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Showing results for tags 'Weekly Updates'.
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Intro As I forewarned, we're a day late this week. Such is life. Updates We should be getting a very large set review up tomorrow, and I mean that in two ways. You'll have to wait until then to see what I mean. We finally got our Fair and Con coverage up this past week. Better late then never? And as the year draws closer and closer to its end, the final 2008 Bionicle Comic has begun to appear. Many things are revealed, or so I hear. But don't forget to use spoiler tags and not ruing it for others. In further story news, Bink said there will be a new animation on Bionicle.com this week, so that's something exciting to look forward to. Mailbag 1. No. 2. No. 3. In Bionicle? Tahu. 4. Series? I think I'll go with the original Star Wars Trilogy, closely followed by Indiana Jones. Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion And that's about it for this week. There's too much going on in other places for much to be happening here. Darn that real life, always getting in the way.
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Intro It's Weekly Update time! Nothing too big, as per usual. Let's see what's inside. Updates So, at least one review will be going up this weekend, two if I have time. We should also be getting some coverage from the BrickCon event that took place a little bit ago (no word yet on the rest of our BrickFair coverage, does anyone really care at this point?). So this year's story gets closer and closer to ending, and details of next year begin to emerge. So let me remind you that you should be using Spoiler Tags when discussing such things. It's not fair to ruin it for some just to make it easier for you to discuss. The next Member Interview will be going up next week, and then the next cycle will begin. So get ready to flood my inbox! Post Ranks are still in progress. Yeah... So here's an idea I'm stealing from somewhere else (much like this update), tell me what you think: BZP 101 - members can submit helpful features or uses of BZPower that some members might not know about. If there's interest we'll go with it. Mailbag 1. Yes. I've met Rich (Bionicle Rex) and Michael (Kaiapu). 2. So people don't send me tons of PMs when they see me online (and believe me, they have). 3. Every so often, when I catch a good sale. 4. Trying to stay on top of all the work that needs to be done. 5. There's a lot of good ones out there. I think I'd have to go with classic Robin Williams. Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion Check back next week for more updates and other useless information. Woohoo!
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Intro Welcome, readers, to yet another edition of the Weekly Update. Boy have we got a lot in store for you. No, not really. Updates So, the Bionicle websites have seen a bunch of updates this week, with two new serial entries appearing and the always present Takanuva Blog fleshing things out. Lots of story content if that's your thing, as the year, and the world we know, comes to a close. We should be getting another set review up this weekend, only a few more before we're done with this year. With that in mind, how do you guys like the review format, can you think of anything you'd like to change about it? BrickFair pictures are still 'coming soon,' with BrickCon coverage following shortly afterwards I hope. Yes we're slow, I know. I'm hoping the next couple events will be covered more quickly, stating with ToyFair next year. Mailbag 1) Who doesn't? The Beatles rock! 2) Somewhere over a decade ago that has since been forgotten. 3) While I do like Batman, the awesomeness of Iron Man and X-Men means Marvel wins. 4) Have to go classic: Muaka and Kane-Ra. Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion That's it for this week. As always, leave your questions, comments, and feedback. They're all always appreciated!
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Intro So, today is Friday, and that means it's time for another Weekly Update. What's been updated, you ask? Well there's only one way to find out... Updates And the answer is, not a huge amount. Sorry to disappoint yet again. There have been some interesting story updates recently, with a new video appearing as well as the music video for this year's song. I personally found some of the comments about Cryoshell's lead singer odd, considering there weren't very many good shots of her in the video to base opinions on, but that's just me. Back to where we were, the story's wrapping up quickly, and soon everyone will be discussing 2009 and whatever changes it holds. As has been the norm for the past couple weeks, you can hopefully expect at least one set review this weekend, with some really AMAZING photographs. Someone knows what they're doing. On a related note, I hope to get our pictures from BrickFair up this weekend too. Yes, that's right, BrickFAIR, not BrickCon. I realize the event was well over a month ago. The other reporter Andrew (Smeagol4) had been working on a long and detailed story, but his computer recently suffered a catastrophic failure, so you're going to end up with a picture gallery and a few comments. Sorry about the huge delay. (You'll get to see more apologies once it's actually posted.) Speaking of delays, post ranks are progressing, slowly. I hope to have them up at some point, because they're really awesome and I'd feel really bad about hyping them up and then not delivering. Yeah, so I think that's about it. Mailbag We had about 60 of them, and it got to the point where we were running out of blogs to showcase, so the project was ended. The blog team has been working on something kind of similar, but not really, and will release it eventually. 1. The Empire Strikes Back 2. Right place at the right time (or wrong place at the wrong time, depending on how you look at it). 3. Tahu 4. I've always been a Moderator/Forum Leader of RPG, so I'll go with that. 1) Email? Who uses that? 1a) andrew@bzpower.com 2) Bartlett Pears 3) Lemonade 4) Nope 5) Blue, no yellllooowwwww... No, really, it's blue. Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion Thanks for reading, please leave feedback and comments of what you'd like to see me talk about. Don't forget to check back next week!
