Spent 2 hours at the bank this morning (rant) - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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My DH called me this morning. There was a message on his voice mail at work. Our bank was calling because there is some suspicious activity on our account. Since we are both in town today, we just went to the bank instead of calling. Thank goodness we did. Someone got my DH's visacheck card number. There were 4 transactions that showed up so far. 3 $300 charges at a CVS and another $300 at a Walgreens. All in Atlanta, GA.
The good news is the bank is going to give us our money back because this obviously isn't us since we were at home in VA at the time. The bad news is I'm out that money for a week because it will take that long to get the paperwork processed. Then of course there is the hastle of having to get new cards (I went ahead and turned mine in too just in case). Now I have to go to all the places that are autopayed on that card (my internet and phones) and change the numbers! All because of some #@&^*( who took my credit card info!
But I have to give a big thank you to our bank and the visa people for keeping an eye out for us otherwise I might not have caught this until our next statement. Sometimes big brother is a good thing!
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Keep Moving Forward
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Thank goodness the bank caught it so fast. That happened to my mom and they caught it, too. I got a call like that once- it was because I used my Disney Visa at Disney world and had hardly ever used the card before them. It's goos to know that sometimes the banks aree looking out for their customers.
Liz
I feel for you. I had my car stolen about 3 months ago just before 4 in the morning and they broke into cars all through my neighborhood. I am so glad I have a great bank but I had to wait till they opened to cancel my card and by that time they had charged $1000 in just 4 hours. I am glad it worked out for you.
We went through something similar a couple of years ago and our credit card company was the same as your back and dealt with it really quickly, but I remember how awful it was at the time. I hope the money's all soon back soon.
Nice of your bank to believe you! My brother got some unauthorized charges on his account and his bank wouldn't believe him until he did his own investigation by talking to people at one of the places the card was charged at and that person found out that one name had made a bunch of purchases with many different cards. When he gave this info. to his bank, then they finally believed him.
On the other hand, one of my credit card companies is really good. I normally buy my pizza from Pizza Hut, but one time had to buy from Papa John's 'cause there wasn't a Pizza Hut near where I was staying. They got suspicious of the difference and called me about it! (Although, it does kinda give you the creepy feeling that you're being watched and you wonder what they're thinking about where you're buying from and what you're buying, LOL!! But better that than somebody using your card to buy tons of crap!)