You’ve built your first LEGO creation (MOC = My Own Creation). You’ve taken pictures, edited them as best you know how, and now you’re ready to share with the world. The only question is… which world? Where are you going to post your masterpiece?

Let me share with you my totally unbiased opinion. Along the way, we’ll ask penetrating questions about motivation, community, and emojis.

Warning 1: this is not a dissertation and I haven’t researched my thesis. Don’t take my thoughts here as a final conclusion; this is just a preliminary expression of a tentative opinion. Some of these opinions, I admit, are more tentative than others.

Warning 2: This is just one LEGO builder’s opinion, founded on a limited decade of experience. I haven’t tried every photo-sharing site out there by a long shot. I haven’t interacted with every slice of the LEGO community. I’m just thinking aloud and inviting you to join me.

One final warning: there are rants ahead!

Land of Quality: Flickr

Flickr is a quiet country, silent and strong. It’s located on high ground and it is rich in natural resources. Home to MOCland’s most jaw-dropping scenery, Flickr is a mine where you routinely strike gold… but you do have to get out there with a pickaxe and strike.

Flickr doesn’t buzz with likes and snappy comments. It doesn’t flash with glitzy reels (let’s face it, you need more patience to watch a video on Flickr than to babysit a toddler) or quick snippets of builder’s lives and BrickLink orders.

What Flickr does have is quality.

Quality photos: the site is meant for photographers, for high-resolution photographs and elegant presentation in any orientation or aspect ratio.

Quality builders: many of those who post to Flickr have been doing so for a decade. Building stunning MOCs and posting them to Flickr has become part of their routine and they’re not going anywhere.

Quality builds: Flickr is friendly to scroll-stoppers. Builders go to Flickr to meticulously zoom in and reverse engineer (in their heads) other builders’ work. Many of those who post to Flickr care about every detail of their creation, not just the ten-second impact it’ll make as it goes for a quick scroll past non-LEGO-savvy eyes.

Quality interaction: with favorites instead of likes, the mere name of the thing indicates that it means more. Comments on Flickr feel more permanent, and it’s possible to give serious and even lengthy constructive feedback.

Of course, as tends to happen, quality does sometimes come at the expense of quantity. Flickr builders aren’t given to posting daily or even weekly. Viewers also tend to come by less frequently, and as a photographer’s site rather than a social media platform, it’s less likely to attract casual non-AFOL viewers—so there are fewer viewers to begin with.

Flickr has some built-in disadvantages too, like its 1,000 photo limit on free accounts. This, in itself, tends to keep quantity down and quality up.

Flickr is an image-hosting site, which means that it’s easy to embed an image hosted on Flickr in a forum or website. This makes it ideal for posting your MOC, then showing that image elsewhere to a specific community. Back in the day, that meant a forum such as Classic-Castle or Eurobricks; these days, it increasingly means Discord. Either way, Flickr is a good tool for showing off a high-quality image on another site.

There are other details too that we could get bogged down in. Flickr offers a good space for community-run contests with its “groups” and good organization systems for both your own photos (albums) and others’ photos that you’d like to save (galleries). It allows you to add “notes” to pictures and comment on a specific part use or technique, for example.

On the other hand, Flickr doesn’t group photos in carousels or pages, so it works better as a showcase for one or two of the best pictures of each model, rather than half a dozen angles and WIP pics. It offers very little by way of stats to free members. Over the years, builder interaction has declined and comments have become rare.

Which brings us to…

Rant 1: One Comment is Worth a Million Likes

Where has human interaction gone? Remember the good old days when people stopped to look at your MOC, really looked at it, and told you what they thought you could do better, and what they liked about it? Or said something thoughtful about your parts use, or anything really, beyond just “:heart: :thumbsup:”?

Look at it like this: in the time it takes you to see twenty images and dole out twenty likes, couldn’t you write one thoughtful comment on one worthy MOC? Wouldn’t that thoughtful praise be more of an encouragement to that one single person than all the likes were to everyone else? Or better yet, if you can share helpful critique, won’t that make someone else’s world a better place in a way a thousand likes couldn’t do?

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a million times: if something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well. If a MOC is worth your appreciation, it’s worth taking a little bit of extra time to express that appreciation in a meaningful, helpful way!

Commenting builds relationships. Likes build egos. One relationship is worth the time it takes to comment instead of like.

Rant over! Let’s get on with our journey, shall we?

Land of Speed: Instagram

No one knows what kind of soil Instagram is built on because no one ever gets off the high-speed railways long enough to see. It’s the mile-wide, inch-deep cyberpunk district of MOCland. You can lose an hour here in the blink of an eye and barely even know what you’ve seen.

Instagram is a place for everybody and their dog. I know I said you might have to bring a pickaxe to find the gold on Flickr, but on Instagram, you better have a metal detector. You can’t just stick that pickaxe in anywhere and expect to strike treasure. On Flickr, it’s reasonably possible to keep up with almost every LEGO-related post. On Instagram? Even if you could, it’d drive you nuts.