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Intro So I was sitting at my computer after enjoying the premier of Sanctuary and wondering, 'what should I do now?' when it suddenly dawned on me that I had forgotten the weekly update! But I was not too late, so here it is! Updates If you haven't read this yet, do it NOW! Some people like being surprised, please respect that. Hopefully we'll have another set review getting posted tomorrow, getting closer to finishing the 2008 lineup. I received some information this week about ToyFair in February. I won't say anything but this: I'm excited, probably moreso than normal. Oh, did I mention you should read this? Use spoiler tags people, and only discuss things that we have mentioned on BZPower in the news or by the staff. If you're not sure, don't say it. Mailbag So, I'm not sure that these really qualify as questions more than suggestions, but they are pretty interesting. For the first one, we have a set style we're going for with the new images. Many of them are coming along well and just need some tweaking and finalizing, so I unfortunately don't see such a contest happening. Blog skins would basically be the same as forum skins, as far as I'm aware. The possibility of a new skins contest has been considered, but we all know how well the last one went so we're holding off for now. 1. Yes. I used to follow the EU closely, but have slacked off for the past few years. The prequels contradicting things Lucas had approved in books and comics annoyed me. 2. Definitely. I have multiple shelves worth of Tolkien books on my bookcase. 3. Never played it. 4. Fernando. 5. No, that's just kind of creepy. Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion There have been rumblings and murmurings of a return of the BZP Podcast. If I had the time and inspiration, I'd love to start it up again. Perhaps if people show me there's enough interest and give ideas something might happen at some point. Just saying... Talk to you all next week!
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Intro Avast mateys, and welcome to the weekly update, arr! I'll take ye for a trip upon me magic swirlin' ship (to paraphrase Bob Dylan) an' see what we got in store. Updates So we finally got the beginning of our Brickfair coverage up. Be sure that ye check out our Event Coverage and The Greatest Set Review Ever or else you'll find yerself swimmin' with the fishes. (And by fishes I mean sharks.) This be not the end of our BrickFair news, there be more pictures and news on the horizon. We got set reviews down in our cargo hold that all ye landlubbers will see as soon as we get into port. But pirates live by no man's calendar. Same thing goes for the new ranks. And I better not hear any bellyaching or I'll run ye through! Mailbag 1. Currently: Xbox 360 Ever: Tough call, but I think I'd go with the Atari 2600 2. Taco Bell, matey 3. Yar, if I had it my way they'd all be walkin' the plank. But then who'd be the crew o' me ship? The scallywags. 4. Salted meat and stale bread fer a pirate like me 5. Avast, watch out fer headcrabs. 6. Why pirate grog, of course! 1. Aye, 'e has a peg-leg 2. I was in the beta, but couldn't justify the monthly fee 3. 6285 Black Seas Barracuda, of course 4. Aye, it's always a bugger to make sure I don't sail off the edge o' the world and land on the mighty turtle 5. That landlubber jes' didn't like Vultraz 6. Arr, the vikings be closer to pirates 1. Mainly sea shanties but I do enjoy some classic, hard, and light rock on occasion; folk, classical, oldies, and orchestral strike my fancy a'times too, yarr 2. Mata Nui 3. If they think the house be crowded, they should try livin' on a pirate ship! Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion If there be anything else ye be wanting us to talk about here, let me know. There's only a small chance that I'll lash you to the mast durin' a storm. Thanks fer readin', but there be pillaging and plundering to be done, until next week! Yo ho!
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Intro No blog-posting programs tonight. Apparently using them means my entries don't get sent to the RSS feed, so we'll have to do some more research into that. But anyway, here's this week's update. Updates First off, check out this news story and go vote in the RPG Contest Final Poll. Then you can start playing in the RPGs come Monday once the polls close and the winners have been chosen. Aside from that, a missing Forum Leader, Than: Matoran of Anger, has returned now that life has calmed down somewhat for him. Be sure to say hello if you see him! We're still working on the new ranks. We should have another review up tomorrow, a returning character in new form (gee isn't that a dead giveaway ). Mailbag 1. Yes, I've seen a video or two. 2. We are the Borg, we will assimilate you. 3. No idea. 4. Not offhand. Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion And that wraps it up for tonight, see you all next week!
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Intro Another week, another update. Not a whole lot to report on, but we'll make some stuff up anyway. Updates So, first and foremost, a former staff member has returned to grace us with his presence on the staff once again. This crazy Aussie is helping us out in BBC and GD, so watch out if you want to break the rules in there. It's good to have another familiar face back on the team. Also, we have an RPG Contest going on that I realized I haven't shamelessly advertised in here yet. So go check it out! No theme this time, so you can do whatever your heart desires. There's plenty of time left to write up a game and enter it, so what are you waiting for, get to it! Other than that, there's not much else to discuss. We're still working on Brickfair coverage (sorry for the delays) and reviews (sorry for being slow on those too), but they'll be up in good time. Mailbag No questions this week. Send some in! Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion And this concludes our short update. See you next time!
