Making Eurobricks More Active

**Holodoc** · June 14, 2018

Hello everybody!

That's an interesting topic here. Thank you very much for opening the debate on EB's future (somehow).
I still have to read all the questions and answers and replies so far, but still I want to tell you that the staff (Jim posted it) is aware of the changes in the past months.

When we were at the event in Billund three weeks ago, we had a staff meeting (with a good part of the staff being around), and we share your observations.
After heaving read all of your input here - which is deeply appreciated!!! - I'll reply whith what I can add to the matter more substantially.

Still I'm amazed to see so many old buddies posting here! :wub: :wub:

Borex · June 14, 2018

Would you like to see more contests? Sure. I hardly participate, but i like seeing the entrees
What is your opinion of Tags (those small images on the left <---)? I think they are okay. Not into it very much, but a good way for some members to spice up their membership.
Do you use, if ever, Eurobricks reference materials (ie. lists of Reviews, lists of MOCS, lists of Forums)? I have used them. And i love reviews. The reviews overhere feel always like indepth clear reviews with an open mind and sometimes a bit of humour. I prefer to read reviews overhere on Eurobricks rather than on another site.
Have you participated in games on Eurobricks (ie. Role-Playing, Mafia, etc.)? Never. And probably won't be doing that in the future.
Do you use/visit the Eurobricks Facebook page? Eurobricks on Flickr? etc. Flickr sometimes when i am being redirected. But i never go on Flickr to search for Eurobricks. Also not a big Facebook fan.
Do you post MOCs online? What hosting platform do you prefer to use? I wish i had the time for building stuff :-(
Do you prefer broadly defined threads or multiple specialized threads? I am more into the specialized threads. I think that there is a big group of afols overhere who are more interested in news about what new sets are we going to get, or what minifigures. The licensed and Star Wars threads are good examples of it. The strength of Eurobricks to me is that i can start talking about those new sets, rumours and have a discussion. A place where i can leave my opinion and where i can see more people become enthusiastic about new pieces and stuff.
What is the first page you visit when opening Eurobricks on your browser? The overview of all forums. And then most of the times i make a Licensed tab, a SW tab, Special Lego Themes tab, Minifig Customisation tab and the Community tab.
What do you believe Eurobricks has too much of? Sleeping/inactive members?
What do you believe Eurobricks does not have enough of? How would you like to see this addressed? Pictures. It is hard to put up pictures overhere. And MOCs in the licensed forum (but that forum is more for minifiglovers than buildlovers i think)
What do you value the most about Eurobricks? Just like many forums it feels like we're all insiders overhere having the same hobby.
What do you value the least? The sometimes really long discussions about futilities or speculation. And i hate spoilers.
What value would you find in a Eurobricks YouTube channel? What kind of content would you like to see on one? I am not really into Youtube. But i guess it could be a succesfull channel? What kind of content: reviews (as long as they stay also written in the forums), technical talk about production and stuff. reviews of new parts. new building techniques?
If we place more attention to our Twitter / Facebook, would you value these as a news source? Would you use them more or less than our front page? I don't use the front page any longer because it became harder to get to the forums overview. You can focus more attention on twitter/facebook, but you should certainly use instagram as well. Twitter and Facebook are for grandparents.

**Holodoc** · June 15, 2018

On 5/2/2018 at 1:01 AM, deraven said:

I don't have any site statistics to go on or anything, but I agree that the interaction in the threads seems to be a little more terse and a little less jovial than a year or two ago. I do have to wonder if some of that - without getting political - has to do with everything else going on in the world at large right now; that is, just general level of stress and "stuff" happening is sapping some of the time people might spend on EB and possibly also taking out a little bit of the "fun" with it. [...]

I wouldn't go so far as to say EB is unhealthy or fading away (I don't see it becoming a Lugnet-esque wasteland anytime soon), but if there was a way to amp up the happiness level a little bit it certainly wouldn't hurt.

Yes, I agree to your observation an a lot of people here think so, too.
I have only one explanation for this and please let me quote this sentence:

Life is what is getting in your way when you made different plans.

I'm sure we all have made that experience. For me I can say -having been around the boards for 12 years now - that it is a come and go: Sometimes I'm more active, sometimes work and other issues stays in the way.
The same counts for staff and regular members. So I believe there have been reasons for the staff being a bit quite the last months, nevertheless we have realized (like other staff members already replied) that a) this is a problem and b) we want to fix it.
And we certainly want to bring back more of the fun and happiness!

On 5/2/2018 at 1:49 AM, Littleworlds said:

I am a "relatively" new member still, so I can't really tell how it was a few years ago, but I find it a shame that excellent and inventive MOCs often get no comments at all, or just very few. Of course we can't force people to appreciate them, and honest c&c is better than just generic praisal - but it would be nice to see interest in MOCs increase.

See post above. Sure I wish, great MOCs get more replies, but I believe it's mostly a time problem. I'll comment on this later down, because this has been adressen several times

On 5/2/2018 at 3:07 AM, Captain Nemo said:

I've been a member of Eurobricks since 2011 (which is a full year earlier than I remember it being!), and I have been the Moderator for Licensed for a few years now. I will say that I, and the staff as a whole, have noticed the general shift in conversation "styles" and activity (and all the things that do come with that) increasingly over the past few years. This is something we have and are addressing internally, and we are looking for ways to reinvigorate the community on the whole.

While I do not speak for all of the Forums, I will note my views on the changing of Licensed: Over the last few years I've noted a change in the style of discussion--in that member discussion in general was focused on what's potentially coming and not what we have now. Speculation is fun, when appropriate. Perhaps this is my rose-colored glasses, but I don't remember it being this way previously, at least not to this extent. I personally see this as a negative, as first and foremost I believe this place is meant to be about Lego discussion, rather than the stuff that orbits the product.

On 5/3/2018 at 10:23 AM, Peppermint_M said:

However, it also seems that the younger generation of fans interact online and with the hobby in a vastly different way. I know that the use of forums is not on the agenda a lot of the time (My youngest siblings are ten years (and more) younger and they are much more into snapchat and the like). I have also seen that the activity that is here is more talking about future sets and looking for leaks, not about creating and sharing. Again, a culture change or just what people want to use forums for?

Looking at my own kids I can absolutely second this! It looks like 'the youth' is moving towards faster communication and a forum is definitely a slower medium.
Yet what I want Eurobricks to be is not being a snack but brown bread. A source you can rely on and come back to when you need something. And I believe EB is on a good way to it - while there is still a lot of work to do.

On 5/2/2018 at 3:30 PM, paupadros said:

Yes, EB is somewhat less active now than it used to be. When you look at older posts, the responses used to be elaborate, longer, worthwhile reading through and harsh, if necessary. Now, everything seems more "disposable", threats, and more sadly, MOCs. Nevertheless, EB is still, by far, a place of interest. If you want real humans looking at your build for more than a second, EB is the place still. For instance, the Town Forum is so much more crowded than it was a year ago. Then, the last topic on the first page was maybe from a week before, now, a topic that hasn't had any responses in a day or two can directly fall back to the second page.

Thank you for your positive assessment! It's in contrast to other opinions (see below)

On 5/2/2018 at 10:40 PM, bombcar said:

My 2¢ - the "sticky" threads detailing reviews, etc, are all very stale and unmaintained. It is really hard to find, for example, reviews of Friends sets after 2014. Perhaps those threads could be updated or changed into a wiki-type format that could be more easily edited?

Links like the set review index: https://www.eurobricks.com/sieg/dex/ don't work, for example. And I know some of the older reviews are killed by Photobucket dying, but it would be nice (for me at least, and I'm almost certainly the most important person here! ) to be able to find that content again. For example; there is no list of Reviewer's Academy reviews that I can find. I love reading them, but I have to manually poke around to discover new ones.

I hear you. That's a point I want to have changed as well. And I will adress it in the staff forum. Too bad I myself am not into coding and programming at all, but other people are.

On 5/3/2018 at 9:47 AM, JACKATTACKS said:

Haven't been on Eurobricks in months. When I first joined in late 2016, I was interested in TLBM and from what I remember was checking the thread at least twice a day. One of the appealing things was that pictures of new sets/ minifigure concept art and even leaks (before they were taken down) were posted there. Now I'm 15 so that means I'm still in school and generally have less time for anything Lego related each year as the workload climbs higher. I started to post moc's here using flickr, but in the end I just ran out of time/ patience to create topics.

