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O nas słów kilka...
LugPol, czyli Lego Users Group Poland - pierwszy polski klub miłośników klocków Lego wywodzi się z forum dyskusyjnego, założonego w maju 2004 roku przez Daniela "MrGorgo" Gordziejonoka. Dziś forum stanowi część rozbudowanego serwisu, skupiającego dorosłych fanów Lego z całego kraju.
Na całym świecie istnieje wiele stowarzyszeń, których członkami są osoby dorosłe, traktujące klocki Lego jako hobby. Szczególnie silne grupy AFOL-i (czyli Adult Fans of Lego - dorosłych fanów Lego) działają w USA, Australii, Wielkiej Brytanii, w Niemczech i oczywiście w Danii. W porównaniu z nimi nasza polska grupa wypada dość skromnie, niemniej mamy na koncie duże sukcesy - zwycięstwa w ogólnowiatowych konkursach, nasze prace są rozpoznawane na całym świecie. Cały czas przybywa nowych członków, a przede wszystkim cechuje nas ogromny zapał i entuzjazm. Ponadto należy wziąć pod uwagę kilka czynników - dużo mniej korzystny stosunek zarobków Polaków do cen produktów Lego, niż w przypadku kolegów z Zachodu, krótszy okres obecności Lego na rynku oraz - niestety - brak większego zainteresowania firmy polskimi klientami.
Celem działalności naszego klubu jest promocja w Polsce ciekawego, rozwijającego i elitarnego hobby, jakim jest modelarstwo Lego. Dzięki internetowi próbujemy dotrzeć do zapaleńców, którzy z racji oryginalności swoich zainteresowań, działają samotnie, często nawet nie zdając sobie sprawy, jak popularne na świecie jest ich hobby.
Utrzymując ze sobą stały kontakt dzięki forum, wymieniamy się pomysłami i doświadczeniami, dzielimy się naszymi osiągnięciami modelarskimi, często też dokonujemy transakcji nabywając elementy potrzebne do realizacji kolejnych pomysłów.
Dzisiaj na naszym forum zarejestrowanych jest ponad tysiąc użytkowników. Są wśród nas miłośnicy różnych serii tematycznych Lego, w różnym wieku i z różnych miast, a łączy nas wszystkich wspólna pasja.
Few words about us
Even though LUGPol site is not 100% multilanguage, we decided to write a small note about who we are and what we're doing here. Should you have any questions, please, contact us via e-mail (admin (at) LUGPol dot pl) or register on our Forum. Rest assured that if you write your message in English, you will get the answer :) .
LUGPol - or LEGO Users Group Poland - was established in the mid of 2004. After 18 months we decided to rebuild our forum, abandon the old domain lugpol.org and move to commercial professional server and new domain - lugpol.pl. We also changed the way the community and forum are managed. Since sudden onslaught of 10 or 11 eleven year olds had rendered any intelligent discussion virtually impossible, we decided to evolve into a more adult-oriented service and set the minimal age threshold to 18 years. Today we've got over 1000 registered users with average age of 30 (do not be mislead by the numbers, though - we regularly trim the list of members, removing the trouble-makers and inactive accounts). We're divided into several groups, corresponding with the hierarchy of our community. Rafał "bacon" Boczek and Marcin "Żbik" Żbikowski, are currently the board of LUGPol.
There is also a VIP section for those who do more than others for the community, either virtually over the Internet or during our meetings. Everyone who register on our forum and write more than 5 posts in substantial sections becomes automatically a true member of LUGPol, with unique ID (POLxxxx where xxxx is a number). For security reasons, this data is available on demand.
Our purpose is to promote the most interesting, mind developing and exclusive hobby: Lego model building. Through the Internet we are constantly trying to reach the adult LEGO fans, who often work alone, unaware that there is a large and strong community of equally passionate individuals in Poland (not to mention Europe and the whole world). From time to time we also proudly show off our creation at public events and it is hard to say who is more overjoyed at these meetings: the builders or the visitors (usually entire families).
Our forum is divided into 4 main sections.
The first one - 'general' - is the place to introduce yourself, be greeted by others and raise club issues.
'Substantial' part contains the following sub-sections: 'Glorious Past', 'Here and Now', 'Rail Roads', 'Into the Future', 'Model Team', 'Mindstorms', 'Virtual Lego', our technical knowledgebase named 'LugPol Wiki' and the constantly growing library of the official sets' reviews written by our members (these are published also on main lugpol.pl site).
The third section is dedicated to our competitions, challenges and projects. At the moment you can find there 'MOC of the Month', 'BrickTransport Tycoon', 'Mindstorms Challenge', 'Truck Trial' and 'Colonization'. There are also hidden parts dedicated for projects, where people involved can work together.
The last section of our forum is 'Hyde Park' dedicated to free discussion, links and sell/buy/trade advertisements.
We mentioned the competitions. The first one is the ongoing 'MOC of the Month' where everyone registered can take a part with his/her own creation published in the current month. In January 2008 we have elected MOC Of The Year for the first time (choosing among 12 creations).
It consists of several challenges called 'orders' for transporting certain cargo - the participants must invent and build their own means of transport in various styles. Creator of the most ingenious models for each challenge wins the competition. We are sure you have already heard about 'TruckTrial' - it is a challenge of LEGO trucks powered by 9V motors and built in 1:13 scale, according to very strict rules (we'd consulted the Dutch LowLug colleagues before we started, to create universal rules and thus be able to hold international competitions in the future). It's basically an outdoors race of extremely slow and extremely powerful trucks, a race against time and against man-made obstacles. It requires both experience in LEGO Technic building and proficiency in driving.
During the season members of LUGPol meet in public and race regularly in several towns and the biggest 'national' competition last time was held in August 2008, during our second event at the Museum of Toys in Kielce, Poland. The Museum's administration seems very keen on co-operating with us; the weekend-long exhibition of our works has become an essential part of their annual show. In 2009 we launched co-operation with another istitution - the Riwiera Club in Gdynia, which hosted our national event.
And this is just the beginning...
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