The Real Indiana Jones

LEGO Ideas Discussion

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I think the 1 year limit is reasonable for something that Lego is going to spend their own money making. It's always risky to put money into something that takes a long time getting support for.

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I'm not so sure of this one, actually. I can see a lot of more "casual" buyers of LEGO who'd never in a million years look into the hobby deeply enough to even learn of CUUSOO / Ideas' existence, let alone support or create projects, but who might well pick up a copy of that set if they see it in a LEGO Store.

But are they a predictable or quantifiable group? and are there enough of them to justify product creation and a production run? The time to 10k along with a number of other data points does help act as a metric for that.

I still think by far one of the biggest reasons for the new 1 year limit is to maintain and insure continuing interest and support from the project creator. Dorayaki mentions the Piano project sitting out there for 6 years. when was the last time the creator was heard from? Does CuuSoo have current info for them? Have they walked away from it or forgotten it? Are they even still involved? How many of the long term projects are still supported by their creators? The time limit is a good mechanism for keeping them engaged. Plus it encourages refinement and improving your presentation. It becomes more important to sell your project. Not simply show off your MOC. All of this is a good and necesary thing for this sort of endeavor. The fact that there has been no long term mechanism for housekeeping with CuuSoo has been one of its biggest flaws.

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Well, for me the care factor for Cuusoo is at a all time low.......27 projects are only a handful have clicked over 100 supports and many over the last few years.

Only if more and more people join up for the right reasons.....not just to support one odd-ball project but to better Lego in general then my hope for Lego Ideas will get boosted.

Honestly, It's because you have viewed CuuSoo more of a MOC and personal development platform, rather than a mechanism for presenting a product or project proposal. You put up a stream of similar but not the same prototypes rather than selecting a core project, refining it, and presenting it in a way that really makes it pop. You are showing the CuuSoo viewers the development process, not the final results. And it isn't a very good platform for that. Something like your auto dealership would really pop and could do well if polished up and matched with a well thought out presentation. You have 27 projects up there. All of them are small city style flat roofed white buildings. Most are depicting selling hardware. They are competing with each other for what little natural trickle of interested viewers they get just in the course of being up there. There is no backend push for any one. You (and many other people) use CuuSoo as a vanity tool to see how many people will vote for your MOC's. Which is all well and good. But it isn't the purpose for which it was designed or intended, and maintaining rules just to favor that style of use is clearly now at cross purposes for what the actual functionality of the crowd sourcing mechanism is supposed to be. They aren't disallowing that type of use. They are just giving it a fairly broad time limit. They are not there to permanently host your MOC's. They are there to give you a platform to pitch your ideas. Sell them to the masses. Take your Ford dealership and make it sizzle. Make it not just a City layout scene, but a strong playset. Cars, colorful characters, action and movement. Your wonderful signage. Your wonderful little detail builds. Put the audience or the child into your project and have them interacting with it. And limit yourself. Just a handful or active projects. Refine them first then publish them. Do not use the platform as a mechanism to refine the proposal (or at least limit the refinement to presentation refinements and minor tweaks. Response to feedback is always good.)

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But are they a predictable or quantifiable group? and are there enough of them to justify product creation and a production run? The time to 10k along with a number of other data points does help act as a metric for that.

I still think by far one of the biggest reasons for the new 1 year limit is to maintain and insure continuing interest and support from the project creator. Dorayaki mentions the Piano project sitting out there for 6 years. when was the last time the creator was heard from? Does CuuSoo have current info for them? Have they walked away from it or forgotten it? Are they even still involved? How many of the long term projects are still supported by their creators? The time limit is a good mechanism for keeping them engaged. Plus it encourages refinement and improving your presentation. It becomes more important to sell your project. Not simply show off your MOC. All of this is a good and necesary thing for this sort of endeavor. The fact that there has been no long term mechanism for housekeeping with CuuSoo has been one of its biggest flaws.

