News Expose reveals WDC control in online fan community

tirian

tirian

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
WDW Pro said:
I've already given my opinion that the whole thing is a kooky conspiracy theory. I would say 9,999 of 10,000 decisions made for the parks are done with no thought to message boards. The exceptions are when information is leaked that impacts Disney, and when the message board is the canary in the coal mine for the greater population reaction.
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Back around 2015, we were told to check message boards to see guest reactions to decisions that had already been made. IMHO, fan opinions didn’t affect the decisions themselves at all.
 
_caleb

_caleb

Well-Known Member
I suspect the undercover influencers discussed here are at it again in the COVID-19 discussions. Reading threads, I often see people abruptly change their opinions without acknowledging it. It's almost as if a few posters forgot which of their WDWMagic accounts they were logged into as they were arguing among their various personas.
 
tirian

tirian

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
_caleb said:
I suspect the undercover influencers discussed here are at it again in the COVID-19 discussions. Reading threads, I often see people abruptly change their opinions without acknowledging it. It's almost as if a few posters forgot which of their WDWMagic accounts they were logged into as they were arguing among their various personas.
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I checked in a couple days ago and was instantly dogged and messaged—as if those people were waiting for someone to post realistic/factual information so they could instantly tear it apart.

I “responded” by ignoring those members; I refuse to be baited.

Sorry that the real world doesn’t follow the predetermined Magical Talking Points. We have more on our minds than twisting strangers’ opinions into faceless arguments. ;)

So instead of arguing, I’ll continue planning my 50th anniversary/2021 vacation.:cool:
 
_caleb

_caleb

Well-Known Member
tirian said:
I checked in a couple days ago and was instantly dogged and messaged—as if those people were waiting for someone to post realistic/factual information so they could instantly tear it apart.

I “responded” by ignoring those members; I refuse to be baited.

Sorry that the real world doesn’t follow the predetermined Magical Talking Points. We have more on our minds than twisting strangers’ opinions into faceless arguments. ;)

So instead of arguing, I’ll continue planning my 50th anniversary/2021 vacation.:cool:
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You were a voice of reason throughout this crazy thread when the news broke. Maybe you’re on a list somewhere.
 
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Sir_Cliff

Sir_Cliff

Well-Known Member
Animaniac93-98 said:
Not sure, but there have been a number of posts by "New Members" who's accounts are 5-10 years old.
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_caleb said:
I’d expect the opposite
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I have noticed this appearance of all these new old members and was wondering what was going on. It seems that something is.

Based on dipping into the threads, I also had the impression that these posters, on the whole, don't seem to be spinning in favour of Disney's response to coronavirus. Seems more like endless diatribes about Disney screwing up their response, either through long diatribes about face masks or criticism that Disney hasn't just flung open the gates.

Again, I feel like I'm missing something in all of this as I don't get the point.
 
_caleb

_caleb

Well-Known Member
Sir_Cliff said:
I have noticed this appearance of all these new old members and was wondering what was going on. It seems that something is.

Based on dipping into the threads, I also had the impression that these posters, on the whole, don't seem to be spinning in favour of Disney's response to coronavirus. Seems more like endless diatribes about Disney screwing up their response, either through long diatribes about face masks or criticism that Disney hasn't just flung open the gates.

Again, I feel like I'm missing something in all of this as I don't get the point.
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I never really understood the strategy either. With all the changes at the senior leadership level, I imagine the game may have changed somewhat. It seems like the same mid-level leadership who were rooting for SW:GE to fail might also have interest in negatively influencing public perception of Disney's coronavirus measures. This could be done by both the "it's too early to open and not enough to keep us safe" AND the "they should never have closed and it's all theater" sides.

@TP2000, I know you spend more time on the DL side of the site, but I'd love to hear your thoughts. If there was any sort of campaign to influence fan opinions right now, what might that look like?
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
_caleb said:
@TP2000, I know you spend more time on the DL side of the site, but I'd love to hear your thoughts. If there was any sort of campaign to influence fan opinions right now, what might that look like?
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Oh, hello. I don't know that I have any brilliant insight to offer on the WDW side of these boards, as I have been almost exclusively on the Disneyland boards since Covid took over our lives and conversation in February. So I'm not familiar with whatever comments have been made by new-old posters here on the WDW side.

But... if I were to guess at what a pre-opening "campaign" would be like, I would imagine it would all be coming out of the Disney Parks Blog and their usual pablum. The Parks Blog went pretty much silent during the initial panic in March and early April, then began spitting out some happy-shiny posts about how pretty the empty parks look this spring, how the Main Street horses are still being cared for, etc., etc.

