[Craig Johnson]

Hello my friends. It occured to me that we have not done a whip around for supporting this great site in a while. I for one enjoy, use and need this digital space. So, a call to arms to help Nathan out with the cost to host and maintain the site we love.



This is my personal initiative. I was doing some research and realized one of the first places I turn consistently is this site. Good people, critical minds, few trolls and great info. If you love swords and history think about clicking above and do a bit of stimulating

I suspect most of us have been here more often of late as well Not sure how much we should have for a goal? Jean you have a thought on that? I have made the first contribution.

May you all be well and healthy.

[Michael Beeching]

Is there a target goal to shoot for with regards to fundraising?

[Craig Johnson]

[Jean Thibodeau]

[Jeremy V. Krause]

This site has meant so much to me since I joined in 2003. Basically, without it, I either wouldn't have my hobby or I would have been pretty ignorant in following it, so I am really grateful.

Thanks so much to Nathan and the myArmoury team for keeping it going.

[Jean Thibodeau]

" myArmoury " often appears in GOOGLE searches when people ask the right historical and historical arms related questions, these questions often have the answers in one of many Topics here: This is in part why this site is a treasure throve of information and a valuable archive to keep alive.

The people answering questions are often people who actually know what they are talking about, historians, museum curators, well read amateurs, Industry professional making quality period recreations of historical weapons, HEMA researchers and practitioners etc...

But at the same time there isn't a snobbish attitude and questions are answered in a respectful way for even basic questions when people new to the site or new to history asks what they might wrongly feel are " stupid questions ": One can only learn by asking questions, and in time one builds up one's knowledge.

Many people get a great deal of pleasure exchanging knowledge and opinions on this site and keeping it functioning with a small donation can be as little as paying for an expensive coffee ! These days with the COVID-19 social distancing a lot of this un-spent coffee money could be used to give a small donation.

Obviously this is a very economically challenging time, so only make a donation you can afford if so inclined.

[Jean Henri Chandler]

Is there a way to chip in directly with a credit card if you don't use paypal?

[Christopher Gregg]

Done! Glad this site is still going strong!

[Kai Lawson]

Added my contribution. This site has given so much to me in terms of knowledge and experience and opportunity (in may ways). I don't like boastful posting or posting for recognition, but I do know that more people donating and mentioning that they have done so can be galvanizing for those on the fence. The choice is easy: donate. Just a few bucks, a handful of euros, or hundreds of whatever--it all helps, and the amount of professional opinions, advice, academic research and reconstructive archaeology and photos would DEFINITELY be a pay-to-subscribe service anywhere else.

Do it!

[Craig Johnson]

[Daniel Parry]

Ditto. Gave another contribution a month ago when lockdown hit, as I was concerned, not that the current situation affects this site necessarily. Will double that this week when pay cheque comes in as I am thankfully unaffected for the moment by Corona virus

Nathan is a trooper. I sometimes wonder if he has enough time to smile ! If he agrees to me describing complex 16th century hilts with side rings on the side as 'ring hilts' as a shortcut, we could come to a more attractive donation agreement.

Seriously though, amazing site, amazing mix of people and expertise, lack of prejudice and lack of closed minded attitudes. That's created not just by the contributors but mostly by the moderators.

[Jean Thibodeau]

I see that the statistics about donations and the donation goal are now seen that the bottom of the Forums page.

Nathan has given $2400 as this year's goal, but keep in mind that last year there wasn't a donation drive in 2019 so that Nathan must have had to paid last years hosting cost out of his own pocket ! It wouldn't be a bad idea to keep that in mind and " AIM HIGHER " to catch up on previous expenses as well as cover this year's expenses.

Also, keep in mind that any extra moneys raised gives Nathan a cushion in case of unexpected expenses.

As I've mentioned in previous years, Nathan doesn't run this site as a business, or as a profit center, but if one factors in what must be by now thousands and thousands of unpaid work hours creating and maintaining the site's operations over more than a decade, any extra money raised is well deserved.

Nathan also could in earlier years afford to have contest prizes with give aways, also with more incoming cash he could be more able to upgrade and/or add features to the site ...... I don't know any of his plans for any of these kind of things but barely covering out of pocket costs plus using a lot of his free time working on the site instead of working on revenue producing projects means that he has been working for free, or even one could say working at a great financial loss !

