Tad Williams' Message Board

Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies -- 'God damn it, you've got to be kind.'
-    Kurt Vonnegut, 1922-2007

Welcome to the message board for tadwilliams.com. All comments are welcome, whether kudos or brickbats. However, please bear in mind that Tad would like this to be a friendly, civil message board, at least in the relations between users. We reserve the right to remove postings, or even ban postings, from anyone who crosses the boundary of reasonable taste. Basically, you can argue vigorously with someone, but watch your language, okay? We have a lot of young readers as well as grown-ups, so please show them some respect.

But the main requirement here is: have fun.


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#51 2007-01-10 07:29:00

wiked
Pilgrim
From: the land of ice and snow
Registered: 2001-06-01
Posts: 7490
Website

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

Dogadalytes


Slave of the lizard king

Master of the esoteric arts

He's exciting in a "here come the Magyrs" kinda way

 

#52 2007-01-10 09:12:00

Marian
Pilgrim
From: Richmond, VA
Registered: 2001-06-05
Posts: 17444
Website

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

Taddites. We've been Taddites forevers.

 

#53 2007-01-10 10:17:00

Jaime
Pilgrim
From: Wilmington, NC
Registered: 2001-06-01
Posts: 11441

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

Silly people.

We're TADMINIONS.


Yield to temptation; it may not pass your way again.

-- Heinlein

 

#54 2007-01-10 10:31:00

Aan`allein
Hierarch
From: The Netherlands - occasionally
Registered: 2001-06-04
Posts: 5637
Website

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

Weren't we henchpeople? :)

...well, except those of us who were on The List of course... *looks around shiftily*


Mozilla developer comment of the however long it'll be this time:
<Mossop> run for the hills!
<Boriss> i can't, i'm at a local maximum!


Just Imagine...

 

#55 2007-01-10 11:10:00

Jendaiya
Pilgrim
From: Canada
Registered: 2001-06-01
Posts: 21821
Website

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

I want to keep my post count AND my member number, if we're gonna get right down to it. But I dun suppose that's practical.

I seem to remember being somewhere at the top of said List.

*cowers in fear*


Beauty will save the world.

~Prince Myshkin,

The Idiot, by Dostoevsky

 

#56 2007-01-10 11:36:00

Magpie
Mantis
From: the town of thistly flowerbeds
Registered: 2006-03-27
Posts: 19931
Website

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

It's been less than a year since I first poked my nose in here (3 February, an utterly miserable, homesick Friday, I'll never forget), and there is no other word for it, I simply fell in love with Smarch.
And any change in the design would hurt me as much as a change in the furniture of my room (which never changes except for the addition of new bookshelves and plants). (As several people have said already, it is so wonderfully calm. ) (The same goes for the name. I do realize it will have to change eventually, when the book becomes part of the distant past, but please please not until we have a name that is... I don't know how to decribe it. It's short, but without sounding silly. And it doesn't even sound silly when I use it while talking in german).
Could get used to a way to go straight to the last page, though.

A news section would be good, too.

As for the world map - would be cool - I actually started marking the locations of the people I know better on a map (mainly to be able to remember what time zone they are in , but I still manage to confuse myself).

And a definite NO to FAQs giving away any of the in-jokes and "myths". This was one of those things that I enjoyed so much, all this "What the heck is so funny about that?" and then, weeks later, it suddenly makes sense. (And forum 9 mist definitely stay nonexistent, that was one of those discoveries I enjoyed so much).


I think we've just proven that our greatest power is silliness!
- cyan

babbling about books and plants
my crazy customers

Online

 

#57 2007-01-10 11:49:00

Jaime
Pilgrim
From: Wilmington, NC
Registered: 2001-06-01
Posts: 11441

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

You know, I don't think I made The List.

Hmph.


Yield to temptation; it may not pass your way again.

-- Heinlein

 

#58 2007-01-10 12:01:00

Maladroit
Pilgrim
From: Passamaquadey
Registered: 2001-06-03
Posts: 1523
Website

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

I'd like to third and fourth any "please no bright and animated anything" arguments.

I'm pretty sure I'll be there: regardless of where the piano sits, what names we go by, whether there's a swimming pool or not...the forever Taddite/Lyst/SMarch/groupie, that's me.

