How did you find out about the Barrowdowns?
 

I was just wondering: how did all you thousands of people find out about this site? I really can't think of enough ways that there would be a few thousand people who found the same site. [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]

[ April 07, 2003: Message edited by: GaladrieloftheOlden ]

Me myself, I was trying to draw a picture of each member of the Fellowship. They all came out okay, except Legolas, who came out looking like an old man. So I decided to print out some good photos/pictures of him and look at that while I drew, so it would be easier. I searched 'Legolas' in Google images. I felt extremely disturbed by some of the rabid sites the search popped up with, so I began looking at the site name before clicking. Finally, I found one without the words 'Orli', 'Leggi', 'hot', or 'sexy' which was the Barrowdowns. And then I started looking at the rest of the site, and signed up, and then discovered the forum a month or so later. Yeah. You're bored now aren't you? [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] (rhetorical question)

I think one of my friends found this site and told me to check it out, so I did and I totally loved it, so I joined!!!

There are at least two threads which answer that question so maybe you could seach for them and read through them.

Oops, sorry, I just wasn't sure what words to search for.

You're welcome [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
The chance that you miss a thread in this forum are rather high [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

I was searching around for the Chat and I found the Barrow-Downs Chat. I think it was right before the movie came out. I had figured that, though I had been a Tolkien fan for a long time, finally, with a movie coming out, there were bound to be good Chatrooms coming around because of the movie. In February of 2002, after chatting with many Forum-members in the Chat, I finally got an account at the Downs. And here I am!

I was stumbling around EZBoard one day, looking for Tolkien forums and low and behold I found BD! Been here ever since, with a slight leave of absence in 2001. [my EZboard name was hegemonmatt, but I changed it when I resigned up on the PHP]

I've been on the Barrow Downs for a long time, but I just recently realised that there was a forum. That's my story. Short, sweet, and to the point.

I was looking around mostly searching for pictures and a good Tolkien site(We had only just got the internet). I found lots but for some reason the Barrow Downs stuck out above the rest. I went into chat and had some good fun there. Then one day I decided to see what the forum was all about (being new to the net) I wanted to add a reply but found out you have to be signed up so I did and I haven't looked back. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

ah well i found out about BD when i was totally bored out of my mind, (because i really couldn't find any good tolkien sites) and i was looking around kiwibox.com *face turns to tomato* on the tolkien board and there was a person who was like "this site sucks my old balogna sandwhich, barrowdowns.com is better" or something to that affect and i've been here ever since. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

edit: hey cool i've been here a whole year, yaydance for me *does yaydance*

[ April 08, 2003: Message edited by: Lady_Báin ]

My friend told me about BD when I asked her about a Middle-earth name generator she found. I had been going to the site for about two months before signing up at the forum!

I honestly can't remember, it was so looong ago. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] I suspect I found the BD by accident, like many of us here. I lurked for ages before I started posting, which is why I have so few posts, compared to my member number.

I personally found it on my own. Before I read the books, I'd seen the movies and was kinda obsessed with Frodo. So I searched the web for his fansites(I'm kinda ashamed now) then I found this site. I loved the themes, the forums everything was great, and for about two months, I've learned so many new things and met people(in the forums) that shared my interest. Now I can say I am the most tolkien learned of all my friends and they come to me with their questions. Thanks Barrow downs.

One night i was on the net speaking to one of my friends and he told me to check out a site called Barrow downs. I wasnt going to at first but eventually i went on it and after a bit i said to myself "This sites WICKED!!" And basically iv been going on virtually every day since.

I found The Barrow-Downs through my friend. She introduced me to The Name Generator which fascinated me greatly. After that, I decided to take a look around the site, and I ended up wandering into the forum. Shortly after, I signed up! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] ... And that is my story. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

I think I first went on here because of the Name Generator, and the Who were you in Middle Earth? quiz. Then I eventually started looking around (the fan art, and some of the fan fiction is really great), and then I went to the forum just to look at what everyone was talking about, though it took about 8 months for me to actually register.

For the first while I only went on the Fan Fiction and Reader Art pages. And then i remember wondering vaguely: "what is this, whatchamacallit, forum thingy? And that's how I got here. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
Edit: I also remember that the first section I ever looked at was QQ, but my very first post was in Books. Sorry for that random bit of info [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

[ April 08, 2003: Message edited by: GaladrieloftheOlden ]

Barrowdowns.com was recommended as a cool Tolkien site by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal in their online section. I'm very impressionable, you know. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

I was looking for my own website, Legolas rules, and did a web search for those words, it came up with a thread called '1000 reasons why Legolas rules' and, out of interest, clicked on it. It came up with middle earth mayhem and I decided that this site looked like fun. The rest is history. [img]smilies/cool.gif[/img]

I was on a different Tolkien forum for a long time (the name of which shall remain anonymous, to spare me personal embarrassment), and one of the people who wrote had the link here in their Sig. I came and registered (one year ago tomorrow [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]) and promptly got hooked on the forums, where I lurked around the New Silm thingy but didn't post much anywhere until about February [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img].

Happy Deathday, Mistress of Thunder (it's tomorrow here in the UK, already).

[img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

yes happy almost deathday to you, I have to wait till January...... [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

The day when I found this site... ah, what a day that was...