I wasn't talking about the new rules, or arguing against the time limit. I was merely making a tangential comment opining on the viability of this one particular project (the piano).

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I still think by far one of the biggest reasons for the new 1 year limit is to maintain and insure continuing interest and support from the project creator. Dorayaki mentions the Piano project sitting out there for 6 years. when was the last time the creator was heard from? Does CuuSoo have current info for them? Have they walked away from it or forgotten it? Are they even still involved? How many of the long term projects are still supported by their creators? The time limit is a good mechanism for keeping them engaged. Plus it encourages refinement and improving your presentation. It becomes more important to sell your project. Not simply show off your MOC. All of this is a good and necesary thing for this sort of endeavor. The fact that there has been no long term mechanism for housekeeping with CuuSoo has been one of its biggest flaws.

Well both Japanese buildings and BTTF are very early projects that took long time to achieve. The earliest Cuusoo projects are majorly created by Japanese FOLs, but generally Piano is the only left project that has an obvious chance to achive. The projects that could be affected by this new rule do exist, though they're minority of the bunch.

I've been watching Piano and other relevant projects, and I'm sure the creator has done several updates to take care of them. But as you said the rest early projects are just left there and those creators did nothing good to their system. It makes Cuusoo more like a "static showcase", not a moving-forward fan support system.

If the projects can be cleaned and have a good recycle rule, it's better to leave only hundreds of projects that allow free voters to choose, and then these projects shall have better visibility. In the current Cuusoo situation, maybe there is a decent project with only 50 votes, but there are many other junk projects with 50 votes too so voters can scarcely notice that project. To work under the new rule, the project must keep growing votes since their submission so it doesn't just stop here.

I'm not so sure of this one, actually. I can see a lot of more "casual" buyers of LEGO who'd never in a million years look into the hobby deeply enough to even learn of CUUSOO / Ideas' existence, let alone support or create projects, but who might well pick up a copy of that set if they see it in a LEGO Store.

This. I don't think votes mean nothing, and after all since Ceator and previous original Cuusoo sets already work, why not Piano? Edited by Dorayaki

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I posted my very first Lego Cuusoo project a year ago (Modern Modular Furnished Beachfront House), and I have found it to be a very rewarding experience. As a newbie, it has been a steep learning curve in crowdsourcing on the internet. I do see a point in limiting projects to a year, however, for me personally, I would appreciate the two year limit, because not only am I new at this, and learning how to use the many types of resources, but I have also had a problem "marketing" my concept, as it is an original non-licensed idea, making it difficult to promote and search for. I have had a lot of positive feedback in my comments on Cuusoo, and other platforms, so I know there is a definate interest, and people willing to purchase it. It just takes time to cultivate it.

I forgot to add that I do periodically edit my project, change the photos and descriptions, and check in on the comments. I don't leave it there and let it grow stale. I invested a lot of time and money into it, and hard work, and I am proud of what I have created on my own.

Edited by bricksare4me

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Do you think that there's any chance that they'll use the next batch of results to make a bigger deal of the "LEGO Ideas" launch?

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Do you think that there's any chance that they'll use the next batch of results to make a bigger deal of the "LEGO Ideas" launch?

It would not surprise me. I think at a minimum they will put the next batch of results out sooner rather than later to clear the decks as it were. That way this review period that's ending goes into review as Ideas, and these next announced results are the last specifically CuuSoo.

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I posted my very first Lego Cuusoo project a year ago (Modern Modular Furnished Beachfront House), and I have found it to be a very rewarding experience. As a newbie, it has been a steep learning curve in crowdsourcing on the internet. I do see a point in limiting projects to a year, however, for me personally, I would appreciate the two year limit, because not only am I new at this, and learning how to use the many types of resources, but I have also had a problem "marketing" my concept, as it is an original non-licensed idea, making it difficult to promote and search for. I have had a lot of positive feedback in my comments on Cuusoo, and other platforms, so I know there is a definate interest, and people willing to purchase it. It just takes time to cultivate it.

