Disappointed

[*NikkiBell*]

So I've been chatting with Pete Scheidle (who was discussed earlier in this thread and was on the DVC show for a little while). I've been trying to get him to come on and post. He said he's been following along with news but he doesn't really want to come back to the boards. I asked him if I could share this that he wrote to me:

"I just don't feel comfortable going back on there. My conflicts with Pete W were not of a severity of what's coming out from his employees, though he did treat me badly. But the part that really hurt me is he and the moderators actively worked to not just ban me from using the site but wipe me from existence there. I had made a lot of friends on the DISboards from 2007-2019 and was cut off, and it really hurt at the time. I know some folks have come back with accounts recently but I just don't see coming back and feeling like the Sword of Damocles is hanging over me waiting to fall. I have found a new Disney/DVC family and my focus is there."

I have no idea who this person is and was never told to do anything in relationship to his board use on the Unplugged forum while I was a mod (2010-2018). Not sure where he frequented on the site or if he was referring to webmasters or staff, but this didn’t happen with me.

 

[stwaldman]

I have no idea who this person is and was never told to do anything in relationship to his board use on the Unplugged forum while I was a mod (2010-2018). Not sure where he frequented on the site or if he was referring to webmasters or staff, but this didn’t happen with me.

He was a large presence in the Dvc boards and a big enough contributor to be on the Dvc podcast before the new sponsor took over that show.

 

[*NikkiBell*]

He was a large presence in the Dvc boards and a big enough contributor to be on the Dvc podcast before the new sponsor took over that show.

Gotcha. Thanks. When I was around, there wasn’t a DVC show. No wonder I had no clue.

 

[Jrb1979]

Maybe they can bring the perspective of people who have young children. Deni kept trying to be a voice for that group but was always dismissed.

From what I gathered the reason they never wanted that perspective is they only were after the perspective of the majority of their clientele. Families with young children are a minority. The whole point of the Dis and DVC was an advertisement for Dreams and their products.

I think a lot of Dreams Clients at this point is probably repeat ones. Most people don't use travel agents much anymore.

 

[starfrenzy]

Families with young children are a minority.

I doubt this is true.

My assumption is that most of the people PW picked go be a part of the show didn’t have kids and that’s why the perspective of families with kids were not included, not the other way around (as if no one wants to hear it and that’s why it’s not covered.) Same thing with the DVC and DCL shows.

Again, that’s an assumption and I could be wrong, but it’s been shown these shows were largely a vanity project for PW, and “people with children” didn’t appear to be people he was overly concerned with. I may not be wording that right, but you get my gist.

 

[vikequeen]

I see a lot of commentary about not using TAs anymore. I didn’t use dreams but for whatever it’s worth , I did use a TA just to support a small business . Didn’t need to easily could have done it myself. Costs me the same. Something to think about moving forward.

 

[Jrb1979]

I doubt this is true.

My assumption is that most of the people PW picked go be a part of the show didn’t have kids and that’s why the perspective of families with kids were not included, not the other way around (as if no one wants to hear it and that’s why it’s not covered.) Same thing with the DVC and DCL shows.

Again, that’s an assumption and I could be wrong, but it’s been shown these shows were largely a vanity project for PW, and “people with children” didn’t appear to be people he was overly concerned with. I may not be wording that right, but you get my gist.

I didn't say that they thought no one wants to hear it. My point was they didn't discuss it much was due to families not being the majority of Dreams clients.

 

[LisaDKG]

Can anyone shed some light on the time on these boards that has been alluded to by some here when there were mass bannings of users or a crack down in general? I’ve been a user since 2006 but don’t remember this time, or else I didn’t frequent the boards affected.

 

[DonMacGregor]

Sean said the DU books $50 - $60 million per year. But that is not their net income. They get a % and that amount depends on if it’s a cruise or hotel vacation. It was between 10-20%.
So there is a lot at stake here.

Just a mental exercise:

I would be curious just how much in liquifiable assets both the remaining co-owners and the company have access to. $50 million starts out sounding like a lot, but then as you say, it's a percentage of that that comes back to DUT (somewhere around 15% on average from what I have read).

