Splitsville Blog Meet-Up

[TinkerBell9988]

Don't take this the wrong way, but I honestly don't recall seeing you post before ... do you ever post on News and Rumors?

@PhotoDave219 was a big guy back in the day... I remember reading his posts quite often. Hey Dave!

I don't post that often anymore (not as much as I used to five to eight years ago), but I just wanted to say that this thread is on FIYAH.

 

[GLaDOS]

Me? I don't do drama. I don't do it in my family, why on earth would I get motivated to do it in a hobbist setting? It's not worth my time or emotion.

Oh, I'm with you.

So mount an effort to get them reported enough to the FTC. With a volume of complaints, they will look into it. One or two won't do it - but a volume of reports along with FACTS will.

I'll be honest, I don't care enough to go through with that. It's not a big deal, and I can easily enough ignore the people on twitter that seem to get the preferential treatment.

 

[WDW1974]

I see a vendetta/agenda by the person who started this thread but most everyone else is venting or discussing something thats been bubbling right under the surface.

I don't know the OP, so I wouldn't want to ascribe a vendetta to them. ... I do know that many folks are not happy in the fan community with the way many regular folks (some that truly have mental health issues) are being treated as 'media' by TWDC as a way by individuals at Celebration Place to justify their own employment with the company. There is a lot of dislike there and a big disconnect there ... way too much of what these bloggers do is basically throw in the face of their followers ''look at me ... look how special I am ... look I'm at a WDW party ... look here's a picture of me and John Lasseter ... here's me talking to Phil Holmes about new restrooms ... you know you wanna be me!''

I can only speak for myself, but I'd sooner hang myself.

I don't think Jason would be interested in this. Transportation issues, attendance growth, anything that affects the stock price, yes. Disney credentialing everyone and their cousin? Thats something that I'm sure he knows about.

Yes, but it certainly is newsworthy from the point of what is Disney getting out of it? And how did they go from not credentialing any of ''those people'' (a quote directly to me from a former WDW exec) to credentialing any Mommy Blogger in Kansas that has 134 followers (122 either family or friends)?

And as I'm watching coverage of an elementary school shooting in CT., I'm having a hard time justifying spending time on something so insignificant ... but I suppose it gets my mind off of how bad things really are these days in our society.

Disney's credentialling everyone isnt a new phenomena. Holy crap, you should see all the alleged"professional" photographers on the sidelines of a college football game. Thats another rant for another time tho.

Hah, Dave. I know thie very, very well. I've been to my share of NCAA games (I may be at the BCS Championship, but if I am I'll try not to rub noses in it) and what you say is absolutely correct.

 

[WDW1974]

Ok - the real dirt

This is based on info Disney has released... with threads like this, I doubt they will release the info for future events

WDW has has 5 meet-ups posted on the blog. One of those, the star tours one, they did not post an attendee list.

For the 4 events where an attendee list was posted. There were 707 attendees total.

Of those 707

• There were 484 'one timers' who only did one event
• There were 140 slots taken by people who made it to two events (70 people)
• There were 39 slots taken by people who made it to three events (13 people)
• There were 44 slots taken by people who managed to get into all 4 events (11 people)

So out of 578 people..

• 1.9% made it to all four events
• 4.1% made it to three events
• 16.2% made it to two events
• 83.7% made it to just one event

I think it makes it clear - these events are not being 'hogged' or overrun by the same hand-picked people over and over. It would appear they are there.. but they are a far far minority.


Now what about the people that always manage to get in? I make no claim to be on top of the Disney fanboi phonebook or soap operas. This is research based on simple Googling of readily available info with zero real effort put into it.

Of the 11 people... 7 have clear ties to Disney blogsphere or Disney itself (would you believe Disney CMs are in this list? true.. )

So here are the ones listed in all four of the attendee lists:
Kristin Alexander
Chad Baker
Benjamin Breitbart
Ricky Brigante
Jami Carpenter
Mark Diba
Suzannah DiMarzio
George Russell
Georgia Russell
Nicole Siscaretti
Marc Stumbo

There are also a few names in the list that would make you think they are actually alias' as well. There is one who is a writer from New York.. that seems to make a lot of these blog reader events too...

So take the info as you will. Standard disclaimers apply.. I only know the info Disney released and what could readily be deduced from public webpages. I make no claim to how these people get in or out - just reporting on data correlations in the info provided.

Only ... ONLY Flynnibus would be enouqh to try and crunch numbers at 2:30 a.m.

I'm not going to argue numbers with you. I have neither the time, the energy or the desire. But I will try and add some perpective.

