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)

Lady Rinoa has a really good point about the religion/politics situation. While those of us on the forum right now seem to be able to have mature discussions on these topics and not let it get ugly, the whole point of this revival is to revive the forum and get new traffic, viewers, and members-who might not be that mature.

I have a question about the separate forum some members made to talk about these topics; I'm not sure how it works/who is able to access it, but do we have it advertised anywhere? Like on the main site? Because that way new people who come on here and want to discuss/debate can go there, and the atmosphere of this forum stays...*searches for adjectives* relaxed and tension-free.

My two cents.

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~Set by Lembas~If we grow up we're all going to be famous.

And being another of those gamers, I like this idea, too!


@Minui: The debate forum was never official advertised. I believe it was a 'anyone who wants to join can join' kind of deal. And it was linked to through member sigs who took part in the debate forum. And that's how word got around about it and such.


But the thing is, anything can turn into a debate, and some people just get so touchy that they get upset easily. I remember one time a discussion about Eragon got to the point where one member left the forum entirly. But that probably could have been prevented if someone stepped in as peacekeeper, maybe(which usually mean mod), but really, anything can turn into a debate if you're not careful...

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

Of course, an ugly debate can rise out of anything--but it's undeniable that they happen more frequently and escalate faster on subjects like religion/politics than, say, whether movie!Faramir constitutes blasphemy.

Like I said, it's just my two cents, but I think the forum is better off without a board for these topics.

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~Set by Lembas~If we grow up we're all going to be famous.

@Eru: I do remember it as a 'join if you want to' type deal too. Indeed anything can get ugly if just the wrong words are utter (or typed in this case).

Perhapes it is time to really revive and advertise the other board for such debates and talks (amongst other things). That is should we choose not to include it in the remodel of the forum (which looks likely). Maybe add a link into an FAQ of the forum? I don't know, it was just a thought.

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

Not sure if much decision has been made on what to do with certain forums and subforums, but I went through and made a few lists of which forums/subforums should be combined, added, or deleted. Please, please give some feedback on this. I think it's vitally important that we know what we're doing about forum layout so the coders can get in there and start working. [So that things don't get confusing - when I say "forum" I'm referring to a section like Life Outside LotR and all it's subforums; when I say "subforum" I'm referring to a section like "Your Life" within the Life Outside LotR forum.]

Forums to Keep: Announcements (combine with Member Awards? Include a Member Awards archive?), Introduce Yourself, RPG, Life Outside LotR, Fan Section

Forums to Combine: FotR (book/movie discussion), TTT (book/movie discussion), RotK (book/movie discussion)

Forums to Delete: Signatures and Avatars

Subforums to Keep (within their respective forum): The Silmarillion, Clubs, Contests, Suggestions and Comments

Subforums to Create: The Hobbit (book/movie discussion within a new forum that includes the other book/movie discussions)

Subforums to Delete: Miscellaneous Book Discussion, Other LotR-Related Movies, Miscellaneous Movie Discussion

What should we do with . . .? - Miscellaneous LotR Discussion forum, The Actors forum, and World Wide Web forum

I hope this isn't too confusing.

^ Just thought I would add a previous post of mine to Larael's so we can see where we're headed with this.

I'm not personally, a big fan of combining the LOTR forums. I know we say how many times can you talk about Balrog's wings, but that's selfish on new fans and new members. This is afterall a LOTR forum, if we can't showcase LOTR and say "look, we cater for LOTR", then... I don't know what really. It would be odd for The Hobbit to have it's own forum, and LOTR to be squished into one. Like we don't care, which we do.

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^ By me and my SS *squiggle hugs*

Thanks for reposting that, JF! I basically took a lot of what you said and put it into my post, and I hope we can get some more response on this.

No, that makes sense. I wasn't too keen on it either, but I thought that's where the direction of the discussion was headed so that's why I suggested it. Anyway, so we'd continue to have the respective LotR book and movie discussion forums. Where would The Hobbit subforum go? Under the book discussions forum? I think that'd make the most sense considering The Silmarillion has its own subforum.

Also, what about the Miscellaneous Movie/Book Discussion subforums? Necessary or not?

With adding things for the hobbit, this is my idea for the subforums.

FOTR (book)
TTT (book)
ROTK (book)
Hobbit(book)
Silmarillion
Misc Tolkien

FOTR (film)
TTT (fillm)
ROTK (film)
Hobbit(film)
Other related films
Misc movie

And one thing I wonder, is can we not have the Silmarillian with the misc tolkien books? Because the miscbooks subforum is for books relating to tolkien/middle earth that don't have their own subforums(such as unfinnished tales, lost tales, children of hurin, ect.)

But what about 'other related films' and 'misc movie'? Wouldn't they kind of be the same as like the books with the misc thing? Though the other movies I can really think of are the fan ones such as 'hunt for gollum' and the cartoon adaptations...

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

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^ By me and my SS *squiggle hugs*

I would say combine Bag End, Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith into one Lord of the Rings book sub-forum (seeing as technically LotR is one volume, not a trilogy).
Keep Doriath for the Sil book discussion. Create a new sub-forum for Hobbit book discussion and keep the The Last Homely House for his other works.

In terms of the film sub-forums. Still keep the seperate FotR, TTT and RotK sub-forums and create a Hobbit sub-forum.
Signatures and Avatars can probably go seeing as it's easy enough to just check your profile.

Now I don't know much about them but there hasn't been any posts in this forum for over 2 years now. http://arwen-undomiel.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=32

Anyway, that's just my 2p.

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All by Bellatrix
Married Nymphadora Tonks 29/6/13

I'm definitely in favour of keeping the Misc Books, but like JF said, Misc LotR Movies could probably go considering any speculation could just as well occur in the Movies/TV or Misc Movies subforums. Also, I think Eruraina's idea of merging The Sil subforum with the Misc Books subforum is a good idea. It might increase traffic within that subforum as well.