Talk:Haunted attraction (simulated)/Archive 1

Reasoning behind this page

Just wanted to start the talk page with an explanation behind the idea behind this article. This page is one of the results of a reorganization of several pages related to the topic of commercial and "real" haunted houses, and spooky attractions. This article is designed to encompass all forms of spooky attractions that are designed to that effect. This category includes, but is not limited to, commercially operated haunted houses (whether run by a for-profit company, a not-for-profit charity as a fund raiser, or a religious group using the attraction to convey a message), haunted hayrides, etc. This article should not be confused with the Haunted house article, which is about locations that are "genuinely haunted". The two categories are distinct, if not mutually exclusive. Similarly, there is overlap between Haunted attractions and Dark rides, in that some dark rides are designed as haunted attractions, such as the Haunted Mansion at Disneyworld, or the spook house rides at a traveling carnival. --Reverend Loki 22:59, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Picture

I think the new photo at the top of the page is much better than the old one, but the caption needs to be adjusted somehow so it sounds like it's describing Disneyland Paris's Phantom Man (which is what's depicted in the photo) rather than its stateside equivalent, the Haunted Mansion. I'd do it myself, but I can't seem to think of anything that doesn't sound too clunky at the moment. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Henryrothschild (talk • contribs) 11:19, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

History?

I would love to hear about the history of this phenomenon, the community haunted house and such. I know I used to go in the 80's, and houses were much more 'home-made' at the time. You'd drive out to some random location in the middle of nowhere. But where did this tradition start? Most likely in elementary school haunted walk throughs (y'know, put your hand in jello and such)?

Anyone know!? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.198.18.208 (talk) 05:46, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

WikiProject Halloween

I have been toying with the idea of proposing a Wikiproject for Halloween. Many of the Halloween-related articles could really use a boost, and I'm trying to find interested editors, to see if it's worth a go or not. Please contact me on my talk page if you are. Thank you.--otherlleft (talk) 20:07, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Haunted House vs Home/Yard Haunt

The section of the article currently titled "Haunted House" would be more accurate to the industry if it were retitled as "Home Haunt / Yard Haunt". Whereas a haunted house is most often a non-residential building in which a company or group has set up an indoor haunted attraction, a home or yard haunt usually takes place at a private residence and is run by the homeowner.

The difference between a Home Haunt and a Yard Haunt is simply a matter of location and semantics. A home haunt is an attempt to create a small haunted house on one's property. They are either constructed on site, often in the homeowner's back yard, or utilize an existing part of the home, such as a shed or garage. A Yard Haunt refers to an elaborate setup of decorations in the home's front yard, mostly as entertainment for trick-or-treaters. 72.204.23.64 (talk) 15:27, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

Standardization of Haunted Attraction articles

WikiProject Halloween is facilitating a discussion about the format and quality of articles about haunted attractions. If you would like to weigh in with ideas to improve these articles overall, please join the discussion and share your thoughts.--otherlleft^{No, really, other way . . .} 12:04, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Page move

I've been bold and moved the article to a slightly altered title. The reason was that for many people, a haunted attraction means a reportedly haunted location which attracts tourists because of its reputation. I realise that there is a hatnote at the top of the page, but that doesn't stop the "whatlinkshere" list getting clogged with reportedly "real" haunted locations, or severe confusion in the category for which this is the key article. I hope that any objections to the change will be minor ones, but if not, I'm happy to argue the point :) Grutness...wha? 01:02, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

If the problems are as you say, a discussion about what to move the page to is warranted. Please provide some examples, and let's generate some discussion, because the new name is, in my view, less helpful than the old one. I could not figure out what a "simulated haunted attraction" might be; I came here because the move appeared to be vandalism.--~TPW 02:47, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

Well, it's a haunted attraction where the haunting is simulated, as opposed to a haunted attraction where the attraction is from reports of "real" ghosts. Grutness...wha? 11:32, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

Skimming relevant chunks of Grutness's edit history, I can't find any examples where they've changed a "haunted attraction" wikilink to point to the "haunted house" article instead - it seems that when editors say "haunted attraction" they always mean this article. I'd have thought the word "attraction" alone was sufficient to distinguish engineered-scare tourist venues from historical locations thought to be haunted. --McGeddon (talk) 09:35, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

I changed about 20-30 to point to various different articles ("haunted house" is just as ambiguous, so I think there were only two or three that I repointed there, if that). This was a couple of weeks ago, some time before I renamed the article. Since then I've probably made close to 1000 edits related to haunted buildings, so trying to remember which ones I changed to where at this stage is a bit problematic. Similarly, I had to move quite a number of articles from the category Category:Haunted attractions, which is why that is also up for renaming. Grutness...wha? 00:09, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

We should be careful about making WP:COMMONNAME assumptions based on wikilinks or categories, though - it may well be that the articles you had to recategorise were only put there in the first place by a single Wikipedia editor. Can we show some common usage of the phrase "haunted attraction" to mean "house famously said to be haunted"? To my ear, the word "attraction" is by itself enough to suggest the funfair and sideshow end of the business, and skimming possible sources I can't see any uses contrary to this. --McGeddon (talk) 11:44, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

(after ec) For what its worth, having the title undifferentiated at haunted attraction makes for confused and concatenated lists like this. Even Haunted Attraction magazine deals with both "real" and simulated hauntings. FWIW, in some countries outside the US, the term 'Haunted attraction' is most often used to mean "real" attractions, and the term "scare attraction" or similar is used to refer to a simulated haunted site. That is the reason why you'll find haunted attraction websites from other countries which have nothing to do with simulations - I for one have only heard it used that way in New Zealand, and I've worked with people who run regular ghost tours (non-simulated); the term scare attraction or scream attraction is most commonly used here for the theme-park-style experience. If the article was based on the WP:COMMONNAME outside the US, it would never be anywhere near "Haunted attraction". By adding the "simulated" it at least keeps it where US readers can find it from the dab page, and also makes it so the rest of the world can find what they're looking for from the same source. Given that the article says that these simulations are officially known as "Haunts", perhaps that would be a better site for this page, if there's some confusion about the word "simulated" to mean something which is simulated? Grutness...wha? 11:54, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

BTW, I note that the "real" haunted locations added to the "Haunted attractions" category were added by several different editors, though one editor did categorise two of them - so it seems there is definitely considerably more than one other editor on Wikipedia who thinks that a paranormal location is a haunted attraction. Grutness...wha? 12:03, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

This is the one I've been peripherally involved with, by the way - a "real" ghost tour, listed here on its website as the city's premier haunted attraction. Grutness...wha? 12:07, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

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