LEGO, Legos, and the forum filter

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SavaTheAggie
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LEGO, Legos, and the forum filter

Post by SavaTheAggie »

To all Classic-Castle.com Users:

Recently you may have noticed that when you type any form of the word 'lego,' the word would be instantly changed in your posts to 'LEGO.'

Similarly, whenever you typed any form of the word 'legos,' the word would be instantly changed to 'LEGO Brand Building Bricks.'

This was because I had turned on the Forum word filter on to these two words. Why?

Partially because I was having a bit of fun.

Partially because I was testing out the software.

Partially because it is the correct thing to do.

According to the LEGO Website and the LEGO Company's Fair Play Policy, the term 'LEGO' should always be written in all capital letters. The term 'LEGO' should also never be pluralized to 'LEGOs,' or should instead be referred to as 'LEGO Bricks,' 'LEGO Blocks' or some other variant.

Yes, the plural of 'LEGO' is 'LEGO;' just like two moose, two deer and two sheep.

However, some of you were taking this opportunity to enact some civil disobedience by writing 'wegos,' '1egos,' and other variations instead of 'legos' to bypass the forum filter.

This part of the filter has now been disengaged, directly because this should not be an issue, nor website, for civil disobedience. While these two instances of the forum filter follow LEGO's fair play policy, we cannot continue to allow confusion to members with the numerous spelling variations of 'legos.'

I do not see why this would have been an issue with anyone, but I apologize if it was. On a personal note, however, it seems to me a rather poor response to such a harmless effect of the filter.

--Anthony
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Post by TwoTonic Knight »

I remember how Scrabble was later declared to be Scrabble™ Brand Word Game, and how you had to say "Scrabble™ Brand Word Game" to have an official Scrabble™ Brand Word Game tournament.

I of course ran a Scrabble (append no legalese) tournament and told their overly-litigous lawyers to go whistle. :D

I allegedly also have to say AD&D™. Funny, there ain't no "D&D" on my rulebooks, nor "A", nor even a "™" for that matter! D&D! Nyahh, nyahh, nyahh!

So, if LEGO™Lawyers wish to retroactively demand that I never say Legos, my opinion is that that is the time to say Legos, legos, LeGos, lego, lEGo, LEGOlaS, and whatever other permutations that I can.

Of course, changing it on everyone for a few days is kinda evil fun in its own way. :D

And trying to have counter-fun is okay, too. :D

On the other hand, I do understand what they have to do to protect their trademark - I just don't have to indulge their legalese for them to still be protected. 8)

And hopefully I put in enough smileys that no one will get their back up. :wink:
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Post by rogue27 »

Anthony, you should not apologize for the filter.

Even in the 80s and/or 90s, their catalogs would say that it is improper to say "LEGOs". It's nothing new, and it should not be a problem for a group of people who supposedly respect the company.

However, I can see your reason for taking the filter down. You don't want to create any animosity between various members on the site by enforcing a rule that leads to insubordination. I can respect that. It is probably what is best for these forums and this site. Regardless, you definitely did not need to apologize for putting the filter up. I personally thought it was a great idea.
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Post by Draygen »

Viva la resistance! er wait... no.. I don't want to see more wegos. So thanks for changing it back. I guess I myself use Legos alot, especially if im talking about them.

Curses... now I have to go retrain my brain... this could take a while.
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Re: LEGO, Legos, and the forum filter

Post by Lord_Of_The_LEGO »

Let me add, I do not support censorship, but I consider it childish to start replacing LEGO with WEGO and 1egos just to avoid changing the incorrect spelling 'legos' to LEGO bricks. In my opinion, people who don't spelled LEGO correctly don't respect The Brick.
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Re: LEGO, Legos, and the forum filter

Post by TwoTonic Knight »

Lord_Of_The_LEGO wrote:Let me add, I do not support censorship, but I consider it childish to start replacing LEGO with WEGO and 1egos just to avoid changing the incorrect spelling 'legos' to LEGO bricks. In my opinion, people who don't spelled LEGO correctly don't respect The Brick.
I find the people who categorize other people as "childish" over such a childish issue as...childish.

Which makes me equally...oh no.... :wink:

(C'mon people, lighten up!)
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Post by LEGOFREAK »

Admins -
Please dont take it personally when people try to 'buck the system'. :)
You changed it in fun, and from what I saw, people were just having a little fun back.
if it werent for civil disobedience, where would we be right now? :wink:

anyway - lego, LEGO, wegos, - whatever - its still a fun brick. :D
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Post by Formendacil »

Speaking as one who never used "legos" anyway, I think that the filter was a great thing. Don't apologise. Although I also agree that removing it was a good things too. Better an abundance of "legos" than an abundance of "wegos and 1egos".
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Post by doctorsparkles »

