AJ Posted December 23, 2012 Report Share Posted December 23, 2012 (edited) Good day to all you fine people We have many exciting things planned for you all in terms of mania hub trips for the future. However all these potential plans are no good at all if no one wants to do it or plain right interested. And also your suggestions maybe things we have never actually thought of and might one day become reality. This is the central point where all of you wonderful members can express: What trips you would like to happen? How often you would like a meet to take place? How much warning you need so you can prepare? What improvements in general you would like to see happen on the meets? What actually happens at the TPM meets? Now please can I express again that this is a place where you can put your thoughts/ concerns across about the TPM meets? Not everything is going to happen straight away , but I will try my best to accommodate as many things as possible. This post eventually will be regularly updated to answer the most common things and basically turn into a mini guide whilst also opening up the table to hear your opinions. At the end of the day without you - we have no community! What you can expect from a meet so far: There will be a variety of trips happening at Thorpe Park throughout the year as we are the Official Fan Site, but there will be an excursion to Chessington & Alton Towers during the year plus some additional social event extra's. Once an event is over there will usually be an after party if you don't want the fun to stop with a possible over night stay. After a trip has happened, another new trip will be announced a week later. The day of the trip will have a suggested date that will suggest different days of the week, but this date will be put up to a poll alongside other dates to see what day is the most popular within the community for 2 weeks before the poll is closed and the actual date is confirmed. Due to this method you will sometimes find the next 2 upcoming trips as the next trip will already have been confirmed after the previous meet! This will mean you will wait no longer than 8 weeks before the next meet and often a lot shorter. If attending a Theme Park, we will meet 30 minutes before park opening, to take opportunity of the low queues before another meeting time at 11am for those who couldn't get there for park opening. After which if you do arrive later (or want to join in between opening and 11am) you will have the contact numbers of the team so we can arrange to meet you, so you will still be able to join us. Before a meet takes place, you will receive a PM by myself with my contact details for your first point of contact and also of the mod/ admin team confirmed attending the meet if for whatever reason you are unable to get hold of me. This will ensure you will always be able to find the group! When you come to a meet and arrive at the beginning of the day and ain't too shy, there will be a short period where everyone will get to say who they are and reveal 3 interesting facts about them. Later in the day once everyone attending has arrived there will be a small optional 'get to know each other activity' which should encourage some conversation starters so you'll get to know your fellow TPM Members. For exclusive ERT events, you will get a provisional place on a first come first served basis. However confirmed places will be sent to you by a PM after those who are interested have been confirmed. Confirmed places will be given to those who have taken an active interest in attending meets and/ or who have been to meets. The more interest you show the more of a priority you will become to gain an exclusive spot. This ensures that people who actively try to attend (whether they can or not) will gain a spot and those who only turn up to an exclusive ERT event to not ever be seen again will not! If you wish to attend a meet, you are more than welcome to bring up to 2 friends along with you. If you decide to do so, when you confirm your place on a meet please also state that you will be attending with a plus 1 or 2 and the name/s of those coming with you as we would like to include them too. A group photo will be taken usually around lunch time as at this point, everyone who should have arrived to the meet who is attending will be there. It also means we get 5 minutes to let our food settle down before more activities. Edited January 24, 2016 by Peaj Updated In response to some posts raised Mer and Phill Pritchard 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted December 23, 2012 Report Share Posted December 23, 2012 How about making a meet properly (I.e. have it ALL day, not meet up for an hour and then that's it... That does not a meet make)... It's rather simple to do all day meets really... Loads of other forums do it with much larger numbers than what TPM have... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted December 23, 2012 Report Share Posted December 23, 2012 What trips you would like to happen?How often you would like a meet to take place? How much warning you need so you can prepare? What improvements in general you would like to see happen on the meets? What actually happens at the TPM meets? 1) The usual really. Thorpe trips, perhaps a Chessie and Alton one thrown in if they're popular enough, as well as the normal Closed Season meets. ERT trips are great as well if possible! 2) Regularly. I know that will mean different things to different people, but hey-ho. I don't see why one can't be done every 6-8 weeks say, as long as enough people are turning up. It's trickier around certain times (Closed Season, exam times in May/June for example), but 6-8 weeks seems achievable. 3) For me personally, I don't normally need too much warning, but that depends on the time of year. As a general thing, I think a minimum of 3 weeks during open season / for 'smaller meets', and anything up to 6 weeks for 'larger meets' / closed season. One random thing I'll throw in here - is it possible to try and keep a mixture of days? As in, not have all meets on a Saturday, say - have some on Saturdays, some on Sundays, etc., with the occasional midweek one? Even with advanced warning, people may not be able to make certain days outright (for example, Sundays for me are particularly difficult to do), so to have a mixture of different days will help more people come along. 