What kind of AFOL are you?

[Phoxtane]

Are you a member of a LUG?

I'm a member of CoWLUG - http://www.cowlug.net

Are you actively participating in your LUG?

Yes and no - I go to the meetings and discuss, but I do not take part in most displays or LUGBulk, for reasons to be described below.

Would you consider supporting more actively the online AFOL community (e.g. Eurobricks) as moderator, regulator (indexing, ...), making set reviews, etc.?

I'd love to start making set reviews, but I can't really yet for the same reasons as I mentioned above...

As for the reasons: Lack of funds, lack of brick, and the fact that Wyoming is so darn empty that getting to and from most places takes up enough time that I'd have to stay overnight in order to participate in the displays we do. I would if I could, but school takes up most of my time for a good portion of the year and I'm not comfortable leaving my builds for a few days when I can't easily replace pieces or minifigures that could get lost or stolen. This ties into a lack of funds, which is the cause of the lack of bricks, which means I can't really build anything that I'd be proud of displaying apart from a train car or two. The lack of funds also means I can't really get sets to review all that often anyway.

Edited August 10, 2013 by Phoxtane

[Luke_likes_Lego]

What kind of AFOL are you?

A smart-aleccy one that answers rhetorical questions

• Are you a member of a LUG?
  

No

• Would you consider supporting more actively the online AFOL community (e.g. Eurobricks) as moderator, regulator (indexing, ...), making set reviews, etc.?Looking forward to read your feedback!
  

Yes - it would be a pleasure. I like contributing if I can help anyone.

If the answer is yes, where do you possibly see yourself contributing?

Anywhere, where my ideas can help, but my favourites are helping in 'MOC stuck?' and anything to do with trains

Cheers,

LLL

[Alternator]

I'm not a member of a LUG, I have wondering about doing the odd set review - though it appears things are pretty well covered on that front here, at least for new/current sets.

[legokingnm]

What kind of AFOL are you?

--what are the options? A fairly new one!

Are you a member of a LUG?

--co-founder of New Mexico LUG (NMLUG), est. 2012. We have about 20

Are you actively participating in your LUG?

If yes, what do you do (e.g. helping out during events, making displays, etc.)?

If no, what's holding you back?

Would you consider supporting more actively the online AFOL community (e.g. Eurobricks) as moderator, regulator (indexing, ...), making set reviews, etc.?

If the answer is yes, where do you possibly see yourself contributing?

If the answer is no, what's the reason (e.g. lack of time, ...)?

What kind of AFOL are you?

--what are the options? A fairly new one!

I like Star Wars, mosaics and technics/power functions

Are you a member of a LUG?

--co-founder of New Mexico LUG (NMLUG), est. 2012. We have about 20 or so members, almost all have NEVER been involved in a LUG!

Are you actively participating in your LUG?

If yes, what do you do (e.g. helping out during events, making displays, etc.)?

--Events, making displays, helping judge the state fair, having fun with fellow AFOLs

Would you consider supporting more actively the online AFOL community (e.g. Eurobricks) as moderator, regulator (indexing, ...), making set reviews, etc.?

If the answer is yes, where do you possibly see yourself contributing?

If the answer is no, what's the reason (e.g. lack of time, ...)?

--not sure what I could add. But I am new here.

I would really encourage other AFOLs to get involved in a LUG. I said early last year, "I'll keep this going as long as it is still worth it" and it has been consistently worth it every single month!

And We live an EIGHT HOUR drive from any Lego branded stores....I'll stop being preachy now...

[Wardancer]

Are you a member of a LUG?

No, I am not.

Frankly because I would not really know what to do there. What do people do there? Building together does not work - everyone would have to bring their pieces and all the bricks would become mixed up.

Discussing things, ok, that could be done, but I can do this online as well.

Trading, ok, that would be nice.

Would you consider supporting more actively the online AFOL community (e.g. Eurobricks) as moderator, regulator (indexing, ...), making set reviews, etc.?

Only by providing content such as MOC or partaking in contests. My life is crammed full of good things and I do not have the time for more , especially I do not want more things that happen in front of computers. Maybe I'll write a review one day, but in my own style then and not in some "academy approved" format.

[timmyc1983]

I am not currently a LUG member, but have thought recently of joining one, although I'm not sure how healthy the LUG is in my area, I get the impression it's not doing so well but I would love to join in!

