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Discussion: The Future Of Bzpower


Gatanui

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Emphasis on discussion. I have heard many complaints about the discussion part of BZPower, particularly the GD forum coming off badly, so I thought maybe we could contribute to reversing that trend. What I want to try here is if we can get an actual, intelligent discussion going. That means: No one-sentence responses please. Obviously there is no way that can be enforced as a rule, but at least we can have it as a guideline.What I ask you is the following: How do you picture the future of BZPower? Take everything into consideration from the development of LEGO to the current state of the forums, including forum structure and rules. Whatever comes to your mind. :) How do you think BZPower is developing? What would you change about BZPower? How do you want it to become? Or wouldn´t you change anything?In my opinion, the current development of BZPower is very clear: More members are leaving than joining. I think BZPower should let loose of BIONICLE and finally clearly become a LEGO forum. While that has been achieved very well on the forums the front page still screams BIONICLE everywhere and that is what people first see. If they aren´t interested in BIONICLE, they are most likely not going to enter the forums. Don´t get me wrong, I love BIONICLE and BZPower should not forget that it primarily is, or was, a BIONICLE site. However, it´s pretty obvious there is no way the site can survive if it keeps the focus on BIONICLE. That is why I think a complete overhaul of the front page is in order. You could argue that the forums are more enjoyable when they aren´t so full, and I could easily agree to that. However, a quite forum is far more in danger of becoming too quite in the future if more members leave than join (which I am pretty sure is the case). Roughly 1160 members have visited the forums this month, of which about 845 have posted. Of course, that doesn´t sound too bad unless you consider we have closely 47000 members, a number which is increasing far more slowly than it has in the past years. BZPower cannot survive forever, but I think we can all agree that we should keep it alive as long as we can. ;)I also think BZPower should implement technical solutions to enable members to link to a broader variety of sites while still complying with our advertising policy (before you ask, this has been in the works earlier this year so it will eventually happen). That way, we could also establish cooperative relationships to other BIONICLE and LEGO fan sites (always with our policy disclaimer of course ;)) and consequently increase traffic.Do you agree? Or do you think BZPower is perfectly fine as it is now? Discuss! :)~Gata. ;)

Edited by Gatanui

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I do think that BZPower is too BIONICLE-oriented. The admins did a great job reformatting the forums, but there are still too many BIONICLE discussion areas for essentially a dead line. Now, I'm not saying that BZPower should eliminate all BIONICLE-related forums, but it's face it - the ones that do exist are lacking activity. Badly.The policy of not linking (or mentioning) other forums has always bothered me, because of the exceptions. I can understand BrickLink, and I'm glad it can now be mentioned. But the Twitter policy is something that's always bothered me. I don't know how many times I've had to report an embedded Twitter feed because it can so easily break rules and bypass the word filter - and many times, it's not even removed because the newer tweets knock out the offending one. In all honesty, it doesn't do much for BZPower to have an embed. I can understand the linking part, but there's still a lot of not-safe-for-BZP content on there, much like other sites that are banned from even mentioning.Again, I can see why and how we got to this system - and it's worked for a while - but it's outmoded. It's time for a change in that policy. I completely agree in the gateway system you described, Gata.Personally, I think the Great Downtime came at the wrong time, and for far too long. I know that the staff couldn't help some of the delays, but the facts are the facts: it ran members off because they thought it'd never return. When it did return, BIONICLE was even deader than when it went offline. I can understand the reasoning behind it - and the new forums are nicer than I'd originally appraised them as - but over half a year is a downtime in which many members decided to quit. No one can say for certain if they would have left had the forums never gone offline, but the downtime still has to be a factor.Back on topic. :P The future of the BZPower staff seems to be in flux. I'm kind of surprised they're still hiring members, taking into consideration the recent decrease in traffic. Of course, it's not upping the staff-to-members ratio by much - only by a little, really - but again, it seems to me like BZPower would be fine with less staff. But less members, and more staff? A little confusing to me, but then again, I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes.

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I think at this point it's pretty clear that Bionicle, as a discussion subject, is getting to be dead for all intents and purposes - there's no sets, and the pace of story updates has crawled to a stop. That's not to say it's impossible to discuss, but without new sources of discussion it's severely limited as a topic around which to base a site.The largest issue with converting BZP to a general Lego site that I see is that people would ask, "well, why should I go here when there's the official Lego boards [younger users]/Lego boards that aren't nearly as strict on moderation [older users]"? It also doesn't help that HF, frankly speaking, offers far less to discuss than Bionicle did thanks to its lack of story content, meaning a conversion to an HFPower sort of site wouldn't do very much to help matters (never mind the fuss that would likely cause). At this point, I'd guess the vast majority of active members are here because of the community of BZP and because they've been here a while, not necessarily because of Bionicle. As for users leaving, if I may be frank I think it's nigh-impossible to stop certain personalities from getting fed up with BZP's rules without changing the rules at least somewhat. I go to a few forums these days and BZP is by far the most restrictive - I don't mind that much, but for others it quickly becomes a case of "why am I still here when there's much more convenient places to discuss things?" And they really have a point - if they're not interested in the subject of the site, and they don't enjoy the community on its own merits, why stay in an environment that feels so limiting?I think the main page's best bet is to do some rebranding and suggest a more general Lego site while still keeping references to Bionicle and HF as "main points" of the site. It's a long shot, but you're more likely to pick up at least some users that way. As for the forums, at least some reevaluation of the rules may be in order - it's understandable that BZP is trying to keep things absolutely kid-safe, but things like blocking That Video Site just come off as ridiculous given the way people of all ages interact with the internet and forums these days.

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BZPower needs to shift it's focus from a dead toy line to Hero Factory, a very much alive theme. There's only so much you can talk about Bionicle before you've discussed everything there is. So the story is still going on? Who actually is keeping up with it? Maybe 3 members. A majority of the members have moved their interest from Bionicle to Hero Factory, so I think BZP needs to shift its focus.(sorry, I can't think of anything else to say D: )

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I think the main page's best bet is to do some rebranding and suggest a more general Lego site while still keeping references to Bionicle and HF as "main points" of the site. It's a long shot, but you're more likely to pick up at least some users that way. As for the forums, at least some reevaluation of the rules may be in order - it's understandable that BZP is trying to keep things absolutely kid-safe, but things like blocking That Video Site just come off as ridiculous given the way people of all ages interact with the internet and forums these days.

