Say.... What if Avatarland got cancelled?

[Lee]

Can someone clarify what has supposedly or actually happened on LP.com?

Nothing overly dramatic.
The site's owner got some heat over some of the optics being discussed, causing them to be deleated. The best posters fled to avoid being censored.

Now...the forums there, particularly the WDW one, is a ghost town.

 

[HenryMystic]

Nothing overly dramatic.
The site's owner got some heat over some of the optics being discussed, causing them to be deleated. The best posters fled to avoid being censored.

Now...the forums there, particularly the WDW one, is a ghost town.

A shame really.

 

[lebeau]

A shame really.

Hopefully the Disney gravy train was worth it.

I keep offering to sell out to Disney, but they won't take me up on it. So, I guess I'll just have to go on being honest.

 

[Megavolt]

The owner/moderator made it clear that any sort of critical discussion of the company would not be tolerated.

This was after spirit's social media thread started attracting too much attention in Burbank.

Nothing overly dramatic.
The site's owner got some heat over some of the optics being discussed, causing them to be deleated. The best posters fled to avoid being censored.

Now...the forums there, particularly the WDW one, is a ghost town.

Really is sad, I remember reading that thread and posting in it. It really made you think and had merits that most threads do not. The sad thing is that this is a continuing trend in the Disney blogophere. More and more censorship in order to get free cruises and the like. Twitter is where real discussion is taking place now, but even that isn't what it could be.

 

[HenryMystic]

Hopefully the Disney gravy train was worth it.

I keep offering to sell out to Disney, but they won't take me up on it. So, I guess I'll just have to go on being honest.

I know right? I want free cruises and swag. But alas, no bites.

 

[njDizFan]

The owner/moderator made it clear that any sort of critical discussion of the company would not be tolerated.

This was after spirit's social media thread started attracting too much attention in Burbank.

Wow...where to start? Up until a few months ago LP had some really great threads and discussion. The posters there were names familiar to this site, like '74, Epcot Explorer,Lee, Sir Goofy(Hokie Skipper), Burried 20K, Bolna etc. and some very informed people not on these boards like Lee Macdonald.

Well Spirit was often a driving force with his threads and observations and one particular thread caused quite a rukkus. It was a 1000+ post thread about the influence of Disney social media and the way TWDC was pandering to the bloggers to spin positive feedback. For the most part the discussion was quite intelligent and raised quite a few eyebrows. But then some people started naming names of particular bloggers and podcasters who may or may not be receiving swag to spin for their ulta-positive pablum to the reverent masses.

At that time the sites owner started posting on the thread and vehimently denied that people were being pushed or bought by TWDC to do their bidding. Of course Spirit came back with a few scathing posts and before we knew it, quite a few posts had been altered and "modified". Spirit for one took umbridge and eventually left the site with most of it's readership...and now that site's owner is supposedly sailing upon the new Disney Fantasy.

Of course that is a short explination..I'm sure Spirit will come here and add his thoughts but it was quite confrontational and very thought provoking.

 

[lebeau]

Wow...where to start? Up until a few months ago LP had some really great threads and discussion. The posters there were names familiar to this site, like '74, Epcot Explorer,Lee, Sir Goofy(Hokie Skipper), Burried 20K, Bolna etc. and some very informed people not on these boards like Lee Macdonald.

Well Spirit was often a driving force with his threads and observations and one particular thread caused quite a rukkus. It was a 1000+ post thread about the influence of Disney social media and the way TWDC was pandering to the bloggers to spin positive feedback. For the most part the discussion was quite intelligent and raised quite a few eyebrows. But then some people started naming names of particular bloggers and podcasters who may or may not be receiving swag to spin for their ulta-positive pablum to the reverent masses.

At that time the sites owner started posting on the thread and vehimently denied that people were being pushed or bought by TWDC to do their bidding. Of course Spirit came back with a few scathing posts and before we knew it, quite a few posts had been altered and "modified". Spirit for one took umbridge and eventually left the site with most of it's readership...and now that site's owner is supposedly sailing upon the new Disney Fantasy.

Of course that is a short explination..I'm sure Spirit will come here and add his thoughts but it was quite confrontational and very thought provoking.

Dang, I'd like to read that!

It's a shame Disney invests so much effort into controlling the spin. If they just delivered the product, they wouldn't have to worry about spinning things. Disney fans are loyal to a fault. If Disney fixed what was broken, fans would gush all over the internet with no need for hand-outs.

Heck, a lot of fans do just that even with things falling apart and no hand-outs. So just imagine what they would say if Disney actually invested in their parks.

 

[Kiff]

The owner/moderator made it clear that any sort of critical discussion of the company would not be tolerated.

This was after spirit's social media thread started attracting too much attention in Burbank.

