Subject:
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Re: CFD: lugnet.lego.* newsgroup hierarchy
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.admin.general
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Date:
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Mon, 9 Aug 1999 21:16:38 GMT
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Viewed:
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873 times
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In lugnet.admin.general, "Eric Kingsley" <star_wars_lego@yahoo.jawaspam.com>
writes:
> [...]
> This definitly seems like it might be a bit unweildy to me, especially as the
> LEGO product line grows. Now I don't know as much as I probably should about
> the LEGO product line and how it is structured but I was trying to think of
> something that would combine some of these lines to make things a bit less
> unweildy.
Hmm. Well, there really are have been about 30 or 35 or so major categories
over the past 30 or so years, right? So it may not grow much. In the past
10 years, for example, only about 10 major categories have been added:
:
1989 - LEGO® SYSTEM™ Pirates (a system within the LEGO® SYSTEM™ product
programme)
1995 - LEGO® SYSTEM™ Aquazone (a system within the LEGO® SYSTEM™ product
programme) [1]
1996 - LEGO® SYSTEM™ Western/Wild West (a system within the LEGO® SYSTEM™
product programme)
1997 - LEGO® SCALA™ (a new product programme)
1998 - LEGO® SYSTEM™ Adventurers (a system within the LEGO® SYSTEM™
product programme)
1998 - LEGO® ZNAP™ (a new product programme)
1998 - LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ (a new product programme)
1999 - LEGO® SYSTEM™ Underground (a system within the LEGO® SYSTEM™
product programme) [2]
1999 - LEGO® SYSTEM™ Star Wars (a system within the LEGO® SYSTEM™ product
programme)
Notes:
[1] LEGO® SYSTEM™ Aquazone contains five so-called "play themes":
Aquanauts, Aquasharks, Aquaraiders, Stingrays, and Hydronauts.
[2] LEGO® SYSTEM™ Underground contains one theme: Rock Raiders.
Note also that there's been an unusual burst in the past 2-3 years -- which
might be attributable to TLG's goal of being the strongest brand among
familes with children by 2005. I don't know if this bursting will die down
or continue, but my guess is that more new themes will continue to be
introduced (but not many new systems or programmes). I suspect that the
1998-1999 new-system and new-programme burst is a result of TLG's refocusing
efforts begun 2-3 years ago.
> For example with the space line couldn't you do something like this...
>
> lugnet.space
> lugnet.space.classic
> lugnet.space.blacktron
> lugnet.space.starwars (this would move lugnet.starwars here)
> lugnet.space...
>
> This would put lugnet.space on the main page but move much of the more specific
> lines down one level.
Yup, exactly -- the play themes within the LEGO Space System belong as
subcategories of the LEGO Space System, IMHO -- and not as top-level
categories.
I'm not sure how to distinguish between the 1989 Space Police theme and the
1992 Space Police theme, because they both actually have the same name! :-(
And the 1987 Blacktron theme has a different name from the 1991 Blacktron
Future Generation theme, but the latter is too long and clumsy.
BTW, Star Wars is not part of the LEGO Space System. Though it's true that
Star Wars is "space" (with a lowercase 's') to a large degree, it's not
actually Space (with a capital 'S'). LEGO® SYSTEM Star Wars™ is actually
its own whole system, separate from LEGO® SYSTEM Space™. It's hoped that
Space is simply on hiatus (rather than extinct) while Star Wars is in
production, due to the licensing arrangement.
> Now I notice that you left out lugnet.extreme and lugnet.rescue above or are
> they considered part of town?
Yup, Extreme Team, Outback, Divers, Rescue, ResQ, RSQ-911, Launch Command,
Space Port, etc., are all examples of play themes within the LEGO Town
System (or LEGO® SYSTEM™ Town, however it's written).
> Maybe the town structure could look something
> like...
>
> lugnet.town
> lugnet.town.boats
> lugnet.town.extreme
> lugnet.town.rescue
> lugnet.town...
Yup!
(Except that Boats, like Trains, isn't part of the LEGO Town System, even
though both Boats and Trains are "town" (with a lowercase 't'). Majorly
frustrating, isn't it? :-)
> Now I could say something about lugnet.town.trains here but I would probably
> get killed and I do think that .trains is unique enough to leave at the top of
> the structure.