Doesn't a gateway system kind of give you a best-of-all-worlds scenario? Allowing free linkage while at the same time halting embeds would keep BZPower clean but make it more open, for more traffic.Also, something I didn't mention in my previous post: I know why political and religious discussion is banned. Unfortunately, politics and religion are considered one block, often intertwined in some facets. I don't quite understand, though, why intelligent discussion of politics is halted. Before anyone says that intelligent discussion is impossible on BZP (and before you discuss politics in this topic - I do NOT want to be responsible for that) - take a look at this now-locked entry. I saw no flaming, and the beginnings of some intelligent discussion. Who says BZP isn't capable of it?Not sure if that would work on the forums, though.

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The policy of not linking (or mentioning) other forums has always bothered me, because of the exceptions. I can understand BrickLink, and I'm glad it can now be mentioned. But the Twitter policy is something that's always bothered me. I don't know how many times I've had to report an embedded Twitter feed because it can so easily break rules and bypass the word filter - and many times, it's not even removed because the newer tweets knock out the offending one. In all honesty, it doesn't do much for BZPower to have an embed. I can understand the linking part, but there's still a lot of not-safe-for-BZP content on there, much like other sites that are banned from even mentioning.Again, I can see why and how we got to this system - and it's worked for a while - but it's outmoded. It's time for a change in that policy. I completely agree in the gateway system you described, Gata.

About the exceptions: We are working on compiling a list of all exceptions to the advertising rules. But I do agree they have quite some flaws, although I understand why they are there.I wish we weren´t all so busy in real life and could get to things like that faster. Most of us are either at college, have a job or are at least in the final year of school like me.

Personally, I think the Great Downtime came at the wrong time, and for far too long. I know that the staff couldn't help some of the delays, but the facts are the facts: it ran members off because they thought it'd never return. When it did return, BIONICLE was even deader than when it went offline. I can understand the reasoning behind it - and the new forums are nicer than I'd originally appraised them as - but over half a year is a downtime in which many members decided to quit. No one can say for certain if they would have left had the forums never gone offline, but the downtime still has to be a factor.Back on topic. :P The future of the BZPower staff seems to be in flux. I'm kind of surprised they're still hiring members, taking into consideration the recent decrease in traffic. Of course, it's not upping the staff-to-members ratio by much - only by a little, really - but again, it seems to me like BZPower would be fine with less staff. But less members, and more staff? A little confusing to me, but then again, I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes.

The Great Downtime as you put it (nice name by the way) was indeed far too long. I was really becoming desperate at the end as a good portion of the time there was barely any progress. I am not blaming anyone for it, simply because I understand many older staff members were too busy for reasons stated above, although I am sure laziness also contributed to it at least a bit as well (again, not blaming anyone, I am lazy myself :P). Of course Greg´s absence, which he cannot be blamed for, contributed to BIONICLE´s current state.I have to disagree with your logic here. It´s far better to have more people you can distribute the workload on. More staff members cannot do any harm while fewer do. And several of the past promotions took place to compensate the leave of other staff members. For example, Eeko and Erebus replaced Ziko (who replaced Windrider) and Macku: Toa of Bubbles who retired a few months back.

BZPower needs to shift it's focus from a dead toy line to Hero Factory, a very much alive theme. There's only so much you can talk about Bionicle before you've discussed everything there is. So the story is still going on? Who actually is keeping up with it? Maybe 3 members. A majority of the members have moved their interest from Bionicle to Hero Factory, so I think BZP needs to shift its focus.(sorry, I can't think of anything else to say D: )

Sorry, but I disagree there. I like HERO Factory, but it does not offer by far as many topics for discussion like BIONICLE. Far better would be a shift of focus to LEGO overall which would encompass HERO Factory while still offering enough to discuss. Another problem with focusing on HERO Factory is that it is eventually going to end while LEGO will still last for many years. I don´t think it would be such a good idea to shift the focus once again if HF was to end.~Gata. ;) Edited by Gatanui

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Overall, I think BZPower's emphasis on BIONICLE has been reduced effectively, and there's now a much wider scope of discussion for other LEGO themes. The site, however, will perhaps need a few further changes to make it evident that it is no longer strictly a BIONICLE fansite. Reviews of sets from non-constraction themes should become more prominent, even if this requires creating a more efficient system by which non-staff can create set reviews.And at the same time, the BIONICLE discussion should not go away. BZPower's heritage as a BIONICLE site is one of the things that makes it unique compared to many other LEGO fan forums-- after all, since BIONICLE was not very popular among AFOLs and fans of traditional LEGO themes, the typical LEGO fan doesn't share the unique perspective that former BIONICLE fans tend to have. For many AFOLs, for example, the Knights' Kingdom theme with its "jellybean knights" was a mistake, whereas many BIONICLE fans have happy memories of the theme. Several LEGO fans feel that story-driven themes reduce kids' potential for imagination, but those of us who remember BIONICLE fondly would scoff at such claims.The "linking to other sites with forums" policy is indeed a hindrance here, even though there are valid reasons for its presence. I think that in the very least it should be made clearer. For instance, there is currently nothing in the policy of whether Bricklink can be mentioned (forgive me if it can't; I believe I have heard it is an exception but my memory for such is fuzzy and there is no codified list of sites that can or can't be mentioned). The most comprehensive LEGO sets database other than Bricklink also received its own forums during the downtime, but I have seen members link to that site with no hesitation, and with no repercussions. The same applies for Flickr, which many members use for image-hosting. And LEGO Rebrick obviously connects fans to many other sites for LEGO discussion, but it is itself an official LEGO website. If there are sites for which this once-strict rule does not apply, they ought to be a part of a list of exceptions as a part of the policy, rather than just "de facto" exceptions that members have to infer from the actions of members who have been around longer.Overall I think BZPower has a lot of lasting potential in the LEGO fan community, but the site needs to adapt to make use of that potential. The process has already started, and I feel if it had not I probably never would have stayed at the site after it returned from its downtime. The site's broader scope, coupled with the unique perspectives it already had, made it a welcoming place for discussion of many LEGO themes, even if many of my best friends from the site no longer seemed to be active. But there is still a ways to go before BZPower can truly discover its niche among the major LEGO fansites. I don't think the site will ever be as active or prosperous as it was during BIONICLE's heyday, but BZPower as a forum can make use of this by emphasizing its status as a unique and close-knit LEGO community. I have no idea what to expect in BZPower's future, but I have a feeling some of these changes will be necessary for it to be more than just a relic of a once-strong fandom.

