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DCUM WEBLOG


MONDAY'S MOST ACTIVE THREADS

by Jeff Steele — last modified May 14, 2024 01:03 PM



Yesterday's topics with the most engagement included Sheryl Sandberg's
documentary, a weapon at a MCPS high school, a son being bullied, and a fake
thread about baby names.

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "Sheryl Sandberg Releases Screams
Before Silence, A Free Documentary About the Sexual Violence on October 7" and
posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. The war in Gaza and the resulting
college campus protests have spurred an endless series of threads, many of which
have been among the most active topics that I've discussed in this blog. This
thread is one more of the genre. As the title makes clear, this thread is about
the documentary "Screams Before Silence" which was led by Sheryl Sandberg of
Facebook/Meta fame. The film is about sexual violence allegedly used by Hamas
during and after its October 7 attack on Israel. My use of the word "alleged"
will likely be controversial because a significant number of DCUM users do not
think that there is anything "alleged" about this and that Hamas' sexual
violence is beyond question. To be clear, I abhor sexual violence whoever it is
committed by. Those who commit such crimes should be exposed and punished.
Unfortunately, like so much else involved with the the Israel-Gaza war, sexual
violence has been caught in the fog of war and the endless propaganda
surrounding events. It is undeniable that in the immediate aftermath of the
October 7 attack, Israel and some of its supporters engaged in spreading
manufactured accounts of atrocities. Many of these accounts made it into the
Western media and become accepted as fact. Chief among these stories was the
allegation of 40 beheaded Israeli babies, something that proved to be completely
untrue. A number of other high-profile incidents similarly turned out not to
have occurred. Just as these stories of Hamas violence were initially widely
believed, allegations of sexual violence committed by Hamas has been accepted as
fact among much of the public. A highly-publicized article by the New York Times
initially seemed very persuasive in documenting widespread sexual violence.
However, that article soon proved to be very problematic and has been shown to
have relied on several discredited sources. Chief among these was ZAKA, an
Israeli volunteer group that responds to emergencies to recover bodies. Israeli
newspapers have documented that many of the stores of atrocities on October 7
that were later shown to be false originated with ZAKA. ZAKA's leader has
attributed this to mistakes resulting from the difficult circumstances following
the attack. Either because of intention or error, ZAKA's allegations must be
approached skeptically. Like the New York Times, Sandberg's film relies heavily
on ZAKA. As a result, critics of the documentary argue that its allegations are
not to be believed. Defenders of the film point to a report by the United
Nations that found "reasonable grounds to believe" that sexual violence occurred
during the Hamas attack. While the report did find evidence to believe such
attacks occurred, it did not find anything near the scale that is commonly
claimed. Moreover, the report explicitly found that some well-publicized
allegations were unfounded. All of this is to say that while there is evidence
that some sexual violence did occur during Hamas' October 7 attack and has
probably occurred afterward involving the Israelis being held hostage, the
allegations of widespread and systemic sexual violence have not held up to
scrutiny. This has provided justifiable grounds for critics to challenge
portrayals such as that in this film. Unfortunately, as demonstrated in this
thread, posters are less interested in separating fact from fiction than they
are in utilizing the topic for their own partisan benefit. I eventually locked
the thread when it devolved in simply another debate about all aspects of the
conflict without specific relevance to the initial topic.

read more...

Comments: 0


THE MOST ACTIVE THREADS SINCE FRIDAY

by Jeff Steele — last modified May 14, 2024 01:03 PM



The topics with the most engagement since by last blog post included texting
etiquette, the bike lane that cannot be killed, kindergarten kids still in
diapers, and a soon to be widow with financial challenges.