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Intro Brickfair is over, so now it's back to the grind. Let's see what we have in store. Updates First thing I'd like to do is mention a poll I recently started: The Future Of Bionicle Videogames. We haven't had the best of luck in this department over the years, but with TT Games' popular Lego games that have been coming out over the past few years and Lego Universe on the horizon, maybe it's a good time to get Lego thinking about a new Bionicle game. I'm looking for your interest and feedback so I can pass it along to Lego. If you think we need a new Bionicle videogame, check out that topic! Going back to Brickfair quickly, we are currently compiling pictures and writing stories. I can't say when we'll have everything up, but we're working on it. Next time you all should come so you won't have to wait for us to tell you about it. Other things you may be interested in hearing updates about: We currently have a couple set reviews in the queue and more on the way. Just about all the sets have either been reviewed or have reviews in progress, so we're doing pretty well. We'll also have an extra-special video review coming up that was recorded at Brickfair and features a whole bunch of us that were there. It's amazing, let me tell you. Post ranks: They're still coming, and every time I see the progress being made I'm glad I haven't posted anything yet, because they keep looking better and better. These are now lower on the list though, after Brickfair and set reviews. Other than that, there's not much going on (isn't that enough?!). A couple of ideas are floating around in the Staff hivemind, but who knows what will surface. If you think you have a cool idea, let us know! Mailbag 1. Too much time for no return. And besides, the default black color matches my name, so what else do I need? 2. That's a secret. I'll give you a hint though, Googling it won't help you at all. 3. It was frelling awesome. 4. Halo 3. 1) Yes. 2) No. 3) Not recently. 4) People that deserve it get it, it's part of the job, and it's not very difficult, so no, it's not annoying. 5) BZC was a discussion site and KP was a news site. I visited them both daily until the merger, so I can't really say I liked one better or worse. Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion That's it for this week. I'm going to get back to editing pictures now... See you all later!
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Intro This is an all BrickFair update, since that's all the important stuff that's been happening recently. Sorry for it being late, it's been a very busy day, and as I type this Smeagol4 and Makaru are rocking out in my room with Kohaku and I. Updates So, today was the first official day of Brickfair, all of the Bionicle MOCs have been set up and look awesome. Today was pretty much spent wandering around and seeing what everyone else had brought. There's a lot of amazing creations there, and you can be sure we'll have full coverage soon. I also got to visit Reagan National Airport and pick up Kohaku, who has now joined the ranks of staff at BrickFair. Another staffer is now at BrickFair too, keep your eye on GD for more on that. At the opening ceremonies two new sets were on display. One, the Taj Majal, was announced at Brick World in Chicago in June but was in the flesh here in DC. In addition, a new fan-designed set was announced, featuring three hot rods and a garage. We'll have pics on that later. After the day's festivities, we had the night's festivities. The Lego store in Potomac Mills had a special event from 9:30 - 12:00 PM where all damaged boxes they had in inventory were 50% off. This meant things like UCS Star Destroyers and Death Stars for $100, which were quite popular amongst the AFOL crowd. Unfortunately, the only Bionicle sets they had were Axalara T9's, and they only had about four, which were snatched up quickly. Kohaku was lucky enough to grab one, but others weren't so lucky. There was a mad rush at the beginning, and by the end the line for the checkout wrapped around the entire store. It was quite impressive, and the BZP people alone spent a couple hundred dollars amongst ourselves. Others spent thousands. Mailbag No, I don't foresee this happening. 1. No, it's kind of backwards. As you increase their warning level their Proto increases. 2. Their are no plans of that. 1. Nope. 2. I've been too busy to read too much about them, but I trust both sites to run a good contest. 3. It's random, yes. 4. Both are easy enough. 5. Mainly Macs, but I do use Windows every now and then, mainly at work. 6. Nope. 7. I have written, but it's not something I do regularly. Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion It's really early in the morning now, so I'm going to stop. Hope to see some of you tomorrow!
