As some of you may or may not have noticed, we have recently had a spring clean of the Reviews Forum. I felt that this was needed because in all honesty there were an awful lot of posts that really weren’t very helpful, even though you all had the best intentions.
All that's now left are the more professional reviews which I think guests will find much more useful instead of having to trail through hundreds of posts (that sometimes were more like trip reports) to find something beneficial for planning their trip – after all this is the entire point of having reviews.
There were 2 pages on ‘Corkscrew’ that was simply a discussion of whether Alton should keep the ride or not, so this topic has been wiped clean. Can some of you please make a nice long review of
Corkscrew, or of the new thread,
The Towers. Thanks from me in advance.
Also, from now on we would like a raise in the quality of reviews. Of course quality comes before quantity; however we would like them to be long if possible so that you can include something that someone else might not have done already. Obviously the length of reviews can range massively from ride to ride. You might manage 600 words on something like
Air or
Nemesis whereas on something like the
Frog Hopper or a
Mc Donalds it probably won’t be more than 7 or 8 lines. Having said this we don’t want you to repeat things just to make it long – I think you’ll be able to judge for yourselves whether or not it is appropriate.
I guess you’d want examples of good reviews, so simply check out what remains after the clear-out to give you a good idea. In addition it may be good to have more structure to your reviews, including your tips to enhance the experience of a particular ride. I have prepared an optional template for those of you who would like some guidance with this.
See below.
Summary comment here ____________________________________________________________________
Review:____________________________________________________________________
Pros: Your points of praise here
____________________________________________________________________
Cons: Your points of criticism here
____________________________________________________________________
Tips: Your useful hints and tips here
____________________________________________________________________
Rating:Simply copy the code from this box if you would like to use it, and all you have to do it replace the words inside the ‘list’ tags to complete the review.
Code:
[b][size=20] Summary comment here [/size][/b]
____________________________________________________________________
[size=15][b]Review:[/b][/size]
[list] Your review here [/list]
____________________________________________________________________
[color=green][size=15][b]Pros:[/b][/size][/color]
[list] Your points of praise here [/list]
____________________________________________________________________
[color=red][size=15][b]Cons:[/b][/size][/color]
[list] Your points of criticism here [/list]
____________________________________________________________________
[size=15][b]Tips:[/b][/size]
[list] Your useful hints and tips here [/list]
____________________________________________________________________
[size=15][b]Rating:[/b][/size]
[list] Your mark out of 10 here [/list]
Remember that your review is simply to help guests to plan their trip, so they are likely not to be aware of all the common abbreviations and may not be sure what the ride is in the first place, so please be careful with what you write.
Normal review guidelines continue to apply.
Just as a quick reminder, posts will probably be deleted without warning if they are;
- trying to initiate or reply to discussion
- trip reports/life stories
- questions that are not rhetorical
- ‘reviews’ when you haven’t even experienced the attraction
- ‘reviews’ of just a few lines
- posts simply for the purpose of you reviewing every ride
If you would like to discuss any way to improve the review system, you can of course PM me or any other reviewer, and your views will be taken into account.
Thank you
