So what IS this "plaza" thing, anyway?
Jun. 6th, 2005 01:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sepdetThe LOTR Fanatics Plaza. Your typical fan community, only it's utterly ginormous. It makes Mystcommunity, all the MUSHes I've ever been on, Elsinore, and my old Bab5 site combined seem like a milk ring compared to the Rings of Saturn.
There's actually even more than the discussion forums; there's a huge library of Tolkien info, a big online store (which helps keep the thing afloat), newsletters with plaza info plus interviews with people like John Howe, and a silly D&D style video game where you whump on each other in combat.
But the main things are the discussion forums. There are forums for discussing the languages of Middle-earth, the books, the world, the characters, the merchandise, the films. Tolkien wrote absolutely reams, with 14 books of his Middle-earth writings and stories published postumously, making LOTR only the tip of the iceberg. And there's secondary scholarship. We've got the old Tolkien scholars who hold forth with essays and footnotes, and the "elves are so keeeeewl" Legolusters. A quarantine zone where fans of various actors and characters can drool over their idols.
That's a small part of it.
The other part of it is Kingdoms, and these are a bit like MUSHes, except they're post-based, not realtime. Kingdoms are forums based on areas and cultures of Middle-earth like the Riddermark or the Shire or the wizards of Isengard. Here's mine, Imladris/Rivendell. Each kingdom forum has group activities which are inspired by and themed on the regions or the particular talents and habits of their cultures. Imladris/Rivendell has an artists' thread for display and discussion of works, for example, a bards/writers guild, and a Host for those who want to play Elven warriors. There are games and competitions (Tara has invented an entire Elven board game, with pieces and teams.) There are silly things like Middle-earth karaoke, mad libs, or jokes and gags like having Rivendell taken over by Pirates of the Carribean for Halloween. And there are multiple RPGs, from the casual "hanging out in Imladris" or "at the feast" variety, to full-blown epic adventures, to historical reenactments like the Fall of Gondolin where we play out a tale in Tolkien's unpublished works. Trivia and lore contests. A library of Elrond with original fanfic works and in-character lore essays on various Middle-earth subjects, created and maintained by members. An IC healers' organization that treats the wounded and teaches classes. Marketplaces. Caption contests where one posts funny captions to film clips. A newspaper-- I co-edited the Imladris newsletter for a year, making it like a medieval illuminated chronicle of the Elves' affairs. On and on and on.
The plaza has a large admin team, since there are 70,000+ members on the books (fewer are active, but it is still in the thousands, not hundreds, which I've never seen anywhere else). And each kingdom has two co-rulers.
What just happened is that Laebeth here stepped up to an admin post and I am filling her shoes in Rivendell (trying to) as co-ruler with Tara. IC I'm now Elrond, Tara's been and remains Glorfindel, and Lae just sprouted branches and turned into Yavanna. (The admins on this board are Valar.) In SCA terms, I've got a barony to manage, and it is about the same size, peoplewise and activitywise.
On the whole it is fun and fabulous, but it does require several hours a day to keep all the balls in the air! Luckily, I love my Elves. Even when things have been very tough... they are so supportive and enthusiastic and spiffy that I have to fight myself to worry about school and NOT spend all my braincells on them!
Oh yes, among one of the many many MANY back alleys and corners of this vast community, experienced members may set up mini-forums of their own, called houses. Thamaladh is mine, a sleepy slow retreat for singers and poets. MYST fans will recognize the treehouse.
So that is what I do first thing in the morning and after dinner, and the rest of the day I am doing vast amounts of reading and paper-writing for graduate school.
There's actually even more than the discussion forums; there's a huge library of Tolkien info, a big online store (which helps keep the thing afloat), newsletters with plaza info plus interviews with people like John Howe, and a silly D&D style video game where you whump on each other in combat.
But the main things are the discussion forums. There are forums for discussing the languages of Middle-earth, the books, the world, the characters, the merchandise, the films. Tolkien wrote absolutely reams, with 14 books of his Middle-earth writings and stories published postumously, making LOTR only the tip of the iceberg. And there's secondary scholarship. We've got the old Tolkien scholars who hold forth with essays and footnotes, and the "elves are so keeeeewl" Legolusters. A quarantine zone where fans of various actors and characters can drool over their idols.
That's a small part of it.
The other part of it is Kingdoms, and these are a bit like MUSHes, except they're post-based, not realtime. Kingdoms are forums based on areas and cultures of Middle-earth like the Riddermark or the Shire or the wizards of Isengard. Here's mine, Imladris/Rivendell. Each kingdom forum has group activities which are inspired by and themed on the regions or the particular talents and habits of their cultures. Imladris/Rivendell has an artists' thread for display and discussion of works, for example, a bards/writers guild, and a Host for those who want to play Elven warriors. There are games and competitions (Tara has invented an entire Elven board game, with pieces and teams.) There are silly things like Middle-earth karaoke, mad libs, or jokes and gags like having Rivendell taken over by Pirates of the Carribean for Halloween. And there are multiple RPGs, from the casual "hanging out in Imladris" or "at the feast" variety, to full-blown epic adventures, to historical reenactments like the Fall of Gondolin where we play out a tale in Tolkien's unpublished works. Trivia and lore contests. A library of Elrond with original fanfic works and in-character lore essays on various Middle-earth subjects, created and maintained by members. An IC healers' organization that treats the wounded and teaches classes. Marketplaces. Caption contests where one posts funny captions to film clips. A newspaper-- I co-edited the Imladris newsletter for a year, making it like a medieval illuminated chronicle of the Elves' affairs. On and on and on.
The plaza has a large admin team, since there are 70,000+ members on the books (fewer are active, but it is still in the thousands, not hundreds, which I've never seen anywhere else). And each kingdom has two co-rulers.
What just happened is that Laebeth here stepped up to an admin post and I am filling her shoes in Rivendell (trying to) as co-ruler with Tara. IC I'm now Elrond, Tara's been and remains Glorfindel, and Lae just sprouted branches and turned into Yavanna. (The admins on this board are Valar.) In SCA terms, I've got a barony to manage, and it is about the same size, peoplewise and activitywise.
On the whole it is fun and fabulous, but it does require several hours a day to keep all the balls in the air! Luckily, I love my Elves. Even when things have been very tough... they are so supportive and enthusiastic and spiffy that I have to fight myself to worry about school and NOT spend all my braincells on them!
Oh yes, among one of the many many MANY back alleys and corners of this vast community, experienced members may set up mini-forums of their own, called houses. Thamaladh is mine, a sleepy slow retreat for singers and poets. MYST fans will recognize the treehouse.
So that is what I do first thing in the morning and after dinner, and the rest of the day I am doing vast amounts of reading and paper-writing for graduate school.
