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It took me waaaaay too long to figure out how to spell 'boardaversery'

In the American dialects I'm familiar with, Laura is usually pronounced more like "lore-ah" (hence the variant spelling Lora) or "law-rah."

Abigail rhymes with "beguile"!

I quite like the meaning of Marië. Seems the most plausible as an epessë.

~Neshomeh

Is that not how most people pronounce Laura? In other matters, we need an Luthien & oddly normally named fic lol

also i found a fic that referred to Thranduil as Thranduil Greenleaf lmao

And we shall see. One day this week, I spent at least three hours arranging remote access and getting the following day's work switched to remote. I'm not kidding about the at least three hours. I think the actual number is more like three and a half, but that's not even counting the half hour or more I spent figuring out what I wanted to try to make happen and how to do it. I...don't think I want the real figure, actually. On the plus side, it worked! We'll probably do it again next week, except with more like fifteen minutes of arranging things! So possibly next week really will go a bit smoother. That would be cool :)

And yeah, I don't know, I seem to have memorized the date by now ;) I wrote it out and then went, hm, what's significant about January 13th...? Oh! Right. Hm, will I make a post this year?

As you can see, I did, and there ends this impromptu story, because it's becoming ever-clearer to me that I need rest. Hope things are going well for you.

~Z

Chronological order would be so nice.

Also seconding doc that having "Return to Messages" place you at the thread's location on the page would be nice.

I'm ambivalent about an option for collapsing/expanding threads in the default view, leaning toward "no thanks." But, it might be good to have the option to totally collapse posts in a thread while viewing that thread, so there's zero text visible from posts besides the one you're currently viewing. Might help people avoid spoilers/triggers when they're warned for in the post title but not otherwise hidden.

I also like the thought of being able to view the entire thread while composing a reply but am usually fine doing that in a separate tab.

Thanks for the update!

~Neshomeh

Haha, I can never remember my Boardiversaries. Happy Boardiversary, it's good to see you! Hope next week is less chaotic.

Nine years ago today, somehow, I made my first post on the Board. Well, the Old Board, but you get the picture. I'm not entirely sure how this happened, but there you go!

/Throws a party at the Board at large and scuttles off to get some rest after a long day and an intensive week. :P/

~Z, rambling far, far less than in her introductory thread

There's a latest posts page! I somehow had no idea. That's neat.

1. The search function doesn't give results in...well, in any discernable order, really. Relevance, chronology - if there's an order, I have yet to figure it out. It would be very nice to be able to get search results in chronological order.

2. Ooh. Sure, that sounds nice! It's not so bad clicking into a thread and then being able to expand from there, but this would be pleasant to have as well.

Thanks for your (collective) efforts!

~Z, so much still in work mode that she nearly signed off with "Best," before her signature.

Edit: thirding being able to see the thread when writing a post! That's always been something I wished for while accepting that I had to just go back and open it in a different tab...far too often one wants to reference several posts at once, but can only see one. That would be a pretty cool addition, if it's possible!

... and I can offer many proper Elvish names!

• DAMIEN - S., Daughter of the Hammer
• DANIEL - S., daughter of the Green-elves
• ADAM - S., back up
• SIMON - Q., Great Mind
• PETER - Q., Through Closed Lips

• DORIAN - S., Land-Land (but officially King-Land)

• RACHEL - archaic S., star-wain (modern version would be 'Rasgel')

• KATIE - Q., back road (would usually be written 'Catie', but see Helkaraxe)

• MARIE - Q, Garlanded hand

• ABIGAIL - S., spark a little after

So there you go! You could legitimately write a story where Luthien hangs out with her buddies Laura (rhymes with cow-ra), Rachel (rhymes with J.S. Bach-el) and Abigail (rhymes with... uh... the 'ai' is an 'eye' sound).

hS

• Anna: Quenya, "Gift". It's... debatable whether common nouns can be used by themselves as names. The obvious example is Luthien, whose aftername Tinuviel is just a poetic term for a nightingale. But a) it's an aftername, not a birth name, and b) it was given by a mortal. More typically, I'd expect to see a suffix or prefix attached (as indeed with Luthien itself, "daughter of flowers").

• Ann: Sindarin, "Gift". Exactly the same situation as above. Ironically, this means that "Anna" could be an archaic Sindarin name, Ann-a, "of the gift". (Sindarin generally dropped the -a genitive suffix, but it survived in Doriath.)

• Ariel: plausibly Quenya, "noble daughter", from Ara+iel. This would actually be identical in Sindarin.

• Ella: dubious. I can make it Quenya, "starred", but it would be an active participle rather than an adjective, uses an archaic word for star, and would probably be Elila instead. It's also an old pronoun, "from you", and the Telerin word for "Elf". I don't think anyone would use it.