The most active thread over the weekend was the one asking why people are
Republicans which I have already discussed. That thread had twice as many posts
as the next most active thread which was titled, "‘Don't Text Me So Early!’" and
was posted in the "Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)" forum. The original
poster explains that she texted her sister-in-law at 6:51 AM Saturday morning to
invite her to the original poster's son's high school graduation party. The
original poster's sister-in-law responded by telling her not to text so early.
The original poster doesn't think there should be times when you shouldn't text
and asks if she is correct in this regard. I am not sure why the original poster
chose this forum rather than the "Family Relationships" forum. For that matter,
to the extent this thread deals with relationships, it is more about
relationships with technology. So maybe the "Electronics and Technology" forum
would have been better. Those responding were split between posters who agreed
with the original poster that texts can be sent at all hours and it is up to the
recipients to turn off notifications or silence their phones and those who
believe sending texts deserves some consideration and that texts shouldn't be
sent before 8 AM. In other words, the division is between those who see this as
a technical issue and those who see it as a matter of good manners. The
technologists argue that it is easy to turn off notifications. The manners folks
claim that they have reasons for keeping notifications on such as teens out late
at night while parents want to sleep. The technologists respond saying that
phones have settings to allow the kids' numbers through and there are ways to
block text notifications but still allow phone calls. The manners posters
identify other reasons that they can't block notifications for unknown numbers.
What is clear is that this is an area in which social norms have not been
established and, therefore, posters have much different ideas about what is
acceptable. The responses also demonstrate posters' different perceptions of
texts. For many, and I probably fall into this group, different forms of
communications have different priorities. Email is generally the least time
sensitive and phone calls are the most urgent. Texts fall somewhere in the
middle. But for some posters, texts seem to be treated with the same importance
as phone calls. This is understandable, I guess, when you realize that for some
young folks, the idea of using a phone as a phone is almost incomprehensible.
They don't expect audio unless it is accompanied by video. Therefore, while some
posters can't imagine a text being sent in a true emergency rather than a phone
call, for others this is a perfectly normal expectation. This highlights another
factor that eventually came to dominate the thread. Many of these divisions are
broken down by age. Those who are comfortable setting intricate settings on
their devices slag off those who don't want to or are not capable of delving
into all the features of their phones as being "old". So a fair number of
age-based epithets were slung back and forth. What is clear is that this is
uneven terrain and that individuals should, as one poster put it, "know their
audience" in order to avoid giving offense.

read more...

Comments: 3


THURSDAY'S MOST ACTIVE THREADS

by Jeff Steele — last modified May 10, 2024 12:30 PM



The most active topics yesterday included men who want stay-at-home wives,
buying meals for another family, why people become Republicans, and a teen
called a "fat ugly pig".

Yesterday's two most active threads were ones that I've already discussed so I
will start with the third most active thread which was titled, "Are there really
men whose dream it is to have their wife not need to work?" and posted in the
"Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)" forum. The original poster says that in
a podcast episode the female host's husband joined and revealed that it had been
his dream that his wife would not have to work but could if that were her
choice. The original poster is very impressed by this attitude and asks where
she can find a man like this one. Those responding take different approaches to
this topic. Some posters take the original poster's question at face value and
provide advice about how she can find this sort of guy. Others discuss the
desirability, or lack thereof, of becoming a stay-at-home wife. With regard to
the first, posters generally emphasize that it is important to find such men
when they are young. Guys who are desirable and have the financial wherewithal
to support a stay at home wife will either be taken quickly or be players who
are not interested in commitment. One poster claims that the best place to meet
them is graduate school. While at its heart this thread is a really a discussion
of stay-at-home-moms versus work-out-of-the-house-moms, the thread has a much
different flavor than most of this genre. The thread has a higher level of
discourse than would normally be expected of the topic. Many of the responses
are by posters recounting their own personal experiences. A significant number
of those posters describe being heavily influenced by their own parents'
situations. A factor of importance to the original poster that was overlooked in
many responses was that the relationship she admires provides the woman the
choice to work. Several of those responding agreed that this was key to such
relationships. Some posters expressed concern about relationships in which a
husband opposed his wife getting a job, considering it his duty to provide for
his family. Posters warned that such men often enjoyed the power and control
this provides them. Similarly, several posters expressed concerns that a woman
who does not work can be left in difficult circumstances in the case of divorce
or if her husband is unable to work due to health or accident. But posters
frequently saw many benefits to having a stay at home parent which, several
posters mentioned, could be a father as well as a mother. Several described this
arrangement making their lives considerably easier and much less stressful. One
poster argued that interdependence in which each spouse is dependent on the
other leads to stronger relationships than independence of each spouse. He
didn't view his stay-at-home wife as being dependent upon him anymore than he is
dependent on her. But some others weren't necessarily buying this with one
arguing that his wife would be homeless without his income.

