I'll definitely give Mark that. Engaging with the brand loyalists (us) has earned him and the park a lot of respect in my eyes and would urge the other parks to follow suit in the coming year as they continue to open new attractions. I think this whole idea of needing utmost secrecy is well and truly dead, especially when almost no-one else internationally does it anymore to the level our gold coast parks do and I would even dare say the concept of utter "Apple-esque" hush-hush works to their detriment. Take today's steam train trial at Dreamworld - no-one except for the clued in few and the extraordinarily lucky knew this was going to happen, and given it was a trial today for the park to see if it's worthwhile bringing it back more often, simply engaging their most hardcore fans to drum up hype in advance would've made all the difference.
Taking Mark as a case scenario here, he's effectively taken a group of customers who have an uncanny eye for detail and an unparalleled amount of industry knowledge (for the most part, anyway) and has been able to fine-tune common gripes and potential issues far more efficiently and we in turn have felt actually acknowledged and valued which in turn makes us more passionate about spreading the love for the park and more inclined to help in the future. Welcome to marketing 101 in the 21st century, folks.
And that's not to say the parks don't read this or our feedback either, most do, but I think it's another to sign up for an account and go "hey, we appreciate our most avid fans, and you guys love picking apart crazy details like how to hide Superman in the station, how do you think we should tackle x?" Or "What do you think of the burgers at the new motorsports experience?"
You know what would be even crazier? For them to actually make sneak peaks and content just for the fans, or even create alternate reality games that we can pour hours into figuring out what the next big thing will be.
The crazy thing is that it's totally anything but. Everyone else has been doing this for years, with everyone from Alton Towers to Six Flags and even smaller players like Dollywood doing the very thing i'm referring to.
TLDR: we don't bite, we just seem to bicker. It's the internet, trolls exist; it's all good.