News Expose reveals WDC control in online fan community

[ImperfectPixie]

The thing that was shocking was the Iger/Eisner angle and that Disney has potentially active sleeper agents posting. Mainly because I always assumed that Disney monitored this site at a distant and acted through trusted insiders to try and control the message I frankly thought we were beneath them to warrant such time. You know what would be really nice, now that we know they are here, why not have an official Disney PR rep patrol some of these boards (probably not n&r for obvious reasons) FlyerTalk has this for many of the hotel/airlines and it would be really great to have someone around who could answer trip planning questions, Fastpass issues and the like. It would build some good will.

Definitely agree with this I mentioned something like this but it would be great to have reps on fan and community boards like this, in an official capacity. I am on some other boards that do that and some of the reps have the best understanding of the community culture, and are some of the most well liked, and respected, members on the board.

Disney has their own version of these boards - it's called the Mom's Panel. And their answers aren't always correct, nor are they always clearly written. I've seen them flat-out deflect questions that you could tell a higher-up didn't want to answer. It was also set up and is handled in typical Disney fashion - there's no clear path to finding the information you're looking for without searching or asking a question (for example, these forums are very well organized), and there is no directory in which to look through topics. I noticed they've tightened things up a tad, so the search function no longer searches the entire website (which was ludicrous). I've been saying for years that they've needed to stop trying to reinvent the wheel with their website and especially the mom's panel.

 

[Brad Bishop]

If this is true, it raises the question: how else are they doing this? If they're doing it with their theme park fandom, I find it hard not to expect they're also involved in the conversation for their films, Marvel and Star Wars. But none of those seem to have a particular blogger personality like Lutz that could be used.

I thought it was well known that they tried to control the reviews of their parks and movies and steer the conversations.

I'd argue that the fact that the feel that they need to do this tells you that the product is lacking and that they, themselves, don't believe in the product.

 

[spock8113]

This all has such a familiar ring to it. It's all about appearances and public perception rather than some of the truth of what is going on.
If the King is viewed as successful and having clothes, everyone blindly follows without looking at the facts.
And familiarly, the facts are obscured by "alternate facts".
If the King is percieved as successful, the King is comfortably compensated and appoints a successor, usually someone just as image-driven.
It ALL has such a familiar dog-and-pony show feel and needs to go back to basics, "Affordable family fun."
Gradually disappointing, this has been lost in Disney's newer Big Business atmosphere.

Signed, the Seventh Dwarf, Grumpy.

 

[larryz]

It's pretty implicit in the post where he says the whole truth can't be said because there's an innocent third party who would be outed/hurt in the process. Thus, implying, the charges are correct and he's pleading nolo contendere.

Thus, there's not much more to be said or done. One either accepts or rejects the standard theory of events (taking certain claims as needing further proof). @TP2000 is going to continue his forum persona, take it or leave it. The insider claims from @TP2000 or Al Lutz need to stand on their own and time will tell how reliable they are. The true source of his insider info is claimed to be from the CEO and his henchwoman according to one of the Snyders. Is that true? We don't know.

The other players in the game, the Snyders, have stopped posting here under their avatars of @the.dreamfinder and @WDW1974. So, nothing more to be done there.

The role of Micechat in all this is in a he-said/he-said state from their own defense from the charges levied by the Snyders. The owner of this site has made clear several times that any drama from that site over this is not to appear here.

And unless someone knows how to contact the ailing Al Lutz or Zenia or Iger... it seems we're at a dead end except for newly created accounts to react to every single post as if whatever they're trying to do matters.

In other words, the guy in the tux did it.

 

[larryz]

But guys... how is this all connected to Buzzy??!!

TP2000 is Buzzy!

 

[The Mom]

It's pretty implicit in the post where he says the whole truth can't be said because there's an innocent third party who would be outed/hurt in the process. Thus, implying, the charges are correct and he's pleading nolo contendere.

