It's time for new Forums!

[YamydeAragon]

A section for roleplayers would be great.

Yah the players can have a Role Play section where they write their customized character Biography. Some role players like to do them in the form of texts while others take the visual path. I think it will be a good subsection of Player made Artistic creations. I have seeing on the forums & other social medias that LOTRO players can be very talented & make neat creations. The Player Made Artistic creations could be subdivided into :

• Drawings, Paints, & Sketches
• Visual 3D (Sculptures & Carvings)
• Videos (using in game characters or enacting)
• Songs (original writting or player interpretations)
• Stories & Poesy
• Any other LOTR themed craft

[Cordovan]

Well, I agree being specific is welcome. If Cordovan is up for this, I guess "LOTRO Score & Art Discussion" (used score to differentiate the game's music from player music) and "LOTRO Lore & Storylines" may be as specific as they get.

So then you would have:

Landscape Discussion

- specific quests, objectives, landscape quest content, specific locales, Fill-in-the-gaps, "where do I start BtS Afterwords" or "what's the quickest levelling route through Rohan"

Instances Discussion

- mostly full-fledged instances, Epic Battles, skirmishes etc, and associated content, and things like discussions of specific instances and their mechanics

LOTRO's Lore & Storylines

(or Game Lore & Storylines? which sounds better?)

- anything widely story oriented goes here, like my List of Story Loose Ends, specific questions to MoL, praises of BtS storyline, the little lore tidbits behind the game, different types of pipe-weed represented in the game, "what do these dwarven runes mean" or opinions behind more controversial storylines

LOTRO's Score & Art

(or Game Score & Art?)

- anything to do with Bill's music, or Chance Thomas, or others, and some art and worldbuilding behind the game too, like questions about who made the newest expansion promo art, discussing the game's art like textures, the lovely hairstyles of the elves etc.

I'll think about it.

A section for roleplayers would be great.

This has already been added based on a suggestion from the community.

[Marancil]

- It looks like the forums are based on XenForo.

Yeah seems so alright. Excellent. I was having nightmares about this community turning to Discourse. Thanks for that good choice Cordovan.

[Fealhach]

Will you be emailing everyone a reminder to sign in to the new forums? There are many people who don't currently use them, people who have stopped using them, people who have left or taken a break from the game. Now would be a good time to remind those people that the community is still here and of course everyone likes shiny new things so having a new forum could be a way to get people back to the game.

Will you also be offering amnesty to people who have fallen foul of community guidelines in the past? A chance for a fresh start and of course them being more mindful of those guidelines could also be a good thing for the community. We need interesting, passionate and diverse opinions and more of them. It will be no good having shiny new forums if it ends up just being half a dozen people all agreeing with each other.

And now would be a good time for everyone who has written articles or guides in the past to update them in readiness for moving them over to the new forums.

Cheers

[Gnagerwine]

A section for roleplayers would be great.

This has already been added based on a suggestion from the community.

How is this set up?

Can we create curated threads in it for ongoing stories, post by post, while restricting who else can post in it? Or even better, have a story thread with an attached comments section? I guess Article format might work for that, but not if the max size of the article post is limiting. And some RP chat logs are very long.

[Arnenna]

Looking forward to some new forums, with hopefully, lots of new things that make them far more pleasant to use.

@ Cordovan

Could anything be set up to avoid a thread as popular and useful as this . . . .

https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...ht=best+outfit

becoming almost 300 pages long?

I love that thread, but it's painful to navigate through it page by page.

Going forward, perhaps a small section on cosmetics in the new forum, breaking them down into categories could work? Middle-earth's wonderful fashionista's that run outfit blogs/sites/streams could have a couple of stickies to help players find their collections.

Cosmetics are a big part of the game for a lot of players, hence . . . the gigantic thread, so a small section of the new forum, dedicated to them would be very welcome IMO.

[sentinel1]

Looking forward to some new forums, with hopefully, lots of new things that make them far more pleasant to use.

