Are we dead?

[Chloe]

I agree with Elessar that the best thing to do would be to add more topics. I think that a lot of Lord of the Rings crazy fan stuff has really died down since the movies ended, and it will take more than the books to keep people interested.

But I was looking and Sim hasn't posted since April of 2005. I don't have her e-mail or anything, does anyone else? I think that before we start talking about anything else, the first thing to do is to contact Sim, and see what she thinks of it all.

[Simbelmyne]

Since April? Blimey!

I'm here. I was a little de-motivated/lazy and just ended up getting caught in other things rather than Meduseld. Whoops.

I'm not quite sure what to do with the boards right now (sort of re-finding my feet a bit with the site in general) but feel free to start new threads for now just to see if we can get a little bit of activity going on.

Speak to you all again soon

[Elessar]

Howdy Sim, good to see ya, as always.

I know the feeling about losing motivation for various Tolkien related websites. Wellinghall's done, I closed the book on it and funnily enough I feel refreshed about that decision. It'll be a few years before I can listen to the BBC lotr again.

Hope all's going well with you.

[~Dandrë~]

Wow, it's great to see you again Sim! Don't disappear on us again, ok?

Like I said, I think the survival of Med hinges on branching out and the creation of new forums. Maybe even having all Tolkien related forums brought into one. Or one for books and one for movies. Music, Rumors, etc could go into films and Book Club, languages etc could go into books. Not just subforums: I'd be all for a complete merge. Though subforums would probably have the same effect. That would make room for a branching out of discussion.

The only thing I'd worry about here is a lack of focus. I agree that being strictly Lord of the Rings is too limiting now that the movies are "old news". But if we have a forum that specializes in "everything and anything", I don't see that there will be much to set us apart from any other forum. I know you've talked about philosophy forums, Elessar. That sounds like a really good idea, since it could be seen as a sort of broader, more thoughtful approach to discussion. Philosophy could easily branch from the Lord of the Rings.

Combining Tolkien forums would be good, too. Maybe some of our film-related forums could even be deleted... or archived.

Yeah, I guess moving to another site wouldn't be very fun. I'm sort of being the hypocrite here, because I once belonged to a forum that moved because of lack of activity and I just kind of dropped out of it. I wouldn't want that to happen to people here! What about forming a livejournal community or blog ring somewhere? Is that something you guys would be interested in?

[Elessar]

I think we actually have a livejournal community... El made it, but I'm not sure that anything's been done with it for a while, and the name escapes me...

Yeah, I do agree with you Dandre, that we don't want to lose that Tolkien focus. (Name being Meduseld, after all ) I think a good format of messageboard would be this one, theonering.com. Recently they did some merging of Tolkien sections, and though they've experienced a slow down as well, the community is still fairly active.

I think a philosophy forum like the one in the above link would be nice. (maybe not as heated as theirs, but one in which dissenting opinions/debates could be fostered).

[~Dandrë~]

I think we're getting some great ideas here. But realize that this is the third time in the past 6 months that we've had a "regeneration" thread very similar to this one. I think it all comes down to whether or not we really have the support from within to make Meduseld happen. Now, we all love this site, but sooner or later it's really going to come down to, "how much?" No one's going to sacrifice time and energy for a project that will never lift off the ground.

I sincerely hope there is enough hope and enthusiasm left for us to make a final go at this. "I want to see the glory of Meduseld restored to it's former power." But before we make any more plans, I think we should first figure out whether we've got the people and the commitment to make this possible.

[*~*Háthawyn*~*]

Yeah, I agree with Dandre. Before we start doing lots of things, we should see where this is going to lead us. However, I think that the simple fact that we've been at least trying to do something to avoid Med's death is already a sign that there are still people who want to commit to this forum. In my point of view, it doesn't matter if we are only about 10 people, we can start something big again. Even because, when Med started, we didi'nt have that many members at all. It is the quality of the people that matters, and this has always been great around here. So, I do think that the ones which are still here can do something about it.

By the way, it's GREAT to have you back, Sim!!!

[Elessar]

I honestly think it'll come down to whether or not some reformating is done. I'm not trying to say that a new system of forums and more general discussion will be the magic pill that revives the site, but I do think that it's the first step. If nothing is done, this thread will die and maybe a new one will be created in a few months time, to the same result.

Which might be inevidible. "It was good while it lasted" is sometimes very true. Lightning in a bottle.

I'm going to be really honest, I'm not nearly as interested in LOTR as I was during the height of the frenzy. I think I just oversaturated myself - Tolkien and nothing else for 5 years. I still have a soft spot in my heart for LOTR but by mere nature I recently have tended to gear towards web forums that discuss things of a wider interest. I suspect it's the same for a lot of the folks who used to be active members here.

[~Dandrë~]

I completely agree, Elessar. Lord of the Rings was an obsession of mine for quite a while. I was literally drawn like a magnet to anything that had "frodo" or "ring" or "Middle Earth" on it. I don't think I love it any less nowadays, but it's more of a subdued joy. I may not get the same "wow- amazing!" when I read the books, but the thrill is still there, only more permanent and substantial.

The problem I see now is whether we can really change this forum so drastically. We'd have to archive almost everything that's already on it, which would seem to stamp out everything that it once was. We've already had a very heated argument about deleting/archiving old topics. I don't think we need to go through that again. Whatever we do, we'll need Sim to make the actual changes. Are you able to do that, Sim? (hope you read this)

Otherwise, I guess I would again suggest moving to another forum... or else creating a new forum in the place of Meduseld.

[DiamondNorthTook]

hi all i just joined and all but now i read that this forum is kinda dead its sad to read that well i am new and all and i have time enough to be active here bye greets Diamond

[Falathriel]

Yeah, pretty uch the same with me. I am active.

[~Dandrë~]

It's so good to see both of you here! We certainly need all the help we can get, and you guys could be just what we need to get this place going again... in some form or another! Thank you for your enthusiasm! You might want to look over this thread so you understand where we're at, exactly, at this point. Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated!

[Falathriel]

Hehe, to think I was worried this site was to big. Hey, I'm trying to join the House of Finrod, I've pmed both the moderators, but they haven't logged in for a while...

[~Dandrë~]

Well, any more ideas?

[Falathriel]

Umm, we could advertise alot...