We at myArmoury.com celebrate our four-year anniversary today. Originally started as a showcase for my own collection, the site launched anew on March 10th, 2003 with a goal of providing relevant content for the arms and armour enthusiast.

Since the beginning, we have maintained a breakneck pace publishing high-quality articles and reviews every other week: a pace unmatched among arms and armour sites.

These four years have seen 130 featured articles, 185 hands-on reviews, and 223 collection gallery pages published through our efforts. In addition, we've put out many other community-driven features and complete sections such as the bookstore to further enhance the user experience and add value to this site. I'm confident in saying that myArmoury.com is one of the most feature-rich, content-driven community sites on the Internet.

I'm proud of what this project has accomplished. The body of work that this site represents is far greater than I would have ever predicted it to be. The impact on its targeted hobby, its hosted community, and the market catering to them both has been impressive to say the least.

As our fifth year dawns, I've had to look critically both at how I've personally impacted the project and how the project has personally impacted me. I've had immense amounts of collaborative help during these four years and this has made it possible to present such a large volume of content to our readers.

Without the authors and my contributing team, this project would not be what it is today. Despite this, I've had to have my own hands on each and every aspect of the site since the beginning. All the programming, production, organization, maintenance, technical upkeep, and all the administrative needs that go along with it have been solely on my shoulders. The amount of time I've put into this project has been staggering.

Looking forward and trying to put everything in perspective, it's become obvious that I cannot maintain the pace of updates any longer. Changes in my professional life and the priorities of my other interests will require more flexibility from my hobby time than this site's bi-weekly publication deadline will allow.

I want to maintain the quality of our efforts and so, as a result, I have to change the manner in which we publish the content on this site. While we will continue to bring new and exciting content to our readers, we must now move away from publishing every two weeks. We'll endeavor to continue to outpace others in the field of sites like this.

Articles and reviews will now be published as they are ready, rather than according to a bi-weekly publication schedule.

We've very much enjoyed four years of bi-weekly updates and we're looking forward to continuing to deliver new featured articles and reviews to our loyal readership.

Nathan,

A genuine and sincere Happy Anniversary to you and the myArmoury team! :-* This site has helped me so much. I've learned a great deal. As a relative newcomer to this hobby, I feel like my collection, though small, is something to be proud of, simply because I was able to learn before I started to buy. The DIY info has been great fun as well. I've been able to combine my life as Mom and Scout Leader (in other words, up to the eyebrows in craft projects) with my sword collecting and swordsmanship hobby.

I've always been amazed at the break neck speed that updates appear on myArmoury. I think it is a very wise decision that you slow down. Selfishly, I wouldn't want you to burn out and not be able to update at all. ;)

I want to thank you and the other moderators for maintaining the polite and chivalric tone of the site. That seems to be a near constant job as well.

And to all myArmoury readers, what are you interested in? Write about it! The editors are simply amazing, I promise when it is finished it will be an article up to the very high myArmoury standards. Did some small blurb in a magazine, on television, or on a web site catch your interest? Did you say, "Hey, I want to learn more about that." Hit the "How to Contribute" button and then hit the library. :)

Again, Nathan, thank you.

Okay, everybody sing "Happy Anniversary, Happy Anniversary,..."

Glasses raised all around. Great Job! Nathan and staff. This is a site that has led many to find and enjoy the love of swords and armor and related subjects and we would all be in a sadder place with out it.

Great Job
Craig

Congratz myArmoury.com and Nathan!

I really appreciate this site. I don't think I'd know HALF of what I know now on the subject of medieval warfare and weapons if I hadn't accidentally stubled on this site. You have my undying Thanks :)

Congrats to Nathan, and to everyone who has contributed content to this site. I think that if I hadn't found this site my interest in arms and armor would have waned by now, leaving me as many little fazes do. Without this site I wouldn't know half of what I know now, and would probably not been recommended to such good books on the subject as I now have. This is really a great site, or "project" if you will, and it has been expertly run and managed.

Thank you to everyone for all there hard work in making this website what it is.

As a long time lurker and very occasional poster Ied like to offer my heartfelt Congratulations on four years of excelence :D

Thanks Nathan for giving us such a good place to discuss and visit. It has become my main "sword" forum to visit and read. Just want to let you know that your effort is greatly appreciated. :)

Many thanks to Nathan, Chad and the rest of the myArmoury team for four years of excellence.

Nathan,

This project of yours has been a huge blessing to so many...THANK YOU.

Thanks to all who've made myArmoury a haven of the sword community.

Happy Anniversary myArmoury.


Bill

Thanks for this site as it has helped a great deal in deepening my knowledge of many things and in some cases just letting me know of things I wasn't aware of at all.

Since I have been reading about arms and armour since before I can remember, I think I knew a fair bit of stuff before joining, even if this doesn't sound very modest. ;) :lol: But after a few years here it is very clear that having this site has helped tremendously filling in great big gaps about historical arms: Many things about general history but mostly about what makes a good sword and at least a superficial awareness about sword handling. ( Only because I haven't put in the effort to really study the subject: Take classes and really do my homework. But, at least I am no longer completely clueless about swordsmanship that isn't based on Hollywood misinformation ).