But the main reason why I stopped checking in here is because of how @VaderFan2187 was treated. I really enjoyed his "Best minifigure" games and even after I had lost interest in the TLBM and Star Wars forums etc, his games were the reason I checked in each day. He had a large following and got along well with the members here, so I'm not sure if his ban had something to do with the lack of activity on EB.

Admitting you are 15 is a risk, you know? :wink: But I do appreciate your adult input here, so I won't comment any further on this.
Leaks are always a problem. As far as I understand that leaks are an interest we all share, I have to say that promoting leaks or even allowing leaked pictures here is a no-go. And I don't write this being staff (now). I write it, because it's causing severe problems for TLC if third parties get to know what TLC is working on before it's released. Copycats are fast and heedless. I have seen copied sets of mainly Chinese origin that are hardly recogniseable as copies!
Of course it's illegal to copy other ip, still some do it. And we don't want to support them!

Thank you for the insight on VaderFan. I have no knowledge what happened, but I am 100% sure there was a severe reason behind this. We have never banned a member for nothing.

On 5/3/2018 at 12:03 PM, Bricked1980 said:

[...] I do think though that apart from the Expert rollercoaster and pics of the summer sets being revealed, this is a fairly quiet time of the year for Lego news. Maybe that's why fewer people are logging on and commenting on topics, there simply isn't as much to talk about. I'm sure it will pick up again as we get in to the summer and rumors start bouncing around of the 2019 sets. And then of course we have the next winter village set and the next modular to look forward to. [...]
One thing I've noticed is that there seems to be much fewer reviews on here than there used to be. Even before becoming a member I regularly used to check this site to read reviews. This year there seems to be much fewer of them than usual. I'm still waiting for somebody to put up a review of Downtown Diner.

Agreed. The busiest time LEGO wise is always the end of the year and the time around July/August.
Still there is a general slower movement like stated in the other posts.

You're right with the reviews. We are discussing it right now.

On 5/3/2018 at 1:03 PM, RogerSmith said:

Comparing with when I started (early 2013 with my first account, I think it was), I too feel that people seem to post, and, more importantly, interact less with each other. There has also been a prolonged move away from some types of topics I really liked when I started here. Overall, I think the following two aspects I've noticed the most:

1) People seem to be less and less interested in actually reading posts and threads: [...]

2) There's less nostalgia: [...]

3) Less reviews: [...]

Totally agreed. Reading these days seems to be totally overrated. But we can't change the people, can we?
It's hard work though if you are interested in a certain topic and want to discuss it when you have to dig through 20+ pages first. Once again: Who has the time to do it? :look:

Less nostalgia may be a niche problem. The vast majority doesn't seem to be interested. For myself there could be more.

Less reviews has been adressed above.

On 5/3/2018 at 7:00 PM, MAB said:

This was a thread about set 21314 Tron Legacy, started at the time of approval and the set number being announced. I happened to have started this one, but it happens quite often, I just remember this one and can find it quickly.

Then another thread on the same set gets started by a mod about four months later at the time of the press release, so everything gets said again in that thread. Even though the other thread was very active at the time (it was at the top of the list in licensed). The information is then spread over multiple threads and the same thing gets discussed again and again.

Having multiple generic threads on one set seems pointless to me and quite annoying if you are looking for something already posted and realise it must be on the other thread on exactly the same subject.

Some other thoughts:

EB has quite a bad reputation on other forums. EB is used as a bit of a joke when it comes to moderation, forum police, etc for over-active moderation and banning people. This does put people off joining.

It used to be that constructive criticism was allowed. These days I think the EB culture has all but wiped this out. If you criticise something, you get railed on by either the OP or by other users, which now means less criticism is given, if any. I think this is why there are posts with generic positive comments, or for some MOCs, no comments at all. I think it can be a shame that someone uploads a MOC and gets nothing back, but that is presumably because people don't think it is good but won't say that and won't offer suggestions for improvements.

LEGO IDEAS. I find it really annoying when someone joins EB, uploads a MOC, has their IDEAS link right at the top, and doesn't come back or post again. I'd like to see IDEAS links banned completely or maybe shifted to signatures only (which of course can be turned off). They are meant to be discreet, but often it is clear that the only point of the "look at my MOC" post is to get IDEAS votes.

The double-posting issue happens. We surely do not favour it and in your case it would have been an option to merge both topics.
Then again reading is simplier if you don't have to browse a bunch of pages to get to the official announcement and official pictures.
I can understand both sides.

Thank you a lot for making us aware about how EB is looked at on other sites! :thumbup:
I was completely unaware of this. Still I believe we are doing it right. Of course will members be pissed when we warn them or even ban them. And I understand they are raising their voices on other sites to complain how unfair we are and so on.
Rules are a must and I am a big fan of them. They make life easier. The rules here are clear and comprehensible. Can you specify where constructive criticism was rejected? That should never happen of course! We all learn from constructive criticism and when it comes to official sets we do know that there is still room for improvement. :wink:

I agree on ideas: Topics started with a LEGO ideas behind it should be tagged this way or even be moved to a -yet to be created- subforum.

On 5/3/2018 at 7:55 PM, Hobbes said:

My kinda topic

A little input from a former regular, like 10+ years ago (damn):

[...]

Crap, now you made me log in and post...

First: Here is the hologram doctor! :tongue:

Too many users... I am proud to be part of the biggest online AFOL community. Sure it makes things uncomfortable - we realize that when we meet in Billund at our events: 50 people IRL are already the limit to handle. So what are we going to do with 150000 members here. Thanks God they are not online at the same time. :laugh:
I could also live with the state 10 years ago and I agree on most of the arguments you bring (homier, we knew each other,...). I believe you remember some members here leaving around that time to found Brickhorizon.com. Look at their (not any more existing) website. Then I definitely prefer being here. Yet we have to work on 'cool staff members' and definitely on more black humor and sarcasm! Bring back satanic black!

There were leaks... Yes, yes - again I understand all your motives on leaks. :hmpf: Comment see above.

All in all your post shows what a lot of people are yearning for: The good old days.
But we are moving forward. So my only advice is: Learn from the past and manage the future!

(Good to see you are back and active, Hobbes! :wub: :wub: )

On 5/3/2018 at 9:42 PM, icm said:

As a longtime reader who only recently joined, I'll answer the specific questions first and then describe my general perspective.

Based on what I remember from following Eurobricks several years ago, I agree that the forums used to be more active and more constructive, particularly with respect to set reviews. Although it would be great if most posts in most threads were thoughtful responses that advance the topic at hand without rehashing old arguments and offer builders measured praise and constructive criticism without being vapid or trollish, that kind of response takes time and thought to craft. Most of the time I check the site on my phone, which isn't good for longform replies, or as a quick distraction while working on homework, which isn't a good time to craft a longform reply either. So if I don't have the time to write a longform reply or don't feel like I have anything new and constructive to say in the moment, I don't reply. Instead I hope that the builder sees the incremented page view as a "like," more or less. I would like to see more constructive comments and criticism on the few MOCs I have posted, but as a part of the problem rather than the solution myself, I can't complain.

I agree with MAB that Eurobricks has a bad reputation on other sites, like the Brickset forum (which can also be rather slow) and Reddit. The general attitudes there are that Eurobricks is the best place to keep up with rumors and speculation, but you can never tell when you'll accidentally run afoul of a mod and get banned. That's another reason I don't post much - sometimes I'd like to say something to try and gently correct some of the toxic behavior that stifles some MOC topics and some news/rumors topics, but I don't want to look like I'm mini-modding and end up banned as a result. Perhaps it would encourage more people to post MOCs if moderators were to take a more active role in promoting MOC topics and in regulating behavior in them - setting the example by being the first to respond, with a thoughtful reply demonstrating personal engagement with the build, and preventing things from getting vapid or toxic. Just in the past few months, we've had quite a few promising new members give the forums and try and then quit because their MOC threads got sidetracked by personal attacks instead of staying focused on comments and criticism of the builds themselves. However, I recognize that that would result in a huge additional workload for the mods, so I don't expect it to happen.

As for the general role of the forum as a place to share creations and discuss current sets instead of just speculate about future releases, I see two main factors at work now compared to in years past. [...]

