9:53 AM - My, how times have changed. (posted by
Allen
)
Oh so many years ago (early 2000s), there was concern in the "fan community" that sites using "Disney" in their name were going to get in trouble, or at the very least, never invited to Disney press events. This is one of the reasons there are so many sites from back then that changed their names. I registered
http://ParkHopping.com for that purpose back in 2004, actually. (Yes, that domain came before I had the Park Hopping Podcast.)
Mice Age, Mouse Planet, Laughing Place, Mouse Info and dozens of sites that came and went all used names that alluded to being a Disney fan site, without using the word Disney. I had full plans to change my domain name, but I never did since it was so well established and got so much traffic (back then).
I never got in trouble for having the word "Disney" in my URL, but I also never got invited to any Disney events ;-) Of course, this was going on before YouTube, before Twitter, before Facebook, etc. The word "influence" had yet to be used talking about folks posting stuff online.
My site went idle in 2009 due to not having any money for any vacations. I didn't even take a local vacation for almost a decade. After I got to return to Disneyland in 2017, I began updating the site again.
Disney noticed.
I have now been contacted by two folks from Disney, and they are going to include me on their PR list for announcements. Thus, if you see more announcements (like the recent posting about the Disney's Hollywood Studios anniversary live stream event), this will be why.
After being "dead" and forgotten so long, it's nice to be alive and remembered. And it's interesting to see that sites that once thought they would get ignored by Disney because of having "Disney" in their name are now being courted by Disney.
My, how times have changed.
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