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Arwen's daughter
Half-elven
Jul 2 2014, 7:26pm
Post #1 of 30
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What would you like to see in this space?
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With Screencap of the Day nearing the end of ROTK and most of the action happening over on The Hobbit board these days, I thought it might be interesting to ask what you would want to see here to keep the LOTR Movie Board active. In the past we've done everything from basic trivia to in-depth scene discussions. We've talked about props & costumes. We've talked about music and movie making. And we've talked about our favorite extras on set.
So, some questions to see if I can spark an idea or three:
1. What kind of posts are you more likely to participate in?
2. What kind of topics are you more likely to want to talk about?
3. What would make you more likely to help "lead" or post part of an ongoing discussion?
4. Do you prefer planned/weekly discussion formats or more casual/whatever strikes your fancy posts?
5. Have we just talked about all there is to talk about by now?
Please, feel free to answer any, all, or none of these questions. If you have an idea but don't know how to implement it, someone here may be able to help. If you don't have any ideas or think you don't, even just vague thoughts about the state of the LOTR Movie Board might spark an idea for someone.
Any and all thoughts are welcome. Whether you participate here regularly or not.
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TORn's Costume Discussions Archive
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BlackFox
Half-elven
Jul 3 2014, 9:36am
Post #4 of 30
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As I'm still relatively new here, all of those things you listed you've done in the past would be of interest to me. Though I think we should wait till things have calmed down a bit on The Hobbit movie board before we kick off something of larger scale in hopes of attracting a bigger crowd in the future. Perhaps we shouldn't restrain ourselves with schedules for a while and ought to "let the river run free" for a change?
Another thing. One of my favourite questions whenever I was hosting a SCOD was "If you had to give this screencap a title, what would you choose?". That got me thinking: we have Caption Contest on Main, so why not have a Title Contest here at the LOTR movie board? Say, I'll post a screencap from one the LOTR movies and others come up with titles for it. But unlike Caption Contest, it would be (mostly) serious in nature. There are a lot of talented folks on these boards, so I think it could be a fun and creative challenge. What say you?
 
“Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.” - Henry David Thoreau
(This post was edited by BlackFox on Jul 3 2014, 9:40am)
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Loresilme
Valinor
Jul 3 2014, 3:45pm
Post #6 of 30
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Reading through the index and remembering .... . Just amazing! The LOTR board has been home to such outstanding discussions. Not only creative and insightful, but there was so much research done as well on many of these topics. There are some great thought starters - and memories  - there. Thanks!
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Loresilme
Valinor
Jul 3 2014, 5:19pm
Post #7 of 30
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Thanks Arwen's daughter, for starting off this discussion! It's true we've discussed just about every possible facet of these movies! But we have many members who weren't participants in many of those discussions. So surely...
"There's room for a little more..." 
Here are some of my thoughts....
Format: I think some things have changed in the way people post online now, compared to some of the earlier posts. Mainly that those posts could be longer, more detailed and people were comfortable with that. This is just my opinion, but it seems in general that the "TL:DR" (Too Long, Didn't Read) style of posting has become more prevalent now. Plus it's also that summertime, casual time of year. So perhaps one suggestion is...
"Keep it simple, keep it brief" 
Timing: A weekly format has been a successful, tried & true approach. At a minimum, one new post per week is a good thing, because we do find during certain times of the year or just as time has gone by, the board can get very slow, and it can feel empty and sad if there are no new posts  , plus having no new posts can make members or lurkers who *want* to post, feel too hesitant or afraid to step forward and post if there's no other activity.
"What do they read when they can't get new posts?!"
So I do think one weekly discussion series is good for the board to keep things.... buzzing  .
Topics: One thing about the index that Magpie linked to that really stands out is that there was a huge amount of creative, insightful, positively brilliant commentary and analysis, along with a lot of technical research that was done on many of the topics. It's not so much a case of having discussed everything there is to discuss, as that some things were said so well and researched so thoroughly, that it would be wonderful to revisit them in a way that gives credit where it's due (especially to many contributors who no longer post here). So possibly a suggestion is a Classics series, where we re-post some older threads. Sort of the way television used to show reruns during the summer before the new programming started in September. Gather round kiddies, let grandma tell you how television used to work:
"These are for you. They're called rabbit ears. Keep them close."
Some other topics not mentioned in the index are:
-character studies. comparing the movie character to the book character. discussing the actor/actress' portrayal, etc.
-dialogue. comparing to book dialogue, swapping lines between characters, using dialogue from one scene in another scene, etc.
-languages. how Tolkien's languages were included in various scenes, etc.