I want to thank you for your post, because some aspects I couldn't have written better! :thumbup:
Especially when you are dealing with the time problem and the collecting/moccing. Don't we all feel the same way?

I sincerely hope you haven't had a moderation problem so far. And I can only advise to keep on posting when you feel like. Please report problems if any occur.
If you had problems: Can you directly link to them?
Of course it would be nice if moderators were always around to post their reply first - I'm just missing your view for reality here. Yet I agree to be more active in general.

That's for the first page of the topic. :purrr:
Hopefully I have enough time to work on the follwing pages the upcoming days. Stay tuned.

**Peppermint_M** · June 15, 2018

One point to raise regarding the reputation of EB on other sites:

A lot of those making claims about "moderation police" and the like are people banned from Eurobricks after warnings and attempts to help them.

I recall numerous users who rejected fair treatment and polite requests not to cause arguments and to stop being abusive. So they were banned. Shortly after there were threads on other forums tearing down EB and moderators, of course not mentioning what they had done to have been banned.

**Holodoc** · June 16, 2018

On 5/3/2018 at 10:11 PM, Cyclone Titan said:

[...] I don't know how that's best done--if someone creates the most memorable story moment, or creates the best set piece, or changes the state of play--but I know that for those of us who may not have the time to build a MOC of bricks, but a MOC of words, if we reward people for using the resources they can use, it could reinforce and reinvigorate activity on this forum. Finding a way to reinforce is crucial, but I think that giving away small prizes (polybags, impulse sets) could snare some new visitors and invest them in EB.

[...] Now that Twitter is unfortunately popular again, posting about contests and MOCs--making it a mini frontpage--could really help to get clickthroughs to the site itself, and hopefully resulting in discussion and activity.

[...]Also, we've got the Reviewer's Academy, right? If we mandate every new member to go through that, not only could we educate hundreds of new members in how to talk about LEGO seriously and entertainingly (no more "immature people" remarks), but we give this site the potential for hundreds of new content creators(!), and if we're all Reviewer Members, we can all offer constructive and loving criticism, creating an even warmer atmosphere, as well as eliciting even more discussion.

[...] It's not secret to the regulars on here today--we still enjoy talking to each other.

Wow! This is a long - but worthwile - read, thank you very much for your thoughts and the time it took you to pin all that down. We appreciate such thoughtful members.

I agree to what you said about TLC and their way over the past years. LEGO is now known everywhere - not at least because of the movies.

The idea of rewarding people around here more is a nice one, the problems occur when it comes to the conversion of the ideas. Who pays for shipping for example? But we are nevertheless working on such ideas.

Personally I don't like FB, Twitter and the like. It makes life even faster and somehow arbitrary - definitely not the way I am planning my future. If someone wants to work on this: Welcome - do it. I won't be part of that though.
When it comes to mature talking and worthwile conversation I am all in again! That's where I am going to put my focus on being the newest moderator.

I have to disagree about the Reviewer's Academy: Writing reviews is work. Voluntary work is always better than forced one. Those who want to do that: More than welcome! Those who don't: Stick to what you really like. I understand your motive though and once again thank you for your input!

With all the people posting in this thread I don't fear about the future of Eurobricks! This topic is the best evidence of what makes the core and the spirit of EB!

Reading your post and replying took me about 45 minutes. That is the problem! :laugh: You have to invest to get somthing out of it! :wink:

On 5/4/2018 at 12:47 AM, bombcar said:

As a side note - the "forum" style of communication is dying everywhere. I'm not sure what's really killed it, but places I used to post (such as https://arstechnica.com/civis/ where I have 29k+ posts) feel similar. For example, they both have some long-running multi-thousand post threads, and many posts with 2-3 or fewer responses, large numbers of "old-timers" and little "new-blood".
[...]
Maybe the domain name itself scares some non-Europhiles away? Perhaps unlikely, but it might be something.

Yet, in-depth-conversation is possible in a forum format. We won't change that anytime soon. And we are definitely not going to change our name. :wink:

On 5/4/2018 at 10:17 AM, MAB said:

I think that is a nice idea, but if it is to attract new people, then the rules are going to have to be understandable to anyone new to the game. I've looked a couple of times at some of the role playing areas and just backed out. If you have to invest hours or days of reading to try to understand what is going on, then it won't attract new members.

A similar thing here. I'm sure any new members would be better members having followed that. But if you have to follow an education program before you are allowed to join, then I doubt many people would join.

See above: If you don't invest your time, you won't get a lot out of it.

On 5/4/2018 at 11:56 AM, Hobbes said:

I agree with the sentiments that forums are not a "modern" place for discourse. Unfortunately. My "demographic" finds it uninteresting because of all the youngins who still have to learn a lot and grow up in a world of yet another declining LEGO product. Due to the lack of knowing a good product they think it is good. Poor souls. So we old people leave the forums because we tell ourselves that we don't really need that exchange (family, work and so on). But secretly we miss it. Classic midlife crisis.

The only solution is to ban everybody under the age of 35 and bring the old people back. The others can use myspace or tweet on flickr or whatever they do nowadays...

I am completely on your side. Even with the last sentence. But is it helpful to draw lines on the age? Look at the contribution of JACKATTACKS. I would miss such input.

On 5/5/2018 at 3:26 PM, Agent Kallus said:

Now I have a crazy idea that I think would help. I call it the Eurobrick awards or Eurobrickys for short. It would be an annual MOC awards and each forum would have a topic where people could nominate mocs from that forum eg. pirates ,star wars or historical, a short list could then be created from the nominations by judges/judge and then put to the polls, and the 1st 2nd and 3rd from entry category would receive a relevant tag. If permitted I could do most of the heavy lifting myself though we might want some one more skilled to make the tags (but I'd be happy to try.) and as well as the main subforums we could also have a few extras like ldd builds only, mircoscale or brickheadz etc. Just a crazy idea, I don't mind if you don't like it or want to put someone else in charge of it.

That's a wonderful idea, indeed! On my list. :thumbup:

**Holodoc** · June 17, 2018

On 5/6/2018 at 2:47 AM, BrickJagger said:

This topic is a lot to read through (in a good way!) but I haven't had time to type up my thoughts. Here are a few things that I've identified:

1. One of my favorite things to do on Eurobricks is to look through old threads. ...]
2. The actual content. [...]
3. The atmosphere.[...]
4. LEAKS. [...]
5. MOC disrespect. [...]

@LegoModularFanI obviously have a lot to say about the current state of the site, but I don't have any answers.[...]

EDIT 2: I think that re-adding each member's join date under their avatars would be a good fix. It was easier to identify longtime members and it didn't make the profile information that cluttered anyway.

Thank you for your input! A lot of that has been adressed already.
It's once again about rules and the way time and people have changed.

And yes - a lot of questions with no answers. At least we all would like to do it the right way. But what is the right way? So many wishes which sometimes are contrary to other ones. Hard to find one solution for 5+ problems.

I second the wish for joining dates and adressed it to the techies.

On 5/6/2018 at 3:12 PM, JLSD said:

[...] I too fear the “political correct” when replying to posts – watch my grammar, choice of words, audience, that I often tell myself “f” it, and do not reply.

[...] Reviews – I do not believe the site can compete with what is out there already. Really, how can anyone compete with JANGBRICKS or Just2good or other sites. They are experts at what they do and do it extremely well.

One note about being political correct: Never stop arguing. Never stop writing. If you stop to do what you think you should, the idiots win.
And don't get upset about people moaning about a typo of yours. Stay calm and don't feed the trolls. :wink: Most of us are no native speakers to English. So no worries about grammar and the right use of words, please.

I agree with your view on competing with Jangbricks, etc.

On 5/7/2018 at 12:46 AM, Littleworlds said:

[...] Getting elitist is certainly not the right answer. Rather a recipe to kill off a forum effectively and quick. If only the old regulars "get the joke", new blood won't feel welcome. If a forum is inclusive and welcoming, people might stick around and even if they came because of a certain (niche-)interest, they might eventually expand their horizon and find out what else there is. Same applies for "veteran users": look outside your box. Diversity is good!

This said, in reality there is often very little appreciation/interest towards new members. Dropping a friendly line or two in a welcoming thread isn't a big thing and costs maybe just a minute or two, but might make newbies feel a bit more at home.[...]

I really love everything you have written! :wub:
Excellent summary, especially when it comes to getting elitist!

