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ArwenLegolas
Realm Leader of Manwë Súlimo & CoE Volunteer
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on: October 11, 2020 03:12
I wasn't actively posting. I am sorry I let things and responsibilities go. But I am back now and will post somewhere daily.
Tiro nin Elbereth
tarcolan
Movies Moderator and General Dogsbody
Posts: 6046
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on: October 12, 2020 02:17
Hi ArwenLegolas, welcome back. I will PM you about your Realm soon.
ArwenLegolas
Realm Leader of Manwë Súlimo & CoE Volunteer
Posts: 113
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on: October 14, 2020 08:35
thank you tarcolan
Tiro nin Elbereth
Hanasian
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on: October 20, 2022 10:44
So... IS anybody still active here in 2022?
Eighth King of Arthedain - It was in battle that I come into this Kingship, and it will be in Battle when I leave it. There is no peace for the Realm of Arnor. Read the last stand of Arthedain in the Darkest of Days.
Evil~Shieldmaiden
Games Moderator, and Chief Corrupted Weaver of Vairë
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on: October 31, 2022 02:04
There are a few stalwarts still kicking around, but it has gone awfully quiet around here.
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Hanasian
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on: October 31, 2022 08:59
Who knows. Maybe I'll make 1000 posts after 20 years.
Eighth King of Arthedain - It was in battle that I come into this Kingship, and it will be in Battle when I leave it. There is no peace for the Realm of Arnor. Read the last stand of Arthedain in the Darkest of Days.
Elfeawen Lomiondil
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on: December 25, 2022 09:37
Alas, I walked the empty halls of COE after many years away and found the forums as silent as the streets of Tirion when Earendil arrived during time of festival.

I joined when I was in college. I had very little free time in those days, and I spent most of it here. Things got more complicated after I graduated. I never planned to leave COE but I did anyway. My love for ME slumbered but never died. Then along came “The Rings of Power”. I started thinking about things and asking questions. Soon I was rereading The Silmarillion and The Shaping of Middle Earth. Now rereading The Return of the King.

My chief interest is in the book forum. Hope to find someone to talk to. I think I will visit every week or two for the near future and see what happens.

It was really fun in the old days! Only now do I appreciate what a remarkable site this is. I wonder if there will ever be a resurgence in activity.
"There shall be war between the Children of Iluvatar and the Ainu Melko. What if we perish in our quest? The dark halls of Vê be little worse than this bright prison" ~ Fëanor
Hanasian
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on: December 25, 2022 06:28
Mae govannen Elfeawen Lomiondil! Welcome back! Sadly I doubt there will be much of a resurgence of forum activity due to the Rings of Power. The internet has changed so much since 'the old days' and forums in general are somewhat passé. Most of the old places I would wander through have long since been destroyed or have fell into ruin by the hands of time and neglect. Fortunately this place is still working, though some things haven't worked right in over ten years.

I'll ride through more since you say you will be coming by just in case there is a good discussion to be had.
Eighth King of Arthedain - It was in battle that I come into this Kingship, and it will be in Battle when I leave it. There is no peace for the Realm of Arnor. Read the last stand of Arthedain in the Darkest of Days.
Elfeawen Lomiondil
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on: January 02, 2023 08:15
Any particular things you would like to talk about? I am interested in many things, right now especially Rings of Power, and always The Silmarillion and History of Middle Earth.
"There shall be war between the Children of Iluvatar and the Ainu Melko. What if we perish in our quest? The dark halls of Vê be little worse than this bright prison" ~ Fëanor
~nólemë~
Fan Creations Admin & Creations Forum Moderator
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on: January 07, 2023 06:33
Welcome back, Elfeawen! I have never left CoE, but I admit I'm way, way less active than years ago, as there are only a few fellow realm members to talk to, and we already know each other's opinions and preferences re. new Tolkien-themed movies. I personally stopped following them after Hobbit part 2, as I saw and heard very little to my liking. I've become a bit of a purist.
I think CoE's time may come yet, some time in the future, but it's not now. I definitely don't expect all parts of CoE to re-awaken. The recipes, fanfiction, humor, fan art and collectibles will probably be gone for good, in favor of more active/trendy sites and social media. OTOH, some life may eventually return to the forums, and the language section. We'll see. I wish there could be more fixes of what's not working, but among those who have the will and time, noone has the skill and/or access. As far as I understand, access to the very heart of CoE is a very sensitive thing, and precarious to entrust newer, less committed or less experienced members with, not to mention the time-consuming training that would be needed. I'm guessing CoE will remain in status quo for a good while yet: hopefully, you will still find people to talk to.
Out of curiosity, how are other older Tolkien-themed sites doing? Apart from the One Ring Net, that is. I assume the situation is similar for them.
---------- Image "If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." J.R.R. Tolkien - The Hobbit
Hanasian
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on: January 25, 2023 04:21
Elfeawen Lomiondil said:Any particular things you would like to talk about? I am interested in many things, right now especially Rings of Power, and always The Silmarillion and History of Middle Earth.


