New Year, New Header

Based on the general consensus when a website decides to freshen up their look and functionality (I still hate the new Flickr), change can be a difficult pill to swallow, at least online. Still, I felt the ol' Brick Town Talk was looking a little tired, so I have slowly been tweaking little things here and there. Wider margins, larger text, different fonts, bigger images, and no more ads have already gone live, but the goal was that these were subliminal enough so as not to offend. I did want to class things up a bit, so please welcome the new masthead. I'm not expecting to win as many Pulitzers as the New York Times, but it doesn't hurt to look the part.

More ideas for minor improvements are in the works, but first and foremost will still be featuring great Lego architecture. I'm not social media savvy in the least, so this site will be your only way to follow us, at least for now. 

Here's to the new year!

Fixes and Features

You may have noticed a few changes to the site over the last couple weeks. As promised, no big, sweeping changes are in the wings, but there were a couple things I couldn't help but tweak. The site has a revised banner and a new, cooler color scheme (cooler meaning it leans towards the blue end of the spectrum, but hopefully the other definition also applies). I've moved the site-related items in the right panel up to the top, fixed a few of the non-functioning parts, and updated the links in the Categories tab - I plan to revamp it a little more in the coming weeks and am thinking of some other ways to freshen up the tabs.

I am also introducing a new feature to BTT - Microscale Mondays. I've always had a fondness of microscale buildings, and occasionally have posted one or two, but I realized that I have been ignoring a lot of impressive creations because they weren't done in the official modular style - a style that quite frankly is not feasible to everyone due to the cost of parts needed to make them. I'm going to keep my definition of "microscale" pretty loose, and I don't see this happening every single Monday, but I felt it was time to give these little guys a place to shine. Appropriately, at least for us in the United States, today marks the inaugural post of this feature - you probably already saw it if you are reading this now.

Finally, I'd like to thank you all for helping spread the word of our new domain and for continuing to visit our site - each new day sees slightly more visitors than the day before. I've also noticed a common trend with feedback from you, the reader - that being there is no feedback. With every website constantly thinking of new ways to ask its visitors to comment, share, answer polls, or participate in some way, I'm quite content to keep this a relatively one-way street - I write, you read. I do encourage feedback if you have it, of course, but I personally enjoy sites that ask nothing of me but a few minutes of my time - you seem to feel the same. So sit back, enjoy, and know that creating new and wonderful LEGO architecture is what really keeps this site active.

- Jonathan

A Good-bye to 2012 (and to Hyphens)

Like the majestic phoenix rising from the flames, or perhaps more aptly like a zombie clumsily staggering towards an easy meal, it's hard to keep Brick Town Talk down for good. It might have taken a few flesh wounds in 2012, but thankfully it dodged the all important headshot.

If you are reading this, you will see that we are now on our new domain - www.bricktowntalk.com. As it likes to do, life sometimes gets in the way, and as such the old domain is currently in limbo for the time being. The plus side is now you will be able to visit us even faster than before now that you don't have to type those time-consuming hyphens - you could (and should) update your bookmarks to reflect this change.

There are still some things that don't work correctly, but the basic blog should be more or less fine. I'm going to slowly work on getting everything back to where it was as well as implement a few enhancements here or there - nothing drastic, mostly just hair and make-up. Thankfully I am able to do this now that I am a site administrator instead of just an author.

It's been a crazy year for sure. For me personally it has seen the completion of my two largest MOCs to date, my work appearing in two museums (including 7 of my modulars currently at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center in CT as part of a collaboration with I LUG NY which will remain until the end of January) as well as multiple rotations in the Rockefeller Center LEGO Store, and learning that other people have been creating instructions of my work without asking and then selling them online - be weary of any instructions you find of my Bricklyn Borough Courthouse floating around. Still, compared to the world at large and some of the recent headlines in it, any triumphs or failures on the part of this site and its admins are extremely minor indeed.

So again I will utter my favorite phase of the past year - thank you for your patience. 

Here's to the New Year,

- Jonathan
Email: jonathan@bricktowntalk.com

MichLUG/LTC on LEGO Related Sites

Hello!

The Michigan LEGO User's Group/ LEGO Train Club (MichLUG/LTC) has been added to the list of LEGO Related Sites, which can be found on the right hand column. Their based in downstate Michigan, so if you live down there, go check them out!

Chris

1 Million Page Views!

And there we have it! Brick Town Talk has officially broken over 1 million page views this week...at least since Blogger has been recording! Anyways, thanks a lot everyone!

-Chris

New Sharing Buttons!

Hello all!

Off to the right, you can see our new like buttons for Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus.


EDIT: It's on the left side of the entire webpage now!

Thank you, AddThis!

Chris

"Bakeries" Added to Categories Menu

Hello all!

We have added "Bakeries" to the Categories menu. So head on over and check it out!