I would love to help out online, any way I could really. I'm mainly into Town (modulars, City and Trains)..... :D just ask and I'll help

[Redhead1982]

I am a member of Kocke Klub (Slovenian LUG), and Eurobricks (as it counts as LUG, as far as I'm aware). I'm actively participating in Kocke Klub events, I'm organizing board of our LUG, helping out during the events, and making displays for our exhibitions.

I'm less active (in that perspective) on EB. I'm considering making reviews (as I often do that for Kocke Klub), however, I'm held back by lack of time, I'm not sure if I can fully commit to it at this point. Mostly due to my profession, there are days (and sometimes weeks), when I'm not actively following the online community, so this is also holding me back from participating more actively on the forum as a mod or regulator - besides not knowing how that is done. However, I'm playing with the idea to display my MOC also internationally, which is a new step further.

[AlcoEmmen]

I am a member of LowLug (netherlands), but not as active as i would wish to be.

Mostly because my MOC's are delayed while i keep sorting and sorting my Lego :-(

My favorite theme are the winter village series, so i would love to write a review of those.

[Pilili Cuicui]

Hello!

Are you a member of a LUG?

1: Yes I am! I've been a proud member of FREELUG (FRANCE) since 2012!

Are you actively participating in your LUG?

Well...I suppose this is a Yes and a No answer for me. I will try to explain: I've been a member of a LUG for only 1 year and a half now.

First of all, whereas our Lug is nation-wide, it gives more importance to the contacts IRL than online. There are only a few members in my area and since I've been into the LUG I've tried to meet the others around a cup of coffee at home. But it's hard to meet regularly and harder to meet the other members who are in the other regions of France . My LUG organizes some periodical events for the members so we can all meet there, but attending is quite expensive (travel + hotel) and so it's a no-go for me at the moment.

To communicate my LUG uses a mailing list so we can talk to each other, and I try to be active on it!

The last way to participate in my LUG is to attend the events (exhibitions) it organises. Well, beside the cost to go, I am an AFOL but I consider myself as not really good at MOC. I'm trying, I improve myself of course but imagine the scene: me coming with my little fabuland pedal-boat while the members of my LUG present their full-scale Hogwarts ......well....picture it? ....In my LUG they do a lot of city and train, so they have always huge dioramas to display... I am really shy to come with my really few tiny and not so beautiful MOCs...And, well, I don't do city/train myself so I always think I don't fit in the event, but I am actually trying to make a diorama of my own, something big enough to present next to the trains of my LUG!

Participating in the life of my LUG is not so simple. That may be hard to understand without the whole context: Here in France a LUG is an "association loi 1901" by law, I don't know if this the same thing in other countries. So as an association you have members (like me ) and the elected Administration Council (President, secretaries, Lego ambassador, treasurers). Each year we have a general assembly with all the members and we vote for the administration council (1/3 per year, so each member of the council is elected for 3 years) .

The thing is, well... for example if LEGO wants to contact the LUG or if a town wants to organize an event they don't talk to the all members, they talk to the administration council, so the decisions and the hard work is made by the council. As a (normal ) member I only see and can participate to the top of the iceberg. To be clear: I can follow, but this is harder to impulse something new. But this not something exlusive to the LUG this is how it works in France with any "loi 1901" association. So to be simple for example I can't say " Hey, let's make a Forum for the LUG! , or, Hey! let's organize an event there!", well I can try to say it but then it must go through the council, then there is a vote, and then there is a "no" or a "yes". Well I hope I made you understand it's not so simple to participate the way you mean it ...

Would you consider supporting more actively the online AFOL community (e.g. Eurobricks) as moderator, regulator (indexing, ...), making set reviews, etc.?

My LUG only has an internal mailing list, it has no "online life" per say so I can't participate that way. I am a bit sad about that because I am good at computers (let's say it: I'm often called a geek ) and that would be a way for me to participate and to be active and feel useful in that LUG but well ...that's not the way my LUG has decided to work for the moment, as I said I am really sad about that .

So I've come here, because this Forum is very friendly and we can talk to other AFOLS from around the world. But I am not so active and do a lot of reading because, I am not really good at MOCs so I can't do topics of construction, I don't think I have the legitimity to do reviews , but I try to enter the contests when I can so that I can improve my skills at MOCs . I really like the online life and I miss it in my LUG, I also miss the contacts with LEGO (but again I am not a member of the LUG council...).