Allow me to brace myself for a crop of rotten vegetables coming my way: I used to be a Leggy-bopper. Granted, I loved other parts of the movie too. Anyway, I was surfing the web and found a Legolas fanlisting. I put my name in (28th member! Ha!) and then went to the "fun stuff" page. The Barrow Downs name generator(s) were on there. Well, of course I wanted to know my elvish name (no, it is not my screen-name), so I went there. Then I checked out the fanfiction a few days later. Then came reader art, an attempt at the chatroom, and finally I became curious at the forum. Now, normally I dislike forums a lot because they're either full of slander or way too strict and unfriendly, but this one was pretty close to a fine balance. What could I do but join? I'm also happy to proclaim that the 30th of April is my deathday! I'll have been here an entire year! [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]

Cheers,
Ithaeliel

One day, while I walking down the primrose path and generally minding my own business, I encountered a burning bush that said: www.barrowdowns.com shall tell you your Elven name, but shall simultaneously cure you of your embarrassing fetish for skinny English actors from Canterbury, by brainwashing you to read the Silmarillion, just to seem cooler to those who have read it. There might be free beer in the offing as well.
"Well, if I get to seem cooler..." I thought...
And the rest is history.
Though I am still waiting for that free beer.

I enjoyed bothering the chatgoers so much it was only natural to do it here too. Then, about 50 posts down the line, it got boring, so I shut up for about a year. Then, I was bored today so I decided I'd come back here again.

Me and my friend were in study hall searching for Lord of the Rings quizzes to take, and stubbled upon this the Barrow-Downs site and looked into the forum part. I was hooked. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Well,formeiheard from a somebody i knew while drivingto an activity....then another somebody talked to me about it...so i went,logged in and came back in a few months after i found out where you are supposed to login..... yes i know that was very stupid....
AND it gets past the internet filtering at my school,heeheehee [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]

Okay: I spent about ten minutes trying to think of something witty to say, and it turned into such a long post, I'll keep it short and sweet: LOL! ...and... Free beer?! Where?!

And you aren't leaving again, just so you know...

EDIT: Actually, Lush, in all seriousness, most of those comments were reasons I joined the Barrow-Downs...

[ April 19, 2003: Message edited by: VanimaEdhel ]

I've been here for nearly a year, as long as I had Internet. I was serching anything Tolkien-related (the only worthy theme on my mind), and BD was among the first finds. I stayed and never regreted.

I just recently realized that there is something else to it. Last year I was in Prague with my students, and there on the Charles Bridge we were told about one spot on its railing which (in case you rub it)will grant ANY wish in the course of a year. My students rushed to rub the cross on the railing, then urged me to make a wish too. I can't say how it came to my mind, but I wished to meet someone spernatural. It was silly I forgot about it. But now...isn't it the most supernatural place with most supernatural skeletons, spirits, wights etc?!
And just supernaturally great people!!

A quick search after I saw The Fellowship of the Ring led me to TolkienWorld.com. I found the Barrow-Downs from there and settled in.

i first found out about the Barrow-Downs through my roommate who kept up with the Shire calendar for kicks. I finally decided to play with it and did the names and such. Then I saw the forum and started reading posts. I enjoyed it so much I signed up. It's been love ever since. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

I feel your pain [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] I was one too. That's why I was looking for his pictures... but it lead me to the Downs, so I don't mind anymore. And I stopped obsessing over him a few weeks into here [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]

~Menelien

It took me something like a year to find the forums. I was looking for a story online (The Quest for the Dumbo-Themed Mandarin Orange with Purple Polka Dots Umbrella! actually), and this was one of (I think the only) the sites that had it. I sent in one of my fanfictions (which was ignored, I believe [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] ). I didn't know about the forums at all, or didn't care rather, until I started at Allscifi.com and CouncilofElrond.com, and then I just decided to check this place out, and now look where I am!
(Staring at my Denethor Bobblehead doll is where... [img]smilies/confused.gif[/img] [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] )

Looked for a Tolkien site. Found the Barrow Downs. It was the very first day that the BW started the guest book on the main site. Boy, that was a LONG time ago. The a few months later, got involed in the EZboard forum under the name of Lindolir. When it got switched, i forgot to claim my account, and just made a new one as Lindolirian.

Oooooh....so did I.... [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] How embarrassing...I still think he's hot though. *ducks*

I think I'd been on some site that mentioned elvish names, but the name generator wasn't working, so one happy search later, and here I was. Although it took me a while to notice the forum, since I didn't realise what a forum was....heh heh... [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img]

It was one a site I can´t remeber... they had a link, and I clicked on it. Anyways, I came here for Hanghobbit and the Fanfiction first, (Dude!) (that was like in october) and then two months later I registered in the Forum. (And it seems like 5 years not five months since then!!!!) [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

I found it by backtracking my website's visitor tracker. Seems someone from here visits my site a LOT since it's really running up my bandwidth bill. [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] Although I suspect it's people using my painting(s) in their profiles. While it's flattering, please, at least have the courtesy to download the image and upload it to your own webspace so as not to run up the hosting bill of the person you're "borrowing" the image from.

Okie dokie? Muchly thanks!!!
www.BlackHorseDesign.com

Sorry you found us that way, BlackHorseDesign. We preach that people shouldn't use images like that, but some people never listen.

Everyone else, if you are showing pics on the Downs that are linked directly from their original site, STOP IT. Bandwidth woes hurt us all. [img]smilies/mad.gif[/img]

My friend told me about the name generator, so I decided to check it out. I noticed the forum right away, and I have a nasty habit of sign up to pretty much everything, which often fills my inbox with junkmail, so I joined. My social life went online with me, and now it's 10 o'clock in the morning and brilliant sun, I've been up for three hours, and not even dragged myself upstairs to eat breakfast..