The [Dis] Influencer- One Year Anniversary

[tirian]

I’ll admit to spending the last few minutes reviewing the ”Expose” thread in the WDW boards. I’m reminded of how crazy that was: posts early in the thread trying to find out which people named in the article were which WDWMagic members, the brief and emotional appearance of @photomatt insisting the whole thing wasn’t true, the bizarre outburst from @TheWalrus...

Like many threads, the conversation eventually devolved into yet another Star Wars thread. But it certainly made me suspicious of pretty much everyone on here.

But it was that thread where I discovered some of my favorite members to follow: @tirian, @Tom Morrow, and @andysol (the super-sleuth who connected all the dots but hasn’t been back here since December of last year, which now that I think about it is extremely suspect given the nature of that whole conversation).

I can’t seem to find the parallel thread from the Disneyland boards. Wasn’t it called, “Al Lutz Returns” or something like that?

Ironically, I posted the story here specifically so that the OP wouldn’t be melodramatic. I intended to just put it out and let the conversation roll like a parlor in a Tolstoy or Austen novel.

And it did. Good times.

 

[tirian]

It's so funny you say that. I went and looked at that site about a week ago, for the first time in forever (sorry Anna) and it seemed so... sad. Corporate. Canned. Lacking any real personality or zip. And their message boards are a ghost town.

The world has certainly changed since the 2000's.

You mean you don’t enjoy promotional pieces with heavy political baggage? Merchandise is magical! The new Epcot will be fantastic! The new pink Cinderella Castle is fabulous! and so on...

(Nobody needs to twist this thread into politics!)

 

[TP2000]

You mean you don’t enjoy promotional pieces with heavy political baggage?

It's par for the course in 2020, I fully understand that. I just wish they'd attempt it with a lighter, wittier hand.

Instead, Micechat now has the typical eye-rolling version of that mandatory groupthink. I peeked in on it a week or so ago, and I was almost instantly reminded why I no longer visit that site.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I can’t seem to find the parallel thread from the Disneyland boards. Wasn’t it called, “Al Lutz Returns” or something like that?

It was deleted around four months ago.

 

[TheDisneyDaysOfOurLives]

Yikes. I'm still here in La Jolla right now, in the lull between the family leaving and a few friends arriving this weekend, and I'm afraid I can respond to your kind call out with nothing more than this glass of mid-range Chardonnay on the patio. Do I dare try and rustle up something stronger in this heatwave?

But... has it really been a whole year? I guess it has. I am remembering the day this happened, the open-mouthed stunned face I first read the news to, followed by gales of laughter and a mandatory trip to the bar cart in celebration. Then I remember trying to quickly catch up on a story that was hours old and that everyone was talking about, and I remember some person here (forgive me for not remembering exactly who) that noticed I was finally online and reading through the thread and Liking certain posts who said "Guys! He's online and he just Liked my post! Just act natural!"

If anyone here remembers who said that, or can claim it as their own, please speak up. That comment sent me from laughing and guffawing into rolling on the floor hysterics that evening.

What a funny little chapter that was last summer. I can't believe it's already been a year!

Neither can I. That's why I signed up here. You only have yourself to blame for me joining these forums and harassing you about your 1% ways ;-).

Okay, quoting you again. It was news to me that this random August Tuesday was an anniversary of any sort. But now that I realize what it was, and how hilarious it all was, I'm going to try and live up to your expectations by making a special concoction for apres' dinner.

I will be plucking a ripe lemon from the tree this evening and making a fresh La Jolla Sidecar as this evening's Nightcap. It reached 80 degrees in La Jolla today, which is very hot for August, and it's only 75 as I type. We need something refreshing. I hope you approve.

La Jolla Sidecar Recipe:

1 and 1/2 jigger Hennessey VSOP Cognac
1 jigger Cointreau
1 jigger freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon C&H extra fine sugar
1 Orange peel piece
1 thinly sliced Orange wedge

Combine all liquid ingredients and C&H sugar in cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously. Take a chilled coupe glass and rub sliced Orange peel around rim. Strain liquid ingredients into coupe. Twist Orange peel over coupe to spritz with Orange oil. Add sliced Orange to top. Toast to summer!

Only the best drinks for the 1% in you!

Did you have to fly on your private jet to get that lemon or the Hennessey VSOP Cognac?

I need to become a mixologist (no, Google, stop trying to correct this to sexologist). Or just have you make me and the wife drinks. That would be fun.

Happy Anniversary!

 

[brb1006]

I’ll admit to spending the last few minutes reviewing the ”Expose” thread in the WDW boards. I’m reminded of how crazy that was: posts early in the thread trying to find out which people named in the article were which WDWMagic members, the brief and emotional appearance of @photomatt insisting the whole thing wasn’t true, the bizarre outburst from @TheWalrus...