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Intro Here we are, back for another weekly installment of BZP stuff. Updates This past week we've had a couple more reviews posted. Expect to see that trend increasing (as long as the other reporters and I aren't too busy with other things!). Hopefully we can get a large portion of the summer sets reviewed in the coming month or so. Speaking of sets, a list and some pictures purported to be of 2009 sets, both Bionicle and otherwise, has appeared in various places around the Internet. As always BZPower prohibits the posting of leaked images as well as the discussion of them and other leaked information. Once there is an official announcement or official word from The Lego Company you can discuss 2009 sets. Until then if you see someone talking about them, please report it to a staff member. Thanks for your cooperation. In other news we have an exclusive interview with current Bionicle comic artist Leigh Gallagher courtesy of BZPower Member iVahi. Be sure to give it a read as it's an interesting look at the life of a professional artist. Finally, BrickFair, taking place outside of Washington DC is taking place in a little less than a week. You can expect to see more information about it on the front page beforehand and coverage of it during and after. It should be a great event, with at least nine BZPower Staff members in attendance (with chances of a couple more). To give you an idea of how big this year is going to be, the Bionicle Coordinator, BZP's very own Byron, aka Kopaka's Ice Engineering passed on this note to me from the event coordinator Todd: Yeah, it's going to be impressive. Also, in addition to voting for the BBC Contest #50 it was recently decided that BZP will be hosting a giveaway contest at the Bionicle section. We'll have more details on that for you sometime this weekend I hope. Mailbag 1. Schizo Kaita drew my avatar quite a few years ago. There's actually a larger picture it belongs to, I just colored and cropped it. 2. Krika. 3. I often check out Promos and the News forum even when I'm not moderating. 4. Lewa. 1. Well enough to have taken classes where I had to program in it (those classes weren't teaching C++ but expecting an existing knowledge of it) but I wouldn't say I'm a pro at it. 2. Sprite. 3. Any chance I can get. I'm reading The Ashes of Worlds by Kevin J. Anderson right now. 4. I am the News Manager and Administrator here. I make sure news gets posted and the rules are followed and try to improve the experience for everyone. 5. The remake. It was entertaining. 6. See above. 7. Of course, that's why I made it. 1. The idea of the Member Interviews is to put you guys in the spotlight. The staff get enough attention. 2. I know it will be. 3. This is the first year Brickfair has been held, so no, definitely not. Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion That wraps it up for this week, I need to get going. There's a lot to do and prep before I drive down to DC this Thursday and help set everything up. I hope to see some of you there, and if not we'll provide plenty of pictures and details. Next week I'll be writing this from the convention!
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Intro I realized tis morning that I never did an update yesterday since I was working during the day and out with some friends all night. My bad. A short one this week, just answering a bunch of questions. Updates Nothing to see here. Move along. Mailbag 1. I did now. Interesting look. 2. Random selection. 3. Not really. 4. A whole bunch I'm sure, but there's no easy way to count. 5. BZPower wasn't my first message board, so I wasn't too noobish. I was still just 13 though, so I was a bit immature at times. 6. See above. I didn't start BZPower, but I can tell you that none of the admins knew each other prior to creating the site. You can read part of our history here. Jon (Dimensioneer) started BionicleZone, and Kelly (Binkmeister) and Rich (Bionicle Rex) became admins there. Mike (Bionicle Island) started Kanohi Power, where Kelly and Rich (among others) were writers. The two sites merged to become BZPower and the staff combined. 1. Some juice would be nice. 2. Only most of the time. 3. Can a sandwich be a person? 4. There's no such thing as a silly question. Ok, maybe not. 5. Of course. 6. 42, duh. 7. Never. More questions! 1. Yes, every now and then. 2. Oodles and oodles of it. 3. No complaints, it's been a fun time recently. 4. I've taught myself HTML and some other web-programming, and have a pretty experienced background in regular computer coding, such as C++, Java, and Ada. (Look that last one up. ) In a rack at a web-hosting building. Check this topic out. Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion See you all next week!
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Intro Hello all, welcome back to another edition of our Weekly Updates with yours truly, Black Six. A few things to talk about this week, but nothing too important or earth-shattering. Still, take a read through! Updates A couple weeks ago if you were in the San Diego, CA area you hopefully stopped by Comic Con, the huge expo featuring comics (duh), video games, TV shows, movies, card games, toys, and just about anything else a geek would like. Lego was there in pretty full force with a booth with the new sets and Greg Farshtey to answer questions and sign books and comics. There were also booths run by other companies that had Lego content such as the upcoming Lego Batman video game. But don't take my word for it, check out our full account courtesy of Darnzerf and The Captain. One thing they missed out on was the Brick Journal panel, headed by the magazine's editor Joe Meno and featuring BZPower Forum Leader and Master MOCist Bryce McGlone, aka Cajun. Have no fear though, because Cajun himself has provided coverage of the panel as well as some pictures of his latest creation, which is quite amazing. It looked like a lot of fun as always, and I'm jealous I was on the other side of the country and couldn't go. One of these days... In other news we're finally seeing some new story-based content on the official Bionicle websites. A new serial and podcast debuted this week, in addition to more updates to the Takanuva blog. I'm really liking that Lego is providing us with more story content through the website and is not relying so much on the books as they have in past years. Now they just have to bring back the Flash animations. Hey, a guy can dream, can't he? Our Third Member Interview was posted today. Read Makaru's interrogation questioning of iRocco and see what he had to say. Then you can sign up for Cycle Four. Next on the list, Brick Fair is fast approaching. Be sure to get your MOCs sent soon or to make your reservations if you're going to come. A lot of BZP staff and other members will be there, it'll be a great time for sure! You can find more information about sending your creations here. Oh, and set reviews are coming, honest. Blame Smeag, as he's been telling me he's going to post his for days now. After that we have a couple more on deck we can hopefully put online shortly after. Mailbag What can I do to get more questions here? Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion So as always, let me know if you have any questions, comments, or complaints, either about the Weekly Updates or about BZPower itself. Thanks for reading, and until next time...