Or we could try going off in a completely different direction and doing something on the actors & actresses, or the technical team or artists, such as what they are working on now, what projects they've been involved with, whether they still participate in any conferences, etc.
"Oh! Well, here’s a post topic that I have never seen before."
Just a thought  .
Hope this helps spur some discussion and conversation - these are just suggestions and thought-starters. Please don't hesitate to disagree with anything I've listed, I just wanted to put some ideas out there to get the ball rolling. Anyone reading, lurking, etc., *waves hi* please feel free to share what you'd like to be seeing and reading about here on the LOTR board this summer ! Let's hear from everyone! Thank you !!!
(This post was edited by Loresilme on Jul 3 2014, 5:21pm)
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Arandiel
Grey Havens
Jul 3 2014, 8:20pm
Post #8 of 30
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Mixing some 'reruns' (are they reruns if folks add new thoughts to them?) and new content would be interesting.
Would there be interest in tracking LOTR's influence on other productions? Exploring how some of the tech, ideas and themes that are central to the trilogy have found their way in the world?
Walk to Rivendell: There and Back Again Challenge - traveling through Middle Earth with thirteen rowdy Dwarves, one grumpy Wizard, and a beleaguered Hobbit
Join us, Thursdays on Main!
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SirDennisC
Half-elven
Jul 3 2014, 10:02pm
Post #9 of 30
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This reminds me of a QTNA thread
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QTNA and "Did You Ever Notice" were favourites... and MISC.
Would re-posting those but soliciting new responses be thread necromancy?
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Arwen's daughter
Half-elven
Jul 3 2014, 10:35pm
Post #10 of 30
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I've had messages before suggesting a repeat of old DYEN threads
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But I've never taken the time to work out how to do it. Some of the older posts exceed TORn's current image guidelines so a straight repost of the images would be out. Maybe a link with some resized images and some of the comments reposted for discussion?
My Costuming Site
TORn's Costume Discussions Archive
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Arwen's daughter
Half-elven
Jul 3 2014, 11:40pm
Post #11 of 30
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Another thought. A lot of social media sites use the term throwback Thursday for old posts and images. Maybe we could set up a Thursday post on some kind of rotating schedule. Leaders could choose from any of the old scheduled discussions for repost. Thoughts?
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TORn's Costume Discussions Archive
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Magpie
Immortal
Jul 4 2014, 1:26am
Post #12 of 30
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there is much to be mined in old discussions. But I think the part that can be mined is the research and work up that was done... or maybe taking inspiration from an discussion concept.
So, a repost of an original discussion could happen with credit given to whoever worked up that particular thread. But I think the responses should be current. Fresh. People here now.
I think posting old responses is dipping into - look how clever those people were. I might respond completely differently today than I did 5 years ago. I think we can link back to those discussions if people are interested in reading and they might be inspired to refer back to them. But it should be spontaneous.
I also think we could take the general focus of an old discussion thread and rework it for 2014. So instead of a lot of info with lots of questions... we could break things into smaller chunks. What else is current on the web today? From my observation, the web seems to be full of activity that is either one person reposting what someone else said... or someone posting a picture. I love visuals and I've always used them heavily on my website and in discussion threads I've done here. But I think current trend is for visuals to almost overwhelm any meaningful content or information. I don't know how many times I've clicked on a picture on Pinterest to find it goes nowhere. No info on who made something... or how to make something. Or it takes someone 16 pictures to tell me how to make macaroni and cheese. I know how to grate cheese. I don't need a picture! So I'm not very keen to update discussions to go with that flow. :-)
In general, I am a fan of threads where people actually discuss things (which I think we do well here... or have in the past, I'll admit I haven't been as active the last few years).
What I am not a fan of are discussion prompts where everyone says their piece and no one reads anyone else's and no one responds to anyone else's. I think of these as soap box threads. "What's your favorite..." I've seen threads where there might be 30 responses to the original question but not one back and forth discussion where someone builds off another person's thoughts or feels they've seen things differently after reading someone's thoughts.
That said, there could be some joy in sharing personal connections with the movie. In the style of Get to Know Your Tornsibs ... we could occasionally share a moment in the movies that impacted us particular. Or some moment or quote that we find ourselves using for inspiration or support in our lives. A funny moment connected with watching the movie. To what creative endeavor did/does the movie inspire us? Stuff like that. We might have talked the movie to death in some respects, but I think we still relate to how much this movie impacted us.