Trains (and Star Wars) originally got their own top-level categories because
they're each "a thing" (meaning a fan following in a big way) in their own
right. But under this new proposed scheme, they actually also make perfect
sense -- as Trains isn't part of Town, and Star Wars isn't part of Space.
> I would also think that there should be some way to combine the .basic and
> .freestyle lines.
That's a majordomo can of worms, isn't it! You may be right, though -- at
least in the modern sense of the Basic product line. IIRC, Basic is called
Basic in Europe and called Classic in the U.S. But whereas FreeStyle only
meant one thing, Basic/Classic means *three* things. :-(
FreeStyle included minifigs and elements from other minifig-scale themes
(for example, 4x4 rounded railings, town windows, wheels, etc.), but so does
the new Basic/Classic:
http://www.lugnet.com/pause/search/?query=1298-1
http://www.lugnet.com/pause/search/?query=3040-1
http://www.lugnet.com/pause/search/?query=4221-1
http://www.lugnet.com/pause/search/?query=4222-1
http://www.lugnet.com/pause/search/?query=4223-1
http://www.lugnet.com/pause/search/?query=4224-1
http://www.lugnet.com/pause/search/?query=4225-1
http://www.lugnet.com/pause/search/?query=4226-1
http://www.lugnet.com/pause/search/?query=4229-1
But Basic/Classic also has a range of sets exactly like the old BASIC 3+ and
BASIC 5+ used to look:
http://www.lugnet.com/pause/search/?query=3041-1
http://www.lugnet.com/pause/search/?query=4211-1
http://www.lugnet.com/pause/search/?query=4212-1
http://www.lugnet.com/pause/search/?query=4213-1
http://www.lugnet.com/pause/search/?query=4214-1
http://www.lugnet.com/pause/search/?query=4215-1
http://www.lugnet.com/pause/search/?query=4216-1
http://www.lugnet.com/pause/search/?query=4217-1
And some of the new Basic/Classic sets are also just plain rectangular
bricks:
http://www.lugnet.com/pause/search/?query=4219-1
http://www.lugnet.com/pause/search/?query=4220-1
http://www.lugnet.com/pause/search/?query=4229-1
BTW, as near as Suzanne and I can tell, Basic/Classic is not part of the
LEGO® SYSTEM™ product programme, but FreeStyle -was- part of LEGO® SYSTEM™.
More confusion! :-) I guess the reasoning is that most Basic/Classic sets
are simply BASIC 3+/5+, with only a few of the Basic/Classic sets being
FreeStyle sets (in spirit).
> It also seems that many of these would not get much traffic. For example I
> personally could see .western and .scala sitting with very little traffic. I
> could be wrong here but it is just my perception.
Well, that's OK, right? It's better that they exist for the one or two
people who may stop by to use them once every couple of months, than that
they don't exist at all. And regardless of whether there should be actually
newsgroups for "obscure" things like LEGO SCALA dolls, there still needs to
be browseable categories for informational resources, etc.
(I don't think Western/Wild West would be very dead at all, BTW... WW is a
fairly popular product line among RPG gamers. :-)
--Todd
p.s. For more info about the present state of the LEGO product lines, see:
http://www.lego.com/info/core.asp
It's riddled with inconsistencies, but it's still very helpful to
understanding the organizational structures (which, unfortunately, change
over time).
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: CFD: lugnet.lego.* newsgroup hierarchy
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| Todd Lehman wrote in message <37af3206.2187573@lu...et.com>... *snip* (...) and (...) does (...) *snip (...) and (...) *snip* Of course Freestyle has the same types of sets also, 4135 for example. Also it seems like I've seen 3-12 Freestyle (...) (25 years ago, 10-Aug-99, to lugnet.admin.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: CFD: lugnet.lego.* newsgroup hierarchy
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| In lugnet.admin.general, Todd Lehman writes: *snip* (...) This is great I really like the new URL/DB structure. Much more intuitive. (...) This definitly seems like it might be a bit unweildy to me, especially as the LEGO product line grows. Now I (...) (25 years ago, 9-Aug-99, to lugnet.admin.general)
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