Why do you love the Downs?

[The Might]

Firstly, let me start by saying that I hope that this topic will be accepted and that it was a proper thing to post it in this forum. I first thought about Mirth, but then again usually just funny/comical stuff goes in there and I actually plan to make this a serious thread with a serious discussion and honest answers.

Secondly, let us get to the topic at hand and to the main question - why do you love the BD as a forum?, what makes it special for you?, why do you return to post here?

I expect a wide range of answers and motivations and am actually quite curious to see what others think.

Also: you can also mention any temporal development, if such a thing occured for you, so different reasons depending on which period of time is concerned.

And finally, as said above, let's keep this serious, so no stupid jokes. Then again I don't expect any here anyways - hey, that may be a reason for coming here too!


And because it would only be fair for me to start, here is why I like the Downs so much.
At first it was mostly just a place to test my lore knowledge and find out more information about M-e. So I enjoyed the Quiz Room, and lore discussions in the Books forum, anything that could help learn more about Tolkien's universe.
Afterwards, I became acquinted with more and more members, made friends here and so also posted more often in Mirth threads, socialised more.
At the moment, I guess I try to do both. I still like lore, but I also keep in mind that there are other real people behind the screen names and I am happy to be able to talk to them here on the Downs.
So yeah, that's pretty much why I like the BD, your turn now!

[Andsigil]

I've been to other Tolkien forums and this one lacks the banality of discussion which I find in the others. Most of the time.

[Lalwendë]

I know this sounds a dreadful thing but I like this forum because it's 'no frills'. Though that's not quite as unflattering as it sounds - it's organised into sensible sections (too many sections are a bad thing as you can't follow them and people bicker about posts being in the 'wrong section' which is boring), and it isn't hampered by stupid bandwidth-sapping avatars and signatures full of whizzbangs. It does the job it should and you can get down to discussing stuff.

[Hookbill the Goomba]

The Downs is different to any other forum I have ever been to. The community is very accepting of everyone, but knows a troll when it sees one. It was the first place I ever felt accepted or that people might actually laugh at my incredibly stupid jokes.

Tolkien's works are dealt with seriously, but not in an overly weird cult sort of way. Despite the massive brain power of our more academic members, one never feels out of place asking a question that sometimes feels silly.

I know my posting rate has gone down recently. I blame that on University and other work, by the way. But I do feel that this community is incredibly understanding. The people are friendly, intelligent and spread across many social and political dynamics. These 'dividing factors' don't matter here, because we are into something bigger than politics, bigger than national conflicts and grudges. We're here for TOLKIEN!

Let me give an example of why I love the Downs. Let's take a subject... urm... the Lord of the Rings films...

Generic other forum conversation:

"LORT IS GR8! I <3 Legols and the horses!"
"ITS GAY!"
"NO ITS NOT!!"
"YOUR MUM IS GAY!"

and so on.

On the Downs... we have a whole sub-forum dedicated to serious discussion. I'd planned on quoting a bit but then thought better of it.

So, yeah. The Downs should be knighted.

[Lush]

It's low-key.
The people on here are smart and interesting. And have consistently been so. For years.
I like the colour green.

[Inziladun]

I stumbled onto this site back in the EZ Board days and immediately saw it was different from the other Tolkien sites I'd seen. The erudition and general level of intelligence of the posters made it stand out, and to this day, save a local "community" forum, this is the only forum on which I post.

[Kitanna]

It's intelligent and the topics stay on Tolkien and his works. The Barrow Downs was the first forum I ever joined and the outstanding composure of threads and members has ruined me from less organized forums.

The lack of rabid fangirls is also a plus. Not to insult fangirls because I too had such a phase, but when they rule a forum with a glittering fist it takes away from the fun.

[radagastly]

I spent a year or so just playing "Hang-hobbit" on the Main "Barrowdowns" page. Then one day I clicked on the "forum" link. I found out that day that they were making a movie about "Lord of the Rings," and started to read more. Since then, my user-name has changed (it used to be "ainur") because of the change from e-z board to whatever we have now (or vice-versa). I lost my password and had to re-create my sign-on, start from scratch. A year or so later the "Fellowship" movie came out. I guess I was actually here fairly early, though I have never posted very much, in either of my "personas".

Why do I keep coming back after all these years? I think it has to do with the level of intelect available on this site. While I admit that you can find intelligent posting on other sites, you have to weed through many, many threads to find them. On this site, virtually everyone has some genuine insight. It's rare to find a thread worth discussing (no, I don't mean those "what if-" threads, or those "Who's your favorite-" threads) on other sites, but the good ones are common here. I seem to prefer the 'literary' discussions, and "Barrowdowns.com" has plenty of those compared to any other site I've visited.

I don't post often, but when I do (at least recently) I try to add to the discussion, and intrigue people. I am not trying to add to my post numbers or my rep. There is a lot about this site that reminds me of the kind of dialogue that I used to have years ago when I was in college, and I was in my Science Fiction course, discussing literary insights, rather than "Who's cuter, Legolas or Aragorn?" It's not that I don't enjoy light-hearted banter, but it's not what I'm after here. It seems to me that more than one 'world-class' literati has chosen to join the 'Barrowdowns.com' forum to make their voice heard, at least briefly, and rather than standing out, they fit in.