Note to myself: Browse the "Hello, I am ..." topic more often. Like I used to. :look:

On 5/7/2018 at 3:27 AM, makoy said:

Internal motivations (intrinsic values)
External motivations (extrinsic rewards)

I don't know if it's just me but I feel like I interacted most with folks who joined around the same time as myself - mostly member IDs above 100k, like @Littleworlds. The only time I really had real interaction with the veterans is when I started posting my own reviews here. So imagine if you don't post reviews and you don't really know anyone. It is very challenging to break through and get heard.

Are internal motivations superior to external motivations? As long as one of them keeps the member to stay on the site, either of them should be apllied.

Thank you for your view about elitism. I was never aware of that. Good to know you are now even communicating with 3-digit members. :grin:

On 5/7/2018 at 4:32 AM, Phoxtane said:

Has anyone looked - like, seriously looked - at the page https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/ ? There's 25 subforums, not including the Reviewer's Academy, with some five sub-sub-forums dedicated entirely to that theme's flavor of RPG. There's so many sub-forums that I suspect the active users are spread quite thin across them [...]

Why keep index threads pinned when they haven't been touched for 5+ years in some cases, becoming hideously outdated? Why even have index threads? [...]

Can we get contests for the smaller forums, like Trains? (not trying to point fingers or funnel contests towards my interests, but the Technic forum seems to have had a lot of contests recently compared to all the other ones).

Why are we hiding so much useful photography information in the Reviewer's Academy? Why not expose that to the general public, remove the whole 'secret club' aspect, and make a reviews-only forum, thus cleaning all other forums of reviews and keeping them focused on MOCs and such? This would allow both discussion and critique of the set in question and the review itself, respectively. [...]

I think that's everything I can think of at the moment. I am a spiteful, terrible little man, so I'm sure I can come up with more complaints and negativity if desired.

I understand that looking at the forums list might be overwhelming at first glance, but I don't see teh improvement in merging some of the subforums. Hopefully the amount of posts will stay the same. You will have a cleaner list of forums then, but the 'mess' begins in the subforums where all the topics come together. :look:

I share your view on pinning threads.

Some nice ideas about the contests. Just let me say one thing about Technic-contest. Look at the moderator there. See why they have the contests? He's one of the most active ones around. :wink:
That's way the music is playing there. But that is just the explanation of it. Of course there should be a wider variety!

I second your wish to share the useful photography information of the RA to a wieder audience!

Please stay true to yourself. Even if you stay terrible and spiteful. :tongue: What I don't belive you are! :blush: Constructive criticism always helps!

On 5/7/2018 at 3:02 PM, Hobbes said:

EB doesn't have a corporation or paid staff behind it. It uses a relatively "cheap" (i.e. payable with the current "income") forum software that more or less dictates the format of the content. The layout is somewhat customizable, but that's about it. You can turn off/on certain features but not more. It's a web forum, it is what it is.

Good you pointed that out!
After all it's all honorary members in staff which are working behind the scenes to keep this site running. We are all investing our spare time here alongside our jobs.
Please take that into account when complaining! But I strongly believe all of you do! :wub:

**Holodoc** · June 17, 2018

On 5/8/2018 at 8:37 PM, fred67 said:

This is absolutely true, but also one of those things I hate complaining about. I have woefully little free time, or I would love to help out on something like that - it's not fair for me, then, to complain someone else isn't doing it.

I'd add the straightshooters list in the buy/sell forum has not been updated in some time, and that forum is pretty much dead, anyway - very little participating, which is why I now trade on reddit. They have an automatic system that lets you know how many successful trades someone has. [...]

Which brings me to another point - I think by now I've given this newer software a validly long time to grow on me. As a software developer, I'm well aware one of the biggest complaints about new user interfaces is that they aren't the old user interface. People could get things done faster with the old one because they knew how to use it. But I also know that we make changes for a reason, and hopefully people will ultimately not just adapt to the new interfaces, but see that they can do things better, more quickly, or with more options. But that's not the case, in my opinion, with this current forum software, and I wonder if you graphed participation in EB along a timeline, and noted when the forum changed to the new software, if there's any data showing people's participation slowed (or stopped completely). [...]

A sore spot that I don't complain about, but since you asked: I've been here nearly 10 years, have posted a number of MOCs and techniques (see my signature for a few), and never got a tag for it. [...]

Thank you very much for a) the time you took to make up your mind an b) writing all this down here!

Hobbes already replied to your forum-software issue and the only thing I can add is my own history when I first had to deal with the new software: It kept me some months away from posting here. You really had to learn everything from scratch again. I really hated that and can imagine that this must have been the case for a lot of other members. But that's now 2 years ago or something? I hope now the most users know how to use this forum. My note from your comment: We should have a topic which explains all the new stuff when we have another software update.

The fact about titles are a shame for moderation. I apologize. Now let me see how I can fix that... :innocent2:

Finally your reasons why you are not browsing this site like you used to are well known to all members. See my comments about time some posts before.

On 5/9/2018 at 2:12 PM, MAB said:

Something else that is off-putting is that the descriptions feel very out of date.

For example LEGO Action and Adventure Themes gets the tagline "Adventurers, Agents, Alpha Team, Aquazone, Atlantis, Dino 2010 / Dino Attack, Elves, Ninjago, Pharaoh's Quest, Power Miners, Rock Raiders, Time Cruisers". There is no mention of some recent or current themes such as Chima or Nexo Knights. They appear to be very out of date, especially for anyone new visiting. If a new user sees Aquazone, from 20 or 10 years ago, they may assume EB has not been updated for many years, like some other LEGO sites that have just become dormant. [...]

If there are to be more competitions, I'd like to see a single thread or separate area / folder for the entries for each one [a bit like the Xmas raffle thread]. [...]

I hear and agree with you about the out-of-date subtext. Maybe there is a way to highlight the current themes more without deleting the older stuff.

For the competitions Peppy already replied and I second it's better to keep it the way we have it right now.

On 5/13/2018 at 7:24 PM, cheetor1981 said:

I tend to agree with a lot of what others have already commented on within this thread. I think the lack of activity is a multifaceted problem. I think it is due to the growth in popularity of Lego (a natural evolution in how the community communicates), a natural evolution of the Internet & the popular tools available/preferred for communication, & due to changes in society as a whole. I also think it has to do with our own growth as unique individuals & other responsibilities we have in our lives.

Overall, this board is one of my favorites as well as 3-4 others I frequent. [...]
I don't think there is a simple solution other than continuing forward in a positive, welcoming, & inclusive fashion.

Okay, let's see if I understood:

I see this is your very first post here? You started with exactly the right topic!! :grin:
Thank you for stopping by and coming out of the cover and sharing your input. :wub: This might be the start of a wonderful career here.

Welcome to Eurobricks. When I see someone like you I always invite them to this topic to tell a bit more about yourself - if you may of course. :wink:

On 5/13/2018 at 11:45 PM, dcc123 said:

Wow, so I probably shouldn't comment as I'm a bit of a lurker (sorry people); but as a member for 8 years I really miss the activity.

The front page used to cycle through stuff really fast, and I'd log on each day for the highlights. The front page does not change much at all nowadays and I really miss it.

The moderation is also a lot stricter. I used to love the to and fro that "offthewall" used to incite (whatever happened to that fella?).

Just my thoughts, hopefully not offended anyone.

Just like I wrote above: A big thanks for sharing your thoughts!
The frontpage issue is noted, but I think the changes are already noteable. :classic:

On 5/15/2018 at 5:45 AM, BrickJagger said:

Just thought of another small thing. I feel like the April Fool’s jokes that the staff used to do were a fun way to bring the forum together.

Definitely on our list. Too bad it's June already.

On 5/10/2018 at 9:38 PM, pombe said:

I wanted to talk about the topic of games, specifically, and how incredibly fun they are. My experience is limited to Andromeda's Gates (AG), Nar Eurbrikka (SoNE), and Brethren of the Brick Seas (BoBS), which is just a small slice of all the fun games offered on Eurobricks by the staff. [...] @Bob De Quatre

So what are you waiting for?

JOIN A GAME!!!