So if the Donation Goal is reached it doesn't mean that we shouldn't continue to donate in appreciation of everything Nathan has done creating this site ..... And pay him back a tiny bit for all the unpaid work.

[Nathan Robinson]

Hi guys. Sorry I have not had the time to respond. I am helping family during this shelter in place Coronavirus pandemic and don't have a lot of time to be on the computer.

Thanks goes out to Craig Johnson for initiating this. I really do need the help. I'm broke and this site costs me a lot to run. I've negotiated the cost down a bit this year so it's $2100/annually. I've added another $300 to the donation drive goal to cover the cost of the secure certificate and some other expenses. This brings up the goal to $2400 for the donation drive and would make me at least break even for this year's site cost.

I really don't have much of an income these days and so I've contemplated closing the site down. Without member help, there's really no way for me to keep this going. The donation drive is the only thing that's going to keep it online at this point. As Jean mentioned, donations did not come in last year so this place was funded completely out of pocket. I simply cannot do that again this year. I'd like to find a better solution but at this point, I just don't have the time to do it. There's lots of real-life things pulling at me and as much as I love this community, I can't make the financial sacrifice much longer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'll answer a few questions that I remember off the top of my head. I'm a bit scattered due to all the stuff going on right now but here goes:

• You don't need a PayPal account to donate. I use PayPal as my credit card processor only. Simply follow the link and you'll be brought to a page that asks for credit card information. It's as easy as any other online transaction. Please see the attached screenshot.
  
  
• The system I created many years ago that shows donations at the bottom of the forum page was developed to add transparency to the donation process. I wanted to make sure everybody knew what was coming in to keep everything above board. Unfortunately, this automated system no longer works because PayPal has changed their methodology. It would take me several fulltime days (at least) to figure out how to update my code to work with PayPal. I don't really have the time to do this so right now I'm manually adding new donations to myArmoury.com. It's a little tedious but there's not a lot of activity so it's not that big of a deal, however...
  
  
• Donations will not show up in the list immediately. They need to be manually added by me so it's not going to be real-time. Please do not be alarmed if it takes awhile for your name and donation to show up.
  
  
• I know myArmoury.com has been outdated for many years and I'd really like to update this site to be based on current technology, make it a better experience on mobile devices, and find ways to monetize the content. It would be a major undertaking and I just haven't had the time to do it.

[Bill Grandy]

Just made my meager contribution!

I don’t post much anymore (largely because I do everything by phone rather than computer nowadays), but this site is still one I visit almost daily. I owe a lot to this site because of the incredible knowledge I’ve gained over the past decade and a half, but also because of the friends I’ve made. It’s such an incredible resource, even in a world that has become increasingly reliant on other forms of social media. 9 times out of 10, when I’m searching for something on Google, it leads me to an incredible discussion here.

So people, donate!

[Roger Hooper]

Donated. I've been a member since the beginning. Learned a lot here.

[Chad Arnow]

I just made a donation, too. I'd hate to see this site go away and I hope the membership can step up and ease the financial burden for someone who's put so much time, effort, and money into this resource.

Like Bill, I've been Googling things and myArmoury articles, threads, and pictures come up all the time. I've found threads recently that I'd forgotten about. I wish I had more time to create content like the good old days, but I have more kids, more jobs, and more responsibilities to juggle. That said, there are some reviews in the works. We're not done yet.

[Tyler C.]

The internet would not be the same without myArmoury. I'm relatively new here, but I would say that this site is an unmatched resource and community. I hope we blow the goal out of the water!

[Chad Arnow]

Over $1500 so far! This is one big reason why I love this place: the people here.

[Abe Zettek]

I've lurked here for a few years - since I was pretty young! - and will echo what others have said: myArmoury is a fantastic resource, and it would be an absolute shame to lose it. Much of what has informed my interest in arms and armor over the years has stemmed from discussions and information found here. Happy to donate to keep it alive... Here's to many more years!

[Scott Kowalski]

I found this site over 13 years ago and it has been a great resource in feeding both my passion and knowledge of medieval arms and armor that I would hate to see this disappear. Not only as a resource for myself, but for all people that are getting in to this area of interest as well as for all of the good people here that have helped to teach and guide me as I have gone on my journey.

Nathan, thank you for all that have you done and still do for this community.