# Delving Into the Archives



## Barliman Butterbur (Apr 5, 2013)

I have been rooting around in the Ancient Archives (ca. 2003-07 or so). What a strange thing! Is is as if the past is all alive again, complete with people long gone, who once again argue as intensely and convincingly as if they were "alive and standing right in front of us," complete with vivid gestures and expressions. Amazing... :*(

Barley


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## Confusticated (Apr 6, 2013)

Yep

.......


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## Halasían (Aug 22, 2019)

.... and this morning.... I was doing the same thing and thinking the same thing.
How are you Barliman? Hoping you are still around in this world.

_Edit: Sadly Barliman Butterbar passed away in March 2020 at age 83._


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## Erestor Arcamen (Aug 22, 2019)

Just an FYI if you find a thread you want to be brought out of the archives, you can send the link to me and I can resurrect it .


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Aug 25, 2019)

That is, IF you play your cards right!


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## Erestor Arcamen (Aug 25, 2019)




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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Aug 25, 2019)

(That's not really true, BTW -- I'm as guilty as anyone else). ☹


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## Olorgando (Aug 25, 2019)

Erm … how old does the last previous post in a thread have to be for my "reviving" it to qualify as a necropost? 
_(Not that I would hesitate to indulge in this "despicable" habit if I found something in a thread that made chucking in my two cents irresistible to me._ 😁 _)_


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Aug 25, 2019)

I think the oldest things I exhumed from their graves were around two years dead.

But what the heck -- as Erestor said, if you stumble over an ancient tombstone that interests you, pound away!


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## Olorgando (Aug 25, 2019)

Oh I did, I did, earlier (or yesterday by CEDST clocks). Might qualify as something from this site's Cambrian Period. In the HoMe section.
OT, but do you (perhaps unintentionally) imply by your above post that the _Canidae_ prefer to use products by that company from Redmond, Washington (State)?
And come to think of it, ancient as stuff may be that I've reactivated, I have so far stayed away from the archives (at least I think I have).


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Aug 25, 2019)

Apparently, cats like apples.

When they can't get cheeseburger. . .


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## Olorgando (Aug 25, 2019)

Um - in one of the vacations that my wife and I spent in some part of Spain, I offered a piece of meat from the hamburger or cheeseburger I was eating (in a local restaurant, not one of the usual multinational suspects) to a local cat. It never touched it, and you may know how cats are able to express disdain. Well, maybe that's just European (or Spanish) cats.


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## Erestor Arcamen (Aug 26, 2019)

Olorgando said:


> Erm … how old does the last previous post in a thread have to be for my "reviving" it to qualify as a necropost?
> _(Not that I would hesitate to indulge in this "despicable" habit if I found something in a thread that made chucking in my two cents irresistible to me._ 😁 _)_



If you find one in the actual archive section, you most likely won't have permissions to reply to it. You could then pm me the link to the post and I can move it to an appropriate section to perform necromancy *woooooh spooky 😱*


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## Gothmog (Aug 26, 2019)

Reviving an old thread in the main sections counts as CPR while doing so from Archives requires Necromancy


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## Olorgando (Aug 26, 2019)

Gothmog said:


> Reviving an old thread in the main sections counts as CPR while doing so from Archives requires Necromancy


Ah, yes ...
So
1) by that definition we know who the official Necromancer of the site is, 
but
2) my impression (possibly faulty) is that S-eS coined the term Necro-(something), and he seems to take a far more restrictive view of the term. 😒

I've gone through some archives superficially, and can say that quite a bit of stuff there is younger than a two-post thread (about HoMe, specifically "Lays") that I resuscitated recently. So I'll take my real-world knowledge about what kind of stuff gets archived and why to assume that archiving has served to get some forums etc. unclogged (shelf space cleared).
I would imagine it does not help the site as a whole, as the stuff is (seems to be) still there, but at a different there. But the bar to further posting at least keeps it dormant.


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## Gothmog (Aug 26, 2019)

There are various reasons why a thread might be archived but basically clearing shelf space is it's function while still keeping the threads available for review and revival if wanted. Far better than deleting many good threads that are worth reading and might be needed in the future


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Aug 26, 2019)

Yes -- 2) is faulty!


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## Olorgando (Aug 26, 2019)

Squint-eyed Southerner said:


> Yes -- 2) is faulty!


Argh! Imprecise wording on my part. _*facepalm*_ 😖
I should have written "S-eS introduced the term Necro-(something) to the TTF site*.
Erm - still faulty?


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## Halasían (Aug 27, 2019)

Hmm... was Gandalf wrong to go rummaging through the buried scrolls and parchments in the depths of the Library of Minas Tirith searching for the writingsd of Isildur? (It was one great scene in the PJ movies) ... I think not.

I was a member of a site where everything over one year old automatically locked. That was no fun. Instead of revisiting discussions, you got several threads of discussion of the same thing.

Anyway, I should go rummaging through the actual archives here so I can give Erestor something to do...


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Aug 27, 2019)

Good idea. He was just complaining of nothing to moderate, because everyone is so well behaved here!