read more...

Comments: 0


WEDNESDAY'S MOST ACTIVE THREADS

by Jeff Steele — last modified May 13, 2024 07:34 AM



Yesterday's most active topics included Duke versus Penn, Modern Farmhouse
design, parents who don't sign up to provide snacks, and an update on the state
of DCUM.

Seven of yesterday's top 10 threads, including the top three were ones that I've
already discussed and will skip today. That means that I will start with the
fourth most active thread yesterday which was titled, "Off the waitlist at Duke
- unsure what to do" and posted in the "College and University Discussion"
forum. The original poster says that her son who had previously committed to
attend the University of Pennsylvania was just accepted off the waitlist by Duke
University. She says that he will study math and statistics and asks if anyone
has experience with the two schools. The number one thing that those responding
emphasize is that the schools have very different atmospheres. The campuses and
surrounding areas are very different from one another and, as a result, it is
important to determine which is more appealing to her son. Many posters stress
the importance of finding the right fit. In terms of academics, posters didn't
 think that there was much to distinguish one school from the other. A poster
who has a child at each school agreed that there is not much difference. Another
poster similarly argued that little separates the two schools academically, but
that same was true of most of the top 20 schools. As such, everything kept
coming back to whether the original poster's son would prefer a large campus to
a compact one,  an urban location to an isolated one, or a northern climate to a
southern one. One problem with threads such as this in the college forum is that
so many posters respond who might not have firsthand experience with either
school, let alone both. Their responses tend to reflect their personal biases
and priorities. For instance, many posters suggest Duke between the two
universities simply because they prefer warm weather. Others are angry about
Penn because of the recent demonstrations against Israel's war in Gaza. Several
posters appear to base their judgement entirely on their opinion for or against
the Ivy League. Over the years DCUM has managed to attract a large collection of
strange posters. If nothing else, running this site has taught me that there is
no limit to idiosyncrasies. One example was represented in this thread by a
poster who wrote, "Duke. Many people confuse Penn with Penn State." This
probably would not be notable, but therex is a poster who posts this in almost
every thread dealing with Penn (I can't confirm that is this poster, but it is
probable). To make things worse, multiple posters thought this was a legitimate
point. I loved the response though, "Many confuse Duke with dukes of hazard."
There is also always a poster who shows up to comment on the physical appearance
of female students and has a strong personal preference for southern women. In
this thread, such a poster, probably the same one as always, opined, "Duke has
prettier women by some margin". Several posters claimed that despite the
differences in atmosphere, Penn and Duke attract very similar students and more
than one poster said that they knew of multiple couples made up of alumns from
each school. So based on the logic of this thread, the original poster's son
should go to Penn with the expectation that he will eventually marry a more
attractive Duke graduate.

read more...

Comments: 6


TUESDAY'S MOST ACTIVE THREADS

by Jeff Steele — last modified May 08, 2024 12:13 PM



Yesterday's topics with the most engagement included a grandmother "hitting" a
child, wealthy retired military officers, development in Silver Spring, and two
scenarios for college admissions.

