Meiko

CSS: a{color: black;} Unless it's a megacomplex XML thing. Then I still have no idea. No XML, that CSS code would more or less do it. But that's not a great solution to it. That would make links nearly indistinguishable from the content. I don't know why they were changed from the default blue anyways, but removing the a{color:#fff;} wherever it is in the code currently would fix it.

Honestly? It's a wiki. It's an online encyclopedia, a database of knowledge. I might even say it's already trying too much to be visually exciting. (The background image, besides not filling the screen all the way, feels busy and distracting with all that Matoran.) The Bionicle website has all that cool aesthetic because it's to grab a kid's attention. A kid is supposed to see that site and think, "Whoa, this site is so cool! Now I'm gonna spend all my money on these toys because that site is so cool!" The text glows, the image flickers, all to draw you in. BS01 isn't selling toys. It isn't begging you to stay or trying to capture that perfect aesthetic. As a wiki, its purpose is to present its information as clearly and neatly as possible. There's a reason why Wikipedia has kept to a greyscale color scheme for most things. It's not the beauty of the site that matters; it's exceedingly simplistic. It's the content that drives the site. Its simple style ensures nothing gets in the way of its most important function: conveying information. (Which is why I feel the need to point out the error in the table of contents block. Even if not everyone uses them because pages are usually manageable, it's still a barrier to conveying information.) The type of site it is hardly excuses how it's content should be displayed. As I pointed out in my response, there are flaws with how content is delivered in this interface. As a wiki, it's even more important to make sure the text is the first thing that pops off the screen to the reader. People come to the site to find Bionicle reference information, not be bombarded by dark boxes and high contrast and a terrible background. Wikipedia does this in the simplest of all ways. Black text on an entirely white and light grey interface. Wikipedia just recently even made more changes to improve content readability even more, outlined here. Here, we have light on dark on light on dark. That just doesn't work. And there's no reason for an interface on a wiki not to follow design cues from the topic. I'm more than familiar with both UI and UX design for wikis, having designed several new interfaces for LEGO-related (and other) wikis, and being involved in MediaWiki's design team. You look around various wikis hosted anywhere—Gamepedia, Wikia, etc—and most of them, the most successful ones at least, have a visual identity that follows the same theme as their topic. I go on Planetside Wiki and it looks like something Planetside-related. I go on TF2 Wiki, and it looks like something TF2-related. Heck, even the most recent skin I designed on a Wikia wiki of all places looks like it's related to its topic.

Just going to link to what I said in the topic about it on the forums: http://www.bzpower.com/board/topic/17672-bs01s-new-skinlayout/?p=879115 As to what Kayru said... I definitely agree I would have liked to be informed about this. Thankfully this isn't one of the wikis I have on my resume, but it definitely doesn't look very pleasant. I'm rather tired of all the ugly blockiness and boxes all over BS01. Bionicle never had boxes as a part of its visual identity, so why have a site about Bionicle look nothing like Bionicle ever did design-wise? Even back in 2001 when most of the web was boxy, the Bionicle website had more interesting designs than haphazard blocks everywhere. And exactly. Never make a design the default before anyone else sees it and provides feedback+criticism on it.

Meh, it could be better. Dark layouts are hard to make work on an interface that was designed with a light interface in mind. Another problem is the "layering" of the skin. It's light text on a dark background on a light background on a dark background. This is not a great design concept, as it's hard to control what pops off of the page first when a visitor first looks at the site. For me, the first thing that pops off the page is the boxes, but not really the text inside them. That could be overlooked on some parts of the site, but for the front page, it's really important to make sure the text is what the reader sees first. Another thing that bothers me with it is the contrast—it's just a bit too much. As far as the main page itself and not the design in general... it's still basically the same old, boring look. It's all boxy and not unique. Bionicle 2015 has some interesting designs and geometry in many things you see related to it. Wouldn't now be a good time to move past this whole boxy, table-cell looking layout? Besides the uninterestingly-placed graphics and background image that doesn't fill nearly the whole screen on my resolution and is haphazardly positioned, there's really nothing that makes this feel like it's about Bionicle. When I visit the Bionicle website or look at packaging for Bionicle sets, or really any other Bionicle-related thing out there right now, I get a certain feel from all of those. I see rocky textures and interesting patterns in stone architecture. I see text with an interesting blue glow that gives the same feel as the "energy" around the Mask of Creation in the logo. I see bright colored characters. Now I look at BS01, and I see none of that. I see a dark layout with not many colors that "pop", I see plain boxes, and I see a background image that I feel doesn't match anything else on the page.

