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BZPower: News, REFERENCE, and Discussion?


Volitak_Boxor

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There's three main categories of BZP activity noted on the front page (News, Reference and Discussion), but lately, Reference seems to have the short end of the stick.  Most of the front page reference links are broken, and there hasn't been an Onua-marked reference post in years.  For a while, that made sense, because Bionicle was mostly over, but with its return in 2015, will BZP resume its reference activities?  I know in the past, there was a set database and some checklists for old collectibles, but I'm not really familiar with what sort of story-related things the old Reference Team did.  Are there any plans for reference activities with the new line, or have those duties been left to BS01, leaving "Reference" on the main page as a relic of an older time?  I wouldn't mind seeing an updated set database (at least somewhere online, be it here or BS01), but I'm wondering, just out of curiosity, if there's anything else that BZPower had in the past that would be a useful reference for the new line.

 

 

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 ^               Often lurking, occasionally writing about sets on BS01.                     


L     This link is a bit old, but there's still some good info about combiners there.


 

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I'm pretty sure that's just a relic, as the more updated logo at the top of forums replaces it with Creations.

That is correct. Storyline information and set information are covered by other sites in a much more in-depth manner than BZPower has in many years. The reference section never really got going after the 2011 forum update and (IIRC) was a factor in the disbanding of the Reference Keeper group.

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At this point, it's basically left to BS01 (and I'm okay with that! :U). There's certainly a place for it here, considering how passionate everybody is on the S&T forum, and for things not covered by BS01 (like a set checklist) there's always fans to fill in the gap.

 

As for an actual Set Database, it's something I've tried starting on BS01 (and I really like the way it's looking!) but it's a huge undertaking.

 

Ultimately, I think we have a fairly good system in place. There's places for fans of all types to contribute, and we all do our best to support the brand. Between us we have three LEGO Ambassadors (and Meiko for Brickipedia!) and a killer community. I think 2015 is going to be a great year for all of us, and it'll be cool to see how certain things (like the Reference system) adapt going forward.

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BZPower hasn't really had a reference section on par with other sites, like BS01, for a long while. When the site was younger and there weren't these other resources purely dedicated to reference it was nice to have since it helped compile information about the story and, over the years, it proved beneficial enough to continue granted how complicated and large the story was getting with all of its jargon and characters.

 

But yeah, like Wally mentioned, the updated logo replaced the "reference" portion and the reference keeper team was disbanded a fair while ago.

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BZPower's reference section made more sense in the early years of BIONICLE than in the later years. A lot of the most useful reference material in the early years was specific to things like the collectibles, which fell by the wayside in later years (and even a lot of that info is now contradictory or out-of-date).

 

Nowadays, it makes more sense to look for and compile story info on user-edited sites like BS01, and to look for and compile set info on sites like Bricklink or Brickset. I don't know if it's within the site's best interest to try to become a reference source again, except perhaps in the sense of having things like set reviews for people to refer to.

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There's still some more specific reference sources in S&T itself regarding certain story/lore aspects and various collections of Greg quotes - but as an official feature of the site it has largely been taken care of by BS01 and such even since before the end of the line really.

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Credit to Pohuaki for the awesome banner! ^_^

 

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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).

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Meiko - @georgebarnick

LUG Ambassador and administrator at Brickipedia

News reporter and database administrator at Brickset

Administrator at BIONICLEsector01

 

DISCLAIMER: All opinions and contributions made under this account are based solely on my own personal thoughts and opinions, and in no way represent any of the above groups/entities. If you have any concerns or inquiries about the contributions made under this account, please contact me individually and I will address them with you to the best of my ability.

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As for an actual Set Database, it's something I've tried starting on BS01 (and I really like the way it's looking!) but it's a huge undertaking.

 

Ultimately, I think we have a fairly good system in place. There's places for fans of all types to contribute, and we all do our best to support the brand. Between us we have three LEGO Ambassadors (and Meiko for Brickipedia!) and a killer community. I think 2015 is going to be a great year for all of us, and it'll be cool to see how certain things (like the Reference system) adapt going forward.

Awesome! I've been waiting for something like this and it looks great. :) 

 

-NotS

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I guess that most of BZP's older reference materials became redundant after BS01 rose.  Back in 2001/2002, there weren't really many other good reference sites for Bionicle, but it seems like BZP has passed its reference mantle on. 

 

Now, assuming that the Kanohi logos for News, Reviews, BZPower, Market, and Opinion remain intact after the front page redesign, I wonder if there are any plans to repurpose Onua?  Perhaps the Pakari could indicate highlighted user creations, just as the forum header has changed from saying "reference" to "creations"?

sqtd1i.png


 ^               Often lurking, occasionally writing about sets on BS01.                     


L     This link is a bit old, but there's still some good info about combiners there.


 

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As for an actual Set Database, it's something I've tried starting on BS01 (and I really like the way it's looking!) but it's a huge undertaking.

 

Ultimately, I think we have a fairly good system in place. There's places for fans of all types to contribute, and we all do our best to support the brand. Between us we have three LEGO Ambassadors (and Meiko for Brickipedia!) and a killer community. I think 2015 is going to be a great year for all of us, and it'll be cool to see how certain things (like the Reference system) adapt going forward.

Awesome! I've been waiting for something like this and it looks great. :) 

 

-NotS

 

Thanks! I keep meaning to do some kind of blog or facebook feature highlighting a set page that needs attention, or something.

 

I guess that most of BZP's older reference materials became redundant after BS01 rose.  Back in 2001/2002, there weren't really many other good reference sites for Bionicle, but it seems like BZP has passed its reference mantle on. 

 

Now, assuming that the Kanohi logos for News, Reviews, BZPower, Market, and Opinion remain intact after the front page redesign, I wonder if there are any plans to repurpose Onua?  Perhaps the Pakari could indicate highlighted user creations, just as the forum header has changed from saying "reference" to "creations"?

Well, BZP would still do stuff like hosting the serials on the board, even though BS01 would do the same. It was mostly just for convenience, to give people easy places to look when quoting something. These days, though, it seems most people are comfortable with getting the information from BS01 (or sometimes elsewhere, with the relaxing of external linkage rules =P).

 

The Pakari being for user creations sounds like a really good idea.

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