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "my husband's mother hit my kid",
and originally posted in the "General Parenting Discussion" forum. This morning
I moved the thread to the "Family Relationships" forum. The original poster says
that while she was getting dressed after getting out of the shower, her
mother-in-law was attempting to put sneakers on the original poster's 4 year old
son. The boy was resisting because he wanted to wear flip flops and repeatedly
pulled his feet away from his grandmother. His grandmother got frustrated and
"hit" him on the leg. The original poster says her mother-in-law did not hit the
boy very hard, but she was quite angry that her mother-in-law hit the boy at
all. The original poster's husband doesn't think this is a big deal, but the
original poster doesn't want her mother-in-law to babysit anymore. Corporal
punishment is a very controversial topic on DCUM with many posters having
strongly held but diametrically opposed views. In this thread, the first
responses all came from posters who generally oppose spanking, let alone
"hitting" a child. In some cases, posters had zero tolerance positions and would
not allow the grandmother to babysit in the future. One poster went so far as to
say that the original poster's mother-in-law is "would be lucky if I didn't keep
my kid from her forever." Others took a more moderate stance and argued in favor
of the accepting the apology that the grandmother had offered and more or less
putting her on probation. She would be allowed to babysit, but would be watched
carefully for future transgressions. A number of posters viewed what occurred
more as a "swat" than a "hit" and, like the original poster's husband, were not
that concerned about it. At the far end of the spectrum were the "spare the rod,
spoil the child" type posters. Many of these posters were more critical of the
original poster than they were of the grandmother. One poster, blaming what she
viewed as the original poster's lenient parenting style, wrote, "Your DC is a
brat and no one, but you, can deal with him." Similarly, a number of posters
pointed out that the original poster had apparently disciplined her
mother-in-law, but not her son. They worried that this might send the message
that he could disobey his grandmother with impunity. Heated arguments developed
between advocates of differing approaches to parenting. Some posters suggested
time outs instead of spanking but other posters declared that time outs are also
abusive. Some of the posts were so extreme that it was impossible to tell
whether they were trolling or serious. A poster who wrote, "Any child who was
physically struck cannot ever grow up to be a normal, productive member of
society" later declared that the grandmother deserved the death penalty and, as
such, was pretty clearly trolling (at least I hope). But what about a poster who
expressed hope that those who advocate spanking would be put "on some sort of
watch list"? That poster seemed to be serious. Another poster suggested that the
result of no longer spanking children is an increase in mental illness. That
posters also appeared to be serious.

read more...

Comments: 0


MONDAY'S MOST ACTIVE THREADS

by Jeff Steele — last modified May 08, 2024 12:09 PM



The topics with the most engagement yesterday included Jews changing their
voting due to campus protests, the Met Gala, a Bank of America employee's death,
and Advanced Placement exams.

