[Mithadan]

If I recall correctly, I found The Barrow-Downs using a webring. Anyone remember them? These sites collected links to websites about particular topics in the time before search engines were effective devices. You could search for Tolkien on Yahoo, for example, and get hundreds of hits, entirely unorganized and including web pages that merely mentioned the word "Tolkien." Yahoo did have an interesting feature where the newest webpages were listed and could be searched, before there were too many new webpages every day to allow this search route to be functional. This was before algorithms that delivered search results based upon popularity of searches, etc.

Webrings assembled lists of sites by a particular topic, either relying upon the taste and diligence of the webmaster or by the owners of the sites posting the links. So the early Tolkien webrings would list five or ten Tolkien websites to assist users in finding what they wanted. Webrings later gave way to "toplists" where a website could post a link or banner on the list and users could vote for their favorites. The sites were then ranked by the number of votes.

The best-known Tolkien toplist was "25 Hobbits" which listed the "best" 25 Tolkien websites based upon votes. The Barrow-Downs submitted its banner on 25 Hobbits and it did attract visitors. But soon after the list was created, competition arose. Everyone wanted their site to be listed at the top. 25 Hobbits' software wasn't tremendously discriminating. While a user, in theory, could "vote" (simply by clicking on a banner) only once a day, people found ways around this. Vote at home and then at work. Go to a library and vote once on each of the 10 or 20 public computers.

The Barrow-Downs, at first, was always near the top of the list. But as competition grew (and the movies drove traffic) the rankings became questionable. Some puzzling websites began appearing at the top of the list. Members began posting threads on the Downs urging everyone to vote because, of course, our site was the best, right? Some folks took it upon themselves to join other message boards to accuse their members of cheating. The reverse happened as well. Cross-boards flame wars began.

One of our primary competitors was Minas Tirith, a very good bulletin board in its own right (unfortunately now defunct) with a fairly large membership similar to ours. The flame war (and it wasn't large, just annoying) grew and continued for a few weeks. I joined Minas Tirith using my own user name to avoid criticism, communicated with its administrator, White Gold Wielder, about the problem, and began posting there to encourage tolerance. There was plenty of room for multiple message boards, they offered forum categories that differed from ours, and couldn't we all just get along? Things calmed down nicely, though there were occasional accusations of poaching (as if people weren't free to join one or the other or both).

Odd to think about this now, with message boards on the wane.