Tolkien Forums

This section contains frequently asked question about rules, who are the Powers, spam, abuse etc.

What should I do if I know of abuse by a member?

What should I do if someone is clearly spamming?

What are the Valar and the Maiar?

How do I contact the Valar and Maiar?

Why has my account been deleted?

How do I use the feedback page?

What punishments does Tolkien Forums give to bad members?

Who is Ulmo?

Who is Manwe?

Who is Melkor?

Who is The One?

Report it to the Valar or Maiar via the 'Contact us' page is one option. You will need to provide the forum and topic where the abuse is contained. Then they will decide what course of action to take.
Alternattively you can report it on the 'Report abuse and spammers' forum under the Rules and Notices catagories. Again we will need the particular forum/s and topic/s of the abuse and who is abusing others.

Abuse will be dealt with swiftly.

The Valar are Eru's administrators. They are classifed in two - the lesser and the greater.
Lesser Valar have the power to edit post and delete post, move/sticky/open/close topics and edit a members personal profile settings.
The Greater have all of the above plus the power to Ban/exile and restore users. The greater Valar have also specific themes assigned to each of them.
There are 14 Valar, Melkor being chief followed by Manwe. Melkor and Manwe have the additional power to create and delete forums and catagories on the activeboard homepage.
Melkor is chief of the Knowledge center and can view all tests results.

Contact the Valar here.

The Maiar are Eru's moderators. They have the power to delete posts, move/open/cose/sticky topics and edit members personal profile settings. They are second in command after the Valar.
Olorin/Gandalf is the chief Maiar.

Contact the Maiarhere.

You can contact the powers via the 'Contact us' page. Use the maiar for most common problems and queries. Contact the Valar for more serious matters.

Note: If you have feedback use the 'Feedback' page.

If you are inactive on Tolkien Forums for a long time despite Admin and moderator reminders your account may be deleted. This is no form of punishment, its just to make sure that the users we have listed are active ones.
By inactive we mean members who have not even Viewed Tolkien forums let alone participated in the forums.

You can create another account as long as you intend to particpate in Tolkien forums relatively regularly.

The feedback page is simple to use. Simply enter all the details about your activity on Tolkien Forums and what your feedback is based on and press 'Submit' at the bottom of the form.
Remember - only feedback. Queries should be taken back to the 'Contact us' page.

Here is the 'Feedback' page

Note: Feedback generally does not get replied to.

Tolkien Forums offers a range of suitable punishments and moderation options for members who misbehave on the forums or elsewhere.
Here is a following of the entire actions that can be executed by Maiar and/or Valar:

Close topics - Topics which are over 100 posts and/or contain many abusive comments may be closed by Maiar/Valar with a general Warning to the Abusers in question.

Edit post - Abusive posts will be edited. Depending on the severity the user who wrote the post may recive an Official warning.

Delete post - Valar and Maiar can delete abusive posts and spam. Depending on severity the user who wrote the post may recive an official warning.

Official warnings - Valar and Maiar may give you an official warning if they had to delete or edit an offensive post. It will have a symbol called an O.W to show its official. The second and last official warning will be accompanied by a downgrade in the users rank.

Official warnings look like this -

Exile/banning -  If a user has received 2 official warnings for severe abuse on Tolkien Forums they may face permanant exile/banning from Tolkien Forums. You will never again be able to participate in the Tolkien Forums Arda/world. Only Greater Valar can issue this punishment. Ulmo is chief of Exiled Users. In rare cases by the grace of the Greater Valar and the authority of Ulmo/Manwe/Melkor can a user ban be lifted.
If you feel you have been banned from Tolkien Forums unfairly then see the 'Banned users' page.

Erased existance - This is only in very extreme cases. A user who has received multiple official warnings for very servere abuse or has been banned but by the grace of the Valar reinstated and still abuses shall have there complete existance on Tolkien Forums Arda Erased.
Not only will they receive permanant Exile which cannot be undone, there entire existance - posts/topics/test results etc - will be completely Erased from Tolkien Forums.
Only The One has this power.