^This is in my opinion as good as any a place to put it

And no, I don't think we covered it. We mentioned that it needed to be decided, but that's about how far we got. We should try and find out how many people are interested in doing it, and then maybe make a list of people who are responsible for a regular update, maybe with the possibility for people to write stuff and talk to one of these "responsibles" about posting it?

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by Lembas

Cool, cool.....well, I think it's just about that time to start giving out access. Even for the forum, this new software is so spiffy that I can give you really specific access, like managing forum categories or layout skins, and you don't even have to be a moderator or whatnot. All of this should start happening...soon...so maybe it's time to schedule a live chat somewhere sometime.

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Yeah - it'd be great if we could wait till I've had the chance to hear back from people about how far along they are with the things they're supposed to do, just so we can figure out what is done and what still remains

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by Lembas

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^ By me and my SS *squiggle hugs*

I agree there really needs to be NEWS-news rather than just site news...although I don't think you need to get rid of site news altogether. You can always categorize things. Or not Your choice. But you could totally get rid of the intro "About A-U" paragraph on the home page, which is kind of useless, and think about rearranging things since the tag's been broken for ages and might never be unbroken again from how the tag server looks. Maybe you could put site updates or headlines in that space?

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^I'm not a very big fan of the tag myself, but I know a lot of people would be very disappointed if we got rid of it. So if there's any way to get it up and running again, I think we should consider other places to put the different news topics first.

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by Lembas

Yep, but even the demo board on the tag server's site doesn't work, nor do their tech support links. If anyone wants to find a similar tag-board script that's free or find the funds to pay for one, go for it, but they're also spammer-traps unless you have people on moderating duty 24/7.

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^ By me and my SS *squiggle hugs*

^Of course. All I'm saying is for the sake of all the tag-loving AUers out there, we should do our best to find a replacement for the one we've got now

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by Lembas

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^ By me and my SS *squiggle hugs*

I wouldn't mind being a news editor or even a writer if I knew what kind of news we're specifically looking for. Obviously anything to do with The Hobbit would be ideal, but considering we're not a major news site like TORN I'm not sure how in-depth we should be. It would feel weird if we simply took news from their site. I guess what I'm asking is a) what sort of news are we looking for and b) where do we look?

EDIT: Also, for the humour section, I'm not really sure what is considered "good" or not? Everything that isn't a broken link or completely ridiculous I really don't see why we shouldn't keep it, even if it is old. It seems like deciding what is or isn't good humour will be left up to one person's discretion [aka me].

Arwen- I was the one interested in working with the site communication department. How would you go about doing whatever we need to do with that?

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^ By me and my SS *squiggle hugs*

Well, if there's something you're not sure about, pm someone and ask their opinion about it. There were a few things I found absolutely hilarious (like the whacked out Asian subtitles) and then some things I just found downright stupid (like most of the FotR/TTT/RotK condensed stuff). But that's just me, and I know other people often find amusing the things I don't like. So I think it's important to get different opinions on this.
But for now the most important thing is finding the broken links...

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by Lembas

I think you are right, Gimli, that TORN does have a lot of (ehem) fluffed content. The question I then have is how do we tell a story that has already been told? How do we make it unique to us, the fans? I think the idea is good and sound but we would need a good number of people "on staff" to find the news. In the real news world, whoever gets the news first gets the views. Although we wont get insider stories, it would be cool if we reported before TORN.

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Annoying-Amount-of-Smileys Nazgul
Co-Force of Evil Posting

A lot of New Zealand-based news sites are doing a TON of reporting about The Hobbit right now, whether it be Weta activity in Wellington or location scouting or filming reports, so the news team might want to scour those sites like stuff.co.nz. Also, IMDb news is pretty up to date, and if you can follow along in their Hobbit/LotR news sections, you might find some good stuff. Rehashing what TORn posts would probably be bad form, though, I agree. One thing we do have going for us is that a lot of the older fanbase doesn't routinely check ye olde news sites anymore, so if we can draw back a following to the community, A-U may end up being some people's main source for news, regardless of whether we get to it first.

Himlond, I would love to have you help out with communications. I can get you set up with your own A-U e-mail address if you want (maybe it can be something new but communications related, like info @ a-u ? ideas?). And I remember you mentioned possibly going through my old arwen @ a-u account...we'll have to talk more about that since I'm not sure if there will be any sensitive e-mails there, but it's something to look into.

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