Simple Images

One of the shortcomings of BrickiWiki for me has always been the lack of images. The nature of the web and wikis generally is that illustrations are a vital part of the experience. The popularity of sites like Facebook and Pinterest depend heavily on images to really engage people.

The image above has been used to illustrate the Plate article. Nothing fancy or terribly interesting but it quickly and cleanly shows how three plates = one brick. For those people like myself who are labeled "visual learners" these illustrations really help clarify things quickly.

To that end I have been trying to add simple images to illustrate BW articles where I can. I am not a good photographer with an expensive camera or studio but I do have a kitchen table, a portable light tent and a basic digital camera.

What do we need photos of?

For those who might be inclined but need some suggestions, any article that uses the Placeholder image file needs some form of illustration.

Article Ideas Along the Way

In the course of writing the above I realized we had no article on photography! Something every fan has to deal with at some point if they want to share their work online. I created a bare bones article but perhaps you have some actual knowledge you can share?

Brickwiki Wednesday - Happy Holidays!

It has been quiet around here as everyone has been busy with family and friends during this holiday season. May the New Year bring us all happiness and LEGO!

HERE'S TO 2013!

My personal "theme" (as opposed to resolution) for 2013 is Progress. This is something I hope to see with BrickWiki as we take all the hard work that went into making 2012 a year of rebirth and build a bigger and better BW.

BrickWiki Wednesday - 2012.12.12

Showing how effective a simple illustration can be in an article David has made a fantastic addition to the Colour Change article! A simple table showing the colours so when someone talks about bley or old brown it is instantly clear.

Sadly not all articles can be illustrated so easily. If you have some talent with a camera and can provide some clear photographs we need you!

An easy way to see what images have already been identified is to go to the Placeholder image file (at right) and see what pages link to this file. Each page that links to the file contains the placeholder because someone knows an image should go there but does not have one available.

Images

Brian has been hard at work trying to fix some back-end issues around images. The more we can smooth out the "techie" issues the easier it should be to recruit and train new editors. Thanks for you patience!

Sidetracked

Sorry to be a little late this week. I got excited about creating a new template to track what images were needed. I spent too much time trying to make a template work when finally the simple solution (as noted above) popped into my head. Sometimes simple is better!