Abbreviations and Terms used on our Boards:

nt

No text inside - should be used whenever the subject line is your entire reply. This was only for the "old style" threaded boards, not the current phpbb ones.

spoiler

Information included within that may give away details to someone who hasn't read all the books.

Mods

Moderators, whose posts sometimes show up in green. Generally very nice people, but if you are ornery, beware the One Ring of Deletion!

BTW

By The Way

IMO/IMHO

In My Opinion/In My Humble Opinion

LOL

Laughing Out Loud

ROTFL

Rolling on the floor laughing

ROTFLMBO

Rolling on the floor laughing my butt off, alternately ROTFLMMO, (laughing my muu-muu off.)

MAMBO

What someone thought the last part of ROTFLMBO stood for. Now refers to doing a happy dance.

Happy Frodo Dance

See "Mambo" above .
A reference to that funny little chicken dance Frodo does at Bilbo's party, indicating the person posting is doing likewise.

LSHIWMM

Laughing So Hard I Wet My Muumuu

LMPO

Laughing My Precious Off

TGOTPP

The Girls of the Prancing Pony
   or, alternately, the gender-inclusive:
The Guests of the Prancing Pony

NOG

Night Owl Girls, or Night Owl Group, those who are regularly on the boards long after everyone else is properly asleep.

 INN

Istari Network News: the name given to MithrandirCQ's news bulletins.

RW

The Real World...that is, the non-virtual one (not to be confused with RWW  or Ringwraith-Wife, a regular poster)

Fingers/ Fringers/Phingers

"Fake Ringers," that is ones who claim great fanship but have not read the books. 

Clingers

Classic Ringers, that is ones who read it a long time ago and never seem to leave Middle-earth.

Inklings

Fan Fiction.  Very short works are also termed "Inklets."

Purist

Someone who thinks the movie failed because Lobelia Sackville-Baggins wasn't given enough screen time.

Anti-Purist

Someone who thinks that even the hot dogs at the concession stand in the theater showing Lord of the Rings were perfect.

LOTR

Lord of the Rings

FOTR

Fellowship of the Ring

TTT

The Two Towers

ROTK

Return of the King

EE

The Extended Edition of the DVD

PP

The Prancing Pony message board

FB

The Fellowship message board

ME

Middle-earth, or the Middle Earth board.

RB

The Red Book message board

PJ

Peter Jackson

EW

Some actor who plays a little person, also known as "Those Eyes."

JRD

Some actor who plays a dwarf.

PIN

Pin-the-tail-on-the-post, a game played at the Prancing Pony in which one person posts "Pin" (as the first reply) preferably within one minute of someone else's new thread being started. The goal was to be the first person to "Pin" the thread-starter. This was a common game on the 'Old Old Boards' with its timestamps.

Swooning

1. Acting in an undignified way while obsessing over a celebrity.
2. Acting normally in the Fellowship Board

Drool

What you find on the floor in the Fellowship Board

Dust Bunnies

The pets that live in a cardboard box under the bar of the Prancing Pony. They eat coffee beans, and are generally cuddly.

Sponge

It apparently has some connection to drool. Are you frightened? Not frightened enough!

Muumuu / Mu'u mu'u / Mumu

Nefarious bit of clothing worn by both Legolas at the Council of Elrond and by certain late night posters at the Prancing Pony.

Fellowshipmallow

Marshmallows in the shape of members of the Fellowship plus Haldir. Frequently found floating in the hot cocoa of the Prancing Pony.

Monophobia (Monophobe)

Fear of being alone. Usually manifests in the PP when the pages are flying by furiously, yet with regular posts asking "Am I the only one here? Where is everyone?"

Athazagoraphobia (Athazagoraphobe)

Fear of being ignored. Usually manifests in any of the boards when someone posts something they feel is important (that doesn't necessarily require a reply) and then two minutes later complains "Doesn't anyone want to read what I wrote?"

Cormarphobic(Cormarphobe)

Fear of being a Ringer. Usually manifests in the co-workers, friends and family of serious fans who "don't get it." Includes such tell-tale comments as "You're all just a bunch of Trekkies." and "You aren't really going to wear that in public, are you?" May involve faked death-by-embarrassment scenes, frequent rolling of eyes and heavy sighing.

FAQ's:

Mb Etiquette 101

FAQ : How do I know which board to post on? And can I just post the same thing on all of them if I can't make up my mind?

Look closer - there is a simple summary by each one telling what they are for. The Prancing Pony is the catch-all if you aren't sure, but it still has to be family-friendly. And no, you can't post the same thing on all of them - this is considered spamming and they will often be taken down. Newbies to message-board posting are encouraged to read the blurb about Mb Etiquette. If it's in the wrong place, our friendly mods may relocate it to the proper area.

FAQ : Why is Gimli in the Fridge?

Gimli was a regular at the Pony from it's earliest days, usually being content to sit at (or under) the bar. But his habit of slurping on noses with horrible slurping sounds caused him to be relegated to the refrigerator, which keeps him in a state of semi-hibernation and helps use up the leftovers at the same time. He even has his own cushion in there and is brought out for dry-cleaning from time to time.  Aragorn has taken up residency in the dishwasher, but it doesn't seem to have done much for his hair yet.  You may find other Fellowship members occasionally lurking in the cupboards or broom-closet.