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some changes need to be made. not being able to link to certain sites is a severe limitation while on the interblags. (if you know what i just referenced you are awesome.) i understand the reasoning, but to be perfectly honest, no site i have ever been to can top what i hear at my school.bionicle is dead. there is still some discussion value, but not much. the bbc needs to stay, but i think everything else could be compacted to a smaller section of the site. hf doesn't have much discussion value, and most of the others (maybe excluding ninjago due to the tv series coming up) don't have have half the story bionicle did. i think there should be a more general library where i could post my story, and maybe have something like the ccc for it. because its quite annoying to not be able to request a review, and watch my epic get shoved off the front page of cot without more than a few glances. i have it on a blog now, but i cant post a link, even though i am keeping it pg(13 at times.)and the word filter needs some serious reworking. was that long enough gata?

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If Bzpower changed to lego forum, I just might be able to tolerate it, but the thing is, I dont really want bzpower to change. It's about bionicle, with some bits of lego, but if this dies into a full lego forum, thats, thats just a horrible way to die. If the lego and bionicle discussion is balanced, thats ok. and if its completely bionicle. thats ok, but if this beome a lego, not a bionicle forum, then I get mad. I grew up with bionicle. bionicle has supported me my whole life, and then, bam, it ended. But I had bzpower, where I could talk with some of my only friends about what we like and dislike. and also, bzpower doesn't need to change, because remember what happened last time (downtime in which we lost a lot of members, which is what you are complaining about, and another big downtime would effectively just lower the member count anyway).

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Overall, I think BZPower's emphasis on BIONICLE has been reduced effectively, and there's now a much wider scope of discussion for other LEGO themes. The site, however, will perhaps need a few further changes to make it evident that it is no longer strictly a BIONICLE fansite. Reviews of sets from non-constraction themes should become more prominent, even if this requires creating a more efficient system by which non-staff can create set reviews.

I think that´s impossible to avoid considering all staff members joined at a time where BIONICLE was still running. Personally I don´t think it´s too much of a problem either. Obviously BZPower will always be more oriented to constraction themes than to System themes and I am perfectly fine with that as long as none is neglected.

And at the same time, the BIONICLE discussion should not go away. BZPower's heritage as a BIONICLE site is one of the things that makes it unique compared to many other LEGO fan forums-- after all, since BIONICLE was not very popular among AFOLs and fans of traditional LEGO themes, the typical LEGO fan doesn't share the unique perspective that former BIONICLE fans tend to have. For many AFOLs, for example, the Knights' Kingdom theme with its "jellybean knights" was a mistake, whereas many BIONICLE fans have happy memories of the theme. Several LEGO fans feel that story-driven themes reduce kids' potential for imagination, but those of us who remember BIONICLE fondly would scoff at such claims.The "linking to other sites with forums" policy is indeed a hindrance here, even though there are valid reasons for its presence. I think that in the very least it should be made clearer. For instance, there is currently nothing in the policy of whether Bricklink can be mentioned (forgive me if it can't; I believe I have heard it is an exception but my memory for such is fuzzy and there is no codified list of sites that can or can't be mentioned). The most comprehensive LEGO sets database other than Bricklink also received its own forums during the downtime, but I have seen members link to that site with no hesitation, and with no repercussions. The same applies for Flickr, which many members use for image-hosting. And LEGO Rebrick obviously connects fans to many other sites for LEGO discussion, but it is itself an official LEGO website. If there are sites for which this once-strict rule does not apply, they ought to be a part of a list of exceptions as a part of the policy, rather than just "de facto" exceptions that members have to infer from the actions of members who have been around longer.

Ditto. :POf course its existence is valid. All the unwritten exceptions are indeed a problem but that is to change. BrickLink is allowed, by the way, and Brickset is, too. I suppose exceptions are made when a site has proven over time to be appropiate.

Overall I think BZPower has a lot of lasting potential in the LEGO fan community, but the site needs to adapt to make use of that potential. The process has already started, and I feel if it had not I probably never would have stayed at the site after it returned from its downtime. The site's broader scope, coupled with the unique perspectives it already had, made it a welcoming place for discussion of many LEGO themes, even if many of my best friends from the site no longer seemed to be active. But there is still a ways to go before BZPower can truly discover its niche among the major LEGO fansites. I don't think the site will ever be as active or prosperous as it was during BIONICLE's heyday, but BZPower as a forum can make use of this by emphasizing its status as a unique and close-knit LEGO community. I have no idea what to expect in BZPower's future, but I have a feeling some of these changes will be necessary for it to be more than just a relic of a once-strong fandom.

I sometimes think BZPower could work well alongside a popular LEGO forum for AFOLs we both know. I picture them The two big LEGO forums, one being for AFOLs, one for TFOls and kids.

some changes need to be made. not being able to link to certain sites is a severe limitation while on the interblags. (if you know what i just referenced you are awesome.) i understand the reasoning, but to be perfectly honest, no site i have ever been to can top what i hear at my school.

I have seen sites where the comments were really no more than scum. If the language at your school really is so bad, then there you have a good reason why our advertising policy is so strict: To avoid just that. Really, ugly language is not even fun, it just hurts your ears and your brain. If our strict policy can contribute to preventing kids from talking like what I have seen in some places, then I totally support it.

bionicle is dead. there is still some discussion value, but not much. the bbc needs to stay, but i think everything else could be compacted to a smaller section of the site. hf doesn't have much discussion value, and most of the others (maybe excluding ninjago due to the tv series coming up) don't have have half the story bionicle did. i think there should be a more general library where i could post my story, and maybe have something like the ccc for it. because its quite annoying to not be able to request a review, and watch my epic get shoved off the front page of cot without more than a few glances. i have it on a blog now, but i cant post a link, even though i am keeping it pg(13 at times.)

The thing is, this is still a BIONICLE/LEGO forum, so although I can perfectly understand you want to show people here your work, there are better places to get constructive criticism for them than BZPower. ;) And anyway, if you disable comments on your blog it should be okay to link to.

and the word filter needs some serious reworking.

That will happen.

was that long enough gata?

Lol. :P Please don´t feel forced into making posts as long as possible. I simply want this to be an intelligent discussion, and one single, but still meaningful paragraph can achieve that as well. ;)

If Bzpower changed to lego forum, I just might be able to tolerate it, but the thing is, I dont really want bzpower to change. It's about bionicle, with some bits of lego, but if this dies into a full lego forum, thats, thats just a horrible way to die. If the lego and bionicle discussion is balanced, thats ok. and if its completely bionicle. thats ok, but if this beome a lego, not a bionicle forum, then I get mad. I grew up with bionicle. bionicle has supported me my whole life, and then, bam, it ended. But I had bzpower, where I could talk with some of my only friends about what we like and dislike. and also, bzpower doesn't need to change, because remember what happened last time (downtime in which we lost a lot of members, which is what you are complaining about, and another big downtime would effectively just lower the member count anyway).

