Is MOCpages ready to grow up?

[xboxtravis7992]

I have noted a general belief around the community that MOCpages is seen as the more "immature" Lego moc hosting site in comparison to Flickr. However in my short time on MOCpages, I have begun to notice some changes in the community, for example:

• MOCpages has been derided in the past for users who leave comments such as "Es S0 awsum, instructions plz; chck out my stuf!!!!" However my personal experience shows comments such as that are often several years old, and moderncomments are more mature. Meanwhile I have begun to notice trolling on Flickr, much harsher than anything I have seen on MOCpages.
  
• MOCpages has been derided for hosting beginner creations such as those from "Clone Kiddies" and "Halo Kiddies." However many of those users have either gone inactive; or matured their building skills and become some of the better builders in the community. Meanwhile on Flickr I see more and more "Sharpie Clones" and "Sharpie Superheroes" showing up in Lego fan feeds.
  
• The popular MOCs on MOCpages are generally of a higher quality now when compared to the past. Using the "What was popular this day 'x' years ago" feature often shows more immature models than those currently gaining recognition.
  

Now that I have made my case for MOCpages, I have to include a brief dissenting opinion. While I have not used Flickr to host MOCs; I have heard many people claim it is easier to load photos and more reliable; something I believe seeing how often MOCpages has technical issues. Also I have noticed the best Lego builders don't limit themselves to one website, often posting Mocs on both MOCpages, Flickr, Brickshelf, and here on Eurobricks; thus making the argument the best Lego website is all of them.

However I personally think MOCpages, has the potential to regain a lot of users if the technical issues can be addressed. I believe the MOCpages community is now a better community than Flickr. Furthermore I am becoming shocked at the immaturity of some Flickr users, and how fads such as "Sharpie Clones" which in my opinion are beginning to die out on MOCpages; are still very much alive on Flickr. Lastly Flickr, without the language guidelines present on any Lego fan site, has some very offensive trolling.

What are your thoughts on this? Anybody agree with me, or does anybody have a reason to disagree?

[Spider-Man]

I understand exactly what you are saying, and your points are made very well. However I tend to think that no matter what site you use, Flickr or MOCpages etc, there will always be 'trolls' and immature people. Flickr is such a large community in general, not just LEGO sharing, that I think it opens pictures up to a much wider audience which inevitably will open it up to more trolls.

MOCpages on the other hand is an incredibly specialized picture site, and also has mechanical problems as you have mentioned. Because of this I think a lot of people have decided to move on and use Flickr instead, which means that some of the immature people or 'trolls' have also moved from MOCpages to Flickr. The immaturity and 'trolling' will always exist, however I definitely agree that it is a lot meaner and volatile on Flickr.

[xboxtravis7992]

However I tend to think that no matter what site you use, Flickr or MOCpages etc, there will always be 'trolls'

Very true, if we wanted to eliminate trolls 100% we would all be on Brickshelf.

[just2good]

Halo Kiddies is a funny and useful term, I like it. I'm gonna start using that.

Personally, I use Flickr. It seems like a lot more people see my stuff there, and it's quick and easy for me.

[jimmynick]

MOCpages on the other hand is an incredibly specialized picture site, and also has mechanical problems as you have mentioned. Because of this I think a lot of people have decided to move on and use Flickr instead, which means that some of the immature people or 'trolls' have also moved from MOCpages to Flickr. The immaturity and 'trolling' will always exist, however I definitely agree that it is a lot meaner and volatile on Flickr.

Flickr isn't moderated in the same way MOCpages is, which engenders trolling. Flickr is a great way to host pictures and get feedback. You can get as into the community there as you like. But if you only want to use a website to host pictures, Brickshelf is probably the way to go.

It's a shame that it's difficult to use MOCpages (speed...) because there are so many good creations there. But with regards to Sharpie clones and the like, people who do that probably aren't old enough to agree to Flickr's T&Cs. I mean, I used to decorate clones like that and I took pictures, but I didn't post them to the internet like so many people seem to do these days.

But young trolls who Sharpie clones and are only interested in your BrickArms prototypes are one of the reasons there's a maturity limit on Eurobricks. But wherever you go, you can ignore the people you aren't interested in.

