theBrickBlogger.com — Sharing the Passion of the LEGO Hobby!

TheBrickBlogger is getting too popular!

by Thita (admin) on July 30, 2012

in Community News

Sorry for the break in the LEGO news, but I thought it is important to update you on what is happening with the server issues we experienced last week. According to the server guys the issues have been fixed, however while looking into it they discovered that one of the problems is TBB itself. 😕

When our readers left a comment they had the option to subscribe to any future comments in that thread. This way readers got a convenient email whenever a new comment was submitted by someone else; further discussing the topic, answering questions, etc. As we have several hundred readers subscribed to comments, and we do get a lot of comments, this resulted in as much as over a 1,000 emails per hour sent out by TBB. 😎

The server guys told me that most websites only send out a handful of emails per day. Even though their limit is 1,000 emails per hour, if a website regularly sends out a few hundred emails it raises red flags as the server can get overloaded. The point is; we are too chatty for our server! 🙄

To make sure there are no further issues with overusing our server and getting our account suspended as a result, I have disabled the Subscribe to Comments plugin for now. I know this is an inconvenience, and I’m looking for other solutions that can handle comment-subscription better.

In the meantime I would suggest that you bookmark the topics and articles you are interested in, so you have quick access to them, and can check easily if there are new comments and discussions. And if you have any ideas for me for managing our chatty crowd of LEGO fans better, or have other suggestions for our readers how to best handle staying on top of topics, feel free to share them in the comment section below. 😉

Just to be clear; commenting is still allowed and encouraged as it helps to support the LEGO community. You just can’t subscribe to comments for now. However you can subscribe to our once-a-day email newsletter that will update you on the latest articles: Subscribe to TheBrickBlogger by Email

And now back to the topic of LEGO – stay tuned for tomorrow… 😛

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LEGO Lord of the Rings contest!

by Thita (admin) on July 29, 2012

in Community News

“My dear Bagginses and Boffins, Tooks and Brandybucks, Grubbs, Chubbs, Hornblowers, Bolgers, Bracegirdles and Proudfoots…” (quote by Bilbo) there is an exciting LEGO Lord of the Rings contest you may want to participate in! The contest was announced in the latest LEGO Club Magazine, but if you are not subscribed you likely missed the announcement. Here are the details of the LEGO Lord of the Rings Building Challenge:

Be part of the greatest fantasy movie-series! Build your favorite scene from any of the three The Lord of the Rings movies – The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King , using pieces from your LEGO collection and you might be a winner!

➡ HOW TO ENTER THE LEGO CONTEST: Build a model of your favorite scene from any of the three Lord of the Rings movies using pieces from your LEGO collection (only LEGO elements can be used, no custom items, or non-LEGO parts). Take a color photo of your LEGO model (only color photos will be accepted in JPG, PNG, or PDF file format), and upload it here: Enter the LEGO Lord of the Rings Contest

➡ LEGO CONTEST PRIZES: The Grand Prize winner will win a trip for a family of 4 to Warner Brothers Studios and LEGOLAND California! 10 First Prize winners will win the LEGO The Lord of the Rings full assortment! 35 runner-ups will win an exclusive MONDO LEGO Lord of the Rings poster!

➡ LEGO CONTEST DEADLINE: The LEGO Lord of the Rings Building Challenge began at 09:00:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time on July 1st 2012 and ends at 11:59:59 PM EDT on August 15th, 2012.

➡ LEGO CONTEST RULES: The LEGO Lord of the Rings Building Challenge is only open to legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are five years of age or older at the time of registration. The LEGO creation should (obviously) be built by you. Enter as many times as you wish with different creations, but only one entry per person will be eligible to win a prize. One person cannot win more than one prize. You can read all other rules at the following link by clicking on the ENTER button. Please read carefully: LEGO Lord of the Rings Contest Rules

Personally, I don’t care for the Grand Prize, but the First Prize looks really-really sweet! An entire collection of LEGO Lord of the Rings sets? I will take that any day! The Runner Up Prize is okay too, I guess, if you are into MONDO posters. Also, according to the rules, I don’t see any reason why you can’t enter this contest as an older teen or an adult. The rules only say you have to be over 5-years-old. 🙄

So what do you think of the LEGO Lord of the Rings contest? Are you planning to enter? Or have you entered already? And which prize are you hoping for? Share your thoughts in the comment section below! 😉

To check out the current selection of LEGO Lord of the Rings sets go here:

And for more LEGO Lord of the Rings new, reviews and discussions, check out the LEGO Lord of the Rings section, or select from recent posts below:

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