WDW Fan Base Initiative

[mkt]

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.



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

I'd go with Wordpress that starts on a static page as opposed to the blog, and a well picked (and modified) theme.

 

[bg0617]

Hello,

Thank you for setting up this initiative in the first place. Most Disney fans would agree this initiative is much needed and that constructive criticism can help Disney make our favorite place even more magical. While I do only go down to the parks about twice a year, I would be very interested in contributing to your website in anyway possible. I am a rising senior at the Bronx High School of Science in New York and am very passionate about writing, especially about Disney World. When you get this post please private message me so I can inquire about contributing to your new site.

Thank you so much for your time and effort in getting this movement started.

 

[ChrisQ]

I'd love to be in on it, as often as my schedule will let me.

 

[Patrick_Ears]

Yes! Logo would be amazing! :sohappy:

will this site have a blog to where people can post?

 

[devoy1701]

will this site have a blog to where people can post?

Initially I would have to say no for fear of topics being hijacked and it being turned into a TDO Flame Throwing contest.

I think initially we will take a closed forum column approach and have an email address available for people to write to. We might be able to beta test a comments section and see how it goes...

If a fire starts, all chances for credibility go out the window.

 

[mkt]

Hello,

Thank you for setting up this initiative in the first place. Most Disney fans would agree this initiative is much needed and that constructive criticism can help Disney make our favorite place even more magical. While I do only go down to the parks about twice a year, I would be very interested in contributing to your website in anyway possible. I am a rising senior at the Bronx High School of Science in New York and am very passionate about writing, especially about Disney World. When you get this post please private message me so I can inquire about contributing to your new site.

Thank you so much for your time and effort in getting this movement started.

It didn't in 2003/2004. We may have been ahead of our time though. The exponential growth in crowdsourced internet and social networks has given this idea another life.

Good luck, but don't cry when Disney doesn't do a thing.

 

[Ransom]

I think Tirian is right, that what it will really take is for the mainstream media to take notice enough that it dulls some of the aura of the Disney brand. Show Disney how the state of their parks affects their reputation as a corporation overall.

As for helping out with the venture, I'll help in any way I can.

But I could help even more if I lived nearer WDW instead of in Illinois. I'm willing to move immediately if someone will buy me a nice house in WDW's neighborhood. It doesn't have to be Golden Oaks or Celebration. Just something nice, in a good community. Around 2000 square feet is fine. Ranch preferred. Pool optional.

 

[Patrick_Ears]

Initially I would have to say no for fear of topics being hijacked and it being turned into a TDO Flame Throwing contest.

I think initially we will take a closed forum column approach and have an email address available for people to write to. We might be able to beta test a comments section and see how it goes...

If a fire starts, all chances for credibility go out the window.

That would be the best bet for ya. Hey i really do wish you luck on this, but becareful on what you say or post..... Good luck.

 

[Tigger1988]

Unless you can go viral with this Disney won't care or show any interest.

Dtroops was nice while it lasted but it went nowhere.

 

[mkt]

Dtroops was nice while it lasted but it went nowhere.

Exactly... although I wouldn't consider our traffic numbers from within TWDC, as well as merchandise sales to Roy Disney going "nowhere"

 

[Buried20KLeague]

I have zero talent for this kind of thing, but it seems the best way to do it would be multiple colums. The first column being the "effect". The second column being "status". Third column being "Since". I could see the "status" column being a checkmark option of "working" or "not working". If working was checked, the whole row for the effect would turn green. If "not working" was checked, the whole row for the effect would turn red.

That would show, in an easily viewable, color coded way, a quick snapshot of what worked and what didn't.

And maybe the column for "since" has a date format to it.


Maybe it could be user edited, like wikipedia.

Just my two cents. :wave:

 

[Alektronic]

It shouldn’t be a site that is focused on complaining or about certain problems, then they look at you as just a bunch of complainers.

My suggestion is to do honest critical show quality reviews. For example, Splash Mountain, say there is 50 animated figures and 10 of them aren’t working and you list them then you give it a grade of 80% (or a B) and see how long it takes to get repaired (if it does). Or if 20 animated figures aren’t working then it would be 60% (F – a failing grade). I think a format like that would get more respect because then you would be focusing also on the attractions that are in good shape also. Then you could have a baseline and see which attractions improve and which get worse. You need to help Disney improve their attractions not just complain about them.

 

[jmick71]

one design for the logo, it is not done, just wanted to see what people thought before i moved forward.
i was going to put a paint brush in one ear and a hammer in the other, with Fix the magic in the banner on the bottom
* PLEASE comment on the colors and what can be improved,
i know i need to sharpen it up though

 

[enchanted_belle]

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.

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.

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.

Have you looked into Wordpress at all? The basics of it is free, and much easier to use than the Google blogger.. plus you're able to have more than just the main blog page.
For instance, you could create a page for each park and have links to the various pages for what needs work?