@ Cordovan

Could anything be set up to avoid a thread as popular and useful as this . . . .

https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...ht=best+outfit

becoming almost 300 pages long?

I love that thread, but it's painful to navigate through it page by page.

Going forward, perhaps a small section on cosmetics in the new forum, breaking them down into categories could work? Middle-earth's wonderful fashionista's that run outfit blogs/sites/streams could have a couple of stickies to help players find their collections.

Cosmetics are a big part of the game for a lot of players, hence . . . the gigantic thread, so a small section of the new forum, dedicated to them would be very welcome IMO.

/signed

[Marancil]

Looking forward to some new forums, with hopefully, lots of new things that make them far more pleasant to use.

@ Cordovan

Could anything be set up to avoid a thread as popular and useful as this . . . .

https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...ht=best+outfit

becoming almost 300 pages long?

I love that thread, but it's painful to navigate through it page by page.

Why do you scroll all the pages?

[Cordovan]

Looking forward to some new forums, with hopefully, lots of new things that make them far more pleasant to use.

@ Cordovan

Could anything be set up to avoid a thread as popular and useful as this . . . .

https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...ht=best+outfit

becoming almost 300 pages long?

I love that thread, but it's painful to navigate through it page by page.

Going forward, perhaps a small section on cosmetics in the new forum, breaking them down into categories could work? Middle-earth's wonderful fashionista's that run outfit blogs/sites/streams could have a couple of stickies to help players find their collections.

Cosmetics are a big part of the game for a lot of players, hence . . . the gigantic thread, so a small section of the new forum, dedicated to them would be very welcome IMO.

I guess I don't understand why folks are choosing to post in that thread instead of use the forum the thread is in? It seems like people could be using the forum that exists the way you would like, but aren't already.

[YamydeAragon]

I guess I don't understand why folks are choosing to post in that thread instead of use the forum the thread is in? It seems like people could be using the forum that exists the way you would like, but aren't already.

Will the new forums arrive tomorrow after the Update release?

[Cordovan]

Will the new forums arrive tomorrow after the Update release?

No, but stay tuned for more information. We're still on track for next week.

[Arnenna]

I guess I don't understand why folks are choosing to post in that thread instead of use the forum the thread is in? It seems like people could be using the forum that exists the way you would like, but aren't already.

Well, I think that comes down to the thread took off, and got itself into a point of no return, and it became the "in place" to go for posting, and finding the outfits. Plus, it's a sticky. It was here long before my time, but it's the only place that I really go looking for ideas and suggestions. But it's a painful trawl. the rest of the forum seems to be full of threads dedicated to one particular cosmetic, rather than categories of them. That in itself, if people were to post individual threads for each cosmetic, would make the forum a lengthy process to navigate too.
The forum itself probably could have pulled more out of that thread if it had some sub categories. Example


Chest pieces
Leggings
Shoulders
Footwear
Hands
Cloaks
Headgear

Then

Show us your Outfits
sub-
Elven Style full outfits
Hobbit style full outfits
Human style full outfits
Dwarven style full outfits

Then

By Colour

Or

Eriador sourced outfits
Rhovanion sourced outfits
Rohan sourced outfits
Gondor sourced outfits

and so forth

[Forgotten_Legend]

with losing the "joined" date of previous forums, and since the forums are linked to the game logins, and along with the custom avatars, is there a way to show a "member of the game since" badge? or the equivelent of the in-game avatar picture anniversary border? (it would require the forums to check the anniversary status in-game i suppose) an avatar game-anniversary border would be fantastic if not too diffuicultly possible

[YamydeAragon]

with losing the "joined" date of previous forums, and since the forums are linked to the game logins, and along with the custom avatars, is there a way to show a "member of the game since" badge? or the equivelent of the in-game avatar picture anniversary border? (it would require the forums to check the anniversary status in-game i suppose) an avatar game-anniversary border would be fantastic if not too diffuicultly possible

Cordovan said that on the new forums we will be able to use Gravatar website to add our choice of custom portrait (following the LOTRO CoC rules of course). That means you can literally take a screenshot of your in game portrait of your main character or any other you wish, & use it as the Forums portrait. You can show that way your aniversary year portrait frame, or any other frame you wish. It will not be an exact reflect of your real time in game since only work for your premium or VIP time, & if you miss 1 anniversary event year. (like happened to me) you will always be a bit behind your actual date, but it is something.

