Every now and again someone sends me a link to something at AAL. The site has its moments every now and again, but I don’t really have time to check it out every day so I tend to rely on kind souls out there who send me a link when there’s something interesting happening. Long story short (this isn’t even related to AAL), in reading some articles I noticed mention of a lot of other ‘theme park’ sites, which all seem to be adopting the “Entertainment” monicker.
About three years ago I adopted the name Total Thrills Entertainment as a parent of sorts for the newly created Roller-Coaster.com.au. The intention was basically to have Roller-Coaster.com.au as the main online presence, and Total Thrills would be the name given to other related ventures such as print media (calendars, magazines etc.). This way the existing strong Total Thrills brand could be morphed into something different. This idea soon died because ultimately it makes more sense to concentrate on strengthening one brand when it’s in its infancy as Roller-Coaster.com.au was at this stage.
I find it funny that this naming has been so universally adopted. The difference was when I chose to use that name, it was really about creating a new image for a well-established brand it so that users weren’t confused by the change. I know it’s all about trying to impress people enough to make them join the site so they’ll play their little game (Super Professional Coaster Site Madness 3000 is out now by Milton-Bradley; buy the deluxe edition and get the bonus E-Z-Fun Press Release-o-Matic Printer Kit). Here I was thinking that reputable and high-quality content was what drove people to sites. I really do have a lot to learn.
What is the purpose of this blog?
Simply put, it’s to allow myself, Richard Wilson, as well as other key staff at Roller-Coaster.com.au an opportunity to express various issues that are relevant to Roller-Coaster.com.au. We’re not trying to be another satirical news source (there’s other sites out there for that), this is just an opportunity for us to speak on various issues without being represented officially under the Roller-Coaster.com.au brand. I’ll try and get it looking a bit better over time.
In coming months there will be some minor and major new changes to come into effect at Roller-Coaster.com.au. Some affect the end user (yourself), others are behind-the-scenes things that will improve the ease at which we are able to report on the latest happenings in the Australian theme park world.
One thing that remains consistent with Roller-Coaster.com.au is that we don’t offer the world. We never will. Roller-Coaster.com.au has a single goal. Just one. We aim to provide unbiased news and information relating to the Australian theme park world. I’m sure you may have realised by now that this is exactly what we do, and we don’t profess to anything more.
Notice this doesn’t say “we aim to be the best Australian theme park website” or “we plan to revolutionise the theme park industry with x, y and z (z comes in the next version though)”. I feel that we’re seeing people get swept up in a non-existent race of the coaster sites. Simplicity is the key. I ask how does one expect to be able to operate at the most fundamental level if they’re too busy getting swept up in competition?
Every time a websites says something like this, it encourages others to go one step further. I’m in a position where I don’t visit other theme park websites regularly so I don’t really keep up on the ins and outs of it all but no amount of “my site is bigger than your site” will trick a visitor into becoming a loyal visitor - at least not for long. Ultimately they’ll go where the content takes them.
We’ve even had reports of websites lying and misrepresenting themselves. I’m certainly not going to get involved in such heated topics which aren’t at all relevant to myself or Roller-Coaster.com.au, but it really is up to the visitor to decide what they will and won’t accept in a website and a webmaster.