Lights?

Score.

Music?

Of course.

This thing on?

Awesome. :^_^:

Well, I know some of you, others I haven't had the pleasure of meeting yet so I'll introduce myself: I am the Masked El Rasko, scourge of pretty much everywhere (mainly the Cbox) and swooner of women.

Stop looking at me like that, I'm serious!

Alright, in all seriousness, I'm Rask Atonis, the newest moderator here on Arda, and it might've been my idea to throw this together (though I will place some of the blame on Ita in case a certain site owner and developer decides we've put a little too much time and effort into singing her praises here today). Having joined only shortly before Christmas I soon found myself here on Arda, postin' my way into 'fame' and 'glo- Oh. Oh haha guys, can we get rid of the quotes around the words now? Alright, thank you. As I was saying, I started to post my way into fame obscurity and glor-...

Ahem.

Aside from that faulty coding mechanisms with a life of their own I found Arda fairly hospitable and the community to be absolutely phenomenal. It blew me away. And what got me the most was actually bumping into the site's creator and owner in the Cbox, the site's chat room. The creator was in the chat room. I didn't know what to make of it. Everywhere else I've gone there've always been two type of site owners.

Owner A usually has a name like 'Enigma' or 'Catharsis'. Something mysterious, unapproachable and hate it when people make a nickname out of it. They usually spend all their time on the site, either intensely working on the site and accepting no feedback, and snapping at people moodily because they haven't slept in three and a half weeks and is subsiding on Red Bull and take-out Chinese.

Yeek. *Shudders*

Owner B is typically known as HAHPWNT! or n00bkllr. The name says a lot about their play style and the state of their board. Rather then the insane dedication of the type A owner, the type B owner really only cares about making their character as powerful as possible, and takes plenty of pleasure reminding everyone else that they're not nearly as good as they are.

Also yeek. *Shudders*

Meeting Loth in the Cbox was my first impression of her. She was friendly, cool and totally immersed in the site community.

Which means she had to be a fellow player.

After getting to know our ever attentive, grumpy-when-tired, fluffeh-critter-luvin' lead Admin more, and now having the pleasure of working under her guidance to better Arda, I've gotten a chance to see all the work that she puts into this site. Just the other day she was up well into the morning finishing up the Guilds, and the Admin 'How To' tutorial on the same topic. I was considerably impressed, and very grateful for it.

But my fondest memory thus far has got to be logging onto Arda at a bleary hour of the morning, tripping over a couple of Alba's many items (“a scythe? Is that really necessar- Oh it is. Ok den"), stumbling past Ita gnawing on... Something (“is that a... Ew... Y'know, I hear that's great with a little mustard") and into my thread in the Temple of Life to find that not only I had the pleasure to not only RP with the site's maker, but also to be taken in as her Chose IC.

Tres cool.

But that's all from me. I now open the floor to everyone else.

- El Rasko

The thing I'll probably always remember about Loth was how welcome she made me feel when I came back to Arda. I was persuaded by others to come and see what had been going on in Arda recently, but the problem was I didn't remember my username or password that I had created two years earlier. To make matters worse, I had also changed my e-mail address. I had no way to log back in to Arda! But Loth was kind and understanding, and we communicated through another member to retrieve my login info and get me back to the site.

Loth has never been above chatting with her members. Though she may not have time to RP as much as she'd like, she can always be found in the Cbox talking to the members as if she were one of them. She's not stuck up and unapproachable like many Admins on other sites. She's friendly, she has a great sense of humor, and a vicious appetite tongue.gif

Some of us like to take breaks from Arda when we lose our inspiration or feel like doing other things. This isn't the case with Loth. She's always here, answering questions, filling shop orders, and making Arda a better place. She's completely devoted to the success of the site, and that's really admirable.

What some people don't know is that Loth even puts her own money into making Arda a great site. She pays a yearly bill to make the Cbox autorefresh (which is EXTREMELY convenient). Not only that, but she also pays a yearly bill to keep the domain name therealmofarda.com. The domain name is awesome and really gives us some credibility as a site.

Arda simply wouldn't exist without Loth's work. She made the site, she created the complex world of Arda, she recruited for it, and she keeps it going. I can't think of anyone else who I'd rather have running any RP site. Kudos, Loth. Major kudos, and thanks for making Arda such a fun place for the rest of us! ^_^

Looks like its my turn.

