Brickshelf...

is going to cease operations July 31. It has been brought up to allow users to get their files.

So I am evacuating my files. There's a sadness to this, but I would be lying if I said that this wasn't going to happen. Brickshelf was a labor of love, and so it could have ceased at any time.

I am grateful to Kevin for creating this resource and maintaining it for so long. All good things must come to an end, though.

The community will have to consider what to do. I am aware of some efforts, but have no specifics to give. I support these initiatives and hope that something can be created that will be essentially Brickshelf 2.0.

With my work on BrickJournal.com, it is possible to have a mocpages type set up with photos imported - most likely this is something that could be offered to subscribers.

But I am interested to see what else is being planned. What I really want to see happen is a central point of reference for all materials, photos, clubs, etc. across the board for the AFOL community - and this would have to be supported by subscriptions. A long-range plan for BrickJournal the company is to become the repository for the community in terms of history and reference. The website would become the concordance for AFOLs.

To be clear, this is not an attempt to take over things. Far from it - it would be an effort to centralize. The website will not be another Brickwiki, but a growing resource based on the content generated for it. And the target isn't exclusively AFOLs - the magazine will be an invitation for others to see and join the community.

The event calendar is one effort to centralize information, and the result has become a webpage that is being seen by many people. Tie that in with a magazine website, and there is a draw. Anyone can see an article, check out an event, find one close to them and find out about the club hosting. And afterward, people can use the same calendar to see what happened...the calendar becomes a record of the year.

I hope that steps go in that direction.