Like many threads, the conversation eventually devolved into yet another Star Wars thread. But it certainly made me suspicious of pretty much everyone on here.

But it was that thread where I discovered some of my favorite members to follow: @tirian, @Tom Morrow, and @andysol (the super-sleuth who connected all the dots but hasn’t been back here since December of last year, which now that I think about it is extremely suspect given the nature of that whole conversation).

I can’t seem to find the parallel thread from the Disneyland boards. Wasn’t it called, “Al Lutz Returns” or something like that?

I remember the amount of threads The Walrus made last year. Then he suddenly had a fit about one of inside information being false. Also I forgot how he suddenly got banned from this site. But his posts was something.

 

[brb1006]

Ironically, I posted the story here specifically so that the OP wouldn’t be melodramatic. I intended to just put it out and let the conversation roll like a parlor in a Tolstoy or Austen novel.

And it did. Good times.

I miss @andysol, he was a very nice and had some very interesting posts. He hasn't posted since August 26 last year. Hopefully he resurfaces on this site in the future.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

That article cost Kalogridis the chairmanship of DPEP.

 

[TheDisneyDaysOfOurLives]

First posted to MAGIC on 8/18/19

The [DIS] Influencer

How the Walt Disney Company Co-Opted the Voice of a Community

medium.com

Read this again and it definitely is an interesting tale that I don't know if we will ever get true closure on. I wish @TP2000 would come forward to earnestly discuss (maybe I missed a post on this?) and be honest with everything. I'm not sure he can (if this is true, of course), but it would be enlightening to hear this true side of the story without fear of repercussions.

 

[Figments Friend]

It's too bad that the original ' Al Lutz Returns ' thread from the Disneyland Forum here was deleted.
But I can totally understand why....things became VERY heated in there and turned rather hostile between certain parties.
Interesting to hear it was intact up until a few months ago...although in a edited form.


The still exsisting ' Expose' thread in the WDW Forum section still contains some memorable gems however....
Looking it over now, these stood out for me like family photographs in a memory book -


First, some humor when everyone was sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for TP to response to the 'scandal' -

Next, TP's first public post responding the the chaotic happenings was quoted, archiving the moment from the original now deleted thread -
Oh, the memories of first seeing this!

Many posts later, Kevin Yee weighs in with some thoughts -

And who remembers this guy...?
One of those magical accounts that just suddenly appears and then disappears just as quickly -

And who can forget when 'The Bombshell' dropped -
Legendary!

And just like I was taught when I had my run in entertainment, 'always leave em' with a laugh...!'

Oh....the memories .....!

We can all laugh about it now, but man was it touch and go there for a couple of evenings.

-

 

[TP2000]

Neither can I. That's why I signed up here. You only have yourself to blame for me joining these forums and harassing you about your 1% ways ;-).

Only the best drinks for the 1% in you!

Did you have to fly on your private jet to get that lemon or the Hennessey VSOP Cognac?

I need to become a mixologist (no, Google, stop trying to correct this to sexologist). Or just have you make me and the wife drinks. That would be fun.

Happy Anniversary!

Thank you! I appreciate your thought. I mentioned in another thread recently about Disneyland being Non-Essential that just by the fact we are able to afford a ticket to Disneyland makes us all in the top 2% of the global human population. We all have much to be thankful for!

And I'm about to go make my Nightcap, the semi-famous La Jolla Sidecar. I will toast you and your wife, along with a few other fine folks here who deserve a toast!

 

[TP2000]

It was deleted around four months ago.

You're kidding? Why would it be deleted? It was kind of fun, all things considered.

That article cost Kalogridis the chairmanship of DPEP.

Really? Was that the ultimate goal of the article?

George Kalogridis is past US retirement age, as Google says he's coming up on 67 now. Why wouldn't he just retire and go play golf, or redecorate the dining room, or do something indulgent and fun in his older age instead of try to wring more juice out of the lemon that is Disney Parks?

 

[TP2000]

It's too bad that the original ' Al Lutz Returns ' thread from the Disneyland Forum here was deleted.
But I can totally understand why....things became VERY heated in there and turned rather hostile between certain parties.
Interesting to hear it was intact up until a few months ago...although in a edited form.


The still exsisting ' Expose' thread in the WDW Forum section still contains some memorable gems however....
Looking it over now, these stood out for me like family photographs in a memory book -


First, some humor when everyone was sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for TP to response to the 'scandal' -

View attachment 491823

Next, TP's first public post responding the the chaotic happenings was quoted, archiving the moment from the original now deleted thread -
Oh, the memories of first seeing this!