And when I was doing it, the trivia threads were very popular. I stepped back and the people who took over kind of petered out. I will say, I spent a lot of time on those so they weren't quick and easy. :-)
There was something said about waiting for the Hobbit ferver to be over. I don't think there's a ton of crossover to be honest. I think lots of people like LOTR that either don't much like The Hobbit... or the Hobbit movies... or the Hobbit board. So those people will not be distracted by Hobbit stuff.
And I think a great many people on the Hobbit board never visit other boards here and aren't much interested in doing so.
so I'd say, don't plan around The Hobbit.
LOTR soundtrack website ~ magpie avatar gallery
TORn History Mathom-house ~ Torn Image Posting Guide
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SirDennisC
Half-elven
Jul 4 2014, 2:25am
Post #13 of 30
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As to your other post, I like the idea of reposting the original thread starter, with a link... of course credit would have to be given as well. The trouble with a simple link, especially to a discussion, is it might queer new discussion.
As you say, reposting might require some tweaking, but the effort would probably be worth it.
ETA: just read Magpie's latest post: GMTA 
(This post was edited by SirDennisC on Jul 4 2014, 2:27am)
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zarabia
Tol Eressea
Jul 4 2014, 2:55am
Post #14 of 30
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I like Blackfox's idea of a title contest
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As well as trivia questions. The other ideas are great, but, for me personally, RL is pretty stressful and I just don't have the attention span for anything in-depth. (Not saying others don't have stressful lives, I guess I just don't handle it as well as many ) But, though I'm burned out on LOTR, the films still mean a lot to me and I enjoy discussing them, even if it's in a less than in-depth way.
Only when we stop stopping our lives can we begin to start starting them. - Prof. Whitman, Community
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Lossefalme
Gondor
Jul 7 2014, 1:32am
Post #15 of 30
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Lurking lately, but Throwback Thursday sounds fun!
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I agree with a lot of what I'm reading from you and others, Magpie. I , too, particularly appreciate the "discussion" aspect of our discussion boards here at tORN. I definitely think that we can find a way to make things fresh while recognizing the work that others have done before and we can do that without an overload of dead end pictures! I know that for me, in any case, LotR will always be worthy of discussion, even in the midst of Hobbit furor.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Aragorn threw back his cloak. The elven-sheath glittered as he grasped it, and the bright blade of Andúril shone like a sudden flame as he swept it out. “Elendil!” he cried. “I am Aragorn son of Arathorn, and am called Elessar, the Elfstone, Dúnadan, the heir of Isildur Elendil’s son of Gondor. Here is the Sword that was Broken and is forged again! Will you aid me or thwart me? Choose swiftly!” TTT, Book III, Chapter 2
And Éomer answered: “Since the day when you rose before me out of the green grass of the downs I have loved you, and that love shall not fail.” RotK, Book VI, Chapter 5
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Lossefalme
Gondor
Jul 7 2014, 2:52am
Post #16 of 30
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We never finished GOLD Nuggets...
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I used to really enjoy it, but it was too much for me. We didn't get through TTT or even start RotK. If it was more like SCoD and there was a different volunteer each week, it could probably be started up again and it would be a repeat. I would be willing to get it rolling again for the first few weeks and/or organize a sign up for discussion leaders. If you don't know what it is, there is a link to it in Magpie's post. Just a thought...
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Aragorn threw back his cloak. The elven-sheath glittered as he grasped it, and the bright blade of Andúril shone like a sudden flame as he swept it out. “Elendil!” he cried. “I am Aragorn son of Arathorn, and am called Elessar, the Elfstone, Dúnadan, the heir of Isildur Elendil’s son of Gondor. Here is the Sword that was Broken and is forged again! Will you aid me or thwart me? Choose swiftly!” TTT, Book III, Chapter 2
And Éomer answered: “Since the day when you rose before me out of the green grass of the downs I have loved you, and that love shall not fail.” RotK, Book VI, Chapter 5
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Arwen's daughter
Half-elven
Jul 7 2014, 3:34pm
Post #17 of 30
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Burn out seems to be a common problem amongst thread leaders
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I know SCOD always loses its volunteer pool towards the end of its run and I eventually had to pass even the organizational posts over to One Ringer to keep it going. And I have costumes left that I'd love to do Did You Ever Notice threads for, but never seem to have the time or energy for sourcing and resizing the images anymore.
I don't know if there's a solution for this or if one even needs to be found, but I notice it's a general trend and thought I'd point it out.