In discussions of Tolkien as LITERATURE!, this forum is as good as it gets, bar none! That's really why I'm here. I enjoy the insight and challenge that you can't get anywhere else.

[Morthoron]

What's not to love about the Downs? It is our salicylic acid for the eradication of warts, the laxative for our constipation, the benzoyl peroxide for our pustulating pimples, and our cotton swab for earwax removal.

I get all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it.

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Hookbill the Goomba

we are into something bigger than politics, bigger than national conflicts and grudges. We're here for TOLKIEN!

Funny, but no one has yet mentioned the Werewolf games, a stupendous source of post counts and friendships here on the Downs. I would have thought that Tol in Gaurhoth would have been first on everyone's list.

Except for Lush's. I don't think she's ever played in a Werewolf game. :merisu:

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Funny, but no one has yet mentioned the Werewolf games, a stupendous source of post counts and friendships here on the Downs. I would have thought that Tol in Gaurhoth would have been first on everyone's list.

Funny you should mention that...

Yeah, Lommy first convinced me to join this forum because of the werewolf game - girl was she excited! Now I think I lead the played games tally... or am at least a honoured second.


But I have loved Tolkien and his works from something like from the early years of the 70's or something when my dad first read the LotR as a bedtimestory to me... (well, he never got to finish but I read it myself from that on)

But this site has been a lot more than just werewolfing (even if there has been a lot of that to me).


I'd like to make three... well four points why I love this community.

1. The discussions are intelligent indeed most of the time. Even if I'm no net-forum know-it-all I've seen only worse sites. Many times it seems that the only options are being "fan-girls" or then walking "Encyclopedias" just reciting the prof's words like holy Scripture, but it's different on the 'Downs. And I also really love the sometimes wry, sometimes absurd humour people have around here.

2. Also the warm athmosphere and the respect of others has caught my eye in here. Indeed I've had quite a learning curve as this is the first forum I have really attached myself into - and being a bit older than many others around here it has taken some fumbles for me to learn the power of this one. So I'm kind of feeling a gratitude to this site (more specifically to the people around here) as well. You've thought me a lesson or two how to be in a forum. Sad that doesn't seem to happen in most other fora.

3. Even if it stalls at times and then bursts again I think that the 'Downs RPGing has been just super! It's great to get oneself into an RPG where people are not just calling when's the next fight but they actualy write about the characters and their relations. I don't think 'Downs RPG's are great literature as such but they are so much fun to write and read and many writers here have lots of talent as writers, and the feeling of a writing-community is quite overwhelming at times.

4. I have already gotten myself a few RL friends because of this site... and I do consider - unlike many other adults I know in RL - also those I feel good and well with if I had only discussed with them via this forum (or the LJ because of this site) as my friends as well. And that means quite a many people. So this site has extremely enriched my life - even if it's mostly virtual (not counting Brinn, Legate, Rune, & Spawn whom I have also met, some of them for a considerable period) that is.

But then again, what is mind if not a virtual thing?

[Morthoron]

Okay, okay...I'll be serious. And as we Yanks are heading towards our Thanksgiving Holiday, I thought I'd express my thankfulness:

WHY I AM THANKFUL FOR THE BARROW DOWNS
By Morthoron

1) I am thankful that the signature space is limited to 3 lines. I swear to Eru there's a poster over on the TORn site whose signature is 10 stanzas long.

2) There is none of the overt Legolust here that is evident on other sites.

3) Peter Jackson's films can be discussed here with a critical eye, rather than jostling with a herd of cattle seeking canonization for the entire population of New Zealand.

4) Posters are rarely monosyllabic and actually use proper punctuation; in fact, I will go as far as saying the English-as-second-language users here are more erudite than most native-born posters on other sites.

5) The moderation is fair, and I don't get into trouble...much.

6) Gandalf eats Hobbits, or at least, that's what Alatar has surmised. I found the revelation stunning, to say the least. One doesn't find scholarly work of such magnitude elsewhere.

7) There is a creative flair and a skewed sense of humor here that accords with my left-handedness.

8) I took a survey and found out I was Saruman incarnate. Now, if I could only grow a decent beard.

9) People here are funny. They'll ressurrect a thread from four years ago and post like the conversation was from this morning.

10) I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

I agree with a lot of what's already been said (even though I don't participate in the RPGs, I find them very entertaining to observe, when I have a chance). Finding a LotR forum in which both intelligent discussion and intelligent humor were common and Peter Jackson is not worshiped as God was, I thought, impossible. I have dearly loved LotR for most of my life, and while it had a profound influence on me, I also enjoy poking fun at it (having a firm belief that a certain amount of irreverent humor is necessary for one's sanity; God invented humor, after all ). I love the fact that in a serious discussion here, people can suddenly find humor in it, discuss that for a bit, and then go back to the main discussion without being chided for haring "off-topic" (which, on other forums, usually results in a long off-topic argument about what constitutes OT). I never get a sense of "class structure" here, the feeling that people who have been around longer or have a bazillion posts somehow feel themselves superior to those who don't post as much or haven't been members as long. There's no hazing of the newbies, and no cliques that I can perceive. The cliques are a major part of what drove me away from sites like tORn (and Morth, as a former tORn admin, I couldn't agree more about the signature limits ). There is a sense of easy acceptance here, that all are equal as fans of what we all love, in our own ways -- a diversity that is accepted, not broken into little splinter groups. Something to be thankful for, to me.