Bricks in Motion
We are a friendly filmmaking community devoted to the art of stop-motion animation using LEGO® and similar construction toys. Here, you can share your work, join our community of other brickfilmers, and participate in periodic animation contests!
A place to discuss, share, and create stop motion films.
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Personnaly I would suggest having a Café Corner in General filmmaking like Darkman said, that would be cool to just have some movietalk. And have ONLY the café corner somewhere for off-topic stuff, but no other threads, just the café corner.
But, guys, it's not that huge a disaster the coffee shop is gone.
Community discussion is all fine and good, but the Coffee Shop got too big for its bridges and became the main focus of the site. The very fact that everyone's panties are in such a bunch about the disappearance of the coffee shop shows that it became too big. When near 40% of all of the site traffic is devoted to stuff like birthday threads and pointless forum games, this site ceases to be about brickfilming and becomes purely a discussion forum where newbies can bicker and display their stupidity. Sure, it might reduce the site to one quarter, but those other 3 quarters that go are going to the the ones who aren't mature enough to engage in meaningful discussion or participate in an online forum properly, and I have no problem with letting those people go.
Oh, and guess what! There is indeed a place where you can discuss the World Cup and Doctor Who and go and enjoy yourselves. It's called "outside." Even if you want to be a recluse and sit at the computer all summer, there are more than enough places on the internet to discuss those things (the chat is one).
Everyone just settle down. I know I sound a like TaaB here, but why not spend the time that you're using complaining about the disappearance of the Coffee Shop to check out the other forums or go outside and get a tan or animate or do something productive. Like Vik said, it's not the end of the world. Don't like the changes? Adapt or leave. There are plenty of places to go.
Edit: also, under further inspection, 25/80 of the threads on the first 2 pages of the Coffee Shop were either "hi im new" threads or "My birthday" threads. Cutting down on stuff like that would make everyone's lives so much easier. Honestly, no one cares about your birthday. If you're new, there's an intro thread somewhere. 30% of the useless threads gone.
Last edited by LegoShark (July 4, 2010 (04:32am))
It's not like random people just joined this site to post in the Coffee Shop. All the members here share a common bond - Brickfilming. Brickfilming is what brought us all together, and The Coffee Shop was basically what kept us all together. The Coffee Shop was where everybody got to know each other, and without it this site will be just people asking questions and posting films, thereby eliminating the Community aspect. Is it really worth sacrificing that just because of some annoying ten-year-olds?
The Coffee Shop had a good idea behind it. Just because it wasn't working quite as well as intended doesn't mean it should be scrapped altogether, it should be fixed. If your car breaks down, you don't just sell it for scrap, you get it repaired. What does it say in bold when you register for this site?
"By registering, you certify that you are 13 years of age or older." Why not just restrict the under-13's from posting in The Coffee Shop? How about enforce stricter moderation and remove pointless crap like birthday threads and "cake is a lie" jokes? A more thought-out approach would benefit the site in the long-term and keep users coming back, not just to talk about the World Cup or Doctor Who, but to actually post a brickfilm once in a while.
The Coffee Shop was obviously more populous than Releases because of how painstakingly long stop-motion animation takes. It was a reason for people to visit the site even when they weren't making a film or didn't have a film to release.
Its not fair for those who used the coffee shop maturely and properly. Its a silly decision.
I agree with Smalltime. Closure wouldn't have been necessary if more moderation and stricter measures were put in place. I get that things were getting out of hand, but as I said, closure seems far too drastic.
-MRB
The site lost it's 'soul' when it stopped being about brickfilming. There is far more activity in the community forums which, for the most, has absolutely nothing to do with brickfilming. It's kind of a shame that for every thread about lighting techniques, there are 10 birthday, avatar/signature, etc. threads.
An effort is being made to shift the focus back onto brickfilming, the reason why you came here in the first place. It's not like you're not allowed to have fun, but there are plenty of other places on the net to talk about love or whatever, this isn't one of them.
RevMen closed the Community forum for a period of time in 2003 or 2004 and it provided a good shot in the arm for the site and it was much better. A lot of people who just came for the frolics in the community forum left or stopped being so frequent and the site focused more on brickfilming.
On the internet there are a few brickfilming forums out there but there are loads of forums for general chit-chat and loads of ways for you to create forums. We want to attract more brickfilmer and animators to this site and believe me many people have turned away after seeing the immature pointless discussions we had here. We want this site to be more about brickfilming so we get back some people who otherwise would have left. Now that the site for this period will prioritise brickfilming and filmmaking we hope to lose some of the members who just want to post about it being there birthday, their love life and other issues that many other sites cater for.
All in all the site has not lost anything of value since the two forums were closed.
Amen Turnipped Justice, Amen.
EDIT: I spotted a typo!