Thus, there's not much more to be said or done. One either accepts or rejects the standard theory of events (taking certain claims as needing further proof). @TP2000 is going to continue his forum persona, take it or leave it. The insider claims from @TP2000 or Al Lutz need to stand on their own and time will tell how reliable they are. The true source of his insider info is claimed to be from the CEO and his henchwoman according to one of the Snyders. Is that true? We don't know.

The other players in the game, the Snyders, have stopped posting here under their avatars of @the.dreamfinder and @WDW1974. So, nothing more to be done there.

The role of Micechat in all this is in a he-said/he-said state from their own defense from the charges levied by the Snyders. The owner of this site has made clear several times that any drama from that site over this is not to appear here.

And unless someone knows how to contact the ailing Al Lutz or Zenia or Iger... it seems we're at a dead end except for newly created accounts to react to every single post as if whatever they're trying to do matters.

correction: the owner did not say that - I did. Acting solely on my own, and expressing my own opinion.

 

[ryguy]

I think my biggest takeaway from all this is the fact that everyone in online Disney fandom except me is gay. Is there an honorary membership, or something? I really like it here. (Just a joke to lighten the mood. No offense intended.)

Too Funny, thanks for the laugh. I had to think for a few minutes what people were talking about when they kept saying "Queens". But I get it now

 

[The Mom]

Where does Jim Hill stand in all of this? Does he have his stubby fingers firmly placed in the cookie jar as well?

I think we've brought enough stuff in from other websites, etc. No need to bring in more.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

I never directly followed this source. Read about it only when it trickled through on DIS or elsewhere. I find it pretty clever and amusing on some level, honestly. Nothing surprises me anymore. People should be more skeptical of what they read online. About everything. And take everything with a grain of salt.

 

[Monorail_Orange]

This all has such a familiar ring to it. It's all about appearances and public perception rather than some of the truth of what is going on.
If the King is viewed as successful and having clothes, everyone blindly follows without looking at the facts.
And familiarly, the facts are obscured by "alternate facts".
If the King is percieved as successful, the King is comfortably compensated and appoints a successor, usually someone just as image-driven.
It ALL has such a familiar dog-and-pony show feel and needs to go back to basics, "Affordable family fun."
Gradually disappointing, this has been lost in Disney's newer Big Business atmosphere.

Signed, the Seventh Dwarf, Grumpy.

Wait a minute...Spock is Grumpy?...

...Maybe I shouldn't ask any more questions....

 

[UpDog71]

I just want to know if WDW1974 (aka Michael Snyder) is as sexy as his continued arrogance frequently portrayed. He always made comments as how WDI fanbois would be all over him if they could...

 

[Smiley/OCD]

Quotes ..... This post is gonna be a big one! :O

Amazing quote I am going to remember this for quite some time, do you mind if I share this around? Credit will be given of course......

Interesting legal argument here thanks for the link it's certainly a new way of looking at it for me but, it confirms what my existing thoughts and what I knew, internally. Legal jargon is not my thing but always nice to see how fields, and topics can connect to each other.

Calling me out ..... Lol I'm just here for the drama found about all this yesterday and it's quite fun to follow, I've been a part of some other internet drama before but this one takes the cake!! The companies, and people, involved are all much higher stakes than other online communities that I have been a part of.....

I am not going to sugar coat anything I say I would have said the same thing before all this blew up, as far as I knew the only people working on a "Grander scale" so to speak were nation states, after all that's what you think of, when you think of propaganda. Not corporations.
I think, the vast VAST majority of us all were surprised when this all came out.

Definitely agree with this I mentioned something like this but it would be great to have reps on fan and community boards like this, in an official capacity. I am on some other boards that do that and some of the reps have the best understanding of the community culture, and are some of the most well liked, and respected, members on the board.

Not a professional contributor but a "Professional" ....... I spend a lot of time on the internet, got quite used to all the various forum software out there. I'm not here to influence anything, in fact if you think that, discount my posts entirely and take what I have to say with a grain of salt. I'm not on any side here but MY OWN .......

Oh believe me but I have! Lol

Spot on

OK by me, since I got it from Star Jones...

