Learning about this website

[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!

[Ring Bearer]

Originally Posted by 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?

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

Foreign Language? I believe you would have watched LOTR in English tho?
Not hating here--English is not my mother tongue either.

I actually assumed most of you here must be Americans...

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Ring Bearer

I actually assumed most of you here must be Americans...

Quite a few are, but quite a few are not. Many are not native English speakers, but they express themselves so eloquently you would not be able to tell, which is an amazing achievement to their credit. And many have been introduced to Tolkien in languages other than English.

Though I currently live in an English speaking country and English is my primary language, my first read of LOTR was not in English, and when watching the Jackson films as a kid I understood exactly one line ("Rohan will answer"), the rest was mostly guess-by-the-pictures. I'm sure there are translated films out there, but at that time we were still using VCR and you watched what you had.


I wanna second Lommy's feelings about coming across old posts. Whenever I look at my early posting I am quite embarrassed for myself. And on the flip side, if I am reading an old thread and think that I've made a good point there, it's probably not from my earliest years on the Downs.

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

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!

When did Sauce-Pan Man go into "retirement"? It feels like something that happened fairly early on in my membership.

I never managed to be part of a chapter by chapter, and it is actually one of my big regrets on this site. If I was to join one these days, I would probably need to do it by audiobook to make my schedule work. I hope you find the stamina.

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Rune Son of Bjarne

When did Sauce-Pan Man go into "retirement"? It feels like something that happened fairly early on in my membership.

I never managed to be part of a chapter by chapter, and it is actually one of my big regrets on this site. If I was to join one these days, I would probably need to do it by audiobook to make my schedule work. I hope you find the stamina.

He actually posted as recently as last year.

His activity mostly stopped in late 2009 - early 2010.

[Pitchwife]

Welcome to the Downs, Soriman! You've already proven yourself a mighty conjurer to have raised so many undead spirits from their graves (with a little help from Formendacil on Facebook).

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Let me tell you that I joined some 10-odd years ago, and still feel a very young Entling and the newbie of the place.

Are you kidding me? You've become one of the stalwarts of this place, keeping it alive when so many of us (including myself) can hardly be bothered anymore. And you do realise, don't you, that you've been a member for longer than many of us were when you joined?

Originally Posted by Boromir88

But (at least for myself) I'm just protective over a place that has been like a home for over half my life now.

THIS. Even when I often don't check the forum for months (let alone log in, let alone actually post) it still means much to me that it's still around, and every once in a while I'll revisit some old thread for Auld Lang Syne, and I'm profoundly grateful to TBW Himself for keeping the site online to make this possible.

Originally Posted by Ring Bearer

The social media links to use for Personal Messaging are ANCIENT.

When you gaze into the Time Abyss, the Time Abyss gazes back at you.

Originally Posted by Rune Son of Bjarne

When did Sauce-Pan Man go into "retirement"? It feels like something that happened fairly early on in my membership.

Not quite, as I vividly remember getting him Fenrissed in one of my early WW games, 2010-ish (my first and only time as the Seer, and I dreamed him on N1); but it was a rare appearance even back then.

I guess what meant most to me about the Downs during my more active membership (apart from the sheer pleasure of finally talking to people who got what Tolkien was all about, and learning stuff about his work that I hadn't dreamed of) was the community spirit (and this, I feel, was stronger, or more tightly knit, among the Werewolfing crowd than the Downs at large, although I guess that the long time role players had something similar going, and there were of course overlappings); and this was also the part of Downs activity that was most easily transferred to social media, hence the shift Formy talked about above.

Also I'm afraid I've got burned out discussing Middle-earth over the years, or at least I'm not interested in discussing the world-building rather than the actual literary works, which is a direction many recent threads seem to be taking (i.e. I couldn't care less which kind of units were in Sauron's or Gondor's army in the War of the Ring, stuff like that); but I'll always be up for close reading and dissecting Tolkien's prose, so... time to revisit Chapter by Chapter, I guess?