Future of Chat and the Forum

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61

I will find you. I am a World Class Liner Stalker. Kind of like how I just popped up out of nowhere RIGHT NOW.

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62

Lol. :trophy: :laughing:

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I think that this highlights the problem with a “split community” - if everyone had migrated over to the Forum as was initially intended then you would see the same quick answers here.

Personal messages! Although I would be tempted to use it to avoid @niter, as he looks a little “sketchy” (as DD likes to say). :wink:

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64

Well apparently finding @KeliJ will not be a challenge :slight_smile:

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65

Can depend on both the phone and the browser being used on that phone in some cases.
Early on, I had to switch to using the “chrome” browser on my galaxy S4.
But I thought the TP team worked that out months ago.

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I hope that works for you, @BearsMom2011. I feel bad when others can’t use the forum on their phones.

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@brklinck as for your “split community” issues… then why not insist everyone just go to disboards, or insist that everyone on disboards (and every other WDW forum on the net), come over here & join this forum? If only the entire WDW community on the internet could just unite, it would be one big happy family. And let’s move all the various facebook & twitter mini-communities here too.

I’m sorry, but chat/forum are not the same thing; they’re complementary features.

Yes, much of your “issue” has to do with how people are choosing to use the chat/forum. And the chat/forum are merely tools. But each will use each as it serves one’s purpose. It’s nice that those who wish to go off-topic have a place to do so without complaints from those who enjoy a WDW-focussed place.

Let it go… let it go… :wink:

EDIT: Also, you’re simply choosing not to hear the many people who are purporting that if chat isn’t there, they would allow their TP subscription to lapse. If this is true (it may or may not be), then all those people who could be answering posers would simply disappear.

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I can use it, but when I try to reply, the box jumps around and I can’t see what I’m typing. That’s the biggie for me.

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@BearsMom2011 you might want to report the issue to the TP team @Len. Give them as much info as possible (phone, OS version, browser type & version, etc.) They’re really super-responsive & quite talented at ironing out these kinds of things.

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70

I guess that the difference to me is that we were one big happy (or maybe “happy-ish”) community before the great Chat/Forum schism, and I don’t believe that it was the intention with the introduction of the Forum was to create such a split.

I hear them, but I just give them the same level of credence as all the people who were “never going to go to WDW again” because of the introduction of FPP. Yes, WDW has really taken an attendance hit - the parks are almost empty now! :wink:

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71

Thanks for the tip @ejj :slight_smile:

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I’m sorry that didn’t work. The box only jumps around for me when someone replies to the thread before I get done typing. Then I have to scroll back to the reply box. That is super annoying!

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Oh maybe that’s what is happening! Because it doesn’t always do it. Thanks again @scrapper1617 And have I told you how cute your pup is?

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Thanks! She’s a sweetie!!

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75

@brklinck
But using your logic, if more people use chat, and prefer chat, and are demonstrably more responsive on chat, and the data resource issues for chat have been mitigated or even solved as Len reports, and the desired result you want is one big happy family…

then the only possible conclusion one can come to is to get rid of the forum & force the relatively unresponsive minority back to chat.

Surely you’re not advocating that. :wink:
But that’s what your logic dictates.

I actually believe those who purport that chat is why they stay – at least during times when they don’t have a countdown to WDW. Think about it: In the absence of a countdown, one’s “skin in the game” is greatly reduced & one’s interest & “investment” understandably wanes. In such cases, one might jump on during down times from one’s phone, in which case “chat” works wonderfully & doesn’t require much “investment”. TP keeps its users even during non-countdown years. One is far less likely to “invest” in the forum during such times. I sincerely hope this makes sense.

I don’t wish to speak for people, but this seems to be what many are saying, and a good business model would seem to want to keep those people subscribing. There are just too many other places (facebook, etc) one can choose to go.

Yes, I agree there may have been “unintended consequences” when the forum started.
And those may not be “optimal”.
But killing chat isn’t the answer, IMO.
Each seems to suit the needs of the various subscribers well.

Go well.

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76

No kidding! I remember, two years ago at this time, people saying that FPP would ruin their vacation, that Disney needed to listen to their customers, that they would never go to WDW again if Disney persisted in removing the legacy FP system. Same people who are still in chat and forums, discussing their upcoming trip and their FPP choices.

Some may leave. It has happened before. The Facebook Liners page was created by people who became unhappy with chat and some of the rules and restrictions. But many won’t leave and issues like slow responses on the forums will go away as more people come over to this side.

Like Bearsmom, I go into a self-imposed Disney blackout after coming back from a trip, so there have been gaps in my participation on chat but I’ve been there for long stretches of time since 2011. It is fun, but trying to find past information is next to impossible. Just today I had to scroll back through 16 pages to find a post I was looking for. Here, I typed it into the search box and, boom, there is what I was looking for.

I like chat but if it were to go away, I’d still be here, answering what questions I can and having fun talking Disney.

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Who are you, Spock? LLaP :wink:

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[quote=“ejj, post:75, topic:9251”]
But using your logic, if more people use chat, and prefer chat, and are demonstrably more responsive on chat, and the data resource issues for chat have been mitigated or even solved as Len reports, and the desired result you want is one big happy family…

then the only possible conclusion one can come to is to get rid of the forum & force the relatively unresponsive minority back to chat.

Surely you’re not advocating that[/quote]

You’re missing a valuable piece of data here, namely what people would do if there were no chat. Would they abandon their friends they had been chatting with for years? Would they leave Touring Plans and seek other forums? In my experience, some would, but most would remain part of the community that they have been a part of, regardless of the format of the discussion forum.

The trouble is that stubbornness has kicked in and people appear to now think of their Lines Chat as some sort of dear relative that they could not bear to lose and would fall into a sense of deep mourning were it to go away or morph into some other form (or forum). In a way it’s a tribute to a positive community that Touring Plans has fostered, but also to the peculiarities of human psychology.

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79

@FlyerFan1973 Your characterization of liners is a bit of an exaggeration, no? :wink:

It seems that those who have made friends have already either started participating in lacava, or are participating in a facebook group that we hear about now & then. (I’m not part of that.) The casual users or the non-countdown users are the ones who would just drop off. I thought that was who we were talking about.

As for me, I’m here for WDW info & don’t involve myself in off-topic stuff.
But that’s the point, isn’t it?
Chat & Forum are just tools.
Users are what makes each, and users use each for different reasons.
And if you’ve read the responses on chat & on here, you’ll read many different reasons for using each.

As for me, I use both.
For different reasons.
If chat went away, I’d venture in much less often, probably only during planning for a trip.
Whether that’s any great loss would be for others to decide. :wink:

But hey… you asked “what would people do if there were no chat?”
Is “what would people do if there were no forum” be just a valid a question then?
And what do you think the answer would be?
Food for thought.

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80

I have trouble with forums

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