Good point, I hadn´t thought of the downtime that would be needed to do such a big change to BZPower. Then again, if the result was worth it, BZPower could possibly afford another downtime, though please not as long as the last one! :P I am not sure I want to go through that again.~Gata. ;) Edited by Gatanui

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Right off the bat I want to say it's great this kind of topic exists. It's long been needed to have a venue in order to discuss things like this with the staff in a friendly atmosphere.I've said this before when this has been brought to the public's attention, and I'll say it again. Speaking from the perspective of a long time Lego fan, BZP will never be where I would want to spend my time discussing Lego. Only where I would choose to go if I wanted to discuss BIONICLE or Hero Factory. System has never been something in which the majority of BZP is interested in. The member-base that BZP has, for the most part, either enjoy BIONICLE, Hero Factory, or both, because that's why they joined. If I said to myself "Alright, BZP's cool for the Constraction Figure lines, but i see it also has a Lego forum too; should I go there and make it my new hangout spot?", I would mull it over in my head a bit, and then I'd take a look across the internet and see any number of better discussion forums for System, because that's how they started, and that's why they were made. With that goal in mind, they became successful, because they followed up on their original goal and it led them to success. They didn't spend ten years discussing a certain subject matter, then attempt to broaden the forum's scope and risk alienating their member-base.My point is, if BZP shifts its focus to become a general Lego forum, very few new members will join simply because of that fact, because there are better alternatives. BZP has always been a BIONICLE fansite, and if it needs to eventually broaden into a "Constraction Figure" site, with a LOT more emphasis on Hero Factory, Superheroes, etc, maybe even a slightly increased amount of System discussion, then so be it, that's not too much of a stretch. BIONICLE's dead for now, so obviously there needs to be more content in the forums to keep what members we have interested, but at least keep it in tune with the general subject matter. IMO, a graphical overhaul on the front page isn't going to draw in new members. The actual content will. And that brings me to my next point.I manage a fan-made podcast named "The Three Virtues" here in GD. Our slogan is "By members, for members". What we mean by that is the podcast, and the discussion within, is from the perspective of the BZP members, and everything we put out, is geared towards what we think the BZP members will enjoy. We discuss the BZP news (which, as we regularly note, is far too Lego-centric, so we mainly skip a lot of the news because it doesn't lend itself well to discussion to our lack of interest), we discuss things going on in the forums, we spotlight fan-made member creations (frequently, not spotlighting an already well known MoCist or Author with a huge fanbase every once in a blue moon as BZP does), and that's what we do.What BZP should do, is put more focus on the creative outlet. I recall, quite a while ago, it was promised that the Front Page would begin featuring MoCs, stories, everything from the creative outlet on a regular basis, to promote interest in those forums and get some creativity noticed. That is rarely done at all nowadays, for whatever reason, and that is a bigger asset than you may think. Many forums promote member creations regularly, from Sprite Comics to Drawings, to Music Videos to MoCs, and what that does is cross-promote discussion on the creative side of things. BZP should expand that and make it a regular occurence, maybe two creations a week.Aside from that, I agree with you regarding the possible modifcation of rules to allow members to link to (or even discuss) certain sites. Due to the current structure of the rules, there's a great stifling of discussion due to the current way the rules are layed out, and I hope that is modified eventually 9which, according to you, is happening, which I am extremely glad for).Honestly, I think BZP is doing a lot of things right. The frequent contests, the amount of content that's on the front page (even though the majority of it doesn't interest many members), the atmosphere of the forum, all of it is very well done. But to end my post, I want to stress my opposition to BZP becoming a "General Lego" forum. BZP's appeal, the reason that people want to come here, is that it's a BIONICLE forum. Possibly expand that to cover Hero Factory as well, so if people are looking for a forum to discuss HF, they find it here? Definitely. But BZP needs to maintain a sense of uniqueness in order to stand on its own in the Lego community, which it has been able to achieve for the past ten years, and even today, when BIONICLE"s gone. My advice? Broaden the scope of the forum in a limited way, while keeping in tune with the basic subject matter that has always been the focus.TLDR; Expand the site not into a "General Lego" forum, but into a "Constraction Figures" discussion forum with underlying system forums, Spotlight member creations on a regular basis, and feature everything from the creative outlet (not just MoCs and stories, but Comics, Drawings, etc.)-Mesonak

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Right off the bat I want to say it's great this kind of topic exists. It's long been needed to have a venue in order to discuss things like this with the staff in a friendly atmosphere.

I am glad this topic is meeting a good reception. So far, I am very pleased at the diversity of opinions and reasonings posted here. Keep them coming! :)You make very interesting and valid points, and please forgive me if I don´t address every single one of them. Just let me say that the lack of member creations appearing on the front page is not so much the News Reporters' fault than of the rest of the staff as it is our job to submit suggestions, something that has been neglected (admittedly, also by myself) since the downtime. Missing habit, perhaps? It wasn´t done for very long after all. Sometimes I have pondered how BZPower would evolve if it became a LEGO forum and I too wondered in which way it would be better than other forums. This said, even though I do think BZPower should broaden its focus I also agree that it should in no way neglect its roots and origins entirely.~Gata. ;) Edited by Gatanui

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Lets face it. Bionicle is dead. We can keep it strong in our hearts, but for now it is gone. The sets vanished. Now Greg is too busy for story. All we have is what we create ourselves. But every hobby is eventually abandoned due to lack of interest. All good things must come to an end. Bionicle is gone, let it rest in peace. Bringing back Bionicle is futile and will be for the worse. For now, we can turn our eyes towards the future. Hero Factory. Let us not cling to a sinking ship. Let us open our eyes to other Lego themes. I propose BZP to be for Lego in general, with forum divisions for the five categories of Lego: Space, City, Castle, Technic, and Other. And Technic will have a Constraction subforum, and each of those now 6 generes will have discussion forums for the individual themes under those categories. Most creative topics, excepting MOC, can be moved and spread out accordingly. Q&A, COT, GD, and LBC can stay seperate.

Edited by Chaos Makuta: Dralcax

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I personally think that BZP started to die when they decided to take the forums down for six months. That alone probably prompted a lot of members to leave permanently. I first noticed this when several people in the comedies forums failed to return.And yes, I agree that without sets or story the site is probably going to decline. But there will probably always be at least a few people on here.

Edited by spyder ryder
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Right off the bat I want to say it's great this kind of topic exists. It's long been needed to have a venue in order to discuss things like this with the staff in a friendly atmosphere.