 

#59 2007-01-10 13:19:00

Miiru
Pilgrim
From: Just a bit left of center.
Registered: 2001-06-20
Posts: 14675
Website

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

It'll be like looking at rock strata in archaeology or geology- you can tell how long a Tad fan has been around by the list of message boards they've belonged to. *g*


Ted Kennedy in a speedo is just another sign of the coming apocalypse.
-wiked

 

#60 2007-01-10 16:08:00

wiked
Pilgrim
From: the land of ice and snow
Registered: 2001-06-01
Posts: 7490
Website

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

come on Jamie, we are the few the proud, the Lysters. You me and the strangelady,


Slave of the lizard king

Master of the esoteric arts

He's exciting in a "here come the Magyrs" kinda way

 

#61 2007-01-10 16:09:00

Firsfron of Ronchester
Mantis
From: Ronchester
Registered: 2001-06-04
Posts: 9204
Website

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

Imuri si dunces of wrote:

It'll be like looking at rock strata in archaeology or geology- you can tell how long a Tad fan has been around by the list of message boards they've belonged to. *g*

I really like that. Already says on Shadowmarch's front page that it's a "web fossil". Some of us have been around since the Cretaceous!

 

#62 2007-01-10 16:45:00

Miiru
Pilgrim
From: Just a bit left of center.
Registered: 2001-06-20
Posts: 14675
Website

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

I think that makes me an early mammal, but I'm not sure. *g*


Ted Kennedy in a speedo is just another sign of the coming apocalypse.
-wiked

 

#63 2007-01-10 17:09:00

strangeshe
Hierarch
From: Texas
Registered: 2001-06-04
Posts: 11253

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

wiked wrote:

come on Jamie, we are the few the proud, the Lysters. You me and the strangelady,

I think Seitherin and possibly Sadalian (iirc) were around in the pre-Lyst days on the GEnie boards, but I'm not exactly certain of that. Both were also Lysters, & Marian, too. I think Beazle still pops in here occasionally as well but mostly lurks.

Jaime probably doesn't remember this, but she was the one that originally directed me to the Lyst (called Tadhenge back in those days) -- so y'all can blame her. When I first got there, Wiked and Beazle were having Barbecued Chinchilla parties. Or wars. Or something. It was exceedingly strange, so naturally I had to stay.

I'm sure new arrivals here have similar stories of experiencing varieties of weirdness that are just not found anywhere else on the net. We're all so perfect for each other.

 

#64 2007-01-10 17:23:00

Em
Mantis
From: somewhere left of reality
Registered: 2004-12-28
Posts: 42283

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

I'm late to the party again ...

BBQ Chinchillas?

~ Post-Lyster ~


Don't let appearances fool you, there's always only one reality. 1Q84, Haruki Murakami.

 

#65 2007-01-10 17:27:00

Firsfron of Ronchester
Mantis
From: Ronchester
Registered: 2001-06-04
Posts: 9204
Website

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

Tad mentioned GEnie in the acknowledgements of TGAT, back in 1994. That's, like, positively Permian!

 

#66 2007-01-10 17:30:00

Em
Mantis
From: somewhere left of reality
Registered: 2004-12-28
Posts: 42283

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

*nudges Firsfron*

We haven't had an update to the postcount list in a while.


Don't let appearances fool you, there's always only one reality. 1Q84, Haruki Murakami.

 

#67 2007-01-10 17:31:00

Firsfron of Ronchester
Mantis
From: Ronchester
Registered: 2001-06-04
Posts: 9204
Website

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

Don't you want to reach 20k first, Martha?

 

#68 2007-01-10 17:36:00

Em
Mantis
From: somewhere left of reality
Registered: 2004-12-28
Posts: 42283

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

That's a good idea, Firs.


Don't let appearances fool you, there's always only one reality. 1Q84, Haruki Murakami.

 

#69 2007-01-10 18:03:00

Seitherin
Mantis
From: Texas, near Houston
Registered: 2001-06-01
Posts: 7034
Website

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

strangeshe wrote:

I think Seitherin and possibly Sadalian (iirc) were around in the pre-Lyst days on the GEnie boards, but I'm not exactly certain of that. Both were also Lysters, & Marian, too. I think Beazle still pops in here occasionally as well but mostly lurks.

GEnie is before my time. I didn't get online until the end of 1996 and that's when I found the Lyst (or maybe early 1997.) Oh, wow, 10 years. Doesn't feel like it.

As for this topic, put me in the list of people who don't want flashy graphic anythings on the board and who really like the very soothing color scheme we currently have. I'd also like it if the board could remain "Shadowmarch" since that's become a second home for us.

I'm with Jen on wanting to keep my member number but I'm not terribly attached to my post count.

The rest of the new site should probably have a News section with current project/tour info, a Bio section, and a Bibliography.


"The evil done by men of goodwill is the worst of all." Iain Pears, The Dream of Scipio

"Where all think alike, no one thinks very much." Walter Lippmann (1889-1974)

So, I've got a blog . . . Now what? | A Stitch in Time | The Name Nook

 

#70 2007-01-10 18:41:00

Binky
Pilgrim
From: New Zealand
Registered: 2001-06-13
Posts: 4353

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

Is the Lyst something that predated the Treehouse?  I remember lurking on something with a black background, threaded posts, and Paragon's side-splitting review of Susan Wood's TV interview with Tad.