The many many knowledgeable people here have greatly increased my knowledge as well as all the other features and reviews. I also knew of only a few of the good sword makers out there before I started reading here and joined, after lurking for a few months.

The opportunity to " teach " or at least formulate opinions is also very valuable: Trying to explain or teach means having to organize ones' thoughts and actually helps in better understanding things or makes one aware of ones' gaps in knowledge.

Well. it also has been a good place to make friends. :cool:

Congratulations to Nathan and the My Amoury team for creating and maintaining one of the best websites of any kind on the internet.

I'll echo all the sentiments above, Nathan. Nobody has to see behind the "curtain" to appreciate how much time, skill, thought and energy you apply to every detail. It shows in every aspect of the site. But as one who does get to work backstage, I want to assure everyone that we haven't run out of content or ideas. There are lots more reviews, articles and special features stacked like Christmas presents back here. I finished writing the fourth Workbench article just a few minutes ago, and I'm halfway through editing an article unlike anything the site has yet published. I have around five other articles at various stages of production and the other team members can say the same, at least. Add the many wonderful contributions of the site's readers and...well, I won't say more in order to preserve the fun of surprise and prevent dangerous increases in the heart rates of arms and armour afficionados worldwide. :D

Congrats on the last 4 years and you have my thanks. Have enjoyed reading your thoughts and opinions.

regards
one of your foreign readers
(a scot in scotland)

Congratulations on making four years, and thanks for a great year-and-half since I've found myArmoury. Without you, my knowledge - and more imporantly, my interest - in historic arms and armour would be a fraction of what it is now. Much thanks goes to everyone who has contributed, especially Nathan.

While I can't lie and say that I'm not disappointed that there won't be updates every two weeks anymore, I much prefer this (fewer updates of high quality) over the alternative (consistent updates of lesser quality).

One question regarding the updates: will they still be posted on Mondays, or could there be new articles any day of the week?

Congrats to you, Nathan, for 4 wonderful years (and counting!) of operating this site. People from all levels of knowledge have frequented this site and learned new things that not only pertain to our hobby, but about the people themselves. It's a great honor to correspond with all of you -- whether I've actually seen you in person or not. I also tip my hat to Nathan for maintaining a professional demeanor toward all who post here (and you as well, Chad!).

Sometimes it's not easy to keep up with hobbies vs priorities. There are necessities during life that must be tended to first, no if's or but's about it. One must act accordingly. But Nathan has created something here that continues to expand and evolve. Thanks for this site Nathan! Thanks for everything!

And to everyone else, have a Happy (and responsible) St. Pat's !!

I would like to echo the others in wishing you a sincere thank you.
This forum and website has proved invaluable, as I found among other things that I knew a lot less than I thought I did, and that I still had a lot to learn.
So much appreciated for the gifts you and the myArmoury Team have given us on a daily basis!

Nathan, the website that you have created has been invaluable to me, words cannot express the enrichment of my personal life caused by "myArmoury"! The profound experts that I have been able to correspond with and obtain guideance from, the friendships I have made in here. The vast, bottomless ocean of knowledge I have found in here!
myArmoury is a website that is keeping "real history" Alive so that it can prosper and more data is added to it all the time, resulting in a massive learning resource that has brought so many great minds together in one place from the farthest reaches of the globe!

Truly Awesome Nathan :!:

Bob

Thanks Nathan and all the "hard core" guys of this site who offer their time and patience to make this happen.

I'm a mild addict to this site - not only because of the sword talk (well, it pays its tribute to addiction) but mainly because of the friendly and supportive tone in the discussions here. This really stands out, encourages the novices and guides the wildest opinions back to a reasoned, fruitful discussion. To put it in a nutshell: mutual respect guides this forum, regardless of rank or knowledge, there are no "gurus" who know the truth, it is found collectively by critical discussion.

If there were no myArmoury, my collection would not have grown so fast and into high-quality swords, I never would have met people like Peter Johnsson - and most of all, my private research would not have been triggered and nudged into the right direction.

When I submitted my first own contribution I was positively surprised by the professional quality management you have in place to sustain the high level of your articles - but again the personal contact, help and encouragement was of equal importance.

All I can wish for the future is: keep this site running, and keep the spirit. It absolutely does not matter if updates are less frequent.

Thanks again!

Anyone who could bemoan this change in model could not possibly have a sense of how much time, effort, and money you've put into this project. I'm sure I don't, but the results alone speak of an intense behind-the-scenes drive from all the regular contributors. I know that however things work from here on, they'll still be up to an unmatched standard, and that deserves a hearty congrats and "happy anniversary."

Cheers,
Gabriel

I'm havin' a hard time believing I kept this project going for four years. That's a long, long time. I've been a part of more than two-dozen different "volunteer" Web projects like this, but I've only really "owned" two others. I got bored with them far sooner than four years, let me tell you! That goes to show me that this place is pretty special. I don't do things that don't balance out for me. So, despite the amount of work and frequent frustration, this project has paid me back enough to encourage me to keep it going. That is due, in no small part, to the community surrounding this site. Thanks a ton to you all!