TowersTimes Forum SW7

[Adz]

As you are no doubt aware this winter TowersTimes will be providing extensive coverage of the SW7 construction via our helicopters and planes. We have invested a considerable amount of time, money and effort into this so we hope you enjoy the forthcoming updates.

We have taken the decision to release updates earlier exclusively for our forum members, this means as a registered member of our forums you will be able to see the photos for a exclusive period in our new SW7 Forum before we upload them to the main website.

We politely remind all members that the TowersTimes SW7 photo coverage is not to be reposted in any form on any other website or forum without express permission from the TowersTimes admin team.

Thank you.

Adz
Forum/Site Admin

Towerstimes.co.uk
Alton Towers from another point of view!

[Nightfall]

I think making the new SW7 discussion Topics Members only is a very bad idea. Having the photos as exclusive I can understand but locking off the whole discussion won’t be good for the site.

People don’t tend to join a forum unless they see discussions that they want to take part in. I browsed TTF for years before I signed up and only did so to join the SW6 discussion. Let's imagine for a second that I am a new member now. I come on here and see the SW7 section but then I notice that the only visible posts haven’t been posted in for months. Chances are I’d leave right then and there and go to another site that appears to be more active. I certainly wouldn’t realise you have exclusive pictures unless you have a few of them on show as a teaser.

Put a blocker on the photos if you have to so that other sites can’t nick them but don’t discourage potential members from browsing these forums by making them sign up first.

[Adz]

It is very much a work in progress at the moment. Although already showing results with new members joining. If we do notice any adverse effects from doing such a thing we will implement changes as necessary.

[Nightfall]

It is very much a work in progress at the moment. Although already showing results with new members joining. If we do notice any adverse effects from doing such a thing we will implement changes as necessary.

Well you probably will see new members joining immediately after you've made it exclusive. They are joining because you forced them to if they wanted to keep following the discussion. I'm thinking more about in a months time when a totally new potential member comes along and to them it looks like the topic has dies.

But as long as you're monitoring it and are aware of the potential downsides then there is nothing more I need to add.

[NastyPasty]

That is a terrible, terrible idea.


Fair enough, prevent re-use of photos. That I can understand.


But you're essentially doing this to boost up numbers in the forums. I find it hard to respect that. Sorry, but I feel that this place is getting worse and worse. What happened to sharing the fun? It saddens me.

[Boz]

Really?
Of course we are trying to boost numbers in the forums, and quite frankly it's working. I'm not sure why you guys are being so negative over it. It doesn't affect you as you are already members, and it livens up discussion. Which at the end of the day, is what we're all here for.

[Luce]

I think there's still fun around the forum, even though it's changed and I agree with Boz in that it's good to have some lively discussion over the closed season.

[Boz]

Exactly
The forum exists for discussion, if there are no members, then there is no discussion, which in turn means there would be no point in having a forum.
The are a lot of secret plans afoot for TT and it's members this winter, which the team is fully committed to delivering. But none of it is worth doing if we don't have a member base. We at TT want to share all of this exciting time with ALL our members, new and old. Hence our recent drive to get more people signing up.
As i said above, it's working. Discussion has already increased dramatically, and there has been a number of new members joining. And as Adz said above, as soon as that is no longer the case, then we will see to changing our approach.

TTF is alive and kicking, so we must be doing something right!

[PeteB]

Boosting forum numbers can't be a bad thing surely? I mean, it's FREE! We're not like Merlin asking you to hand over your wallet. There's no harm in joining something which is free.

Plus, I'd like people just to take a moment to consider what we're doing here. It's not just financial outlay but also the amount of effort the team is putting into bringing you updates on SW7 over the closed season. Of course we want to protect that, certainly for the time being at least.

[Nightfall]

I'm not being negative, just thinking about the future of the site 

Let me try and explain in a different way to how I did above because I think my original point may have been missed:

You see we all know the site was hit hard by the loss of so many members back in June. Recently you guys have done a fairly good job of gaining new members but I'd currently still say the sites strongest asset is its search engine ranking and former reputation. What I mean by this is that most of the people that are joining the site are doing so because they are finding the site on Google, reading it for a few months and then deciding to join.

By making the SW7 topics exclusive you have suddenly encouraged lots of browsing members to join the forum. Forcibly I might add as this is now the only way they can follow the discussion but in the short term this is good for boosting numbers.

But as a side effect those people that find the site from this point on are going to come looking for SW7 info but what they'll find is a forum that only lets them follow the discussion if they sign up. Now I've seen sites do this before, the best example is with the RCT community. The site in question will host something exclusive like a couple of pieces of custom content and insisting people sign up to download it. What tends to happen is that people can't be bothered and go elsewhere, you’d be surprised how reluctant people can be to sign up when they don’t know what they are signing up to.

That is why this decision concerns me. The best way to get people to join a discussion is to let them see it and sign up only when they are ready to add something. By that point they’ll be hooked and you’ve got yourself a permanent member.

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But that’s just my view. All I wanted to do is make you aware of this and insure the decision had been made with proper consideration.

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One final thing, as  you know I now post more actively on TowersStreet than on here. If you are worried that members of this site are going to repost your pictures then I will happily have a word with the team and make sure this is not the case. I have already informed them that you wish for this content to be TTF Members only.

