You took the words right out of my mouth.

Well, you're kind of right, but I hope I don't quite fit in to that category. I think anyone who routinely haunts the Mirth forum is basically out of the running for a PT, or so it seems. Are the mods somewhat biased, or does the problem lie with us?

Ay, too true. Leaving us book people looking rather odd. Although I must admit that I've seen a lot of movies of good books which I haven't actually gotten around to reading, *yet*.

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 5:48 PM December 13, 2003: Message edited by: Luthien_ Tinuviel ]

I'd just like to point out something (not particularly aimed at anyone, just the points in the posts):

I'm older than 'teenage'. I am clever, intelligent, etc. I like the books. I also like the films. I'm only clever at some things. I am not a clever person when it comes to Tolkien's books. I can cleverly discuss some points, not all. I like the Mirth forum because I like humour. I like the Movies forum because I like the films. I would join in at the Books forum, but I am not clever enough, nor am I welcome. I discovered that the going opinion on me was that the few posts I made in there were 'stupid' and well... basically not good or worth reading.

I am not picking at anything, I just wanted to point out my situation. Some general themes on this topic seem to be that teens hang out on Mirth, and adults on Books. I'm one of probably many exceptions. This may be a small point, but I like to make myself clear to everyone.

I apologize if I in any way offended. I chose to address the issue because it is one that rather annoys me; I feel as if the younger members were not as valued for their input in some cases as the older members may be. Perhaps this is just, perhaps it isn't. I'm not sure I'm an adequate judge of the situation, in fact I know I am not. I will edit my last post accordingly.

Absolutely no offence taken, and no need to edit any posts... it's just good to know who is an exception to ideas.

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 7:43 AM December 14, 2003: Message edited by: Meela ]

I'd like to point out that I don't believe teens to be exclusively Mirthies. A lot of us Mirthies are teens, but that doesn't mean that we don't go anywhere else. I haunt the forum because I love to laugh, but I also offer my input in Books, Newbies, Movies, and Barrowdowns.

Fea

I used to post a lot in Mirth but I stopped after a while, me being not the funny type, I do still visit Mirth for a laugh or two. I haven’t been an active member for a while actually because I have been busy. But I do enjoy posting in Movies, Newbies, Barrowdowns and I would like to start putting more input into the Books. I am also big on RPG-ing at the moment and am about to join The White Horse Inn. I agree with the fact that the teens enjoy posting in Mirth but I don’t believe it is the only place… like Feanor said he is an active member all over the place which many teens are.

~Niluial

Oh, so true, so true [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

I actually thought that there was quite a few young people on the Downs, it is just that some of them are people who kind of just show up and then quickly dissapear, so that makes it kind of hard to keep an accurate count.

I right now am 17. Not a young teen in any way, even though I really did enjoy my "tweens" (I loved 12 and younger, once I hit 13 everything went downhill from there). I discovered LOTR in my middle teens via the films (well actually I kind of discovered it in middle school, but that is a long story...), and have been happy and content ever since [img]smilies/cool.gif[/img]

well that is because it takes about that much time to know enough to make a valuable contribution to that forum [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] I do love the Books forum though (even though I have not spent that much time on it), I have learned so much. I better start studying though so I can contribute, because once the movies are gone I am going to have to find something else to talk about.

Oh, and Meela, don't fret about your posts in the Books sounding "stupid". They are just fine. At least you are taking a chance and making a contribution, instead of sitting on the sidelines and not doing anything at all.

"I think anyone who routinely haunts the Mirth forum is basically out of the running for a PT, or so it seems. Are the mods somewhat biased, or does the problem lie with us?"

Personal titles reward positive contributions to site or forum. Posting in Mirth does not dilute those, but weighs very little.

I love Mirth...in fact, that's the first place I go. I've never posted in the Books forum because it's so intimidating. Meela, you've got some confidence for posting there! [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] 99.9% of my posts are in Mirth...

I love humor. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

I'm a regular poster in Mirth, N&N, and Movies. I'm too scared to post in Books or anywhere else.
Obviously just posting where I am posting doesn't get a personal title, because I'm at 2100 posts, and it doesn't look like I'm at the top of the receiving list just yet.

Do you have any suggestions as to how I could contribute to the forum? Like, could I be helpful to newcomers? Offer advice where it is needed? Be fair and reliable? Things like that?

I disagree with the belief that teens generally congregate in the Mirth forum, and adults in the Book forum, because at 16 years of age, I am most definitely not an adult and I still frequent the Books forum. I just happen to enjoy the level of scholarliness that generally characterizes posts in the forum. It is highly unfair to assume that all teenagers aren't as "bookish" as adults.