Im glad to say that i have spent over a year here at arda. Yes a whole year of my life, hardly devoted yet none the less i am more than glad to say that while i may not be a pilar of the comunity i atleast prop up some of the more wobbly walls in the set that is arda. I very much doubt that i would still be here rping today if loth had not given me the chance to be a guardian. It is surprising that this has been the only rp site i have ever been trully a member of. When i arived i was the opitamy of noobness. It was my first time spent rping via text. I was quite frankly rubbish. But it goes to show just how nurturing arda can actualy be. Most other sites would have shunned and pwned me how ever in arda i managed to get my act together. When loth made me guardian of the earth It clearly shows just how good arda is. That someone who turns up with no experiance can gain the confidance and ability to gain a possition. This is thanks almost totaly to loth. With you loth and arda itself i doubt i would have...

A. be a touch typist
B. Have made so many cool friends on arda
C. get the grades i do in english

I think that loth is one of the most dedicated admins i have ever seen on an invision forum and though i havnt been an rp member to many, i have been a member of many a forum and she by far is one of the most human admins i have ever had the pleasure meeting.

I owe arda and loth a lot. Only the gods know what i would be doing with my spare time if it wasnt for arda.

Arda has now become a place where it seems everyone can feel welcome and people are more than happy to follow the rules. With out a doubt this is one of the best rping communitys on the web and with out loth this fair land of arda would not even exist. So with great pleasure I say a massive thank you.

THANK YOU LOTH! :wub:

You! Yeah, you! ...dammit, don't fall asleep when I'm talking to you! This is important! :arr: Oh come on, I'm not that bland! :frantic:

There. Now that I have your attention, as you so rudely decided to nod off on me when I was in the middle of describing the wonderful world of flea prevention, I would like to begin talking about my life story.

...I saw that! Your eyelids fluttered! You know what? FINE! Maybe my life story is too good for you! But I do know one topic that will keep your attention. Wanna guess? No, it's not dancing rabbits, you freak. Arda is three years old!

Arda started, to my knowledge, in 2004. I had the pleasure of joining during the summer of 2005, right when the forum was springing back to a good deal of activity. Arda as a whole completely blew me away; its depth was stunning. Loth herself seemed nice and very competent, much more active than admins I had previously dealt with in other forums. Hell, in the old forum I was a member of, the admin was so inactive people cheered with joy when they saw her in the online list. Isn't it weird that both Loth and that older admin are both from Columbus, Ohio? Creeeeeepeh.

Anyway, the first PM I ever got in Arda was from Loth. ...okay, so it was a war password, but it was a PM from an ADMIN! How cool is that!?! When I finally joined Arda's Cbox, it all got better. Loth was actually active in that thing. Did I mention her activity level blew my mind!? Actually meeting her was awesome, as well. You know how you can sometimes fear someone out of respect? That's how I was those first few weeks before the Cbox. I thought I was such a lowly newb that she couldn't possibly have time to talk to me like an equal. I was pleasantly surprised not only at how freakin' nice she was, but how savvy and knowledgeable too!

My two favorite Loth moments, however, had to be when I was promoted to Goddess and eventually Co-Admin. No, it was not because of the power. I don't give a damn about power; hell, if Loth were to make me a regular member right at this very second my enjoyment of Arda would not diminish for one single moment! What really was awesome was the means that she gave me the news. It was so witty that it took me hilariously off guard. I'm not sure if any staff after me had been promoted in such an uber manner. xD

When Loth made me a goddess, it had been in the Cbox. Myself, Liara and her were in it, and that was all. Loth started talking about positions casually, like asking if I'd ever apply for anything. I was so ignorant and naive, looking back on it makes me smile. I just thought she was just making friendly conversation. I commented that my character Ita did not fit any positions, and Liara chimed in with some original things that would fit. Loth said that only positions that existed could be taken, so Liara mentioned chaos. I said, "But there isn't a Guardian of Chaos position!" And Loth replied with, "But there is a Goddess of Chaos." I nearly died.

The promotion to co-admin was just as uber. I was talking to Loth on MSN, chatting a bit. We were talking about Promotion Day, the day that Avennian would become guardian and Charlotte and Aloric would become Keepers. She had tasked me to scan some of Aloric's topics to verify he had never broken rules. I insisted he hadn't. Then she told me that I had an additional thing to do, and posted a link. Eager to help, I clicked it, and lo and behold, it was a topic in the Admin forum congratulating Death and I on our promotions. I nearly died; again.

