leafan

Thoughts on Eurobricks Name

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I was thinking about a thread a while back talking about how this website/forum could be improved, and it got me thinking about the name - Eurobricks.

Does anyone know why it's called Eurobricks?

Do people from outside Europe ever think this sounds off-putting for you, like it's not meant for you or something? Like, if I saw a new website called Americanbricks, I might think twice about joining in with that site.

Lastly; if you could change the name, what would you pick?

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It's probably now considered more as a geographical reference as in "bricks from (a cewrtain country in) Europe". Considering how many users from the US and elswhere are here, I don't get the impression it would be off-putting. Sure, there could be more generic names, but it's really going to be a "What's in a name?" game. Someone is always bound to not get it, be offended or just don't care. After all, that's why there are experts in the marketing and advertising industry, that come up with fancy brand and product names... Personally I think this forum has bigger fish to fry, anyway, so which domain name it comes under is secondary to me.

Mylenium

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I am an American, but I don't think I have ever felt like an outsider on this site because its called Eurobricks. I just assumed it started as a Lego group for mostly European Lego fans and they thought it sounded cool. I also thought the blue brick with the yellow starts was a reference to the EU flag. The name has stayed the same for so many years (I think it's like 14 years now) so why on earth change it? It would just confuse people. 

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There was a shift in the perspective of this site a long ways back. If I remember right the subtitle at the top banner used to be "The European Lego Fan Community" or something like that, though non-European members were not discouraged from joining (hence when I joined), but was eventually changed to "Uniting LEGO fans around the world." 

As far as I know, the "Euro" today stands moreso for the origin of the Lego brick, being Europe. Plus, Eurobricks sounds cooler.

 

(though some may remember a certain April Fools joke where the site became Ameribricks...)

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1 minute ago, VBBN said:

the site became Ameribricks

Oh that was fun. All in good jest, :tongue:

Why change the name? A lot of big companies find they lose recognition and customers/users when they change their name. A site like EB keeps the name. 

Besides, there is nothing wrong with Euro in the name.

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5 hours ago, leafan said:

Do people from outside Europe ever think this sounds off-putting for you, like it's not meant for you or something? Like, if I saw a new website called Americanbricks, I might think twice about joining in with that site.

 

2

Ask again in a couple of days / months time, depending on when / if Brexit happens!

 

It's funny, I never noticed the blue brick and the Euro stars around it until now.

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We should call it AussieBricks! 

Seriously, though, it doesn't need a name or logo change. I've always felt this is a global community, not a European one.

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4 hours ago, Kristel said:

We should call it AussieBricks! 

Seriously, though, it doesn't need a name or logo change. I've always felt this is a global community, not a European one.

April 1st is coming.

 

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As soon as I saw the title I thought...

Ameribricks!! :pir-laugh:

I'm American. "Eurobricks" doesn't bother me in the least. Actually I like it that way, for some reason. Probably due to TLG being European.

I'm betting this year's April Fool's joke has the site being taken over by Facebook, and the name changing to Facebrick... :grin:

But the brick and stars logo... Ugh. I hate to complain, but its unrendered state is just jarring against those lovely banners. Especially considering the photo-realistic renders that have been showing up lately. It looks distinctly 1980s or something...

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On ‎3‎/‎22‎/‎2019 at 3:10 AM, Captain Dee said:

It looks distinctly 1980s or something...

There is nothing wrong with that considering that this particular blue brick is existing decades longer than the 1980's, is there? It is sort of telling a story … from a long time ago. Which is still happening today. And most probably happening tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow. And …  

What I like so much about the "Euro" bit is that nowhere in/on this world more diverse "populations" just try it out. For decades now. Without banging their heads and what not. And foremost: With forgiving unbelievable things that "happened" in the past. I am German and I am not proud of it. It is with great pride I am calling myself an European. Living and building Europe as a model for the world. Only as far as I am concerned, of course.   

