10 Years of Entmoot

[Mari]

That was cool to read, Katya! And you're cute ^_^ (both back then, as here, as IRL )
Heh, it's almost 3 years for me now. Incredible how fast that goes. I still feel like a newbie sometimes and I'm still scared of the Northern Regions...

[trolls' bane]

Originally Posted by katya

I am now going to do something which I was too distracted to do the other night, when this thread was created: reminisce.

I haven't been here the whole ten years, nor do I have a particularly high post count (especially compared to how long I've been here), but I have been here for a lot of years, and I've had a lot of interesting experiences, and gone through a lot of changes.

There are a lot of us here who were a lot younger when we joined than we are now. I was about 14 1/2. Not only was I a lot younger and dumber (and more naive, innocent, and to an extent cooler), Entmoot was also the first message board I ever joined or frequented. Up until discovering Entmoot, I thought that everyone on the internet was illiterate and perverted. I was pleasantly surprised at the polite and intelligent people who populate this place. However, I was still not very used to message boards, and it took me a while to get used to things like, how to get to know people, what kind of threads are going to die instantly and what might be interesting, etc. It's like a whole new culture. My grammar and ability to capitalize has also improved. Exhibit A: on of my first posts (apparently the second). It's so jumbled and incoherent...


I started a lot of short-lived threads back then, too.

For a while, since that was the first time I read LotR, I was constantly on Entmoot, and constantly obsessing over everything Middle Earth. I spent a lot of time "up north" in the Tolkien forums, but I think a lot of you probably feel the same way as I do- there's not much more to discuss. We've already been over everything, for the most part. Some things though, the quote game and things like that, are always fun. Anyway, Entmoot will always be a part of my LotR experience. I can't separate them.

I got into some other things, after LotR. I was really into Russian novels, but that started before Tolkien. Later, there was Final Fantasy VII, anime, learning Japanese, etc. Got interested in physics and astronomy for a while. I went to Japan for a while. I came back, went off to college. Met a boyfriend, who I am still happily together with. Started drinking and partying. Went through at least two major crisis situations that I hope none of you ever have to go through (though some of you have). Moved, got poor, moved some more, worked crappy jobs, moved more. Met a lot of new friends. Ended up where I am now. There were times when I wouldn't sign in for weeks at a time, but I never really left Entmoot through all of it.

In fact, some of my friends from here have really helped me get through a lot of hard times. Some of us have talked for hours on IM. Some of you I have on Facebook. Some of you I like a lot but have only really talked to on Entmoot itself. Mari was the first (and hopefully not last) mooter that I met in person, and she was a sweetheart. Most of my closest friends today, besides my 2-3 roommates, are people I primarily talk to on the internet (though a couple I met first in person). A lot of those people are from Entmoot. A couple are from elsewhere. I enjoy your company.

Entmoot has gone through some changes too. People come and go. Some stick around for quite a while. The board got a make-over (I believe that happened once before I came, also), though the "hugged by an Ent" colors stayed the same. People started moving away to the south and staying mostly in the GMs. We got some neat new sub-forums, like Writer's Workshop. Teacup Cafe opened up, and we're still tearing through the threads so fast that I've lost count. Inside jokes came and went. Lots of April Fools jokes were had.

It's been fun. I've had a lot of fun times here. I've had other times when I posted something stupid and wished I could take it back. I have met lots of neat people. So, one more time, thank you Ben, and thank you all the mooters who I love and have made my time here awesome.

Me too.

(LOL...think I can get any more vague? )

[HOBBIT]

Wow! 10 years. I was 11 and in the 6th grade when I joined Nov 1999.... looking back on older posts I was so ridiculous.

Ben was 13 and in the 8th grade.

[Rían]

*makes a post to find out what year she joined*

edit - oh, ok - I've been here 7 years this month!!

What katya said, except the bit about Japan ...

thanks, Ben!

[Insidious Rex]

Good lord thats ancient for a message board. Congrats. Id say this message board is about in its fourth age to be topically appropriate...

Ive had a number of relationships that i can trace back to entmoot that have developed way beyond entmoot and its interesting to think about certain people I know who I initially got to know because of entmoot and where they are now...