Yesterday's most active thread was titled, "Are Any Fellow Jews Thinking of
Changing Their Voting", and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. The
original poster says that she is a lifelong Democrat but that she is very angry
about the college protests and is considering not voting for Democrats and
possibly even voting for former President and current cult leader Donald Trump.
While the original poster perceives significant and obvious anti-Semitism among
the protesters, she is dismayed that many liberal groups that she has supported
don't seem supportive of her at this time and she is upset by non-Jews who deny
the anti-Semitism that she observes. This thread is sort of ironic in view of
the thread I discussed yesterday that suggested that Biden is intentionally
trying to lose the election by alienating young, Arab, and Muslim voters due to
his statement that appeared to oppose the college protests. Biden is literally
being criticized from both sides. Just as I said when reviewing the thread
yesterday, this is really a problem of differing perceptions that is probably
going to be impossible to resolve. The history of anti-Semitism has
understandably made many Jews especially sensitive to perceiving anti-Semitism.
In addition, there are politically-motivated groups and individuals who have an
interest in increasing the perception of anti-Semitism. Moreover, anti-Semitism
very much tends to be in the eye of the beholder. There is not even universal
agreement on a definition of anti-Semitism. Combine this with the relationship
between Israel and Jews and things get even more complicated. I will hasten to
add that there have been clear and indisputable incidences of anti-Semitism
among protesters, so I am not suggesting that the original poster's observations
and unfounded. But, the result is that the original poster and someone like me
might witness the exact same event and perceive it entirely differently. Where I
might see a group standing against the killing of Palestinian civilians and the
destruction of their towns and cities, the original poster can — with equal
legitimacy — see a mob threatening Jews. There is enough objective evidence to
support either perception. In an ideal world, those holding these differing
views might be able to come to some amount of reconciliation through
communication and understanding. But today's political environment, and
particularly a DCUM discussion thread, doesn't really provide for that
opportunity. Instead there is more interest in exploiting these divisions for
political gain. As such, those with conservative and Republican tendencies are
more than willing to welcome those such as the original poster, never mind the
Republicans' own struggles with anti-Semitism. In contrast, Democrats in the
thread reacted much as they have to the voters who have threatened not to
support Biden because he is too pro-Israel. They warned the original poster
against throwing out the baby with the bathwater, saying that Trump would be
worse on host of other issues and not necessarily better regarding Israel and
anti-Semitism. Trump associates with actual Nazis and personally has made a
number of statements that could be considered anti-Semitic. While many believe
that he would be more pro-Israel than Biden, Trump seems to have personal
animosity for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and has strong business
and financial ties to Saudi Arabia. Therefore, Trump's support for Israel might
not be as ironclad as many believe. Biden, on the other hand, has done almost
everything possible to support Israel.

read more...

Comments: 1


THE MOST ACTIVE THREADS SINCE FRIDAY

by Jeff Steele — last modified May 08, 2024 12:09 PM



The topics with the most engagement since my last blog post included "dad
privileges", little things ruining a marriage, Biden and the election, and FCPS
boundary changes.

The most active thread over the weekend was titled, "The Dad Privilege
Checklist" and was posted in the "General Parenting Discussion" forum. The
original poster linked to a Substack article that was titled the same as thread.
The author of the article posits that "Almost all fathers can slack off,
confident in the knowledge that someone else will do the work for them" and then
provides a list of ways that fathers are privileged relative to mothers. The
original poster of the thread invites others to read the checklist and provide
their reactions. One of the earliest reactions was to say, "It's an idiotic
list." In contrast, just after that another poster stated that "My husband
enjoys most of the privileges." My own reaction is that while the idea behind
the Substack article has some validity, the actual article was not particularly
well done. Frankly, some of the things listed were pure nonsense. It is true
that ours is a traditionally patriarchal system that has provided significant
privileges to men, especially fathers. But equally true is that for several
generations, significant inroads have been made toward equality. Progress has
been uneven and varies from family to family. As such, no such checklist is
going to be universally applicable. Nevertheless, this was not a particularly
good list. As one poster noted, "It's a crowd-sourced list of petty grievances
and projections, most of which are unsupported by any real data or facts." On a
list of this length — over 100 entries long — there are obviously going to be a
few entries that fit specific relationships. In many cases, however, it is
reasonable to ask if the items are true privileges, or rather the result of a
division of labor. For instance, one poster — who is a father — wrote, "We
divide and conquer. For example, I handle paperwork like school registration,
health forms for camp, and paying tuition" but his wife "handles clothes,
including laundry and buying clothes" and other duties. He says that they divide
up tasks based on who has time and skills. The real failure of the article, I
think, is that it almost guarantees that the forest will be missed for the
trees. There are so many items of questionable validity that they tend to
undermine the entire point of the post. I think a better approach would have
simply been to point out that, more often than not, the mother is the default
parent and responsible for all that entails. This results in natural privileges
with regard to parenting for fathers that may or may not be offset by
responsibilities in other areas. Just as the length of the list means that it
includes several items for which many fathers take responsibility, it also
includes "privileges" that ring true for many of the women responding. However,
women who say that the list applies to their husbands come under fire not only
from defensive men, but also from women who question why they made such a poor
choice of a husband. This might be the ultimate privilege. A man can be lazy and
incompetent, but his wife will be the one who is blamed.

read more...

