Does TDA Consult The Forums.. At All?

Model3 McQueen

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
Probably a stupid question, because I haven't seen it yet.. but has there been an instance of TDA consulting the Disneyland Sub-forum on WDWMagic, either for purposes of testing the waters of an idea, or to gather opinions perhaps regarding other things?

My memory may serve foggy, but I do remember someone claiming to be a higher-up imagineer asking members of Micechat what they thought of recent decisions, juuuust after the announcement of M:BO. Unsurprisingly the responses weren't warm (not like it really did anything).

So granted we are most likely a minority of traditionalist nuts (lol), i'd still bet a fair amount that we hold better ideas as to what needs to be done with the parks, than some of the top-dog executives in charge. I'd think, at the very least, some passionate CM's or other respectable roles in Disney as well (including imagineers, Maintenance, etc) would have some great ideas. I guess that begs the question.. does Burbank really care?
 

Sharon&Susan

Well-Known Member
All I know is that the studio has been known to have once checked a certain fan wiki that compares Walt Disney’s plans for Epcot to Hitler and Mussolini’s fascism.
 

DanielBB8

Well-Known Member
I would think no, because we are have the most extreme opinions on both sides. They need additional evidence they can only arrive from their own experience. In addition, they are right there making those decisions so it’s not like any other opinion can dissuade them.
 

BasiltheBatLord

Well-Known Member
It does amuse me to think that this forum and its various personalities are in-office jokes at WDI and/or TDA offices. But I doubt any Imagineer has ever taken this place seriously enough to post here.
 

Darkbeer1

Well-Known Member
Does TDA follow Social Media.. You bet they do. They might even have people that try and direct conversations a certain way.

Back when Message Boards was the main source of fans, besides the alt.disneyland stuff, they did it, but now, not unless a CM brings a specific thread to their attention, not worth the time.

That said, certain names/handles are followed. Mine has had for decades, and multiple people have told be that. In fact, I have seen reports that mentions me over the years.

Currently, I think their only worry is me saying something I shouldn't due to my current access to many senior level stuff.
 

FerretAfros

Well-Known Member
Does Disney consult the forums?

Officially? No. All of Disney's market research is done through the survey department and their endless supply of carefully crafted questions that are guaranteed to give the results they want.

Unofficially? Yup, all the time. Through the years there have been various instances where posters' identities have been revealed as people who were trying to get information from visitors and control the narrative of the discussion. The best known was probably Marcie, who posted a lot of overly-positive stuff during DCA's early years and was later revealed to be a relatively prominent TDA PR person (who I believe @Darkbeer1 interacted with in person a few times). The WDW side of these boards also had a few run-ins with posters who were obviously trying to craft the narrative about various pieces of news.

Similarly, the Disney Parks Blog was created as a way to cut down on rumors, and did a pretty good job of it for the first few years, but has devolved back into Disney's old stance of only announcing things after they're fairly well known within the fan community.

As social media has evolved, I'm sure their tactics have been refined and are more subtle, but I have no doubt that they're out there. Why else has there been such an Instagram-centric push for pretty foods and photo backgrounds recently?

Plus I'm sure there are plenty of TDA people who read and/or interact with the boards as a way to keep up with the news in their personal time, as workers in all industries tend to do. Some supply information (Al Lutz's longtime source was Tony Baxter), while others just check to see what's going on.
 

Darkbeer1

Well-Known Member
Just to make it clear, Al Lutz's sources were many, including multiple senior TWDC, TDA, WDI and Universal employees. I brought in Cedar Fair/Knott's, SeaWorld and Six Flags and other parks senior folks, and the two of us shared things.

I was very fortunate to work with Al for many years, and learned a lot.
 

DanielBB8

Well-Known Member
Just to make it clear, Al Lutz's sources were many, including multiple senior TWDC, TDA, WDI and Universal employees. I brought in Cedar Fair/Knott's, SeaWorld and Six Flags and other parks senior folks, and the two of us shared things.

I was very fortunate to work with Al for many years, and learned a lot.
Work to spread rumors? All in fun of course. Oh well, I don’t follow rumors as much as I used to since it’s always better to wait a month or two for it to percolate. I’m waiting for the rumor to fix Galaxy’s Edge and the awful plan for Star Wars movies.
 

Darkbeer1

Well-Known Member
Daniel, I was a paid reporter with press credentials. Some of my stories made the AP, such as McDonald's leaving Disneyland. (My inside info got me the chance to get a McDonald's exec to go on record).

And yes, Al and I were both used as tools by many, groups of CM's/employees that wanted change, senior execs that wanted info to be released, the Save Disney Campaign, etc. Now others do the same.

My job was to write things/take photos that got people's attention, aka eyeballs to the info.

You want to call that rumors, OK, Others would say inside info. My personal thoughts.. As they say, call me what you want, but don't call me late to dinner.
 

TROR

Well-Known Member
There was some chick on MiceChat several years back who shilled for everything and argued that screens were better than audio animatronics. She even used a false avatar of a middle aged which eventually got her banned when I alerted the woman who the photo was actually of. I'm convinced the poster worked for Disney in some capacity.
 

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