[Oh yes: the Brexit. When learning about the educated British people's decision, I was very frustrated as I thought Europe was a pretty good idea. After seeing what the British government has accomplished over the past two years with respect to the Brexit and with respect of disclosing to the world how it works, in the parliament: WTF, just do it. Get outta Europe. Do your thing. And simply leave the other 27 countries alone. With or without "plan". We'll see whether or not the British Empire will prospect again - when it works, Europe will suffer roally:ugh:, for sure. But when it does not work out … how about joining again? I'll vote for it, again for sure!]

I like the Euro part very much. The "bricks" part is indispensable, of course.

All the best,

Thorsten

 

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As an American I can attest that the Eurobricks name never particularly bothered me after I joined, but it did perhaps make it take longer to realize I would be ALLOWED to join once I turned 18, and that it wasn't a Europe-only site. I think the number of users with non-European location tags plus the "Uniting LEGO fans around the world…" tagline that's used these days help to clarify that so that most eligible users can quickly dispel that misconception.

I suspect that at the current point in time, the more likely reason for people NOT joining Eurobricks is those people being more accustomed to the format discussions take on social media (Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Tumblr/Reddit/YouTube/Discord) than the "bulletin board/discussion forum" style of online community that's lost a lot of favor since this site got its start.

I wouldn't be surprised if to some younger folks, visiting sites like Eurobricks or BZPower might one day feel the way visiting newsgroup-style communities like Lugnet or the BrickLink forums often feels to folks my age — if Gen Z kids aren't already getting that impression from this type of website!

But I don't know how much there is that could really be done about stuff like that in the grand scheme of things. I know there are some sites that have radically reinvented themselves, like reference or news sites becoming forums or wikis, but I think changing an entire community-driven site into something entirely different is a much bigger trick to pull off, especially when a lot of the newer types of community hub on the Internet are sites that by their nature AREN'T specific to a particular fandom or interest group.

3 hours ago, Toastie said:

There is nothing wrong with that considering that this particular blue brick is existing decades longer than the 1980's, is there? It is sort of telling a story … from a long time ago. Which is still happening today. And most probably happening tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow. And … 

I think it's more the quality of the logo that's the concern than the symbol in question. As cartoon and video game fans realized some time ago, outdated CGI often doesn't age that well. Some of the old PS1 and Nintendo 64 graphics that once looked groundbreaking now look laughable, even though extremely pixelated spritesheets from the SNES or Sega Genesis can much more easily retain a sense of timeless charm. And 2D animated movies from the early 90s like Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King often look just as gorgeous and magical as they ever did, while characters (particularly human characters) in late 90s computer-animated movies like Toy Story or the CGI special effects in the 2002 Spider-Man movie can look anywhere from laughable to nightmarish.

If the stars in the logo were shaded in a way that looked more like the ones at the beginning of recent Paramount movies, rather than a Windows 95 screensaver or cheaply-animated bowling alley scoring animation, then they might not seem quite as awkwardly outdated. Same if the brick itself (despite its stylized cubic proportions, which I suspect are meant to give it slightly more of a globe motif) had the glossy texture of a real brick or high-quality render and not the flat color look of running LDD on the lowest graphics settings and then converting everything to 16-bit web colors.

It's the same as how playing a graphical remaster of an older video game can do a much better job recreating the feeling of how playing those games felt decades ago than the reality check that is replaying the games in their original format and realizing that Mario and Bowser's first confrontation in a 3D game looked less like the highly polished promotional artwork from the manuals and advertisements:

750px-SM64_Mario_Swings_Bowser.png

…and more like… umm… this:

Bowser-super-mario-64-13614121-640-480.j

Edited by Aanchir

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The name has never bothered me, but...

On 3/22/2019 at 6:46 AM, Kristel said:

We should call it AussieBricks! 

why not?

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I’m from the States & I didn’t find the name off putting or anything. I always assumed the name referenced the creators of this forum were from somewhere in Europe. Or because of the brick’s home maybe? Now, the reason I chose Eurobricks all those years ago was quite a simple one, it was first when I Googled. 