A fantastic read! Thank you so much for highlighting the pro's of taking part in such games. I hope a lot of members will read this!
If I was not completely uninterested, sorry! For me it's waaay to time consuming. :blush:

On 5/11/2018 at 12:15 AM, rodiziorobs said:

I am glad this thread exists. I noticed that EB seemed less active lately, but I wasn't sure if it was just me, since due to Real Life I haven't gotten around to building anything in about two months, and it's been even longer (probably close to a year) since I finished a project. I still enjoy Lego as a hobby to the extent I can, but since I can't actively contribute builds for now, I rarely check in on them either.

I appreciate all the comments so far; this is the thing I love about EB the most--I see familiar users and we talk about different things.

This pretty much sums it up! :thumbup:

On 5/13/2018 at 11:51 AM, RogerSmith said:

One other thing that popped into my mind when thinking about this is the issue of digital MOCs. I'm usually disproportionally less interested in a digital MOC than a 'real' one. I'm not really sure why that's the case, but that's the way it is. Of course, presentation is a key factor here (LDD screenshots with one of their crappy backgrounds will cause me to hit the 'back' button faster than you can say 'back'), but even when the MOC is presented with high quality renders, I find myself disappointed in the fact that it's not a real one. And thus only really exceptional digital MOCs will trigger a reply from me. Does anyone else feel that way?

Woooohooo, you are argumenting against digital building? :oh: Where's my rapier? :devil:

As far as I can understand you prefer building physically (me too, btw.) there are limits. Somebeody has already adresses it in this thread: The limit of parts you actually have. The limit of colors you have that one part in.
Some people don't have their bricks in reach all the time. And it can be as tricky to get the parts on the place where they should be, expecially when it comes to digital building!

**Holodoc** · June 17, 2018

On 5/15/2018 at 12:28 PM, MAB said:

I think if you are going to do them, they have to be good. Just about every site does an April Fools joke and they become obvious and lame. This year, they did announce the Galidor competition on April Fools Day.

I thought it might have been better not to have written that it wasn't an April Fools joke on it. People would have assumed it was an April Fools joke, just to find out it wasn't. So by not being an April Fools joke, it would turn out to be an April Fools joke.

:wacko:

Somehow confusing, but finally I got it! :tongue:

On 5/15/2018 at 1:07 PM, Hobbes said:

Pfff, the best one was in 2007:

That caused a frenzy - good fun, especially since only 2 people were in on it...

:thumbup: I still remember it! :laugh_hard:

On 5/16/2018 at 7:32 AM, Hobbes said:

I honestly have a problem with everybody being so hung up on MOC presenting and commenting.

You decided to present it here, then you have to accept that very few people actually say something.

And don't get me started on digital "MOCs"...

If someone feels to be forced to do somthing or not, it's the wrong way we are going.
As much as I agree on the fact that the MOC posters have to face that they won't get many replies I aslo agree on:

On 5/16/2018 at 7:07 PM, fred67 said:

I wouldn't post MOCs if I wasn't expecting to get some feedback.

Abou digital MOCs - see above. :tongue:

On 5/16/2018 at 11:51 AM, MstrOfPppts said:

This is how I see things but the real question is what is the goal of eurobricks? For me less is more in a lot of occasions and having more and more members at the expense of having numerous pointless threads or posts is not the way to go. Also forum is not the best platform to deliver news (I always skip the frontpage, since I'm interested in other content). I read LEGO related news elsewhere and then find the thread about it here and read some opinions (at least I used to, when the conversation was mature and staying on point) ... Bud sadly such are the times now, it's only who's the first / biggest / ... that matters :(

I will have an eye on the underaged members - if I find any. As I stated some posts above, I find rules absolutely necessary and not sticking to rules makes them superfluous.
Maybe I will be the bad cop from now on, but this issue is on my agenda!

I agree with you with the bolded text: I'd rather have a small forum like this thread here than having 1.000.000 members not really contributing with anything.

So this is the end of my comments. It looks like the conversation already has faded out to a certain degree. I really feel sorry for not being aware of this topic, so some of my answers may be redundand or repeating.
But I have made a list of what I want to adress to other staff members and some changes have already started (frontpage).
It's clear that we are not going to agree with all aspects that have been brought up here, but we (staff) try our best to keep that parts alive that we cherish the most.
You all helped us here with replying to this topic.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH - and of course GO ON!

MAB · June 18, 2018

On 6/16/2018 at 11:30 AM, Holodoc said:

See above: If you don't invest your time, you won't get a lot out of it.

I'm not going to disagree with that. The problem is you have to invest a lot of time before you can start to participate and subsequently decide if you want to play along in the longer term. That is a big barrier to starting. I don't have any answers as to how to improve it though, aside from maybe a synopsis of each game at the start that contains some of the best MOCs made in it and a rough idea as to the storyline. A bit like the synopsis on the back of a novel.

Littleworlds · June 18, 2018

Just a general remark here: I am very happy to see that the moderation-side of the board is listening to the input given here. Even if some voices are contradicting each other, which is kinda the nature of a discourse. :wink: Each brings their own point of view in here and its healthy to have an exchange on what each of us perceives.

Digger of Bricks · July 14, 2018

On 5/1/2018 at 5:24 PM, LegoModularFan said:

Many thanks to all, the staff and members, for your attention, consideration and support. (@Jipay, @Bonaparte, @Hinckley, @Siegfried, @Shadows, @Rick, @Jim, @Bob De Quatre, @WhiteFang, @Fugazi, @Captain Nemo, @Clone OPatra, @CorneliusMurdock, @Brickdoctor, @Stash2Sixx, @Ecclesiastes, @ZCerberus, @Peppermint_M, @Mister Phes, @Phred, @Pandora, @JopieK, @Milan, @VBBN, @Rufus, @LuxorV, @Superkalle, @Dragonator and @CopMike) My apologies for shout-outs to each of you but I just want to draw your attention.

You know, I didn't mention this at the time since I thought it was rather trival/unrelated to this topic, but upon seeing this list of shoutouts, I was thinking that we could perhaps use a "mentioning function" that allows for a single "mention" that addresses all of Eurobricks' staff in one "@" submission, so to speak. :shrug_oh_well:

Jay66 · July 22, 2018

On 5/2/2018 at 2:30 PM, paupadros said:

Would you like to see more contests?
Yes

What is your opinion of Tags (those small images on the left <---)?
They are cute and fun

Do you use, if ever, Eurobricks reference materials (ie. lists of Reviews, lists of MOCS, lists of Forums)?
Reviews sometimes - I tend to look on Youtube or Lego site for them

Have you participated in games on Eurobricks (ie. Role-Playing, Mafia, etc.)?
No

Do you use/visit the Eurobricks Facebook page? Eurobricks on Flickr? etc.
Very rarely

Do you post MOCs online? What hosting platform do you prefer to use?
No - mine are not up to a reasonable standard

Do you prefer broadly defined threads or multiple specialized threads?
I find the system of threads very confusing and find the site in general really hard to navigate around. For example, I am primarily (although not exclusively) interested in Winter Village sets, MOCs and competitions but have to trawl through a vast amount of unsorted City lego to find them. I don't know if there will be a competition this year even.

What is the first page you visit when opening Eurobricks on your browser?
I don't - I click on a link from an active conversation (usually Winter Village rumours).

Additional: people are very quick on this site to 'smack you down' and it is fairly hostile to newcomers, I feel. I have been a reader on the site for many years before joining. But the primary problem is navigating around.

Robert8 · August 26, 2018

I have a suggestion

I would nice to see EB creating more content like this interview with the CMF designers:

New Elementary - LEGO® MINIFIGURES INTERVIEW: TARA WIKE & AUSTIN CARLSON

Like WhiteFang did in his CMF Series 13 review.

Maybe interviews with sets designers, LEGO Ideas staff, graphic designers, minifigures designers, people involved with the LEGO movies, etc

Of course, I don't know if this is posible. It's just a "wild" suggestion

**Jim** · August 26, 2018

Hi Robert. During the Fan Media Days I get to interview some designers, so yes, that is possible. But it takes a lot of time to transcribe :(

Digger of Bricks · August 26, 2018

39 minutes ago, Jim said:

Hi Robert. During the Fan Media Days I get to interview some designers, so yes, that is possible. But it takes a lot of time to transcribe :(

By the way, who did you get the chance to interview at this year's event? :classic:

Robin_IV · August 26, 2018

I have read most of the posts in here for now. I saw that most of the post where form veterans or staff. Maybe I can give some Input from a new member.