I forgot to add that I do periodically edit my project, change the photos and descriptions, and check in on the comments. I don't leave it there and let it grow stale. I invested a lot of time and money into it, and hard work, and I am proud of what I have created on my own.

Your creation is a terrific one that I think would make for the basis of an excellent set, and I supported it myself a while back.

I do think that for a project to be successful in getting to the target of 10,000 votes, it's not enough for the creator to update it, maintain it, check in on comments, etc. on the site; it needs to be actively promoted elsewhere. I know you started off doing so here (since your thread here on EB about this house was how I learned of it myself); have you kept this up? That is, have you tried promoting it on Facebook, Twitter, other LEGO forums on the web, etc.?

You might also want to try thinking beyond pure LEGO fandom, assuming you haven't already. For example, all those science fiction and fantasy projects - Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Doctor Who, etc. - get their votes not just from LEGO fans who check out the CUUSOO site anyway, but also from fans of those movies and franchises and whatnot, who follow links that get posted on sites dedicated to those series. Since your project is a beautiful house, I wonder whether you might do well to post links to it in forums for homemakers, architectural enthusiasts, etc. Have you tried that?

Edited by Blondie-Wan

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I definitely think that they will begin to publicize the new "Lego Ideas" site in general, and that will generate more viewers and voters moving through each day. Otherwise, yes, they would just be setting it up so that only 7 to 11 projects ever had a chance of ever passing in the future, and that would strangle their whole marketing initiative!

And no worries, If people are signing in with their "Lego ID" account, then they will be able to easily tell which votes are coming from hardcore AFOL fans, and which votes are from more casual fans or new fans, or young kids or adults coming out of their Dark Ages, and they will take all that data into account when they make decisions!

I think it will be a huge improvement, at least because it will give Lego complete control over the layout of the platform... I can't wait to see it! =D

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Actually tying it into your Lego ID account is really rather brilliant in a modern quasi creepy marketing way. Just think about how much data this gives them on what their actual customers like. Now that data is also tied to another great pool of data. All your purchasing history, etc. they can tie together what you like, with what you buy, with what your budget is, with even what you build if you submit projects. Meta data and data mining is not always scary. Especially not when it allows much more exacting design focus for more niche shorter run D2C offerings such as CuuSoo, Creator Expert, Trains and smaller scale licensed stuff such as Simpsons. A mechanism like this is what would give them data they need to know there is a solid market niche out there for something like your long desired History themes, without having to first risk production.

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There's one point among the new rules that caught my attention :

The Platform invites you to submit your own ideas as suggestions for potential future LEGO products or improvements of existing products.

It looks like we'll be able to submit modifications of existing sets. I think it's an interesting idea, I'm curious to see if such a project could one day get the 10k, and if so, get approved by Lego.

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Actually tying it into your Lego ID account is really rather brilliant in a modern quasi creepy marketing way. Just think about how much data this gives them on what their actual customers like. Now that data is also tied to another great pool of data. All your purchasing history, etc. they can tie together what you like, with what you buy, with what your budget is, with even what you build if you submit projects. Meta data and data mining is not always scary. Especially not when it allows much more exacting design focus for more niche shorter run D2C offerings such as CuuSoo, Creator Expert, Trains and smaller scale licensed stuff such as Simpsons. A mechanism like this is what would give them data they need to know there is a solid market niche out there for something like your long desired History themes, without having to first risk production.

Yes, plus a lot of fans here have been insisting that the votes of the core buyers should count extra, and now, they get their wish... If you log on with your "Lego ID" account, then your vote will be attached to a record of every set you have ever bought through the Lego Store for the last several years... So yes, every vote from the hardcore AFOL demographic will now have more weight behind it. I hope everyone is happy about that! And at the same time, their other goal is to draw in lots of new fans, so they will take it all into consideration. In the end, it will make Lego stronger!

