Bricks in Motion
We are a friendly filmmaking community devoted to the art of stop-motion animation using LEGO® and similar construction toys. Here, you can share your work, join our community of other brickfilmers, and participate in periodic animation contests!
A place to discuss, share, and create stop motion films.
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Hey Guys,
I was searching through the internet and came across this site called Brickfilms.com.It seems to have some active members and according to a wiki it was the main Hub of Brickfilming? So what happened to it Did most Brickfilmers move to this site or something? Or are People just registered with Both ?I have to say Bricksinmotion is a hundred time better than Brickfilms.com
-PlantedMan
It's not the hub of brickfilming. Most members moved from there to here years ago. It's actually kind of annoying that it still gets more exposure than we do, like in interviews for The LEGO Movie, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller specifically referenced Brickfilms.com even though the site seems mostly dead. THAC, BRAWL, and all kinds of cool stuff happen here, but Brickfilms.com has become more of an archive.
I also used to find it a lot stuffier and less mainstream (not in a good way). Some members were hypercritical of anyone who didn't want to create a masterpiece, and seemed to forget that one of the best things about LEGO in general is that you can tell any kind of story with it.
Brickfilms.com has existed since 2000 and it did used to be the main hub of brickfilming. A bunch of bad stuff happened as a result of an owner change that caused it to lose a lot of old members (In 2008 or so?). One of their admins made BiM as a sort of replacement or alternative to Brickfilms. However Brickfilms.com has managed to survive and still has burst of activity, mainly from younger brickfilmers who found it through google.
Also, THAC and BRAWL both started at Brickfilms.com.
A couple other members have a link to a document that tells exactly why Brickfilms.com declined, so they should be able to give you that.
Last edited by Willco66 (July 27, 2014 (04:57am))
Oh wow. We've gotten to the stage where people haven't heard about brickfilms.com? 
I joined in 2007 shortly before it all went bad so I'll try to tell you what I remember. It was started in very late 2000 to showcase the films of founder Jason and was the main hub of brickfilming since about 2001, but in 2007 the site owner at the time, RevMen, sold it to current owner, Thick_as_a_brick. TAAB soon became a much hated name in the community as she wanted to turn the site in to a business, introducing more aggressive advertising and claiming ownership on the word 'brickfilm' (this part comes in to play later). There were also poorly received plans for site changes and bad communication with TAAB.
As a result of what had happened and what was planned, then-Brickfilms employee, Schlaeps, broke away and made his own site, at first called ILoveBrickfilming. The entire active userbase quickly jumped ship to ILB, but TAAB threatened Schlaeps with a cease and desist over the word 'brickfilming' in his site name, claiming to own the word. The name Brickfilmers.com was considered (I can't remember if it was actually ever called this or not), but it was eventually renamed to BricksInMotion.
That doesn't bring us up to the present day, however, as BIM first had a temporary forum known as The Refugee Camp. Because of the mess with all these different sites and forums, this is somewhat of a lost era of brickfilming. The current site was launched by Schlaeps in late 2008 (which is why there are so many older members who registered on 27-12-2008 or shortly afterwards) and he soon gave ownership to Smeagol. This brings us up to the present day with BIM as the main brickfilming site and brickfilms.com as a ghost town.
Hopefully this answers your question and explains why the most popular site for brickfilmers doesn't even have the word 'brickfilm' in it's name. I think I got that all right but it may need a correction or two from some old members.
Double post: BRAWL didn't start on brickfilms.com, willco. It started on the Refugee Camp which is why you won't find the first BRAWL on this version of BIM.
Oh that makes a lot of sense , It must have been a great shame for the community with all that stuff happening
Thanks for the Explanation guys 
-PlantedProductions
We dare not speak of the Old Cradle here! Tis a dark, perilous history of biblical proportions. That place we once called The Hub was a niche community, hidden away from the corporate claws of The LEGO Group, where brickfilms spawn from the darkest corners of an animator's mind. Lightsaber duels, bank robbery, music video covers, all matters of hedonistic copyright infringement hosted on private servers filled the forums for the people to devour. There was only one rule in The Hub: Don't pull a V-Cube. Also, don't be a brainfast.
For a time, The Hub was hidden, its people thrived not on likes and views, but on commentary and feedback. And it was without Adsense. But then came the Age of DSL. The Wisemen Alta Vista and its apprentices Google and Yahoo! began associating "LEGO MOVIES" with "Brickfilms" and The Hub was exposed. Founding members and frequent patrons of The Hub were thrust into the limelight, and they loved it, with television interviews and newspaper articles informing the public of our little community.
But with fame brought evil to the gates of the Hub, in the form of a thick brick benefactor, allowing the community to continue brickfilming while offering to take over administrative control of The Hub. It was not long before their true nature was revealed. First the ad placements, disfiguring the once plain headers and footers into billboards for discount women's footware and free credit scores. It wasn't FREE! Then the layout changed and then the most horrifying thing of all: they suggested we become a blog site. THE HORROR! A revolution was brewing, as an original Hub administrator inside the thick brick Command Center began recreating the original Hub in secret. It all came to a head when the administer's actions was exposed and he was thrown out of The Hub. The people revolted. A war ensued on The Hub grounds as members began raiding The Hub's directory, taking all user content down. The thick brick's enforcers tried to control the chaos but was not prepared for the mass exodus of The Hub's community. Within a day, The Hub was abandoned, with only stragglers, loyalists and old administrators figuring which side they were on. The community found refuge for a time while the administrator who sparked the revolution set the foundation for a new home: Bricksinmotion.com. Few have ever gone back to The Hub, now known as the Old Cradle.
It's either this embellish story or the actual story.
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