WDW Fan Base Initiative

[Krack]

Just offering my two cents ...

It would seem to me the way to set up a website like this is where you have a separate page (or tag if you're going to do it in a blog style) for every attraction, restaurant, and type of amenity (bathrooms, statues, artwork, benches, pavement, flowers/trees, fountains) by land ... and then have it set up so that people can email in photographs of (for lack of a better word) undesirable maintenance (with a date and location of the photo) so these photos can be posted regularly. Then, ideally, people will keep taking photos occassionally and "This door had peeled paint 5 months ago and it still has not been addressed as this new photo shows" type stories/articles/posts can be made.

I would think the proper way of shaming management into making changes is by clearly showing how long certain obvious maintenance issues are ignored.

EDIT: I would think if a single page existed for Splash Mountain (for one particular example) that listed in chronological order what effects have stopped working, where chewing gum sits unaddressed, where peeled paint exists, where other damage exists eventually it would become embarrassing. Especially when a page exists like that for every building in every park.

 

[Mr.MouseFan]

So excited about this! Can't wait to see where it goes from here! For me, I think it would be important to have some sort of balance. Although the objective is obviously to focus on fixing the magic, there should also be some recognition for things that are done well even if they are not the result of a repair/rehab.

 

[Tom]

Just offering my two cents ...

It would seem to me the way to set up a website like this is where you have a separate page (or tag if you're going to do it in a blog style) for every attraction, restaurant, and type of amenity (bathrooms, statues, artwork, benches, pavement, flowers/trees, fountains) by land ... and then have it set up so that people can email in photographs of (for lack of a better word) undesirable maintenance (with a date and location of the photo) so these photos can be posted regularly. Then, ideally, people will keep taking photos occassionally and "This door had peeled paint 5 months ago and it still has not been addressed as this new photo shows" type stories/articles/posts can be made.

I would think the proper way of shaming management into making changes is by clearly showing how long certain obvious maintenance issues are ignored.

Points taken! With this said, do you have any suggestion for a site format that would lend itself nicely to this sort of design? Coding a site like that by hand would take....forever.

A pre-built CMS of some kind would work nicely. I don't think it should be in the format of a forum, like vBulletin or phpBB, because you don't want just anyone to be able to post/comment, or you end up losing control of the mission.

I can't even figure out how to created categories in this stupid google blog I setup quickly, so I need to keep digging. I like open source stuff.

So excited about this! Can't wait to see where it goes from here! For me, I think it would be important to have some sort of balance. Although the objective is obviously to focus on fixing the magic, there should also be some recognition for things that are done well even if they are not the result of a repair/rehab.

Recognition - definitely. When things are fixed, they shall be praised!

 

[nepalostparks]

Interesting idea. And honestly, it's nice to see something constructive for a change.

One point I'd like to add:

I think when pointing out deficiencies, whether they be small or large, you need to make sure you stress that it is having a negative impact on the average guest. While having a constructive forum and photographic proof of the issues is definitely a good thing, I think you need to show how the average guest, as opposed to us "internet fans", is affected by the problems.

This might not be the best analogy, but I'll use it anyway. As a Titanic fanatic, if I were go to a museum and view a large scale model of the Titanic, there are a number of details I'd notice if they were incorrect. But to an average museum goer who isn't all too familiar with the Titanic, the model would look perfectly fine when they passed it... they wouldn't know that the lifeboats weren't spaced apart properly (or something along those lines).

As die-hard fans, we notice some of these little details, where an average guest wouldn't look twice. And like it or not, the bread and butter for Disney World is going to be your average guest who doesn't know every detail, what the attraction looked like when running top notch, etc. I think if you can show Disney that there is an impact on the average guest, it will make your argument much stronger.

Best of luck.

 

[Tom]

Interesting idea. And honestly, it's nice to see something constructive for a change.