I’ve said all along that I’ve wanted both sites to flourish and would hate to see you disadvantage yourself just to stop other sites from reporting the news. I guaranty that if your pictures turn out as good as we all hope most people will want to join the site without being forced; you might even win a few more members back who are still a bit sour over the situation. But it won’t do you any favours if people think you are doing this because you are desperate for new members which I have to admit was the impression I got when I first spotted this news.

[PeteB]

Nightfall,

Thanks for your post, believe me when I say that we do take everything you've said into consideration. It's a situation that we'll be monitoring closely. If we think it's having a negative effect then of course we'll reconsider what we're doing but up to now we're confident in the decisions we've made as a team.

Yes you're right in that the forum was hit hard when a group of members left, at that time, but TowersTimes still has a huge active member base which has been growing rapidly over the last few months and if you look at our daily post counts we are actually still the busiest community of all Alton Towers fan sites. So we aren't doing this to gain new members.

I'm really pleased you are in support of multiple communities - there's no reason not to after all. I'll be first to admit that I regularly log on to TowersNerd, TowersStreet, and even ATA even though it's pretty much dead now (still good for history stuff). The only way forward is to respect each others communities, work together rather than against each other, and understand that our members are actually real people who are not owned by anybody. If people want to discuss things on other sites then that's fine with us, we're just asking that they don't take our hard work for use elsewhere.

Like I say the bottom line is we aren't doing this to force people into signing up.

[Johno]

'the bottom line is we're not doing this to force people to sign up'

The reason I initially signed up to TTF was that after a long period of browsing the forums, I eventually felt able and happy to write a comment or post.

If you're not able to get comfortable, you're not going to want to join. Similarly, if the discussion you can see as a non-member is just about the Air tunnel and how many gherkins should go on AT burger; you're not going to want to join, compared to discussion of AT's super-dooper new coaster.

[Sam198]

during the night i was thinking about what other people have been saying, and was just wondering if it would be possible to block the ability of guests to see the images you wish to protect, but still allow them to read the discussion as before? you would also be able to make them aware of the situation in this way (inform them that they must sign up to view the images); this solution would cover all of the issues Nightfall highlighted in his post, and would encourage browsers to sign up rather than give them no choice if they wish to continue following SW7 discussion...

[Vanessa Feltz]

We as a team can completely understand that some members may have some upset to this new approach to the Discussion, however, we are dedicated to bringing you all a large topic base and the latest news as possible. However, without the members to carry on a discussion, there will obviously be... no discussion. As a Team we have thought long and hard about how we will be delivering that latest content to you all, it is understandable that we don't want our content to be spread to other locations on the internet, However, we also want as many people as possible to be able to find the content.

The sign-up process is fast, simple and easy to use, the perks of being a member are far greater than those of not, by asking our visitors to sign up, it gives them more reason to join in the topic and discuss their opinions on the construction and development of the resorts latest ventures. I often personally feel that a lot of people feel the need to simply pop on the site and view content as they please, we are not stopping this by any means, we are simply saying that those that wish to see the content as soon as it is available make the decision to join the site and contribute to the growing numbers on our community.

It's a decision we haven't taken lightly, but believe is the best current option.

[Luce]

Another thing to bear in mind is that other websites can be more restrictive when it comes to being able to view their content.  For example, I belong to a funfair site that you have to log in to look at any of the topics and they have implemented a system where any new members have to be recommended by existing members before they can join in the discussion.

I appreciate that us taking the action we have has caused interesting responses but I'm sure things won't change too much and we can all get excited about SW7 when we start to add our exclusive photos of construction.

[JaykeAT]

I completely dissagre with making it members only,it seems quite a childish thing to do. I know it has taken effort to get theese photos but doing this sort of defeats the idea of a forum.

[Boz]

I would disagree. IMO Forums are places of discussion, they don't exist purely for people to look at pictures. That's just a perk, a perk that we have decided to restrict to our members only, for a 48 hour period before we make them public. I look at it as a reward for joining our community and becoming part of the discussion.

Regardless of what your opinions are, it can't have escaped anyone's notice how busy the forum is getting, and it is entirely down to the risk we have taken with this course of action.

[NastyPasty]

Just because other forums restrict access doesn't mean that it's right. 


I find it difficult to believe that this will help in the long term. Around 80% of people won't bother signing up and will instead boost other site's traffic by continuing to search them for images, and of the 20% that do, even less will partake in discussion, and of the few who do, even less are likely to add much to the site. Is it really worth it? I feel it's just a silly approach.


At the end of the day though, I'd like to think of this as more than just boosting figures; it's not everyday that an £18 million, world's first, world beating rollercoaster is built alongside detailed theming. It'll spark a public interest and it seems wiser to encourage new members through choice rather than forcing them. We should all enjoy this construction period together and enjoy the excitement, enthusiasts and the general public alike but this seems to stomp on that idea.


Sorry to be so negative but I can't help feeling opinionated about this one.

[The Terminator]

Well it won't surprise anyone to know that I think this is a good idea.
Why should TT spend money to get exclusive content to have it stolen by other websites. (one especially)
Its no secret that there is no love loss between me and a lot of the members that left in June but it does seem to be mostly them that are complaining and I think its funny that the ones that left now can't see the latest pictures.
Having said that I have a lot of respect for nightfalls views and can see his point but still think its a good move.

[Johno]

Hint. No website has as such stolen any of the pictures.