First, Disney absolutely listed the Star Tours invitees. It was reading that list -- and seeing how many familiar names from the online community -- that caused me to start a thead on social media on LaughingPlace.com in 2011 (yeah, the never-ending gift). I wondered how it was that so many bloggers, podcasters and webmasters and -- this is important flynn -- folks who are associated with them (folks you'd likely miss) were on the list.

I have since checked most of the lists and it never fails that these online folks are there. You, without knowing many of these people, are likely looking for names familiar to you or easy to find in a quick Google search. That's fine for a basic (12 people dead in CT ... God, let's all let crazies buy more guns!) search. It doesn't come close to telling the entire story.

 

[WDW1974]

You are absolutely right. It takes a lot to get yourself banned from my site, and disagreeing with me is not one of them.

Those that do get themselves banned know why they were banned, yet conveniently seem to forget that, and just preach to their followers that they were simply banned because they had a different opinion than mine. Not true.

Most of them were banned for displaying serious issues that were a detracting from the usefulness of the forum for everyone else. Typically those who ended up in that position would also start their own site - to "destroy" WDWMAGIC as one of them told me. They would then return to the forum with a whole host of new usernames to endlessly try to promote their new site. They would be banned over and over, yet would still not get the message.

It is always fascinating to see how those who tell me how much they hate WDWMAGIC continue to visit both the main site and the forum on a daily basis. They just can't stay away.

It's amusing because if what is discussed here is that trivial and unimportant then they wouldn't waste their time unless they were just mentally ill and had to know if they were being discussed.

I didn't really understand how or why so many would come back, but one person on Twitter who was talking to Dave (I think ... it was late last night) was the easywdw guy, Josh, who came here as 'FrostyJosh' but apparently was proudly touting being banned '96 times for trolling'. While I believe he was greatly exaggerating his number, it just amazes me that people will waste that much time.

And if I am WDW Social Media, do I want to credential anyone who admits to such infantile behavior proudly? What would the upside for the company be exactly?

 

[tahqa]

That's the problem right now - how do you prove the special treatment?

I don't think anyone is getting special treatment. I just think that the subset of attendees that are repeat attendees have organized to the point where they know how to work the system. Through their twitter networks or whatever. They know what day the invite will happen and then when the Disney tweet hits the network they immediately sign up and then tweet that they signed up. Which then cascades through their twitter network.

So they're not getting special treatment, but they are definitely gaming the system. Is it against the rules? No. Do I begrudge them for getting in when I didn't, well, yeah, a little. I work and can't spend my day monitoring Facebook, twitter, Google reader, whatever.

Which is why I think that if the Disney Parks Blog is serious about these events being fair that rules should be implemented such that a subset of people aren't going to all of the Meet Ups.

 

[flynnibus]

Only ... ONLY Flynnibus would be enouqh to try and crunch numbers at 2:30 a.m.

Wow.. that's a unique way to say 'thanks'

First, Disney absolutely listed the Star Tours invitees. It was reading that list -- and seeing how many familiar names from the online community -- that caused me to start a thead on social media on LaughingPlace.com in 2011 (yeah, the never-ending gift)

I don't know - but it wasn't listed in the blogs articles I found in my quick search. The other articles listed the attendees in an update to the original or follow-on post. Maybe it's there.. I just didn't find it in my search. Again, as I stated, this was crude simple work - not commercial research. If you have a link to the list, I can certainly update the table and expand the correlation.

I have since checked most of the lists and it never fails that these online folks are there. You, without knowing many of these people, are likely looking for names familiar to you or easy to find in a quick Google search. That's fine for a basic (12 people dead in CT ... God, let's all let crazies buy more guns!) search. It doesn't come close to telling the entire story.

As I stated - I don't do Disney Soap Opera.. so I don't claim to know all the names listed, and as I specifically said, I only did cursurary research into the names. But 'who they are' is not relevant to the frequency for which a slot is reserved for a person. And of the released names - the number of names who are at every event (even more than half the events) is small relative to the entire attendance.

In the lists compiled - only 12 people who were at every event, and the list grows to 27 if you count 3 or more events. Feel free to spell out their significance..

Kristin Alexander - former Disney exec who now is involved with a kids oriented online site
Chad Baker - ?? at least several former CMs named Chad in the area
Benjamin Breitbart - ?? Lists Guest Service Manager at DisneyWorld as employment
Ricky Brigante - inside the magic blogger
Jami Carpenter - ?? maybe xoxojami online
Mark Diba - blogger
Suzannah DiMarzio - zannaland blogger - @zannaland - Disney Mom Panelist
Garry Russell -??
George Russell -??
Georgia Russell -??
Nicole Siscaretti - blogger http://SparklyEverAfter.com and many other pieces..

