AuburnChris

No need to get personal! He has been in business 3 years and does very well in the fort. I'm sure if people know about this site they will post.

I have just started working for him after leaving school, and just trying to help, not just us but you as well, sorry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing

That's what you were doing. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt because you're fresh out of school and really don't know any better yet, but you can get in all kinds of trouble doing this sort of thing.

If you've got customers who would like to recommend your business, send them our way. Just don't have them post from your office, ok? Because we'll know. :)

Mod note: I am going to allow further discussion here. My spider-sense is telling me that this is not your run-of-the-mill spam situation, what I'm piecing together here is a fluid situation where a company is in the unfortunate position of having their dirty laundry aired in public. I don't think we gain anything as a community by shutting this down, and if we find out what actually happened from both sides (to the extent they're willing to share with us), then we could learn something.

We will keep an eye on things, but for now, carry on. :)

Hey, guys, your friendly neighborhood admin here. Um, wait a sec, let me get out my Mod voice so you know I'm totally serious.

Derails are great and everything, but I gotta ask you all to curb the content-free posting. It makes the board hard to read, and it can also hurt us with search engines if they see a bunch of low-content posts- it's a sign of a spammy board, and it can cause us to lose favor with our Google overlords.

Thanks ever so much guys!

It works very well in our household

And I still have no idea how. :) Gotta increase my sample size.

We are in 1726, you don't get to see Jen throw a fit.

Well, at least about that. She's like the weather in Florida, wait a few minutes and it'll change. Or you'll get struck by lightning. Or maybe this is a bad analogy and I should stop posting.

Anyway, there's a family next to us flying a "house divided" Auburn and Alabama flag. I wanna meet those people, you know, for science. I have no idea how that could work.

So PETA thinks the Shoe Tree is an animal? It's a tree, silly PETA people. It's not an animal.

I'd have pegged PETA for more of the "throwing fake blood on the Fort Wilderness sign because Mickey is wearing a coonskin cap" type. Not that I want to give them any ideas or anything.

Now, please fix it so I can capitalize TCD in my trip report titles. "Tcd" doesn't look right.

TCD

Your wish, my command, etc. :)

It was a setting to PREVENT PEOPLE FROM SHOUTING IN THEIR THREAD TITLES. Hopefully we won't have a problem with that.

Hate to break this to you, but the United States Flag Code makes no distinction between a "new" flag and a "historic" flag. According to the Flag Code, a flag is a flag or anything "by which the average person seeing the same without deliberation may believe the same to represent the flag." All of these would fall under the same laws and regulations for proper display and patriotic customs.

Probably true. But the Flag Code is not enforceable law, so there's not a whole lot of sense in trying to argue the point, I guess.

Awesome again.

I am now going to paying attention to all of the American Flags all over WDW.

Which reminds me . . .

I remember that there used to be a flagpole and American Flag at the Reception Outpost at Fort Wilderness.

But, I don't think there is one there anymore.

Does anyone know?

TCD

I dunno, those stars look kinda sparse...

How far down the rabbit hole do we wanna go here? You've got a trip report (or two!) to finish! :)

It's my curse to notice stuff like this. Drives AuburnJen crazy, it does.

So have a look at the photo here. They're taking down the American flag, in a very respectful (and not-to-be-missed) ceremony. But look on top of Exposition Hall- it's another American flag, very pointedly -not- being taken down.

Why?

Same reason. I haven't confirmed this myself, but I'm told the flags on the Main Street buildings are 45-star flags, to match the US flag as of the turn of the 20th century, which would carry through with the theme of Main Street USA.

Wow, I never noticed that or knew that about the rules.

So if its and actual current flag they treat it as a registered US vessel?

But don't they already have to meet a ton of regulations like boat registration, safety, and life preservers?

Very interesting.

Actually, posting that made me remember another conversation I had with a captain on the same subject. He said that they were subject to US laws, regulations, etc. as a matter of course, no matter what flag they flew. But there are customs and rules (that do not carry the force of law) about displaying the US flag- namely, that it should only be done while the sun is up. So if they flew a 50-star flag, they run the risk of offending people who know that the flag should be stowed at night. The 48-star flag has no such tradition surrounding it (since it technically isn't the US flag anymore). It's simply easier to leave the flag up there rather than stop the boat, stow the flag properly, and start up again.

Here's another shot from the stern looking toward the shoreline by Fort Wilderness (love the flag flapping in the breeze):

While we're here enjoying the flag waving in the breeze, take a close look at it.