Instagram has its advantages. The old high-school buddy that you casually caught up with the other day is much more likely to see and enjoy your LEGO creations on Instagram than they are to create a Flickr account just to have that pleasure. Likes, followers, and stats in general are astronomical compared to Flickr.

It’s possible to build close-knit networks of builders on Instagram. That is, I’ve never personally been a part of one, but I have been given to understand that they exist, and I’m willing to allow the benefit of a doubt. I will say this: they aren’t very discoverable.

Instagram posts are impermanent; rare are the viewers who come back to a post again and again. It’s not for masterpieces, but for everyday life. It’s not for building community as much, but for building personality. These things are pros or cons depending on your point of view.

The things that are definitely cons are Instagram’s low resolution, restrictive aspect ratio, and unfriendliness to text and links. It’s also awkward to embed a photo from Instagram on another site, which makes it almost useless as a host site if your end goal is posting in a forum. It does host well for Discord, however.

Comments on Instagram range from spam to top-notch critique; but I have found that meaningful comments tend to come from builders you already have a good relationship with.

Instagram, in my opinion, will never turn into the mainstay of the LEGO community; it doesn’t have enough of a system for convenient interaction between groups of builders. Besides that, posting on Instagram is too impermanent, and the platform is too likely to be subject to the fluctuations (and random “updates”) of social media. But as a sort of halfway house, a place to interact with casual fans or friends who are fans of your work because it’s yours, not because it’s LEGO, Instagram has filled an empty spot in MOCland.

Land of Chatter: Discord

Discord is a unique corner of MOCland: it’s underground. Oh, it’s not hidden—there are flashing neon signposts posted at strategic locations. You get in at one of those tunnels, and you see a room or two beyond, and you’re apt to think that’s all there is—but then you explore further, and you find more caves, and more rooms, and some are big as malls and others as small as cafes.

When I first discovered the LEGO community ten years ago, forums were all the rage; little caverns, more or less gate-kept, with delightful passcodes and lingos of their own. Big places like Eurobricks or Brickset crackled with discussion and even smaller forums like Classic-Castle were lively with chatter. But many of these sites have slowed down, and the talk of the day now seems to occur largely on Discord. It’s the grapevine, the telephone wire, threading its way through and through MOCland.

Discord is a great space for getting to know other LEGO builders. It’s structured to be both organized and spontaneous, and it takes relatively little effort to keep a server on track, at least if you have an off-topic channel. Some groups are public. Some groups are private. BrickNerd is actually coordinated through a Discord server of all the contributors (and Patrons if you would like to join us).

Discord servers can buzz during the appropriate time of year—like the servers for annual competitions—and then sit silent for months on end; but since they’re integrated with the overall platform, interested builders are sure to notice when a new discussion begins.

It’s a relatively simple matter on Discord to keep up with the discussions that interest you and only drop into others when you’re specifically mentioned. For all things communication, Discord is the perfect place.

But… what about for MOCs themselves? Posts on Discord get quickly lost into the abyss of the scroll, making it a terrible place to house a portfolio. Plus, it’s informal and generally private; sharing your work on Discord hardly feels like sharing it with the world.

Builders do frequently link to MOCs posted on Flickr or Instagram on Discord—and… I’m sorry, rant 2 is coming and I can’t stop it!

Rant 2: Don’t Comment on Discord!

No, I don’t mean that literally, but yes, I do mean it! Discord is the most impermanent, fleeting, unreal place you could choose to comment on a MOC. It’s not that I spend my time rereading the glowing things people have said about my MOCs on Flickr in the past… but I like to know that they’re there. And I like to know that my comments on other people’s MOCs are there; that my advice (if I gave any) is there to come back to. I also like to think that third parties may see and enjoy my appreciation for a build; possibly I’ll point out some detail they hadn’t noticed and that way they’ll enjoy it more too.

Knowing that my comment will last and be connected with the photo gives me more incentive to comment thoughtfully, rather than just say something quick and trite. Especially if a builder has posted a link on Discord that goes through to Flickr or Instagram, why not take the moment to click it and leave my comment there instead?

And if your excuse is that you’re using a phone… go buy a flip phone and join me in the stone age. You’ll never be tempted to use Discord on it again!

(In a moment of inconsistency let me admit; I have no problem with reactions. They’re kind of cute. React to builds on Discord all you want—but don’t flatter yourself thinking you’ve made a meaningful comment.)

Land of Motion: YouTube

There are theaters in MOCland, and their names are YouTube. I don’t go there very frequently, so I don’t feel myself super well qualified to address the subject (disclaimer: I go to YouTube all the time, in fact I’m listening to music there as I write; but not so often for LEGO content).

To begin with, the bar of entry is high, with, at the bare minimum, a slideshow and music being required. It takes a much longer time commitment to produce this than one photo suitable for Flickr. Then too, a video by its nature is telling you how long you should spend looking at any given part of the MOC. But viewers are unique, and a photo is a better way to allow everyone to choose their own pace. YouTube is also the best place for long tours of MOCs (like Beyond the Brick) and to showcase MOCs that move like Technic, GBC and more.