View attachment 491825

Many posts later, Kevin Yee weighs in with some thoughts -


View attachment 491826


And who remembers this guy...?
One of those magical accounts that just suddenly appears and then disappears just as quickly -

View attachment 491827



And who can forget when 'The Bombshell' dropped -
Legendary!


View attachment 491829



And just like I was taught when I had my run in entertainment, 'always leave em' with a laugh...!'

View attachment 491828


Oh....the memories .....!

We can all laugh about it now, but man was it touch and go there for a couple of evenings.

-

Oh, thank you! What a nice little recap of that 48 hours of infamy that was. Your reconnaissance and recap is helpful to the memory banks. Thank you again.

It was touch and go for a bit, wasn't it? I had to sort it all out myself, with some help from a couple new friends I made because of it all. Hysterical!

But again, it all seems so silly and trivial now from the lens of 2020 and all we've been through lately. And Disneyland is still closed here in mid August.

 

[Tom Morrow]

It has ironically been more than a year since "the neighbor lady" last graced us with any juicy gossip (via @TP2000 of course)...

Coincidence??? I wonder...

There have been quite a few "bombshell" gossip threads recently though from other posters. Edit: In the WDW Subforums. I didn't realize this was under the DLR subforums and I don't typically follow these.

I discussed this in one of them. I'm not claiming to be anyone important, but I have been a member of this site for almost 20 years, and in that time I've noticed the following recurring pattern: (also has it really been a year? I thought that expose happened in December!)

- Things are quiet for a while, public opinion and confidence of TWDC seems stable.
- "Bombshell" gossip thread drops, from alleged "insiders" to shake things up, insinuate "actually, things are bad behind the scenes". These always have a similar tone and writing style (lots of snark and sass, for example), and always come with a heavy dose of their signature brand of Doom & Gloom.
- Other alleged insiders come out of the woodwork to agree, call out the others by name, add in their own gossip. Peculiar that they all come "out of retirement" at the same time.
- The community erupts in panic, accusations, convinced the worst is going to happen.
- Some time later, TWDC "corrects course". The end result is NEVER as bad as the gossip implies.

This recurring pattern certainly makes the accusations of that expose thread believable, even if the names and people it threw out are wrong (for instance, it really doesn't seem like TP2000 is who they think it is). I'm also not calling out any names in particular, especially not any members that are always here. There's a stark difference between them and all those who appear at the same time and give each other virtual handshakes. "Looks like the whole gang's here!"

I think it's obvious to everyone that companies engage with their customers/fanbases, etc. through social media for feedback. I typically assume that any new thread that essentially asks "what do you guys think of _____?" from an unknown poster is possibly someone from Disney gathering data. But forums such as this can be used both to gather data on public opinion and sway public opinion. What's less obvious to some is that TWDC is in a unique and privileged position where its brand loyalty is so strong that they could, in theory, intentionally leak gossip and information that makes them look bad internally and actually receive a positive outcome from it. There's also no doubt in my mind that the inner workings of executive level TWDC are so cutthroat that they would use tools like this to throw others under the bus. This is, after all, the corporate culture of TWDC from the top all the way down.

Another thing to consider is that any poster who hasn't at least established themselves as an "insider" can easily appear as one if they follow the rumors and gossip closely enough and write in a creative way that suggests insider information but is really just re-wording what's already being discussed in a more "official" way.

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

I think zero good is going to come from trying to re-litigate that article, but I'll just say I always found it extremely weird and suspicious how there was a ton of discussion on these forums regarding the article and then it seemed like overnight everybody suddenly decided it wasn't true and that the posters named in it were "safe". Obviously I have no inside information and I don't know for sure what's true and what's not, but that article changed the way I viewed these forums and the information that is posted on them.

 

[Mac Tonight]

There have been quite a few "bombshell" gossip threads recently though from other posters.

I discussed this in one of them. I'm not claiming to be anyone important, but I have been a member of this site for almost 20 years, and in that time I've noticed the following recurring pattern: (also has it really been a year? I thought that expose happened in December!)

- Things are quiet for a while, public opinion and confidence of TWDC seems stable.
- "Bombshell" gossip thread drops, from alleged "insiders" to shake things up, insinuate "actually, things are bad behind the scenes". These always have a similar tone and writing style (lots of snark and sass, for example), and always come with a heavy dose of their signature brand of Doom & Gloom.
- Other alleged insiders come out of the woodwork to agree, call out the others by name, add in their own gossip. Peculiar that they all come "out of retirement" at the same time.
- The community erupts in panic, accusations, convinced the worst is going to happen.
- Some time later, TWDC "corrects course". The end result is NEVER as bad as the gossip implies.

