The rules say religion can be mentioned in passing, but nothing about politics. I think it's fine to have both as things people can state, but not debate. As long as we take it to PMs for further discussion, it should work.

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going on a journey through my old claims

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^ By me and my SS *squiggle hugs*

I agree with what's being said about the whole religion/political issue. If I can state that I'm a Christian, someone can state in response that they're an atheist. I think that if people are open to discussion on religion and politics, they should put a notice in their sig in order to prevent unwanted discussions via PM. It might get messy if a member who has no interest in debating their political views suddenly gets, say, 3 PMs about something they said.

I don't see the forum ever being open to in-depth conversations about religion and politics, and I think that if members wish to discuss such things in detail, they should resort to PMs.

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i'm back for a little! i'll see how this visit goes.

Didn't there used to be a system where people would put symbols in their sig to say what they're willing to discuss via pm? Why don't we just dust off that system then, instead of trying to start a new one.

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(}--{)Imagination Inspires Ideas -Zandain(}--{)
Married Cloud Strife 9/17/08

I have the symbols in my signatures, but I don't have the thread saved to my bookmarks anymore.

Hm... If I knew what subforum that thread was in, I'd be willing to go dig it up...

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(}--{)Imagination Inspires Ideas -Zandain(}--{)
Married Cloud Strife 9/17/08

Here's Jo's thread with the symbols and their meaning. You can find it on the Announcement board. Personally, I never used it and my impression was that it never gathered wide support, but it can never hurt to bring it up again. http://arwen-undomiel.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9653

JF: Yeah.. I didn't express myself very clearly.. actually, I had problems trying to formulate what I meant.. because I was not sure what I meant actually... so yeah.. carry on!

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>>Be the change you wish to see in the world<<



Banner credit: Shadowcat & Nurrantiel Mashiara

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^ By me and my SS *squiggle hugs*

I think we should combine all the Lord of the Rings into one, as in

Lord of the Rings
- Fellowship of the Ring (subforum)
- Two Towers
- Return of the King

and that's it. Book, movie... all of it together, because I believe that by concentrating it we actually have a chance of increasing traffic in that area. It may seem a little strange on a Lord of the Rings forum, but, as has been said, so many things have already been discussed, and there's only so long you can debate whether a Balrog has wings.

I also think we should expand the Hobbit into it's own subforum or maybe even two, for the book and the movie, since we expect and/or hope that that is what new members are going to come here to discuss.

Anyway, those are just my opinions on the matter.

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Has there been consideration for an archived forum? Essentially a place where we can send all the old threads and topics that has essentially been swept under the rug at this point.

Also could someone explain the hierarchy of forums/subforums/etc?

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I was cured all right.

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^ By me and my SS *squiggle hugs*

For that, how about, as we begin, we have a test period. We come up with ten or so topics that would incite some controversy but will not warrant a tempest. We can gauge how mature and peaceful the discussions through another discussion or the like and from there we form more conclusive decisions.

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I was cured all right.

I know! It's great to have such a community here, but I would really like to keep that this way. I've seen too many times that a debate among very splendid adults (not only on other forums but also in real life) turned out into something very nasty. So to prevent that from happening here, I just think it's better to invite all those who like debating to Eru's site, and do it there.

Besides, most of the people who posted here on that topic actually think it's the best thing to do.. so why change that rule?

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O children, lift up your voice, lift up your voice,
Children, rejoice, rejoice..



It doesn't matter you don't believe in God, He believes in you.

Caunion, your idea of test topics is interessant but even if that test period would go well, all it takes to create bad blood is just one badly-worded comment or one person comin in to ruin it for everyone else. Also, I think we've had a couple of those threads in the past. There was the survey quiz thread that got closed because people were merely stating religious opinions and then other people started commenting on that. And currently we have the Unpopular Opinions-thread containing mild bashing at times - although, I do admit that what I've seen from the discussions there people acted very civilised.

But it seems like we're so divided on this matter so we might need to vote on it at some point.


By the way, just wanted to let you know that I tried to collect the topics we're discussing and updated the first post. That way we can keep track of the issues/ideas and hopefully we won't lose/forget topics. Let me know if I'm missing something. Thanks.

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>>Be the change you wish to see in the world<<



Banner credit: Shadowcat & Nurrantiel Mashiara

On the topic of political/religious debates [amongst other "touchy" issues] - I think we should definitely look to history on this one. In the past there have been some discussions that, before being locked, blew entirely out of control. Issues between certain members were eventually smoothed over, but that doesn't mean that people forgot the initial fight. We want to keep things peaceful here. So, like some people have said, perhaps it's best if we keep such discussions to another site entirely.

I really have been away for too long. Missed all the interesting news. Now that I have read through here:

I agree greatly with most of, if not all, of the descussion about what to do about combining and adding of certain sub-sections. You have really great ideas JF I remember your post the most about that. A new sun for The Hobbit (book and movie) would be a wonderful idea with the future traffic the movies are sure to bring to A-U. Most of the dicussions about The Hobbit end up in Doriath or last Homelt House so it would be nice to actually have a designated spot for people to talk about it. The idea/thought for an archive would really be great too for the oldies to look fondly on some of thier favourite posts once the new traffic starts coming in.

*moving on* As one of the gamers on the fourm the idea of creating a general gaming section of the forum sounds like a great idea. At the moment there is really only a spot for LOTR games: where if LOTR gaming is just added into a general gaming section then the gamers who are currently here, or will come, can have more to talk about and possibly find a way to play together/help each other on various things.

Also the idea of combining all the LOTR sub sections might be a good idea to create more traffic in thoes areas. After all we can only talk about movie flaws/observations and favourite parts in the book for so long the way it is now, as others have stated. Still keep sections divided by books and movies but combine FOTR, TTT, and ROTK into just LOTR, keep the Doriath section and add The Hobbit.

As for Signatures and Avatars I think everyone has really only used it twice so I don't really see a giant need for it. To be honest, I always forget it is there and look back at my last post to see how my new sig/avvie look. Same thing with the member awards. The last time I saw that actually active was back around the time I joined years ago and nothing has really happened since. Unless we think we might do them in the future it might be good just to get rid of it.

A clean up of the Clubs and Contests areas would be a pretty good idea as well. So many things are forgotten or there just aren't enough people posting in them to really keep and if they really want something back we can just recreate and maybe people will jump in again with more force.

Ok onto the big one... reading through all of this I must admit there is always a little worry when I hear about religious or political debates. As a minority in both fields I am often attacked for my beliefs or thoughts which is why even in my own family I stay quiet. I understand both sides of the argument and if those of us here now could randomly have our own area that only we could get into for thoes types of discussions, it would be fine. We all respect, care for, and are comfortable around each other to where something like that would not be a problem to talk about. However my fear stems from people who might join A-U & take offence to things being said or discussed and jump in and start an angry rant/debate. Things can get heated very fast and people can only take so much before they finally have had enough and stop coming. As nice as it would be, (like Larael said in the post before me) the idea of going to a diferent forum or PMing each other would be the best choice to ensure that our peaceful community remains... well, peaceful. Haha.

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Still happily married to Sean Bean! (05-Feb-2010)