Theme Park Discussion / Theme Park Directory

Hey guys

Over these last few weeks I've been working on an Idea of mine to provide an enthusiast run theme park directory that will work as a tool for people organising trips or just people interested to know about local parks.

I've got the site up to a point I'm happy to start gathering opinions and since I've been here almost 15 years this site seems a good place to go for thoughts. So here's what its all about.

This is the front page showing a map of all the test items I have currently added into the database. (M&D's, Alton Towers, Thorpe, Chessie and Oakwood in this example)


Users can use the map as any normal google map and move around or click a group of parks to autozoom to a location. The filters at the bottom currently filter by Country (England, Wales & Scotland for the purposes of the test) and categories (Theme Park, Water Park & Indoor Entertainment Center) filtering the pins on the map as needed.

Further more there is a geolocation option under the cog by the filters. When the site is used on a mobile it can be set to find any parks within a set radius of you location and show them on the map relative to you.

Clicking a park brings up this



then clicking on the read more button takes you to a parks info page while the map will rezoom to show all parks within 50km of your current park.

These pages should contain all important factual info about each park unlike this example.



For opinions users can also review each park in a small review section at the bottom



now the key to this whole thing is it being enthusiast powered in a wikipedia kind of way. Anyone can sign up using the contribute menu in the top right and will be provided with access to the directory. I've tried making the process to add or edit a park simple and I am currently adding fields for important info into the default park form (see below). (ignore the alternate content box that's gone now and is replaced with price information)



Any thoughts on what else could be useful to have here would be useful. Things like ticket prices?

There are already support forums integrated into the site for contributor editing discussion and some basic guidelines for users.

There's currently a few things that are not implemented that are on my priority list
- Find a way to limit new users so that the first 3 additions or edits need to be approved by an admin.
- fix issue with thumbnails script not working when I Domain Map http://www.thethemeparkdirectory.com
- figure out why map on individual park pages with a park that has other parks within 50km doesn't zoom properly.

Anyhow I am just looking for thoughts/suggestions on additions and ways of doing things which might help this thing could be a much bigger undertaking than http://www.vhcoasters.com is if I get it right so any thoughts would be a great help.

The list of fields for each park could certainly be improved I think but not sure what people would like to know. (I don't want to provide detailed coaster information as the RCDB does that so well already)

The current site can be found at the temporary location of http://tpdb.shimmeringhorizons.com/

I'm also looking for a few who would be willing to spend a bit of time filling in some park info for testing purposes at the moment. so if anyone wouldn't mind lending a hand I would really appreciated it. Otherwise just some thoughts and ideas would help out.

For the time being for testing It is planned to UK only but once the testing done it can be expanded to worldwide. But please don't let that stop you having a play.

Looks really nice, I like the interface and site design so far.

It might be a good idea to give general directions in the 'Enthusiast Information', i.e. "2 miles south of London, on the right hand side of Highway 247" or something like that.

Looks really nice, I like the interface and site design so far. It might be a good idea to give general directions in the 'Enthusiast Information', i.e. "2 miles south of London, on the right hand side of Highway 247" or something like that.

Hey man.

Thanks for the feedback. It is something I've been thinking about but I am not sure how to do it.
For example I was planning on doing a section for Public transport with sections like this

Bus
Train
Tram

Each one only showing up where applicable.
BUT in my experience parks in the states have none of these and you have to drive... essentially you have to have a car.

Can anyone thing of a way to do both of these for each park? maybe a public transport section that includes a the actual adress?

Looks amazing so far! very professional and sleek

My thoughts on what to add to make it even more useful:
Operating hours/days of the week
Park maps and/or satellite images of the park
Information on each rollercoaster (ie one general picture, the name, maker, type)maybe with the ability for users to update info/add pics (oh, just saw the link to rcdb, guess thats sufficient)
general info/advice for each park (something users could add themselves)

It's a great concept and I like the design. This could be a very usefull website. If you need help, I can give you all the info you need on the Belgian parks.

Just an idea, why don't mention the coasters in the park? When you click on a park it can mention the amount of coasters and when you read the full page of the park there could be a list of them. Linked to RCDB if the user wants more information.

I don't know whether linking to RCDB is what you want to do. RCDB offers a lot of the information you are offering (albeit not as clear) and so by linking to them, you are turning your 'customer' away to a 'rival'.

I think you need to include park information, such as coasters, perhaps even offer people to rate them, thus not needing a link to RCDB.