And cool that so many people have actually grown up on here, including the creators. I like to think I have too even though I was an adult when I first came here... But then I probably still havent fully grown up even now.

[Grey_Wolf]

"And we're back on M.O.O.T. 102,2 with the Moot Marching Band playing this version of Rule Brittania especially composed in celebration of the 10th Anniversary of Entmoot, the pinacle of forums on the net..."

When Entmoot first, at heaven's command,
Arose from out the internet,
Arose, arose, arose from out the internet,
This was the charter, the charter of the net
And guardian admins sung this strain:

(Chorus)Rule Entmoot!
Entmoot rules internet
Mooters never, never, never will fret.

The forums, not so blest as thee,
Must in their turn, to tyrants fall,
Must in their turn, must in their turn, to tyrants fall,
While thou shalt flourish, shalt flourish great and free,
The dread and envy of them all.

(Chorus)

Still more majestic shalt thou rise,
More dreadful, from each spammer stroke,
More dreadful, more dreadful from each spammer stroke
As the loud blast that tears the skies,
Serves but to root thy native oak.

(Chorus)

Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame;
All their attempts to bend thee down,
All their attempts, all their attempts to bend thee down,
Will but arouse thy generous flame,
But work their woe and thy renown.

(Chorus)

To thee belongs the threading reign,
Thy threads with commerce shine
Thy threads shall, thy thread shall with commerce shine
All thine shall be the subject main,
And every word it circles thine.

(Chorus)

The Mooter, still with freedom found,
Shall to thy happy subforums repair,
Shall to thy happy subforums, thy happy subforums repair,
Blest Moot! with matchless beauty crowned,
And manly hearts to guard the fair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-jfTCqBlSQ

[BeardofPants]

Happy anniversary, entmoot.

[HOBBIT]

well let's not forget Darth Tater (Josh), who co-created the Tolkien Trail and entmoot. I believe that he was 14ish at the time. Just for some trivia, they both met on a Star Wars message board called the Jedi Council, which still exists as well. Sep 1999 was a few months after the release of Star Wars Episode One.

Amazing that this place is still around after 10 years, although it is quite different now, as am I. Not nearly as bustling - although every few months from the beginning there must have been an new topic about how the moot was dead or dying and how things used to be better. :P

Ben and I were both interviewed and featured by EzBoard in their montly newsletter(entmoot was on ezboard until Aug 2001) it must been circa 2000 and we were asked where our communities would be in 10 years.....(I had a moderately sucessful Harry Potter board back then - long gone).

10 years later and entmoot is still going....

[hectorberlioz]

Just goes to show the lasting power of Tolkien's work, as well as the depth of coverage contained in this forum. You have to figure that the 'moot gets a lot of hits when people google something Tolkien-specific.

By the way, Hobbit, I totally agree with your latest blog post!

PS: Thank you Jonathan and Trolls' Bane for the compliments about the picture . I didn't plan to draw it in time for the anniversary (of which I had no idea), but this particular coincidence (or not?) was pretty handy .

PPS: As Hobbit notes, we've had a lot of threads with Movie Elrond messages about doom for this board. It's nice to celebrate a milestone, for a change.

[Butterbeer]

You'll have to forgive me..i'm too tired to read the whole thread - and i come around here very infrequently now

But Entmoot was my first ever dalliance with online forums or communities or socal networking..or whatever ...

It will always have a place in my heart - though i am online less and less these days

Wishing you all the best - and i can say i have enjoyed being on Entmoot - and for the vast majority - enjoyed meeting you all on keyboards - from all over the world - with a shared interest

Thanks Ben for creating and starting this site - and to every one i ever got to like, talk with, debate with, and heh.. even occasionally get drunk with - good or bad

Goodluck to you all, Mooters Past and present, and in the future

Best BB
xx

[Voronwen]

Originally Posted by hectorberlioz

Just goes to show the lasting power of Tolkien's work

Yes, indeed!

Happy, happy anniversary to the founding members of Entmoot! This is a lovely place, and it's lovely to be here. Many thanks to those who make its existence possible.