Generally no, I'll either just be messing with pieces or experimenting for a certain functional outcome, not really a planned-ahead finalized MOC. Only times I plan something ahead is if I'm building a model car, I'll have an idea of what type of car I'm going to build.

I went away to school for a year and didn't go on BZPower once during that time, but during that year was the time when the forums were offline, so I was never aware the site went down until afterwards.

A table of contents for your brick badge bricks. Here's my super minimal one for inspiration.

According to what I've recorded of my collection, it'd be 733 Universal Building Set and 744 Universal Building Set, both released in 1980.

High res images: http://images.brickimedia.org/a/a6/LEGO_Constraction_LukeDarth_RGB_PRE_2000x2000.jpg http://images.brickimedia.org/a/a7/Vader_Teaser_FINAL_RGB_2000_300.jpg

If I had known about this meetup more than one day in advance I would have gone, but I already made plans for tomorrow.

I'll take one I guess

I actually didn't notice BZPower's tagline had been changed to include Creations. Neat. As far as story reference goes, BS01 has been one of the best places to go for that for years. I'm sure that will continue into 2015 and on, which would make it unnecessary for BZPower to focus on creating/updating reference content themselves. For set reference, there's Brickset and Bricklink in database format but there's Brickipedia if you want write-ups about the sets (descriptions, various notes, who designed it, what features it has, etc).

It's most-likely maintenance on the system that handles LEGO.com and its microsites. http://lan.lego.com and http://ideas.lego.com are both still up as they run a different system than the rest of LEGO.com, as well as http://rebrick.lego.com as it runs a completely different system than all other LEGO sites.

The rubber ones aren't as painful to step on. That's a plus.

Heh you can probably remove TNW and TCW now because the sites have been dead for 2 years and if they ever officially "come back" they'd be merged with Brickipedia. KJ too, as there are no plans to start that back up again. People may still refer to it in topics as KJ though so idk.

Not something I can choose either over the other. I use both of them for different things. I don't build action figures in Technic but I also don't build mechanical things using CCBS. They're both equally useful, just for different purposes.

Congratulations! I look forward to seeing your talents appearing on store shelves near me someday soon.

Looks fun. I hope some AFOLs go so we can hear and see pictures of what the event is like afterwards.

Out of curiosity, how many of those are spam accounts? I've never run a forum so I'm not familiar with how prone to spam bots they are, but I know blogs and wikis are very prone to them which is why I'm curious. Either way, it's a great achievement.

Like ~T1S~ said, it would go in BIONICLE Discussion, unless it's a Ninjago, Legends of Chima, or Hero Factory set that you're talking about, in which it would go in those respective subforums.

I've never really used many of the perks of it, having only posted blog updates infrequently over many months, but it is the best way to support the site rather than just donating without the acquisition of premier perks. As someone who doesn't read or post blogs on BZPower, the best perks I've seen from premier membership are entering in premier raffles and seeing your rank image as you earn new ranks over time. I see you've gone ahead and purchased your premier membership, so you'll find out what you like about it on your own now.

Like people have said, BS01 would be ideal due to its in-depth coverage of the story. To get the most out of browsing BS01 for its story information, I suggest you use their Saga Guides: http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Saga_Guides

Looks like friggin' Terminator.

Either I'm not desperately checking the site frequently enough, or the downtime was very short (or both ) because I didn't notice it at all.