Edited by The Real Indiana Jones

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If you log on with your "Lego ID" account, then your vote will be attached to a record of every set you have ever bought through the Lego Store for the last several years... So yes, every vote from the hardcore AFOL demographic will now have more weight behind it.

It's a smart move on their part, for the purposes of tracking the kind of audience that could be in place for a particular project to do well on the market. When certain crowds flock to a given project, it could even motivate them to do R&D on a potential theme or a gap in an existing line that they've overlooked (e.g., Green Lantern sets).

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There's one point among the new rules that caught my attention :

It looks like we'll be able to submit modifications of existing sets. I think it's an interesting idea, I'm curious to see if such a project could one day get the 10k, and if so, get approved by Lego.

Interesting. I wonder which kinds of products they might have in mind with this, since for the most part individual products don't have a long enough shelf life for a Cuusoo proposal to have a big impact, or at least that's what you think. Perhaps there are very particular products they are thinking of in this case, like road plate packs, which remain available for much longer than the typical set. Or perhaps they're not even sure what kind of proposals they're thinking of, and are just trying to prepare for any eventuality.

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Finally decided to reply to this thread, since I kinda tl;dr'd it over the past few days. Just wanted to leave my comments on the 1 year rule to see if anyone is thinking along the same lines as me. When LEGO Ideas was in its closed testing phase (I try not to brag about it, but I was a part of that), I suggested a minor change to the proposal of the 1 year time limit. What I suggested was that after a project hits each thousand milestone (so 1000, 2000, etc), it goes back to 365 days on its countdown. So if a project has one month left and hits 1000, it gets all of its time back and has a year to get to 2000. This would keep still archive projects that never get past 1000 in a year, but it would take some stress off the project creators each time they pass a thousand support milestone. I hope I explained that well enough, but does anyone else think that would be a good idea?

Also, when the site launches, be sure to submit any feedback, ideas or criticisms in the "send feedback" tool. Some of the feedback I provided I see has been taken into consideration, so don't hesitate from giving your feedback so that it can possibly be integrated into the site as well. :classic:

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Finally decided to reply to this thread, since I kinda tl;dr'd it over the past few days. Just wanted to leave my comments on the 1 year rule to see if anyone is thinking along the same lines as me. When LEGO Ideas was in its closed testing phase (I try not to brag about it, but I was a part of that), I suggested a minor change to the proposal of the 1 year time limit. What I suggested was that after a project hits each thousand milestone (so 1000, 2000, etc), it goes back to 365 days on its countdown. So if a project has one month left and hits 1000, it gets all of its time back and has a year to get to 2000. This would keep still archive projects that never get past 1000 in a year, but it would take some stress off the project creators each time they pass a thousand support milestone. I hope I explained that well enough, but does anyone else think that would be a good idea?

Also, when the site launches, be sure to submit any feedback, ideas or criticisms in the "send feedback" tool. Some of the feedback I provided I see has been taken into consideration, so don't hesitate from giving your feedback so that it can possibly be integrated into the site as well. :classic:

I do like the 1 year limit. I occasionally browse through what is on CUUSOO to see if there is anything that I would like. But there is so much junk on there, I give up after 20 pages (from either end)

I think 1000 votes in a year is a bit to low a target to have it reset. I would say 5,000 gives you an extra 6 months, then if you're at 7,500 by that 6 months, then you get another 6 months. This would weed out those who would take 10 years to reach 10,000 (@ 1,000 a year) but give those who are at least half way there a bit extra time. If you get to 5,000 votes, it is obvious that your idea is well liked and has the potential for a viable set, it just needs to get its transaction, which a lot of sets do once they get higher votes.

Of course, if it does turn out the LEGO starts advertising Ideas, and the page gets a lot more traffic, then 1 year should be more than enough time for a viable project to succeed.

