at one point.

Another thing I wanna tackle is about discrediting rumors from other sites. Has some put-downs been a little much? Yes - however I will not stop from discrediting rumors if I feel they are unfounded or unreliable. We've entered a world of clickbait and I hate it. It has its place for some things, like countdowns for example - but recently people have been using it to get hits to their site. In some cases, the speculation becomes reality where you eventually see someone new post "HEY THIS SITE SAID DC WAS COMING!" (which should show why some insiders/other sites get a little wound up). As someone who really takes pride on accuracy, I feel it's my job to make sure readers of my site are as informed as they can be with news, history, and rumors.

Also, Cussing. You know it's not allowed on the forums right? I don't have the cleanest vocabulary myself, but I use it at the appropriate times because I know not everyone enjoys seeing F-bombs dropped in a board that is supposed to be for everyone. We're going to star administering infractions for use of obscene language.

Which words are obscene? Well if you have *** it, it's not allowed.

Now I want to address some points directly:

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 give everyone the same amount leash. Once it becomes a problem and I step in is where "leash lengths" are established, and they're the same length. I don't care who is wrong or right or opinion I side with; if I say stop and person continues... I will handle the situation accordingly.

I will disagree with the name calling too because I don't allow that at all. Once an insult has been thrown, I step in and stop the convo. In some cases, we'll delete the whole convo if it gets really heated.

Now, for those "3-4 really cocky arrogant" posters, I've seen the same 3-4 who disagree with them try to "come at them hard". It's been a back and forth type-deal. It's basically, "oh this person posted, here comes the rebuttal from this one" and like clockwork - it happens. In the future, if you feel someone is arrogant, PM a mod and we will handle each situation appropriately.

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.

Very true. I've been a part of boards for 16 years, and owned OU for 8. It's one of those cliche stereotypes of people. Granted they can be addressed better ways in some case.

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.

Well it's not for a lack of trying. :lol:

Now I'm not aiming for OU to be something along the lines of TP or OI, but the Staff knows their stuff here and we could help tremendously - but the board just organically became the place for updates on news, rumors; along with the inner workings of Universal. We will be making a couple changes though that will hopefully introduce more help and planning discussions.

That's it for now. As stated, we'll be making some changes soon along with some other announcements. Look for that in the announcements thread.

Thanks again!
 
I suppose I'll say just a little bit here.

I think adding a "Trip Planning/Help/Etc." sort of forum would be great. I've been visiting Universal since I was a child so I'm not a "newbie." Saying that, trip planning is one of my favorite aspects of visiting Universal every year. I love talking about where I'm going to eat, what's the best time to go, what should I do first, etc. I like learning how people visit and view the parks. It's something I really enjoy. I also enjoy helping people plan their trips.

I read these forums almost daily. I love following the new rides, learning about ride systems and watching construction. I have no experience in these things and a lot of members clearly do. It's intimidating to jump into a discussion when you don't have anything but opinions to offer. Some members don't seem to give any credence to what your average forum member knows/things. If someone posts, "Hi, I'm new here, really looking forward to Kong!" That poster will get a warm response. If you post, "I think that the Kong AA is going to be small because it's easier to maintain," (this is just an example made up on the spot) you get jumped by people insinuating or outright telling you that will never happen. It's the primary reason I'm a reader, not a poster. I hope to see things get a little friendlier.

I will say I have interacted with BriMan, Drew and HTF all on Twitter and they are always kind to me, no matter what the subject.
 
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.
Great point!! and I felt the same way when I shared a pic here about something at one of the UO warehouses that looked like something for a future attraction and even the person who took pic was told by an employee that's what it was. Never Again! because since it didn't match what a few Top Tier here were saying, then the focus was about proving me wrong at all cost and no interest on "what could this be?" and since I know for sure the pic is legit, I quickly realized that this forum was like high school all over again. If you are not part of the "click", then your opinion is not very important. Only one person actually had some interest about it and that's Jungle Skip, so my respect to him for questioning and trying to figure out what it was.
My point is some people here look more into being right and being the main source of information to all, than actually having a conversation with others.
So I agree with your statement, and btw I had the same Video Games Park idea back in 2000, so I think it's a great idea. look where video games were back in the late 70's and early 80's.... Now they are even making movies about them, So yeah man, good idea.
 
I think BriMan did an excellent explanation to address the issues. One specific point that probably sometimes steers a discussion into an unintended direction is "the internet can be a very hard place to judge tone & intent" (BriMan). I've found when I do a post that I think might get misinterpreted, or my humor may be too dry, I try to use those emoticon characters that you can click on. Sometimes those little guys, with their facial expressions :), can convey the feeling of my post better than I can with words. Heh, they might not be a tool for everyone, but give it a try sometimes :thumbsup:....Bottom line though, this is a great forum, the best there is concerning Universal Orlando. Is everything perfect? Of course not. The world is not perfect. Yes, we sometimes have our little disputes. But as long as we remain civil, friendly and "respectful", family will win out....Thank you BriMan, Hate To Fly and Test Track for all the time you put in to make this site the Rolls Royce of Universal Orlando discussion forums. :cheers:
 
I think BriMan did an excellent explanation to address the issues. One specific point that probably sometimes steers a discussion into an unintended direction is "the internet can be a very hard place to judge tone & intent" (BriMan). I've found when I do a post that I think might get misinterpreted, or my humor may be too dry, I try to use those emoticon characters that you can click on. Sometimes those little guys, with their facial expressions :), can convey the feeling of my post better than I can with words. Heh, they might not be a tool for everyone, but give it a try sometimes :thumbsup:....Bottom line though, this is a great forum, the best there is concerning Universal Orlando. Is everything perfect? Of course not. The world is not perfect. Yes, we sometimes have our little disputes. But as long as we remain civil, friendly and "respectful", family will win out....Thank you BriMan, Hate To Fly and Test Track for all the time you put in to make this site the Rolls Royce of Universal Orlando discussion forums. :cheers:
I agree. I definitely still love the forums, I'm just not quite comfortable jumping into the fray yet. I love the content and people really do have a wealth of knowledge that I love to read. I don't bother with any other forum. :)
 
Great point!! and I felt the same way when I shared a pic here about something at one of the UO warehouses that looked like something for a future attraction and even the person who took pic was told by an employee that's what it was. Never Again! because since it didn't match what a few Top Tier here were saying, then the focus was about proving me wrong at all cost and no interest on "what could this be?" and since I know for sure the pic is legit, I quickly realized that this forum was like high school all over again. If you are not part of the "click", then your opinion is not very important. Only one person actually had some interest about it and that's Jungle Skip, so my respect to him for questioning and trying to figure out what it was.
My point is some people here look more into being right and being the main source of information to all, than actually having a conversation with others.
So I agree with your statement, and btw I had the same Video Games Park idea back in 2000, so I think it's a great idea. look where video games were back in the late 70's and early 80's.... Now they are even making movies about them, So yeah man, good idea.

Do you remember what it was about? I'd like to take a look back and see how it was handled.
 
I agree. I definitely still love the forums, I'm just not quite comfortable jumping into the fray yet. I love the content and people really do have a wealth of knowledge that I love to read. I don't bother with any other forum. :)

There's a pretty steep learning curve. Also, our target is factual info.. But that is constantly changing. Take the SLOP rumor - it can replace toon amphitheater or shrek but with how far along in the design process it is, you'd expect some sort of definite location. Where it ends up can be changed tomorrow or the entire project can be dropped. So many times when you see "insiders" quibbling on here it's because something changed or is even in flux and they're representing the various factions or info that's hours apparent in accuracy.
 
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