FAQ : Can I post my fan-fic on the Red Book board?

Yes! If it is family-friendly and based on LOTR (not just sort of set in a middle-earthish world with your own characters) you are welcome to post it at the "Red Book".  Mary-sues and graphic works are discouraged. Not all items are collected for archiving, but all such items can certainly be shared with the fans there. If it is non-LOTR, please use the "Beyond the Farthings" forum.

FAQ : What are smurfs?

Little blue vermin with white hats that occasionally invade the Pony, especially if too many crumbs are dropped on the floor. They are difficult to exterminate, but making them into smurf-ka-bobs, smurf nuggets and blue smoothies (the origin of colored "goo") has proved effective in the past.

FAQ: What is goo? And if someone offers me some, should I drink it?

Goo is a drink originally concocted with a The One Blender of Power that comes in an infinite variety of colors and flavors, the most common being either blue (see "smurfs" above) or rainbow. You may partake without long-term effects, though rainbow goo often makes people float up into the rafters.  Lately some of our patrons have taken more to throwing it at one another in a perpetual foodfight than to drinking it.  The effects of this are messy, but not harmful.

FAQ : Who or what was Legolas Hamster of Mirkwood?

Look here for info on this ususual furry mascot.

FAQ : What's with all the parentheses?

They are (((((((hugs)))))))), the more parentheses, the longer and stronger the virtual hug.

FAQ: What is a "Character Theme Day"?

For quite some time, a 24 hour "day" was devoted to a Tolkien character and hosted on the Middle Earth Board. All were welcome to post stories, songs, poems, essays, links, top ten lists, parodies, etc. etc. which were gathered up for the Theme section of this Scrapbook site. The 'Days' were decided by popular vote, usually alternating major and minor characters.  Having gone through most of the main characters, they've been set aside for now.  We do occasionally have other events for various holidays, such as the Valentine's party, or our annual Mathom Exchange.

FAQ: What are those funny numbers after my post?
  (This pertained to the "old-old boards" at Decipher)

Those are a time and date stamp, showing when your post was made. The "board time" was set in Eastern Standard Time for the United States. Theme Days, for instance, ran midnight to midnight by the "fanclub clock."

Here is a link to a World Clock  so you can compare where you are with any of the other fans, or with the fanclub clock.  The current boards "fanclub clock" is set in Pacific Standard Time but it rarely matters as each person may now set their own viewing time in their own profile.

FAQ: Can I post lots of pictures and banners? 

(this pertains to the 'new' Fellowship of Middle-earth boards)

Yes and no.  You may post pictures all you like, but we ask that you not just post 'for the heck of it', please keep them related to the topic at hand.  Images are not to be kept in signatures, sorry!  The reason for this is some of our members have slow connections or older equipment and the images really slow it down for them as well as creating visual clutter everyone has to constantly scroll past.  A thread is provided under Artwork for you to share your graphic banners and other images with the community.

We want the boards equally fun for everyone, not frustrating, so they can choose to view images-heavy threads when they have the time for it to load and not be suddenly bogged down everywhere they turn. Please put "images" or "pictures" in your subject header if starting a new topic that involves lots of pictures and keep them at 500 pixels or less maximum size. At this time we don't host images, so you'll have to be linking to them from someplace else - search for "free image hosting" and you should find several options like Photobucket, etc.

FAQ: Old boards, new boards, huh?

In brief, this community started with the "One Board" - a single forum hosted at Decipher about four months before the release of FotR at the theaters.  By the time the movie was released, it had become four forums, what we call the "Old-Old Boards." (OOB) These were old-style threaded view webbbs boards, with no images.  Three years later, Decipher changed their boards to a rather sterile colored phpbb "boxy" flat view, and there were mixed feelings on this event. These would be the "Old Boards." This change coupled with ads and frequent difficulties in server, host and service brought about the switch to our own "New Boards" one year later at LOTRfanmb.com which remains our current home.  The new name for the forums was voted on by the community in April '06, becoming the Fellowship of Middle-earth, and we added the LOTRfellowship domains at that time.  The current FoME boards were transferred to Daughter of King's administration at the end of 2011.

FAQ: So, is this place related to Decipher or not?

No, only in the sense that it is where this community found its beginning in October of 2001, and then persevered in spite of various difficulties with that hosting company. This site has never been officially affiliated with them and remains an "unofficial" fan-run, non-profit site. Archiving has been drawn solely from our own LOTRfellowship/ Fellowship of Middle-earth boards beginning in August, 2005.  We do have Decipher's permission to keep copies of the information on the fan magazines they published, kept under Galleries.

An Alternate Characters Guide 

Elvish terms you might see or use:

Namárië!

Farewell

Cormari

Elvish for Ringers -- what we are. "I am a Cormar. We are Cormari" (Pronounced KAHRR-marree with the double R's trilled and the A pronounced like mat)

Hwanohtar

Sponge Warrior

Nai tiruvantel ar varyuvantel i Valar tielyanna nu vilya.

May the Valar protect you on your path under the sky.

Suilad

Hello

Meneg suilaid

Many greetings

Alayambo!

Hooray!

Almien!

Cheers!

Mellyn

Friends

Mano mardenna?

Your place or mine?

Ai! Ai!

A Balrog! A Balrog is come!

istyar

scholar

lírë

song

lairë

poem