Changes at Xenite.Org

Two major changes have rolled out at Xenite.Org this month. First, we’ve brought an old domain, Tolkien-Studies.com, home to a new subdomain on Xenite. Second, we’ve added a new Hot Zone section to the Middle-earth Blog.

Tolkien Studies on the Web Has Moved

Many years ago we launched Tolkien Studies on the Web to help document which universities were teaching classes about J.R.R. Tolkien’s fiction. But the task became monumental and the site has languished for many years.

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Low Cost Streaming Options for Science Fiction Fans

Scifi fans should not have to give up everything when the household income drops. Here are ways to keep watching shows and movies.

Over the past 13 years, millions of American families have struggled to make ends meet. Even though economists generally agree that the U.S. economy began picking up steam in 2015, the years 2015-2019 were no better for 10s of millions of American workers than the years 2009-2014. The people who benefited the most from economic growth were wealthier families.

There are several reasons why about half of American workers didn’t benefit from the “good years” after the Great Recession. First, millions of people turned to the Gig Economy for income. They had no other viable options. But Gig jobs are not designed to make the gig workers rich. They pay just enough to keep people working to make the Gig company owners rich. That sucks, but that’s the capitalism most Americans love.

New Look for SF-Worlds

SF-Worlds.Com enters 2021 with a new look and new content.

SF-Worlds.Com is the second oldest domain in the Xenite.Org network of fan sites. When we moved the original Xenite forums to their own domain in 2001, we discussed whether SF-Worlds.Com should be the new forum home. We decided to give the forums a fresh start on a new domain, and the rest is history.

Through the years I’ve experimented with different ideas for SF-Worlds. Most of its content consists of articles I wrote for for specific science fiction or fantasy worlds – articles that didn’t really fit in well on Xenite.Org or SF-Fandom. But it would be many years before I added a blog to SF-Worlds.

SF-Fandom Is About to Turn 20 Years Old

What SF-Fandom’s home page blog looks like as of December 2020 and January 2021.

March 3, 2021 is approaching. It’s a special day for us because it’s the 20th anniversary of the launch of the SF-Fandom forums. The forums began on Xenite.Org, which I launched in March 1997. Xenite is still going strong today, nearly 24 years later. But I’m proud to say that SF-Fandom is doing very well, too.

What makes SF-Fandom special to me is that it’s a community of dedicated science fiction and fantasy fans. It’s a moderated community, in fact. We don’t allow flame wars. People don’t attack each other when they disagree. Our moderation team is very democratic, too. If I as the forum owner do something the other moderators disagree with, I bow to their wisdom.

SF Fandom Forums Have Moved

We have changed the location of the SF-Fandom Science Fiction and Fantasy Forums. The move was necessary so that we could upgrade our software to be more secure. And I’ve been wanting to separate the forums from the old blog for a long time. Putting the forums on their own subdomain simplifies a lot of things.

The new URL for the forums is:

https://forums.sf-fandom.com/

Amazon, LoTR, Christopher Tolkien, and More

Christopher Tolkien, son of J.R.R. Tolkien, has resigned from the Tolkien Estate ahead of the announced TV deal with Amazon.

For those of you GEICO commercial inhabitants who are living under rocks, Amazon Video paid a cool (estimated) $200 million to $250 million for the television rights to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.  Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, announced the deal himself on Twitter.  You don’t see that kind of activity every day.  I read some speculation (or perhaps a rumor) that Bezos was directly involved in the negotiations.  HBO and Netflix may also have had a shot at the rights before the Tolkien Estate went with Bezos and Amazon.

Who will actually produce the show?  No idea yet.  I’m sure a lot of production companies would love a shot at it.  Fannish reactions are a mixture of despair and hope.