World's best procrastination tool (as well as doubling as a profiling device for TPTB) so not a bad idea to avoid it

Division looks AOK to me!


In case it's hard/infeasible to do or maintain, we might get away with supplying user stylesheets through a browser extension like Stylish.

Alfheim.net could work. It comes not from AoS but from nordic sagas (Álfheimr for the purists).
It conveys well the idea of being the home of all Elves/Aelfs. It has more appeal than eflwargames.net
However,
- alf is less known than elf (let alone Álf)
- it does not convey the idea of miniature wargames.

Heh, it turns out there is already a Facebook page called Aelfheim. Apparently, they are a Spanish pagan/neofolk band. So we couldn't use that name anyway.

Some names available

elfkin.net
elvesonline.net
elvennations.com
elvennation.com
fantastyelves.net
elfrealm.net
elfnation.com
elfkin.net
rorkwozere.com

Rork edit: Trolol!

Informed Ulthuan here: Merging a bit more with Druchii and Asrai
Informed Asrai here: Merging a bit more with Druchii and Ulthuan

Rork - you spell like an Ork!


Any further discussion on this - the topic continues to go hot and cold!

2 replies on U (Aicanor!), 1 on A (Naggie!)

Few replies in Asrai, all agreeing.

More replies in Ulthuan, one suggested pointy-ears.net rather than elfwargames.net.
I don't mind, if that makes them happy...
They are less in a hurry, as anticipated.

Pointyears.net was totally a joke suggestion. But I must admit it's sort of grown on me. You must admit it has more... character than elfwargames.net.

Alltheelvesallthetime.com
NationalElfService.org

Shouldn't it be "InternationalElfService", if you're going down that road?

I know it's not as fun, but I say elfwargames. It is clear, and tells you what you can expect to see there.

What were the elves of Warhammer called before they broke off into their different factions?

I like the unusual name of our forum and the other elf factions.

AFAIK it has never been stated in official fluff. It should probably be 'Eltharii'. But it is quite plausible that the elves never actually developed a word for their species as a whole. The political divisions that led to the Sundering happened fairly quickly after the discovery of other intelligent species. They probably wouldn't have had a word for 'elves' before meeting dwarfs and humans for the first time, and the Sundering quickly made the divisions between the kindreds too deep to paper over with a single species-wide name. To an Asur, a Druchii is just as 'other' as a human (and vice-versa). Heck, I could imagine Asur/Druchii being branded as traitors for even suggesting a single name might cover both kindreds.

Just a quiuck dial-in to say I'm on a vacation and will be reading up on the topic(s) on Sunday

I don't know, and I agree that I like the unique name... maybe we could go Tolkein? Noldorim.net? Is that copywritten?

Asur. Meaning children of Asuryan. Simple. It gets complicated from there as some accounts tell is Elves are children of Isha and Kurnous, but I guess Ishar or Kurnians didn't sound as grand.

PS: I hope someone can copy discussions from other two sites here in some form. With the internet connection I have now I don't think I can without losing temper and tossing my phone at the wall in frustration (which I really can't afford to do).

Unless they've changed the fluff since my day, 'Asur' means 'high one(s)' (Asuryan is 'the most high one').

Rather amusingly, the word 'asur' in various real-world languages has meanings like 'twisted', 'evil', 'forbidden' and 'demon'...

Makes sense. I haven't read much of the earlier incarnations of the background (having joined the ranks at the end of 7th). It is still something all elves could identify as before a certain individual took offence for being burnt to a crisp. It then turned out to be a misunderstanding, at which most of the remaining Asur took offence - but that doesn't seem to matter much now.

The demon connection may not be coincidence, it is also close to 'Aesir', So gods or demons, but it doesn't do much for the topic in this thread. Asur are too strongly associated with High Elf fraction anyway. We have name of the language - Eltharin, which is just another spelling of Tolkien's Eldar (people of the stars). And Dwarfs call elves Elgi. Not an option either. We're back at pointyears...

It annoyed me at first to find out Malekith was right all along. Despite being a DE player, I always kinda hated Malekith himself. But I should have seen it coming. We've been told since (IIRC) 4th edition that elven art depicts the god Asuryan as a metal-masked figure sitting in a throne.