Comments: 3


THURSDAY'S MOST ACTIVE THREADS

by Jeff Steele — last modified May 03, 2024 12:09 PM



Yesterday's topics with the most engagement included paying for college, a son's
sudden attitude change, to retire or not with a $10 million net worth, and is
the University of Virginia "preppy"?

The two most active threads yesterday were ones that I've already discussed and,
therefore, will start today with the third most active thread. That thread was
titled, "Why pay all of kids' college?" and posted in the "Money and Finances"
forum. The original poster says that she does not understand the expectation
that the average middle class person should save to pay for 100 percent of their
kid's college. She says that everyone she knew growing up had college loans and
they were fine. She has decided that she will pay for two years at a public
university for her kids and the rest is up to them. Reading the responses, it is
clear that posters approach this topic from very personal angles. Those for whom
college loan debt was a burden tend to believe very strongly in paying for their
children's college. One poster compared this to passing on generational wealth.
These posters often stress the significant impact of large debt that forces
young people to delay many other aspects of their lives. As one poster put it,
"If they are saddled with loans, they will never own a home". In contrast, those
like the original poster who didn't have personal experience with significant
debt see less importance in saving for college and are more likely to expect
their children to take out loans. Some posters contend that kids should have
"skin in the game", meaning that they be responsible for paying for at least
part of their education so that they will value it. Otherwise, these posters
suggest, the kids might see college as a four-year long party at their parent's
expense. Many posters see attitudes about paying for college as having regional
or social class divisions. One suggests that DC-area families are more likely to
pay for college than those in her home state of Pennsylvania. Others argue that
upper middle class families are more likely than middle class to save for
college, though this may simply be an issue of means. Some posters think that
unless saving for college would cause significant financial problems, it is
selfish not to save for your kids' college. A number of posters point out that
young people just starting college often are naive and uninformed about the
ramifications of debt. They don't have a proper understanding of how much a
burden paying off loans can be or they wrongly believe that loans are easily
forgiven. Therefore, many posters feel they have an obligation to pay for
college to prevent these kids from making mistakes. There was quite a bit of
discussion of the Public Service Loan forgiveness (PSLF) program that forgives
loans of those who choose specific professions. However, this forgiveness only
occurs after 10 years of making payments. For some posters, struggling with debt
for even that long is unreasonable if parents could prevent it. For many, this
is a question of priorities. Whereas some posters see giving a debt-free
education to their children as way to give them a leg up and a good start to
their lives, others have different priorities. As one poster put it, "I want to
retire and enjoy what is left of my life. I can afford to retire while I'm young
and do the things on my bucket [list]". This poster was specifically discussing
paying for graduate school, but the sentiment was representative of some
posters' attitudes about paying for college in general.

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Comments: 0


WEDNESDAY'S MOST ACTIVE THREADS

by Jeff Steele — last modified May 06, 2024 12:00 PM



Yesterday's topics with the most engagement included college admissions
insanity, criticizing America, boys and scouts, and the declining birthrate in
the US.