I know RCDB is a damn good site, and everyone practically uses it, BUT:

1) If a coaster enthusiast is using your site, they already know of RCDB and therefore don't need to be linked to it.
2) If you offer RCDB-like information on your site, those that don't know of RCDB won't be linked away from the site.
3) Offering RCDB-like information will allow you to offer a more complete package (something where RCDB falls down only offering coaster stats)
4) Offering RCDB-like information will allow for people to rate coasters within the parks possibly allowing for a 'Theme Park Rating' and a 'Coasters Rating'
(Theme park rating being the average of the viewer's rating of the theme park, Coasters rating being the average of all the coaster's ratings.)

By offering a Theme Park Rating and a Coasters Rating you can also help distinguish people. Certain people like going to Theme Parks because of the atmosphere and the surroundings, some like going for the coasters. Disneyland Paris would get a 5 star theme park rating, but would possibly only get a 2 or 3 star coaster rating. Cedar Point would get a 1 or 2 star theme park rating, but would get a 5 star coaster rating.

Maybe i'm giving you too much content lol I just thought it was a very good idea.

Edit: If you need any help content wise (park descriptions, information, coasters etc etc I'm more than happy to help, been wanting a site like this for years!)

Hey Louis i like your ideas />

Not sure I have the coding ability to make it happen but I can look into it.
The comments about the RCDB are apt but a big dilemma for me. I do a lot of work at the RCDB and don't really see it as a rival. I can't see why these 2 can't work in tandem.

Sign up under contribute and take a look at the current set of options if you can.

I don't see any problems of linking to RCDB. Roomie's idea for this site is mainly to help people plan trips, that's something that is totally different of RCDB. And coasters are the main reason to go to a themepark, of course that can be different for someone else but I think it's pretty safe to say most people look at the coasters planning a trip.

Since the purpose of TPD will be different than RCDB, it's not necessary for TPD to get all the coaster statistics and what so ever, as I think it would take too much attention. Therefore I think it would be usefull to link to RCDB, for those who want to know more about just the coasters.

Like the idea of a themepark and coaster rating. Roomie, if you want any help or photos just let me know. I already signed myself up, is it possible yet to add themeparks outside the UK?

Not sure I have the coding ability to make it happen but I can look into it.
The comments about the RCDB are apt but a big dilemma for me. I do a lot of work at the RCDB and don't really see it as a rival. I can't see why these 2 can't work in tandem.

Sign up under contribute and take a look at the current set of options if you can.

I didn't necessarily mean a major rival or that they couldn't co-exist lol. I understand that linking to RCDB makes less work

In terms of coding ability, you already have a star system for rating the Theme Park, surely it's just a case of adding another for a Coaster Rating? I'm not a coder so I wouldn't know either

I didn't realise I could sign up, but I have done now

Please also implement a feature for photographs of the park, and possibly park maps too. You can never have enough places with photos.

The gallery thing I can do and shall implement that later. park map idea is really nice too.

Getting there. One step at a time. My approach to learning, writing and editing php is similar to my approach to hammering nails into a wall. So if things don't work for an hour or so you know why />

Sigh. Keep running up against my own limited knowledge of coding haha.

I've set up the image uploader in the backend (where users edit the parks) but having trouble getting it to automatically show all images for that park on the frontend. grrrr

Anyway thanks for the help guys. I've fixed a number of issues you guys have highlighted today.

Ok with a your guys direction I have done quite a bit of work over the last few days.

Park Maps and up to 20 images of each park can be added.

All the information fields have been neatened up including the addition of public transport and directions fields and the option to set the parks as open year round.

I added Belgium to the categories list for testing FredD />

Picture of the moment on the front page

tons of little fixes and removals of usless bits.

This is a good example of what a mostly completed park page looks like so far.

http://tpdb.shimmeri...goland-windsor/

Looks good, I'll work further on it coming days when I find the time.

OK after a lot of work last week I'm now pretty happy with most of it. Just need to get a few little niggles fixed

The site is now on a new server at

http://thethemeparkdirectory.com/

so the old link doesn't work. Unfortunately I had to reset the database so the 3 of you who registered before will need to re-register. (Fred D if you re register I will re-credit the Plopsaland article to you )

Now i just need to start adding content over the next 6 weeks I have offshore

I made a page for you! worlds of fun

having trouble with the logo though, it goes all black and cuts off the edges instead of resizing.

very easy and efficient to use, you have done a great job getting everything together! its very professional.

tip: on your css class:

#dir-holder input,
.dir-sorting select

set "outline: none;"

in chrome it puts an outline box around it on focus and your input box is rounded with radius and the outline is square. I think you have a lot of inputs on the site like this

I added luna park sydney so now the map is fully zoomed out

take that united kingdom

somehow its strangely fun to add stuff. or maybe i'm just a big procrastinator