Interactive communities are also harder to build on YouTube—at least, peer-to-peer communities. Lately, YouTube has been developing systems for fans to interact more with a specific creator, but that’s not likely the kind of community MOC builders are looking for. Live streams have helped a bit bring some communities together but feel rather demanding and time consuming to keep on top of.

What YouTube does do well is host video content, which can then be linked to on Flickr, Discord, a forum, website, what have you. Its commenting structure is also similar to Flickr’s, thus in my opinion better than Discord for MOC-specific comments. It is also growing like crazy with LEGO commentators, reviewers and collectors. If you want to keep tabs on everything going on, tryout this feed of LEGO YouTubers.

Lands of Opportunity: Tumblr and More

Now that we’ve traveled from the Flickr in the highlands, through the busy cities of Instagram, down into the rabbit trails of Discord, and taken a quick stop at YouTube theaters, all that remains of MOCland is the uncharted beyond.

Not long ago there was a push by BrickCentral to encourage LEGO photographers to use Tumblr. I went far enough to read the Terms of Service, and then for no particular reason never bothered creating an account.

Tumblr is mostly a different audience than Flickr, Instagram, or YouTube; so if there are any MOCers out there looking to pioneer it, at least you’ll get different eyes on your work. Whether a large enough chunk of the MOCing community will begin to use Tumblr to make it a good site for interaction and growth as a builder remains to be seen.

In the past, there have also been image sharing sites dedicated to LEGO related photos only. MOCpages, Brickly, and more recently the still functioning Blockheads. The concept has potential, but there’s a bit of a catch 22: only if it attracts enough builders will it have enough builders posting, liking, and commenting to attract more builders.

There certainly seems to be a vacant niche just now that a LEGO-only image sharing site could fill. LEGO itself may be trying to do just that with its newly launched “For Adults” microsite (still in beta). Time will tell if they’re sufficiently in touch with what the community wants or if we’re just too shy for an “official” site.

Lands of the Unknown: Places I’ve Never Been

The LEGO community, it turns out, is a vast network and it has reached tendrils into social media sites I’ve never set foot on. I refer to such wild places as Facebook and Reddit, and even Twitter. Facebook seems like where communities can grow by interest but tend to overlap quite a bit with other similar interest groups. Reddit all depends on the subreddit—some like r/LEGO feel hostile to linking and MOC builders while more welcoming of haul posts. Then there are the live streamers on Twitch and TikTok—I assume these can be fun to participate in live and might be a good way to showcase techniques but they seem like a hard place to celebrate MOCs which can be found and preserved.

Since I’ve never used these sites, I can say little about the usefulness of their platforms for building the MOCing community, except that, clearly, I didn’t think they were worth my while. From an outsider’s perspective, they seem too casual and disorganized. I’m sure there are even more places where LEGO fans congregate and share MOCs that I don’t even know exist, so let me know what I’m missing in the comments.

Motives and Meaning: The Heart of MOCland

Really, this section should have come first. But I wanted to take you on the tour before I sent you to sleep, so I saved my profound insights for last. The question of where to share your MOCs begs for another question: why are you sharing your MOCs?  Some people build amazing things and never share photos online. But there are plenty of legitimate reasons to share them, and each one of which could lead you to a different part of MOCland.

I have two main reasons: so others can see and enjoy my work, and so I can get feedback from others and see their MOCs in order to improve. In order for others to see and enjoy my work, the platform needs to be one that is viewer friendly. It needs to present the photos clearly, with minimal interface issues. Ideally it should be searchable and it should be easy for folks to come back to a MOC.

There will be trade-offs. The more people are on the platform, the more people there are to see my work, but also more competition for users’ finite viewing time. The more MOCs for folks to see, the harder it is to find mine and the less likely they are to care about finding mine. As I choose a platform, I’ll have to weigh these tradeoffs. Sites like us here at BrickNerd, Tips&Bricks and The Brothers Brick (and to some extent LEGO Ideas) help curate MOC content and expose people to amazing creations, but builders need to be able to control how their content is hosted and presented.

Then comes my other criterion: getting feedback and seeing good MOCs from other builders. While I love for anyone to see and admire my builds, the admiration that helps me become a better builder comes from other builders. I want a platform where builders and I can interact, forming a community that will push for improvement, consciously and unconsciously.

Today, Flickr is still the best intersection of these goals for me. Of course the question isn’t an either-or—I can and do post on other platforms—nor is it a once and for all choice. But this dialogue is worth having, both to inform other builders of platform options they may not have been aware of, and to spark potential improvements and new developments in current or future platforms.

Let’s go back to the basic question one last time: what is the best online platform for LEGO MOCers? In the end, the answer is up to you. Who do you want to connect with? What kind of interaction or feedback would you like to receive? What are your priorities, quality or quantity?

And thankfully at the end of the day, this quiz is one multiple choice where you can answer, “All of the above!”

Where do you post your MOCs? What is most important to you in choosing a platform? Let us know what you think in the comment section!

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