Obligatory New Header Entry

Everyone else was doing it

Entry posted by Aanchir February 27, 2012

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So the new header is cool. There could be improvement (some space between Tohu and the BZPower text could help, and it's a bit weird having the text and image overlaid on the dark blue stripe rather than above it vertically), but for me it represents the dynamic status of BZPower as a whole as it changes from strictly a BIONICLE site into something that, in my opinion, better celebrates BIONICLE's lasting influence.

See, with BIONICLE over, it isn't providing the site with anything new to discuss. And that was what fueled a lot of BZPower's discussion-- and thus, the community-- in the first place. What is providing with new discussion fodder is BIONICLE's legacy as expressed in other LEGO themes like Ninjago and Hero Factory.

My departure from BZPower in late 2010 was largely because I had become disillusioned with the BIONICLE fandom, so I took up discussion on other sites that were more strictly LEGO-related. On these other sites I still participated in BIONICLE discussion, but it didn't feel like the same dead-end "what could have been" discussion I had left. Instead, the discussion focused on what had been good and bad about BIONICLE-- what we as fans had learned from it and what lessons TLG could potentially have taken from its rise and fall.

I think the healthier community on other LEGO sites was partly in response to the greater context that LEGO as a whole offered. Instead of "LEGO's best and most successful theme", people on these sites saw BIONICLE as an outlier, and not necessarily a positive one. BIONICLE fans on these sites were used to being a minority and an outlier, so they were better able to recognize that BIONICLE was not perfect at any time in its history, and that you might need to work to defend your reasons for liking it from time to time.

The reason I came back to BZPower after the downtime ended was partly just an experiment-- to see if I could appreciate the community as I once had or if I had changed too greatly. And it turned out that even if I had changed, the site had done so as well-- and their changes were compatible with mine. The site proved that it is still dynamic, and I consider that a good thing even if it isn't the behemoth of activity that it once was.

But that doesn't make it a generic LEGO site by any means. Rather, it's a site with a rich and meaningful history as a BIONICLE discussion site, which continues to give it a unique perspective on LEGO themes both past and present. All LEGO sites have their own distinct personality (much like, as Neil Gaiman would tell it, all cities around the world), and BZPower is no exception. Calling itself a LEGO site doesn't take that away.