To conclude, I think when you ask yourself why the new members of the LUG are not really active online I think there 2 simple explanations: we are new members, we are new at MOCs so we feel shy to post our creations, we are new in the community so we don't know the people like you (old members ) can know each other , in a word: we are shy! Let's add the fact that we are not all fluent in English, for some people it's already hard enough to read the news in english, they simply don't feel confident enough to participate to a English online community. Moreover there is nothing in our LUG to make a link between the english-speaking Lego community and us...

Just a little last thing, I am girl! ...and in my nation-wide LUG we are maybe... 4 active girls on the mailing-list (I mean not silent) . The boys are cool, really , but sometimes I wish we could be more, when we meet that's not the same thing to be a few girls around the table or THE girl at the table ....

I hope it helped!

++

Pilili Cuicui

[PocasNuckie]

Recently Hispabrick Magazine interviewed Jan Beyer, LEGO Community, Engagement and Events Team, in which Jan stated following:

What kind of AFOL are you?

• Are you a member of a LUG?
  

• Are you actively participating in your LUG?
  
  • If yes, what do you do (e.g. helping out during events, making displays, etc.)?
    
  • If no, what's holding you back?
    

• Would you consider supporting more actively the online AFOL community (e.g. Eurobricks) as moderator, regulator (indexing, ...), making set reviews, etc.?
  
  • If the answer is yes, where do you possibly see yourself contributing?
    
  • If the answer is no, what's the reason (e.g. lack of time, ...)?
    

Looking forward to read your feedback!

I am a member of a LUG yes, PLUG (Portuguese LEGO Users Group).

I do participate in my LUG's activities within my quite limited possibilities. I am disabled, and so is my sister, and therefore participating in events (specially when they are far from home) involve a sort of family mobilization that's not possible all the times. I can hardly attend more than 1 or 2 events a year. I try though to make it up with excellent and more than regular participation online, and I also try to be better and different on the stuff I build (if you've seen my Mosaics, you know what I am talking about).

About contribuiting more for the online community, i've got mixed feelings. It's not like I don't want too, but I got two problems - My health issues do not allow me to engage in strict and scheduled compromises. See, I can be totally fine today, and totally crap tomorrow, so I don't like to make much plans, not even short term because I never know. And because I don't like to let people down by promising things I can't do, I just keep myself quiet in my corner. Number 2 - I am easily bored and my excitement for things sort of consumes rapidly. I can assume a compromise of for example doing a MOC Index today, be very excited, do a lot, and then tomorrow puff... excitement goes down the pipe, I don't care anymore and the work gets only half done which is not cool...

So yeah. I've got a really particular situation of my own. Don't judge me for beeing less of an AFOL. I just like to do thing my way, my timing. It doesn't upset me, nor anyone else in the community.

[KotZ]

Are you a member of a LUG?

No, I don't have the time and really wouldn't know where to begin. I wish I did but I don't. Sometimes I prefer building on my own anyway. And while I love LEGO, I can just get blocked on building or hit stopping points and not know how to go forward.

Would you consider supporting more actively the online AFOL community (e.g. Eurobricks) as moderator, regulator (indexing, ...), making set reviews, etc.?

Yes, but I don't have time. I make MOCs and read reviews, maybe even a review a set someday, but with college starting in a few weeks, I'll be separated from my collection so aside from digital creations, I won't have much to help with.

[jimoakley666]

What kind of AFOL are you?

• Are you a member of a LUG? Nope.
  

• Are you actively participating in your LUG? Nope
  
  • If yes, what do you do (e.g. helping out during events, making displays, etc.)?
    
  • If no, what's holding you back? I'd like to have an easy access, no fuss way of uploading photos to chat about them and not really found anything that takes my fancy yet.
    

• Would you consider supporting more actively the online AFOL community (e.g. Eurobricks) as moderator, regulator (indexing, ...), making set reviews, etc.?
  
  • If the answer is yes, where do you possibly see yourself contributing? I'd love to get into design and build discussions.
    
  • If the answer is no, what's the reason (e.g. lack of time, ...)? I do suffer from a severe lack of time and not as many bricks as a lot of AFOLs.
    

[Wodanis]

Are you a member of a LUG?

No, I only found out about LUGs last year. Currently I have no idea if there are any LUGs in Ontario. However I was heavily involved with the staff at my Lego store when I lived in the UK.

Are you actively participating in your LUG?

No, don't know if one exists. I don't think I would join one as I would prefer to be able to chat about Lego than helping with an event.

Would you consider supporting more actively the online AFOL community (e.g. Eurobricks) as moderator, regulator (indexing, ...), making set reviews, etc.?