I came to Eurobricks because I wanted to talk with people about Lego, Lego Sets and Brick related stuff because in my family environment I just gather criticism. I wanted to get inspiration, share my MOCs and speculate about future sets and get deep into discussion about Lego sets. I really like the community here. Most of the people are very kindly, patient and helpful to new members. I am not just new to EB but also to a "Forum" related site. So the navigation or the established standards of posting in a forum is new for me. In my opinion the rules of Eurobricks are very kind. I found it very nice that you can edit posts. :) I do also think the staff is very nice and patient and that they are doing their job well always keeping in mind we are all humans. (Maybe one or two Minifigs... They are under us...)

But as a new member I had and still have to struggle with big problems I want to describe now. I have posted my first Topic in the Forum being a WIP in the beginning and then after a month changed to be a moc. At the beginning three or four guys wrote that they found my work so far nice and they will look foward. This was very motivating me even though I asked for feedback but got none. At this time not one member of the so called Veterans who are registerd since 2007/6/5? replied to my topic. Said hello or gave me feedback. I just got posts form guys which were also new. (Two exceptions). It was for me like: Okay. My work is boring for them, they don't want to see new members or they want to be under similars. Then I updated my topic. Wrote around 500 words and tried to explain my thoughts because I think it is important not to just post pictures. I also requested feedback. At this time my post had 1000 views but only ONE guy out of all was so kind and helped me. He gave me information, gave me constructive critisism and encouraged me to stay on. He helped me so much and I built a complete different MOC because of the feedback he gave me. And no one was interested. I felt very sad but went on. Then I updated my post the second time. Not one single guy posted something. Funnily enough on Imgur where I upload my images I got feedback from random people in my albums. But on EB nothing. I felt very sad again. I am not a good lego builder since I came out of my Dark Age just shortly before. I needed the feedback but nobody gave it to me. All the experienced members who know so much about Moccing and Lego said nothing and did not helped me. At this point I had around 1500 views. A good month later I was close at the end with my moc and posted another update. Now I got people asking things I wrote in the text but they didn't read it. Anyway two guys gave me constructive criticism and now I can modify my moc and make it better.

I would have been honored if even one staff member or veteran said hello but I was like not existing for them. (This is all feeling from my point of view as a new member.) For a new member the Forum is FULL of information you can't handle with. Example: I already posted 50 posts before I realized that there is a sub-sub-sub forum where new members can introduce themself. Not one single guy gave me the information like this before: "Why do you not introduce yourself first so we can get to know about you?" Also I started often a topic but then a guy with 8k posts ranted that this was already posted 10 years ago. But I didn't know that because back there I was even not aware of coming back to Lego once again... I know that there is a search function and I use them. But this limitation even for registered members is really annoying. I do not have all this overview over what was already posted and what not. I wish that new members can find topics so that they know how to do and what to do with links to several important topics and general information how the forum works. (Example: New Member? Introduce yourself; Topic which explains what are Featured Topics (I never heared this before); Topic which you find out what Forum Index is and how to use them; Links to e.g. The collection of LDD Lxf files library.) If you never heard such things it is not coming to your mind to even search some topics.

A quick example happend where someone asked where he could find a bricklist of a part of a lego set. Nobody answered him so I wrote that he could rebuild the model in LDD and export the Bricklist. He could also feel free to share it because I would be interested as well. Not until then five minutes later another answered to me (not to him) that there is already existing a topic started in 2012 which has all lego sets in lxf format? Why do you not have posted this earlier? The new members are not able to get information what is already existing even if they ask. Something like a library of all librarys would be helpful. I do not have much free time. So when there started a new "Lego theme <year> Discussion" it could have 100 pages before I visit it the first time. I am not able to read all of this stuff. So before I take the risk of posting information to be helpful which then another is ranting about that it was already posted I do nothing. I hope if have described my situation a little bit. Maybe you learn to understand and maybe forgive us new members. :)

Would you like to see more contests?
I have no time to do them.
What is your opinion of Tags (those small images on the left <---)?
If there is no option to filter after tags it's quite useless.
Do you use, if ever, Eurobricks reference materials (ie. lists of Reviews, lists of MOCS, lists of Forums)?
YES when I would get told where I can find links to such topics!
Do you use/visit the Eurobricks Facebook page? Eurobricks on Flickr?
No.
Do you post MOCs online? What hosting platform do you prefer to use?
I prefer Imgur. I think posting MOCs is a very important part of a LEGO community and new members should always be encouraged and get feedback so they can maybe one day be as good as the fellow knights of the castle.
Do you prefer broadly defined threads or multiple specialized threads?
It depends on the topic. Important at the end is that you find all of them somehow.
What is the first page you visit when opening Eurobricks on your browser?
Portal>Looking for pinned Mocs> then Pirate Forum
What do you believe Eurobricks has too much of? Sleeping/inactive members?
I do not mind of inactive members since they do not post. :)
What do you believe Eurobricks does not have enough of? How would you like to see this addressed?
more storytelling about sets and mocs.
What do you value the most about Eurobricks?
I value the competend feedback. But it is to few.
What do you value the least?
That new members members got chopped off the head from non staff members when they do one mistake.
What value would you find in a Eurobricks YouTube channel?
Eurobricks is a text communitiy. This is why I joined it. Let Jangbricks do the videos.
If we place more attention to our Twitter / Facebook, would you value these as a news source?
No. I do not use Twitter or Facebook.

Edited August 26, 2018 by Robin_IV

Cylo · August 28, 2018

On 8/27/2018 at 8:34 AM, Robin_IV said:

I have read most of the posts in here for now. I saw that most of the post where form veterans or staff. Maybe I can give some Input from a new member.

I came to Eurobricks because I wanted to talk with people about Lego, Lego Sets and Brick related stuff because in my family environment I just gather criticism. I wanted to get inspiration, share my MOCs and speculate about future sets and get deep into discussion about Lego sets. I really like the community here. Most of the people are very kindly, patient and helpful to new members. I am not just new to EB but also to a "Forum" related site. So the navigation or the established standards of posting in a forum is new for me. In my opinion the rules of Eurobricks are very kind. I found it very nice that you can edit posts. :) I do also think the staff is very nice and patient and that they are doing their job well always keeping in mind we are all humans. (Maybe one or two Minifigs... They are under us...)

But as a new member I had and still have to struggle with big problems I want to describe now. I have posted my first Topic in the Forum being a WIP in the beginning and then after a month changed to be a moc. At the beginning three or four guys wrote that they found my work so far nice and they will look foward. This was very motivating me even though I asked for feedback but got none. At this time not one member of the so called Veterans who are registerd since 2007/6/5? replied to my topic. Said hello or gave me feedback. I just got posts form guys which were also new. (Two exceptions). It was for me like: Okay. My work is boring for them, they don't want to see new members or they want to be under similars. Then I updated my topic. Wrote around 500 words and tried to explain my thoughts because I think it is important not to just post pictures. I also requested feedback. At this time my post had 1000 views but only ONE guy out of all was so kind and helped me. He gave me information, gave me constructive critisism and encouraged me to stay on. He helped me so much and I built a complete different MOC because of the feedback he gave me. And no one was interested. I felt very sad but went on. Then I updated my post the second time. Not one single guy posted something. Funnily enough on Imgur where I upload my images I got feedback from random people in my albums. But on EB nothing. I felt very sad again. I am not a good lego builder since I came out of my Dark Age just shortly before. I needed the feedback but nobody gave it to me. All the experienced members who know so much about Moccing and Lego said nothing and did not helped me. At this point I had around 1500 views. A good month later I was close at the end with my moc and posted another update. Now I got people asking things I wrote in the text but they didn't read it. Anyway two guys gave me constructive criticism and now I can modify my moc and make it better.

I would have been honored if even one staff member or veteran said hello but I was like not existing for them. (This is all feeling from my point of view as a new member.) For a new member the Forum is FULL of information you can't handle with. Example: I already posted 50 posts before I realized that there is a sub-sub-sub forum where new members can introduce themself. Not one single guy gave me the information like this before: "Why do you not introduce yourself first so we can get to know about you?" Also I started often a topic but then a guy with 8k posts ranted that this was already posted 10 years ago. But I didn't know that because back there I was even not aware of coming back to Lego once again... I know that there is a search function and I use them. But this limitation even for registered members is really annoying. I do not have all this overview over what was already posted and what not. I wish that new members can find topics so that they know how to do and what to do with links to several important topics and general information how the forum works. (Example: New Member? Introduce yourself; Topic which explains what are Featured Topics (I never heared this before); Topic which you find out what Forum Index is and how to use them; Links to e.g. The collection of LDD Lxf files library.) If you never heard such things it is not coming to your mind to even search some topics.