And then in May they resumed a fairly normal schedule of posting vapid stuff about new recipes, park trivia, a slightly reopened Disney Springs, etc., etc. They have clearly brought back onto the payroll some of the PR folks to do this as they gear up for park re-openings.

And these new Parks Blog daily posts gather at best a dozen "likes" and a handful of comments. Very low impact type stuff. But somehow the PR team has convinced the executives that PR minions need to be back on the payroll, working from home with a glass of Sangria instead of working in a Celebration cubicle farm dead sober, while tens of thousands of other CM's remain furloughed and scared for their future.

And as per usual, the current stuff on the Parks Blog is ham-fisted and vapid and rather pointless, but backed up by good photography and plenty of buzzwords. But the Parks Blog communication is amateurish and very basic when you really think about it.

And we are supposed to believe that the same department that employs vapid cubicle drones in charge of the reborn Parks Blog also has paid CM's spending hours each day cruising message boards trying to steer conversations via fake accounts? How do they steer a conversation? And why? The goal would obviously be to drive customers back to the parks and the product, but how would you do that here? Because what is the audience here that could be influenced by such a "campaign" of steered conversations? The audience here is a few thousand (at most) already invested fans who might check in on this board because they will be heading back to the parks when they reopen anyway.

Disney had a huge win with their Sing-Along TV special this spring. Over 10 Million Americans tuned in for that. That's the way to influence people and win back customers. But fake account postings on message boards seen by only a couple thousand folks who already love the parks? What a giant waste of time that would be.

I have no use for grand conspiracy theories, with visions of scheming executives pulling puppet strings in dramatically lit conference rooms. The reality is never that good, never that organized, never that effective. With apologies to Dr. Freud, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and a weird message board post is just a weird message board post.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll head back to the Disneyland side to continue talking about how Disneyland won't be opening until the fall.
 
_caleb

_caleb

Well-Known Member
TP2000 said:
Oh, hello. I don't know that I have any brilliant insight to offer on the WDW side of these boards, as I have been almost exclusively on the Disneyland boards since Covid took over our lives and conversation in February. So I'm not familiar with whatever comments have been made by new-old posters here on the WDW side.

But... if I were to guess at what a pre-opening "campaign" would be like, I would imagine it would all be coming out of the Disney Parks Blog and their usual pablum. The Parks Blog went pretty much silent during the initial panic in March and early April, then began spitting out some happy-shiny posts about how pretty the empty parks look this spring, how the Main Street horses are still being cared for, etc., etc.

And then in May they resumed a fairly normal schedule of posting vapid stuff about new recipes, park trivia, a slightly reopened Disney Springs, etc., etc. They have clearly brought back onto the payroll some of the PR folks to do this as they gear up for park re-openings.

And these new Parks Blog daily posts gather at best a dozen "likes" and a handful of comments. Very low impact type stuff. But somehow the PR team has convinced the executives that PR minions need to be back on the payroll, working from home with a glass of Sangria instead of working in a Celebration cubicle farm dead sober, while tens of thousands of other CM's remain furloughed and scared for their future.

And as per usual, the current stuff on the Parks Blog is ham-fisted and vapid and rather pointless, but backed up by good photography and plenty of buzzwords. But the Parks Blog communication is amateurish and very basic when you really think about it.

And we are supposed to believe that the same department that employs vapid cubicle drones in charge of the reborn Parks Blog also has paid CM's spending hours each day cruising message boards trying to steer conversations via fake accounts? How do they steer a conversation? And why? The goal would obviously be to drive customers back to the parks and the product, but how would you do that here? Because what is the audience here that could be influenced by such a "campaign" of steered conversations? The audience here is a few thousand (at most) already invested fans who might check in on this board because they will be heading back to the parks when they reopen anyway.

Disney had a huge win with their Sing-Along TV special this spring. Over 10 Million Americans tuned in for that. That's the way to influence people and win back customers. But fake account postings on message boards seen by only a couple thousand folks who already love the parks? What a giant waste of time that would be.

I have no use for grand conspiracy theories, with visions of scheming executives pulling puppet strings in dramatically lit conference rooms. The reality is never that good, never that organized, never that effective. With apologies to Dr. Freud, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and a weird message board post is just a weird message board post.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll head back to the Disneyland side to continue talking about how Disneyland won't be opening until the fall.
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Thanks for weighing in! I always enjoy your perspective.

If the goal were to get people to come back to the parks as they reopen, I agree, the (low-cost) Sing-Along TV Special is a really good approach. I also agree with the ham-fistedness of the Parks Blog (bless their hearts), though I'll admit to trying their "churro bites" recipe at home.