Loth, and I say this with as little intent to suck up as humanly possible, you rock, and Arda wouldn't be nearly as awesome without you. Cheers on your site's third year!

Well, even though I am not a mod or some fancy shmanshy goddess, I suppose I have to own up to Lothy too.

Four score and... seven months? (not sure) ago, I joined Arda. But I wouldn't be here if it werent for Lothy. Originally, I was but a wee lad exploring the world of Imythess, which I had found by chance.

Before and during my time in that land, I had experienced many a forum abondoned because the sites admins and mods lost hope for it, or simply didn't care. Imythess was a completely amazing experience. Lo and behold, even though the site creator could no longer take care of it's brainchild, here was Lothlomendil kindly helping the site through hard times.

That kept me glued to the community, and I always admired that part about Lothy. She cared. She still does care. IT was this that inspired me to join Arda, a community that she herself created. IF Imythess was a nice place to be in the stead of a what I like to call, 'foster parent', how much better would her own flesh and blood be?

Well, I have been on Arda for roughly a year and a half. Sure, me and Lothy have had our disagreements. However, I stuck around because I knew that this was something special.

Lothy cares about this place, so much to devote endless hours of the night and her own money to it.

Thanks alot. Even the rulebreaker can know a good admin when he sees one. :)

Let's see, when did I first run into Loth?


hmm.....


The earliest that I can remember is when I was a complete newbie, and she was warning me for posting waaaay to short of posts (like 4 or 5 words). Even then, she was nice about it. I always was a bit of a "problem member", but Loth somehow put up with me. Thanks to her patience, I've been able to get better, both as a writer and a member.

I may not talk to Loth much, but she always seems to have a great sense of humor, and she's alot more involved than any other admin that I've ever seen on any site.

I have to say, if it wasn't for Loth, I probably wouldn't even be rp'ing right now. So thanks Loth, for all of your work for all of us here at your site.

Well, I guess I should post too.

I joined Arda on New Year's Day. I was bored watching my siblings and my cousins set off fireworks, so I sneaked into my uncle's room and used his computer. I was still pretty much new to roleplaying when I joined Arda, but it seemed like a cool site and I joined anyway.

One encounter with Loth that I can remember was getting warned twice for having posts under 25 words. (<<Yeah, like only reaching 15 or 20 words). But even if I got warned, and even if I left Arda shortly after, when I came back, there were no hard feelings.

When I came back the second time, there were no hard feelings either, which kind of surprised me a bit. I had been away from Arda for what, 6 months, and no one really minded that I popped back in again, even making Advanced Roleplayer.

And I'm back for the third time, hopefully here to stay. :lol: I have one thing to say, if it wasn't for this site and it's admin, I'd probably still be making 15 word posts in roleplay boards. Heck, I don't think I'd be roleplaying at all if it weren't for this site.

So, thanks Loth and thanks Arda. Happy three years.

My turn:

Well, when I joined this site last December, I had come from several boards that either had touchy or inactive admins, who were letting their boards fall apart. I was desperately searching for somewhere new to RP, and eventually found Arda on a Google search. I came on, signed in, and never looked back.

What really caught my eye at first was the simple ginormousness of this board. There were tons of forums, a huge OoC section, shops, a money system, much more advanced than anything I had previously been apart of. I immediately loved the shops and the money system as a way to counter-act the type of godmoding that plagues other boards. The RP boards had flourished descriptions, and the community was tight-knit and very welcoming. Eventually, after climbing back into my computer chair, I set off to find out exactly who made this fine site.

What I found was a kind, genuinely cool admin with a sense of humor to match. The amount of work that she pours into this board is simply unparalleled, and she is all the while cool and understanding towards everybody. Even though her character is uber-powerful, she’s not the type B that the Masked El Rasko mentioned. It was really great to know that Arda had such a nice community, with Loth at the head, that was very nice and accepting OoC as well as IC. The first time I met up with Lothy on the Chat Box, I didn’t know quite what to expect. Eventually, we began messing around with the dancing bunnehs, along with El Rasko, and how incredibly light-hearted Loth was really surprised me. Sometimes, Admins can be very heavy, as if always on a quest to hawk over their board for rule-breaking, etc. But Loth was fooling around with bunneh emotes on the chat box, and that’s pretty much my defining Lothy moment.