A quick example happend where someone asked where he could find a bricklist of a part of a lego set. Nobody answered him so I wrote that he could rebuild the model in LDD and export the Bricklist. He could also feel free to share it because I would be interested as well. Not until then five minutes later another answered to me (not to him) that there is already existing a topic started in 2012 which has all lego sets in lxf format? Why do you not have posted this earlier? The new members are not able to get information what is already existing even if they ask. Something like a library of all librarys would be helpful. I do not have much free time. So when there started a new "Lego theme <year> Discussion" it could have 100 pages before I visit it the first time. I am not able to read all of this stuff. So before I take the risk of posting information to be helpful which then another is ranting about that it was already posted I do nothing. I hope if have described my situation a little bit. Maybe you learn to understand and maybe forgive us new members. :)

Would you like to see more contests?
I have no time to do them.

What is your opinion of Tags (those small images on the left <---)?
If there is no option to filter after tags it's quite useless.

Do you use, if ever, Eurobricks reference materials (ie. lists of Reviews, lists of MOCS, lists of Forums)?
YES when I would get told where I can find links to such topics!

Do you use/visit the Eurobricks Facebook page? Eurobricks on Flickr?
No.

Do you post MOCs online? What hosting platform do you prefer to use?
I prefer Imgur. I think posting MOCs is a very important part of a LEGO community and new members should always be encouraged and get feedback so they can maybe one day be as good as the fellow knights of the castle.

Do you prefer broadly defined threads or multiple specialized threads?
It depends on the topic. Important at the end is that you find all of them somehow.

What is the first page you visit when opening Eurobricks on your browser?
Portal>Looking for pinned Mocs> then Pirate Forum

What do you believe Eurobricks has too much of? Sleeping/inactive members?
I do not mind of inactive members since they do not post. :)

What do you believe Eurobricks does not have enough of? How would you like to see this addressed?
more storytelling about sets and mocs.

What do you value the most about Eurobricks?
I value the competend feedback. But it is to few.

What do you value the least?
That new members members got chopped off the head from non staff members when they do one mistake.

What value would you find in a Eurobricks YouTube channel?
Eurobricks is a text communitiy. This is why I joined it. Let Jangbricks do the videos.

If we place more attention to our Twitter / Facebook, would you value these as a news source?
No. I do not use Twitter or Facebook.

Wow, that's deep. After reading the post, I feel completely obliged to agree with you. I've posted things where no one has replied to, and it kinda makes you feel sad and left out. I always try to comment on other's works, one to give them feedback, but also to get my post count up (joking), feedback is really important for builders so they know how they progress. I feel like people should pay more attention to newer members, as they may not be completely new to the LEGO community and could be an experienced MOCer. Btw I liked how you used me in an example, thanks for replying to that! It could be helpful if they started a forum where it has like all the important information, such as lxf files, where to introduce yourself, and so on. Thanks for pointing this out for everyone, Robin.

xboxtravis7992 · October 30, 2018

Yeesh, I am several months late to this topic... but I might figure I should chime in since I might offer some perspective. I have been actively avoiding this site since early this year. I have owned a new computer for several months and this is the first time I have actually signed into my account. I have stopped by not signed in a few times to look at a MOC or two, but not really to read the whole forums like I used to. Today I only stopped by to check on the rumors that Disney Series 2 is happening next year.

Why have I actively stopped coming? While Lego has been the primary reason to come to this site, a lot of my other interactions had happened in the Culture and Multi Media forums during last year. It was fun to talk movies with random strangers.

Then The Last Jedi came out. I left the theater enjoying it, and came to Eurobricks ready to hear the positive opinions of other Star Wars fans and see what they thought of the movie. Instead Eurobricks became the first place I witnessed backlash to TLJ. Within months it had seeped out of the Culture and Multi-Media forums and into the Star Wars and Licensed forum. I felt like I was one of maybe three members who liked the film who used this entire site, and every time I came on it seemed I was getting angry reading the nonsensical fan debates that just went on and on and on and on and on... Not to mention the "know it all-itis" so many members began to profess about Lego. It really was just starting to annoy me. The constant bickering that members made with some of the mods especially with some high profile member bans that happened at the time, you mods put up with a lot of crap and should be praised for it; not downgraded and insulted by the member base you serve.

So I quit. I decided the tone of Eurobricks had become to frustrating for my liking, particularly in the Culture and Multi-Media forum. I decided Brickset would remain my primary Lego site since at least I could ignore the comments on the articles there a bit easier (although to be honest the 'Brickheadz suck' comments there started to grate my nerves to). At least with Brickset I discovered I could express my opinions on Lego sets on my own terms via writing reviews, not having to worry about starting an argument just by saying something as simple as "I liked the Last Jedi." Today, I really just dropped by a few forums after I came to check the Disney rumors just to sort of see what was going on, and that is how I came across this thread. I did not go to the Culture forum. I do NOT want to know what this site thought of Solo, and I do NOT want to know what they thought of Infinity War, and I do NOT want to know what they are thinking of Star Wars: Resistance. My opinions I want to be my own, not the voices of arguments on the internet.

Now I should clarify. This is not to say Eurobricks created this problem single handed. I think this pervasive sense of entitlement and obnoxiousness in fandom has invaded our entire culture. I see it on Brickset and FBTB to... I see it on the model railroad sites I visit. I see it in Disney theme park fan forums. I see it on YouTube comments and Twitter feeds. I see it in our politicians and historical discourse. But... Eurobricks was one of the first places I saw it and recognized it. I had to cut this place out for my sanity. I am not saying though this place is overall toxic though. I have lots of good memories here, and do recall the funner forum conversations I had with members. In a way, I'm sorry it panned out like this. But the flare up of anger and arguments across all fandom sites especially after TLJ came out killed the fun in this site for me. Eurobricks was the site I was the most invested in, and sort of the one that emotionally hurt the most to see the arguments on.

If there is a lesson to take from this; maybe we should all just be a little less angry and argumentative on the internet. It affects our online community in ways many of us sometimes are oblivious to. Maybe someday cooler heads will prevail in fandom in general. I'd hope to return here someday; with even a nostalgic view of my 'golden days' here. But for now, I still feel the wounds are just to fresh. Here's hoping though to a brighter future than the past. I am sorry if this isn't the opinion you guys wanted to hear, but since this thread is about improving the site and in theory winning back old members and gaining new members; I feel it is worth sharing my personal reasons as to why I quit.

**Jim** · October 30, 2018

Agreed. We live in an age of online whining and complaining. I notice this a lot. I really like TLJ and Solo btw :laugh:

BaneShake · October 31, 2018

I'm glad it's not just me that gets on discussions to enjoy the movies that I like. I like DC movies, and I liked TLJ, and I almost always wind up avoiding discussion boards about either because it just gets unpleasant.

**Holodoc** · October 31, 2018

On 10/30/2018 at 6:03 AM, xboxtravis7992 said:

I am sorry if this isn't the opinion you guys wanted to hear, but since this thread is about improving the site and in theory winning back old members and gaining new members; I feel it is worth sharing my personal reasons as to why I quit.

While we are not enthusiastic about members leaving our site we still appreciate your thoughts and input here! So thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. :thumbup:

On 8/27/2018 at 12:34 AM, Robin_IV said:

...Not one single guy gave me the information like this before: "Why do you not introduce yourself first so we can get to know about you?" ...

Something like a library of all librarys would be helpful. I do not have much free time. So when there started a new "Lego theme <year> Discussion" it could have 100 pages before I visit it the first time. I am not able to read all of this stuff. So before I take the risk of posting information to be helpful which then another is ranting about that it was already posted I do nothing. I hope if have described my situation a little bit. Maybe you learn to understand and maybe forgive us new members.

Thanks for sharing your very deep analysis here, Robin!

