Subject:
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Re: Official vs. unofficial LEGO postings
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.admin.nntp, lugnet.lego.direct
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Date:
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Sun, 18 Mar 2001 19:37:19 GMT
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Reply-To:
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{robinsather@hotmail.com}antispam{}
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Some thoughts from a loyal but non-member Lugnet participant:
I believe I understand where Todd is coming from here, and I think
that generally, the idea makes sense. Corporate involvement DOES
dilute a true fan-based newsgroup. For an extreme example, imagine if
Lego had a fan forum on their site, under their complete control.
What do you think that group would look like?
Would the AFOL community "move" there? Why or why not?
Would there be the same level of candidness, openness, and frankness
that we have on Lugnet?
Would new AFOLs discovering the forum feel that they had discovered a
new, unbiased, balanced, honest source of information about Lego?
What would be the volume and nature of corporate marketing oriented
posts from TLC, and how would you feel about them?
In my mind, there's no question that this sort of situation would be
far inferior to Lugnet. I'm sure all of you can think of examples of
this from your own experience. Lugnet is alive, very active, and very
vital. I think this is what Todd's thinking, and I agree with him in
principle.
However ...
There is a danger. It's a given that most of us want TLC involved
with the AFOL community, at least at some level. However, it's very
difficult, if not impossible, to dictate to TLC how to deal with us.
In fact, it's a little presumptuous. TLC is "THE" big fish in our
pond. A pond where the entire Lugnet community is still just a
slightly fatter minnow than the millions of other minnows. TLC could
just decide, at any point, that Lugnet is just too much bother. Why
they decide this is completely irrelevant, and entirely out of our
control. It would be a shame if this happened, and we would miss them
greatly. I, for one, do not want it to.
I've been around the AFOL community (on atl and rtl) since the early
90's and can remember how we fantasized about having a person "on the
inside" at TLC. Every little scrap of information was golden. The
first notice and sightings of new sets, etc. were viewed as monumental
events, especially if the information came from *gasp* within TLC
itself. Now, we bask in warm oceans of good, timely information, and
those early days are all but forgotten.
I would welcome the odd, even blatant, commercial post in our midst,
if it also came with good, solid, sometimes privileged information
about special promotions, upcoming products, shows, inside scoops,
etc. Even the fact that TLC actually asks for our collective opinions
on their products, distribution, etc. is just simply too cool! The
recent Train summit, and others, are evidence of this. I'm sure that
every AFOL attendee of these summits was just pleased as punch to be
there. Obviously, these kinds of relationships came about largely
because of Lugnet, which is, like it or not, the de facto home of
AFOLs online.
With all this in mind, I believe that Todd has a responsibility to the
community at large to maintain a good relationship with TLC. No
matter how we see it, there's no question that to some extent, Todd
represents the AFOL community to TLC. I know that Lugnet is Todd and
Suzanne's empire, and they deserve all the credit from the AFOL
community at large. It's a tremendous resource to all of us.
However, because of the success of Lugnet, and the position that it
holds in the minds of AFOLs and TLC alike, Todd and Suzanne also have
somewhat of a responsibility to us to maintain that standing, and to
keep all the relationships healthy. To that end, some compromise on
Todd's part may be necessary to ensure that, to put it bluntly, we
keep "The Big Fish" happy. After all, we like having that big fish
around, even if it does have a few rough edges.
Of course, a lot of us are wondering what actually happened to bring
this on? What was the "catalyst" that Todd spoke about. I haven't
seen any postings from TLC that bothered me greatly, or that I felt
were purely commercial with no redeeming value to me as an AFOL. Of
course TLC is in business to make money. As Todd has said repeatedly,
this is not a bad thing. I don't have a problem with them trying to
pitch me once in awhile. The fact remains that if it does get really
bad, somewhere down the line, Todd can still do something then. I
just do see why he's doing it now. Taking a look at this whole
situation, it's obvious that there is also some background that we,
the community at large, are not privy to. I've noted the gradual
change in tone recently from Todd and Suzanne, when speaking of TLC.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it's very clear that there's
more to this story than is currently public knowledge.
Anyway, some more fuel for the fire. Thanks for listening to this
non-member.
Robin
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