My LEGO Nexus Organization

Yeah I heard that from Jedi.
I really wish they hadn't shut it down!
Maybe we can convince Curse to reopen it!
.....maybe.......

If Curse is going to shut the site down due to a simple fix-it request and then not tell anyone it's going to happen, I say we're better off without them.  It would be nice to recover data from them, which, given their track record, isn't going to happen, but I won't support a company who arbitrarily destroys innocent communities without notice.

Quick question; Curse is a company then?

Yes, it is a company that makes forums for MMOG's.

Ah, I see... So they ran into a problem, and instead of fixing it, just shut the forum down, likely to try and maintain a spotless reputation then?

Yes, they did. But I'm not sure if they closed it down because they want to keep their reputation as high as possible. If they hadn't shut it down, nobody would every know that LEGO contacted Curse...

I think it's more because the problem was too big.

I am working on getting that info. I know it includes the use of LEGO in the URL, and images and skins. I should have more by Monday when Geoff comes back to work.

It's not Simple Machines; it's SMFForFree. Simple Machines only makes the software; host is different.

However; if you have any suggestions what could replace the LEGO for L, then it'd be nice. ;)

Well, the money for the current domain is wasted. The domain was purchased for 2 years and ends on March 12, 2012.

What about luni.com

"Dear BHolden,

Curse Buddy Caanthelpyu has a message for you.

Thank you for contacting us about not being able to log onto LEGO Uni.  It's great to see you've joined the quest to post about saving imagination!

Those pesky Stromlings are at it again!  The Maelstrom is trying some very sneaky tricks to keep you from logging onto LEGO Uni!

Try adjusting your graphics settings, many other posters have found that this helps!  After adjusting any graphics settings, you will need to restart your computer for them to take effect.

Our Development Team are working as hard as they can to find a fix for this evil trickery; we thank you for your patience while we do so.

We are certain that you will be posting on LEGO Uni again in no time!  The Maelstrom won't know what hit them once you return!

Good luck with all your adventures, Poster!

If you have any other questions, please contact us again.

LEGO Uni Support Team"

Rahkshi: Wrong document, it's the Fair Play one. ;)

It stated not to have it in the domain name/url/address/whatever you call it. We have mlno.org as our domain name. And it also says not to have the logo or such either; which we don't have.

And documents? What documents? And if we took out the L from everything; I'd take out the My part too; as I don't think 'My Nexus Organization' has the best ring to it. =P Just saying. ;)

But I know what you mean; but if they moved to remove every single reference of something like this; then it likely wouldn't come back on them well. Because I get URLs; that was what caused MLT to change it's URL. And if Uni was using LEGO in it's URL, then that was just asking for something to happen.(Plus, it's name in general was five characters short of the game's name.)

From my experience LEGO has only gone after Commercial sites, and sites with paid membership about anything but the URL and Direct logo copying.

So does that mean this forum is in risk of being shut down? We use 'LEGO' in our name but not our url.

No, not at all. We may need to make a change if LEGO approaches us, but they cannot do anything without contacting the site first, and unlike Curse, we will change if we have to.

Exactly. Please calm down folks. There are a bucket load of differences here from legouni.com.

1) The Curse site is a commercial interest. They sell page space to advertisers. They make money off of the LEGO Universe activity.
This site does not.
2) They used LU graphics from the LEGO site to make their page banner and background
This site does not.
3) Numerous news pages from LEGO were copied word for word on the legouni.com website without linking to their page.

Lego just wants to control the use of their information and graphics. If you look at the old legouni site it could very easily be misidentified as an official lego web site.

My advice is to continue the course here. This site has been around a very long time. It doesn't make money from the discussion of lego. It doesn't use lego in the url. It doesn't use lego trademarked graphics.

Without panic ASK them what advice they would offer to mlno.org in our quest to comply and be a good neighbor to lego. They do say in their terms that they will accept requests to use trademarked materials.

The key here is that mlno.org is ready willing and able to comply and that goes a long way.

Vote UP!  Oh, wait... :P

Intrepid and MSRR are right.  Besides, we've had this discussion before, and the solution has been the same: we are in the clear, and besides, IF there is a problem, we can change.  ;)

Intrepid: Those are very good points. Plus, I believe at one point it was mistaken for an official site on either here or BZP. I can't remember exactly what, but someone pretty much said it was official, at the time. But it wasn't. =P

Might be worth reading and taking the following into account:

http://aboutus.lego.com/en-us/corporate/fairplay.aspx (http://aboutus.lego.com/en-us/corporate/fairplay.aspx)

Couldn't see this mentioned in the thread. Hope it helps :)

Also, I know from personal experience that LEGO's legal department are generally very helpful and happy for LEGO's community to expand and be supported by sites like this.

Yeah, I had mentioned that on the last page, after I had read it. And from the looks of it, they just don't like LEGO in URLs, and using the official logo, in terms of major issues.

Well, that was unexpected. I never thought they would just shut down the sight outright. I wonder if anything could happen to get it back up, get the information back, or anything. Anyway, thanks to Ms.RR for inviting me to this site and hopefully we can get as much of your community back as possible. I know that I'll be spreading the word with people i know in game.

