Subject:
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Re: The problem I have with upcoming product hoaxes
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Fri, 16 Jun 2000 13:19:07 GMT
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Viewed:
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1203 times
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Larry Pieniazek wrote:
> The Burp AT AT on the other hand clearly was intended to be a gag and it worked
> fine as a gag. I got a laugh out of it. Who here didn't?
I definitely got a laugh out of it, not as much of a laugh as set 666
though.
> Before we all jump on Jeff, though, think about what he's saying. I think it's
> a good philosophical question worthy of discussion. Do gag hoaxes do harm or
> good? Do really really good hoaxes do harm or good? (harm to who? the
> community, TLG, other?)
>
> I don't know the answers. But don't condemn the questioner. "lighten up" is
> dismissive of the deeper questions here.
I agree. I'm not sure what my own feelings are, but I'll be interested
in seeing what comes out of a serious discussion (assuming there are
folks interested in this discussion).
The thought of discussion on this point did raise an idea of mine, what
about a newsgroup, lugnet.debate, for this type of discussion. I don't
think it really belongs in general (because I suspect the average Lugnet
user doesn't care about the discussion - though many might be interested
in a summary or conclusions of the discussion). On the other hand, it
doesn't really belong in lugnet.off-topic.debate because it clearly is
directly related to our hobby and the purpose of Lugnet. Other past
debates which I would see as being appropriate for this area:
- the discussion on "leaking" information
- the debate on the Georgia outlet store calling folks
I'm sure there are more.
All that being said.......................................
My initial thoughts suggest some of the following:
- the gags are relatively harmless. The set 666 gag might even do a bit
of good in being another way to express our dissatisfaction with
continued juniorization of sets (though I would argue that the choice of
set numbers was poor).
- the BURP AT-AT is probably also harmless, though also relatively
useless other than as a good laugh.
- the train hoax was certainly very good from the perspective of
"quality of hoax". It probably has some good in raising TLCs awareness
of how interested we are in the qualities of those sets. Part of the
effectiveness of the hoax is that those models are probably feasible
from TLCs perspective in number of new specialty parts (just a handfull)
and number of pieces per model (though I would expect TLC models to be
slightly simplified over these, unless they start a "modelteam" train
line, in which case I would actually expect even a bit more from the
sets). It is very positive from the aspect of thinking that if LEGO
trains are ever to become a serious contender in the model railroad
scene we will need a company (or two or three) making a small number of
carefully planned and crafted supplementary parts (a new motor unit
which can take a DCC module and can utilize a variety of wheels, a few
extra wheels [useable with the new motor or unpowered], a couple of
larger circle radii, a turnout with the geometry of the 4.5v/12v
turnout, turnout motors, shorter and longer straight tracks, and more).
The hoax did get some good attention for some grand "impure" creations
(but I would rather see creations of that sort welcomed, I think Ben
struck a very good balance with using non-LEGO in a very small way to
create some extremely good looking models).
(I just noticed a cool feature of the web interface for browsing groups,
if you change the URL to a custom number of messages per page (the -5,
-10, or -20), that quantity appears as a choice on the bottom for the
next N messages in addition to 5, 10, 20 - good work Todd).
--
Frank Filz
-----------------------------
Work: mailto:ffilz@us.ibm.com (business only please)
Home: mailto:ffilz@mindspring.com
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Message has 2 Replies:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: The problem I have with upcoming product hoaxes
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| (...) No, I fell for it, hook line and sinker. Perhaps it's because I *wanted* it to be true, because I know that Lego is capable of far better designs than what we are currently getting in the train line. When I finally realised these were a hoax, (...) (24 years ago, 16-Jun-00, to lugnet.general)
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