The 3peaters...
Corinne Andersson - wife of Daniel - ?? they both seem to run in the local fan circles contributing content
Stephen Bogert - ?? has posted here in the past...
Shelley Caran - touringplans contributor - http://onthegoinmco.com/
Jennifer Cook - blogger - http://mrsjennifercook.com/ - Disney Teacher of the year Nominee - OR local TV producer (and former Disney intern in Media)
Tom Corless - blogger
Maria Elkin - blogger - http://obsessedwiththeears.blogspot.com/
Andrew Gonzalez - ?? @AndrewBoixG
Erika Greeson - ??
Scarlett Litton - girlfriend of Tom Corless (Dumbo Blogger?)
Minutha Mahadevaiah - former CM - ?? seems to run in the local circles
Denise Preskitt - blogger mousesteps - associated with JLange
Jeffrey Reisdorf - CM/former CM - seems to hang with peeps
Matt Roseboom - orlando attractions mag
Ashley Vogl - ??
Elizabeth Williams - salon.com writer from NY

 

[ptaylor]

Which is why I think that if the Disney Parks Blog is serious about these events being fair that rules should be implemented such that a subset of people aren't going to all of the Meet Ups.

It is far more than just the blog meet ups though. They go to media previews, cast previews, grand opening, then the blog meet up. They want (and get) everything.

 

[flynnibus]

I don't think anyone is getting special treatment. I just think that the subset of attendees that are repeat attendees have organized to the point where they know how to work the system

Sorry, that post was about another train of thought - not the meet-ups. Glados was talking more about them getting lodging, services, etc (related to the media events) without disclosing that. The FTC rules can be paraphrased to be if you are getting some treatment beyond what a normal customer would expect to get.. you need to disclose it. Free or special discounted lodging or meals would be included in that.

 

[tahqa]

Sorry, that post was about another train of thought - not the meet-ups. Glados was talking more about them getting lodging, services, etc (related to the media events) without disclosing that. The FTC rules can be paraphrased to be if you are getting some treatment beyond what a normal customer would expect to get.. you need to disclose it. Free or special discounted lodging or meals would be included in that.

Ah, gotcha. Not to get off track but I've noticed that Kevin Yee is very scrupulous when it comes to disclosure on perks. I also noticed his name was not on any of the event lists. Just shows that you can do a good job without being a media w****

 

[mdiba]

Hey, I'm Mark and apparently I'm on the list of repeat guests. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

 

[ptaylor]

Hey, I'm Mark and apparently I'm on the list of repeat guests. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

No questions, unless you are one that goes to all the blog meets, all the media previews, all the grand openings. Then my question would be why do you have to take the blog meet spots when you have already seen it during the media previews?

If you are not in that group then I guess you just hit a lot of refreshes and got into all the blog meets - no problems with that.

 

[mdiba]

I go to all the Disney Parks Blog meetups, but I'm not a media person (and I'm definitely not a blogger).

 

[flynnibus]

I go to all the Disney Parks Blog meetups, but I'm not a media person (and I'm definitely not a blogger).

How about a contributor?
http://www.dragynally.com/search/label/dibaDisney

I used the label only because I found you associated with posts on other people's sites

 

[mdiba]

I wrote two guest posts there because the owner of that site is my friend. I didn't get paid or compensated in any way for it. I've never done any other writing.

 

[Lee]

I wrote two guest posts there because the owner of that site is my friend. I didn't get paid or compensated in any way for it. I've never done any other writing.

Then you, sir, are not part of the problem.

It's important to not use too broad of a brush here. Not everyone that attends blog events are the problem. No need to lump folks like Mark here in with the pseudo-media crowd.

 

[ptaylor]

Then you, sir, are not part of the problem.

It's important to not use too broad of a brush here. Not everyone that attends blog events are the problem. No need to lump folks like Mark here in with the pseudo-media crowd.

Absolutely. This is important to take note of.

 

[Lee]

@PhotoDave219 was a big guy back in the day...

Not really. He's about average size, I'd say....

 

[TinkerBell9988]

Not really. He's about average size, I'd say....

I had a feeling someone would call that out... Haha! I meant "big" in the "popular" sense. No harm meant!

 

[LongballMG]

Having been here for over 10 years (although I don't post much), it pains me to see the hurtful comments about this site.

I know some of what is said here is hurtful, and there have been other threads over the years when other hurtful things were said.

However, I love this site and these forums with all my heart and all my soul and thank you to Steve and everyone here for being here and keeping this great site and these great forums alive.