From what I understand, airlines pay almost nothing to TA's for bookings, and hotels are down in the 10% range. The real money is in cruises, and that explains the focus on cruises at DUT. Makes perfect sense. However, if a good chunk of that overall business is in the air fare and hotel category, then the percentage earned by DUT might actually be on the lower end and closer to 10%.

Now, you're possibly down to $5 million in revenue. But, a chunk of that goes to the agents as commission (apparently around %5 for domestic travel, but obviously the compensation at DUT may be higher or lower). If (and this is just a mental exercise) the agents are taking home 5%, now you're looking at $2.5 million, before any other operating expenses (insurance, benefits, YouTube channel sponsorships, company marketing expense for trips, etc.) are accounted for. Once that is done, and any and all taxes are paid, the remaining net profits, when spilt three ways between the three principles could be a good chunk south of seven figures.

I have no idea what he real numbers are, just kinda thinking through how quickly what looks like significant front-end billables can end up looking pretty small on the back side (and THAT part is from personal experience, LOL).

 

[starfrenzy]

I didn't say that they thought no one wants to hear it. My point was they didn't discuss it much was due to families not being the majority of Dreams clients.

Thanks for clarifying. My apologies for misunderstanding.

 

[Ruttangel]

I used to hang on Pete Schiedle (and his cat) every word but sadly he didn’t get much chance to chime in as Pete W needed more time for random ramblings.
Sadly, the data Pete S left on these Boards was never updated and left to rot…. And then other major DVC data contributors like castastone and i3riviera also left which was a big gap in knowledge and experience, really felt like a missed opportunity

 

[Mrnickylu]

This reaction seemed weird in a Paterson episode but I think he was scared someone was calling him out lol

 

[khertz]

I used to hang on Pete Schiedle (and his cat) every word but sadly he didn’t get much chance to chime in as Pete W needed more time for random ramblings.
Sadly, the data Pete S left on these Boards was never updated and left to rot…. And then other major DVC data contributors like castastone and i3riviera also left which was a big gap in knowledge and experience, really felt like a missed opportunity

Pete S’s dvc availability charts are still out there if you search for them on google with his name

 

[Ruttangel]

Pete S’s dvc availability charts are still out there if you search for them on google with his name

Yeah, I just think they could have nurtured and developed that knowledge instead of seeing it as a threat

 

[stwaldman]

Yeah, I just think they could have nurtured and developed that knowledge instead of seeing it as a threat

Thankfully he landed in places where it was developed, his shows and website are wonderful and from a perspective on Dvc I think a lot of folks here appreciate.

 

[khertz]

Yeah, I just think they could have nurtured and developed that knowledge instead of seeing it as a threat

Agree with you there, 100%

 

[VandVsmama]

Am catching up after being at work all day, but re: Tyler's posts about PW on Twitter or Instagram or whatever, when Tyler & Katrina were on the Disneyland podcast, after awhile it got frustrating listening to the 2 of them because all they seemed to talk about was all the places in Disneyland and around Anaheim that you could go drinking. All of the bar crawl talk got super old. I haven't ventured into watching anything they may be posting online since then on Youtube or podcasts or whatever...hopefully, they've ventured out from pub crawl chat.

 

[nlenguyen]

No wonder they were moving studios

 

[TomServo27]

No wonder they were moving studios

Yeah it’s all about Kevin’s mobility.

 

[hopemax]

Can anyone shed some light on the time on these boards that has been alluded to by some here when there were mass bannings of users or a crack down in general? I’ve been a user since 2006 but don’t remember this time, or else I didn’t frequent the boards affected.

I remember the Community Board being a center. Don’t know about other boards. Basically, years before the incident someone had set up another chat board. Looking at that site’s history… maybe 2002. Whenever things happened on the DIS that ruffled people’s feathers, people who knew it existed would go to the other place. High profile incidents here led to more traffic for the other place, because you obviously couldn’t talk about moderation here. It reached a fever pitch when DIS moderators started banning people for talking about the other place or for what was said on the other place if they could match usernames. Which led to YAGE-ing and more banning. So much was going on that, much like this thread, people who didn’t know about the other place found out. Which is how I found out about it. A completely Barbra Streisand effect situation, IMO. Now I think it’s more a place for old friends, so lower traffic than during and following the incident, to gossip and snark.