[Marancil]

Cordovan said that on the new forums we will be able to use Gravatar website to add our choice of custom portrait (following the LOTRO CoC rules of course). That means you can literally take a screenshot of your in game portrait of your main character or any other you wish, & use it as the Forums portrait. You can show that way your aniversary year portrait frame, or any other frame you wish. It will not be an exact reflect of your real time in game since only work for your premium or VIP time, & if you miss 1 anniversary event year. (like happened to me) you will always be a bit behind your actual date, but it is something.

Yeah and Gravatar is connected to an e-mail and you have to register and change avatar and e-mail if you want a particular gravvie on one place, but what will happen to many is if they ever used gravvvie on one place and an associated e-mail it will replicate here, should you use the same e-mail, which is a nuisance. Gravatar is ####.

Fortunately I have a specific e-mail account I use for Lotro only, and nowhere else, so GravCrap has no idea about me.

[Cordovan]

Yeah and Gravatar is connected to an e-mail and you have to register and change avatar and e-mail if you want a particular gravvie on one place, but what will happen to many is if they ever used gravvvie on one place and an associated e-mail it will replicate here, should you use the same e-mail, which is a nuisance. Gravatar is ####.

Fortunately I have a specific e-mail account I use for Lotro only, and nowhere else, so GravCrap has no idea about me.

I don't have a personal opinion about Gravatars, but it's an option that wasn't there before, so seems decent for whoever uses it. You don't need to use a Gravatar, to be clear.

[Forgotten_Legend]

Cordovan said that on the new forums we will be able to use Gravatar website to add our choice of custom portrait (following the LOTRO CoC rules of course). That means you can literally take a screenshot of your in game portrait of your main character or any other you wish, & use it as the Forums portrait. You can show that way your aniversary year portrait frame, or any other frame you wish. It will not be an exact reflect of your real time in game since only work for your premium or VIP time, & if you miss 1 anniversary event year. (like happened to me) you will always be a bit behind your actual date, but it is something.

it looks like a nice work-around, so for those who wish to use it, cool.

but that is also requiring
a) the use of third party software and accounts and hosting on third party websites...
b) me taking time every year to essentially re-do the avatar using third party website that i probably forgot all the login info for
c) i don't want to actually use my character portrait as my avatar, and i don't want to spend the time to learn picture editing

anniversary "frames" could be as simple as a number centered below the actual avatar such as "10 years", or the word "FOUNDER". doesn't have to be an actual frame, nor as elaborate as the in-game frames, since sizes and shapes of avatars will differ among users.

PS: i'm just making a request. if LOTRO doesn't think it's a worthy investment (say if the coding is way too complex, or too time consuming, because (i presume) it would require a website to check in-game code) then i'll continue to mention it my signature... i just though it would be something cool. the idea came from "decennial badges" on a different forum i use, that automatically updates every decade (if the user activates the badge in their settings).

[YamydeAragon]

Yeah and Gravatar is connected to an e-mail and you have to register and change avatar and e-mail if you want a particular gravvie on one place, but what will happen to many is if they ever used gravvvie on one place and an associated e-mail it will replicate here, should you use the same e-mail, which is a nuisance. Gravatar is ####.

Fortunately I have a specific e-mail account I use for Lotro only, and nowhere else, so GravCrap has no idea about me.

