READ THIS - Parkz Community Guidelines

[Richard]

In order to ensure the smooth and trouble-free interaction of the Parkz Forums, we have the following guidelines that we ask all members to understand and follow.

These guidelines are in addition to the Terms & Conditions that all registered members have agreed to.

General Etiquette

A friendly and helpful attitude is expected at all times.
You aren't expected to like everyone, but you are expected to treat all members with respect at all times.

One-word or single phrase replies are not acceptable.
You should put some thought into a response, even if the answer is straight forward, it doesn't hurt to elaborate.

Gratuitous swearing or obscenities are not tolerated.
We assume our members to be responsible adults and that they will chose their phrasing accordingly. Excessive swearing will be swiftly removed and repeat offenses will have further actions taken.

Certain topics are not permitted to be discussed.
This includes any sort of pornographic images and/or words, racial hate, illegal activities as well as a variety of other issues that would be deemed unsuitable for any reasonable person.

Spelling, punctuation and grammar should be correct and proper at all times.
Take the necessary time to properly form your posts, because if they are not up to standard they may be deleted. Many Browsers these days have built-in spell checkers so there is no excuse for not making the effort.

Doxing -- the discussion of personal information, messages, posts or thoughts of any individual is not permitted.
At no stage should you reveal or hint at personal information about another individual, whether a member of Parkz or not unless such information has been shared by the individual This includes anything sent via any direct or personal messaging system. Statements or comments made by another individual should not be referred to unless they were made with the intention of being public such as in an interview or video intended for public consumption.

Misrepresentation -- do not deliberately misquote or misrepresent another member, post or other source.
Debate issues fairly and based on the merits of the argument. Do not misrepresent another member, This includes using FTFY or 'fixed that for you' misquotes. Deliberately misquoting another member, even for comedic effect is not allowed.

 

Promotion

Users may not create topics, posts for the purposes of advertising or promoting websites, brands, pages or channels.
This is regardless of whether or not the website or content belongs to the user, or whether it is theme park related or not. Users are encouraged to share content from across the Internet for the purposes of stimulating discussion, but not for promotion's sake.

Users may not create accounts, topics, or posts to advertise any company, product or service they are affiliated with.
Users may not register usernames, use words or images in their profile or post any content to promote products, brands, websites, channels or pages that they are affiliated with. Affiliation includes direct or indirect employment, friendship, family or any other relationship.

Members may use brands in their profile to show fondness or affinity for widely known, mainstream brands, such as the username DisneyFan or a display picture of their favourite park, provided they have no affiliation.

We welcome theme park representatives, brands, channels or pages to contact us to set up an officially endorsed account to engage with the Parkz community.

Membership

Users are limited to a single account at all times.
If you would like to change your username or have forgotten your login details, please contact a staff member. Members that have been banned, suspended or had any other restrictions placed on their account cannot register a new account under any circumstance.

Users may not falsely represent themselves.
Members may not use names, images, profile information or post content that suggests or implies affiliation with Parkz, brands, websites  or individuals that they have no bona fide relationship with.

Administration & Moderation

Staff are on the site to ensure things go smoothly. Their authority is not to be undermined at any stage.
If you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to ask any of our staff, either by PM or by posting in the Site Issues forum. If you have an issue with a staff member, please contact an administrator.

We reserve the right to take any action deemed necessary in a given situation.
We hold the unconditional right to take any actions deemed necessary at any time. At the end of the day, it is a privilege, not a right to be a member at Parkz.

Sharing your content with the Parkz community

Parkz is a website for discussing theme parks; the largest, longest running and most reputable in Australia. We actively encourage members to share photos etc. from their experiences, but we want to make sure it's done for the benefit of the community, not for the sake of page likes or website traffic. This site exists as an interactive community, not a space for free and unlimited promotion.

By all means share content and be a part of our community. Parkz is the largest theme park website in Australia; your content will be seen by more eyes if posted in these forums than anywhere else.

We reserve the right to alter, remove or edit any posts that don't comply with this policy.

Posting photos

Upload photos directly to Parkz. Don't hotlink to images on other sites (even if you own the site in question, or it's an image hosting site), because when the image link inevitably breaks, it breaks the content on these Forums. If you upload photos that don't belong to you, provide a line of credit. You are the copyright holder of any original content you post on Parkz, though by doing so you give us unrestricted rights to use that content on Parkz. Basically, they're your photos, but by posting them here you're allowing them to appear on Parkz.

 

Watermarks on photos

Trust us, no one is going to steal your crooked smartphone photo, but if you feel the urge to watermark your photos, please be considerate of your audience and restrict it to one corner in the top or bottom 10% of the image.

 

Posting videos

YouTube is the logical way to share video content. Embed the video directly into your post. Don't link to another website that embeds the video.

 

Linking to off-site content

Members can link to any relevant off-site content they want, provided they are unaffiliated with the website in question. If you have your own content that you want to share, share it with our community by posting or uploading it here, not just linking to it.

 

 

We welcome any feedback or comments on this policy -- please direct this to either the Site Issues forum, or contact me directly.

[Richard]

There is a growing trend towards mega-threads relating to parks which we want to address to try and curb.

Threads should wherever possible be devoted to a single project/topic/debate/discussion. All-encompassing threads like "<Theme Park Name> Updates" really become unmanageable after a while. Ideally we'll like to see the current crop of these threads slowly become replaced.

Though it's a fairly easy way to share thoughts, content or information, they're really not a useful way to function long-term and makes it really hard for anyone who doesn't follow the forums on a regular basis, which is the vast majority of the Parkz audience.

Threads will always veer off-course from time to time. This is fine. If it veers too much off the original topic we'll split it off into its own thread.

As a really simple set of guidelines:

1. Don't be afraid to start a new topic.
2. Don't chastise others for starting a new topic... if it's a duplicate just let us know.
3. If it hasn't been talked about before and isn't related to what's already being discussed it should be in its own topic, even if it's a fairly minor thing.
4. Tag the new topic with the park's name and anything else relevant, which gives great sorting/filtering abilities.
5. If it's really minor, or just a funny observation or side comment then sure, post it in an existing topic relating to that park/ride/etc. Else the Chit Chat forum is the place for unrelated ‘nonsense’.
6. Don't start an open-ended or vague topic like "<Theme Park Name> Updates".
7. When construction ends on a project, and you wish to share a review, thoughts etc., start a new topic for this purpose.

At the end of the day, even if it's a somewhat boring topic ("Sea World replacing a foot bridge!"), it makes more sense to have it off in a thread of its own that only gets a few posts, rather than mixed in with half a dozen other concurrent topics in one mega-thread.

Edited March 11, 2020 by djrappa

[Richard]

In the interests of everyone's sanity, let's try and keep these guidelines in mind when sharing photos from parks.

1. Don't ask for photos
Rest assured if someone is in a position to get photos of something interesting, they will.

2. Don't ask what to take photos of
By the same token, don't ask in advance if anyone wants photos of something in particular. If you see something cool, snap a photo and share it.

3. Don't tell us you're going to be taking photos
We don't need to be told hours or days in advance of your impending visit. No one cares. Share the photos you do get, but you don't need to announce it in advance.

4. Check it's new before posting
Try and keep up to date on the discussion and minimise duplicates.