How about if they renamed it to EggoUni?  Lego my Eggo? -)

Curse was created in 2001 by a couple in Colorado.  They are the only two employees listed...the husband as the Founder and the wife as the CEO.  I know others work for them but don't know how their employment status is established...volunteer?...consultant?...who knows and I don't care.  I understand why they would shut down rather than enter litigation with LEGO. 

But some warning would have been better to the members of LegoUni.  Something like "Dear LegoUni fans, due to circumstances beyond our current control, LegoUni is going to be put into statis for a while.  Please accept our apologies for this issue.  If you would like to save your posts and/or submitted pictures, please make copies of them now for your archives.  Hopefully after the current situtation is resolved, some form of LegoUni can re-activated in the near future."  Anything other than "pulling the plug" would have been fine. 

I am disappointed but not bitter...time to more forward!  There are some great resources and people here...time to rebuild and make a better home for everyone!


TQQdles™,

Dolnor Numbwit
Eternal Newbie
Always Opinionated!

PLEASE see updated first post. Thank You!!

Too bad that this did happen :(..."starts crying"....
Now every one is starting their own forums(musicboy told me that).

Even if a few people branch out and fire up new forums we're at least finding each other again Admiral. There's no problem joining more than one forum if they hold your interest.

Exactly. Thank you.In fact I was quite distressed yesterday to hear that someone was running around LU saying that I said everyone had to come here...

There IS no official new location. There are choices, and like a buffet you can pick as many to join as you choose. I love that so many of you have come here, but I would never dissuade anyone from belonging to another forum. I have been here since 2008, and during that time I have also belonged to MLNTips, MHOZ, IBricks/Inzone, UTTA, and MLNTeam, as well as LEGO Uni.  There is a rich resource of venues for thr LEGO community. NONE is the best. It's a matter of where you feel good hanging out, and what suits your needs.

And if anyone tells you I said otherwise, tell him/her I said to come see me. 

[rant]I just joined the Luni forum as well because I have a bit of interest in helping with the database stuff they do. To me the 2 forums have different agendas and enthusiasm for me to draw on. And both forums are infinitely better than the LEGO forum which is not an option for me.

When Uni closed down I heard rumors that Choco and Musicboy and Sully are building forums or want to. If that happens I'll probably join them too. Someone ask me if there is a forum war going on and I just can't see that happening just because several people have an interest in building boards. Back in the beginning of the internet anyone with any server space was building a BBS and if you had lots of space you had a ftp address to download binaries (images and midis).

I don't know the facts about Uni shutting down. I loved the place because it was where my mates were. It's no different now. I've made a lot of friends and plan to go where they go; plain as that. In the meantime I've made friends with people like Legodac and Herochild that I'll be following now as well.

Occasionally I hear people talk about forums not being in the real world. Really? So those are bots postings and AI writing me PMs? I have friends I made online years ago playing Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory that I have traveled thousands of miles to see get married and we still telephone each other often enough to keep the REAL LIFE friendship alive. I have close enough friendships with people like MRR, Sully and Stickboy that there's always a place at my fire for them and there families sight unseen because they've shown me the inside of their hearts and I know them to be good stuff. Yes I'm thankful to this and any forum that allows me to stay connected to my friends of every level.[/rant]

You tell 'em, Intrepid! I mean, I met my girlfriend of 7 years (in July) through playing Worms. Nobody can tell me making friends on the Internet isn't really making friends.

VOTE UP!

I am partial to the MLNO for obvious reasons, but I am seriously looking forward to the new forum Quetz & Sully are forming.
Why??
Because it is all about the community and supporting the community.
Because it will have more bells and whistles than MLNO (there is only so much you can do with SMF)
Because it is all about the community and supporting the community. yeah, I know I said that once but it bears repeating. Quetz & Sully are not in any kind of competition to grab the most members, they are not focused on anything but SERVING the LEGO UNIVERSE COMMUNITY.
We need a forum that has as its central goal being a gathering place for the community to discuss the game and other things. And when that forum opens I will join and support it in any way I can. Of course, the MLNO will always be my home.
MLNO is in rebuilding mode after a data wipe, and trying to recover the years worth of LU stuff that was not backed up on the SMF servers, and is a bit less organized than we would like to be. In The LU area alone we lost a few dozen topics and hundreds of posts, not to mention the rest of the forum.
MLNTeam has a nice community, but not much activity in the LU area.
Vanish is incredibly generous in starting a forum at lunibook, but his focus has to be on his first love.. the database.
There are a bunch of other forums out there, but I do not know the staff, or who has access to ip, email and other info, so I probably won't be joining them.

One critical thing to keep in mind is to stay connected until the new forum is up.
No one is restricted to belonging to only ONE forum.
Until LEGOUni closed I was on the staff of a couple. I also support BZP, and a few other forums.
There is good stuff to be said and read everywhere. Lets not loose sight of that and scatter to the winds.

lastly, a note to Sully & Quetz... please open soon!!

curse has put up a maintenance notice now
http://www.legouni.com/ (http://www.legouni.com/)

just thought i would mention it........

I wonder what changes they will have made.....

it turns out over the past day many curse sites have been displaying that message after curse experienced a hardware failure.
looks like LEGOuni wont be coming back after all.... unless they accidentally reload it in the rush to get the other sites up.

Yeah.. Sully pointed that out to me.

But you know what?? I don't miss it so much anymore.. most of my friends are here or at other forums where I can find them.