I am glad this topic is meeting a good reception. So far, I am very pleased at the diversity of opinions and reasonings posted here. Keep them coming! :)You make very interesting and valid points, and please forgive me if I don´t address every single one of them. Just let me say that the lack of member creations appearing on the front page is not so much the News Reporters' fault than of the rest of the staff as it is our job to submit suggestions, something that has been neglected (admittedly, also by myself) since the downtime. Missing habit, perhaps? It wasn´t done for very long after all.Sometimes I have pondered how BZPower would evolve if it became a LEGO forum and I too wondered in which way it would be better than other forums. This said, even though I do think BZPower should broaden its focus I also agree that it should in no way neglect its roots and origins entirely.~Gata. ;)
Yeah, that is true. Hence why I don't really hold the staff responsible for the lack of spotlighted creations; it's perfectly understandable as to why they haven't been a focus.

Lets face it. Bionicle is dead. We can keep it strong in our hearts, but for now it is gone. The sets vanished. Now Greg is too busy for story. All we have is what we create ourselves. But every hobby is eventually abandoned due to lack of interest. All good things must come to an end. Bionicle is gone, let it rest in peace. Bringing back Bionicle is futile and will be for the worse. For now, we can turn our eyes towards the future. Hero Factory. Let us not cling to a sinking ship. Let us open our eyes to other Lego themes. I propose BZP to be for Lego in general, with forum divisions for the five categories of Lego: Space, City, Castle, Technic, and Other. And Technic will have a Constraction subforum, and each of those now 6 generes will have discussion forums for the individual themes under those categories. Most creative topics, excepting MOC, can be moved and spread out accordingly. Q&A, COT, GD, and LBC can stay seperate.

If BIONICLE's a sinking ship, then we're the final barge that's carrying the survivors to safety. Remember the infamous GregF quote? The one everyone uses improperly to spark petitions and controversY? Let's take it for its true meaning. That we need to keep BIONICLE alive, through discussion, debate, and creations. To abandon ship at this point would be a disgrace. Hence why I believe the primary focus of BZP should remain BIONICLE, while understandably having strong influence from other Constraction Figure lines inserted into the mix in order to spark new discussions. Going crazy and having a forum for every other theme is a bit out there, at least at the moment.

I personally think that BZP started to die when they decided to take the forums down for six months. That alone probably prompted a lot of members to leave permanently. I first noticed this when several people in the comedies forums failed to return.And yes, I agree that without sets or story the site is probably going to decline. But there will probably always be at least a few people on here.

You raise a good point. I know for a fact that many people were so disillusioned with BZP after the length of the downtime that they just lost interest and stopped checking to see if it's back. That is also a major factor as to why activity has dropped upon the forums returning.-Mesonak Edited by Mesonak

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i agree the downtime was harsh on our.... population.as much as i love bionicle. there isn't as much discussion value as when it was alive.shifting to a new topic would make some people leave. as we have seen some of that sort of negativity early in hfs life.

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Everything could use some improvement, even our beloved forums here. As stated in this topic several times, though, the lengthy downtime decimated BZPower - perhaps permanently. That said, some restructuring seems in order. If BZPower were to "open the floodgates" to System lines and Hero Factory and such, some greater degree of activity could return. Of course, non-Bionicle topics should be kept in their sub-forums. If BZPower were to include other lines in the forums, however, it becomes a one-stop discussion forums for all things Lego. Set Discussion has already expanded to System and Hero Factory, and the Library and Creative Outlet are the same. If the Media and Digital sub-forums followed suit, those are new opportunities to bring in more activity.And then we come to the matter of CoT, what I have always considered the monster of BZPower. There's certainly an established order with CoT, but there's far more gray area than any other sub-forum. The only solution to CoT I ever considered felt both enlightened and insane at the same time: split it apart. A divided CoT would be easier for separate moderators to oversee, control, and maintain. Someone stated their CoT story was quickly pushed to later pages because of the activity in the sub-forum, but creating a CoT Library does not seem out of the question. The same could be said of other topics within. In a sense, CoT would be a larger monster, but one split into easily-governed spaces.This all contributes to an ultimate goal for Bionicle fans: More potential Bionicle fans. If we draw in activity through other conduits, searching the forums could very well pique their interest, and suddenly, we have a curious Lego fan reading up on Turaga Dume, Artahka, etc. and wanting to learn more. Even without an active story or any continued sets, Bionicle has maintained a cult following in us, and probably in others on other unknown sites.Anyway, that's my take on it. Oh, and one last, personal note regarding Premier Membership: It'd be really great if I could send my payment through money order like I used to. I recognize this is a topic designed for constructive criticisms of the site and not simple grievances, it's just something I'd like to see changed back.-Ced

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Doesn't a gateway system kind of give you a best-of-all-worlds scenario? Allowing free linkage while at the same time halting embeds would keep BZPower clean but make it more open, for more traffic.Also, something I didn't mention in my previous post: I know why political and religious discussion is banned. Unfortunately, politics and religion are considered one block, often intertwined in some facets. I don't quite understand, though, why intelligent discussion of politics is halted. Before anyone says that intelligent discussion is impossible on BZP (and before you discuss politics in this topic - I do NOT want to be responsible for that) - take a look at this now-locked entry. I saw no flaming, and the beginnings of some intelligent discussion. Who says BZP isn't capable of it?Not sure if that would work on the forums, though.

Although this is a topic that must be dealt with very cautiosuly, I believe BZPower could open up for political discussion, too. I have the impression many people are afraid of politics because they grow up with their parents telling them things like "Stay clear of politics. It will only bring you into trouble." BZPower being a forum, which serves the purpose of conversation and interchange of opinions, I think we should not support this attitude. We should, however, take into consideration that not all people are ripe for political discussion. Under 14-year-olds use to understand little of politics, often not being interested in politics at all, or are too immature to lead a sensible debate. Until a certain age, children are biased by their parents' political beliefs and are easily tempted to start flaming. Since LEGO is mainly directed at children, we have many young members on the forums, but that does not mean older members should not be able to talk about politics with people from this community. Mature members will only stay on the forums if there are also mature topics to talk about.Remember BZPower is not only a forum, but also a community. I have often heard the argument: "If you want to talk about politics, look for another forum. BZPower is not the place for it." But some members want to talk about politics with other fellow BZPower members. And taking into consideration that there is a COT forum, I believe the argument stated above is not valid at all. Because if BZPower isn't the place for political discussions, it is not the place for any other kind of random, non-LEGO-related discussions either.My suggestion is to create a moderated forum for political discussion which could only be accessed by members whose age is over 15, for example. This is technically possible and would allow political discussions, while keeping them as controllable as possible.~Gata. ;) Edited by Gatanui

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I don't really know the future, but if I would like see BZPower fade away from Bionicle. It's a dead line, I don't really see it coming back. As many of you said, I'de like to see BZP embrace other lines by LEGO; i.e. Architecture, Ninjago, etc.BZPower could make itself more prominent by "transforming" into more of a "social network" (I hope you get what I mean.). There are some great features in the new software which could help us. BZP should have an app or possibly make multiple apps, we could make some money from it.Maybe it could also expand it's COT Forums, not a lot, but add forums for art and possibly RPGs.So to summarize:

  • [*]Fade away from Bionicle entirely.[*]Become more technologically advanced a.k.a lets get ourself out there through apps and other media.[*]Expand COT a little.