4) All day meets perhaps (maybe say, meeting an hour after opening to allow people time to get there)? As it's stood in the past, official meet up times have been about 1 or 2 in the afternoon? If a park closes at 5 or 6, that isn't too long, especially if people need to leave early. As Benin says, a quick meet for say an hour doesn't make a proper 'meet' really. (This was something which knocked my confidence on my first meet - it didn't stick together as a group for long. Not saying that it created a bad reflection on anyone, but for someone who was shy and nervous, it didn't help. Fortunately, that didn't stop me from attending a future meet, which was much better, but did knock my confidence for a bit to be honest.) Also, make sure a group photo happens and is always posted in the appropriate topic after the meet? Helps keep those fond memories and may encourage more people to join in, seeing a happy group together each time. 5) TPM meets should be about meeting people from the boards, primarily. You can to a theme park with anyone, and ride the rides any time (this would presumably be the case for most of us, considering we're on here! ). So really, just get to know people, make friends, see people you've met on previous meets, spoken to in the Chat Room and so forth, and then ride some rides and such. And the most important thing that should happen on a meet - everyone has fun! I've only been on 2 meets in the 4 years I've been on here, but now I'm a more confident person, I will no doubt be going to more in the future. I look forward to seeing what exciting things are planned! pluk and Sidders 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smidget Posted December 23, 2012 Report Share Posted December 23, 2012 I agree with Benin and Josh about all day meets. All the meets I have been to have ended up being meet for an hour or so in the middle of the day, and then we just end up splitting back into smaller groups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mer Posted December 23, 2012 Report Share Posted December 23, 2012 Agreed with the above, I miss the old days where meets where about being a community and we stuck together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smidget Posted December 23, 2012 Report Share Posted December 23, 2012 One of the reasons I like the Colossus meet so much is because everyone was together for the ERT and I was able to talk to other members on here rather than sticking with the ones I know the most. Granted we didn't meet until the end of the day, but it's the only one I've been on in which I felt like part of a community. Even though people were still in smaller groups it still felt more "together" than other meets have. JoshC. and Liam T 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBobJones Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 The key for me to getting the most out of TP is to get there as the gates open and head straight to Stealth/Nemesis/Saw and Colossus, you can easily get these done in the first 30/40 mins if your quick, this then means you have more time to chill out later when the queues fill up and you can do quieter rides like Loggers, Vortex, Rush etc then after lunch to the Swarm when the main rush is over. But if there is a meet, then people need to turn up on time, we don't need excuses like missing busses and if the group end up getting into the park at 11am as they have been waiting outside for some late comers, then the whole group will end up spending a lot more time in queues which could have been avoided. For example if the park opens at 10, we all know on a Saturday/Sunday the gates open at 9:30, then the meet time should be 9am, that way it allows time for people to meet up and if somebody is running late then there is a 30 min window. I would rather queue up for 30 mins waiting for the gates to open and get more rides in than get in late and queue for ages. If you are the first people at Stealth, you can often get 2-3 re-rides in before you have to start going back around the queue lines as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 I think we need a radical new way of doing things. Firstly, scrap the thorpe trips. Noone likes thorpe anyway. Let's go towers instead. Secondly, remove all the current members from the meets. It's obviously not working if they don't stay together longer than an hour - this is a people problem, not a trip problem. So by removing them we have a fresh start. Thirdly, announce it randomly spur of the moment. That means people who genuinely wanna go will go. Finally, as everyone says make sure it's all day. No leaving early, if you miss your bus and cant get home, tough. That's what a meets about. You stick together. Might need something to keep people together, either duct tape or hire police with tasers. That's what I've gotta say on the issue. BigBobJones, Sidders, Laelda_95 and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pluk Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 Constructive. I've been on one meet (Swarm ERT), which I enjoyed. But it is true that the splitting of the group took away from some of the point of getting to know everyone, the 6 or so of us that went on Colossus got of to find the rest of the group we had left at the hot dog place had wandered off and we didn't see them again until ERT. I had to turn up a bit late and had trouble finding everyone, a contact number or someone monitoring facebook/this site is essential. I'm generally put off of meets by the exceeding amounts of faff which inevitably result from trying to get a large group of people deciding where to go next. I don't get to parks as much as most of you so my ride time is precious. I understand the 'point' of meets is social, not ride whoring, but there should be a balance which could probably be achieved with a loose itinerary and hopefully helped by having someone in charge (hi peaj!). Due to the unpredictability of my work I have trouble confirming I'll be available on a given date, so the longer notice the better. I like the idea of a meet calender being written up over closed season. Finaly, when we are given some sort of treat by Thorpe that have limited numbers available places should be given to active