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TORn's Costume Discussions Archive
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Lossefalme
Gondor
Jul 9 2014, 12:36am
Post #18 of 30
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Gets in the way every time.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Aragorn threw back his cloak. The elven-sheath glittered as he grasped it, and the bright blade of Andúril shone like a sudden flame as he swept it out. “Elendil!” he cried. “I am Aragorn son of Arathorn, and am called Elessar, the Elfstone, Dúnadan, the heir of Isildur Elendil’s son of Gondor. Here is the Sword that was Broken and is forged again! Will you aid me or thwart me? Choose swiftly!” TTT, Book III, Chapter 2
And Éomer answered: “Since the day when you rose before me out of the green grass of the downs I have loved you, and that love shall not fail.” RotK, Book VI, Chapter 5
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DaughterofLaketown
Gondor
Jul 9 2014, 4:22am
Post #19 of 30
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I'm me so old topics are still interesting to me because I wasn't here
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But I think keeping up discussions on whatever interests people is great. I will be glad to participate in any interesting discussion.
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Loresilme
Valinor
Jul 10 2014, 8:21pm
Post #20 of 30
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I hadn't looked at it that way
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I think posting old responses is dipping into - look how clever those people were.
I appreciate that you mentioned that, because I didn't mean it in that way and it helps to know it might have been interpreted that way. To clarify where I was coming from with the suggestion: I've always appreciated comments, insights, observations, etc., that I've read over the years and never felt that sharing/linking to them in current posts was to insinuate there was anything lacking in a current discussion. I share them because I remember those 'Ah ha!' moments I had, when I first read something that showed me a new aspect about the films/books, and I hope that by sharing them I'm passing along that great 'Ah ha!' moment on to someone else so they can have the pleasure of experiencing it also.
So my perspective was that sharing older threads (initial post + responses) might be interesting to some people, and that the commentary in those earlier discussions would be a springboard for current discussion and commentary, by the people here now ;). Also it was a suggestion for something low-maintenance and for a limited time frame - the summer months in between finishing ROTK SCOD and (possibly?) starting up FOTR SCOD.
Sorry it took a while to hop back into the discussion. It's been a busy week :).
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Loresilme
Valinor
Jul 10 2014, 8:27pm
Post #21 of 30
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I'm glad you have good memories of MISC too :). In fact I think we started MISC during the summer months for much the same reason!
(This post was edited by Loresilme on Jul 10 2014, 8:28pm)
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Magpie
Immortal
Jul 10 2014, 8:45pm
Post #22 of 30
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there's a difference between a participant in a thread sharing old discussions and comments... and the thread leader providing it in the initial post.
I guess I always consider how to set up a discussion so that people will participate because some approaches work and some don't.
I've had so many people - in soundtrack threads - say: 'that person knows more than me so I don't feel I have anything to add'.
So I fear that referring back - in a semi-official way (as discussion leader) - to previous discussions might give off the impression that it's all been said and unless someone has some new or something 'more worthy', there isn't much they can add.
In a Barnes and Noble LOTR class (way back in 2002-3), we discussed something similar... reposting conversations from previous sessions that people thought were worthy. And after some discussion, the consensus was 'not a great idea'. Partly for the reason I've brought up. And partly for the reason I touched on - that was what I thought 5 years ago. If someone is reposting what I thought 5 years ago, how will they know that's what I think today? And partly for the same reason we let threads fall to page two... to keep discussion fresh.
I don't think we're treading dangerous grounds in any of those ways when someone spontaneously - in the process of discussing - links back to or quotes previous discussions.
But I do think we're treading dangerous grounds when we start a discussion off that way and it's done by the discussion leader.
That said, though.. I wouldn't think it untoward if the thread leader said, 'if interested, old discussions are at the end of this link' (with link provided. It lets people who are motivated find it. But it doesn't set the tone or the direction for this conversation from the get go.
LOTR soundtrack website ~ magpie avatar gallery
TORn History Mathom-house ~ Torn Image Posting Guide
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Arwen's daughter
Half-elven
Jul 10 2014, 9:04pm
Post #23 of 30
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I agree with your line of thinking
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I mentioned including old comments in my earlier thoughts on this sort of topic, but you've brought me around. I would add a third concern, which is really just an offshoot of what you've already said. Bringing back old comments in the new original post could drive the discussion more towards discussion those comments instead of discussing the scene or image meant to be under discussion. It leaves less room for new ideas or a fresh look at the films when the old ideas are being presented right up front.
I like the idea of a link to old threads without rehashing the old thread in the new post itself, if indeed we ever resurrect any of these old threads.
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Loresilme
Valinor
Jul 11 2014, 1:40am
Post #24 of 30
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Thanks for the background, Magpie. I trust your experience in leading and participating in so many different online forum discussions over the years, and I think the examples you shared provide very good reasons for not pursuing that approach.
There are lots of other ideas to brainstorm :).
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