Edit: The idea of a political talk sub-forum would be cool, but as Peach 00 said below 15 is little high for age restriction. Again, a forum like that would have to highly moderated.

Edited by Celu
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All right, here we go...BZP was created for the sole purpose of having a forum that discussed BIONICLE. If it were to abandon that now, I'd think that even more members would be leaving. Sure, I agree that, even though BIONICLE has been dead for almost two years, we can't just move on to LEGO. We already have several LEGO subforums, yet it doesn't appear those are very talkative, to be honest. There are members who are on here to bring back BIONICLE, to write, to design, to discuss - everything related to BIONICLE in some mannerism. They can talk Hero Factory all they want, create things related to Hero Factory if they care to. But everybody is united to BIONICLE specifically. If we leave that toyline, it will die. Let me refresh everybody's memories with what Greg Farshety said awhile back:"Keep in mind that if Star Trek fans had, as a group, said, "No point in talking about this anymore, it's never going to come back," it never WOULD have come back."As long as we continue discussing BIONICLE, it will continue to live on. If we abandon the discussion of the sets now, it's doomed to a nonexistence, and it will probably become a mere memory if we were to revert to the discussion of LEGO sets. Sure, many of us probably enjoy LEGO instead of BIONICLE, but the two, individually speaking, are the same.EDIT: Apparently editing a few typoes out of the post completely deleted half of the post, so excuse the fact half of it is dead. Probably will post another long post basically what I said here instead of going to the trouble of remembering what I said. =/ So, I'll leave it with the small portion before I went ranting about political forums, lol.

Edited by Peach 00

On the day the wall came down / They threw the locks onto the ground

And with glasses high / We raised a cry / For freedom had arrived

 

On the day the wall came down / The ship of fools had finally run aground

Promises lit up the night / Like paper doves in flight

 

I dreamed you had left my side / No warmth, not even pride remained

And even though you needed me / It was clear that I could not do a thing for you

 

Now life devalues day by day / As friends and neighbors turn away

And there's a change that even with regret / Cannot be undone

 

Now frontiers shift like desert sands / While nations wash their bloodied hands

Of loyalty, of history / In shades of grey

 

I woke to the sound of drums / The music played, the morning sun streamed in

I turned and I looked at you / And all but the bitter residues slipped away

 

slipped away...

 

 

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Me? I imagine a bunch of forums with about three topics each that have about five replies... Maybe forty-ish members... News hasn't been updated in days and days... No Bionicle news for something like 18 months... Definitely less emphasis on the creative outlet.. BZPowercast with less frequent episodes and very, very little discussion, songs taking up most of the duration...Face it, guys; with Bionicle out of the picture, a Bionicle-forum isn't going to last. It's a bleak future.

Edited by Toa Zaz

Thank you, BZPower staff. In the past, I wish I showed more appreciation for all that you do. From one Bionicle fan to another, thank you.

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I don't know why anyone is recommending we switch gears to Hero Factory, there's nothing to really discuss, at least not even close the what was able to be discussed about Bionicle. New users may join, yes, but what will they do once they're here? It's obvious that HF doesn't have the same sort of dedicated fanbase that BZPower has always housed. If the site is going to change into nothing but pictures of Hero Factory sets, and discussion is basically "cool set brah +1" for 50 pages on half of the forums, why even try to change it?At the same time, I'm pretty sure we all understand that Bionicle is basically dead and will pull BZP down with it.The logical answer, I think, would be to free up the community a bit (the rules are pretty restrictive for a community-centric forum) and transition to a more generally Lego-oriented site while still keeping roots in Bionicle. That way, you get new members, everyone old and new has more legroom, and the old members still have a place for Bionicle or what have you.On a side note, I really do wish the site hadn't taken a half-year break, from what I understand that is the cause of the current decline in, well, everything. No doubt the site would suffer the fallout from Bionicle being discontinued eventually, but the lack of users after the forums came back online was crippling.

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BZP was created for the sole purpose of having a forum that discussed BIONICLE. If it were to abandon that now, I'd think that even more members would be leaving. Sure, I agree that, even though BIONICLE has been dead for almost two years, we can't just move on to LEGO. We already have several LEGO subforums, yet it doesn't appear those are very talkative, to be honest. There are members who are on here to bring back BIONICLE, to write, to design, to discuss - everything related to BIONICLE in some mannerism. They can talk Hero Factory all they want, create things related to Hero Factory if they care to. But everybody is united to BIONICLE specifically. If we leave that toyline, it will die. Let me refresh everybody's memories with what Greg Farshety said awhile back:"Keep in mind that if Star Trek fans had, as a group, said, "No point in talking about this anymore, it's never going to come back," it never WOULD have come back."

I don't think anyone is saying that we should leave BIONICLE. It's what this site will always be about and nothing will change that.But, realistically, there is no way that BZPower will survive, because BIONICLE, for all intents and purposes, is dead. It then comes down to how much of BIONICLE will be left in BZPower if, as a community, we wish to survive. There really isn't that much to discuss if we stay one-track-minded on BIONICLE. Why can't we become an all-LEGO forum with an emphasis on BIONICLE? Why shouldn't we? Right now we have a few forums dedicated to LEGO, and I agree, they're not very active - but the new forums haven't been up for long enough to have LEGO fans percolate from other areas of the Internet, overcoming their apprehension that BZP's "still a BIONICLE site".Props to you, though, for using GregF's quote in a way that doesn't infer that the loyal member base must petition LEGO incessantly.