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Lastly, I can’t believe so many of you thought Disney is full of puppy dogs and rainbows, their products may be for the most part but this is a publicly traded company who is solely interested in profit full of executives who are high functioning narcissists who only want to amass wealth and power for themselves.

I think the last part of this quote is overstating, but could not agree more wrt the seeming naïveté around business — just because that business makes kids’ entertainment.

 

[NormC]

Just want to say that I'm quite impressed that someone who joined the board yesterday has already mastered the multi quote. I think it took me a year to figure that out.

Unless of course they are either a professional message board contributor or have been here before under a different name.

Many of them have been here before. The lack of integrity and trolling lately is appalling.

 

[Touchdown]

I think the last part of this quote is overstating, but could not agree more wrt the seeming naïveté around business — just because that business makes kids’ entertainment.

I feel I’m about 90-95% accurate, they’re are exceptions but this is true in any big business.

 

[jt04]

The false narrative that is deflecting all blame towards the mouse will collapse under its own weight. But that can wait until after D23.

Woohoo.

 

[Monorail_Orange]

The false narrative that is deflecting all blame towards the mouse will collapse under its own weight. But that can wait until after D23.

Woohoo.

I think I'm picking up what you're laying down, but are you taking the position that "the new sheriff" isn't getting voted out of office?

 

[jt04]

I think I'm picking up what you're laying down, but are you taking the position that "the new sheriff" isn't getting voted out of office?

I'd question everything at this point. Especially that narrative.

 

[Aries1975]

I am not replying to anyone in particular. I am finally caught up on both threads. I thought this post in the Disneyland thread was a concise summary.

Here is my best shot at a summary. It has been difficult to keep up, so if anything is wrong please let me know and I'll edit.

@TP2000 first made a post in this thread declaring in no uncertain terms that he was not Troy Porter and he did not work for Disney.

@photomatt is a mod on micechat. He used his mod powers to look up the original registration that @TP2000 used when signing up for the micechat forums in 2005 and said that he used an email address with the name troy porter. He also accused @TP2000 of either being @WDW1974 or working with him.

A short time later @photomatt deleted all of his posts and said he was given bad information. It was theorized here that the owners of micechat new about the whole tp2000/troy porter situation and told @photomatt that he screwed up by confirming it here. @photomatt attempted to do damage control by saying this whole thread should be deleted.

@TP2000 maintained that he was not Troy Porter.

@andysol did a search on tp2000's previous posts and found a bunch of instances where he described personal experiences in cites he has lived in over the past years. He then cross-referenced them with a public records search for Troy C. Porter and everything matched up.

I found some old usenet posts that he made under the TP2000 screenname and signed off on them as Troy and said that he was a CM.

He seemed to acknowledge the posts by liking them and quoting some of them, but he never admitted he lied. He just deflected. He claimed there was some innocent person that would be hurt by all of this and he couldn't go further into detail at this point.

He is now continuing to post like nothing happened.

I lurked for a long time before joining. I saw soil borings being dug near Wilderness Lodge on a 2014? trip and found my answer in a Spirit thread (9?) in the form of stormwater management plans for Copper Creek.

Spirit (@WDW1974) is very entertaining. Since they canceled "All My Children," a Spirit thread was like a portable soap opera of corporate intrigue on my phone. As a "nobody" (not even a faux 5-percenter) with nothing to contribute, I "knew" better then to post in those threads. So, I never dared to ask. Now, we have all of this info, but it does not answer the one question I always wondered, and still do...

Why does Spirit HATE Iger so much?

That kind of venom is usually reserved for someone who has deeply hurt a close family member. It never seemed like "just business" corporate or political stuff. It seemed deeply personal; even more so after this article. I am not sure I really expect an answer. But I cannot believe I am the only one who read the last few Spirit threads and this article wondering what happened to cause such animosity.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

I thought these were some interesting posts from who we now know as Troy Porter. Awful lot of Chapek bashing on the SWGE side of things.

I’m not going to swallow this article as fact any more than I do other things I read online, but I got into more than one back and forth with this poster. Have always been skeptical of those who blame specific execs by name.