BTW, count me in, I'd love to help out as much as I can from little ole DE. :wave:

 

[njDizFan]

It didn't in 2003/2004. We may have been ahead of our time though. The exponential growth in crowdsourced internet and social networks has given this idea another life.

Good luck, but don't cry when Disney doesn't do a thing.

thanks for the help and advise, we will need it

 

[NewfieFan]

Here's my 0.02 cents...

I'm on both sides of the fence... I'm excited that this had a little momentum and some fanboys willing to invest time and energy into it... on the other hand I agree with Master Yoda - it's going to take something major to get heads to turn.

BUT this is a different day we're living in! Information is available to anyone at anytime and even the WDW first timer looks to the internet for travel info.

Let's be honest, Disney does not want bad press... that's proven! If this information is out there for people to read and see it could turn into bad press for Disney. It's a long shot but a possibility!

I think having a facebook page as well once the site gets up running wouldn't be a bad idea either. Post links to the most recent blog posts or updates etc.

The casual guest is starting to read this stuff. He's one little example from my world...
I have influnenced and helped dozens of family and friends (some weren't even friends) with their trips to WDW. I've become the little "Disney expert" in my neck of the woods so to speak. These people will add me on facebook (if I'm not already a friend) just to make plans online. Next thing I know, they are "liking" the same Disney fan pages I like. They find the stuff I'm into and then start researching it for themselves. In fact, I've spoken to some of them and I'm actually surprised that they know some of the stuff they do. I'll ask where they read it and they'll say, "Oh, I follow such and such now and they posted it on their blog, website, etc." The casual guest is starting to follow some of these website, blogs, forums, etc. even if just for their vacation planning.

I'm here to help as well. Don't know a darn thing about web design or anything like that. I love taking pictures and travel to the World twice a year.

I think it would be great to have a list of pictures that "we're" looking for, that way someone who wants to contribute and help out can look at the list and plan to take that picture while they're there.

One thing to note, though and I think this should be stressed... that we are not encouraging anyone to break rules. No standing up on rides, using flash photography when it's not allowed, no going in restricted areas, etc. We want the photographic evidence but we don't want to get anyone in trouble in the process!

 

[sublimesting]

 

[mkt]

one design for the logo, it is not done, just wanted to see what people thought before i moved forward.
i was going to put a paint brush in one ear and a hammer in the other, with Fix the magic in the banner on the bottom
* PLEASE comment on the colors and what can be improved,
i know i need to sharpen it up though

Problems.

#1- It's too busy. Way too busy. It should have no more than 2-3 colors, and be simple enough that it looks right no matter how big or small it looks.

#2- Trademarks. Use that, and expect to get sued by Disney. They own the Mickey Silhouette and Castle you've depicted.

 

[devoy1701]

one design for the logo, it is not done, just wanted to see what people thought before i moved forward.
i was going to put a paint brush in one ear and a hammer in the other, with Fix the magic in the banner on the bottom
* PLEASE comment on the colors and what can be improved,
i know i need to sharpen it up though

I like it...though any way we can make it look a little more WDW circa 1971 or 1982? Not exactly sure what I have in mind, but maybe in terms of color scheme without the shilloutte? Can you read my mind and get the idea in my head out of there?!? haha




To everyone who has shown interest in participating, Thank you! I've received quite a few PMs about people willing to contribute in various ways and we definitely appreciate it. Our first order of business is getting the website built so anyone who is websavy please reach out to us!

We also will need an army of photographers who live locally who can head to the parks to get specific photo updates when needed, and of course those who are vacationing and don't mind taking time out of their trip to grab photos as well!

We're going to be taking a bit of time to clearly iron out what we're aiming to accomplish here. Though I would encourage you all to check www.fixthemagic.com every once in while to see if any updates have been made!

:wave:

I sense this to be a HUUUUGE undertaking! It should be fun! :lol:

 

[jakeman]

While I tend to favor your approach, 74's is the more effective of the two. However, I seriously doubt that either approach will do much. WDW is a cash cow. They are the ATM machine of the Disney park empire. As long as that ATM keeps spitting out 20's no one cares how they do it. Aside for Lasseter naming himself king of WDW, I fear the only way that they will listen is to disrupt the cash flow. The only way to do that is to convince a significant portion of the 19 million people that come to WDW every year to go elsewhere and write Disney and tell them why. While missing effects and broken yetis tick us off to no end the other 18.99 million people could care less.

As you said, an impact will have to be made on WDW's bottom line, or generate enough bad press.

However, I think if we are choosing between approaches, the moderate road with an attempt to build mutual respect between both the blog and WDW is the road less taken (pardon my Frost paraphrase).

While I agree it is a long shot, as a corporate stooge that I am, I would be more afraid of empirical data pointing to a decline in quality (such as an easy to decipher effect watch column for each major attraction as was suggested) than generic blog post about the decline in "magic".