It was a good thread and I enjoyed lurking there . Really opened my eyes to what Disney or any large corporation is doing with the web and social media these days. Having worked in telecommunications and ISPs for the last 15 years it really makes me yearn for the days when the corporate world didn't understand the power of the internet. :brick:

Still... there is hope as long as free discussion continues in a place like this...

 

[misterID]

I'm open to selling out. Build a new Imagination, bring back a Horizons like ride (see, it doesn't even have to be Horizons. See how easy I am?), finish the SSE descent and actually put some rides in WS. Do that and I'll do and say anything they want. I won't even need a cruise.

 

[HenryMystic]

It was a good thread and I enjoyed lurking there . Really opened my eyes to what Disney or any large corporation is doing with the web and social media these days. Having worked in telecommunications and ISPs for the last 15 years it really makes me yearn for the days when the corporate world didn't understand the power of the internet. :brick:

Still... there is hope as long as free discussion continues in a place like this...

Hopefully :xmas:

 

[lebeau]

Do I have a half a day to kill? Nope.

Will I slowly plod through it in between being productive at work? Oh yeah.

:lookaroun

Edit: Just read the original post! Wow! The Spirit was on a roll! Is he tamer here than he was there?

 

[Atomicmickey]

Thanks for the Illuminations!

A couple of neutral observer-observations.

a) Interesting that Disney DOES pay close attention to these boards.
It's not like they take any of the 'suggestions' offered here. Well, doesn't
seem like it to me.

b) Yes, it does seem that suddenly bloggers get free cruises.

c) Disney's social media efforts are on the one hand impressive, just because
they've embraced the new new thing, but I find them condescending and
smarmy, mostly. That "inside imagineer chat" being about the worst of it,
where the "inside information" felt like it came out of a public relations robot.
They are obviously nervous about the "wild west" portion of the internetz, and not used to completely controlling the message. (Which, if you stop to
think about it, is what we APPLAUD, when we're in the theme park, lol, eg.: "I can see the Soarin' showbuilding from Germany and it TOTALLY DESTROYS the illusion of being around a lagoon in the middle of Florida where it's only 50 steps in between all the world's countries' representative shops and restaurants.":lol:

d) It would be good if all of those contentious folks returned here. I enjoy the arguing over quality, rumors, and such, from all points of view. I don't like it when it turns personal, and I don't like it when people phrase their rumors as though they are FACT, but I do like banter. Not flame wars. The more "in the know" people, the more relevant the banter will be, IMO. Positive and negative.

And finally, dang it youse insiders, I wish y'all didn't have to be so obtuse. Especially when it seems like everyone here knows what's being talked about, like "spirited change" and it's like verbal sudoku to figure it out.

Someone take pity and PM me about what the heck that means, lol.:wave:

 

[The Mom]

I would really appreciate it if posters would leave their baggage from other websites behind. I really don't care about what is being discussed on other sites, and I'm sure they don't want threads carried over from here. Each website is run differently, and if you do not like the way one is being moderated, you have the option to go elsewhere, or even better, start your own and run it any way you please.

 

[Bolna]

Well Spirit was often a driving force with his threads and observations and one particular thread caused quite a rukkus. It was a 1000+ post thread about the influence of Disney social media and the way TWDC was pandering to the bloggers to spin positive feedback.

I still think that the question of social media and how it is used by TWDC is incredibly interesting. I read on the Adventurers Club thread here the other day about a post on the Disney Park Blog about the 5 top "adult night life" experiences at Disney Parks and Resorts (and they had to stretch it really as they included the cruise ships too to get 5) and how people were trying to get comments through they were making about Pleasure Island. Of course they didn't appear!

And they tried to play the social media game with Avatarland - a huge announcement on the blog and then that q&a opportunity with Tom Staggs for the people on the blog - which was so pre-scripted that it was embarrassing.

Now we have the reports about Iger looking less than pleased when asked about Avatarland during the Annual Meeting. Maybe he will learn that you can't just try to create happy emotions with your blog - people will expect you to deliver on your promises (even if personally I would not mind if Avatarland would never happen).

It was a good thread and I enjoyed lurking there . Really opened my eyes to what Disney or any large corporation is doing with the web and social media these days. Having worked in telecommunications and ISPs for the last 15 years it really makes me yearn for the days when the corporate world didn't understand the power of the internet. :brick:

Still... there is hope as long as free discussion continues in a place like this...

Hey, it sounds like you would have been able to add a really interesting perspective to that discussion! I lurk way too much as well (until a topic really gets to me), but intelligent discussion lives on people participating in it!!