[Jonathan]

Originally Posted by HOBBIT

well let's not forget Darth Tater (Josh), who co-created the Tolkien Trail and entmoot. I believe that he was 14ish at the time. Just for some trivia, they both met on a Star Wars message board called the Jedi Council, which still exists as well. Sep 1999 was a few months after he release of Star Wars Episode One.

Let's raise a toast for Darth Tater as well!

That is interesting trivia, that the first seed of Entmoot came from a Star Wars board. I also think Entmoot itself has been a breeding ground for other forum starters.

Originally Posted by HOBBIT

Ben and I were both interviewed and featured by EzBoard in their montly newsletter(entmoot was on ezboard until Aug 2001) it must been circa 2000 and we were asked where our communities would be in 10 years.....(I had a moderately sucessful Harry Potter board back then - long gone).

And what were your replies back then? Or better yet, is there still a copy of the interview in its entirety?

[HOBBIT]

Here is a little "news" blurb about the interview from Xenite.org - It's good to be the Entmooster, er, Mootmaster!

Unfortunately, the interview itself doesn't seem to exist anywhere, not even on archive.org. Ezboard deleted it long ago and they've been "Yuku" for several years now.

[The Gaffer]

Originally Posted by Butterbeer

You'll have to forgive me..i'm too tired to read the whole thread - and i come around here very infrequently now

But Entmoot was my first ever dalliance with online forums or communities or socal networking..or whatever ...

It will always have a place in my heart - though i am online less and less these days

Wishing you all the best - and i can say i have enjoyed being on Entmoot - and for the vast majority - enjoyed meeting you all on keyboards - from all over the world - with a shared interest

Thanks Ben for creating and starting this site - and to every one i ever got to like, talk with, debate with, and heh.. even occasionally get drunk with - good or bad

Goodluck to you all, Mooters Past and present, and in the future

Best BB
xx

Yo BB!

Completely mirror those sentiments. Plus big thanks to DT, Ben and Hobbit.

Hope you are all grand. Will try to drop in on the UT discussions.

[Rían]

Originally Posted by Jonathan

That is interesting trivia, that the first seed of Entmoot came from a Star Wars board.

Makes me wonder - were the seeds of Star Wars from LOTR? Was Lucas a fan of LOTR?

[Gwaimir Windgem]

I don't know if Star Wars was influenced by LOTR, but Lucas did consider himself to be influenced by Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces, so we can at least claim that Lucas and Tolkien shared a strong mythological influence.

[Andúril]

Congratulations.

[Jonathan]

Ooh, a voice from Entmoot's past. Hi Andúril!

[Grey_Wolf]

Originally Posted by Grey_Wolf

"And we're back on M.O.O.T. 102,2 with the Moot Marching Band playing this version of Rule Brittania especially composed in celebration of the 10th Anniversary of Entmoot, the pinacle of forums on the net..."

When Entmoot first, at heaven's command,
Arose from out the internet,
Arose, arose, arose from out the internet,
This was the charter, the charter of the net
And guardian admins sung this strain:

(Chorus)Rule Entmoot!
Entmoot rules internet
Mooters never, never, never will fret.

The forums, not so blest as thee,
Must in their turn, to tyrants fall,
Must in their turn, must in their turn, to tyrants fall,
While thou shalt flourish, shalt flourish great and free,
The dread and envy of them all.

(Chorus)

Still more majestic shalt thou rise,
More dreadful, from each spammer stroke,
More dreadful, more dreadful from each spammer stroke
As the loud blast that tears the skies,
Serves but to root thy native oak.

(Chorus)

Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame;
All their attempts to bend thee down,
All their attempts, all their attempts to bend thee down,
Will but arouse thy generous flame,
But work their woe and thy renown.

(Chorus)

To thee belongs the threading reign,
Thy threads with commerce shine
Thy threads shall, thy thread shall with commerce shine
All thine shall be the subject main,
And every word it circles thine.

(Chorus)

The Mooter, still with freedom found,
Shall to thy happy subforums repair,
Shall to thy happy subforums, thy happy subforums repair,
Blest Moot! with matchless beauty crowned,
And manly hearts to guard the fair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-jfTCqBlSQ

Now with a working link!

[Finrod Felagund]

Incredible...10 years!

I haven't been around much, aside from occasional lurking, but I love this place. Congrats!