A lot of people who just came for the frolics in the community forum left or stopped being so frequent and the site focused more on brcikfilming].
Last edited by Oromis-elda (July 4, 2010 (06:13am))
Why not re-open the coffee shop, and start again? And what if, like on Lego.com, you have to approve every new thread before it goes live. That way you could stop any pointless threads but keep the good ones. 
I'd like to clarify that some incarnation of the coffee shop may return, eventually.
...WHEN HUMANITY IS READY.
In the meantime, participate in the filmmaking forums on BiM. A large percentage of you dot post in anything other than the Communty forums.
We are trying to make this site a better place for brickfilmers. The resources section is being worked on, along with a couple other surprises. And like Riley said, there's a 10-1 ratio of pointless crap to brickfilming topics.
Would you get this worked up if we removed a couple of the Filmmaking forums?
I know I am not the most active member on this forum (this is mainly due to me having been at University for the past three years), but I'm rather saddened by this turn of events.
Whilst the stuff being posted in The Coffee Shop was quite inane and ridiculous at times, I think removing the entire community forum is a little excessive, because some of the discussion that would arise there was quite good and insightful (well, except when people clearly weren't reading topics before replying). It's also somewhat alienating for members like myself who don't brickfilm much any more but still want to be part of the community, even though I'm not around much - I now have no way of sharing my creativity as an artist with people here, because the community forum was the only place I could do it.
An effort is being made to shift the focus back onto brickfilming, the reason why you came here in the first place. It's not like you're not allowed to have fun, but there are plenty of other places on the net to talk about love or whatever, this isn't one of them.
There is a big difference between "going to other places to talk about love and whatever" and "talking about love and whatever with people you've come to know and become friends with through a common interest." For instance, I have friends who are Doctor Who fans like me, but it's not the only thing we talk about, and it shouldn't be the only thing we talk about. I could disappear and join another forum to discuss these things, but I don't: I want to discuss them with you guys, because I have been part of this community for 6 years (not this site, obviously, it's only been around two years) and I'm not about to start all that again.
I came for brickfilming, I stayed for the people I met.
I also feel that not allowing people to have a chance to have conversations about things that aren't about brickfilming could actually be a rather bad idea in the long run, because it's the discussion of those things that sparks ideas and stories - I actually started the original Name That Frame contest on Brickfilms.com to try and encourage people to develop their wit and sense of humour (it wasn't entirely successful, but a valiant attempt nonetheless). The chat is just far too chaotic at times to be an adequate substitute; most times I drop by there I end up feeling like I'm herding cats.
I guess I've nothing else left to say, except that I would be more than happy to help find a solution that will let us have the community forum and still maintain the focus on brickfilming.
PS: I think the fact we have three forums for the production process is ridiculous. Surely those can be condensed?
I've posted my thoughts on this on The State of Bricks In Motion topic. To save me from repeating myself, here's the link.
Blue has a point.
Without a forum to discuss events in your life, or to get people to know you, the whole place has become entirely different. Now, if you want to discuss anything other than Brickfilming, you have to go to a chatroom that is usually either completely empty, or full to insane capacity. When we had a place for things other than brickfilming, that's where people revealed personality, that's where people became friends. Now, without it, we aren't even a community, we are just a living FAQ if you will. you cannot express your feelings and emotion over how to light a set, or how to build a suspension bridge. And I know the moderators want to complain you can always chat about personal stuff on the Chat. Well you can chat about brickfilming in chat too.
If you really want to talk to someone somewhere other than in chat, you should use PMs.
And I know the moderators want to complain you can always chat about personal stuff on the Chat. Well you can chat about brickfilming in chat too.
So what are you saying ? Delete the part about filmmaking ? I assume not.
It will come back in future it's just we want to let the site have a break from it and it'll all be fresh when it comes back and of course stricter moderation of what will be posted.
It was my immediate thought that someone should be in charge of the community section of the forum when it comes back. And I think it would be a brilliant idea if that person also had a hand in organising a community project (we haven't attempted those since this site started - btw I've still got the Adventures of Brickfilmers script sitting on my hard drive, if anyone's interested in that little bit of aborted nostalgia).
Last edited by Blue (July 4, 2010 (10:28am))
well, i rarely posted in the coffee shop, but I did think it needed some fixing up, I hope its back soon though, as it was a well loved forum, but my biggest problem was the change or the chat link, I prefer it at the top, as that can be accessed from every page in the forum. But that us my only problem with this.
Unlike the majority of people on here, I strongly support the decision of closing the Coffee Shop. This is a site about brickfilming, and that's what we should talk about. If you go on the Celtx forum, ProductionHub, or other specific forums they don't have such amenities as a place to chat.
I would have to say that for awhile not much was happening to the site, when this could have been changed or been improved. It's good to see things happening now.
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