To finish:

Loth. Pwns. :lol:

I've gotta get mine in here fast before Loth replies to it! :o

Loth, Loth, Loth. Lothló, Lomen and Lolló (No-one seems to use that last nickname, I plan to be the first!). Arda has been a huge stepping stone in life for me, and I mean HUGE. For me, it wasn't just a fun site which I went on in my spare time, it's been a place from which I can relax and escape to, a place where I can learn not only writing skills but social skills too. I get on with everyone on this site, I think that you are all great people but the person who seems to stand out has to be Loth.

Dedication like this is a skill to be envious of, as Loth seems to be on the site every day (if not every other day) helping it grow and helping it achieve. But she's not just helping the site, she's helping the members by being an inspiring role-model, a great admin and an incredibly hardworker (who still has time to apologize when she hasn't finished off adding a new feature because she's been doing a million other tasks on the site!) :lol:

The first thing that struck me about Arda and the site in general, and probably the main reason I decided to stick with the site was the amazing closeness between the staff and the members. On any previous sites I'd ever gone onto, both groups were completely isolated from each other but on here it seemed as if everyone were friends, and we could talk to the owner on the Cbox! That surprised me, and persuaded me to stay.

(at the rate I'm going I could make this little speech into a 60k post :D Better start summarising...)

I used to worry not long ago that Loth was going to give up with this site, that she would get bored or frustrated with it and just quit altogether. This thought scared me a lot, as I depended (and still do) on this site. But then I was reminded of the intense effort Loth puts into making this site, and the extreme troubles she goes through just to make sure that everyone who enjoys Roleplaying has a place to go. I've overcome many different things on this site which have improved me as a person, and in the end it's all thanks to Loth. :cuddle:

PARTY AT RASK'S HOUSE!

EDIT: Oh, and one last quick note; I probably wouldn't have even been able to type up a quarter of this length without Arda. The site has really brought me a long way with my writing!

(posting here as Lance)

Looking back on Arda...

...

...

Okay, I got pretty much nothin'. <.< 'Course, I'm glad to have found Arda after a year of being kicked off the computer, after running through a bunch of other sites that I can describe as a word I refuse to use (it starts with a 'c'...or maybe 's'). It's plenty active like the old places I used to go to, and with better rpers around it helped me pick back up my word count quickly enough, even raising it above what I used to be able to do easily.

The c-box has definitely been some good times, too. Tormenting people, setting what now should be a trap patented to me of buckets filled with water and octopuses >.> Often finding people leave or stay away while I'm on there, not that I can blame them. Oh, and playing fetch with Ita. Sometimes at others' expenses.

All in all, Arda's definitely been fun for me, and while I haven't advanced my characters as much as I have before on other sites, they still enjoy it here. So I guess that's pretty much all I have to say about Arda.

As for Lomen, we've known each other from years back, starting in Imythess (I think...maybe it was Avalon...beh, ask her, it's hard to keep track of all the places I've been to >.< ). I'd say we've always gotten along well enough, including at my own site. *sigh* Back then we were both newbs and couldn't post a quarter of what we regularly do now, but ah well, we'll both admit to it.

Anyway, I'm sure everyone that knows me, especially from the c-box, knows that I can be a psycho little pain in the rear, but I still hope people don't mind having me around, and to maybe make a few lasting friends sometime.

Lothy oh Lothy. Where would we be without you. I think it is safe to say that you are appreciated and loved here on Arda ( and possibly other places too... *winks and Steffie*). Anyway, you take the cake, and if you haven't grasped that from the above posts, here are my flashbacks, memories and just good times with the Lady of Arda and Goddess of Meerkats. :p

Loth and I met way back... 3 years ago... and a teeny tiny site where we were both "Kings" (despite being female characters!! :p) and rather... young rpers. I had just gotten into the game, just found out what rping was and wanted to try my hand at it, somehow stumbling onto the site. I can honestly say that I probably wouldn't have stayed on that site for more than a day if it wasn't for her warm welcome and casual invites to rp (or just joining in topics with me!) She was so kind... outgoing... halarious... we seemed to hit it off right away! After that site seemed to be declining in activity (I'm not sure if I ever saw the board owener on!) I got a PM from Loth saying "hey I just made a site! You should come check it out! here's the link... there's even a balance position!" (which I had been ruler of on said other site). Of course I joined up and from then on We've been Arda buddies to the death!!

If you're creative you can scrounge up some old school rp's between us that were embarassing in length and description... although Loth still had her "otherworldly" presence and godly aura. :p Way back in those days... there wasn't even any shops! Loth was slaving away day in and out to finish up the shops and prices until finally, on one glorious day... I hear the announcement... "SHOPS ARE OPEN!" I'm not sure if you guys realize the amount of hard work and effort that goes into things like that. It is huge! Time and creativity amungst other talents... she was amazing!! (still is... fyi). And Arda only seemed to grow because of the continuous hard work and effort put forth by her.

