To LUGNET HomepageTo LUGNET News HomepageTo LUGNET Guide Homepage
 Help on Searching
 
Post new message to lugnet.lego.directOpen lugnet.lego.direct in your NNTP NewsreaderTo LUGNET News Traffic PageSign In (Members)
 LEGO Company / LEGO Direct / 1548
1547  |  1549
Subject: 
Re: Contest goals? (was Re: Fansploitation
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.lego.direct
Date: 
Thu, 4 Jan 2001 07:08:58 GMT
Highlighted: 
(details)
Viewed: 
568 times
  
"Larry Pieniazek" <lpieniazek@mercator.com> wrote in message
news:G6M3o2.Mos@lugnet.com...
Snipped... (I got a copy of the January catalog today so I've now read the
contest rules)


[ ... snipped ... ]


The fact that D. L. Blair is judging the first round means I won't be
entering, I never got points for neatness when I was in school either. But
I'm not nearly as bummed by the contest as you are, now that I read the
rules and looked at the contest presentation in context and had some time
to think.

I'm glad there are people like Larry who are less bummed out. I don't want
anyone to be as bummed out as I am. But I'll try to clarify my prev post.

I know my views are often critical -- I'm like that. Usually I bite my tongue in
this news area, but it truly bothers me if any people in our community aren't
aware of things which, if later they discovered, would disturb them.

I am not interested in the good and evil of exploitation. That's a whole other
matter. Rather, I am insulted and disappointed that LEGO Direct would aim such a
contest, with such prizes and terms, at us while knowing how savvy we are and
(supposedly knowing) what's important to us.

I would much rather have no prize but true positive recognition from my peers,
whom I respect. I remember how excited I was to be named "Cool LEGO Site of the
Week."  Any prize to equal that feeling would have to be like, an all expenses
paid trip for four to Denmark. And even then, I'd only be excited by the
monitary value, and that's not at ALL why I continue to enjoy modeling with LEGO
and sharing on the net.

In my talking with "certain parties," I heard about contests like this being on
the horizon. My concerns voiced then were the same as they are now. But they
were dismissed in a way that disallowed suggestions for alternate solutions. It
was clear to me then that such things were already decided. So, as I said in
earlier post, I'm not surprised by this "contest" but it still hurts.

Regarding Blair, this may sound awful, but I believe they aren't looking for
nice models at all. It seems much more likely (to me) that they would cull out:
- unacceptable entries (ones that didn't follow the rules, no phone num, etc)
- unacceptable photos (maybe poor shots or lack detail to produce instructs)
- unacceptable models (ones which would be too complex to build or provide
  instructions for, ones which show too many rare pieces or not enough
  "available-from-LEGO Direct" parts which they hope to sell).
And who knows what else.. I'd rather not guess.

In lugnet.lego.direct, Mike Walsh writes:

I too have thought about this quite a bit over the past few days.  I was
excited to see a train building contest.  I was disappointed to read through
the fine print and copyright assignment verbage.  I still think it would be
good for the LUGNET train community to support this contest. • [snip]
I will probably enter something simply to show my support for LEGO Trains. [...]

But don't you see that you already show your support for LEGO trains? Forming
LTCs and setting up at model train shows go a long way in demonstrating passion
for the hobby.

I don't believe LEGO is running the contest for our praise or enjoyment, or even
to see how many people support trains. This page in the S@H catalog is certainly
aimed at us[1] but what I see on there is not a contest, rather LEGO Direct's
desire to:

1) use a magic selling word ("contest")
2) harvest data (from those who would enter)
3) woo the AFOLs, without really doing anything (any real risk would be bad)
4) sell more train elements (as seen on the opposite page)
5) gently break it to TLC, and their public, that non-kids use LEGO
6) legally aquire print photos of excellent models (better than any official set
could be) to be used in the promotion of LEGO Direct in demonstrating what great
things can be done by "regular" people with the handy new web-bulk service.

there could be more goals, but who knows.

Anyway, I'm much more excited about the upcoming Town and Ancient contests here
on LUGNET. I would love to see folks in the Trains group run their own contest
too. Then, as in the recent Space building contest, there may be no need for
prizes.

-Suz
[1] I don't mean to say it's aimed only at us. And I could explain how I see
this if anyone's interested.



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: Contest goals? (was Re: Fansploitation
 
(...) Pardon my ignorance, but who is Blair? Thanks, ~Mark "Muffin Head" Sandlin (23 years ago, 4-Jan-01, to lugnet.lego.direct)
  Re: Contest goals? (was Re: Fansploitation
 
"Suzanne D. Rich" <suz@baseplate.com> wrote in message news:<G6MMIy.MrI@lugnet.com>... (...) here (...) contest (...) for (...) see (...) Suz, I mentioned something about an "MOC of the Year Award" type contest a few weeks back. See (URL) . When (...) (23 years ago, 5-Jan-01, to lugnet.lego.direct)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Contest goals? (was Re: Fansploitation
 
"Larry Pieniazek" <lpieniazek@mercator.com> wrote in message news:G6M3o2.Mos@lugnet.com... (...) [ ... snipped ... ] (...) to (...) I too have thought about this quite a bit over the past few days. I was excited to see a train building contest. I (...) (23 years ago, 4-Jan-01, to lugnet.lego.direct)

19 Messages in This Thread:








Entire Thread on One Page:
Nested:  All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:  All | Brief | Compact

This Message and its Replies on One Page:
Nested:  All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:  All | Brief | Compact
    

Custom Search

©2005 LUGNET. All rights reserved. - hosted by steinbruch.info GbR