I never thought of myself as one for conspiracy theories either, though I do find merit to some of the revelations that launched this thread. Combine that with what seem like professional (as in "paid," not necessarily as in "skilled") posters here since the COVID crisis, and now I'm wearing tin foil mouse ears.

I know, someone's going to jump in and scoff at the notion that anyone at Disney would launch an influence campaign on fan message boards, but isn't that what they'd want us to think? ;)
 
the.dreamfinder

the.dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
TP2000 said:
Oh, hello. I don't know that I have any brilliant insight to offer on the WDW side of these boards, as I have been almost exclusively on the Disneyland boards since Covid took over our lives and conversation in February. So I'm not familiar with whatever comments have been made by new-old posters here on the WDW side.

But... if I were to guess at what a pre-opening "campaign" would be like, I would imagine it would all be coming out of the Disney Parks Blog and their usual pablum. The Parks Blog went pretty much silent during the initial panic in March and early April, then began spitting out some happy-shiny posts about how pretty the empty parks look this spring, how the Main Street horses are still being cared for, etc., etc.

And then in May they resumed a fairly normal schedule of posting vapid stuff about new recipes, park trivia, a slightly reopened Disney Springs, etc., etc. They have clearly brought back onto the payroll some of the PR folks to do this as they gear up for park re-openings.

And these new Parks Blog daily posts gather at best a dozen "likes" and a handful of comments. Very low impact type stuff. But somehow the PR team has convinced the executives that PR minions need to be back on the payroll, working from home with a glass of Sangria instead of working in a Celebration cubicle farm dead sober, while tens of thousands of other CM's remain furloughed and scared for their future.

And as per usual, the current stuff on the Parks Blog is ham-fisted and vapid and rather pointless, but backed up by good photography and plenty of buzzwords. But the Parks Blog communication is amateurish and very basic when you really think about it.

And we are supposed to believe that the same department that employs vapid cubicle drones in charge of the reborn Parks Blog also has paid CM's spending hours each day cruising message boards trying to steer conversations via fake accounts? How do they steer a conversation? And why? The goal would obviously be to drive customers back to the parks and the product, but how would you do that here? Because what is the audience here that could be influenced by such a "campaign" of steered conversations? The audience here is a few thousand (at most) already invested fans who might check in on this board because they will be heading back to the parks when they reopen anyway.

Disney had a huge win with their Sing-Along TV special this spring. Over 10 Million Americans tuned in for that. That's the way to influence people and win back customers. But fake account postings on message boards seen by only a couple thousand folks who already love the parks? What a giant waste of time that would be.

I have no use for grand conspiracy theories, with visions of scheming executives pulling puppet strings in dramatically lit conference rooms. The reality is never that good, never that organized, never that effective. With apologies to Dr. Freud, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and a weird message board post is just a weird message board post.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll head back to the Disneyland side to continue talking about how Disneyland won't be opening until the fall.
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Gaslighting again, I see?

And yes, Disney keeps dossiers on certain notable users of forums/social media and deploying bots is fairly easy and both are relatively cheap.

Of course, the bots could be employed by someone other than the 🐭.
 
UNCgolf

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
_caleb said:
I know, someone's going to jump in and scoff at the notion that anyone at Disney would launch an influence campaign on fan message boards, but isn't that what they'd want us to think? ;)
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I'd have no trouble believing they were attempting to influence on messages boards 20 years ago, but I think it's pretty unlikely they'd waste time/money doing it now because I don't think they'd be reaching enough people. Message boards are used less than they were in the earlier days of the Internet, mostly because of the rise of social media.

There's no doubt they have people on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. though.
 
_caleb

_caleb

Well-Known Member
UNCgolf said:
I'd have no trouble believing they were attempting to influence on messages boards 20 years ago, but I think it's pretty unlikely they'd waste time/money doing it now because I don't think they'd be reaching enough people. Message boards are used less than they were in the earlier days of the Internet, mostly because of the rise of social media.

There's no doubt they have people on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. though.
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I agree that they would have had a larger audience on a message board 20 years ago. But these boards are constantly mined by the bloggers and YouTubers for "inside" information. This site is the "source" for so. much. content. If you wanted to shape public opinion about, say, how Disney is handling its Coronavirus response/reopening, reinforcing the more extreme opinions on both sides of the argument might be a good way to stir the pot.

None of this, of course, should be confused with Disney's OFFICIAL social media marketing strategies (as @TP2000 did). The bots posting on WDWMagic probably don't wear name tags.
 

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