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Actually tying it into your Lego ID account is really rather brilliant in a modern quasi creepy marketing way. Just think about how much data this gives them on what their actual customers like. Now that data is also tied to another great pool of data. All your purchasing history, etc. they can tie together what you like, with what you buy, with what your budget is, with even what you build if you submit projects. Meta data and data mining is not always scary. Especially not when it allows much more exacting design focus for more niche shorter run D2C offerings such as CuuSoo, Creator Expert, Trains and smaller scale licensed stuff such as Simpsons. A mechanism like this is what would give them data they need to know there is a solid market niche out there for something like your long desired History themes, without having to first risk production.

That does sound slightly creepy, but brilliant and sneaky on LEGO's part. But what if somebody creates a LEGO ID account just to support projects, and that is it? Not much data there. But, that's only a small flaw. I still think this will work out very well for LEGO!

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Of course, if it does turn out the LEGO starts advertising Ideas, and the page gets a lot more traffic, then 1 year should be more than enough time for a viable project to succeed.

This is a key point.

If it was easier to browse through and find submitted Ideas, I think great original projects that don't fit a well-known IP would get more attention too.

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That does sound slightly creepy, but brilliant and sneaky on LEGO's part. But what if somebody creates a LEGO ID account just to support projects, and that is it? Not much data there. But, that's only a small flaw. I still think this will work out very well for LEGO!

Accounts like that get disabled since they're in violation the site's terms of use. Sometimes they don't get caught, but often times they do especially if they follow the same activity patterns and were created at similar times. And if a project is doing so poorly that it needs fake accounts to get its support count up, chances are it wouldn't pass LEGO review. :wink:

If it was easier to browse through and find submitted Ideas, I think great original projects that don't fit a well-known IP would get more attention too.

From how it looked when I tested it little over a month ago, the way projects were showcased on the front page seemed like it would better-display good, original projects (as well as IP projects). It may have changed since I tested it, but since this is a common criticism, I'm sure it's something we'll see in the new site. :classic:

Edited by Meiko

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The update in rules dont give much information towards purposing idea's aimed at (Electronics) Power Function Systems. Anyone can purpose their Ideas for the PF system, does not mean in the end everything will work out as imagine. Take for example the problem that is surrounding the V2 IR receiver not capable of powering 2 M-motors of a single output for more then 30 seconds. (http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=94940)

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Accounts like that get disabled since they're in violation the site's terms of use. Sometimes they don't get caught, but often times they do especially if they follow the same activity patterns and were created at similar times. And if a project is doing so poorly that it needs fake accounts to get its support count up, chances are it wouldn't pass LEGO review. :wink:

I think the OP was talking about VIP accounts that people open just to vote for projects, and don't use for making purchases. LEGO would have data on a bunch of people who just vote for projects, but that might or might not actually buy any LEGO sets themselves. There's nothing about that that would be cheating; it'd just be strange, and not much of a source of good data.

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I see a downside to all the attention this will end up receiving when it's officially launched. If you thought the current ratio of 'junk' projects to 'proper' projects was bad, what happens when every kid who visits the Lego home page sees LEGO IDEAS plastered over every available white space? Cuusoo/Ideas needs a way to filter out those projects as fast as they can and to get it implemented ASAP.

As for the one year time limit, this is a good thing IMO. It keeps things moving along and will help with the clutter issue as I mentioned above. Perhaps the archived projects could be viewable on the author's profile?

Edited by Phoxtane

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I see a downside to all the attention this will end up receiving when it's officially launched. If you thought the current ratio of 'junk' projects to 'proper' projects was bad, what happens when every kid who visits the Lego home page sees LEGO IDEAS plastered over every available white space? Cuusoo/Ideas needs a way to filter out those projects as fast as they can and to get it implemented ASAP.

How would you filter things out, though? How would you define "junk projects" in a way a computer will recognize?

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I think that Lego Ideas will look super one year and one week from now... All of the projects that are going nowhere will be cleaned off, and if people are serious about their chances, then they can simply repost them again at that time... So they will all have maximum visibility, and they will all be starting from exactly the same starting line, for maximum fairness. It will be fascinating to see how it all plays out! =)

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