I used to act as moderator in a few online games so it wouldn't be an issue to moderate a forum. I would love to write a review at some point. However what is holding me back is that I am quite busy trying to keep up with collecting and I don't give myself time to review sets. I would also need to have proper room to do my photography justice when creating images. I have been participating more regularly on these forums since May 2013.

I'm into Star Wars and Town sets. Mainly, I love seeing what others have built and use that as inspiration to achieve my own take on things. Figuring out how they built it is what drives me. Unfortunately my Lego OCD won't let me mix my sets like I did as a kid. So any creations I wish to show off require me buying new parts, which of course requires more money than I currently have at the moment.

[soccerkid6]

Are you a member of a LUG?

No.

If no, what's holding you back?

I would love to join one, but the nearest is 5-6 hours drive

Would you consider supporting more actively the online AFOL community (e.g. Eurobricks) as moderator, regulator (indexing, ...), making set reviews, etc.?

Yes.

If the answer is yes, where do you possibly see yourself contributing?

I am very active in the Historic Themes and could help there if needed. (I think that's pretty well covered except for a moderator though).

[Guss]

• Are you a member of a LUG? Yes, FreeLUG.
  

• Are you actively participating in your LUG? Yes, I used to organize our participation to the French ComiCon, I'll not organize it anymore but still go and exhibit some of my creations there. I also sometime go to other events.
  

• Would you consider supporting more actively the online AFOL community (e.g. Eurobricks) as moderator, regulator (indexing, ...), making set reviews, etc. ? I once was a reviewer here and on a french blog, but it takes too much of my free time, so even If I like the idea, I don't have the time anymore.
  

ps : soccerkid : that's no excuse, I see the member of my lug only once or twice a year :D

Edited August 11, 2013 by Guss

[Sammael]

Are you a member of a LUG?

Yes, I am a founding member and one of the officers of the Serbian LUG "Skockani" (which was established in 2010).

Are you actively participating in your LUG?

Yes. I help organize the events, sometimes run our meetings, handle some aspects of LUGBULK and other group orders, build MOCs and dioramas and lend my sets for displays, communicate with TLG on LUG-related matters, and so on...

Would you consider supporting more actively the online AFOL community (e.g. Eurobricks) as moderator, regulator (indexing, ...), making set reviews, etc.?

I'd love to help, but I'm afraid I simply don't have the time - between a full-time job with frequent overtime, my activities in the LUG and my other hobbies, I am already neglecting some aspects of my personal life (which is not good).

Edited August 11, 2013 by Sammael

[Captain Settle]

What kind of AFOL are you?

• Are you a member of a LUG? No.
  
• If no, what's holding you back? There are no LUG's near me.
  

• Would you consider supporting more actively the online AFOL community (e.g. Eurobricks) as moderator, regulator (indexing, ...), making set reviews, etc.? Yes.
  
• 
  
  • If the answer is yes, where do you possibly see yourself contributing? I am currently a member of the RA and I am active in the Historic Forum a lot.
    

[Herky]

First post as I just found out about this site a few weeks ago, have used it primarily for information and find it to be a very good site. Here are my answers:

What kind of AFOL are you? Collect for myself and kids, have collected a lot of themes (Architecure, Friends for my daughter, Pharoah series, Modular buildings, Cuusoo, Monster Fighters - oldest daughters fave, etc...also have a bunch of my sets from when I was a kid in the late 70's early 80's)

• Are you a member of a LUG? No, but I didn't know what that even was til I read this thread, discovered there is one in my area, but the page has viruses on it. Not sure I would join though as I am not super creative, just like to buy the sets and build them.
  

• Are you actively participating in your LUG?
  
  • If yes, what do you do (e.g. helping out during events, making displays, etc.)?
    
  • If no, what's holding you back?
    

• Would you consider supporting more actively the online AFOL community (e.g. Eurobricks) as moderator, regulator (indexing, ...), making set reviews, etc.?
  
  • If the answer is yes, where do you possibly see yourself contributing? Yes, I would be happy to do set reviews, especially the architecture series and cuusoo and modular buildings, excited for Sept 1 to get the Sydney Opera House, agree with the other poster who said do 2 modulars a year, been searching for Cafe Corner, Green Grocer and City Market for a while at a decent price.
    

• If the answer is no, what's the reason (e.g. lack of time, ...)?
  

[LegoScot]

Lug member? YES (president of MichLUG- Michigan,USA)

Actively? DOUBLE YES (our LUG does about 20 shows each year, this year we had almost a full year of "days with displays", due to multiple shows at the same time. I participate in over half of them, with loads of MOCs and organization.