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Intro Super-fast update this week. Updates So, it's anniversary week, woohoo! We made it seven years and counting! Our first big announcement was the Forum Mentors, who should hopefully make BZP an easier place to get used to for new members. I've been pleased to see some positive feedback on this. Today's announcement was that we will be updating the post ranks. It's been a long time coming, but we finally got around to it. I showed a sneak peak on the front page, but here's another for those of you that actually read my blog: We're still working on some of the later images, but we may start putting up what we have and make it a gradual process. Oh yeah, we may have one more surprise tomorrow, but no promises. In addition, and this is unrelated to the anniversary, summer 2008 set reviews are on the horizon. Keep your eyes peeled! Mailbag That would be a pretty accurate guess. 1. No. 1a. Almost close. 2. Yes actually, it's quite similar. 3. There's a button, then you select where you'd like it moved to. Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion I said this was going to be short and I meant it. See you all next week!
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Intro Due to our server outage last week, it's been a bit since I've done one of these. But we're back and ready to go! Updates Unfortunately BZPower was completely offline for a while last week as a result of some server trouble. These issues have been resolved and we're back up and operational. Thanks everyone for your patience. In other news I'm happy to congratulate two people that recently received staff promotions. Shannara has been a Forum Assistant for a long time, over three years, and has earned his place as a Forum Leader in BBC, if only because of his incredible skills and his ability to help others. As I said in his introduction story, Benjamin aka ChocolateFrogs is a great writer and longtime Bionicle fan and member. It's a great pleasure to have him on the News Team. We may have some new announcements on this front soon, but that's all I'm saying. Of course, the biggest news is that our anniversary is in two days. We have a couple things planned, but don't expect to see it all on Sunday, if only because I'll be going away this weekend and will probably be too tired to do much then. But we do have a couple things planned that I hope you guys enjoy. Again, you'll have to wait and see. Mailbag No questions this week, send some in! Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion Thanks for reading everyone. I hope you're all looking forward to the anniversary. It should be a fun week as always. But let me go now, I have to get packing!
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Intro Happy Fourth of July everyone! Another short update this week, for two reasons. One, it's a holiday. Two, not much is going on. Updates Pruning continues at its slow an steady pace. We'll get there eventually, just watch us. The site is back up and running at full strength. This includes news, Premier Membership forms, the Set Database, everything. If you notice something we've missed though, by all means let me or another staff member know. As part of the Lego Ambassador program, I'm supposed to act as a go-between for you guys and Lego. So while this may not be strictly Bionicle related, it may still be something you're interested in. Check out this topic to see how you can suggest ideas to Lego for the City theme. If you have cool set designs or a theme you think they should use, send it to me so I can pass it along to Lego. Hopefully there will be plenty more things like this over the next year, and I'll see if I can make some suggestions of feedback they might want; or better yet - you can tell me what you would like to tell Lego and we can try to put together a survey or something. Any ideas or questions you have, let me know, and if I think they're pertinent enough, I'll try to get them answered for you. So I think that's about it for this week. The new sets are finally appearing, hopefully we'll have some reviews this month to showcase them. Mailbag We had some questions this week, but due to an unfortunate browser crash they were lost. *Facepalm.* Maybe next week? Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion So that's it for this week. As always leave comments or send me a PM with any questions, thoughts, or ideas you may have. Bye all!
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Intro Very short update this week. Thanks for reading - no, not that short. Updates We're continuing to work on getting BZP back up to full strength, so bear with us. If you don't know what I'm talking about, read this topic. Currently everything is working except for our news system and Premier Membership form, that I know of. If you notice anything else not working let me or another staff member know. We're getting there, just give us a little time. Mailbag No questions this week. Send me some! Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion Thanks for your patience and understanding as we work on fixing the site. We'll try to get it working as soon as possible. Until next time, thanks for reading, and leave some feedback!