I feel very sad that your comment here resulted in the same way like you wrote in your comment: Nobody (well, at least one :blush: ) replied! I am sorry for that.
For my side - and I guess that counts for a lot of people around and of course other staff members as well - I don't have the time to be around Eurobricks like I wished to and check each and everything on a regular basis. :sadnew:

The forum simply has gotten too big and confusing to be handled by a single person. That's what you wrote yourself: You cannot read 100+ pages of an older discussion just to be able to coversate as well. So I decided to focus on 'my' forum regularly. And of course follow the topics I have posted in. Somehow I overlooked your post (while I was on vacation). Sorry once again.

Dragging attention to a new opened topic is a key to success. Here the title of your topic is essential! That alone does not guarantee a lot of readers (and you had a lot!), because you can't force members to comment.
The problem on no/hardly any comments is a wide spread problem and can be found on almost any platform using a forum software or similar. Once again this is a matter of TIME. Consuming habits have changed. Nowadays everything has got to be "on the go" - the quick snack instead of being full up with valuable information. And it's a give and take. Sorry to gear you gave and too few people took it. :look:

You felt left alone when starting on EB? While I understand your feelings, there is help for exactly that on several places. For example look at my signature: It is made for people like you being new to the game. Almost every staff members has got this signature.
Okay, you may not have come accross some staff members on your first days, but there is the FAQ-section as well which answers almost all questions from newbies. :wink:

A library of libraries - that's what I would love to have as well. Recently, Peppermint_M did something like that for 'her' subforum. That is lots of work though. Volunteers for your idea welcome! :grin:

pombe · November 8, 2018

On 10/31/2018 at 1:57 PM, Holodoc said:

Dragging attention to a new opened topic is a key to success. Here the title of your topic is essential! That alone does not guarantee a lot of readers (and you had a lot!), because you can't force members to comment.
The problem on no/hardly any comments is a wide spread problem and can be found on almost any platform using a forum software or similar. Once again this is a matter of TIME. Consuming habits have changed. Nowadays everything has got to be "on the go" - the quick snack instead of being full up with valuable information. And it's a give and take. Sorry to gear you gave and too few people took it.

@Robin_IV

I'm sorry to read that your initial experiences here on EB didn't go very well for you. I confess that I don't routinely reply to threads very often (however, I will say that I participate a lot in the private PMs of the various games I play and I routinely showcase my WIPs and discuss new story ideas in those messages).

Of course, as usual, my advice to having fun on EB is to join a game, where I swear you will get a ton of feedback from your fellow players. But I also understand that not everyone wants to join these rolebuilding games for various legitimate reasons.

After thinking about this somewhat, I thought of a suggestion that I wanted to throw out here: a new [feedback wanted] tag for topic titles.

Now, I know...we already have a lot of tags, especially for the games. It could add to the clutter on EB. But I think somehow labeling a thread as something where the original poster is deliberately seeking feedback and alerting other members to that fact in the topic title may be beneficial for the board. Especially for members who want to up their MOC skills without joining a game. I don't know...it's just an idea.

Anyways, @Robin_IV, I hope you stick around. I think EB is a great place to interact with fellow AFOLs from around the world, including some of the very best LEGO MOCcers in existence. And if you haven't thought about joining a game...well...you know my advice.

**Jim** · November 9, 2018

We use the prefix [HELP] for that in Technic :thumbup:

leafan · November 13, 2018

Reading this today has inspired me to post in a more detailed fashion.

As a newish member, I do hope to see this place flourish.

Post incoming to the Castle forum soon(tm). It'll be a haul post, but is in the subject of Castle and some Classic Space so hope that's ok.

Edit: Ok done here.

Edited November 13, 2018 by leafan

Kai NRG · November 14, 2018

Late to the party, but figured I'd throw my two cents into the pile. And though I love EB, I do have a life and wasn't able to read all six pages - but I did skim.

I'm pretty active on EB (check it multiple times every weekday) but only in my select forums - Brethren of the Brick Seas (RPG) and Guilds of Historica (RPG) - and related. Used to participate actively in Andromeda's Gates (though I slacked off, due partly to a lack of time, partly to the breakneck pace, partly to the crude jokes) before it ended, not sure yet if I'll be around for AG2. And maybe this will inspire me to keep up with the History and Pirates forums - truth is, I'd like to see the MOCs there, but not interested in the collector aspect. I could weed those out of my stream though. I guess I've just been lazy when it comes to viewing/commenting on those MOCs. :hmpf_bad: That'll have to change. :wink:

Side note that touches on some discussion here: it is definitely discouraging to post a MOC and not receive any or receive very little and very brief feedback. That seems to happen a lot outside of RPGs. I've posted some builds that I was pretty happy with in other forums and received almost no feedback (on the other hand, I have to credit the City Forum readers for their kind reception of my MOCs!). But maybe I'm part of the problem. I invest my time commenting on RPG MOCs, and not on hardly anything else (except those that get frontpaged), so I shouldn't be surprised when my non-RPG MOCs face the same fate. Front-paging more MOCs might help alert others like me to the great quality of MOCs outside RPGs?

What first drew me to EB (about 6 years ago now - how time flies!) was the contests, which I heard about on another site. As a just-starting MOCer, they really fired my imagination and I was thrilled to eventually win some smaller stuff. I do miss those fun small contests, especially the themed months. They created a great sort of flash-community feeling - speaking for myself at least, I have always been motivated to comment on other MOCs for a contest (or a RPG) that I participate in (though I'm not so motivated to comment on "random" MOCs), partly as a give-back-what-I-get (or hope to get), partly because I admire or want to encourage my competition.

At first, I followed the main threads of the themes I was interested in (mostly Ninjago), but soon dropped that as I got a clearer idea of what I really wanted for my LEGO hobby. With pages and pages of discussion that really doesn't interest me, I don't have time or inclination to follow those and get my news about new sets elsewhere, or on the front-page.

Would you like to see more contests? Yes, especially small ones. Even though I'm a pretty decent MOCer now, and fairly confident that I could now and then win a larger scale contest, there are plenty of those out there already, more than I have time to build for, with amazing prizes and prompt delivery of results (and prizes). Small vignette contests with polybag prizes is what I suggest. I loved the minifigure ones (though I wish/ed entries were posted in individual threads so I could comment more thoroughly!).
What is your opinion of Tags (those small images on the left <---)? Love 'em. Got too many of 'em already though, and two or three more that I've had to say good-bye to. *sniff* Wish I could have more.
Do you use, if ever, Eurobricks reference materials (ie. lists of Reviews, lists of MOCS, lists of Forums)? Nope. I often check out the reviews that are front-paged, if its a theme or product that I'm interested in, and do I find them helpful, among the best out there for an in depth non-video based look at a set. As an almost-gold member of the Reviewers Academy I have often wished to get over the last hump of my ninth review but I'm uninspired and then Flickr suddenly capped photo limit so I gotta go reformat all my old reviews before they become obsolete... *sniff again* ...but that is kind of a private rant.
Have you participated in games on Eurobricks (ie. Role-Playing, Mafia, etc.)? Yes. Basically, that's why I'm still active on EB. I'm a MOCer, not a collector. I'm not interested in hearing all about the themes. And there seem to be comparatively few MOCs posted outside the Roleplaying games... or I'm too lazy to weed them out, whatever.
Do you use/visit the Eurobricks Facebook page? Eurobricks on Flickr? etc. I add many of my MOCs to the EB Flickr group but almost never check the group page.
Do you post MOCs online? What hosting platform do you prefer to use? I use Flickr. That may change, at least for part of my photos (alt. views).
Do you prefer broadly defined threads or multiple specialized threads? N/A, really. MOC threads, and the specific broad threads necessary for RPGs are about all I'm interested in.
What is the first page you visit when opening Eurobricks on your browser? I use the handy activity stream option to customize and view what's new since my last visit in BoBS and GoH. In the future, I think I'll change that to include new topics from Pirates and History. Anyways, "Kai NRG's Stream" is what I always open. And I get notifications whenever a new topic gets front-paged (by following the front-page forum), so I follow that fairly closely.

A couple other miscellaneous thoughts based on the above discussion:

Forum updates haven't bothered me much. But I like having new buttons to poke into. I got used to the latest one pretty fast, didn't deter me from posting even a day, honestly.

Whatever may be the case elsewhere, RPGs are still a community stronghold for EB, with lots of constructive criticism for MOCs (especially in GoH, which has been experiencing quite a revival lately), friendly banter, and a group of members who "know" each other but are still welcoming to newbies.

Making Eurobricks More Active

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