members, not some randoms who have just turned up for the day out of nowhere and have never been on the forum. JoshC., Phill Pritchard, Mer and 4 others 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mer Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 Totally agreed with pluk. One of the best meets I attended was Fright Nights 2010, because we stuck together for the whole day (thanks to Ian who did a great job of keeping everyone together), and it wasn't a small group either but it was still achievable. At one point some members wanted to do a maze and the rest of us didn't, so while they did The Curse we whored Flying Fish (no queue!) and agreed to meet them at the maze exit. Think we may have had each others numbers too to help with the communication It's about being patient and polite, although I do appreciate those who rarely visit and want to have a good ride count. The last paragraph is exactly what myself and many others have said. There are members here who rarely post or possibly don't post at all, and the only meets they attended were the ERT ones I'm not sure exactly where we would draw the line on this but active members who make decent, contributive posts is pretty much what I'm thinking. And yes, I appreciate we have younger members here who are still learning and full of lovely teenage hormones but I don't think that should be an excuse for their behaviour in chat or silly posts (not aimed at all the younger members, just the naughty ones ). I first joined a forum at 14 and was an angel God I miss that Harry Potter forum! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted Users Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 But if there is a meet, then people need to turn up on time, we don't need excuses like missing busses and if the group end up getting into the park at 11am as they have been waiting outside for some late comers, then the whole group will end up spending a lot more time in queues which could have been avoided. For example if the park opens at 10, we all know on a Saturday/Sunday the gates open at 9:30, then the meet time should be 9am, that way it allows time for people to meet up and if somebody is running late then there is a 30 min window. Easier said than done when some public transport won't even be running by 9am on Sunday. There's nothing stopping people working out who is going to be at the park at 9 and you'll get more rides done in the first hour with a smaller group as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pluk Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 Easier said than done when some public transport won't even be running by 9am on Sunday. There's nothing stopping people working out who is going to be at the park at 9 and you'll get more rides done in the first hour with a smaller group as well. Yes, obviously people should be able come and go as works for them, we're not going to shackle ourselves together! That's why a way of contacting each other is so essential. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pickles Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 Chessington meet was another where we all stuck together. Contact is essential for a meet to be successful and being welcoming as well. I've never had an issue but sticking in little groups can be comforting but just remember that some people will have come to meet us and we need to include them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 People who are in charge of the meet (or mod/admin team) share out their contact details... Therefore people have several points of contact if running late and such... Hard to do meet ups at 9, defo from park opening is best for about 30 minutes... If not, let someone know you'll be late and sort out a meeting place... Faff is inevitable, with toilet breaks, sorting out who is riding and stuff... Just need to make it clear that the group WILL move on without you if you choose to move off whilst people are queuing and the like... It needs to be made as a group effort, which means people going should also adhere to meet up guidelines, rather than just the organiser(s)... Easy things to do really... Just need someone to take charge and ensure that people follow a set of guidelines... I remember taking charge at the mini-Legoland meet t'other year, and then people ended up going off forgetting about others... That does not make a good meet, let alone on the Swarm ERT where no-one knew who half the people were... Need to make the meets much more special and all day, spreading it to other parks (Paultons for example wouldn't be a bad shout, easy enough to get to between people on trains and car drivers) would also be beneficial, cos Thorpe every two months is boring as hell... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidders Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 Lots of support for the idea of having several contact points. That way, if someone is running late, the majority who are on time can go into the park and can be contacted by others later in the day, who can then arrange a rendezvous point either on their own or with the whole group to meet those who could not arrive when everyone else did. A loose itinerary also seems like an excellent idea. Map out the essential rides/attractions that we all wish to do as a group and then leave a couple of items up for discussion whilst in the park (e.g. eating arrangements). Also, I think it's very important we listen to what pluk has said re: exclusive meets and ERT events. If the numbers are limited then by all means, implement a minimum post requirement or some other objective measure of forum dedication. This isn't to spite members who we do not feel 'deserve' to come to a meet because they can't be bothered to post, but if there was some way of ensuring that the members who attend these meets are going to stick around after them, or have proven themselves a constructive part of our community then absolutely they should come. It's not fair when there's high demand for places on exclusive meets that are given to members who turn up and don't socialise and then never turn up either on the forum or other meets ever again. I'm in the same boat as pluk with regards to not being able to make it to Thorpe very often. I didn't get to go at all last season and so the need for balance between ride time and social time is pretty important to people like us, who live so far from Thorpe that we don't get to go very often and want to spend a lot of time riding. Luke_A and Mer 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 I think we need a radical new way of doing things.Firstly, scrap the thorpe trips. Noone likes thorpe anyway. Let's go towers instead. To be perfectly honest lots of people like thorpe, hence it being really busy. Also some people(like me) live miles away from the towers so it is totally unfair to just make meets there! I really think you have rushed into this post as this comment seems well and truly unfair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 It's unfair to make every meet at Thorpe... Especially as not EVERYONE lives down south... Need some balance, it's not particularly difficult to get up to Towers anyways really... