HAPPY DARK PLANET DAY

Whoever thought we'd be wishing each other a happy one of these? Yes, believe it or not, it has been one year to the day since the old Hobbit Movie Forum was shut down on 11 February 2011. It happened during the night for me so when I woke up there was nothing but a message saying the forum would be merged with the Planet Tolkien forums. However, it took a few days to move (most of) the accounts and posts over. In that time, a bunch of us set up shop at my personal website in the comments section. To put it lightly, none of us were thrilled at the prospect of being subsumed and losing our distinctiveness, and the comparatively draconian rules were unpopular with the refugees too.

Two days later, on 13 February, our accounts on Planet Tolkien became live. On the same day, this very forum came online. For a time most of us posted at both sites, but we soon went our separate ways. Later on we would drift back into closer contact and then away again, but to this day we have a number of people who are members of both sites. Amarie and Leelee are the most prominent Planet Tolkienites here on Forumshire. It was thanks to these later connections that we received the archive of the old forum, which Taz continues to host for us. It was around this same time in the summer that we acquired our own domain name and redesigned the forum skin and structure.

A couple of months later, Taz (the Admin of Planet Tolkien) set up a new Hobbit Movie Forum (now known as Bree-land) at the location of our old forum. It was fairly nondescript at first but soon gathered an eclectic mix of Hobbit fans who built their own distinctive community from scratch in much the same fashion as Forumshire was built, though both sites have their unique quirks. Once we discovered each other, both forums have sent many members back and forth, including the lovely Mrs Figg, Nora, and David H who have come here, and Petty and Orwell who remain active in Bree-land..

A year ago I felt pretty pessimistic about Forumshire's prospects. I feared that even if we set up a new forum it wouldn't go anywhere and sooner or later all of the regulars would drift away. It seemed that the Planet Tolkien forums, which are full of lovely people who were very understanding about out plight, would overwhelm our own "free spirits" style once we were merged. However, not only did we manage to survive on our own, but we have gained many wonderful new members who we would never have seen otherwise. There are still some old-timers who are lost but most of them have returned and we still see familiar faces trickle in from time to time, including Halfwise who was returned to us only two week ago. We surpassed the post total of the archive forum in 10 months and are currently in the most active period the forum has ever seen.

In honor of Dark Planet Day and the year that has passed since we struck out on our own, I'd like to invite everyone to share your favorite memories of Forumshire, old and new, as well as our sister-forums at Dark Planet and Bree-land, and any other memories of people from the community. The celebrations will continue at least until the 13th and the first anniversary of the current forum! Also check out the Dark Planet Day Challenge in the Creative Corner at this link!

Happy Dark Planet Day, everyone!

My favourite memory has to be my very first 'fight' with GB. It went on for pages and pages debating wether PJ's change to the destruction of the Ring undermined the themes of Tolkien and destroyed the ending (my view- with GB arguing against) it was heated, fun and went quite esoteric at times and after that I knew I was defintely staying.
And to think if I had not happened by pure chance upon the site and then by equal chance upon a post by GB which cranked up my crabbit meter to a point where I had to dive in and reply (something I had never done on any other forum before) I would not have been here all this time!

Hurra for our lovely comunity!

I just thought I would post this again, as next to the LOTR films themselves this is probably my favourite thing of all time. kinda.

O.M.G I just found David Lynch's lost film about LOTR. IN SERBO CROATIAN. enjoy! its the creepiest thing you ever did see.

That is as equally crabbit inducing as it is compelling Mrs Figgs- how odd. And its STILL closer to the book than PJ's!

Happy Dark Planet Day everyone My fondest memory must be the NotP article about Odo

No idea such a vid ever existed, Mrs Figg, thanks for posting Definitely something very Lynch over that version

. in the immortal words of Monty Python. .."Now here's something completely different" and it made me cry. shivers down the spine and a strange longing to run off into the woods in search of....I dont quite know..but something magical and strange.

I'm disappointed Mrs Figg- I expected a large animated foot to descend at the end at squish them all.

OOOOOOO! Elven Power Ballad. I LOVE THIS!!! this is for us girlies who love Elvses.. and Legolas lookin fine..
This is Freakin AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

My favourite song from LOTR.

I know! I know! I have posted this before, but its funny.

One of my best memories of Forumshire was the whole eel wrangler from Bree thing, that was really funny, and Old Wiseys poems, I really like them lots. My worst memories was in Bree when we had the set to with Michael. things got waaaay out of control and Todd and Stu and I blew up like puffer fishes, it was not nice. But it was all a learning process I guess. I do like travelling to the Shire from Bree even if the road is not safe sometimes, and those pesky Rangers go off into the wild and forget to patrol the Barrow Mounds.