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Intro Welcome back to Celebrity Jeo... wait, wrong intro. Thanks for joining me once again as we talk about various fun and exciting and maybe some not-so-exciting things. Updates So there hasn't been a lot happening of late that you don't already know about. The pruning has been continuing and tens of thousands of posts have been deleted so far, with many more to come. It's a slow process, the Forum Leaders have to go through every topic to make sure it's something that can be deleted. Believe me, we're taking our time on this one since we want to avoid deleting stuff that may still be useful or have historical value. That said, there's still a lot of useless posts out there to be removed. The new Reporter is coming. He is currently undergoing our rigorous training process under my close supervision to make sure he doesn't break the site once he is given access to the news. Oh you might laugh, but it's a very real threat. I'm hoping we'll be making an announcement next week. A new member group will also have to be created, which may help narrowing down the possible candidates. The entry period for Member Interviews is next Thursday. We have over one hundred candidates so far, so the competition is pretty stiff. But one of them will be the lucky interviewee! I'm pleased with its success so far, and look forward to its future growth. Mailbag 1) Classic Rock. Harry Chapin. 2) SciFi/Fantasy. The Matrix? It's so hard to pick one... 3) Timing and experience. 4) The Lego Magazine. I had always been a Lego fan and this theme seemed to combine things I liked about Technic and Throwbots with a cool story. 1) I had to look up what these new flavors were, so the answer is no. I've only ever had original (good), Baja Blast (OK), and Game Fuel (good). 2) I have closed many of my own topics, either because they were revived or no longer needed. 3) Have a LOT more free time. 4) It's different than in previous years, but I think it's quite nice. Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion So that wraps it up for this week, hope you enjoyed it, as always. To continue to sounds like a broken record, leave comments or send me PMs with any questions, comments, or complaints.
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Intro It's the BZPower Weekly Update, Friday the Thirteenth edition! Ok, so that means absolutely nothing, but it's cool to mention. Updates Topic pruning is off to a slow start. We've lost a couple thousand posts or so already, but compared to the over 5 million that we did have it's not that much to be noticeable yet. Hopefully this weekend the Forum Leaders will have some more time (myself included) to work on cleaning things out. Give us some more time and things should improve. In other news, we'll be promoting a new News Reporter soon. It might be a bit of a departure from the norm, but I think you'll all agree with the choice. Other than that there's no a lot more to talk about. There are a couple things going on behind the scenes, things we're not ready to talk about quite yet. In addition, planning is beginning for BrickFair 08, which will take place near Washington DC at the end of August. There should be some announcements soon about that and the role BZPower will play there. Mailbag 1.) It feels pretty good. We're still in the planning stages of what we're going to be working on right now, and I've been pretty busy with other things as of late, so I haven't done much yet. There's a lot of potential though, and that's what matters. 2.) I'm not a fan of scary movies, so I don't watch many of them. One that I remember seeing when I was little that scared the stuff out of me was The Langoliers, which is based on a Steven King book. So I wouldn't say it's my favorite, but it's memorable. 3.) Who? Wait, The Who, yeah they're great. 4.) See above. Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion So, that is all for this week. Go forth, don't spam, and leave feedback or send in questions or ideas. Until next time...
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Intro Greetings from your local Lego Ambassador. That has a nice ring to it, and I hope I can put the title to good use over the next year. But that aside, let's see what's been going on... Updates Obviously the biggest announcement was the Topic Pruning that will be starting in a couple days. I'm really glad to see a fairly positive response to this, and appreciate everyone's understanding. This will definitely speed up the server, what remains to be seen is how much it does so. With over five million posts, there's a lot of spam and old topics that are no longer needed. So I think there are enough that can be removed to help speed things up. You may have noticed some new mini-banners on the front page recently. Something I hear from time to time from members is that they don't know when stuff is going on here, such as contests or whatnot. Currently we have one for RPG Contest #10 and now one for Member Interviews. Obviously the RPG one will disappear when the contest ends, but the other should be there for a while, and may be joined by others (how do you think a Weekly Update banner would look?). Hopefully this will make people that just may visit the front page aware of the many other things that go on at BZPower. Finally, a couple days ago it was announced that I had been accepted into the Lego Ambassador program. This is a great opportunity for BZPower to get their voice heard. So if you ever have something you feel should be brought up, let me know and we can see how other members feel and send Lego some feedback. Since I'll be under a NDA for a bunch of the things I see, I won't be able to let you all in on it. But there should be plenty of tidbits I can let out that you'll be able to appreciate. Thanks again to everyone who supported me to give us this opportunity! Mailbag 1. Requests for Member Interviews can be sent from now until June 26th. Anyone who submits will be considered for the review that will be posted on July 3rd. You can only request for this upcoming one, not ones further down the road. 2. Nope, not at all. 3. Sprite. 4. Pohatu's a fine set. I like the designs of the Makuta better though, personally. 1. I'm not sure what you mean. Haven't I always been 4-Speed? 2. No they didn't. I've seen plenty staff without pony names. You're just not looking hard enough. Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion That's about it for this weekend. As always, be sure to leave questions and comments or send me a PM. Have a good weekend everyone!
