Recommended BL Protest for discussion

johnsma2000

Since BL is stopping sync on 28SEP, why not have all stores voluntarily close for at least 24 hours starting at midnight? Perhaps that might get the administrators attention, since nothing else seems to work. I would be willing to forgo at least 24 hours of income from Brink Link to protest - I cannot be certain that this will accomplish anything, and I might just be willing to leave completely. I think together we have more power than they do. Brink Link sells NOTHING, they are completely dependent on us, the sellers, to bring product to their forum and give them income. Let's not share this with the BL forum or others in any way, and leave it for a nice surprise. Tell those whom you trust, including buyers, and let's see what happens. There is a reason TLG no longer promotes BL, perhaps this is it? Thoughts?

Loremonger

Not a bad idea in principle, but I'm not sure the current number of Brick Owl sellers will make enough of a wave to get anyone's attention. The site that shall not be named has thrown down the gauntlet already and told us as sellers to choose one or the other. They will have this kind of boycott on their hands soon enough.

Enoch

TheBrickMill

Right now the new owners seem to be doing a fine job of sinking their own ship. My vote is to leave them be.

BrickAThon

Hmmmmm...

TheBrickMill

I think we need to be a little cautious as to what we post on the BO open forum. We don't want to hand the BL owners/lawyers any ammunition or to be seen by buyers as causing the downfall of BL, etc.

Just my two cents

Graham

I think we need to be a little cautious as to what we post on the BO open forum. We don't want to hand the BL owners/lawyers any ammunition or to be seen by buyers as causing the downfall of BL, etc.

Just my two cents

Agreed, however don't forget BL (HK) Ltd is a chineese company, they would have to persue a claim in who knows where - depends where the deaf-end-ant would be

BWA

Besides, think this would be a post for BL, not here....!
Everyone is free to make their choice aren't they...., and the protest should not be here but there...

(Note: feel like putting a link on my (closed) BL store's splash page that we will continue servicing on BO, but wonder how long we will get away with it.)

Timothy_Smith

Fee boycott would be more effective.
You have 30 days to pay without any trouble, you don't have to pay on the 1st of the month.

BWA

Don't agree..., services were rendered, money was earned..., receiving payment is their right and what they expect.
But probably for the last time...,

DagsBricks

Welcome, Mr. Smith.

Graham

here is one idea, it's really below the belt BUT considering the adversary...

Don't close your store - you'll get no visitors to see your message, instead move your inventory to stockroom, then place a few a high demand pieces/minifigs in your store at very **nice** prices, then make your store minimum MORE than the total value of parts available - loads of hits - no sales.

Message seen by many

Oh I can be so, so BaD :O

walstib

I think anything that sets up an us vs them mentality is not going to help anything.

Graham

It isn't an "us vs. them" if anything the "us" and "them" is just us!

What it comes down to is who would you rather pay fees to? I would be happy to do business in both places, that would be my preference.
What really gets me annoyed is bullying and we've just dealt with that at the school.

and the "bully" here is BL (HK) Ltd, I feel as many folk as possible shoudl be made aware of what is going on - it is flat out wrong what BL (HK) Ltd. is doing, perhaps by raising awareness they will settle back down, and let us carry on doing what we all love!

All this is senseless, needless and pointless - why now - The Daily Brick website has been running for a while already, as have many other independent websites ALL using BL names and numbers...

pumbaugh

I just wanted to say that it seems all this commotion has been good for me on the "owl" so far. I just destroyed my best day here ever, even beating most days on BL and its only half over for me. I didn't feel like starting a new thread to say "GO OWL", but felt I needed to say it somewhere

Regards,

Patrick
Hoosier Brick

DagsBricks

That and in the last couple of days about 20 new stores have been opened. I think the mass protest is starting to happen already.

Brian

picabo

I have been setting up my store here and I currently sell on BL. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. However, I have been catching up and reading some of the posts on what's new on the site. Then I came across a few posts from a very few of you that are childish and vindictive.

I don't really think that this is the image that BO or James want to convey. If you hate BL that much, that's your right; but then don't be a hypocrite and sell your items there as well.

IMHO.

Pam

MHN1957

In my ideal world, we go back and develop Lugnet or Peeron as the central DB, and allow all selling sites to use that central authority. I wasn't around until 2002 when BL was already well developed. Didn't BL's catalog kind of move the central authority from Peeron or Lugnet to BL? Brick Owl will succeed or fail based upon the accuracy and usability of the Brick Owl catalog, and the number of stores jumping over here. Oh, and the number of buyers that are directed here. Is it possible for Brick Owl to get use of the Lugnet DB? How current is it? When will BO do something about missing stickers in inventories, or has a decision been made to avoid the whole sticker issue? I doubt a mass protest will happen on BL. A small bunch of large sellers will take some action, but most of the sellers never read the forums. What happens when scammers like BrickTrainShop start moving over here? I like the fact that this site is pressure and competition, and BL has been slow to react to the user base dissatisfaction, but for now, my tiny store is not going to close. I'm paid ahead on my fees there, and I have nothing invested over here so far. 2014 will be a good year for Lego buyers, as they may have more choice. But I can't predict the future of BO. I think BL, in protecting the database, caused issues and sadness, but they really needed to do something. I hated the wording of the TOS changes, but I'm a minor player in all this.

Sir Troys

When BL started it pulled information from ALL of the available resources at the time. Most heavily from LDRAW for parts, and Peeron and Lugnet for sets and other items. This is part of the reason I think it is ridiculous that they are now claiming ownership of that information and trying to prevent others from doing to them what they did to others.

Unfortunately, none of those resources is maintained up to date. Peeron was last updated in January. BL has way more parts than LDRAW now. I have no idea when the last time LUGNET was updated.

The reason that BrickLink went with thier own catalog was because the others were so slow to update. For a commerce site you need to have the items in the catalog as soon as they become available so that people can sell them. LDRAW had some convoluted voting process to get parts approved that took FOREVER. The others had no motivation to be that up to date that quickly.

The BL catalog grew rabidly because it was in members best interest to get as much stuff in to the catalog as quickly as possible. I personally sent Dan a CD with over 40,000 CAD images of parts (Every part in the LDRAW library at the time, in every color defined at the time). I did this because items sell better with pictures, so as a seller I had a direct benefit.

I do not think that having some outside entity maintain the catalog will work as they will not have the same motivation as a commerce site to keep the data current.

Troy

forenth

With all the talk of who owns what, be careful using emoticons. The ones displaying here seem to be copies of Yahoo's.

As for BL, I've submitted a few pics for the catalog and I believe I own the pics and gave BL the right to use them. After all, I still have the originals on my HDD.

Cheers.