The reason that many teens don't seem to give "intelligent input" is opinions like that. Teenagers aren't given a chance to prove their scholarly aptitude, ergo they just stop trying. That is why teenagers seem to frequent the Mirth forum. There, people don't judge them based on the quality of their posts.

I really love everything about this forum, the people, the posts, and the forum in general, but opinions like that do hurt.

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 12:44 PM December 14, 2003: Message edited by: Finwe ]

Im a mid teen, 15. I first came too read lord of the rings after i saw FOTR. When i saw the trailer for the first movie i new i had too see it because i love fantasy movies. Straight after i saw the film i read the book.

I also do not like posting in the books forum too much because, sometimes, i can get my points wrong as i dont know everything about the Lord of the Rings. Sometimes i find posting in RPG's hard too incase i get any of my punctuation or spelling wrong.

I enjoy reading threads that give me an opportunity to get to know forum members better, so I hope you’ll pardon a non-teen for barging in here! I would like to add a couple of comments about the Barrow-Downs that seem relevant to what some of you have been discussing.

First, the forum is big – too big for any one person to be able to read everything here (though I do try to catch as much as I possibly can, while still living a life away from the computer). That means that members have to choose what interests them most, and ignore the rest. Whether they choose Books, RPGs, Movies, or Mirth is more a matter of personality than of age. I know many adult members, including myself, who post on the Mirth forum – but not on every thread; if you read the Walk to Rivendell or the homophone thread, you’re likely to find my posts there, for example. On the other hand, there are teen members who post well and interestingly on the Books forum – you might not realize their age from their posts, since they write in quite a mature fashion. I just happen to know a lot of their ages, since I read so many different threads.

Secondly, this is a place to be without putting up barriers of age and/or gender, etc. One of the big advantages of the internet is the fact that those can be overcome simply because we do not know that about the persons we encounter, unless they choose to tell us – and are honest about it! [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] I’m sure we’ve gotten to know people we never would have talked to if we had met them in real life – and some of them have become friends.

Thirdly, this is a place to learn! When I came here, I read more than I posted (and I still do), especially on topics about the Silmarillion etc. which I had not yet read then. There are still discussions from which I benefit by reading what others, often younger than myself, know – and I make a point not to post unless I have something worthwhile to say.

May I add one comment about the ‘personal title’ discussion – there are threads that have discussed this in the past. Please use the search to find them, so that this thread doesn’t turn into another “Why don’t I have one yet?” topic. Oh, and a tip for all who have commented on their spelling problems – it helps to use your PC’s word processor to write posts and to spellcheck them before copying and pasting them into the posting box – I did that with this one and almost always do so to be sure. The preview function helps to double-check as well.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled posts...

You may find some yonger teens on this thread: The Tolkien Under Age Club

I agree with your 3rd point Estelyn, i definately read alot more than i post here and have learnt alot about Middlr-Earth because of it. I also think that because i havn't posted to much people dont seem to know me that much when i visit the site.

Since I am a teen as well, that's not exactly what I meant but okay. I know everyone on the Barrow-Downs is given the chance to give input that is worthwhile to the forums (I don't like the way that sounds, but I can't think of another way to put it. And note I said "Forums" meaning it can be anything from Books to Mirth to RPGs or whatever).

The thing is, no one knows whether you are a teen or not when you first post unless you say so or something you post sets off a flag. You are given a chance, and opinions are always changing depending on what you show the other members of the Barrow-Downs. It's almost like in real life, when people make first impressions but are rarely the ones they want to make and thusly you show the person(s) how you really are.

And no one should stop trying to give good input and worthy opinions just because they think other members are automatically *against* them because of their age.

-Aylwen

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 4:44 PM December 14, 2003: Message edited by: Aylwen Dreamsong ]

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 5:30 PM December 14, 2003: Message edited by: Aylwen Dreamsong ]

I'm a teen and I don't post a lot in the Books because everyone there is so much smarter than I am! I have only read LotR and the Hobbit and I started the Sil, but that's about it! So I'm afraid that I'll say something that's incorrect. If I know the answer, I'll post. If not, I won't. Frankly, I think everyone here is nice and I don't think they're biased against teens in the least.

I prefer to hang at the RPG section myself.

Muahahahaha. Fooled another one. [img]smilies/evil.gif[/img] I, like Finwe, am in actuality a girl who simply liked the male characters' names better. Cheers,

Fea

Moi, I'm 14.

Same here. I often read the discussions in the Books forum and develop my own opinions but I'm never confident enough with my ideas to actually post them.


Hear, hear, Finwe. Things like that make me feel like my input is not intelligent.

Goldberry, you're only 14? [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] Wow... I always thought you were older than that... Finwe, too...and Feanor. In fact, I thought a lot of you guys were older than you are. Maybe you're just all really mature for your age [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

Why thank you! All I'm asking for is fair treatment for people of all ages.