That is actually way too easy to resolve you can & it is know that should have at least 2 email addresses:

1. Professional email: with your real name & a photo that conform your company rules
2. Personal email: No need to use real name & there you can post any photo or picture for fun & can be subdivided further between:
   
   • Family email: they probably expect to see a real life photo not necesary a serious 1 & at least the nickname that they know you.
   • MMO Email: any screenshot or cartoon of your favorite game avatar can go there, no real photos recommended, & don't use your real name there.

Also on most social medias & as i understand, also the new LOTRO forums, you can opt out to use the gravatar portrait & instead use 1 more generic provided by the website or add a custom portrait used only on that particular website, Regardless if you use the same email.

[Cordovan]

We are still on track for Wednesday! If you are working up a Profile Banner for yourself, I've discovered that the resolution for the banner is: 1178px x 250px

[istvana]

Wednesday? The day that Shadowfax hits the cap of 140 and may die? Woot - you are transferring the soul of Shadowfax into the new forums - and most speedily as befits the name!

((I know you won't kill the server its first day at 140 though we are all anxiously waiting to find out when you will kill it - I just couldn't resist))

[Marancil]

That is actually way too easy to resolve you can & it is know that should have at least 2 email addresses:

1. Professional email: with your real name & a photo that conform your company rules
2. Personal email: No need to use real name & there you can post any photo or picture for fun & can be subdivided further between:
   
   • Family email: they probably expect to see a real life photo not necesary a serious 1 & at least the nickname that they know you.
   • MMO Email: any screenshot or cartoon of your favorite game avatar can go there, no real photos recommended, & don't use your real name there.

Also on most social medias & as i understand, also the new LOTRO forums, you can opt out to use the gravatar portrait & instead use 1 more generic provided by the website or add a custom portrait used only on that particular website, Regardless if you use the same email.

As I said, I do not think I will have any issues with it, but it all depends on the implementation. Have been in situations where it became an annoying issue. As for e-mail addresses, well got a ton of those, since I also own several domains, so that is not a problem either. The usage of custom portraits may be limited to a certain amount of activity, there are a few parameters for that. it all boils down to what Cordovan sees fit to implement. Custom Avatar on the Forums: 1298 Lotro Points. Katching

[Elmagor]

Wednesday? The day that Shadowfax hits the cap of 140 and may die? Woot - you are transferring the soul of Shadowfax into the new forums - and most speedily as befits the name!

((I know you won't kill the server its first day at 140 though we are all anxiously waiting to find out when you will kill it - I just couldn't resist))

Shadowfax was born to die sooner or later

[puggs741]

I don't suppose there is a better mobile viewing interface than this forum? Or a dedicated app maybe?

I know this forum is primarily to make administration easier but it would be good if it was pulled right into the current century. Fingers crossed.

I look forward to describing character in game stats (kin,address)etc.. again

[MistyMountains]

Forum titles will not carry over. However, it won't be Customer Service handling forum titles, it'll be me. It's going to be a lot of work, but the plan is to chip away at it over time. I had been hoping to allow users to select their own forum titles, essentially doing away with the need for this management, but while the new forums have everyone set to give themselves new titles, it isn't currently functioning. If it doesn't work when we go live, I'll either have people submit tickets, private messages, or whatever and deal with it over time. There are literally thousands of you, though, so it won't be instant.

In before I lose the "Fashion Hero" title FOREEEEVAH!" I assume I'd lose the profile pic which gave the the title as well?

TBH, can't wait to see new forums, I guess I can live without the long standing title.

[Cordovan]

In before I lose the "Fashion Hero" title FOREEEEVAH!" I assume I'd lose the profile pic which gave the the title as well?

TBH, can't wait to see new forums, I guess I can live without the long standing title.

Titles are one of the things that will have to be dealt with in the near future. The new forums are set up to allow for user-entered forum titles, but the system is not working. For now, hang onto your titles in a text document somewhere and we'll have more information about it in the near future.