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We shouldn't be asking the question "Why shouldn't we?", but we should be asking "Why SHOULD we?"The concept of transitioning to a "General Lego" based forum sounds good on paper, but think about it for a second, and think beyond your preconceived notions of what that would entail. As I said before in my post, the only thing unique about BZPower that sets it apart from other forums are the fact that it's BIONICLE-centric, and the fact that you can pay money for a blog. That's it. BZPower's a great forum due to its atmosphere, community, and the staff that manage it, but if you take away the unique subject matter that this forum covers (which is what forums are about, discussion of a certain subject), then we're just a run of the mill forum in the public eye. The thing that makes this forum stand above others its subject matter. Take that away, and while BZPower could succeed as a General Lego-based forum, do I see it happening? Hard to say, but if you ask me, we're better off the way we are.It's all well and good to believe that new members would flock to BZP in massive droves if we changed our focus, and that all would be well with the world and activity would spike and BZP would prosper for years to come, but would it really? Why would anyone come to BZP to discuss Lego? Why not go to one of the other forums that have that ironed out already, have a solid gameplan in mind that they've been going along with for years, and enjoy the community there? The concept that activity has dropped because BIONICLE ended is valid reasoning, but I'd go so far as to say the downtime affected the forum's activity a lot more than BIONICLE ending ever could. I'd even take a gamble that more members would leave than join if we switched to General Lego, and then what would happen? Would we continue to roll with it, would we switch back and make complete fools out of ourself in the public eye? I don't know. But I'm not liking the prospects.-Mesonak

Edited by Mesonak

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We shouldn't be asking the question "Why shouldn't we?", but we should be asking "Why SHOULD we?"The concept of transitioning to a "General Lego" based forum sounds good on paper, but think about it for a second, and think beyond your preconceived notions of what that would entail. As I said before in my post, the only thing unique about BZPower that sets it apart from other forums are the fact that it's BIONICLE-centric, and the fact that you can pay money for a blog. That's it. BZPower's a great forum due to its atmosphere and community, but if you take away the unique subject matter that this forum covers (which is what forums are about, discussion of a certain subject), then we're just a run of the mill forum in the public eye. The thing that makes this forum stand above others is its subject matter. Take that away, and while BZPower could succeed as a General Lego-based forum, do I see it happening? Hard to say, but if you ask me, we're better off the way we are.It's all well and good to believe that new members would flock to BZP in massive droves if we changed our focus, and that all would be well with the world and activity would spike and BZP would prosper for years to come, but would it really? Why would anyone come to BZP to discuss Lego? Why not go to one of the other forums that have that ironed out already, have a solid gameplan in mind that they've been going along with for years, and enjoy the community there? The concept that activity has dropped because BIonICLE ended is valid reasoning, but I'd go so far as to say the downtime affected the forum's activity a lot more than BIONICLE ending ever could. I'd even take a gamble that more members would leave than join if we switched to General Lego, and then what would happen? Would we continue to roll with it, would we switch back and make complete fools out of ourself in the public eye? I don't know. But I'm not liking the prospects.-Mesonak

That´s why BZPower would best work as a general LEGO forum with a special orientation on constraction sets, which would be BIONICLE and HERO Factory. That special orientation would be unavoidable anyway, given the reason why most of the members joined the site. At the same time, while attracting members who want to talk about LEGO or constraction in particular, it would also let BZPower stand out from the rest of the LEGO forums while not turning off the old membership as you fear could be the case if BIONICLE was neglected completely.~Gata. ;)

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All that I'm trying to say, boiled down into as much of a nutshell as possible, is that if we continue to be BIONICLE-centric only, and not spread our collective wings at least a bit, then not only will BZPower die, but BIONICLE's memory will die with it. No one can argue that there has been a serious drop-off in activity on the forum.Our current position is untenable. If we stay the way we are, our activity will slowly drop, as it has been, until it kills the site. Spreading out at least gives us a chance at survival - as you said, not much, but it's a shot.

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As a veteran of more than a few forums that eventually shriveled up, I have to say that the downtime really did do more damage than Bionicle ending ever could; there's one site I frequent that has a still-ongoing subject but is now hardly active due to a several-months downtime it had - and that's even with the fact we had "backup forums" up during the downtime! But at the same time, a dead subject doesn't exactly help cultivate discussion, so I concur that some expansion of the site's focus is probably in order. However Mesonak has a very good point, and it's one I brought up earlier - there are other, more established general Lego forums out there, and attracting users could be quite difficult.

Hey: I'm not very active around BZP right now.  However, you can always contact me through PM (I have email notifications set up) and I will reply as soon as I can.


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Can't believe I forgot to mention this, but I whole-heartedly agree with Cederak's idea of expanding CoT to have multiple sub-forums in order to allow for more organized discussion, and a special place for RPGing, etc. Would make it easier to moderate, and easier to post in.

All that I'm trying to say, boiled down into as much of a nutshell as possible, is that if we continue to be BIONICLE-centric only, and not spread our collective wings at least a bit, then not only will BZPower die, but BIONICLE's memory will die with it. No one can argue that there has been a serious drop-off in activity on the forum.Our current position is untenable. If we stay the way we are, our activity will slowly drop, as it has been, until it kills the site. Spreading out at least gives us a chance at survival - as you said, not much, but it's a shot.

No can argue that there has been, yeah, that part is obvious. But there's plenty of room for discussion as to what exactly caused this drop-off of activity. Some (like myself) believe that it's mainly the downtime that is the cause, some think it's the inevitable aftershock of BIONICLE's cancellation finally hitting us hard. What exactly caused the slow-down should determine our course of action in the future. If only it were so easy, and we could tell what the reason is, but alas, we can only theorize. -Mesonak

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Like others have said, Bionicle is going nowhere. If anything, it took a nosedive at the beginning of this year. Sure, we had the Stars, but I didn't consider those worth my money. The story was deteriorating, turning to magical gold armor that kills everything, or a moon that kills the most powerful being in reality. Bottom line: Bionicle is gone and was quite ready to go. So I propose, like many others have, that we convert to an all-Lego site. Lego games forum, Lego Media, in fact, Lego collectibles. Do we not have those kinds of things in Lego?Then, Lego RPG. Kick up a LegoRPG, and three fan-made RPGs voted on by the players. Just like Bionicle RPG. I can see that being popular. The next step? Two RPG forums for liscenced and originals by Lego, with an official RPG and three voted in one's for each forum. Following that, Lego comics. Shops and kits to encourage comic-makers.Recently, we've gotten themes like Harry Potter, and soon, Lord of the Rings. I think this is an era of maturity for Lego. Maybe we can mature along with it?

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Remember BZPower is not only a forum, but also a community. I have often heard the argument: "If you want to talk about politics, look for another forum. BZPower is not the place for it." But some members want to talk about politics with other fellow BZPower members. And taking into consideration that there is a COT forum, I believe the argument stated above is not valid at all. Because if BZPower isn't the place for political discussions, it is not the place for any other kind of random, non-LEGO-related discussions either.