I had a nice forumshire moment a few hours ago as I was reading old NotP edititions (to try and find a different forumshire moment) and saw a post by Ringdrotten where he edited his post to make it more family friendly. Such a nice innocent forum back then, look at us now.

Best forumshire moment though was when I felt I was allowed to feel at home here. Though I am not sure how this Needlehole Mystery Dark planet plot is going, so perhaps I need to pack my bags just in case...

Amarië wrote:I had a nice forumshire moment a few hours ago as I was reading old NotP edititions (to try and find a different forumshire moment) and saw a post by Ringdrotten where he edited his post to make it more family friendly.

You know I always have everybody's best in mind

It's a day in infamy that I try to forget. It's just one of the Forumshire Legends for me anyhow, as I only joined AFTER Forumshire was established. My knowledge of events is largely only what Mr Odo Banks told me. Rumour has it Odo and Wisey are working on something together. A Heroic Ode or Ballad or Verse Edda, I think. I love the Old Heroic Tales.

I always rather enjoyed Odo Bank's first comment on the old maintenance thread...classic Odo.

Ringdrotten wrote:

Amarië wrote:I had a nice forumshire moment a few hours ago as I was reading old NotP edititions (to try and find a different forumshire moment) and saw a post by Ringdrotten where he edited his post to make it more family friendly.

You know I always have everybody's best in mind

True, and it was about the Jævlig Stor Sild, so it was already enough to frighten the bravest of hobbits.

Thank you for sharing your memories, everyone! One of my favorite would have to be my first debate over purism with GB, way back before Odo or Petty had joined. Yes, there was a time when I was the lone voice of purism on this forum. We got into a discussion of the changes to Faramir that in retrospect didn't last that long, but it set the tone for a lot of debates in which I participated to follow. Another good memory is the Origin of Hobbits thread and many other serious discussions of book lore that were both enjoyable and illuminating.

However, some of my favorite memories have to be the various parties, picnics, and silly events that we've thrown on the forum. The Forumshire Awards are also a blast, largely because they let me relive so many other great times.

Exactly 365 days ago, at very near to this hour of the morning, I was fighting off sleep and trying to ignore my roommate's snoring while setting up this forum for the very first time. I did my best to remember all the forum titles and descriptions and I started the first two threads with the admin account (the original Welcome thread and the Rules thread). I then sent the link to GB and collapsed from exhaustion. By the time I woke up he had registered and got back to me on how the forum worked. I then registered my personal account (this one) and shared the link with everyone else.

At the time I was very worried about the future of the forum and had been frantically trying to think of ways to keep us going all weekend. It would still be a few days (till the 16th) before the site actually resembled and functioned like a real forum. Ultimately, however, my fears proved unfounded since we've come so far since then. It fills me with great pride and joy to see everything that has occurred in the year since I feel asleep with a forum that had one member and two posts.

I too was worried, having only found the forum a few months previously. It felt like I had found a home only to wake up and find it gone.

I , like others before me had lurked for a long time. I had stumbled in during the search for news, but found myself popping back and following threads regularly, until I reached the point where I had to join the discussion. I promptly registered, but during the long period of time when the confirmations weren't getting through. So I sat and waited and returned regulalry. By the time I could join in it felt like I knew many of you a little, even though you nothing of me.

This is still my only home on the internet. I have tried a few other forums since joining, but nowhere has grabbed me in quite the same way. So thanks to those who worked so hard to keep ot going and those who made sure to keep me in the loop.

This should suerly be happy homecoming, or forumshire settlement day though?

(I think I deserve an honorary mentioning for letting Forumshire links stay on the forum, when I should have removed them at first sight. )

Thank yiu forumshire for making me an internettjunkie!
no seriously, I've found some great people here and I've had a lot of fun ^^ my favourite memories if one can call it that must be all these silly stories in the creative corner section lately xD love them!

Kafria wrote:This should suerly be happy homecoming, or forumshire settlement day though?

I think that 10 December has been called Forumshire Day in the past since that's when the Old Forum was started. I like the sound of Homecoming Day for today though! Or maybe Freedom Day or Free Spirits' Day.

Amarië wrote:(I think I deserve an honorary mentioning for letting Forumshire links stay on the forum, when I should have removed them at first sight. )

You were one of the most kind and supportive people on DP when we wandering around still trying to figure out what had happened, and I'm still grateful for that. I'm even more grateful that you hang out with us on here though.