Learning about this website

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Thanks for testing all of those applications, Huinesoron! I tried the name generator, unsuccessfully, but hadn't gotten around to testing the rest.

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

I'm just glad this forum is still around, even though it's gone treeish over the last couple years.

Like a lot of forums a few years ago (what was it 4-5 years ago?) it suffered a vicious virus attack that nearly destroyed the whole thing. But perhaps the best thing about social media is the members banded together to rescue it. Even though if most of them don't post anymore (for a variety of reasons) there was that dedication and love from the membership to not let the site suffer the same fate as Melkor and disappear into the interwebs void.

I just have to say "Amen to this!" Being without the Downs was a distressing time...even though I don't check in to it nearly as often anymore. It is comforting knowing that it is still there. And Boro The Great Whiteout was right before the Ten Year Anniversary Werewolf game (which was partially such an exuberant festival because everyone was so happy that the Downs were back)...so it is more like six years ago rather than five. Where does the time go?

Originally Posted by Mithadan

The "fair weather" fans spawned by the movies faded away and the Hobbit movies did not resurrect them.

I am afraid I must (yes it is a physiological imperative) snidely comment, "Gee, I wonder why the Hobbit films didn't generate a ton of new interest in Tolkien...vile spawns that they were."

There, I said it, I'm better now.

Originally Posted by Inziladun

There were indeed some very spirited discussions here back in the day. The fur was really flying for a while just before PJ released the LOTR films, and those threads were great.

I still go back and re-read lots of threads from the golden years.

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Am I going to have to watch that wretched Amazon series so I can come here and tear it shreds?

Ours is not to reason why,
Ours is but to riff and cry!

Besides, if you don't do it, who will?

I'm reminded of something the venerated Mister Underhill said one time about there only being so much mileage that you can get out of a dead author's work. (I wish I could find the post where he said that, but it eludes me).

One of the big issues the forum faced is I think as the core group of Downers shrank, the long-standers have kind of all talked out the Tolkien issues that we had over the years and there grows to be less and less new items to discuss.

It is why re-reads are good and new blood is better.

[Ring Bearer]

So I was trying to figure out--How to start a new thread on the forum,I couldn't find any info about it--not even mentioned in the FAQ!

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Ring Bearer

So I was trying to figure out--How to start a new thread on the forum,I couldn't find any info about it--not even mentioned in the FAQ!

Go to the forum where you want to start the thread (eg. Movies, Quiz Room, etc). On the left side, below the Sub-forum box (if applicable) and just above where the threads are listed in their own box, there is a blue button that says "start thread". This is not necessarily intuitive, I know. I recall having to ask for instructions too when I first joined.

[Ring Bearer]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Go to the forum where you want to start the thread (eg. Movies, Quiz Room, etc). On the left side, below the Sub-forum box (if applicable) and just above where the threads are listed in their own box, there is a blue button that says "start thread". This is not necessarily intuitive, I know. I recall having to ask for instructions too when I first joined.

Thanks!

Admin should probably consider putting this information under FAQ perhaps...

P.S. Any idea how to change Username?

P.P.S. I understand that I went from "Newly Deceased" to Pile O'Bones--but how do you guys have such cool titles?Are they automatic?

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Ring Bearer

P.S. Any idea how to change Username?

Not sure if that's possible, but will leave it up to someone more knowledgeable in such matters to confirm.

Originally Posted by Ring Bearer

P.P.S. I understand that I went from "Newly Deceased" to Pile O'Bones--but how do you guys have such cool titles?Are they automatic?

This is somewhere on one of the several info threads about the Downs, but I can't remember which off the top of my head. Essentially, your title changes with your post count. Once you reach a certain threshold, you're eligible to be promoted to a customized personal title. I suppose in the heyday of activity such promotions happened on a regular basis. They became more and more infrequent as activity declined. I believe I was in the last promotion batch alongside a handful of others. Perhaps, with the increase of activity here, we'll get some more. We certainly have some members who are overdue for one.

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Not sure if that's possible, but will leave it up to someone more knowledgeable in such matters to confirm.

Someone (I cannot remember whom) once told me that it was possible, but that there were no set procedure other than asking a moderator politely. Now since I never got around to makin the request myself, I cannot confirm if this is actually correct.

