Editor's Report
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Five Years and Counting
On Sunday LaughingPlace.com turns five years old. How will I spend the site's 5th birthday? See the bottom of this article to find out. But first, let's look back...
The Story
As many of you know, Rebekah and I moved to Florida at the end of March. Last
week we traveled back to Disneyland for our annual LaughingPlace.com Meet and
the NFFC Convention. We, of course, had a great time and it was great fun seeing
so many old friends again. This year's convention which celebrated the club's
20th year was amazing and I'm sure next years occurring during Disneyland's 50th
anniversary will be even better. One of the most common questions I was asked
last week was how did LaughingPlace.com get started. I'm sure I've told the
short story before, but this seems like as good a time as any to take another
short trip down memory lane.
First there was Doobie's Disneyland Home Page established in 1996. The main thing there was a trivia contest though I aoccasionally talked about some of the happenings at the park and my opinions on them. Then in about 1998 I created The Hub which was a Disneyland-only website directory. The unique thing about it was the directory was searchable and all the sites were rated and commented on. All the while I was a regular reader of the alt.disney.disneyland newsgroup (a.d.d.). At some point in there someone started posting links on a.d.d. whenever there was an article on the LA Times or Orange County Register about Disneyland. I thought that was a cool idea and decided I would combine it with The Hub to create a kind of mini-portal focusing exclusively on Disneyland. I also added park hours and an occasional article. The name we came up with (actually Rebekah came up with it) was LaughingPlace.com.
From the start I didn't want LP to be just a hobby. Call me mercenary, but I've always been an entrepreneur and this seemed like a perfect concept to allow Rebekah and I to do something together with something we really enjoyed (Disney) while also, perhaps, earning a little extra money. The original LaughingPlace.com focusing only on Disneyland launched on April 1, 2004. It was a test site to see if it would work, see how updating daily went and see if the program could hold up. Of course, the concept did work and on August 1, 1999 the complete LaughingPlace.com was born. It looked much different back then, but the site you see today is a natural evolution from that one.
From the start I knew Discussion Boards were going to be an important part of LP. They weren't ready for the initial launch, but I did finally get them finished for a launch on Superbowl Sunday 2000. Since then that community continues to amaze me. While meeting Disney legends and executives and going to media events are wonderful, the thing that always gives me the most pride is seeing and hearing about the LP community. Our annual meet this year was held on July 18th at Hollywood and Dine in DCA. The generosity I saw and hear about with LPers helping each other being able to afford the trip and the meet were amazing. Just as amazing was the scope of this event. While the main meet was on Sunday, there were other, smaller meets stretching from the previous Thursday to the following Tuesday. Everywhere I turned someone had a t-shirt or button related to an LP meet that I'd never seen before.
The main meet on the 18th went very well. More than 100 people came with the highlight being the annual Golden Doobie Awards. If you read the discussion boards, you already know how they went, and if you don't read, it would take too long to explain, so I'll just say this year's awards including a monologue and a production number with an original song. I was in stitches. The community also took the time to present Rebekah and I with an updated scrapbook featuring postcards from our readers around the world. Given that most of our work is behind-the-scenes, I'm very honored they took time out of their event to do that for us. But what really touched me is what they did for Dave, the chief moderator on the discussion boards, AKA, the Admin with the red pen. A dead-on caricature of him along with a bizarre and funny story was presented to him. And while Dave is one to rarely show emotion, I know him well enough to know he was touched.
The event was capped off with a surprise. Rebekah had invited Wayne Alwine and Russi Taylor to attend, two people she had met because of the site. Since we're not ouf-of-towners, it was a nice opportunity for us to see them again. As she sat with them during the Golden Doobies, they were so amazed by what they saw, they wanted to speak to the group. Rebekah introduced them, however most people didn't recognize the names. But as soon as they spoke, it became apparent to all who they were. The voices of Mickey and Minnie praised everyone in attendance for carrying on Walt's legacy. Then after the meet they stayed for an extra hour to meet everyone, sign autographs and take pictures. I can't thank them enough for being so kind to everyone. And I can't thank the LP community enough for coming to the meet, putting on such a wonderful show and for being the best community on the internet. And a special thank you to Karlos and Marcus for all their help in making this year's event happen!
So as I always do in this space, I want to thank the people that make LP happen. Most importantly is my wife and partner Rebekah. Close behind her are Dave and the other moderators without whom the Discussion Boards would not be nearly as successful. Then there are all the wonderful contributors who I won't even try to name because I'm bound to miss someone. And beyond that are those who help in one way or another whether it be helping with the store, doing odds and ends that I never seem to find the time to do myself or just lending moral support when things get tough. Thanks also to the people who were there in the very beginning helping formulate the site, people like John Frost and Kaz Liput. Though they may not be a big part anymore, they were extremely important in getting things off the ground. A special thank you to Lee MacDonald and Lindsay Cave for all they do even beyond the articles (eg: Lindsay Cave created our new logo and the new look for the LP Store). I also want to thank the NFFC for the support they've given us since the early years. Lastly, thanks to Disney for all the assistance they give us. LaughingPlace.com is a team effort like nothing else I've ever been involved in. I'm very proud to be the leader of that team and I'm very proud of what the team has created.
BUT!
One thing I'm not proud of is the shape of the site over the past few weeks. To
put it bluntly, the site is having issues. They cropped up about a month or so
ago. Unfortunately, this was shortly before my trip to California, and in the
preparation for that I didn't have much time to try to fix it and I didn't want
to do anything too major since I'd be out of town if something went wrong. I've
spent much of this week working on the issue and progress has been made, But the
issue has not been completely solved.
One very unfortunate by-product of this being such a high priority is over the past two weeks we haven't updated the site every day. Last week this was expected as we usually go to every other day when we're out of town. But this week we should've returned to normal and didn't because I've been concentrating on the problem. Please rest assured, the updates should return to normal next week including the return of The Report and plenty of pictorial updates.
I want LP to be important to you. I want you to look forward to it everyday and to count on it being there. And I understand being disappointed and even frustrated when it's not there. LP may not cost any money, but many have certainly invested their time in making friends and having conversations here, and when you can't get on to talk to those friends or continue those conversations - we'll I've been on the other side of the fence and I completely understand the frustration.
So I appreciate your patience. I appreciate your hanging around. And I promise I'm doing all I can to get things back to normal around here.
Thank you for a wonderful first five years.
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-- Doobie Moseley
-- Posted July 30, 2004