Unauthorised products section created

[SamLoi888]

There's a lot of sections on the board here. It reminds me of Autobase Australia...except with people.

[jaydisc]

Fan Projects Defender does not plagiarize a Hasbro mold.

Correct. Just a character.

Some aspects of Elegy also do not plagiarize a mold. And as I said, what if future releases plagiarize less. What percentage of originality is required to pass your valuation?

[5FDP]

Let's take the word "Authorised" and if we say HasTak have authorised TF products, then everything else falls under unauthorised including KOs.

That sums it up nicely

[kup]

Correct. Just a character.

Some aspects of Elegy also do not plagiarize a mold. And as I said, what if future releases plagiarize less. What percentage of originality is required to pass your valuation?

My sense of originality is basically to produce something new that HasTak has refused or is very unlikely to do in the future.

I can't deny that there is some character plagiarism but it is still very different looking to Hasbro's character model of Springer and any other toy of him despite the strong resemblance.

Fan Projects is more guilty of purposely 'resembling' characters but it is still very vague and rather benign when compared to KOs and replicas.

[GoktimusPrime]

Correct. Just a character.

Some aspects of Elegy also do not plagiarize a mold. And as I said, what if future releases plagiarize less.

You're right - it is plagiarising another character's likeness.

What percentage of originality is required to pass your valuation?

Whether or not it's a counterfeit. While that Defender thingy may infringe upon G1 Springer's likeness, it is not an imitation that is attempting to deceive people into believing that it's a genuine G1 Springer toy.

[jaydisc]

You both sound like you've rationalized this in a way that you're each comfortable with. Now can everyone else do the same without facing anyone else's judgement?

[5FDP]

While that Defender thingy may infringe upon G1 Springer's likeness, it is not an imitation that is attempting to deceive people into believing that it's a genuine G1 Springer toy.

While most Transformer fans would know that this is not a 'genuine G1 Springer toy', there are also new fans that would not be able to tell the difference and may assume that it's an authorised HasTak product.

To me, the whole purpose of an online fan community is to share our knowledge and educate others. To a new fan considering registration on OTCA, it would be mightily confusing when presented with an 'unauthorised' and 'KO' section when as I mentioned previously, the line between the two is so thin that it even confuses seasoned board members as is evident in this discussion.

[kurdt_the_goat]

i agree with stl one of the things that attracted me to this board was there was not to many sections and parts.you have to becareful about not spreading the board to thin and therefore risking watering down the transformers part of the board which is why i come here.

I much prefer less categorized board structure. The biggest gaming forum NeoGAF has 3 categories of discussion. The result is a faster paced board that seems more active (often OTCA has less members online than there are categories!). More topics come past the front page so you have more chance of getting people into a discussion (rather than having a thread lost in a category). People can subscribe to a thread if it's of significant interest.

If i were to rearrange the board i would have:
Board Info
Transformers
Meetups
Sales
Sightings
Everything else
Though i guess it'd ruffle some feathers to change it now

At the very least, decide something and stick to it please... I had just learned the old category layout before it changed again recently!

[griffin]

The growing number of sections was starting to bother me as well, which is why I've already started condensing/hiding sections. But every section was originally created for a reason, at some point in time.
I will merge the KO and Unauthorised sections, as there isn't enough traffic to support two sections (and I wouldn't be wanting that much traffic either).
I want to look at the 'sub-forum' concept - which has related sections merged on the main table, but each section should still exist like a filter when looking for certain types of topics.

[STL]

I'm going to ignore the "I need to make myself comfortable about stealing someone else's property" crowd and stay on the point that the board does need less sections. I like what Kurdt had to say:

I much prefer less categorized board structure. The biggest gaming forum NeoGAF has 3 categories of discussion. The result is a faster paced board that seems more active (often OTCA has less members online than there are categories!). More topics come past the front page so you have more chance of getting people into a discussion (rather than having a thread lost in a category). People can subscribe to a thread if it's of significant interest.

If i were to rearrange the board i would have:
Board Info
Transformers
Meetups
Sales
Sightings
Everything else
Though i guess it'd ruffle some feathers to change it now

At the very least, decide something and stick to it please... I had just learned the old category layout before it changed again recently!

I'm inclined to agree. And that sub forum idea might work to Griffin. Some of my additional thoughts are that are that all of the toy stuff can be merged into one section. I love Lego again but heck even I don't feel there's enough traffic to justify the section. Non-toy stuff can remain its own little section.