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Intro So tonight brings us some nice discussions that cover a variety of recent happenings on BZPower. Some interesting stuff, I hope. Updates First things first, congratulations to Shilo and Ben (Omicron and ChocolateFrogs, respectively), who, along with myself, were BZPower's nominees for the Lego Ambassador program. The latest I've heard is that the selection committee is having a hard time narrowing down the pool since there were so many great candidates. Hopefully that means one of us has a shot! You may have seen that BZPower Reference Master bonesiii has updated the Storyline & Theories Rules and Guidelines recently, adding a thorough spoiler policy to clear up any confusion that might have gone on in the past. You can discuss the policy here and be sure to check out our calendar for when you can discuss certain spoilers. I can tell you the Reference Staff have been working on the policy for a while now, trying to come up with fair, consistent rules. They got input from Greg and Bink, and there was also some discussion between the BS01 staff to make sure the two sites' policies didn't vary too much. Like I said, this policy has been a lot of thought and work, so it's going to be around for a while. So if you're a story fan, familiarize yourself with it so you make sure you don't break it down the road. This week the long-awaited Member Interview program has begun! The entry period for the first cycle is over, and the interview will be posted on June 3rd. You'll have to wait and see who was chosen, but if you submitted your name and didn't hear back, then sorry, it wasn't you. There will be plenty more opportunities to try though, so fear not! A big thanks go to all the staff that helped out in the planning phase, deciding on the format and presentation, and suggesting lots of questions to be asked. I think this is going to be a really fun project, and I hope you all enjoy it. Be sure to check out General Discussion on June 3rd for the first interview, which is also the first day you can submit to enter in the second cycle. Finally, a note on BZPower's server. We're aware things have been quite slow recently, with the whole site going offline at times. We're looking into things and have at least one long-term plan should hopefully help speed things up. With any luck it will be announced this weekend. If you want to keep complaining let me know and I'll just delete your account, which will speed things up by having one fewer member in our database to deal with. Mailbag 1. Yes. 1A. Lewa Nuva. 2. I believe it has changed a lot since 2001. Whether or not you consider it downhill is a matter of perspective. It appeals to a wider range of fans, I think. This has come at the cost of some things older fans liked, such as gears and collectibles. But again it's all a matter of opinion. 3. I was always a fan of collectibles, though I do think they could have done a better job with some, especially the Kraata. 4. No, questions are fun! Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion So that wraps it up for tonight, since I will be leaving shortly to enjoy my weekend. As always, leave your questions and feedback and have fun here on BZPower.
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Intro Tonight's update will hopefully be pretty good. I have a few topics worth discussing. We can talk about promotions, Ambassadors, and member behavior, oh my! Updates So, this past week we had two pretty major staff promotions (which happened to coincide with two people stepping down). First, which most of you have probably seen by now, is the ToM Dracone, or Yannick, is now part of the BZPower news team. If you've read any of his reviews on BZP, you know what a skilled writer he is. We thought we'd put his skills to good use writing more frequently than the occasional review. In his first week he's already posted two stories, so keep looking for more to come from him! Next up, which you might not have seen, since it was only announced a few minutes ago, is that Makaru is the new Blog Leader. He came on to the staff as a Blog Assistant, and though he moved on to the forum side, he returns once again to oversee his former blog staff-mates. His experience will prove invaluable in keeping the blogs running smoothly and I know there's at least one project Toaraga was working on that Mak will continue. Now, you might be wondering, 'But Toaraga was just promoted, is he leaving or something?' Fear not, this was all planned in advance, Toaraga took the job as Global Mod knowing Mak waqs going to replace him. It's usually better to spread out the work load among a few staff members rather than having one or two that do everything. It allows for better organization and prevents our staff from getting too stressed out (most of them, at least). Of course that leaves Janus, who recently stepped down from being a Global Moderator and now stopped being a Reporter. Sometimes things in life get busy and reduce the time a person can spend on BZPower. It's unfortunate, but it happens. Robert decided that it would be better to let some new blood into those positions since he could no longer dedicate the amount of time he wanted to. So that's that. Next on the list, the applications are in, and you can now vote for the top three candidates to be nominated for Lego Ambassadors. I'd like to thank everyone so far for their support and wish the rest of the candidates good luck in the selection process. The poll closes at noon tomorrow, so get voting! As far as the Ambassador program in general goes, I've seen many people asking for specific things to ask Lego. While I'm sure the company is open to ideas and feedback, it remains to be seen if individual requests are really considered. Whatever the case, if anyone from BZP is chosen as an Ambassador I hope they work with the members to get feedback on different issues, and bring our voice to Lego. We're a large community with a lot of opinions, and I think Lego could gain some useful insight from us. Here's to the future! Finally, I'd like to take a quick moment to talk about something some members don't seem to understand. Staff are people too. We have lives outside of BZPower and do all the same sort of things all other members do. We hang out with friends, listen to music, go to parties, play sports, go to school or work (or both), etc. I encourage all staff to act as professionally as possible while on BZPower, setting a good example for other members to follow, and generally I think we do a pretty good job of it. Sometimes, however, something will come up that members think is inappropriate for staff to do, but if they did it it would be alright. Double standards aren't cool, and people need to understand that staff aren't perfect and have all the same sorts of flaws and strengths as everyone else. Mailbag Nothing this week. Send me your questions! Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion And that wraps it up for this week. Hope it was more interesting and insightful than it has been recently. I want to try to update this thing (my blog) more often with non-weekly update stuff, so keep checking back to see if I get around to doing that.