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

This is somewhere on one of the several info threads about the Downs, but I can't remember which off the top of my head. Essentially, your title changes with your post count. Once you reach a certain threshold, you're eligible to be promoted to a customized personal title. I suppose in the heyday of activity such promotions happened on a regular basis. They became more and more infrequent as activity declined. I believe I was in the last promotion batch alongside a handful of others. Perhaps, with the increase of activity here, we'll get some more. We certainly have some members who are overdue for one.

I remember the fuzz surrounding a new batch of promotions. It was an honor, and as such there were no set criteria for being awarded one. However there definitely seemed to be a tendency for in depth book discussions to bein prioritized. Those of us mostly hanging around in the quiz room or the mirth section had to wait a little longer.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Ring Bearer

So I was trying to figure out--How to start a new thread on the forum,I couldn't find any info about it--not even mentioned in the FAQ!

I'm thinking there might be a post count/length of membership standard, but I'm not sure.

[Formendacil]

Names CAN be changed--i.e. it's an option in the deepest, darkest depths of the Administrator's power (and it might be an über-admin power: the sort reserved to the Barrow-Wight himself). But I can't recall a previous instance of it (on this forum--I believe I can elsewhere). If you're looking to refine/redefine yourself, you're best off trying to get a nickname going. In Ye Olden Days*™, besides your obvious ones (like Form for Formendacil, we had:

T.O.R.E for The One Real Estel
Sally for satansaloser2005
Helen for mark12_30

Etc, etc... And, of course, the big differentiators are signatures and avatars.


As to Forum titles, though...

I'm being too lazy to link anything, but memory (and I trust it in this instance) is that the threshold for being considered for a Custom Title was 500 posts--but it was no guarantee. I want to say that Gil-Galad hit 4000+ posts before the Admins added him to the honour roll, which was dramatic but by no means unique. The idea of a custom title was to recognise a certain longevity and importance to the forum: the post count being a measure of quantity but quantity was insufficient. In other words, you couldn't get there purely by contributing to the "fun"--there had to be some substance, gravity of some sort.

But it has been a while. And it was always fun to see what reference or fun title people would come up with.

Mind you, who last crossed the 500-post mark even if the Admin team were still thinking of such things?

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

Names CAN be changed--i.e. it's an option in the deepest, darkest depths of the Administrator's power (and it might be an über-admin power: the sort reserved to the Barrow-Wight himself).

So in other words it involves black magic and necromancy?

There are also members who re-joined under a different name for various reasons, such as log in issues.

Originally Posted by Formendacil

Mind you, who last crossed the 500-post mark even if the Admin team were still thinking of such things?

Though perhaps a rhetoric question, it's one that is easily answered, seeing as you can sort the members list by post count.

...Actually, maybe not so easily, there is perseverance involved. I counted over 20 Ghost Princes at >1000 post count, there are many more in the 500-1000 range. Many of them have not been active for ages, but a good handful are currently or (relatively) recently active. One thing that I learned while doing this exercise is that either half of you people secretly changed your titles, or you just haven't posted for so long that I forgot what they sound like, because it was like reading them for the first time.

[Thinlómien]

Oh wow, this thread makes me so happy. Is it normal for a person in their early 30s to get this high on nostalgia?

But yeah, the name generator! (That's where Thinlómien comes from, incidentally.) Or the personal title promotions! And well... everything!

I joined this site when I was 14. Coming across my old posts from say, 2004-2006ish is somewhat terrifying - the teenagerishness radiating from them is quite something. But I'm also pretty proud of myself for joining a forum in a foreign language at that age and discussing everything here quite comfortably if with the occasional sad linguistic error. (I still remember the RPG where I wrote about my character that as a kid he often "coupled with" his sister and I also once got a negative reputation for an RPG post where the text was "the past tense of to teach is taught". Which I still feel obliged to point out I KNEW obviously, but I somehow accidentally wrote "teached" in a hurry. Oh well.)

Yeah and of course my first thread here was about whether some of Thorin's company could have been women since it was reputedly hard for outsiders to tell dwarf women from men, and I got beautifully trolled by the infamous Sauce-Pan Man, because I was a 14 year old kid who took everything seriously. Good times!

But that being said, I'm very happy to have logged in today. I think I will lurk around a little more again. Sadly, I don't think I have the stamina for in depth book discussion anymore, but we'll see. I think Legate and I started a chapter-by-chapter project maybe... four years ago? and abandoned that somewhere in the middle of the FotR. Maybe I could resume the reread and the chapter commentaries!