It's a 48-star flag, not a 50-star flag. You can tell in the picture because the stars are directly above one another, not offset like a modern flag.

Why does Disney do this?

Apparently, if they fly the 50-star flag on the boats, they are subject to U.S. rules, regulations, taxes, etc., just like any ocean-going US-flagged vessel. If they fly a "historic banner," they don't have to fool with that extra bureaucracy.

At least, that's what the boat captain told me when I asked.

Here's a page with some videos for people who have absolutely no idea where to begin in GIMP. (The definition of "beginner" is amazingly broad- there are people who are photoshop experts who consider themselves "beginners" in GIMP, and videos for those people would be of no help at all to someone who really doesn't know how to work an image editor at all yet.)

http://www.techdrivein.com/2010/09/12-useful-gimp-video-tutorials-for.html

Over the past couple weeks, our little site has moved hosting services and had to temporarily switch domain names. I tried to minimize the effects of that for everyday users, but there still could be some problems, as the Internet is a strange place sometimes, and I can't be sure I'm covering 100% of the cases- I have to make do with 95% or so.

Here's what to do if you're having problems:

1) Remove all of your bookmarks for our site. (It's OK, we'll be here when you get back.)

2) Clear your browser's cache. (If you don't know how, go to google and type in "internet explorer clear browser cache" or "firefox clear browser cache", as applicable for the browser you're using.)

3) Type in fortfiends.net/forum in your address bar to get to the forums homepage, then log in. Make sure "remember me" is checked.

4) Once you've logged in, then create a new bookmark for our site.

I have to make sure I dont log in until I get to a thred that I wanna reply to. then I can log in and reply. Really stinks.

That really does stink. I think the problem, unfortunately, lies in your computer somewhere rather than in anything I can control with the site, simply because I'm not getting this same complaint from anyone else. (Believe me, if everyone was having the experience you're having, I'd have already been snowed under with PMs, text messages, and phone calls. :) )

I just strolled through "that other place". I didn't see even one mention of the fire. This place has become the best place for fort and Disney information. <3 Just thought I'd throw that bit in here.

If there was mention of it, they'd probably have tried to link to our story and been banned by the administration there for it.

That sounds fair and reasonable Chris!!!!! I'm also assuming it means if someone feels they need to, they can remove content from the boards in the future.

(Not that I would want to, but I didn't think I ever would from the the other place either.)

That's exactly right, and that's the specific situation I wanted to address. Even if things go pear-shaped and there's bannings and drama everywhere, I will still remove your content at your request.

I posted this a few moments ago in the Site Maintenance thread, but I wanted it to have a bit more exposure, so I'm cross-posting it to a few places. I claim Webmaster's Privilege in doing so, according to Section 8, Paragraph 42 of the bylaws*:

I'd like to have a conversation with the community at large pretty soon about the front page, and how articles get there, and what gets featured. There's some legal issues that I want to make sure are tamped down before I start appropriating trip reports for our front page, so I'm not going to post any trip reports (even though there are certainly worthy candidates out there!) until we have a policy in place. You might notice way down at the bottom of the page that we're claiming a Creative Commons copyright on original content. Without getting all lawyer-y on anyone, I want to make our intent clear with that.

So here goes.

Some sites attempt to claim ownership of everything that their members post. I don't want to go that route. I think you have the right to do what you want with your work, and you have the right to have a say in how it's used. The Creative Commons by-nc-sa license that I've chosen means that original content posted here can be used on other sites: (1)As long as the original author is credited, (2)For non-commercial purposes, and (3)as long as whoever uses the work doesn't add any additional restrictions (share and share alike).

To be clear: If you post something on the boards here, I will assume that it can be promoted to the front page, and used in other ways on this site. I will not use it for any other purpose on any other site, and I will respect your wishes if you would like to have something removed from the front page you don't want there. (I will also do my best to ensure that potentially personally-identifying images and text don't appear on the front page.) Furthermore, I don't claim that any trip reports, pictures, stories, videos, or anything else our individual members host here is owned by Fort Fiends, LLC, but I do reserve the right to enforce your ownership rights if I find that other sites are using content posted here outside of the rights granted by the Creative Commons by-nc-sa license (for example, on a for-profit website, which would violate the non-commercial use terms).

