Are 'blogs' old fashioned?

[DinoToyForum]

I actually have met a few people here (in a metropolitan community of 100k) who have found or been referred to DTB. There are only 575k people total in the ninth largest state, BTW, so a 100k is a lot of people here. We have two Walmarts and a Target, so you can guess what the dinosaur toy trade looks like, virtually nil. DTB has been a boon for me and other folks in the region.

That's interesting. I have a good handle on visitor stats and traffic sources, but it's weird for me to think how the blog/forum has an existence beyond the internet and is discussed and recommended by real people in the real world. I have little idea how well known the blog is in that regard. I'm sure there must be hundreds of people who would like this place if they only know about us. This reminds me of an experience I once had.

I remember meeting an elderly gentleman in the museum shop where I work. He had visited our dinosaur exhibition earlier that day, and was completely blown away by the Safari, PNSO, and Papo toys he discovered in the shop, and had made an immediate return trip after going to get enough cash for a spending spree. Out of sheer enthusiasm, he also brought in his collection of old dinosaur kits (Lindberg I think) to show the museum staff. That's how I got called to meet him. When I arrived in the shop he was excitedly gathering up all the figures like a kid in a candy store. It was a joy to see. I tried to explain how I ran a forum for dinosaur toy collectors like him but I don't think he really understood, I guess he wasn't tech savvy, a lot of people don't use the internet much. I think that's why he was so excited, the figures in the shop were all completely new to him, he was seeing them all for the first time. Anyway, he showed me his vintage kits, but I don't think he fully understood he was talking to someone with a passion like his, and we parted ways. I found it a little surprising, given his enthusiasm, that he wasn't aware of the DinoToyBlog.  I don't think he ever visited or joined the forum (if you're reading this, stranger, and you did, then welcome!). I wonder how many people like him there are in the world who would really fit in well here if they only knew about our community.

[Libraraptor]

I enjoy the calm nature of the blog very much. It´s a pleasant anachronism in times in which you are constantly being yelled at by social media. While TikTok, Insta and Facebook were designed for the visitors to aimlessly waste considerable amounts of time, you fall back on the Blog when you need targeted information and well written texts for good entertainment. So its name describes this soothing anachronism very well. I imagine a lot of people out there who came to see that the Internet has been reducing itself to absurdity over the last five years and want to enjoy a place like the Blog. While visiting TikTok, Insta and all the other superficial stuff have become hardwired no-brainers, you have to actively decide to spend time on the Blog (and this Forum), too, which I enjoy very much.
However, it´s a pity that  the guy our Admin encountered in the museum shop didn´t know of this virtual space. How many of these "cases" mights still be out there? How great would it be to have them around here? And how often might people be talking about us without us knowing of it?
Sorry, maybe I disgressed a little. As to the question I think we should confidently hold on to the name "Dinosaur Toy Blog".

[suspsy]

"Blog" does admittedly sound like a personal online journal. The DTB obviously started out that way, but it became more than that once more reviewers came onto the scene. It's a proper toy review website.

Changing the name now would take getting used to, but I'd be fine with it.

[SBell]

I enjoy the calm nature of the blog very much. It´s a pleasant anachronism in times in which you are constantly being yelled at by social media. While TikTok, Insta and Facebook were designed for the visitors to saimlessly waste considerable amounts of time, you fall back on the Blog when you need targeted information and well written textes for good entertainment. So its name describes this soothing anachronism very well. I imagine a lot of people out there who came to see that the Internet has been reducing itself to absurdity over the last five years and want to enjoy a place like the Blog. While visiting TikTok, Insta and all the other superficial stuff have become hardwired no-brainers, you have to actively decide to spendi time on the Blog (and this Forum), too, which I enjoy very much.
However, it´s a pity that  the guy our Admin encountered in the museum shop didn´t know of this virtual space. How many of these "cases" mights still be out there? How great would it be to have them around here? And how often might people be talking about us without us knowing of it?
Sorry, maybe I disgressed a little. As to the question I think we should confidently hold on to the name "Dinosaur Toy Blog".

Agreed. I wouldn't change it.

It's known among collectors, even if some don't visit or participate. I'm in a group chat where only a few people come by, but they all know it. Name changes can lead to algorithm squatters taking over the original name to everybody's detriment. Just like in B&M retail (the best spot to open a business is where the same type just moved out of...)

