On that note, has it ever been revealed who that poster was? I remember it so well, probably the most astounding post ever. Suddenly it was there, detailed blueprints for an entire land overhaul that nobody had seen coming. I thought for a moment he was taking the P, that it was a fan creation.
FYI, I should have been more clear - although RSOX as much as he keeps track of things, certainly knew what I was talking about - I was referring to the plans for the revision that were believed to have been leaked to him by Disney. This was well covered at the time - most folks here were astonished that given the rotten things he was known for saying about the company at the time, yet I believe the insiders here came to the conclusion that they were both using each other - which actually is very relevant because that was the turning point in this issue (when they started to cozy up together).
But has Hill though? Are there any examples, any links?
Is the Schadenfreude over any payback for Hill having previously displayed similar behaviour as Lee? Or is it Schadenfreude just out of spite over general dislike of Hill, incidentally displaying what Rsox argues: that at the heart of all this lies a little black box filled with envy, animosity, and fandom bitchfighting, carefully wrapped in colourful Christmas wrapping paper saying 'neutral discussion about social media strategy'.
Let me be clear, again - my opinions are my own, I can't comment on Lee's motivations nor have I couched it as "a neutral discussion about social media strategy". I'm not part of some group processing and posting talking points, or any such thing.
If you really would like me to, I'm happy to tell you why I feel the way I do about Hill. When I first discovered Disney online fandom, his site was in it's prime. At the time (we are talking more than a dozen years ago now, around the time I began posting here), it seemed like this magical repository of information (and at first, even the fakey-hokey style was cute). But then...when you got down to the meat, you realized that he never finished anything. He'd start a series of articles about, say, the Muppets, or Star Tours, or any number of things - and tease thing after thing - but never finished them. Never shy about asking for donations, he then amped it up when he started begging for money to buy a new laptop, because - surely he could finish them if he just had a shiny new computer. Yeah, right. That was like 10, 11 years ago, and those unfinished articles never got touched.
And then the cracks started showing in the portions of what he did write - how some of the stuff he'd post would be literally impossible for him to know - and you realized that what he had was a few grains of something that he then wove into a tale which sounded great, but the authenticity of which was like a dramatized Lifetime movie - where they take the basic known facts and then completely invent what was between point A and point B. I have no doubt that a lot of that early stuff did come from someone who was somewhat of an insider, but like we've watched over the past decade and a half or so - his sources tend to dry up very, very quickly - because he is so opportunistic he cannot maintain the relationships, apparently.
This is not even getting into things like taking preorders for items never delivered, his naked attempts at socially climbing out of the Disney fandom and into mainstream (I don't have the time to go into the story now, but if you check my previous post history I've discussed before when he tried to make this big fuss about Jorge Garcia (LOST) in a completely made up story he tried to get mainstream coverage, which when it utterly failed he later deleted), his already known shameful behavior which got him kicked out of Disneyland (something he tried to wear like a badge of honor, so incredibly pathetic)...I could go on, but I've given that guy enough of my time already.
While I may not know or necessarily share Lee's motivations, I do not know him personally aside from maybe 2 or 3 PM's over the past dozen years or so, but just knowing what I know of him from his posts and otherwise, I don't think envy or even animosity is at the core of why he may have shared, beyond exposing the daft decision making behind Disney's Social Media brigade.
In addition to all of the above, I think you'll find the reason that many long term posters here do not care for Hill is because at different points when any real contacts dried up, he was taking his "news articles" straight from postings here, without credit. It was comical until it was annoying and ridiculous. A thread would start up here, with some speculation or a tidbit, a few other folks would chime in with their various bits - and two days later, an "article" would magically appear with "insider info" that when you broke it down, contained nothing but what was in the posts here with a bit of added educated guesses that any of us could make. Yet, it was not presented as such - it was "oooh gee a little birdy told me"...
That's about all the time I'm going to give to Jim Hill. I don't even like saying his name - he's right in what he said in his little temper tantrum here, in some ways, positive or negative, just discussing him feeds into his ego-driven nature. And no, I'm not going digging through 10-12 year old articles of his to give more examples - I, as well as others here who can attest, lived through it once, that was enough - if you don't believe the truth, all I can do is /shrug. With the exception of those who are sycophantic toward him for whatever bizarre reasons, you are going to find more people in the Disney community who, one way or another, have seen through some charade or another he has put forth.
That said, I don't think anyone is jealous of him - he's not famous, he's infamous. No one here aspires to be a fraud, or as we can now definitively say, a criminal. As I stated from my first post responding to this new info, I'll repeat it again in what will be my last (unless some new info gets shared) - all this did for me was confirm what I already knew about him based on past observance. He is the ultimate example of a disgruntled lifestyler who has the integrity of a wet tissue on a teenage boys nightstand. He goes where ever he thinks he can make a quick buck or whatever will be advantageous to him at the moment - kiss Disney behind, or try to tear them a new one - just depends on which one he thinks will do himself better that day.