Gah. I hate having to sound like a lawyer. I don't even play one on TV. So let's sum up:

If you post here, I may promote your content to the front page, for all to see. If you don't like that, I will respect your wishes and remove it. I also pledge to respect your wishes in the future, if you wish to have content removed from the site that you posted.

If you host pictures elsewhere (photobucket, imageshack, flickr, etc.) your rights may differ, see your image host for details. I assume that linking an image here from a different file host (such as flickr, photobucket, what have you) means that you at least agree that the image can be used on this site, though.

If you have any concerns or questions about any of what you've just read, feel free to ask them either here or in PM's, as you feel comfortable doing so. If, like me, you've found your brain turning to mush after the last few paragraphs, then I humbly apologize.

_{*the bylaws don't exist.}

Yep! Those were the ones. We were in 211 and I practically had to run over them every time I took either my cart or my car out of the loop. They were the rudest bunch of people I ever encountered at the Fort. When I politely told them to move so I could get through I got the "no speakie Englaze" reply or the deer in the headlights look. I wished I had known Spanish for "get your ass out of the road or I'll run you over!" :argh:

Google Translate says: "saca tu culo de la calle o te atropellado!". Of course, :argh: is the universal language.

I know exactly who these clowns are and everybody who was in 2000 loop that weekend should've gotten a refund for all the problems they caused. Woulda been a great time for a gas spill and a match to spark and get rid of them for good. I kid you not that these people have no respect for anyone.

Tomorrow's headline: "MAYOR OF FORT WILDERNESS PROPOSES 'FINAL SOLUTION' FOR TENT CAMPERS" :rofl2:

Nope...sorry. :-\

It said the same thing again and I tried twice refreshing the page each time.

Damn geek crap...glad you understand it ;D !

Try forcing a refresh on the new home page (by hitting shift-f5), and then clicking on the "view full article" link. If you're refreshing the wrong link (which is probably what's happening), it's never gonna work. :)

Hey...like that's really AWESOME!!! :banana:

Unfortunately they said the 700 loop water will only be shut off for about a day so just to make sure your tank is full. And if Hilda ever does vacate that site while we're here you can be sure we'll let you know!

BTW, when I clicked on the link under my post this is what I got:

Not Found

The requested URL /index.html/_/articles/fire-at-the-fort-r11 was not found on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

Refresh the page and try again- I'm still trying to learn how to drive this thing. It should be working now- I was having that problem a few minutes ago too, but I did some :techno: and it should work now.

Congratulations, Karla! You might have noticed the "promoted to front page" link in your original post- it goes to the new front page of the site!

We'll be able to highlight :siren: BREAKING NEWS :siren: like this very easily going forward. The idea here is to highlight the great posts and great posters we have here, and also to serve as a news source of sorts for all things Fort-related.

Thanks for the great pics and the news tip- you guys are awesome, and you make it really easy for this site to be awesome. I couldn't do it alone, that's for sure.

:dance: :dance: :dance:

Hey, a thought, completely unrelated: If they're closing down the 700 loop due to the water issue, there's some long-timers there that'll have to move. We might have to send a Photo Commando in to get some site pics!

Anyone can look at the members list above, and sort by post count. But I don't feel warm and fuzzy about "calling out" specific people to post. I'd rather we make them feel welcome enough to post on their own, and I'm not sure that "HEY YOU! GET TO POSTIN'!" is the best way to achieve that goal.

Having said that, we do Love All, Serve All here- if you're a fan of the Fort, or of TCD's trip reports, or of Norm's photography, or of Stacktester's shenanigans- there's a place for you here! We'd love to get to know you better!

Studying this a bit, I see that the first flag in the photo is a D. The next flag is a flag that represents a number. Same with the other, longer, flags. So these flags do spell Dockside Diner. If you ignore the number flags interspersed in the line up.

I can't ignore the number flags. They're there, aren't they? Gotta figure it all out.

Looking at the flags from this direction (which we're meant to do, I guess, because the alphabet flags spell "DOCKSIDE DINER" correctly this way), we get:

782562896354

I don't have any idea what this means. Surely the imagineers are telling us something. Next time we're at the Studios, I'll have to investigate this further.

Maybe it's the combination to the safe inside the diner or something.

Let me just check the toteboard for Points Distributed:

Fort Fiends : 0

Hm... Might be broken. How about the Members Banned totals?

Fort Fiends : 0

What could be the problem, I wonder?

Oh, I remember. We don't roll like that around here, that's why. :) All fiends are welcome!