I'm one of those lucky people who has a college english teacher as a granma, she gave me the Hobbit at 5, pointed Fellowship out at 7, and generally started me on my Tolkien love affair. I'm currently working on getting my mum to read all the books. Being a romantic, I'm ensnaring her through the Tale of Luthien and Beren, the Lay of Leithian, and the other L/B related stuff. It's working. Never doubt the power of the children of Melian (and spouses).

Oh, and for the record, I'm 15 now [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
Is it just me, or does 15 seem to be the Board average?

What do you mean, graduate to Frodo? I started *out* loving Frodo, now I'm very, *very*, Meela-type, attached to Celebrimbor, his Anadar, and...well...Celeborn. And lets not forget Elrond (I've loved him since I got the Hobbit).

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 3:39 PM December 17, 2003: Message edited by: Morgul Queen ]

Yay, yes that is so true. Like how adults stereotype teenagers as spoiled and not yet mature and disrespectful and all that other c- i mean stuff. And we get hurt and then react by becoming that way. But anyway. Feanor, yeah sometimes the guy names are cooler. (ooh I should have been Legolassie! oh well if i ever get sick of snickerdoodles...) Just wondering, is there anyone here under 10? because if there is, I am deeply impressed.

Can they really respect someone with a nick like Trippo The Hippo or Lady Snickerdoodle on hte books forum?

'Course they can. "What's in a name?"

Meela-type? Cool, I'm a syndrome! Anyone else have 'Meela syndrome'? *giggles*

Hey, I don`t turn 13 for another month! Ofcourse there are early teens on the
Barrow-Downs! I mean, it has to be the best LotR website on the net, and I`ll sword fight anyone who says it isn`t! (Not to brag or anything, but I`m actually pretty good! After all, I practice with them nearly every day!) [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

I had no idea there were so many teens on this site! Yay, I'm not alone! I'm 14 but I've been an LOTR fan since I was 8, my mum read them to me and I've loved them ever since! Strange enough I didn't actually read the hobbit until after I'd read LOTR for the third time :P

I usually just stay around the movies forum, though I'm proud to say I HAVE posted in the books forum... once... a long time ago... but I did post in there all the same!

That which we call a rose..., my dear Imladris.

Although you must admit that the names we choose to go by show much of our personality. The name that a person uses on the Web is like the clothes that he wears in real life. The names show a small piece of who we are. But as with clothing, people should not be judged by their names. It's entirely what the people are saying that they are judged by (not to insinuate that any of you say things by which you can be unfairly judged).

Cheers,
Fea

Hmmm...

What does my name say about me to you?

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 8:02 AM December 21, 2003: Message edited by: Meela ]

Well, I discovered LOTR when I was 12, though I am now 33 (which, hey, is barely more than a child to my Hobbit self).
I'm afraid that with some folks on the Barrowdowns, I can't tell their age unless they come out and say it. I think, though, that I do gravitate toward topics being discussed by people closer to my age (like I said, I think--sometimes it's hard to tell). [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]
Bleh....me neither. [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] I also tried to read the Slimarillion when I was 12.....don't think I made it past the first chapter before I gave up. Never read HoME or anything else Tolkien, either--I haven't even been all the way through the Hobbit, and that's the illustrated version. [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] You just "hang around" in topics you enjoy, and so what if people think you're not "Tolkien Smart"? [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] I know I'm not, and while I enjoy Tolkien, (I am Sam Gamgee's #1 fan), there are things more important to me.

{Edit again} (After reading Miss Estelyn's post above) Exactly!

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 9:29 AM December 21, 2003: Message edited by: Samwise ]

Well Meela... the first time I saw your name (back when I first registered) I thought: "I'll betcha this girl's a wise-@$$." Then when I started to read your posts I started thinking... "Hahahahaha- this girl's funny." I'm not quite sure how, but the name Meela is perfect for the posts you write.

With the name Keeper of Dol Goldur, that's the exact name I would have picked for him. Keeper is similar to the character: Even though he's awsome, not many people really know who he is. He's got a bit of a dark angsty side which draws him towards the Bad Guys.

What's my name say about me?

Fea

Exactly. I'm not really an early-teen fan, I'm 16, but The Books forum is extremely intimidating, which is a bit sad, 'cause I'm sure there are more people than me who'd love to be part of serious discussions, but can't work up the nerve to try and post in The Books.
I've posted there once in all my time at the Downs, and then I spent an hour or something writing the post, trying to say what I wanted to say in a comprehendable way, because not only am I younger than most on The Books, I'm not a native English speaker either, and the sheer size of the vocabulary of some posters on the Downs scare me senseless... I love reading in The Books forum though, though I never post there, I always learn lots [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 7:31 AM December 22, 2003: Message edited by: vanwalossien ]

Hi, I'm Elentari, 15. The books forum scares me too! Everyone there seems to know so much in-depth stuff about LotR, the hobbits and even the silm! I'm either too scared to post because I'm likely to be corrected, or I'm too confused by people refering to the silm!