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## ArwenStar (Sep 25, 2019)

About old threads..
What is the oldest thread in ttf and who was the first member???


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Sep 25, 2019)

The oldest thread I've seen is from December 2001.

First member? No idea -- Tom Bombadil?


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## Erestor Arcamen (Sep 25, 2019)

I think the first member was probably the original Admin, his name escapes me but he has several posts in the News From Bree section.


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## Gothmog (Sep 25, 2019)

The first member was/is dapence. Dave was the original owner/webmaster of the forum. Member number 2 is Beorn


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## Olorgando (Sep 25, 2019)

Squint-eyed Southerner said:


> The oldest thread I'very seen is from December 2001.


That would be the month that "Fellowship" premiered … but perhaps:
Oldest active thread that has not been sent to the archives?
Gothmog's info says he joined 10 September 2001.
And in the thread "Why do people post on TTF?" ("Bars & Inns", "The Floating Log") also started by ArwenStar, Gothmog states in his post dated 16 September 2019 "This forum was going before the films came out …"
But the thread title is not really the kind of "archaeology" that would pique my interest anymore … 🥴


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## Gothmog (Sep 25, 2019)

Just been having a quick look through the forum and the oldest threads I have found so far are:

ARCHIVED:
Sep 9, 2001
https://www.thetolkienforum.com/threads/the-hobbit-as-a-religious-parable.160/

ACTIVE:
Aug 23, 2001
https://www.thetolkienforum.com/threads/movie.46/
Sep 20, 2001
https://www.thetolkienforum.com/threads/wings-or-no.230/


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## Erestor Arcamen (Sep 25, 2019)

Oh goodness that last one...I never participated much but it got very good for a long time there


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Sep 25, 2019)

I may ask you to resurrect that first one at some point; I need to read through it first, to see how far off the rails it ran.


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## ArwenStar (Sep 25, 2019)

Squint-eyed Southerner said:


> First member? No idea -- Tom Bombadil?


😆😆😆😆🤣🤣


Erestor Arcamen said:


> it got very good for a long time there


Very good and very confusing.


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## Halasían (Oct 14, 2019)

I may be mistaken, but did this forum start on the old EZ Board forums? I remember when it came alive on its own. Dapence, ReadWryte, and a few others I remember, including Gothmog who has returned. I myself _think_ I had posted a few times from my EZ Board account before the migration and I registered here in December 2001 when The One Ring site crashed under the pressure of the massive registration & logins after the Fellowship first showed. I also registered on Entmoot and Barrow Downs at the time.


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## David Pence (May 7, 2021)

ArwenStar said:


> About old threads..
> What is the oldest thread in ttf and who was the first member??


I know this is an old thread. I could possibly put the original forum back online to find out the answer to this question. I still have it backed up somewhere.

The site started out as an 'addon' to another site I used to host at thelordoftherings.com. Around 2000 or so, I set it up as a stand-alone site under thetolkienforum.com

As to Beorn, he was just a kid who joined that original site very early on, and was always eager to help other members.

I found him 'hacking' the site on some diagnostic quest in the logs, and when I asked what he was doing, I found he was trying to solve some long forgotten issue.

He very quickly proved to very dedicated to TTF and its purpose, and in short order I made him the first Moderator of many great Moderators.


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (May 7, 2021)

Welcome back, from -- if not one of the "great" Moderators -- at least the newest one! 😊


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## Erestor Arcamen (May 7, 2021)

David Pence said:


> I know this is an old thread. I could possibly put the original forum back online to find out the answer to this question. I still have it backed up somewhere.
> 
> The site started out as an 'addon' to another site I used to host at thelordoftherings.com. Around 2000 or so, I set it up as a stand-alone site under thetolkienforum.com
> 
> ...


If there are old threads in the archives, we can resurrect them, not sure if it would include the ones as old as you're referring to but it'd definitely be interesting to see those!


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## Alcuin (May 7, 2021)

David Pence said:


> I know this is an old thread. I could possibly put the original forum back online to find out the answer to this question. I still have it backed up somewhere.


Welcome back, Dave! Please stay around! 

Can we change his user title to “Forum Founder”?


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## Halasían (Dec 23, 2021)

David Pence said:


> I know this is an old thread. I could possibly put the original forum back online to find out the answer to this question. I still have it backed up somewhere.
> 
> The site started out as an 'addon' to another site I used to host at thelordoftherings.com. Around 2000 or so, I set it up as a stand-alone site under thetolkienforum.com
> 
> ...



@[SIZE=4]David Pence[/SIZE]
Ah yes, thelordoftherings.com... the EZ Board originals were Barrow Downs and Entmoot. I was goad this place was functioning when Fellowship came out twenty years ago. Was active on Theonering.com at the time and their server melted down from the rush. Another great site I was on at the time was Ringbearer.org. They wrapped up operations about ten years or so ago.

Was just thinking of members who have left us and ol' Barliman Butterbar came to mind. Not sure if Raven-Tinuviel registered here but I was friends with her on The One Ring and Ringbearer. I found out she passed away in February 2019.


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