Today marks the two year anniversary of the Original Prop Blog. So it was two years ago today that I published its first article, “The Hobby Without A Name…“
879 articles later, the website has grown significantly, and I hope that collectors around the world find it to be a useful resource. With the statistics reported for the end of last month, to date the site has received over 2.5 million page views and nearly 20 million hits.
While I already reviewed 2008 in terms of developments (see Original Prop Hobby – 2008 Year in Review), given the milestone, I thought I would highlight the actual changes to this site over the past year.
The most notable developments illustrating the growth and changes of the Original Prop Blog in the last 12 months would be the “2.0” upgrade and the addition of the “Original Prop Directory” and the “Original Prop Community“.
Original Prop Blog 2.0
The website and design “2.0” relaunch transformed the format and interface of the site into more of an “online magazine”. I believe this is a much more “reader friendly” format and new content added daily has more time to “breathe”, whereas with the old format, each new article would essentially bury the one that came before it.
The logo was also redesigned during this upgrade:
Original Prop Directory
Early this year, the “Original Prop Directory” was added to the site. The Original Prop Directory is designed to be a “white pages” for the hobby – an online public resource which lists the names and contact information for those who elect to participate. I believe that as this grows, it will become more and more useful to participants in the hobby to get in touch with one another as a one stop quick reference tool.
Original Prop Community
A week after the launch of the Original Prop Directory, the “Original Prop Community” was added to the site. The Original Prop Community is an online forum dedicated to the discussion of original movie props and costumes.
The launch of these services also included a refresh of the logo and design collateral.
In less than three months, the Community has more than 70 registered members with over 1,000 posts, and the Directory reflects roughly the same number of participants.
The highlight of the forum is that all members must be “real” in order to gain admittance. Transparency is a quality that is often celebrated in topics on the OPB (see Anonymity, Transparency, & The “Real World”), so the Community is an attempt to put such principles into practice.
In some ways. the Original Prop Community is also an extension of the Original Prop Blog in terms of news and content. I come across a number of news stories on the Internet fairly regularly that are not significant enough (in my subjective view) for a full OPB article. I have been publishing links and notes about such stories on the Original Prop Community in the “Public” discussion forum (which anyone can view, even unregistered non-members) to provide an additional set of news updates to hobbyists.
More, the Community allows some ancillary discussions and updates on OPB topics as well as a range of original topics generated on the forum. There is already a large number of very experienced and knowledgeable hobbyists who have joined and participate, as well as newer collectors, so there is a wealth of knowledge and perspectives that eclipse this website. And, most importantly, it is interactive, with all members having the ability to share with one another.
Within the Original Prop Community itself are additional tools and features, including live online chat with other members, photo hosting, and more. Like the OPB, the OPC will continually evolve to offer more to collectors who use the resource.
Original Prop Blog Search
Given that the OPB has a tremendous amount of content, it is helpful to know the best way to find and access it.
The easiest and most powerful way to find what you are looking for is to use the “Search” button in the top right hand corner of every screen:
There are also a number of categories from which to browse, and static page content all found in the menus at the top of the screen.
The Year Ahead & Special Thanks
I am very excited about ‘OPB: Year Three’. As always, I have a lot of ideas for improvements and compelling content in the works. I expect the next twelve months to be the best yet.
I also plan to leverage existing content to create some substantive “primer” or “101”-style portals for especially significant content as well as ongoing issues in the hobby.
As always, I very much appreciate those who continue to support the site by using it, telling others about it, and contacting me and sharing information and resources. Special thanks to those who have supported the “Original Prop Community” and “Original Prop Directory”. Obviously, the services would be nothing without users, so I am very grateful to those who have made them successes. My thanks and gratitude to each and every one of you.
Jason De Bord