[Halichoeres]

'Blog' is perhaps a little inaccurate, and I can see why that would bother you. I would say that the longer-lived threads in the art or collections boards of the forum hew much more closely to blog format. But I agree with others that, at this point, the brand is more important than the precision of the name. A paleontologist from the UK visited my university when I was in grad school and we had a brief chat about the blog (that was back when I was writing pretty much all the fish reviews). When I mentioned your name, he said, "Is this about the Dinosaur Toy Blog?" A small but significant set of people know the name!

[DinoToyForum]

'Blog' is perhaps a little inaccurate, and I can see why that would bother you. I would say that the longer-lived threads in the art or collections boards of the forum hew much more closely to blog format. But I agree with others that, at this point, the brand is more important than the precision of the name. A paleontologist from the UK visited my university when I was in grad school and we had a brief chat about the blog (that was back when I was writing pretty much all the fish reviews). When I mentioned your name, he said, "Is this about the Dinosaur Toy Blog?" A small but significant set of people know the name!

Ha! Do you remember who the UK palaeontologist was?

[SBell]

'Blog' is perhaps a little inaccurate, and I can see why that would bother you. I would say that the longer-lived threads in the art or collections boards of the forum hew much more closely to blog format. But I agree with others that, at this point, the brand is more important than the precision of the name. A paleontologist from the UK visited my university when I was in grad school and we had a brief chat about the blog (that was back when I was writing pretty much all the fish reviews). When I mentioned your name, he said, "Is this about the Dinosaur Toy Blog?" A small but significant set of people know the name!

This reminds me of something that used to come up every once in a while, about changing the name to be more taxonomically inclusive like 'prehistoric animals toy blog' or whatever. But the name is a familiar brand and has been for some time. If it ain't broke don't fix it!

[bmathison1972]

There is no formal format on what a Blog is or should be. the DTB (and ATB) always were and still are Blogs and they are doing a great job on what they were set out to do 

[EmperorDinobot]

Not at all! They can be used for a multitude of things.

[Halichoeres]

'Blog' is perhaps a little inaccurate, and I can see why that would bother you. I would say that the longer-lived threads in the art or collections boards of the forum hew much more closely to blog format. But I agree with others that, at this point, the brand is more important than the precision of the name. A paleontologist from the UK visited my university when I was in grad school and we had a brief chat about the blog (that was back when I was writing pretty much all the fish reviews). When I mentioned your name, he said, "Is this about the Dinosaur Toy Blog?" A small but significant set of people know the name!

Ha! Do you remember who the UK palaeontologist was?

It was Roger Benson. You had recently written a paper together, so I guess he'd be expected to be aware of the blog!

[DinoToyForum]

'Blog' is perhaps a little inaccurate, and I can see why that would bother you. I would say that the longer-lived threads in the art or collections boards of the forum hew much more closely to blog format. But I agree with others that, at this point, the brand is more important than the precision of the name. A paleontologist from the UK visited my university when I was in grad school and we had a brief chat about the blog (that was back when I was writing pretty much all the fish reviews). When I mentioned your name, he said, "Is this about the Dinosaur Toy Blog?" A small but significant set of people know the name!

Ha! Do you remember who the UK palaeontologist was?

It was Roger Benson. You had recently written a paper together, so I guess he'd be expected to be aware of the blog!

Ah, that would be our monograph on Rhomaleosaurus. Feels like yesterday, but it's already ten years old!

[DinoToyForum]

I like the Blogs for the same reason I like the old forum format (and the one thing I think STS has going for it over ATF and DTF), and that is information retreival. Having categories/tags (Blogs) and boards and child boards (fora) allows for organized information retrieval. For example, if I want to see what figures were in a specific Kaiyodo Capsule Q Museum collection.

Well, we did have such a setup in the walkarounds section in the early days of the ATF, but the blog took over that role. I find the format STS uses time consuming and difficult to navigate. It may well be meticulously organised and sub-divided but that comes at the expense of convenience. I can't remember what's where... and I'm used to the basics of a forum setup. Imagine if you're a young person whose entire online experience has been on mobile social media and you turn up to a forum like STS. Adding the recent posts to the front page of the DTF/ATF is one of the decisions I'm most happy with, it immediately shows new arrivals what an active place we are, without putting the onus on them to explore for content. The fewer clicks the better.