 

#71 2007-01-10 18:50:00

Jaime
Pilgrim
From: Wilmington, NC
Registered: 2001-06-01
Posts: 11441

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

GEnie precedes the Lyst, I believe.  The Lyst was a mailer-daemon type mailing list that started with COGS or so, that was originally on one server and then moved to yahoogroups.  It was very much like smarch but with a much smaller population, with its own weird stories.  Perhaps Wiked can recap for us the two God Wars...

Guthwulf, Marian, and NancIE are also Lysters, and I'm sure there are others I've inadvertently forgotten.


Yield to temptation; it may not pass your way again.

-- Heinlein

 

#72 2007-01-10 19:08:00

bandit
Pilgrim
From: Palmerston North, NZ
Registered: 2002-11-13
Posts: 4034
Website

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

I want to keep the colors too. I agree with Firs that it looks kinda 70s style, but I like that about it.

Sidenote: when I first started visiting smarch it was on a gimpy monitor - I thought forever that the color scheme was mostly pink. I still think of it that way actually, despite the yellow-brown-green magnificence.


Crow: I think Ray Liotta would make an okay werewolf.
Tom Servo: No, he smells like apples.
- MST3K

 

#73 2007-01-10 19:13:00

strangeshe
Hierarch
From: Texas
Registered: 2001-06-04
Posts: 11253

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

The site you remember, Binky, is the old Tad Williams Message Board which was put up by Eric Neuman. Damon/paragon, Firsfron, bandit, sam, Rook, lian, and quite a few others including some of the Lysters hung out there. Marian & Pandy & Maladroit found that board prior to the Lyst, as I recall, but there was quite a bit of member crossover between the two.

Prior to Eric's TWMB, however, was Guthwulf's Memory, Sorrow and Thorn Thesis project, which included a MB which was quite active. I think it predated the Lyst (though not by much) and the TWMB. Several old-timers (like myself*) managed to keep an eye on all three. Guth has a new MB he set up around the time Shadowmarch was born (guthwulf.com) but it sadly has been overrun by spambots -- or at least last time I peeked in. I thought that he'd linked to the original MST board there, but I didn't see it on a quick glance just now. Not that there would've been much to see these days; it was overrun by spammers, too, sometime prior to his new site going up. I'll bet I've got the url around here someplace; may have to hunt it down. (In fact, it may still be linked at Treehouse on Yahoogroups. I've not updated those in ages.)

For a short while, Tad had a MB thread over on SFFnet. I have not checked there in over five years, though, so have no idea if it's still around. Seems like there was also an MB on the Tor publisher site sometime around the time the first LEGENDS was released. Tad posted occasionally to both of those (he's so generous to his fans; really is remarkable).

There's probably more that I'm not remembering. I know at least one of the old GEnie folk made it to the Lyst, but unless it's Sadalian, I can't remember who that was.

Yep, 10 years is forever on the net. Also really remarkable.

(*but I should add that I wasn't there at the start of either the TWMB or Guth's MST Board; I only found both of those after Jaime so kindly led me to Tadhenge/the Lyst. I distinctly remember the feeling of wishing I'd discovered all of that earlier, so I know how it feels to read posts from someone like me. Apologies for any angsty stuff for anyone. But just think: one of these days years from now, you'll be the ones talking to newer members about how it was back in the day. Because believe me, we'll all likely still be around then, too!)

[ January 10, 2007: Message edited by: strangeshe ]

[ January 11, 2007: Message edited by: strangeshe ]

 

#74 2007-01-10 19:31:00

Mwyaren
Pilgrim
From: Hole-In-The-Wall, NY
Registered: 2002-11-16
Posts: 2298
Website

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

just my own bid:  avatars (i have one of a little purple dragon!), and to keep the current fora in place.

thank you ::curtsey::


Walter, put the cow away, would you?!

 

#75 2007-01-10 19:40:00

shadowsandice
Pilgrim
From: Melbourne, Australia
Registered: 2001-05-31
Posts: 17298
Website

Re: IMPORTANT SHADOWMARCH INFO!

And I, with my power level at NINE THOUSSSSSAAAAAANDDDDDD!!! negate that vote for avatars, 'cause I'm all anti-avatar.

THERE IS NO AVATAR THAT CAN CONTAIN ME.  AVATARRRRR.


silence-without - Bringing you the views of Tessadom
Wild and Free! Like a BADGER!!!  ::  Fight Club for BB posters

 

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