Now that I've had a pot of coffee and a pile of work to ingore, I can talk about this.
Fine. I am willing to let it go in the interest of more important discussion points. ... Jake, believe it or not, I have respect for you. I do think you have a brain (or maybe half of one!
) and I think you can bring to the table valuable perspective and info. I do think you get too bogged down in the tone of my posts or even my use of hyperbole and provocative turns of a phrase instead of focusing on what my points may be.
I think your points are solid enough not to use hyperbole. I very much respect your opinion and the type of information you bring to the table, but I categorically loath the manner in which you deliver it and you have lost any respect you gain from your actual opinion ten fold. With that said, the respect of an internet stranger doesn't buy much.
But I have had MAJOR issues with crazies in the fan community and that isn't fun.
Fair enough. We've been going back and forth for almost 4 years and I haven't once threatened your life or attempted to obtain personal information. I think I've earned a pass on your paranoid meter.
Sure you can, but I don't see any harm in pointing out just why DLR fans have been so successful at bringing about positive changes, while WDW fans haven't.
In the context that the WDW fan base needs to become more like the DLR fan base in it's involvement is true. Beyond that for the sole purposes of this discussion we can leave them out.
You don't see Bob Iger saying ''We've made some major missteps with Disney's Animal Kingdom (or Disney's Hollywood Studios) and because of that we've going to be making some major changes and major investment' etc.
They absolutely believe WDW can survive as a real estate endeavor with the absolute barest minumum's of investment in the parks.
Fantasyland is a $350 million project tops (and that's with WDI's crazy spending). It is taking a ridiculous five years from announcement to completion and that's after the original $800 million (and amazing) total land redo was shot down and the subsequent plan went through multiple versions. And when 2014 comes and it is all done, the MK will have gone 22 years without a major E-Ticket attraction added and NO plans on the horizon for one.
You are going to skewer me for this and keep in mind I don't agree, I'm just pointing out the obvious.
There is no reason financially to change at this point. That's why I think (and would have expected by this point) for the DVC group to forms its own group. I've enumerated before why I think this hasn't happened. There has to be a financial impact to WDW for there to be change, not explained by other offerings. I don't think we can count on Potter 2.0 to jump start TDO into movement. They seem like they would just wait to weather the storm.
... and this might shock you, jake, but I'm not really all about myself.
I appreciate the rest of this post, but given how long our messages are I wanted to just focus on the discussion points. In "real life", I completely understand that. Online is a completely different world. I think we both understand that. I'm going to move on because I don't want this to focus on you, lest others accuse me of distracting from the points of the converstation.
I would love to know. Disney's metrics on this whole blogging game (and that is what it is if you are a fan with the desire to live your life in theme parks and Disney annoints you to its media list) seem crazy. And I KNOW Bricker will return with all sorts of stats and figures as to why Jim Hill or Mouseplanet is more important to the company than the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly and Variety combined. I will tell him very nicely that if you torture numbers enough they will say anything and that he is full of pooh.
Combined? Probably not. As someone who embraces technology that I see as beneficial rather quickly and I like to think appropriately (I have a twitter account, but I don't post), I can understand that for such a niche market of information the major media outlets wouldn't get the feedback that Disney wants (in amount not in quality, that's a different topic).
Also, I think it is a valid point to be made that many people (for better or worse) are relying less on mainstream media for a variety of reason.
I'll just use me for an example. The local paper is delivered to my Kindle daily. I use a news aggregator that fetches the top stories from all the major news outlets. Without fail, based on the title I can tell which site or paper the article came from and what the slant is going to be. You can't just read news. You have to put work into it. For major stories that interest me I don't mind, but for fluff pieces? I don't have time for that.
WDW is a fluff piece. I can't read the NYT review of the DCL Fantasy, because I now need to read three articles about the same thing in the presidential election to make sure I'm getting the whole story.
Also, if news outlets are going to be bias in reporting of major issues, how can I trust them on little things?
So yeah, for me, it is the best way to disseminate information about the theme parks.
I think what is underestimated though, is the general public's ability to see through BS. I stopped listening to a podcast a few years ago because of the syrupy sweetness of the reviews. I don't really read the reviews of WDW restaurants on another site anymore because they at their most critical deliver a backhanded compliment.
In both cases though, it doesn't diminish that they can be good sources of information that won't get picked up anywhere. I didn't get my awesome reservation during F&W last year for a special 6-course meal at Jiko's by reading the WSJ.
When everything is good all the time, even an average person can pick up that something isn't right. Kind of like the Matrix. The first one failed because everything was too happy. The second was better because it was more "real".
I thought we were going to stay away from my style?! ... I have plenty of respect in the halls of Burbank and I;m willing to bet I'm the only poster here who the former head of TWDC (and still the largest individual shareholder because he hated the company so much and wanted to destroy it!
) would know personally and buy a drink (or multiple) for. And many of the people who revile me in the company also respect me (one even called me 'dangerous' last year and not in the 'he's gonna come after me with a butcher knife' way, but more in the 'I wonder what it would take to get him onboard with us' way).
My tone is what it is. I don't know how to be any different and still be effective. I am what you read here (to some degree) in real life and, believe it or not, I make friends easily.
Again, I appreciate the comment, but I'm not going to respond as I want to move away from your particular style and focus on the fan community at large.
Well, I have no desire to court the WDC (unless they'd like me to run their Social Media Dept or, better yet, their WDW resort!) I don't for one second see my tone (or any of the respected critics and that's what we are, not Doom and Gloomers) as 'fairly irrational', I see it as honest and blunt and tough. I don't wish to chase any moderates away (and are we assuming that any exist and are just in hiding like the GOP?), but they should speak their mind. Everyone should (no matter the viewpoints held) with just one caveat: the ability to discuss and debate like an adult and the ability to think that maybe they aren't right.
Your tone is fine (dang it, there I go again) because it carries, by your own admission, a gravitas of personal relationships. Other who take the same tact I'm afraid more often than not clearly come across as speaking about something of which they know nothing about.
I see your point and agree with some of it (mostly the focus on things that are major issues -- FWIW, that was the purpose of this thread, to illustrate the vast chasm of quaity and investment TWDC is putting in its parks in Anaheim vs. Orlando).
I don't see this a winning or losing proposition. The bloggers are always going to come out like they are somehow right, even when reality shows differently, simply because they have the explicit support of the Disney Social Media Machine.
If you've just returned from a MAGICal all expense paid junket to Anaheim, then you're going to praise the relatively small scale Fantasyland project because you understand how the game is played. And if your audience is FLA based, they will likely allow you to convince them that just like Carsland, Fantasyland represents the best of what Disney can do.
But it is late and I am not sure I am being coherent, so we'll have to continue this ...
You said yourself right here that it is a game and a game isn't played if there aren't winners and losers and right now, externally the D&G crowd is losing.
I'll let you get your thoughts together to continue. I hope you had a happy Father's Day (my kid forgot!).