Yes, but there are off-site places populated by BZPers. BZPower could promote one perhaps, which is moderated by members, but is the place where people should be nudged along to if they want to discuss politics with other BZPers.

My suggestion is to create a moderated forum for political discussion which could only be accessed by members whose age is over 15, for example. This is technically possible and would allow political discussions, while keeping them as controllable as possible.

Hooray for age generalizations.How is it technically possible? People could always falsify their ages.
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I agree with the kids who don't want the forums to become entirely LEGO system oriented. We are a BIONICLE forum, and we should do what seems natural now that BIONICLE doesn't exist- become a constraction figure site. BIONICLE, Hero Factory, the Superhero sets, we could go backwards and add discussions for super-super-dead one-off themes like roboriders and Throwbots (though that seems silly?), things like that. TLG has been talking as if they'd like to eventually have multiple constraction figure lines out at the same time, and I mean hey, they'll have two out at once this year, and if that stays successful... We don't have to become a generalized LEGO forum (though I approve of our current "here's a bunch of general LEGO news articles" thing, just because it's nice to keep up with the wider community), but we're basically already doing this, and it should just become official, and BZPower should become the Premier LEGO Constraction Figure Forum. The other LEGO forums out there focus on themes that don't have intricate stories like BIONICLE did, and they do fine, so those people who are like "but Hero Factory doesn't have enough story"... well, I mean, if they can do it, we can do it, and we have some pretty dedicated fans. The story fans are going to be a little less active, that's a given, but I feel like there are enough of us who are more set and build oriented that we could have this work.Also, we should absolutely work on making the front-page member-creation spotlight more current, more often, and more prominent. It boggles my mind that it hasn't been done already.

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@DeeVee:Yes, but which group are we appealing to? HF fans? Superhero fans? LEGO will probably do more constraction themes, but still, there are not many active communities we can appeal to. BZPower, to those who know of it, still has a semblance of a BIONICLE site. To some that is a taint that keeps them away, and even if we become more LEGO themed, it's going to be difficult to change what people think of us.BZPower was created out of the merging of sites, and perhaps, what we need now is a merger with a medium-to-small sized LEGO site.

Edited by Waffles
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@DeeVee:Yes, but which group are we appealing to? HF fans? Superhero fans? LEGO will probably do more constraction themes, but still, there are not many active communities we can appeal to. BZPower, to those who know of it, still has a semblance of a BIONICLE site. To some that is a taint that keeps them away, and even if we become more LEGO themed, it's going to be difficult to change what people think of us.BZPower was created out of the merging of sites, and perhaps, what we need now is a merger with a medium-to-small sized LEGO site.

We'd be appealing to constraction figure fans. People like me who don't care about the theme itself, don't watch the movies, or whatever, but like the sets. I don't know if you've noticed, but we've basically done this already. Our most prominent reveiws are of constraction figure sets, those are the ones our members gravitate to, because those are the ones most of our base are the most interested in, they're the sets that feel the most "right".And I don't see why we'd want to appeal to other active communities entirely, I mean, like others said, if we became a generic LEGO site, why would members entrenched in the other large LEGO forums out there want to come here? But there are not other forums dedicated to the action figure lines, and a lot of system fans still don't look on them as "real LEGO" anyway. We keep our unique focus, our unique fans, and we still serve as a very important focal point for the wider community.

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But are there enough constraction fans and can we appeal to them? We're becoming more constraction oriented, and they don't seem to be flocking to us. Plus, people find BZP through external sources, whether it be other forums or search engines, and we'd still have to make huge changes to our image.

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Remember BZPower is not only a forum, but also a community. I have often heard the argument: "If you want to talk about politics, look for another forum. BZPower is not the place for it." But some members want to talk about politics with other fellow BZPower members. And taking into consideration that there is a COT forum, I believe the argument stated above is not valid at all. Because if BZPower isn't the place for political discussions, it is not the place for any other kind of random, non-LEGO-related discussions either.

Yes, but there are off-site places populated by BZPers. BZPower could promote one perhaps, which is moderated by members, but is the place where people should be nudged along to if they want to discuss politics with other BZPers.

My suggestion is to create a moderated forum for political discussion which could only be accessed by members whose age is over 15, for example. This is technically possible and would allow political discussions, while keeping them as controllable as possible.

Hooray for age generalizations.How is it technically possible? People could always falsify their ages.
I suppose you will agree that most twelve-year-olds understand very little about politics, although there are always exceptions. BZPower will have to set an age border if they want to guarantee a mature and flaming-free discussion. There are age borders for participating in political elections and watching contents of certain nature as well and nobody questions that, either.As for people falsifying their ages: That's their problem, not ours. BZPower is a children-friendly site and we have the software and the measures to ensure it stays a children-friendly site. If members decide to falsify their age and access contents we do not consider to be appropiate for them, they do it at their own risk. BZPower cannot be made responsible either if a member is continously bullied via PM and if he does not contact the staff so they can take measures.

But are there enough constraction fans and can we appeal to them? We're becoming more constraction oriented, and they don't seem to be flocking to us. Plus, people find BZP through external sources, whether it be other forums or search engines, and we'd still have to make huge changes to our image.

The problem isn´t that BZPower doesn´t appeal to them but rather that the front page is still that of a BIONICLE site. The word HERO Factory or constraction doesn´t appear anywhere in the site title or the top banner. If you search for 'BIONICLE discussion' on Google, BZPower is the first result to come up. However, if you search for 'HERO Factory discussion', it doesn´t show up.~Gata. ;) Edited by Gatanui

- Gata

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Please don't use my avatar or signature without permission, thanks! ^_^

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HOLD IT!Removing the Bionicle "taint" would only make things worse. We're barely a Bionicle site as it is. Don't believe me? Look at this topic. Notice the fact that you have to scroll down the main page for quite a bit to see anything Bionicle related.The line's end (save for the storyline), along with the downtime, have discouraged many people from coming to this site. Removing more Bionicle will cause many people to leave. Don't believe me? Look how active Storyline and Theories is.Of course, a good direction would be making the site more Lego-oriented (I thought the countless Lego news articles and lack of Hapori Dume/Tohu meant this was happening, but oh well) by cultivating activity in those respective parts of the forums. More people like Lego period than just Hero Factory. Making these forums HFPower would only draw more people away.*gets penny for sharing thoughts*

My Comedies: The Krika Show (Season 1)
The Krika Show Season 2 
 

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