 

[lazyboy97o]

I still think that the question of social media and how it is used by TWDC is incredibly interesting. I read on the Adventurers Club thread here the other day about a post on the Disney Park Blog about the 5 top "adult night life" experiences at Disney Parks and Resorts (and they had to stretch it really as they included the cruise ships too to get 5) and how people were trying to get comments through they were making about Pleasure Island. Of course they didn't appear!

This is even more interesting because in the past it was always a note of surprise that so many comments regarding Pleasure Island were allowed.

 

[WDW1974]

Just curious if your tagline has anything to do with AVATAR and Eywa? Or, am I completely off-base?

No comment (yet), sorry.

~Change is coming. BIG, SPIRITED change!~

 

[WDW1974]

At that point in time I can understand why. If your dog is front-runner in the race, why pull it to the side for grooming?

Precisely because you are on top and wish to stay there ... '99 was about a perfect time for a major MK refreshening/expansion project. And they only looked at the bottom line ... so it will be 15 years later before a much scaled down version gets completed.

That's not how the No. 1 theme park in the world (by attendance, it sure as hell isn't in my Top 5!) should be treated.

They waited waaay too late and then did waaaaay too little.

~Change is coming. BIG, SPIRITED change!~

 

[WDW1974]

Nothing overly dramatic.
The site's owner got some heat over some of the optics being discussed, causing them to be deleated. The best posters fled to avoid being censored.

Now...the forums there, particularly the WDW one, is a ghost town.

Just a minor, but important correction, none of the threads were ever deleted. I believe the original 122 page Social Media thread (which I have personally archived for my own use) is still there. It was just closed without so much as one word from anyone in power there. Someone else opted to start a second one that went on quite a while ... and that doesn't include my thread on the BoD giving Iger the OK to shop P&R and/or seek investors.

I opted to leave because I lost respect for the people running the place (something that apparently needs to be clarified since other threads on here currently apparently incorrectly state that I was 'banned' or kicked off etc).

~Change is coming. BIG, SPIRITED change!~

 

[WDW1974]

Really is sad, I remember reading that thread and posting in it. It really made you think and had merits that most threads do not. The sad thing is that this is a continuing trend in the Disney blogophere. More and more censorship in order to get free cruises and the like. Twitter is where real discussion is taking place now, but even that isn't what it could be.

Twitter isn't the answer. (I find it an inane invention that likely is a sign of the upcoming zombie apocolypse)

No one has real conversations in 140 characters. And to watch people (generally under 30 crowd) attempt to is mindnumbing.

The problem with Twitter and FB and all of these Disney Lifestyle sites/blogs is they do kill sites like this and they keep people from discussing legit issues ... they remove debate (it's sorta -- and PLEASE MODS CAN WE LEAVE THIS COMMENT AS A COMPARISON?! -- like when people on the far left get all their 'news' from MSNBC and people on the far right get all their 'news' from FOX. Neither side is hearing anything other than what they chose to believe to begin with.) ... You need discussion and, yes, debate and arguing. That's how people learn and grow and make decisions.

Being patted on the back and told how you're right all the time isn't really good for anyone.

With that said, I sure wish all the kiddies who got ticked off here and ran away in a huff to form their own dying site came back here (just be nice to Steve!) because nothing is gained by the fan community splintering ... the only winner -- and make no mistake about it, this is what they want -- is TWDC.

~Change is coming. BIG, SPIRITED change!~

 

[WDW1974]

Wow...where to start? Up until a few months ago LP had some really great threads and discussion. The posters there were names familiar to this site, like '74, Epcot Explorer,Lee, Sir Goofy(Hokie Skipper), Burried 20K, Bolna etc. and some very informed people not on these boards like Lee Macdonald.

Well Spirit was often a driving force with his threads and observations and one particular thread caused quite a rukkus. It was a 1000+ post thread about the influence of Disney social media and the way TWDC was pandering to the bloggers to spin positive feedback. For the most part the discussion was quite intelligent and raised quite a few eyebrows. But then some people started naming names of particular bloggers and podcasters who may or may not be receiving swag to spin for their ulta-positive pablum to the reverent masses.

At that time the sites owner started posting on the thread and vehimently denied that people were being pushed or bought by TWDC to do their bidding. Of course Spirit came back with a few scathing posts and before we knew it, quite a few posts had been altered and "modified". Spirit for one took umbridge and eventually left the site with most of it's readership...and now that site's owner is supposedly sailing upon the new Disney Fantasy.

Of course that is a short explination..I'm sure Spirit will come here and add his thoughts but it was quite confrontational and very thought provoking.

That pretty much covers things, Daniel.

And I have no desire to rehash what went down there, although the topic of Social Media and TWDC is something I am always interested in discussing as it is very newsworthy in today's world.

~Change is coming. BIG, SPIRITED change!~