The new FBTB: Fewer zombies, more Indiana Jones [News]

From Bricks to Bothans re-launched today with a new look, more news, and a new attitude. The biggest change for regular visitors of FBTB.net will be that LEGO news will cover all licensed themes, not just Star Wars.

In particular, I’m looking forward to FBTB’s upcoming coverage of Toy Fair New York! (Graphic by Mike.)

On a personal note, FBTB was the place where I first “de-lurked” and joined the online LEGO fan community, so the site will always hold a special place in my brick-built heart. It’s great to see the current admins taking the site in a fresh direction, and I look forward to spending more time on FBTB in the future.

All the good times on the old forums have been archived, so you can still go back and revisit the final zombie apocalypse, but head over now and register on the new FBTB Forums.

14 comments on “The new FBTB: Fewer zombies, more Indiana Jones [News]

  1. ry

    Thanks for the coverage, Andrew. :D And welcome home :P

    Just a heads up that people are continuing to have issues with the new site not working for them. The main culprit seems to be with the DNS; DNS propagation can take 24 to 48 hours, so some sporadic redirection to the old site may still occur for another day or so.

  2. Brad

    If A the B; B, therefore A, David4?

    I apologize for being a bit overbearing, but I’m curious about your response. I would actually be more interested to hear why you have nothing to say. I have to admit my first reaction is to think that LEGO coverage online is becoming a bit more homogenized, but I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing or a good thing. At any rate, I used to be active in FBTB and I wish it all the best no matter what!

  3. Andrew Post author

    @David4: Don’t feel like you can’t say something critical. I’m sure FBTB staffers like ry and Big C would be interested in hearing what you have to say, even if they don’t agree.

    I can’t remember specifically when I first registered on FBTB (at least as early as 2002), but I was very active there until 2004-2005. The main reason I left was the same reason we instituted our new leak policy and Terms of Service here on The Brothers Brick recently — I felt that the “level of discourse” had fallen dramatically, driven largely by a huge influx of younger LEGO Star Wars fans — many of whom didn’t actually build anything, making that incarnation of FBTB a community of chatterboxes, rather than LEGO builders. In parallel with that shift, my own interest in LEGO Star Wars waned (thank you crappy prequals!).

    I know that there are other “FBTB diaspora” out there who share my experience.

    This reset (“FBTB 3.0”), coupled with the addition of Indiana Jones and other newer licensed themes, has the potential to address both of these main reasons I left FBTB. I’m curious to know what others think, and whether this holds true over the long run.

    Again, huge kudos to Ace Kim and the rest of the FBTB staff for all their years of hard work, and for taking this step forward.

  4. David4

    I was a member MANY MANY years ago, I think even before the FBTB even had a meaning. The forum (the only part I cared about) was horribly run, it was just fanboy chaos and if your response wasn’t “Star Wars is Jesus Christ!” then they would just go after you for the next 50 posts. Which it seems Andrew had the same issue. I haven’t checked the site in years.

    Brothers-Brick is actually the only English LEGO site I check on a normal basis, it’s normally not a mess of wacko comments.

    Eurobricks is the same as FBTB, it was run by 13 year olds, and the founder of the site, who left and I forgot his name, was frankly an ass. Now they try this 18 year old rule, but the site is still a mess. I only go their for leaked pictures, but they are even cutting back on that.

    Brickset is the same way it’s Star Wars 10 year old freaks who think the prequels are wonderful, and the older ones are like black and white silent movies. Plus I would love if Huw could actually make rules that even he/she would follow, “We won’t post leak pictures, we will, we won’t….”, can’t make up his mind.

    95% of LEGO sites are just jokes with children yelling at each other over stupid little things, and the mods just stand there and don’t care at all.

  5. wintermute

    I miss Conan. Part of what entertained me most about FBTB was it’s complete lack of lego discourse and high level of trolly internet drama. Le’ sigh. . .

  6. ry

    Good thing we’ve reduced the number of subforums from 24 down to 15, (cutting out a lot of the off-topic or nonbuildy forums.) We’re bringing the buildy back to FBTB (as evidenced already by our “Shut Up and Build” week that preceded the new site launch.

  7. Big C

    David, I’m sorry you have such hard feelings for our site. You’re quite right about the way things used to be. But as you said yourself, you were a member a very long time ago, and things have changed A LOT since then. I encourage you to drop by and give us another shot, bud.

  8. alldarker

    I know exactly what Andrew and (to some extent) David4 mean. I too have been a FBTB member since WAY back, when SW Lego was what the site was all about and it was still able to bring new news about releases, due to good contacts with TLC. But in the course of the years, the amount of room that was given to the members just got out of hand, the ties with Lego got looser and it was for this reason that Tim Saupé, the founder of FBTB actually decided to leave the site himself. Since then, especially in the last several years, the amount of non-Lego related banter, chattering and in-jokes (fueled by the mods) and the overly strict RtB rules were very disheartening.

    I also know that the present moderators of FBTB haven’t keen on critisism on their moderating, to say the least, which is a real shame and makes any discussion about views on their moderation next to impossible.

    Still, I have never left FBTB; my interest in SW Lego is still strong, and I am a firm believer in “panta rei”: all things change, and so of course I once again have joined FBTB, keen to see if there really will be a change in the direction and moderation of FBTB.

  9. Big C

    I guess you didn’t see this post in the old forum. :)

    Basically, we’ve owned up to our past stubbornness. The change isn’t just with the site, it’s also with our attitude as a staff.

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