Online? Hmmmm.... You can tell by the number of posts I have made that my focus is DEFINETLEY on my LUG, and not online, but I've never said no to a challenge involving LEGO, so who knows....

It is very intresting to read how SEPERATE a seemingly large portion of the online community is from the LUG community.

[marvinblue]

-Are you a member of a LUG? No I'm not. As far as I know, there's none near me.

-Are you actively participating in your LUG? No, as per question 1.

-Would you consider supporting more actively the online AFOL community (e.g. Eurobricks) as moderator, regulator (indexing, ...), making set reviews, etc.? I have reviewed sets over at ANZFOL, mainly City sets. If needed, I'd be happy to review sets here and elsewhere, as well as helping out moderating here and other places.

[Jetro]

Although I participate in several LUGs, I wouldn't say I'm a member of all of them ( even though I am very much treated like one in all of them).

I'm mostly active in the HispaBrick Magazine community as a founding member, admin, editor and translator. In addition I participate in the MCP forums (MINDSTORMS) and collaborate with TechnicBRICKs.

I'd say I'm already very active online. I recently gave up being an ambassador because I simply had too many things going on and too little time to get it all done.

I'm quite surprised at the number of people who say they're not part of a LUG either because it is too far away or because they don't see themselves building together. In my experience a LUG isn't necessarily a physical entity: people getting together all the time. The members of the HispaBrick Magazine community are scattered all over Spain and we see each other once or twice a year. We use our forum to stay in touch and share MOCs, ideas and news.

We did an article in HispaBrick Magazine some time ago explaining how several LUGs work and asked people to tell us if their LUGs were very different. We got little response, but most LUGs had some kind of online interaction. They were more about sharing MOCs, news and ideas than solely getting together physically and doing shows.

I get the impression that most of the people who say they are not in a LUG because there is none close by are from the USA. Many LUGs in Europe are nationwide and distance isn't so much of a factor for joining.

[dartmar]

Am I a member of a LUG: No, I would like to be I don't think I would find the time to be an active member. And I would hate to be a sleeper member.

Would I like to support the online community? Yes I would but again time doesn't allow me this luxury. I was asked to do an review of an old 1971 trainset I own but I still haven't got around to it almost 2 years later.

[PsyKater]

• Are you a member of a LUG?
  No, I am not member of a local LUG, only member of online forums (1000steine.de and eurobricks.com). I can't even say what LUGs really are, so I have a hard time telling if I want to be part of it or not (or maybe already am).
  

• Are you actively participating in your LUG?
  See above. Currently I am only active online. Mostly because of the lack of time and because I cannot imagine what to do in a LUG. I would be glad if I could start building on my own finally.
  

• Would you consider supporting more actively the online AFOL community (e.g. Eurobricks) as moderator, regulator (indexing, ...), making set reviews, etc.?
  Yes, and partly I already am (as one of the News Regulators for brickset.com). I'd be glad to support the online AFOL community even more as this is my world and I spend a lot of time in the internet, having a lot of experience in using the different tools.
  

Edited August 12, 2013 by PsyKater

[Balrog]

Are you a member of a LUG?

No, not yet. Currently much of my freetime is held with the local firefighters. But soon I will move. I will think about this again then. Another thing is, that I am not entirely sure to know how a LUG actually works and what exactly defines it. But I consider it as some sort of club.

Would you consider supporting more actively the online AFOL community (e.g. Eurobricks) as moderator, regulator (indexing, ...), making set reviews, etc.?

I'd love to do something for the online AFOL community. Something like reviews, photography, articles, proofreader ...

If the answer is no, what's the reason (e.g. lack of time, ...)?

Currently, the lack of time and moving between my home, work, girlfriends home. Even my own blog was a victim to that and other hobbies, too. I am just glad, that I could maintain sticking to LEGO the last months.

Edited August 12, 2013 by Balrog

[Kivi]

• Are you a member of a LUG? Yes, member of Slovenian LUG Kocke klub
  

• Are you actively participating in your LUG? Yes, building models to be displayed at the events/exhibitions and being involved in organization of these events
  

• Would you consider supporting more actively the online AFOL community (e.g. Eurobricks) as moderator, regulator (indexing, ...), making set reviews, etc.? Hardly any more actively than I already do, so no moderating/regulating, though some another set review might follow, the reason being virtually the same as many others have already stated: more time at computer means less time for bricks.