It is nice t be able to have decent discussion of Rings of Power, but sadly, most places I have bene to to try and do that gets overrun with the haters posting repeated anti-RoP youtube vids, rampant gatekeeping, and political garbage about being 'woke' and how evil Amazon is.

I posted my 'grading' of the series in the subforum.


~nólemë~ said:Out of curiosity, how are other older Tolkien-themed sites doing? Apart from the One Ring Net, that is. I assume the situation is similar for them.


I was a bit of a Tolkien forum slut back in the PJ LotR movie days. Most of them from the day have been destroyed (ceased to exist) like Minas Tirith . com and Ringbearer . org. Others have fallen into ruin like Arwen Undomiel, or are ghost towns like this place. Land of Rohan and Entmoot comes to mind.

That said, a few seem to be keeping on in some level of activity. Barrow Downs has a dedicated core of regular users, but their new registration system has long since collapsed. The Tolkien Forums was like CoE, breaking down under the stress of old web tech, but was revitalized when the original owner sold it to a highly skilled web-tech and dedicated Tolkien fan. I've been a part of that place as long as I been here, but I sort of leave it alone as the discussions especially around Rings of Power are quite toxic. With The One Rng . com (not net), the place rode the wave of years reasonable well with a core of members much like Barrow Downs, but the owner decided to 'upgrade' things and replaced the old forum with a very un user-friendly forum, then after a year, removed that and made the site a 'pay-to-play' site. Forums are available to his paetron subscribers. Many of the old members have gathered on a side board that was created in '05 called 'Hall of Fire'


~nólemë~ said: I wish there could be more fixes of what's not working, but among those who have the will and time, no one has the skill and/or access. As far as I understand, access to the very heart of CoE is a very sensitive thing, and precarious to entrust newer, less committed or less experienced members with, not to mention the time-consuming training that would be needed.


Yes, this is an issue. It's what happened to the Arwen Undomiel site back in the Hobbit movie days. The original owner didn't have time to runt the site and gave the 'keys' to someone who they thought would do a good job. They did for a couple years, then disappeared. The site didn't have anyone who could 'run' the site, and the last mod gave up a few years back and the place is overrun by spambots now.

On a side note, there was a great Middle Earth fanfic site called 'Many Paths To Tread' that just up and vanished when the domain registration expired. A lot of good stories were wiped out.
Eighth King of Arthedain - It was in battle that I come into this Kingship, and it will be in Battle when I leave it. There is no peace for the Realm of Arnor. Read the last stand of Arthedain in the Darkest of Days.
Elfeawen Lomiondil
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on: January 29, 2023 02:17
I’ve never been part of any other LOTR sites, so I can’t say, but I was part of a Star Wars site up until 2017 and it seemed healthy when I left. Though some other Star Wars forums had turned into ghost towns by then. Why don’t people like forums anymore? Social media offers some options but doesn’t replace forums, in my opinion.

It is nice t be able to have decent discussion of Rings of Power, but sadly, most places I have bene to to try and do that gets overrun with the haters posting repeated anti-RoP youtube vids, rampant gatekeeping, and political garbage about being 'woke' and how evil Amazon is.

That is sad but I’m not very surprised to hear it. I only ventured to try ROP discussion here when I saw what a ghost town this place has become. It’s such a shame that people want to be like that; I’ve gotten to the point where I barely want to talk about books, movies, etc. online.

I posted my 'grading' of the series in the subforum.

