 Barrel Rider Rivendell  Dec 18 2017, 9:40pm Views: 6320 |
Over the past few days, the two of us have been talking about TORn and wishing that there were a few elements on here that would make this even more sort of "fan oriented". Perhaps you guys have all thought of some of these and decided against them, but we wanted to post a few suggestions of things that we wish were available. (One note: Someone may come back and say that things like this could be discussed on the forum here, but let me say a couple things about that. First, we don't have one other friend --- all of whom follow TORn and get the e-mail updates --- who has even known of the TORn forum before we told them. Second, because the forum interface is so, sad to say, archaic --- it's almost impossible to stay on top of anything or add to older posts. Because posts don't get bumped back up to the top when a new reply is posted, it is a waste of time to read or reply to anything that is not on the front page of a board. It would be so much nicer if posts bumped up with each new reply. You'd save space, too, because people wouldn't need post whole new messages on the same topic all the time. Also, because photos are so impossible on the forum, the last two suggestions here won't work that way.) Anyway, on to the suggestions . . . Virtual Bookshelf First, as huge fans of both the books and the films, we love to see info about anything Tolkien. We've collected books for years, but it's really hard to stay on top of things. We see announcements for the new WETA books when you post them on the main page, but if we're off somewhere or busy and miss a post, then we might not hear about it. That's exactly what happened with the new "Script to Screen". We only found out about it last week, because we weren't home for the original May announcement. Could you make a page that is a sort of virtual "Tolkien Bookshelf"? Maybe have the Tolkien works separated from the B-T-S and Movie Companion types? That would be so cool, and something that should be easily updated as new titles come out. Photo Albums What about photos and publicity stills? Back in the LotR days, TORn was the one-stop-shop for all the brilliant pictures of characters and scenes from the films. We've kept scrapbooks about the movies and documented announcements, etc., but there are not good places for pictures anymore, and it's a great loss to the whole Middle Earth fan base to not have a place to find more than the posters. There is even a simple, open source photo album interface that might work, if you thought of putting something on like this. You can set it up to be only added to by administrators or other users. It can be seen here: http://piwigo.org/ It would be really cool to be able to have a place to find photos, and if you can set up something where fans can contribute, I know we would love to do that! We keep trying to find LotR backgrounds and pictures, and you just can't find them anymore. Couldn't get LOTR photos that were large enough for a background! Character Costume Spotlight One other thing that we would really love to see, (and it could actually be included in the above photo albums, if you used an interface that could be added to and commented on by fans) would be some kind of page spotlighting the character costumes. This would be so helpful to fans who are trying to make their own costumes, or (like us) are always trying to costume dolls as various characters. The Hobbit costumes can be researched in some of the "Art of" books, but even those would be so helped by contributions of fans who may have figured things out or seen the real thing. A really nice gent took photos of the Dwarf costumes on display at the Wellington Airport. He posted the photos on Pintrest, and it is thanks to those that we've been able to figure out a lot of things for dolls, since many details are not shown or discussed even in the BTS books. If you want to know about colors or anything for the LotR costumes, it's really difficult. They didn't release detailed stuff about those like The Hobbit, so I know we could all benefit by input from others. There is an old post on the forum here that does a great job describing the Fellowship Cloaks, sadly the photos are all gone now. Fan Creativity and Projects This is something that I know I've mentioned over the years, and I really think a lot of people here would enjoy and benefit from. You NEED something that spotlights fan art and creative projects. And the Fan Art board isn't enough, because you can't include any decent pictures or mention anything that's for sale. (A note about selling things: I have prices on all the dolls that I make. Not because I want to sell more than one of them, but because it stops most of the hundred e-mails I get asking what the price would be . . . when they really want to just hear $15.00 and free shipping. So, just because someone has prices listed doesn't mean that they are going into business. I totally don't want to do that, but it helps keep e-mails at bay. And I know that people come back on here about "being fair to the paid advertisers", but the logo proudly bears the motto: "Forged by and for Fans of JRR Tolkien". There's nothing wrong with supporting your site with advertising, but don't bind yourself in contracts that now turn the site into a place that is "forged by advertisers for the fans of JRR Tolkien". There should be plenty of room for all of us to support Weta and the great places like that, without having to worry about "stepping on toes" by linking to others that may have the coolest pottery mugs made to look like they came from the Prancing Pony or Green Dragon --- something that Weta and the others don't offer, period.) As two people that are very creative and always trying to come up with projects that are Middle Earth related, it's very hard to plow through endless results of non-relevant pictures and web pages before happening on a really cool post showing another fan's amazing art or creative project. I SO wish that you would spotlight fan projects --- and not on the forum. Again, it's no good, since posts don't bump to the front and can't have pictures. (For instance, I can't make one thread for my felted dolls and add to it as a new one is finished. I have to repeat the same information, link to a number of old posts every time and put on a whole new thread for every doll, every time.) This would have to be something that you post as a blog entry on the front page or something. Not sure how you would like to do it, but I'm sure there is a way. For instance, it would be cool if you showed different things like hand-knitted character dolls, OOAK dollhouses, handmade dolls, etc. What about the forum member who does the amazing paintings out of Instant Coffee? Or the one who painted their sneakers with Hobbiton scenes? Or the knitter who has a pattern for knitted socks (on Ravelry) made in the style of Thorin's armor? All of these things are hard to find online because of the crazy number of non-relevant results. But we so wish that we could browse through an archive on your site that spotlights things like this, just to get ideas of things that we'd love to make and may have never thought of before! There are so many amazingly talented and creative people on here, and that's one of the fun things that being a fan is all about! So, those are the suggestions that we've been discussing. They would make this seem a lot more fan oriented, because it feels these days like things are slowing into announcements and WETA items (not that we don't LOVE Weta and have our fair share of stuff all over our room!). That can't be helped, since the film furor is dying down, but I think that spotlighting fans' creativity and adding things like a bookshelf and photos might really be a great addition that would expand your activity and viewers. Thanks for reading through these --- and for so many years of a great site! And I hope that nothing sounds like complaining or anything. These are just thoughts and suggestions and not meant to sound like anything else. Regards, Sarah For pictures of my needle-felted Middle Earth dolls: http://www.sarahbethonline.com/ For pictures of my wonderful cat, Samwise: http://pepperminttoes.weebly.com/samwise.html |
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However, I 1000% support the desire to have that discussion - I just know it's not for me! So the way I might organize TORn would be completely different from what you might want, but neither of us would be wrong - just different. We have an extremely diverse group with so many different areas of interest, and we hope the forums are flexible enough to accommodate as wide a variety as possible. 
So, we're prohibited from becoming a repository for 'free images' of copyrighted works like the old days. Collecting our own pictures, and ones we can get permission to post, however, would be a worthy endeavor. 