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Intro Short update this week. Someone need to give me an idea for something to discuss. Updates So, first up on the list is that Lego is taking applications for new Lego Ambassadors, and BZPower (along with other Lego communities on the Internet) get to help nominate candidates. We get to nominate up to three people to be considered for the position, with at most one from the community being selected. If you're 18 or older and are interested (no matter where in the world you live) by all means get some testimonials and send an application over to me so we can send it in. I'm giving this a shot and seeing if I can become an Ambassador. Obviously the Bionicle line does quite well and is always one of the better-selling themes, but many AFOLs still seem to overlook it as being 'kiddy,' which is ironic considering we're talking about a building toy. I've been trying to help raise awareness with things like LAML Radio. Speaking of which, hopefully I won't be the only proponent of Bionicle to appear on the show, but when that happens is up to James, not me, obviously. Anyway, I think Lego can gain a lot from someone that grew up with the classic themes like Space, Pirates, and Castle but also enjoys Bionicle. So if it comes down to a vote for who gets nominated, be sure to make the right choice. Sometime this weekend there should be a couple of new staff announcements. One is sort of a continuation of a recent staff event. Actually, so is the other. If that doesn't get you thinking, I don't know what will. I'm sure all the promotions will work out for the best though, otherwise they wouldn't be happening. Mailbag Nothing this week. Send me your questions! Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion Like I said, nothing much to this week's update. Hope you enjoyed it nonetheless, and if you'd like to see me talk about more things, let me know and give me some ideas!
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Intro I'm hoping tonight won't be as boring as the past few weeks. To find out for yourself, read on! Updates So the biggest news, I think is last night's promotion. Once again, congratulations Toaraga! I'm sure he'll do a great job, he was already nuking signatures last night, so he's off to a good start. Unfortunately that means Janus is no longer a Global Moderator. This was his choice, as he felt he no longer had sufficient free time to continue with the work and get other things done. It happens, real life does take priority, but it's good to still have his experience available on the staff. Also, this is the first of a few staff changes you'll be seeing in the coming weeks. Some of you may have noticed a news story today referencing a popular Europe song. It featured a link to a new movie with some 2008 hints and spoilers. We were informed shortly after putting it up that the site that was hosting it should not have made it live yet. Being the considerate people we are, we removed the news story. I wish websites would adhere to the release dates that Lego gives them, it would make things a lot easier. Imagine if sets and books came out on their scheduled release dates instead of randomly one to two months in advance. It would save people from running around trying to get a product as soon as someone finds it. Also, it would prevent spoilers like this from ruining the story for people. If you have seen the video, do not discuss it or link to it. Thanks. As a side note, this isn't the first time the site has done something like this. It's quite unprofessional and reflects poorly on the staff over there. In other news this week, we learned that the company in charge of LegoLand will be building a theme park in the state of Dubai (part of the United Arab Emirates). From what I've heard the country has become a bit of a tourist attraction in the Middle East, with lots of beautiful beaches (some of which are artificial) and other tourist attractions. It seems like an interesting choice, and I would have thought of other places that would have gotten a LL theme park first, but he'll see how it works out in a few years once it opens. Mailbag This is a feature of the forum software. One of the more common requests on BZPower, however, is to remove the star ratings from Blogs and Member profiles, which cannot easily be done. So I don't think there would be a big interest in adding the rating feature to topics. Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion So that wraps it up for this week. Again, please don't spread the video (if you've seen it). Otherwise enjoy your weekend and check back next week!
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Intro We've definitely hit a slow period here on BZPower, slow news, slow updates, slow server. Oh wait, that's been going on for a while. Anyway, thanks for joining us for yet another Weekly Update. Updates Thanks for all your input in the spoiler policy poll. Bones and the rest of the Reference Team have been poring over the results to come up with a unified spoiler policy that will be implemented in the future. You will follow it or face the penalties, which have yet to be determined. So BBC Contest #49 voting has finally started, and the final round is here. We apologize for the delay, but unfortunately things have been quite hectic for Tufi and Kex recently, forcing the longish delay. So yeah, there definitely are going to be some interesting staff changes coming up. Just to get you guessing, someone may leave and others will stay. *Insert tension and drama.* Mailbag Yes, you should still get yours, along with everyone else that was asked for an address. Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update. Conclusion And so another week is wrapped up. Come back next week after something interesting has hopefully happened!
