I opened the thread about the Islands development when it was announced 40 months ago: there are currently 566 replies. Most of Islands will open on the 13th of July, but Zoo members have booked places on preview tours on the 3 days before the opening. Like several other ZooChatters, I was lucky enough to get a place on one of the tours on the first morning (Friday 10th). I expect we may all want to post some photos and comments about our first impressions of this very significant project (the biggest in a British zoo for many years). When I posted about this in the discussion thread, I wrote that I did not wish to spoil things for Zoo members who, for one or reason or another, could not see Islands until the second or third preview day and I suggested that we should restrict our initial comments. Several people disagreed and I have changed my mind, thinking it would be wrong restrict comment and discussion which will interest ZooChatters throughout the UK and in other countries too. However, I still think that Chester members should be able to choose not to read what other people have written until they have had their own preview visit; so I suggest that there should be a temporary Sticky thread created in the UK Forums for the preview days only (say 8th to 13th inst) which could then become a normal thread when Islands is open to the public. This would let people write whatever they want after their preview visit, but make it easy for other Chester members to avoid reading these comments if they prefer. Does that seem sensible? Likewise a temporary Gallery for Islands photos would have the same function and keep all the photos together for comparison. Alan
Is the honeymoon over now that we have had 8 days since the first preview? Is this the time to remove the adhesive properties of the sticky thread? I think that most of those people who wished to avoid spoilers have seen things for themselves and made up their own minds. Alan