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In lugnet.general, Felix Greco writes:
> Hi Tim,
>
> These kind of conversations are what help us develop as a community. I
> applaude you for bringing it up. Its nice to see us going a step beyond
> merely coming together to share likes and dislikes. By stimulating this
> type of conversation, our unique culture grows and we all benefit.
Thanks, Felix.
> That having been said, a lot of people are going to respond to your post
> with their thoughts. My politically correct answer is that anyone who loves
> the medium and wants to share should be considered a part of the community.
> However, I trully only feel a sense of community with Lugnet. I don't
> believe that this site is the end-all-be-all of AFOL life. However, this is
> my home. I feel a strong sense of kinship with the people I interact with
> on this site. Sometimes they make me angry, sometimes very happy; just as
> any real family would.
I haven't had time to formulate thoughts in reply to the other posts, but
they're floating around in my head somewhere. You bring up a very good
point, I think. Some individuals identify only with some components of "the
community" or certain "communities." Of course, it's great that people
identify with their corner of the LEGO world.
I love the points you bring up, and it broadens my perspective on how people
treat this place, among other places.
I used to post quite a bit over at FBTB, and now I only occasionally lurk. I
also have done a minute amount of lurking at BZPower.
I notice a bit of self-centeredness each place I go. It's easy to label the
site _you_ read and post to the most as [the center of]
_the_LEGO_community_. It's easy to reinforce those ideals when communities
conflict (see the BrickShelf Bionicle avatar debate, or the Jake posting at
FBTB more than LUGNET issue). Sometimes those sentiments are expressed out
of simply individuals identifying with a place like a family - like you say
you identify here, Felix. Other times, I've noticed a real sense of
superiority coming from all sides. It all depends on the individual and how
they feel, and those attitudes come out in their words.
I guess I'm trying to see the big picture more and more. While LUGNET feels
like home to me too, I see opportunity for the hobby to grow elsewhere as
well. I see opportunities for people who don't fit the LUGNET demographic -
mostly adults and mostly ranging in computer experience from experienced
surfers to all-out geeks [1] - to be brought into the hobby too, to benefit
from our community resources also.
I see diverging attitudes, goals, and philosophies in LEGO fans I meet - but
one thing that ties us all together (as was said elsewhere in this thread)
is we build with a common medium. LEGO bricks bring us together. While some
want to have an adult hobby, build 'seriously' and share with other adults,
others want both; they're open to sharing with kids as well as adults.
These ideas have been of special interest to me lately -- I seem to want
both. I really enjoy building with friends who are like-minded, experienced
adult builders. But, there are times I want to take cool models and show
them to kids -- I love seeing the excitement on their faces when they see
the cool things adults build.
I remember how much Dan Jassim made me smile, inside and outside, when he
took the time to let kids handle his large and sometimes fragile Space
models at BricksWest. I couldn't believe I saw an adult fan who builds
*beautiful* models just handing them to a kid to woosh around. That guy made
those kids' day at the BricksWest public display -- I don't recall anyone
else doing that. I don't blame them either - some of my stuff is fragile
enough you can look at it wrong and it falls apart!
Yet we adults can do something like that, say put on a train show for the
public, then turn around and share amongst ourselves. There's a place for
both types of interactions. I know it's particularly hard to srike a balance
and satisfy everyone's desires at public/private events like BricksWest. But
I think at that event, for example, the vast majority of the attendees
understood LEGO isn't just for us, it's for the kids too.
--
An idea that's come up, in this thread I think, is that we are not just one
"LEGO Community," but many "LEGO communities." This is based a lot on what
group(s) people identify with. While there's a LUGNET community, including
the people who are active here, "we" (I use that lightly with me, since I
don't want to identify with *just* LUGNET) are not the center of the LEGO
universe. In fact, I don't think there is a center.
There are great resources online, websites like LUGNET, BrickLink, LDraw,
Peeron, BrickShelf, etc... and they do form a sort of virtual crossroads for
LEGO fans. And allthough these sites may provide incredible resources to
their visitors, and may be definitive resources for their purposes - they
aren't the center. They seem like the center for most of the online
activity, and are seen by many participants as that -- but "central" itself
is subjective. It depends on who we're talking about, and what group(s) they
identify with.
--
What do people feel about the LEGO Company's role here? They're a toy
manufacturer, and first nature is selling toys. Is LEGO's goal of selling
toys a threat to the innocence of our community? Or, are their community
efforts a welcome boon to what we're doing here? I know different people
feel differently, and some may not feel totally one way or another. Lately,
LEGO's expressed an interest in being seen and treated as a member of the
community as well. I think that's a good thing - do you? The company and the
various LEGO communities have much to gain from working together.
--
Anyways, these are just a few more of my thoughts. Just throwing them out
there to be mulled over. I like the responses to my post so far - and I
think it's good people want to openly discuss something like this :-)
-Tim
[1] This is a conclusion drawn from experience, both posting and meeting
people in person. I don't have any scientific data or even poll data to back
it up.
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