I guess if we followed druchii and asrai.net with asur.net, there would have been a petition to rename the site after Khaine.
ET Khaine was still terribly executed. And Malekith (forgive me if I say so) didn't cut a very formidable figure throughout it.

As someone mentioned earlier in this topic, we're having a lot more discussion about merging then over on A.org. There isnt really a reason for us to merge. We're not as active as we have been in the past. And nowhere near the tops of what it has been. But we're seeing reasonable activity with a few posts / topics per day by a handful of active posters. It's at a sustainable level and (though I don't have exact numbers) I have a feeling it's slowly increasing (very slowly...). So, we have little reason to merge and a lot to lose.

My personal feeling is that we'll lose some long time members since they are active because they want to keep U.net floating, but they have little reason to do this for a completely new forum. Just as an example, say that all forums lose 50% of their active members (which I feel is actually a realistic number). And suppose (fictional numbers) that we have 10 active members, D.net has 5 and A.org has 2. After a merger this would give a total of 8 or 9 active members. A win for D.net and A.org, but a loss for us.

A completely new, generic forum with a bit of an elf focus doesn't have any "unfair advantage". There is no reason why someone would join the new forum (with little activity) and not simply join the 9th age forum, the warhammer forum or some other generic WH related forum. At the moment we have our history and long term member who every now and then drop in. Create a new forum and all that is gone.

Another point, which was raised by one of our members, which is something to think about is

A fair enough question in the discussion. Why try to start from scratch when we can simply also build on what's already there and add members to U.net, strengthening what's there. U.net in a good enough position to continue as we are, but we can Always use more active members.

Also, while I'm opposed to a merger doesn't mean I don't see options to work together. Setting up a joint Facebook page, running combined events or trying to generate traffic for each other are all good things. But they don't need a merger to do so.

It could be argued that a combined facebook page would be the better idea instead of forums completely. Forums are old-fashioned, good for special interests like ours (and a subset of a special interest, which even a combined forum would be)...when social media simply didn't exist.

We're the horse to social media's motor car - still useful, but far more niche in our application.

Ulthuan has had 50 users join since the end of May, of which most have not made a single post. We've added the same number since December, with a slightly better level of activity. I'd even suspect most of the more active members of any of the three sites are probably late 20s at the youngest while the younger audience just do a search on facebook/instagram/twitter/tumblr and join those groups instead.

Perhaps the heretical thought is not to continue rearranging what we have, but to move with the times into media that better serves the way people want to communicate (including mobile, something else forums can struggle with).

The problem with that is that, Rork, unless there's a social media outlet I'm not familiar with (highly possible), it doesn't really lend itself well to archival stuff. The treasure trove of info that's built up over time with forums is not something social media can do, and it was my #1 draw to this place when I came.

Rork and I have been discussing this out back.

I think forums still have a valid role. They lend themselves more to the sort of in-depth discussion (of tactics, painting and lore) that is so much a part of the fantasy wargaming hobby than social media does. Plus, as Direweasel pointed out, the useful information can be archived and remain available to newbies. On the other hand, they're not the best 'front page' for a site (or an online community) any more. New players aren't going to be searching for "a forum about elves in wargames", but rather for a FB page, Google+ group or whatever. If that social media 'frontpage' then links to a forum for in-depth discussion, then so much the better.

I don't for one moment think it is a viable plan to just all go and join Ulthuan with no other changes. But maybe a compromise can be found. If Ulthuan is willing to change to embrace all elves in all game systems, with a moderation policy that prevents 9th Age and AoS fans (for example) from roasting each other alive, then maybe it could work as the forum annex for a FB-based community/site?

The FB page would have a suitable 'all-elves-in-all-games' name, but the forums could still be called Ulthuan. I do think the forums need to be arranged in a fashion similar to what we've been discussing here, though. And the mod/admin team would need representatives from all three existing communities and from each of the major game systems (AoS, 9th Age, WHFB and KoW at minimum).

So, is Ulthuan willing to explore this?