[-Carson Haupt-]

I'm on Mocpages, and it has definitely improved. When I first joined, almost everything I saw was very poorly built. However, I think that the builders either (A) Matured or (B) Just left. There are a lot of technical issues, but that is because it run pretty much by one person and hosts large amounts of pictures and text. There are definitely trolls, but they are becoming rarer and rarer. Almost all comments are now constructive criticism. If you think most things there are sharpies clones, just look at people like Blake Baer or Ru Corder. Or me, if you want too...

[toolewab]

I'm gonna start using that.

[splatman]

What on earth is a Sharpie Clone? Never seen that term before. Is it Clone bricks decorated with Sharpie pens? Or someone needed some black bricks, but did not have any, so took a Sharpie to some other bricks? Or something that has nothing to do with clone brands, Clone Troopers, or Sharpie pens?

[xboxtravis7992]

What on earth is a Sharpie Clone? Never seen that term before. Is it Clone bricks decorated with Sharpie pens? Or someone needed some black bricks, but did not have any, so took a Sharpie to some other bricks? Or something that has nothing to do with clone brands, Clone Troopers, or Sharpie pens?

Your first guess is the right one; Sharpie Clone is a term used to describe any choppy customization job on a Clone Trooper to make it match the colors of the myriad of legions in Star Wars.

Also thanks to all the posters who are responding to the thread, great to hear the various opinions.

[RaincloudDustbin]

Yeah, I tried MOCpages once and really didn't like it. You are always going to get some poor work on both sites but Flickr seems to be bigger and better to me and from what I've seen, better quality building.

[Sebeus I]

I'm definitely a Mocpages fan, it's very accessible for a MOCer to spread his/her creations, in fact it's where I started in the online Lego community.

I'm also on Flickr but the primary reason for that is to stay updated with some of those awesome creations of other builders that cannot be found on mocpages.

If I had to choose it would be mocpages, after all I'm a MOCer and mocpages is focused on showing off MOCs.

However, the last years I'm much more active here at EB (partially because I found out how the deeplinking pictures thing works but mostly because It's so fun in here ),

If there's one bad thing I could say about mocpages it would be the rating competition, every member can rate a creation with 1 to 5 points but those ratings are not always relevant. It has been worked on and has improved since a few years so it might still get better.

Another thing, the mocpages community is also slightly censored and restricted in what you can post or can say (for a child-friendly environment) , flickr is not, wether this is a positive or a negative thing...

Edited April 25, 2013 by Sebeus I

[lightningtiger]

I use MOCpages and Brickshelf (the latter mostly), I haven't found really any issues with trolls on there as of yet.

The rating system.....meh, I'm not into designing stuff to score points so the care factor is low.

My only issue with MOCpages is the image uploader......in a way too slow and okay I guess the edit feature is not so easy to use.

[Faefrost]

I've messed with MOCPages. The main problem for me isn't an issue of Comunity. It's one of site performance. It always just seems slow and very cumbersome to navigate.

[Captain Nemo]

I used to be a more frequent member of MOCpages, and while I still hold an account there, I don't post there anymore. I found the problem being there simply was not enough of a base to people to see and comment on my creations--which is what I (And many people) are after, to see if others like their builds. On MOCpages, I could never get anyone to comment let alone look at my creations, where as on Flickr I can get hundreds of views in a few hours.

It is generally harder to get people to look at creations on MOCpages, at least in my experience, mostly because there is far less people. Usually when I go there now, I just see a dormant/dead community; in the sense that besides the main page builds, I don't see really any activity. I'm now dedicated to Flickr, and I can't see turning back.

[N33]

Hello

I've never encountered these trolling problem's on these site's mainly because I don't realy coment,rather just rate the creations on MOCPages.

The bad side of MOCPages is these crashes and technical issues ... when I tried to uplod some photos just encountered an error or something and I didn't want to rewrite and repost everything... on other hand flickr is pretty good but I can't upload more than ... 200 photos,if you don't pay them 5$ I think... and Brickshelf,you need to wait for the files to be public...

I use flickr for wip and bad quality pictures and I upload the complete MOC's on MOCpages.

Personally I don't care about what some imature or bad willing people say.It just save's you a lot of time and stress.