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On 3/25/2019 at 10:50 PM, Toastie said:

[Oh yes: the Brexit. When learning about the educated British people's decision, I was very frustrated as I thought Europe was a pretty good idea. After seeing what the British government has accomplished over the past two years with respect to the Brexit and with respect of disclosing to the world how it works, in the parliament: WTF, just do it. Get outta Europe. Do your thing. And simply leave the other 27 countries alone. With or without "plan". We'll see whether or not the British Empire will prospect again - when it works, Europe will suffer roally:ugh:, for sure. But when it does not work out … how about joining again? I'll vote for it, again for sure!]

 

 

1

Without wanting to get political, Brexit is not about leaving Europe, it is about leaving the European Union. Europe is a geographical region. The European Union is an economic and political union. The UK will still be in Europe after Brexit (if / when it happens).

And there is no British Empire any more. There is the UK and there are British Overseas Territories. Using such an out of date historical term, especially in a mocking way, is similar to referring to modern day Germany as the Reich.

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9 hours ago, MAB said:

The UK will still be in Europe after Brexit (if / when it happens).

Well. Yes: An Island in the North Sea belonging to the Eurasian continental plate will have problems in being not Europe anymore after a socio-economic Brexit, I give you that. 

So I stand correct: I thought the European Union was a pretty god idea. You are right: Europe is just a name for a rather small geographical region of Eurasia. What I was saying though is that I find it fascinating that such a comparably small geographical region on this planet with so many and diverse ethnical, economical, cultural, judicial, political, ideational ways of living is a comparably silent region in the world. And I believe that the European Union with all the stupid and countless rules and regulations and all that stuff that apparently irritates people so much - is favorably playing a role in that particular situation. IMHO.

10 hours ago, MAB said:

similar to referring to modern day Germany as the Reich

I have a >totally< (I could not be more than that) different take on using Britisch Empire and the (presumably) German Reich in the same context. The former has a several century spanning historically in so many aspects important and relevant (there were certainly not to few downsides as well) role in history, whereas the latter is a total and final error in the history of mankind. The latter should never appear in any kind of historical context or measure. It should always stand alone - and as a final error. 

And we should leave it here.

And we (I) should take it easy: Sorry for running into the … Brexit trap. I simply should stop thinking and typing when hearing Brexit.

In that regard: All the very best
Thorsten

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On 3/25/2019 at 6:50 PM, Toastie said:

There is nothing wrong with that considering that this particular blue brick is existing decades longer than the 1980's, is there? It is sort of telling a story … from a long time ago.

See below. :classic:

On 3/25/2019 at 10:06 PM, Aanchir said:

I think it's more the quality of the logo that's the concern than the symbol in question.

Yes. Exactly. I like the symbol just fine. But...

On 3/25/2019 at 10:06 PM, Aanchir said:

If the stars in the logo were shaded in a way that looked more like the ones at the beginning of recent Paramount movies, rather than a Windows 95 screensaver or cheaply-animated bowling alley scoring animation, then they might not seem quite as awkwardly outdated. Same if the brick itself (despite its stylized cubic proportions, which I suspect are meant to give it slightly more of a globe motif) had the glossy texture of a real brick or high-quality render and not the flat color look of running LDD on the lowest graphics settings and then converting everything to 16-bit web colors.

This is EXACTLY what I meant.

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Yah, guys, can we not wander in to the political? As tempting as it is, we're here for LEGO and uniting fans of said bricks. 

Yep, this is a site designed by a guy in France to celebrate a Danish toy inspired by a British toy, a site to chat with friends about bricks. Then as it grew in scope more an more fans from around the world joined. The tagline was updated to include everyone.

Changing the name now would confuse and alienate members. 

As for the logo: Anyone with the graphical skills to make it how you think it should look? Go ahead and create. The site is run, maintained and staffed by volunteers, so some things we don't have time to get to. If you want to try helping instead of gumbling, that is super welcome. :thumbup:

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