I love this Disney site! A few months back I met Randy Ojeda, aka @FluffedMojo, on Twitter. We chatted Disney stuff for a bit, then he invited me to check out his new social network: MouseLinked.
To say MouseLinked is like Facebook for Disney fans is an understatement. It’s the place where all Disney fan communities come together, from blogs to podcasts to forums…to infinity and beyond! Randy’s goal in creating this new network stemmed from Walt’s own inspiration. He wanted to build “some kind of internet enterprise where content creators and the content consumers can have fun together.” He has succeeded!
I’ll let Randy himself tell you more:
JW: Tell me a little about yourself and what you do.
RO: Well, my name is Randy Ojeda. I’m a junior at the University of South Florida, majoring in psychology. I’m planning on attending law school after graduation and eventually working for Disney Corporate (I know…big dreams). In the fall, I’ll be a part of the Disney College Program. When not in class, I fund my Disney pin addiction by working for the Geek Squad at Best Buy.
JW: What is MouseLinked?
RO: MouseLinked is the social network for Disney fans. It’s a site where you can go and connect with other people who share your passions, your love for Disney. It’s a fun way to find new friends, talk about Disney news and share photos and ideas in a site that’s ONLY for Disney fans.
JW: When and why did you create MouseLinked? Specifically, why Disney?
RO: It all started with a blog. I registered the domain YourHighwayintheSky.com in August of last year and began making some posts, thinking, “Disney fans will find this, they will flock to it.” Then I realized how many amazing Disney blogs are out there and how hard it is to find them and how hard it is for those blogs to find readers. You have Facebook and Twitter and everything, but Disney fans are a small subculture in those networks, not the majority. So I thought to myself, “There must be something built, some kind of internet enterprise, where the content creators and the content consumers can have fun together.” (This should be sounding like Walt at this point, lol). I wanted to make a website where you didn’t have to search for Disney fans. You had them all. You didn’t have to search for podcasts or blogs or radio networks…they were all there. Everything in the network would allow you to get your Disney fix! There were no free iPod scams or pictures of cats or spammers…just Disney fans being Disney fans. So I put the development of YourHighwayintheSky.com on hold and started on what would eventually become MouseLinked.com
JW: Did you create it by yourself?
RO: Are you crazy??? Lol! As soon as I had this idea, I enlisted the help of my good friend, Joshua Solanes. I had this idea in my head, I knew how I wanted the site to work, but I had neither the technical know-how nor the free time to put something like this together. So Josh and I spent hours and hours sitting at a table. I would draw out ideas and tell Josh something like, “Yeah, so we can have this here and this thingy there and then that will connect to this thing,” and he would make it happen. MouseLinked would still be ideas on a piece of paper if he hadn’t jumped on board. I’m very grateful that he did.
JW: There are thousands of Disney fan sites on the web, from blogs to digital magazines to discussion boards, etc. Why did you decide on this particular format?
RO: As I said previously, I wanted this to be a site to help bloggers, to work with discussion boards. I in no way want to compete with these sites. In fact, the opposite is true. I listen to a number of Disney Podcasts, read countless blogs, and FluffedMojo is registered on more forums than I can count. I figured this format would be the best way to bring all of these communities together. We are not mutually exclusive.
At the same time, I didn’t just want to make a Facebook clone. We have a lot of similar functionality, of course, but one thing I wanted from the beginning was a sort of Twitter-like microblog service built into the site. We call it The Wire. The Wire allows you to make short 140 character posts, but not specific to just your friends. The Wire goes to everybody. You can send private messages and write on somebody’s Magic Mirror, but if you need a quick answer, something anybody could help with, you can use The Wire. It’s a fast way to meet new people and find out the things you want to know throughout the network. If you want to know what time the 3:00pm parade starts, that’s the way to ask. {Editor’s note: LOL!!}
JW: How long did it take to build a social media site like this?
RO:Much like Disney itself, we are never finished. It took a while to get the functionality where it is now, but we are always adding new things, trying out new features, and most importantly, fixing bugs! What you have seen now is the short list of a long number of features that we need to implement. We just need the time to get to it all. That’s why the site still says Beta, Pardon Our Pixie Dust…and all that jazz.
JW: Are you making money from it? Do you hope to?
RO: We are not making much money from it. We have a few ads in place, which helps keep the servers up, but this is something to help the whole community. I want to make a tool that Disney fans and bloggers find useful. I want to help everybody out. Of course, the site does take a lot of time, and I’d hope that anybody who sees a significant increase in revenue, whether it be using MouseLinked to increase traffic to their site or sell more copies of their Disney book, would be willing to donate even a small amount to keep the site going. But all this comes in time, and the money isn’t the most important part (that’s why I’m staying in school!). The important part is, like I said, creating something that betters the community that I’m very happy to be a part of.
JW: What would you say is the benefit of joining a site like this as opposed to a forum based site?
RO: Forums are a great place for Discussion and this site is not aiming to compete with that. MouseLinked offers similar functionality to a network like Facebook or Twitter, but with a Disney-centric community. MouseLinked is more about making friends, planning meet ups and promoting what you do for the Disney community than a forum. Sure, in a forum you have a signature where you can link to your blog, but why not make a whole page to show it off?
JW: How many members is Mouselinked capable of supporting? How many current member are there?
RO: We have put the infrastructure in place to support thousands of members. Currently, we have almost 300 users; however, there’s room for more. Any volunteers?
JW: What does the future hold for Mouselinked?
RO: As I get deeper into my studies, begin to prepare for law school, and get closer to starting the Disney College Program, free time seems like a faraway dream. So I’m looking for help! The MouseLinked team is currently just Josh and me, but to continue the development at a pace that will keep the users happy, we would love for the team to really be a team. Any web developers with a passion for Disney who would like to join that team are invited to contact me on twitter @fluffedmojo or message me on MouseLinked. Like I said, we have a long list of places we’d like to go.
In the immediate future, the MouseLinked network has grown to include my original website, YourHighwayintheSky.com, a blog which features regular articles from a group of Disney Bloggers. Your Highway in the Sky is a part of the Magical Blogorail group and we hope the site can help spur discussion within the Disney community, whether on MouseLinked or elsewhere. Check it out!
Bonus question: If you were a Disney Character, which one would you be?
RO: Now THIS is a question. I would be Peter Pan. Minus the tights, he’s a character I’ve always wanted to be like. What guy wouldn’t want to fight Pirates…and fly! And I’d never have to grow up…or take the LSAT. That’s a big plus for me.
If you’re a part of the Disney fan family, stop by MouseLinked today and join the community!
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