Andrew is awesome.

I can no longer make "I BILDZ?!?!?" jokes, because I've actually been building quite a bit lately... But although I do love me some I Bildz jokes, I can recognize that it's a good thing overall to build more. Andrew is awesome. At least, as long as I build well. Andrew is awesome. I'll leave that up to you to decide. Andrew is awesome.



[flickr set]

Why did he lose?

General Grievous was probably my favourite character from SW:ROTS, but he died so stupidly.

Can you look at obscurance's model of this badass guy and say he truly deserved to lose to a man with a quarter as many lightsabers?

The cavalry has arrived.

As you may have been able to tell from the somewhat cavalier (pun intended) title, I'm rather proud of my latest creation: the RAMM Hauptpanzer, or Main battle Tank.


It took me several months to build, though mostly because I was too lazy to set up a Bricklink account and buy the cheese-wedges for the feet (and since I bought 60, I went crazy with them on the rest of the MOC as well.) My personal favorite details are the ladder on the left front leg and the engine greeblies (though I don't have any pictures of those because I added the radiators on top of them without a means of temporary removal.)

MOYBLIK SUCKS I QUIT FOREVER

Moyblik has slowed down a bit (obviously...)

So just think of it as... Moyblik on a break. Yup. It's just taking a rest...

Groups on Flickr

By Lukas "Gladius" W.P.

Groups on Flickr are a huge part of the social part of the website. Groups are where collections of members can band together, talk, and share pictures.

Getting into groups is pretty easy. You can ask somebody who you know to be in a group (you can tell if somebody is in a group if they can put pictures into them, and groups that a picture is in appear under the photostream, and you can view the groups somebody is in by looking at their profile page.) if you can join, or make your own (which is awfully easy, but don't make groups too much, there is probably already a group for what you want.)

You can submit any of your pictures into any group you belong to. Just click the "submit to group" option atop the picture. You can remove a picture you have in a group by clicking the [X] next to each stream tab of the groups the picture is in, as you can see in the picture.

If you click the "groups" tab up top, you go to a main screen listing the groups you are in, a "Search for Groups" function (which is also in the main searchbar up top), and a link to start your own group.

If you start a group, there are only a few things to do:

1. Choose the privacy. Public groups allow anybody to join if they feel like it, Invite-only are public for the most part, but if you ask somebody, you can probably get into the group. Private groups are "invisible" to non-group members, and are invite-only. Choose wisely.
2. Choose a title for your group, and a description. Remember to make sure that there isn't already a group for what you want.
3. If your group is Public or Invite-Only, choose what non-members can see (discussion and/or pictures in the group.)
4. Choose what the members, Admin(s), and Mods will be called in your group. For instance, if you had a group about gardening, Members could be "Grass," Mods could be "Trees," and Admin(s) be "Flowers," or whatever you feel.
5. Once that is all done, you can edit some finer preferences about the group. You can ban people, invite people, establish a picture limit (see below*), make an icon, give your group rules, and other things.

*Some groups have picture limits (mostly the large groups, ones that get enough photos in a day already). This means that you have a limit as to how many pictures a day you can put in. You can assign a limit for weeks, days, months, or EVER! Not very many groups have limits, as it is encouraged to take as many pictures as you want.

About the different Group Rankings, Members can just put pictures in, and make + add to discussions. Mods can lock discussions and edit what members have said. Admins can do that, ban members, remove pictures from the group pool, and much more.

Some groups will do this differently than others. Most use the normal, there are members, dedicated members become mods, and the person who made the group and their close associates is/are the admin/s.

In the picture there you can see a group called LEGO Microspacetopia. In that group, every member is an admin, and we are trusted not to mess the place up. It just depends.

Admins can also make "announcements," which appear of the front page of the group and everybody can see. Only other admins can remove or change this announcement.

The Group Pool is a collection of photos about whatever the Group is about! For instance, if I upload a picture of a lego spaceship, I would put it into the group "Lego," And the group "Classic-space," as it fits both.

As for discussions, it's fairly straightforward. When you go to the groups mainpage (which can be accessed again through the "groups" tab on the top bar, or by going directly to the groups web address), you'll see something like what is in this picture:

You can view each "thread" by clicking it, and then you can read the topic post, and what people have said about the topic. at the very bottom of the page, you can click to go to different pages of the topic (as some become longer than one page), of voice your own opinion. Mods and Admins can lock threads (or unlock locked ones.)

It's pretty obvious how to make your own topic, just click "Post a new topic," and away you go!

If you are an Admin for a group, you can invite pictures you see in flickr into the group. Under the text box, you can see a link...
"Invite this photo to..." Click it, and a dropdown menu of the groups you administrate with pop up. Select one, and an automated message with linkage to a group invite will appear. Just click "POST COMMENT," and be on your way.

Hopefully, that person will join, and submit the picture(s)!

Some groups are big, some are small, some are personal, some are annoying, and some don't have any discussions whatsoever. It all depends on the members, so make sure you are a good one!

Brickshelf will NOT be shutting down! *squee*

1. Read this post
2. Go to Brickshelf
3. Read the new message
4. Re-read the new message
5. Process the new message
6. Say hooray
7. Go on with whatever you were doing.

Well, it looks like I did that backup for naught, but whatever :D

Warning

So BShelf is up, for the time being. It closes down *JULY 31 2007* so make sure you get yany pictures you need off by then. I figure it'd be good to point this out, incase sometone failed to check Bshelf or CSF yesterday.

Go to Flickr!

I'm not really looking forward to a huge surge on flickr (I like it how it is), but Linus does have a good idea:

Brickshelf may be gone, it may not be. But the fact is, there are other host options for lego pictures. One way of helping the community get past the loss is to help everyone get into these sites.

Now, flickr has risen to be one of the most used image-hosting sites by us builders. It's only natural that some of us will continue housing there after this, whatever the outcome. That's why I'd like to start an article describing how Flickr works, and good stuff to know about the site for Lego builders.

I'm going to try to help write. Sign-up here!

Maybe it sounds bit snooty to not want a whole load of new people come to flickr, but I already have waaaay too many contacts and too many groups.

*sigh*

Is brickshelf dead?

Uh-oh. Yesterday I was surfing brickshelf before it was time for dinner. I left the window open (I was looking at some zizy2 mecha), and when I came back from eating, I refreshed. This is what I saw.

Brickshelf has discontinued operation. We apologize for any inconvenience.

I was slowly switching over to flickr, so it isn't a HUGE HUGE deal for my pictures, but like Andrew said, it is a cornerstone of the lego community. It cripples my lego inspiration bookmarks folder, and quite a few lego websites.

You can still use Maj, Kevin Loch's other image website, but it's for non-lego pictures as well.

*sigh* I don't know what to do :(