This recurring pattern certainly makes the accusations of that expose thread believable, even if the names and people it threw out are wrong (for instance, it really doesn't seem like TP2000 is who they think it is). I'm also not calling out any names in particular, especially not any members that are always here. There's a stark difference between them and all those who appear at the same time and give each other virtual handshakes. "Looks like the whole gang's here!"

I think it's obvious to everyone that companies engage with their customers/fanbases, etc. through social media for feedback. I typically assume that any new thread that essentially asks "what do you guys think of _____?" from an unknown poster is possibly someone from Disney gathering data. But forums such as this can be used both to gather data on public opinion and sway public opinion. What's less obvious to some is that TWDC is in a unique and privileged position where its brand loyalty is so strong that they could, in theory, intentionally leak gossip and information that makes them look bad internally and actually receive a positive outcome from it. There's also no doubt in my mind that the inner workings of executive level TWDC are so cutthroat that they would use tools like this to throw others under the bus. This is, after all, the corporate culture of TWDC from the top all the way down.

Another thing to consider is that any poster who hasn't at least established themselves as an "insider" can easily appear as one if they follow the rumors and gossip closely enough and write in a creative way that suggests insider information but is really just re-wording what's already being discussed in a more "official" way.

I ventured over to the WDW side for some of those aforementioned “doom and gloom” threads and couldn’t agree with you more.

It honestly got to be too much for me when it was apparent that most of the so called “gossip” turned out to be hot air.

 

[Sharon&Susan]

Hey @TP2000 when are you going to start grading your own Disney predictions? It's what all the cool insiders do these days.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

George Kalogridis is past US retirement age, as Google says he's coming up on 67 now. Why wouldn't he just retire and go play golf, or redecorate the dining room, or do something indulgent and fun in his older age instead of try to wring more juice out of the lemon that is Disney Parks?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

 

[_caleb]

There have been quite a few "bombshell" gossip threads recently though from other posters. Edit: In the WDW Subforums. I didn't realize this was under the DLR subforums and I don't typically follow these.

I discussed this in one of them. I'm not claiming to be anyone important, but I have been a member of this site for almost 20 years, and in that time I've noticed the following recurring pattern: (also has it really been a year? I thought that expose happened in December!)

- Things are quiet for a while, public opinion and confidence of TWDC seems stable.
- "Bombshell" gossip thread drops, from alleged "insiders" to shake things up, insinuate "actually, things are bad behind the scenes". These always have a similar tone and writing style (lots of snark and sass, for example), and always come with a heavy dose of their signature brand of Doom & Gloom.
- Other alleged insiders come out of the woodwork to agree, call out the others by name, add in their own gossip. Peculiar that they all come "out of retirement" at the same time.
- The community erupts in panic, accusations, convinced the worst is going to happen.
- Some time later, TWDC "corrects course". The end result is NEVER as bad as the gossip implies.

This recurring pattern certainly makes the accusations of that expose thread believable, even if the names and people it threw out are wrong (for instance, it really doesn't seem like TP2000 is who they think it is). I'm also not calling out any names in particular, especially not any members that are always here. There's a stark difference between them and all those who appear at the same time and give each other virtual handshakes. "Looks like the whole gang's here!"

I think it's obvious to everyone that companies engage with their customers/fanbases, etc. through social media for feedback. I typically assume that any new thread that essentially asks "what do you guys think of _____?" from an unknown poster is possibly someone from Disney gathering data. But forums such as this can be used both to gather data on public opinion and sway public opinion. What's less obvious to some is that TWDC is in a unique and privileged position where its brand loyalty is so strong that they could, in theory, intentionally leak gossip and information that makes them look bad internally and actually receive a positive outcome from it. There's also no doubt in my mind that the inner workings of executive level TWDC are so cutthroat that they would use tools like this to throw others under the bus. This is, after all, the corporate culture of TWDC from the top all the way down.

Another thing to consider is that any poster who hasn't at least established themselves as an "insider" can easily appear as one if they follow the rumors and gossip closely enough and write in a creative way that suggests insider information but is really just re-wording what's already being discussed in a more "official" way.

Great post!

I always find it discouraging to think that I might be chatting with bots and shills on here, and you do a great job of clarifying that there’s definitely a pattern here.

Perhaps we should start a thread about each of the “bombshell” cycles (and the “insiders” who temporarily come out of retirement to discuss them)?

 

[_caleb]

That article cost Kalogridis the chairmanship of DPEP.

What’s your reason for boosting the signal on the article now?