It's understandable that you might want to flex your administrative muscles from time to time (Heck, I would too!) and I think that a language filter is a great idea (You wouldn't believe how many times I've almost said something I shouldn't have). In this particular instance, however, I felt that the usage was unnecessary, and I'm glad that it was only done in good fun. I never thought that incorrect usage of the word LEGO was such a problem. After all, everyone knows exactly what you're talking about no matter how you spell it, and I feel that anyone who constantly feels the need to correct it is just being unnecessarily anal. This forum has much bigger problems than Lego, legos, etc., such as pointless, nonsensical and overall obnoxious posts. I'm not talking about simple "Good job," reviews here. Visit the thread about the interview with the KK2 designers and you should easily be able to find at least a couple prime examples of the types of posts that I am talking about. Unfortunately, these are the types of problems that can't be solved with a simple language filter.
On the other hand, I felt that the reaction to the filter was equally unnecessary. Obviously, it was inevitable that it would be noticed and consequentially discussed, but it could have happened in a more mature manner. Some 'civil disobedience' is to be expected, but the backlash to your filter was simply ridiculous.
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Post by Glencaer »

TwoTonic Knight wrote: So, if LEGO™Lawyers wish to retroactively demand that I never say Legos, my opinion is that that is the time to say Legos, legos, LeGos, lego, lEGo, LEGOlaS, and whatever other permutations that I can.
It's not an issue of being sued. It's an issue about respecting a Company and Product that I love. No one is going to force you to do it one way or the other - TLG simply asks that you respect their brand.

My wife often asks why I dont afford the same respect to Kleenex or Band-Aids - answer is that I dont respect the product or the company - so screw them. I have had several dealings with TLG itself, and am thoroughly impressed by their continuing effort to produce high quality toys, involve fans in the process, and have a good effect on the world.

That said - it was an experiment that produced an outcome that we the admins were certainly suprised to see.

Oh well.

-Lenny
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Post by TwoTonic Knight »

Glencaer wrote:
TwoTonic Knight wrote: So, if LEGO™Lawyers wish to retroactively demand that I never say Legos, my opinion is that that is the time to say Legos, legos, LeGos, lego, lEGo, LEGOlaS, and whatever other permutations that I can.
It's not an issue of being sued. It's an issue about respecting a Company and Product that I love. No one is going to force you to do it one way or the other - TLG simply asks that you respect their brand.

My wife often asks why I dont afford the same respect to Kleenex or Band-Aids - answer is that I dont respect the product or the company - so screw them. I have had several dealings with TLG itself, and am thoroughly impressed by their continuing effort to produce high quality toys, involve fans in the process, and have a good effect on the world.

That said - it was an experiment that produced an outcome that we the admins were certainly suprised to see.

Oh well.

-Lenny
Ah, nothing like being taken out of context...
And hopefully I put in enough smileys that no one will get their back up.

C'mon people, lighten up!
I take it no one is paying attention. :D
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Post by Duke_Dave »

Lenny what exactly is TLG :?: or is this some kind of bad joke :D

Dave
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Post by Glencaer »

Duke_Dave wrote:Lenny what exactly is TLG :?: or is this some kind of bad joke :D

Dave
TLG = The LEGO Group. This is the official name of the company. I use it to differentiate speaking of 'LEGO' the toy vs. 'LEGO' the company.

[quote="TwoTonic]
Ah, nothing like being taken out of context...[/quote]

How exactly did I take you out of context? The quote spoke about hypothetical TLG Lawyers contacting you about your use of 'legos' etc - and I was trying to re-assure everyone that TLG doesn't and wouldn't do that sort of thing.

Furthermore, I was re-assuring the members that our experiment wasn't an attempt to cowtow to TLG's specific interests or to a specific request from TLG to institute such a filter. I was trying to describe why it is important to the Classic-Castle Admins to have correct usage of TLG's brand - we respect them, and they respect us. It is a relationship of mutual benefit.

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Post by J1A3L5 »

There is another forum I visit, for the LUG that is closest to me. They have it so LEGO is capitalized, and had (or still do?) have it where it added the symbol after it. That messed with hyperlinks. For example, if a brickshelf gallery like I have has a folder "Lego-Miscellaneous", it would add or modify characters, thus making the link invalid. A similar thing happened with their censor of "MOC" which would make it capitalized. Sometimes web addresses care about cases, sometimes not.

I don't really think censoring it is necessary, but the thought behind it is good. It's always a good way to tell a real fan from a wanna-be fan, after all. :wink:
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Post by TwoTonic Knight »

Glencaer wrote:
Duke_Dave wrote:Lenny what exactly is TLG :?: or is this some kind of bad joke :D

Dave
TLG = The LEGO Group. This is the official name of the company. I use it to differentiate speaking of 'LEGO' the toy vs. 'LEGO' the company.

[quote="TwoTonic]
Ah, nothing like being taken out of context...
How exactly did I take you out of context? The quote spoke about hypothetical TLG Lawyers contacting you about your use of 'legos' etc - and I was trying to re-assure everyone that TLG doesn't and wouldn't do that sort of thing.

Furthermore, I was re-assuring the members that our experiment wasn't an attempt to cowtow to TLG's specific interests or to a specific request from TLG to institute such a filter. I was trying to describe why it is important to the Classic-Castle Admins to have correct usage of TLG's brand - we respect them, and they respect us. It is a relationship of mutual benefit.

-Lenny

Look, Lenny, I'm really not interested in getting into an argument with you. I made it very clear that my message was about not taking everything so seriously. I even tell you point blank yet again, and you insist on misrepresenting me yet again. So, one last time: lighten up, Francis! :roll:
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