I enjoyed reading it because it was thoughtful and thorough.
"There shall be war between the Children of Iluvatar and the Ainu Melko. What if we perish in our quest? The dark halls of Vê be little worse than this bright prison" ~ Fëanor
tarcolan
Movies Moderator and General Dogsbody
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on: January 30, 2023 10:49
I know what you mean Elfeawen, there seem to be people online who are just out to cause trouble. Discussions go to one extreme or the other and reduce to name calling and rigidity of thought, but that suits the social media platforms because it keeps people connected which is good for their ad revenue. We are lucky here because the site owner has kept CoE going without all that nonsense.
We don't tolerate it anyway.

Rather than 'ghost town' I prefer to think of CoE as slow, you will eventually get a response but it could take weeks. In a now now now world nobody has the time any more.
Eöddhar
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on: October 16, 2023 05:56
Man, reading all this really does make it feel like we’re treading through the haunted ruins of Osgiliath. Have any active Tolkien-based forums or sites popped up since discussion here on CoE seems to have dwindled? Based on what has transpired over the past years, with the decline of forums generally and the growth of social media sites, I almost wonder if we could set up a “spiritual successor” to CoE through a platform like Discord: they have some forums-based options for servers now, so I guess it could work, if there’s interest. I’m not intimately familiar with Discord server set-up anymore, though... It’s such a shame places like this that are geared toward slower, more deliberate discussion have practically vanished. There’s always the fantasy/Tolkien corner of other places like Twitter, but it’s not the same. Too little is said in too many words, and there’s almost too much activity; it’s quite overwhelming. And it’s difficult to find people to have genuine conversations with (though I can’t blame them; it’s difficult to have good conversation online anymore).
Evil~Shieldmaiden
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on: October 18, 2023 10:25
Unfortunately, Eöddhar, I know exactly what you mean. I belong to the Realm of Vairë where we have a handful of stalwarts, but I believe the other Realms are pretty much dead. Feel free to check us out.
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Hanasian
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on: October 29, 2023 10:31
Eöddhar said:Man, reading all this really does make it feel like we’re treading through the haunted ruins of Osgiliath. Have any active Tolkien-based forums or sites popped up since discussion here on CoE seems to have dwindled? Based on what has transpired over the past years, with the decline of forums generally and the growth of social media sites, I almost wonder if we could set up a “spiritual successor” to CoE through a platform like Discord: they have some forums-based options for servers now, so I guess it could work, if there’s interest. I’m not intimately familiar with Discord server set-up anymore, though... It’s such a shame places like this that are geared toward slower, more deliberate discussion have practically vanished. There’s always the fantasy/Tolkien corner of other places like Twitter, but it’s not the same. Too little is said in too many words, and there’s almost too much activity; it’s quite overwhelming. And it’s difficult to find people to have genuine conversations with (though I can’t blame them; it’s difficult to have good conversation online anymore).


Yeah, it is somewhat like that. I'd say the most active and tech-forward of the old legacy Tolkien sites is TolkienForums. They have an active owner that works hard in keeping the site updated and in good working order, and works to improve the tech.

Now, even Entmoot has gone completely treeish. You can access it, but it won't let you post.

I agree with Tarcolan. Council of Elrond isn't a 'ghosttown' but most of the elves have gone west and there are only a handful of them left. Kind of like a boomtown city of thousands having only a couple dozen citizens left.
Eighth King of Arthedain - It was in battle that I come into this Kingship, and it will be in Battle when I leave it. There is no peace for the Realm of Arnor. Read the last stand of Arthedain in the Darkest of Days.
Elfeawen Lomiondil
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on: March 14, 2024 03:54
Sorry about the ghost town comparison. So there is fan activity on social media? That’s good to hear, though social media is not for me. I would give Discord a try.

The only form of social media I use to somewhat engage with the fandom is YouTube. I mostly look for arrangements and covers of Tolkien’s songs/poems, and Silmarillion fan art and music videos. Seeing that there are people around the world making new Silmarillion content warms my heart. Lyra of Beleriand (from China, moved to Oxford to study English Literature!) is one of these. The sibling music group Clamavi di Profundis puts out new musical renditions of the songs and poems from time to time.
"There shall be war between the Children of Iluvatar and the Ainu Melko. What if we perish in our quest? The dark halls of Vê be little worse than this bright prison" ~ Fëanor
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