I'm thirteen, I just discovered this site, and it seems great. I never knew there where so many people out there who could quote Tolkien by memory.

Back to the fisrt post... I was introduced to Tolkien when I was in first grade. I was tired of baby books, but first graders were only allowed to get books from one corner of the whole school library. I was pointed in the direction of Tolkien, because though the schools abridged comic book addition of "The Hobbit" was "really closer to a second grade level" they could make an exception. Thus I was introduced to a comic book version of Tolkien where sting glowed red rather than blue. I remember going to my dad, and telling him that it was to bad Tolkien wasn't a real writer, because this book would be soooo good if it wasn't comic strip. My dad (being a Tolkien fan, and hater of abridged versions in any way shape or form) went out and got me a special edition of the book. From the first sentence I was hooked, perhaps by the idea of Hobbits, or just as likely by the way Tolkien almost imediatly goes off on a tangent.
When I began Fellowship of the Ring I was discoraged. my teacher told me it was over my head, and too scary for me. I DID have a brief stage where I got nightmeres about my teacher dressed as a Black Rider (which was the reason I found it comforting that the Nazgul cannot be seen). Anyway, since then I've read the Trillogy about fifty two times, The hobbit seven times, the Silm. 4 times, and am on my second read of unfinished tales, and the HoME books. Incase you have not already guessed, I'm an obsessive reader.

And for closure: I am now out of reach of interfering librarians, as I have convinced my parents to home school me.

An edit on above post: My homeroom teacher was a wonderful person; the evil teacher from the Nazgul dream was a man who came in once a day to teach us how to over use adjectives...

Hmm, I guess I'll say that I'm 16, & my bro got me started reading the books when I was 10. Always liked them, and...that's about it :p

Oh yeah, that'd be PJ trying to make Legolas's lines sound all deep & elvishy (& 'wise') :rolleyes:.

p.s. does 16 count as 'early teens'? :confused:

Wow... I'd forgotten about this thread. My current pre-teen Lord of the Rings activities (I'm not the pre-teen, they are... actually, most of them aren't. Hm... well, at least they're teens.) are attempting the impossible. I'm trying to get some of my friends into the LotR addicts that everyone should be. Mwahahahaha. Only it's not working, since my copy of The Hobbit is currently celebrating its 6th month on my friend's bedside table, since he started it and was too bored to finish.

I'm also trying to get my Trilogy class to read both the Appendices in RotK and The Silmarillion. You'd think, considering they're all LotR junkies, that they'd be tripping over their own feet trying to get to this stuff, but it's amazingly difficult to convince anybody. But I'm doing it the hard way (they're all being dragged, kicking and screaming into reading this stuff): For the appendices I'm introducing certain people to certain parts. Such as "Hey Kel- have you read the story of Aragorn and Arwen?" as she is a bit of a romanticist. And "Fireball- you should really read the part where Helm Hammerhand dies. He's still standing up when they find him!"

Then for the Silmarillion... That's really hard. A friend bought a copy for $5 on a Florida vacation, tried reading the first page, then gave it away. Another friend just bought it and hasn't even looked at it yet, since he's a bit terrified of it. Yet another friend just bought the Silm but she's waiting until summer to read it. I told them what I tell everybody: "If you can make it past The Realms of Beleriand, you can do anything." That scares them a bit though...

I'm still trying to find some local pre-teen 'Rings fans. Not much luck there though. Maybe I'll just snag some junior high kids, hand them the books, and offer to give them junk food if they read them. That could work... Mwahahahaha. Hook 'em while they're young...

Fea

I just turned 15 at the start of this year. I actually started reading LotR 2 years ago, and I instantly became a fan after finishing TTT during the month of December. Before that I was one of the annoying "Go, Legolas!" movie watchers not aware of the true beauty of the book. I am ashamed to be once like that. :(

I was attracted to the Mirth, naturally, although I'm not exactly the Meela and Oddwen type. :) I thought the Books was the place to be for me, but turns out my reasoning of things is not as I would like it to be, and I feel quite insecure in posting there. But now, I usually post at both.

I'm 15, and I fell in love with Tolkien about a year ago.
First, I saw FotR in theatre, but didn't get hooked. Then, a few months later, I saw it again on DVD, and I couldn't believe how hot (not hunky) Legolas was. Much prettier then I had remembered... After seing TTT, I bought the LotR.
I read the Hobbit and Silmarillion right after finishing RotK. Been hooked ever since...