Yesterday's most active thread was again the college protests thread which,
again, had several times the number of posts of the next most active thread.
But, since I've already discussed that thread I'll skip it today and move to the
next most active thread which was titled, "NYT: ‘Peak College Admissions
Insanity’" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. The
original poster linked to a New York Times article with the same title as the
thread. The author of the article, a former official in the US Department of
Education, describes a number of developments that led to admissions for the
2023-2024 school year at selective universities becoming a chaotic and
unpredictable experience. As the author wrote, "even the gatekeepers seemed not
to know what the new rules were." I was about halfway through this article when
I decided that it was clearly written for the express purpose of trolling DCUM.
The article hit on all of the hot button DCUM college forum topics including the
obvious ones such test optional admissions, early decision, and financial aid.
But it also hit some of the deep cuts such as when the author name-checked
Northeastern University. When he brought up "yield protection", I imagined the
forum's yield protection obsessives setting off fireworks in celebration. In
many ways, the article is the culmination and distillation of all of the most
active college forum topics that I have discussed in this blog. The article
emphasizes the impact of early decision applications and how they have changed
the admissions calendar. It discusses the importance of colleges making
standardized tests optional and the huge growth in the number of applications
the top universities receive. The decision by the US Supreme Court prohibiting
the use of race in college admissions received only a cursory mention, putting
the article somewhat at odds with DCUM's college forum where the topic is
heavily discussed. DCUM posters quickly caught on to an error in the author's
understanding of when applicants accepted in the early decision round must pull
applications from other colleges. However, financial aid decisions this year
were delayed due to changes in the FAFSA application that postponed its
availability. So for this year, the author may have been correct. In addition,
posters pointed out additional factors that the author did not appear to
consider. Generally, however, posters agree that the current college admissions
process is filled with unknowns and that there appear to be few rules. As one
poster summarized things, "High school seniors think this is checkers, but the
schools know it’s chess. This has all become frankly terrifying for students,
who are first-time players in a game their opponents invented."

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Comments: 2


TUESDAY'S MOST ACTIVE THREADS

by Jeff Steele — last modified May 02, 2024 10:57 PM



Yesterday's topics with the most engagement included Disney World's program for
autistic visitors, a wife's friendship with a male neighbor, the ideal number of
children, and the Ivy League.

The most active thread yesterday was the campus protest thread that I have
already discussed. That thread had nearly six times as many posts as the next
most active thread which was titled, "Disney DAS" and posted in the "Travel
Discussion" forum. The original poster says that she is anxious about upcoming
changes to the Disney's DAS program and asked if anyone knows what to expect. I
had no idea to what the original poster was referring and had to do some quick
research. "DAS" is Disney World's Disability Access Service which, according to
its web page, accommodates guests who "due to a developmental disability like
autism or similar, are unable to wait in a conventional queue for an extended
period of time." Apparently, guests with DAS access are assigned an entry time
to an "experience" — as Disney calls them — that corresponds to the length of
the current queue. Such guests don't have to physically stand in line, but just
return at their assigned time. The current Disney webpage only contains
information about DAS up to May 19 and it seems that changes to the program will
be introduced beginning May 20. But with folks attempting to plan trips that
will occur after that date, the lack of information about the changes is causing
some frustration as in the case of the original poster. Those responding in this
thread don't really have any more information about the upcoming changes than
the original poster does, so instead replies focus on rumors or describe past
experiences. Some posters complained that the DAS system has been abused in the
past which might be the reason for the changes. In addition, the DAS program is
compared to other programs that Disney offers such as Genie+ and Lightening
Lanes. Several parents of children with autism explained how the program had
been helpful to them and worried that it might not be continued. But parents
with kids without autism complained that the long lines are difficult for young
children generally and that Disney should rethink how it handles lines to better
accomodate all young children. One poster reported that her family was approved
for DAS post May 20 and that the rule changes were not significant. At some
point the thread broke out into an argument about using both Genie+ and DAS. For
those who, like me, know nothing about this stuff, Genie+ allows guests to use
short, fast-moving Lightening Lanes for a select number of rides. Some posters
reported using both Genie+ and DAS to keep line waits to a minimum. This upset
other posters who thought that using both programs was taking advantage of
system. As one poster wrote, "You shouldn't be able to use Genie + if you have
DAS. It's double dipping." In response, a poster wrote, "It looks like you can
only get a certain #of ride passes per day with the DAS. If you can use Genie +
to get on other rides quickly, why wouldn’t you?" Most of the rest of the thread
simply consisted of variations of this debate.

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Comments: 1
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