-Chris

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone has a safe and memorable Christmas! Sorry for the lack of posts, but we got other things going on too!

Hello! I'm still here!

Hello everyone! 

I just wanted to let you know that I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I'm taking classes right now, and that obviously sets priority!

I also wanted to say how great of a job Jonathan is doing with the site. He's posting some great stuff lately, and I'm sure you as readers know this too! Thanks again, John!

Oh! And other new link has been added to the LEGO Related Sites list. It's called DooYoo, and is a site devoted to reviewing products and product lines, one of which is LEGO. So check it out!

New Categories Page

Well...not exactly new, but it moved. Instead of a ways down the right sidebar, the categories tab is now removed and replaced by a stand alone page on the main navigation bar across the top of the page, right next to the home page.

Here's the link: Categories Page

Hope you like it!

Chris

What are the others up to?

Look for updates from some of your other favorite blogs! The new tab can be found right below the blog search box. 

Enjoy!

Chris

Picture Link for Brick Town Talk

Have a blog or website? Feel free to use Brick Town Talk's mini picture link to stick in a sidebar and link your site to Brick Town Talk. Picture and HTML versions are below, for convenience. Tell us your LEGO or hobby website too, so we can post your site link in our LEGO Related Sites list too!

Here's what it will look like:

HTML (copy and paste this into your site):

<a href="http://www.brick-town-talk.com/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ9fmwt5tov_EI8BC7kN-frbJA0c_NmhvaDez41uy_DCwp1Vwhh5S3vcrVRW8prBqmvYp86LYbw4NMisV7kHHxwSktNk8W1uPgZHy6Ta7Ph26iNq3rqkQiD86kGSUfcp2sZbXJMGnDFzc/s1600/TabPicture.JPG" /></a>

Enjoy!

P.S. Thank our new author Jonathan, for the idea!

Chris

Brick Town Talk is now an App!

Brick Town Talk App QR Code

To make Brick Town Talk an app (as written by Bloapp)...

"download the app from http://itunes.apple.com/my/app/bloapp/id436962200?mt=8 and by snapping the above QR code they will be able to add your blog to the app. They can also use search function to find your blog."

Please comment or email me to see if it works!

Chris

Meet the New Guy

Greetings all!

My name is Jonathan, and I am excited to have been selected by Chris to be the newest author here on Brick Town Talk! I have been fortunate enough to have been featured on the site several times in the past, most recently with my Galaxy Diner and Empire Theater, and those of you who frequent Flickr or post on the Eurobricks forums might know me better by my screen name, sonicstarlight.

I came out of my Lego dark ages around the time the Cafe Corner hit the shelves, and I was instantly in love with the modular line. In addition to all the official releases, I currently have 7 MOCs of my own. I am a purist at heart (technic bricks and pins to join models together, detachable floors, no stickers), and I try to make buildings that work in harmony with the official sets while still being unique.

Seeing all the great creations by others on this site truly served as the inspiration for me to start making my own models, and I promise to do my very best to find and share the best buildings out there with all of you.

I know that no one visits this site to read a novel, so I'll stop writing now and end with a photo of my latest CC-standard creations inspired by The Burrow and Diagon Alley sets. And I promise that going forward, my posts won't all be about me.

Courtesy Townhouse Trio by sonicstarlight

What's New Tab

I've added a "What's New" tab along the top navigation bar. This makes it easier to look through everything tagged "Updates."

Looking for a New Author

Hello everyone!

I have been very busy lately, as I am sure much of you have as well! College is coming up quickly, so I probably will not be posting as often as I'd like. So, in order for our daily readers to still get the best in LEGO architecture, I'm looking for another author to help me out!

If you're interested, please send me an email to bricktowntalk@gmail.com.

Thanks!

Chris

New Template!

Hi everyone!

I have introduced a new template, just to try out the style. Let me know what you think!

• Left Sidebar is gone. Main reason - it was scrunching up the post width.
• Categories and Related Sites are located on the right side bar, in the middle.
• I tried to keep the same color theme. 
• Hope you like it!

Blog Accessibility

Hi everyone!

I apologize for you not being able to access the blog. It appeared that the settings for the blog somehow got switched to "invited readers only" from "anybody." I now switched it back to "anybody"  so it should be working again.

Sorry for the inconvenience! Let me know if there are any further problems.

P.S. Thank you Matt Reid for pointing that out!

Chris

A Much Deserved Thanks...

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that's been following Brick Town Talk on Facebook and Google Friend Connect (and of course to all the others out there too!) We're nearing 100 followers in each, and I can't wait to surpass it! So tell your friends about us! Thanks again, and keep up your fantastic building!

Kind Regards,

Chris

Just Two More Days!

It's just more two more days until the RedBubble T-Shirt Contest is done. Submit your architectural models as soon as possible!

Here's a link to the original post.

Good luck!