• Laura: well, laur is the root for "gold" in both Quenya and Sindarin, but there's no obvious -a suffix for it other than that old genitive again. So it could just about be archaic Sindarin "of gold". (Quenya would retain the "e" in laure; laurea is an adjective for "golden".)

• Marion: good Quenya for "son of the House". Whether you'd actually call someone this, given that Sauron's original name was Mairon, is debatable - the Sindar do still refer to the Vala Orome as Tauron, so maybe they see similarities differently. (Of course, "Marion" is less recognisable than "Marian", which is not Quenya.)

So yeah, I'd accept Marion for any Quenya speaker, and Anna and Laura as Doriathrin Sindar. Marion would be a male name; I'm not sure if Sindarin sees -a as a feminine ending (Quenya kind of does, hence Varda).

It would be hilarious to write a short story about Luthien's childhood, with her handmaids Laura and Anna. Anna's pet-name for Laura is Lauren, "my Gold"; Laura just calls her Ann, "Gift".

(I'm totally going to spend the afternoon coming up with other plausible names for this.)

hS

The other problem seems to be clarity in some cases, which I'd say might be solved in some cases by simplifying things and playing it safe? Stating some things in general terms might be easier than trying to cover all the ground.

Two chapters and already enough to warrant a kill.

when I had a post open to read, and I hit the "Return to Messages" button, the main page would load with the thread I was just looking at set at the top of the page. But the Current Board always goes back to the top of the page. It made it easier to navigate a thread without scrolling around much.

—doctorlit, qqing over qol

I don't think a separate channel is necessary, at least right now. Our "intro and rules" page is quite short at the moment, and the trigger list is displayed prominently when opening it. It's something to consider in the future if the rules page gets longer, though.

—doctorlit

Because we all know "any idea can be written well" is my mantra. There are three options for this, in increasing order of difficulty.

1/ Don't play it straight. This is what "My Dwimmerlaik" does, writing what seems to be solid humour at 40K word length. The names later on make my eye twitch (the Witch-King appears to be called "Eric"), but that's part of the writer's goal, I think.

2/ Set it earlier. Way earlier. The Witch-King was a Lord of Numenor (or possibly a king, or maybe even a queen), so you could write a grimly tragic romance where the central conflict is between his love for his lady and for the Ring. (Given the existence of the Tale of Aldarion and Erendis, this is very on-theme for Numenor.) Simple enough to do, because he's not undead yet.

3/ Think very hard, then set it later, in the time of Angmar or Morgul. At this point, the Nine Rings are probably held by Sauron, to ensure the Nazgul's loyalty to him. So the Witch-King doesn't have physical possession of the thing.

The #1 question you need to answer is: what, if anything, can get a Ringbearer to pay attention to something other than their Ring? The books give us a few possible answers.

a) Survival. Gollum lost the One Ring because he was more focussed on his food, and didn't try to steal it back from Frodo because he was afraid for his life. We know the Nazgul aren't in direct mental contact with Sauron, because if they were the months Frodo spent in Rivendell were plenty long enough for Sauron to get something in place to trap him. So if the Witch-King can be captured (if!), he might be persuaded to cooperate in exchange for his life.

b) Loyalty. Sam gives the Ring back to Frodo, and Bilbo leaves it behind at Gandalf's request. Even Smeagol seems to be loyal to Frodo, as far as he can. But what would the Witch-King be loyal to, other than Sauron? My answer is to go back to an older loyalty: create a character to be the Lost Queen of Numenor. She would be a Black Numenorean, probably from Umbar or its exiles, and crucially would be a direct descendent of one of the last few Kings of Numenor (which Aragorn is not). Let's say her last royal ancestor was Ar-Zimrathôn, great-great grandfather of Ar-Pharazon; his regnal name means "Collector of Jewels", which could refer to having many children. It also puts the split far enough back that her ancestors wouldn't immediately emerge as rulers of the Black Numenoreans. Perhaps she's a messenger from Umbar who recalls an old family legend about the Witch-King's identity. Or, if you wanted a canon character, she could be Queen Beruthiel. (That would be some 500 years before the Nazgul officially reappeared, so perhaps like the Orcs he was 'free' while Sauron was too weak to exert control.)

c) Mental influence from a greater Power. The Nazgul surrendered their Rings to Sauron, and Frodo lent his to Bombadil. A Maia could probably get the Witch-King's attention, and maybe a High Elf, if you can write around the whole 'burning Unseen light that causes great pain' aspect. Galadriel or Elrond could almost certainly do it, with their own Rings. Oh, which brings to mind the last option:

d) The One Ring. Find a suitably bossy Hobbit-lass (possibly Pearl Took the political assassin), somehow get the Ring into her hands, and have her command the Ringwraiths' obedience. There is nothing humourous about this concept at all. >:(

hS