Why consort with the dead?

[Snowdog]

It's amazing the treasures one finds digging around in old Barrows! Trying to remember if I saw this thread back in the day some near 15 years ago, but can't say I have. Anyway, I may as well add on to the end of this thread, not that it is my anniversary here or anything. Can't really say when my anniversary is really, as I remember the old EZ Board. I'll accept whatever date I have here. Anyway, as an intermittent participant, with a grand total of 500 some posts in 15+ years, and in no particular order other than what I thought of first, Here Goes:

1. Barrow Downs ~ Non-movie theme. To my recollection, there was no mention of The Barrow Downs in the PJ fanfics. This place managed to avoid the attention of the hordes of movie actor fandomers as it took a bit more Tolkien searching to find.

2. Good Book Discussions. Usually good, articulate talks on topics, and even when disagreements came along, they were handled civilly by all parties.

3. Great T-Shirt and Coffee Mug design. Still have my T-shirt, but lost the coffee mugs to a shattering and a divorce.

4. Made some Friends. Yes, I'm talking about you Lush, and you Bethberry, and you Tigerlily, and a few others. I've had some issues with fecebook, the scourge that has caused the death of so many message boards, so probably haven't talked to you as much as I'd like.

5. The relatively laid back atmosphere. I mean, really. We're all dead.

6. The Translations From The Elvish forum. No, I haven't contributed to it, but I have been a regular reader of the threads.

7. Some of the RP Stories. Enjoyed reading some of the RPs as some of the writers are very good! Having 4 forums dedicated to the art of RP here had me thinking this place would be a luxurious haven for writing RP. I did try RPng here, but with the R&Rs, I found my creativity stifled by what to me was seemingly overbearing micromanagement of stories and posts, and requests for edits from others. It became more work than play for me. So I went elsewhere to write, and came here to read.

8. Board Appearance. I find the scheme here easy on the eyes and the text easy to read. Not overly gimmicky, and has some of the coolest post icons! I tend to use the pipe or the beer mug the most with the Tolkien symbol and the White Tree sometimes.

That's about all I can come up with right now. Thanks for all the years of enjoyment!

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Snowdog

It's amazing the treasures one finds digging around in old Barrows! Trying to remember if I saw this thread back in the day some near 15 years ago, but can't say I have. Anyway, I may as well add on to the end of this thread, not that it is my anniversary here or anything. Can't really say when my anniversary is really, as I remember the old EZ Board. I'll accept whatever date I have here.

I don't remember ever seeing this thread before, but it started during my multi-year hiatus from this place, so that's not surprising.
The EZ Board days ended not long before that,because I recall being excited to lose the associated ads.

There were a lot of Tolkien fora on EZ Board, and I don't think the Downs was the first one I found. It stood out, though. And by the time the BW announced the intention to move to our own, independent software, I'd all but forgotten the other sites.

I guess what's mainly kept me here after so many years is just the people, and the quality of the discussions. Even when things get heated (Bombadil, anyone? Wingéd Balrogs? ), there's a certain restraint that endures. No YouTube-comment-type ugliness and name-calling. I largely credit Tolkien for that, for his works just don't seem to call to that type of Orcish personality.

But of course, the Chief Wight made it clear from the start that this forum was only about Tolkien. There are many RL topics (even more so today!) that always seem to invite acrimonious dissensions, no matter the venue. My view was that I could get that anywhere, if I wanted, and knowing that there was an escape from that I could always count on, means a great deal.

[Galadriel55]

My reason is simple. When the Great Blackout happened a couple years back, the main reason I missed the Downs was that the blackout took out a significant chunk of my social life away.

Also, it becomes a habit (and thanks to the Downs I frequently misspell that as habbit), and habbits are hard to get rid of once they settle in their habbit-holes. I am a lot better at this correspondence than I am at any other.