One point I'd like to add:

I think when pointing out deficiencies, whether they be small or large, you need to make sure you stress that it is having a negative impact on the average guest. While having a constructive forum and photographic proof of the issues is definitely a good thing, I think you need to show how the average guest, as opposed to us "internet fans", is affected by the problems.

This might not be the best analogy, but I'll use it anyway. As a Titanic fanatic, if I were go to a museum and view a large scale model of the Titanic, there are a number of details I'd notice if they were incorrect. But to an average museum goer who isn't all too familiar with the Titanic, the model would look perfectly fine when they passed it... they wouldn't know that the lifeboats weren't spaced apart properly (or something along those lines).

As die-hard fans, we notice some of these little details, where an average guest wouldn't look twice. And like it or not, the bread and butter for Disney World is going to be your average guest who doesn't know every detail, what the attraction looked like when running top notch, etc. I think if you can show Disney that there is an impact on the average guest, it will make your argument much stronger.

Best of luck.

Great analogy.

An example I'd use, from Disney, is the paint that's constantly scraped or peeling in the TSMM queue. EVERYONE notices that. And while it's obviously from vandalism, they could remedy it by using a more resistant product than paint (like colored FRP panels, heavy vinyl wallcovering or just cover it all with plexiglass).

 

[Clever Name]

Anyone remember John Hornbuckle and his website Walt Disney World Blues?

http://mediocridisney.tripod.com/id39.htm :wave:

 

[wedway71]

Anyone remember John Hornbuckle and his website Walt Disney World Blues?

http://mediocridisney.tripod.com/id39.htm :wave:

I do....

 

[BrightImagine]

I'd like to help in some way... I am in the northeast so I only get to go to the parks every 1-2 years... however, I'm a graphic artist so please let me know if I can help in some way with art. I think it's a great idea, provided it is overall positive and constructive.

 

[disney fan 13]

i would also like to help but i am not that good with writing so i would have to post my idea and someone else writes it. like fore example i have idea's on how to make disney more family oriented and not 5-9 oriented


P.S i am heading up to typhoon lagoon on friday so i will be on the lookout

 

[Tom]

Pictures are going to be a big deal. As others have said, photos of things that EVERY guest would notice are most important.

On a side note, anyone handy at skinning a blogger.com site? I can't even count the number of sites I've coded from the ground up, and I've even reworked an entire vBulletin site, but this Google/Blogger "template" system is really messing with me :lol:

We need a better solution than this, but it was a free/good start.

 

[ChristianG]

I work well with Photoshop, so I may be useful with graphics. PM me if you need anything and I'll see if I can do it!

I can't frequently go to the parks as I am from Connecticut, but I'd like to help!

 

[KevinYee]

I'm also hoping that Kevin Yee would be interested in helping us, along with maybe being able to hook up with wdwfanboys and Lou Mongello's podcast along with websites like WDWmagic to help get the word out once we start developing this.

Can't speak for the others you mentioned, but I'll help.

I can't promise that my miceage platform will link away, though, since there's an editing process done to my articles that often strips out external links, so my contributions might have to be directly on FTM.com.

There's a thread like this on MiceChat too: http://micechat.com/forums/walt-dis...38-wdw-flaw-update-thread.html#post1056556838

 

[Tom]

Can't speak for the others you mentioned, but I'll help.

I can't promise that my miceage platform will link away, though, since there's an editing process done to my articles that often strips out external links, so my contributions might have to be directly on FTM.com.

There's a thread like this on MiceChat too: http://micechat.com/forums/walt-dis...38-wdw-flaw-update-thread.html#post1056556838

Somehow I'd missed that thread. Very thorough!

Kevin, we'd welcome your direct contributions on FTM. I'll PM you to discuss.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Excellent initiative.

Count me in! For...erm....moral support. Yeah.


First on my wishlist for TDO is to finally remove that ugly scaffolding in EPCOT, how long's that refurb of World of Motion going to take anyway? :lookaroun

 

[jakeman]

The only recommendation I can think to make is to remember that Disney is a business and they should be addressed as such. At the end of the day they aren't really going to care what Walt would have done. What they are going to care about is bad press and issues that will affect their bottom line.

