Dinosaur Toy Blog changes

[suspsy]

I think it sounds like a neat idea. And I still think we might try adding Q&As to the author pages to get to know them and their review methodology a little better.

The $64 question is finding people who are up for writing the articles. I'm not going to say I won't ever volunteer, but I'm fairly busy with my own reviews, guest reviews, and the priorities of family and work. Maybe in the summer?

[DinoToyForum]

I think it sounds like a neat idea. And I still think we might try adding Q&As to the author pages to get to know them and their review methodology a little better.

The $64 question is finding people who are up for writing the articles. I'm not going to say I won't ever volunteer, but I'm fairly busy with my own reviews, guest reviews, and the priorities of family and work. Maybe in the summer?

I was thinking I could get the ball rolling with an article for Invicta and maybe WWD by Toyway. That could then set a template that might inspire others to contribute, and help me to work out how to incorporate the article(s) into the site. I think we might benefit from some of our veteran members when it comes to vintage figures, and members around the world when it comes to 'foreign' companies. It would have to be a community effort, but I trust the forum has the expertise and enthusiasm.

I remember beginning to compile an index of Prehistoric Times magazine articles on the forum somewhere, so I'll see if I can find that and see how far we got with it, to help us find the information to do our own articles justice.

[BlueKrono]

I can think of a certain company J @japfeif is a subject matter expert on, but @suspsy raises a good point. It all comes down to having the time to do it, and a company's history and releases can be quite extensive.

[Ikessauro]

If I just had the energy to do it...   I might be able to contribute to a few though.

[Gwangi]

I like the idea but I'm not sure I would contribute anything along those lines.

[DinoToyForum]

If I just had the energy to do it...   I might be able to contribute to a few though.

You might be a perfect fit for, say, Salvat, amongst others. And this could also be a place to host your excellent checklists.

[Halichoeres]

As it happens, on my Flickr page I have an option to browse my collection by company, each of which has an album with a short intro to the company. What you're proposing would require expanding them a bit, but I have the beginnings for more than 100 companies.

[DinoToyForum]

As it happens, on my Flickr page I have an option to browse my collection by company, each of which has an album with a short intro to the company. What you're proposing would require expanding them a bit, but I have the beginnings for more than 100 companies.

Interesting! Do you have a link?

[Halichoeres]

As it happens, on my Flickr page I have an option to browse my collection by company, each of which has an album with a short intro to the company. What you're proposing would require expanding them a bit, but I have the beginnings for more than 100 companies.

Interesting! Do you have a link?

Sure thing! I wrote all these company abstracts for my personal use/extended memory, so some of their contents wouldn't be useful in their current form. But I did a fair amount of research on some of them, which could be useful, especially for the lower-profile companies.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/137381464@N07/collections/72157660815767533/

[DinoToyForum]

As it happens, on my Flickr page I have an option to browse my collection by company, each of which has an album with a short intro to the company. What you're proposing would require expanding them a bit, but I have the beginnings for more than 100 companies.

Interesting! Do you have a link?

Sure thing! I wrote all these company abstracts for my personal use/extended memory, so some of their contents wouldn't be useful in their current form. But I did a fair amount of research on some of them, which could be useful, especially for the lower-profile companies.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/137381464@N07/collections/72157660815767533/

Thanks! It's also just interesting tho browse through your collection photos.

[DinoToyForum]

To date the blog has only ever made use of two default post types: 'posts' (for reviews etc.), and 'pages' for the pages linked to in the top menu. Every 'post' has the same format. But as the blog has evolved, the diversify of content has changed, and so the default 'post' format isn't always the best fit.

For example, now that I've started to add videos to the blog, the standard 'post' type (with a thumbnail and "read more" button in the index/archive pages) doesn't work for those 'posts'. So, I've created a new post type called 'Videos'. These are organised separately to the posts on the back end, and I can change how they look on the front end. Instead of text and an image 'Videos' appear as full videos, even on the index/archive pages, so you don't have to visit the post to view the video. I've also removed all of the categories from Video posts except for the 'Type' category, so I can categorise them all as videos, diorama contests, and in the future 'top 10's' and the like.

'Announcements' posts are also slightly problematic. They use the standard 'post' type and this isn't too bad, but the way we categorise posts doesn't really work for announcements, so it does gets a bit awkward. Plus, the inclusion of announcements as 'posts' makes it difficult to tally reviews proper. I can live with that, but I am minded to create a new post type for announcements as well, to separate these out from the reviews (on the front end and back end). If I do that there would be Pages, Posts (=Reviews), Videos, and Announcements.

[bmathison1972]

Thanks for the link to your collection photos @Halichoeres - I can get lost for hours in your Flickr files!

[Sim]

I like the new Dinosaur Toy Blog videos section!  It's convenient and a nice development for the blog!

[DinoToyForum]

I like the new Dinosaur Toy Blog videos section!  It's convenient and a nice development for the blog!

Thanks, I'm pleased with it too, and I can visualise the new 'DinoToyBlog channel' really taking shape now. Especially as I begin to set up playlists. I've been partly holding off from migrating the old Youtube content to the blog, or creating new videos for the blog, until the site was properly set up for videos. But now it is, so I'm keen to generate more content for it.

[Fembrogon]

I think spotlight articles are a great idea, the kind of thing that would be perfect for Blog content. Certain members have contributed extensively to documenting some brands/lines on the forum before, and I've long thought those threads would be prime material to adapt for dedicated blog posts.

I might be interested in contributing if possible; I'm hardly an expert on the toy brand histories, but I could try thinking about doing something for the Sinclair Dinoland set, for example.

[DinoToyForum]

I've added a new 'Playlist' taxonomy. This only appears on Video posts (not reviews). This will help us to navigate the channel as it grows.

Playlist categories include:
Top 10 by year
Top 10 by group (none yet!)
Unboxings
Member collections (none yet!)
Diorama contests

[Halichoeres]

Thanks for the link to your collection photos @Halichoeres - I can get lost for hours in your Flickr files!

Thanks for the kind words! Although about half the photos are hidden and only visible in my collection thread.

Great to see the blog will be able to have a video channel independent of Alphabet!

[Gwangi]

The addition of videos makes me wonder if video reviews will soon be a thing.

[bmathison1972]

The addition of videos makes me wonder if video reviews will soon be a thing.

not by me 

[DinoToyForum]

The addition of videos makes me wonder if video reviews will soon be a thing.

Well I would never want video reviews to outright replace written reviews, but I'm open to the possibility of separate video reviews in addition to written reviews. I experimented with some video reviews a few years ago for products where the video format seemed like a good fit: a plush WWD dinosaur that transformed into an egg, WWD dinosaur finger puppets, construction models, figures with action features and so on. I'll be (re)posting these on the new 'channel' in due course. So, if anybody wants to submit video reviews for the channel then I'm keen to post them, though I'd have to vet for quality as we do for for written reviews.

I'd also encourage other kinds of video submissions, especially videos of your collection displays as they're always fascinating and popular. And unboxing videos are welcome if you have anything interesting or entertaining to say in the process (I may have sometimes failed at this with my own unboxings over the years!)