Whether it's cheesey food jokes in the cbox, awesome plot bunnies in the admin forum, or just all around friendliness and support, Loth has done it all... and amazingly. She's the brains of this operation... just think... where would we all be rping, what would we all be doing without Loth and Arda?! She made this!! 3 years ago! And look how it's grown!

So thanks Loth, for the continuous support in me and my rp skills, your amazing mothering of Arda (your precious baby :p ) and your amazing personality. You have been a great rp partner, a great board owner and a greater friend. I am so grateful that you trusted me and had enough faith in me to make me a co-admin. It means a lot... and I know I haven't been as helpful as I could be in the past few months but I will never abandon Arda or you :) . You rock. I can't imagine cbox, spam, ohio state, meerkats or food/ refridgerators without you. You've made each and every one of us welcome and feel appreciated.

So thanks again for being such and amazing friend and a wonderful person. We've pretty much seen it all (in the rp world) together... and here's to seeing it all again (mayhap with a little less drama)... for the next 3 years... and many more!! Ypou rock. And I don't know where I'd be without you.

Love you for real! :heart:

-Renny.

Ps- you were the best "first ever" rp partner a kid could ever ask for. :)

Looks like it is my turn. Kind of odd, Death making a post praising the Goddess of Life. Then again, that is how the world works.

I joined the site, in the summer of 2004, soon after it opened. At first I was kind of intimidated because of how long some of the people's posts where (at the time, I was lucky to post 50 words). Soon, I acquired the Guardian of Water position, this was before the 2 week requirement. Lothlomendil was working hard to get the shops up at the time, so we got to pick out 2 weapons, 1 piece of armor, and 4 spells for free. Pretty cool. Anyways, I stumbled across the site while looking for a site to rp on. I had been on several sites before, but none of them came anywhere close to being on the same level as Arda.

I think I have 2 favorite moments on Arda. The first one happened soon after I first created Death. I logged on to Arda one day, and I saw something that blew me away. There was a member named Pestilence. That was completely awesome for me because now we had 3 of the horsemen. And lo and behold, Pestilence was Loth. That was really cool of her. The second favorite moment is one that cracks me up. I had a thread where I was going to try and destroy Lomedor with Valdearg, so Loth posted with her dragon character to try and stop me. She didn't have a magic spell to disguise her, so she got into Lomedor by way of a crate. Later when I mentioned that, she said "Yeah I was in a crate, bite me." Which just cracks me up.

Lothlomendil has put an enourmous amount of work into Arda for the past 3 years, and it even survived that one summer where I thought it died and everyone was leaving. Admittedly I was one of those people that left, but I was surprised to get an email one day (I think it was from Famine) saying that Arda was back up. So I went back and here I am today. One thing that I love is that Loth is always looking for ways to improve the site. I can think of 2 or 3 times where I have made a random comment and she seized the idea to turn it into something. (You can thank me for the fact that she decided to pay for the cbox ;) )

So Loth, here is to 3 years of hard work and dedication on your part. I hope you stay around for years to come.

:$

Everyone in this topic has been so kind, I'm humbled :$ :wub:

I wanted to reply to this sooner but I've had limited internet access the last few days, and when I have had time to be on I had important work to do with finishing up Arda Day celebrations and whatnot. I finally have a breather and can give everyone the big thanks that they so deserve. :wub:

When I saw this topic I had been having a pretty rough day, and let me tell you what, this really changed that. You guys totally caught me by surprise you sneaky devils you. :p I really didn't know what to say then, I was just blushing furiously and hoping no one in the house noticed. :lol: Sadly, I still don't know exactly how to respond other than to say thank you so much for the kind words.

I'm so lucky to have such an awesome group of members, it's you guys that really make Arda what it is - a place for everyone to come and have some fun with some great company. I feel like Arda Day marks the beginning of a new page in Arda's history, where the community is tighter than ever and we have only upward to go from here. It's been a great journey over the last three years, working together with you guys to build what we have today. There have been some really good times spent with everyone here, and I'm sure that there are soon to be more memories made. :)

I will always remember how Loth can make me feel comfortable one minute, and then utterly terrified the next. I will also always remember how hard she works on this site! We would certainly be a mess without her around. :)