Also, I think you need to be very protective of the content and not let the website get hijacked by some of the more "passionate" members of the fan base. The last thing I think would be productive would be quasi-offensive cliches and over used buzzwords. If either of those show up I would think that Disney would be more apt to dismiss the webpage as just another fan boy's whine, rather than a logical critique of the shortcomings of their current business model.

 

[Zummi Gummi]

I get to WDW about every 3 months, so I could definitely help with photos when I'm there.

I'm also a pretty good writer (if I do say so myself) and teach it to children as part of my job, so I'd love to help with any writing and/or editing!

 

[WDWGoof07]

Just offering my two cents ...

It would seem to me the way to set up a website like this is where you have a separate page (or tag if you're going to do it in a blog style) for every attraction, restaurant, and type of amenity (bathrooms, statues, artwork, benches, pavement, flowers/trees, fountains) by land ... and then have it set up so that people can email in photographs of (for lack of a better word) undesirable maintenance (with a date and location of the photo) so these photos can be posted regularly. Then, ideally, people will keep taking photos occassionally and "This door had peeled paint 5 months ago and it still has not been addressed as this new photo shows" type stories/articles/posts can be made.

I would think the proper way of shaming management into making changes is by clearly showing how long certain obvious maintenance issues are ignored.

EDIT: I would think if a single page existed for Splash Mountain (for one particular example) that listed in chronological order what effects have stopped working, where chewing gum sits unaddressed, where peeled paint exists, where other damage exists eventually it would become embarrassing. Especially when a page exists like that for every building in every park.

The only recommendation I can think to make is to remember that Disney is a business and they should be addressed as such. At the end of the day they aren't really going to care what Walt would have done. What they are going to care about is bad press and issues that will affect their bottom line.

Also, I think you need to be very protective of the content and not let the website get hijacked by some of the more "passionate" members of the fan base. The last thing I think would be productive would be quasi-offensive cliches and over used buzzwords. If either of those show up I would think that Disney would be more apt to dismiss the webpage as just another fan boy's whine, rather than a logical critique of the shortcomings of their current business model.

Excellent points. The website should also discuss effects inside the attractions that are not working, although it would be more difficult to discreetly obtain photographic evidence.

What concerns me about this project is visibility. At DLR, locals and fans constitute a greater portion of the audience than they do at WDW, and, as such, it is easier to impact the bottom line at DLR because they're more inclined to read theme park fansites. It's harder to make a similar initiative visible to typical WDW guests, who are more geographically dispersed and visit less frequently (if they make repeat visits at all). Any Lutz-type initiative for WDW has to be visible to these guests, who won't be looking for this type of information without a compelling prompt to make them do so. Since gathering substantive content for the website won't be an issue, the leaders of this project should focus right away on getting the site noticed outside of the traditional fan community sources. Perhaps you can find some way get the website to come up as one of the top results on typical WDW-related Google search when there is enough content on the site. At that point, you would have the attention of newspapers, which could be used to make the mission more relevant to the mainstream.

I would also suggest making sure the website is highly visible to current and prospective DVC members. They would be none too pleased with a decline in show quality after entering a long-term agreement.

 

[dxwwf3]

I once asked the lead CM at Dinosour point blank "why don`t the lasers work anymore?"

He replied "this attraction is meant to have lasers??"

I`ll add to a list.

So sad. Dinosaur used to be the attraction that had the most broken effects by far.......and then I rode Splash Mountain a few weeks ago

 

[hurricanepat]

Count myself in as well as the 7 illegal aliens I just caught, they told me they enjoyed visiting WDW in their tour group a few years ago.

 

[tirian]

Make sure there's one person who's editing and responsible for what actually shows up on the blog.

That's my free tip for the day. Thrilled to see this happening!