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidders Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 I'm sure Peaj has plans to divvy up the meet locations throughout the next season guys. Obviously the majority of trips will be at Thorpe, being that we are the Official Fansite and all, but there will be plenty of opportunities to meet up at other theme parks/attractions alongside these Thorpe-based trips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 Finaly, when we are given some sort of treat by Thorpe that have limited numbers available places should be given to active members, not some randoms who have just turned up for the day out of nowhere and have never been on the forum. This. I don't understand why we advertised on facebook to people who I assume have never even been to the site, meaning people joined up just to attend and then disappeared again.1. BEACH PARTYYYYY. Something completely different from theme parks (like we've had at Guildford) are really good for bonding/socialising. Or overnight stays?! (in half terms). The premier inn in Chessington was good fun! 2. Monthly would be nice but it's not always going to be possible so I agree with Josh, 6-8 weeks! 3. Well if its a Sunday, a couple of weeks. If not, a couple of months. Although I have all my holiday booked off for work now so if its a Saturday it's not possible for me. Weekdays are a maybe with plenty of warning. 4. A variety of meets would be nice. 5. At park meets, I like that there isn't structure but for other meets, structure IS the way to go. An itinerary I mean. Sidders and JoshC. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 This. I don't understand why we advertised on facebook to people who I assume have never even been to the site, meaning people joined up just to attend and then disappeared again. There was a reason behind this, particularly the meets which didnt have a maximum number of people (Swarm, Colossus ERT's) the more people we have at these events the better, if we was to turn up with just a few it wouldnt be worth it for the park and make these events harder to arrange in the future, thankfully at events like these larger numbers dont really effect the meets and the amount of rides people get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 Finaly, when we are given some sort of treat by Thorpe that have limited numbers available places should be given to active members, not some randoms who have just turned up for the day out of nowhere and have never been on the forum. I totally agree with this! Inevitably, the question with this is - how do you decide which members are able to go? Personally, I think the best way to do this would be to have the topics for such exclusive meets (ERTs, etc.) to be accessible only to members until after the spaces are filled / after the meet (I assume this is in some way possible), and not advertise them on Facebook / Twitter, like Ellie says. Or, in times of need, make it viewable to the public when it seems as if there are going to be plenty of free spaces. This way, it ensures that at least semi-regular members who contribute to the forum in some way see the topic, and such meets are full of such members, and then the public see that we have such meets, and that if they become a member of the community (note the word community here, and not forum or site), then they can join in such things as well. Just something to throw out there. Luke_A and Mer 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 I think the only exclusive meet where numbers have been limited was the experiment 10 behind the scenes tour, but yes. Going on from the meet to be more about socialising, we should have a quick name introduction/ice breaking game at the beginning because in the past everyone meets at 1:30 (when meet time is 1) and just shuffled from ride to ride without communication and breaks off. I also agree about an earlier meeting time to create longer meets, and possible extra meeting times if the first cannot be attended. Also contact details from mods/admins are a must. But yeah what everyone else has said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smidget Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 If numbers are limited could be first-come first-serve like Experiment 10, with no external advertising. Regular forum members are likely to see this and put their name down. The alternative would be a draw the name out of a hat type thing (like the straw picking for the Colossus lift hill walk), but that wouldn't really work unless we were to do it on the day. Obviously this method would depend on what we were doing, but it would ensure everyone had a fair chance at being picked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBobJones Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 If numbers are limited could be first-come first-serve like Experiment 10, with no external advertising. Regular forum members are likely to see this and put their name down. I didn't know there was an EX10 meet until it had happened Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smidget Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 Well it was posted on the forums and quite clearly too. It was also posted with a lot of notice so that's just your fault I'm afraid. Mer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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