I have been "there and back again" in life and online (meaning: I've been in real life adventures) and am glad to be back in what I consider, home.
I am Jaidoprism7, not a good Tolkein-esque word but it's been my name here on this site for a while.
I hope to hear where you will begin here on this site. There are many topics and many cool places to go. I'm sure there are newer members and torchbearers who can give you more recent updates than I but I will gladly help if I can. Welcome...see you around
Unfortunately the golden era of forums has long passed, it's all social media now. It was assumed that the release of The Hobbit trilogy would inspire a new wave of activity across Middle-earth centred forums but I don't think it materialised.
I intend to maintain this forum into the future, it won't be shut down. The only real difference is that the forum now has an ad banner on the top, the chat box is gone and I no longer update the monthly poll thing that used to be done in the earlier years of the site.
The site was first created back in 2005 so it has some sentimental value for me. I still maintain the non-forum website subscription and the domain name/email services.
For the last few years the old regulars have stopped coming through. A new member will register, make a few posts and then leave as no one responds. If a dozen or so oldies got together and agreed to come on a certain times it might keep things ticking over but it seems unlikely. If people shared the site via social media that might help. I could then re-enable premium services and the chat function could be restored.
I've heard various rumours about a new series being made based around Aragorn's life. Maybe that will trigger some interest.
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Though ye be the Ainur and Mightiest amongst them is Melkor, know that I am Iluvatar! Let My Word prevail past the Ends of Time!
Perhaps now would be a good time to try the above suggestion of getting an active group on here to post regularly, and recruit more members? Take advantage of this Covid-19 pandemic? Wishful thinking, perhaps, but there are a lot of people with spare time on their hands!
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Though ye be the Ainur and Mightiest amongst them is Melkor, know that I am Iluvatar! Let My Word prevail past the Ends of Time!
I still check in once in a while and am in touch with a couple folks. We could try to revive things?
One idea is that folks could share their social media info with each other by private message, perhaps encouraging each others participation that way.
Most interaction on the internet takes place on social media these days, I think only by utilising it could there be some form of revival.
I've kept up the website monthly fees and the annual domain name cost but I've let the forum subscription slide for a year or two now due to inactivity, hence the ad banner at the top. I'm a sentimental chap so I'm keeping this thing going till they wrench it from the net by its finger nails! After all, it's older than Twitter and almost as old as Facebook!
-- Edited by The One on Friday 4th of December 2020 09:46:16 PM
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Though ye be the Ainur and Mightiest amongst them is Melkor, know that I am Iluvatar! Let My Word prevail past the Ends of Time!
Hullo, my dear fellows! I will do what I can. I don't have a huge follow-ship...but am open to suggestions about how I may help by keeping this forum in the air. On the air?....you know what I mean. It's totally worth it.
Hullo, my dear fellows! I will do what I can. I don't have a huge follow-ship...but am open to suggestions about how I may help by keeping this forum in the air. On the air?....you know what I mean. It's totally worth it.
I still check in and see how things are going. It's a sad state of affairs that forums are now considered archaic. Only a few really big forums that established themselves in the 'golden era' remain. I started this site in 2005/2006, just after that period and right before the emergence of social media so I just missed the boat, I think.
Like I say, I still pay the monthly website fee and annual domain name cost. I let the forum fee drop as it didn't seem productive given the level of activity. But out of nostalgia and not wanting to ditch something I've had for so long I'm keeping it going. I have a faint hope that some day a clique of hardcore fans might emerge and persist on here, unlikely as that is!
Maybe if they make a new Middle-earth related series it might boost interest but also not likely...
Thanks to those few of you that still log in!
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Though ye be the Ainur and Mightiest amongst them is Melkor, know that I am Iluvatar! Let My Word prevail past the Ends of Time!
For anyone who does check on here and remembers dear Bear, I wanted to let you know he died a couple weeks ago after having had bad health for the past year or so.
