Hello all,
We’ve just emerged from a period of downtime for the site. If we encounter periods like this in the future, what’s the best way to stay in touch? Where else are people hanging out where info on myArmoury would be welcome?

Maybe the Ethnographic Arms & Armor forum, or Sword Buyers Guide:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/

https://sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/

Chad - Fyi...

https://sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/71247/myArmoury-com-shut

I finally joined sbg to use their pm's to complete a buy started on marketplace here, but then mA went down. No problem, it got done, most important is (see that thread) many of us are happy mA back up & want mA to stay alive.

I'm probably different to a lot of folks but this is the only arms and armour forum I frequent. When I wanted to know about the down, I used web searches for mentions. So, getting stuff out there in maybe a few of forums with good traffic to boost them on search engine algorithms would work for me. I hope others can advise on what suitable higher profile locations might be.

I'm a member at a few other sites (SBG, Blade Forums, Ethographic Arms, Nihonto, etc.) but I don't bother with them much by comparison. I did go to SBG specifically to see if there was news about this site - that seemed like the natural alternative.

21,000 of us follow the myArmoury.com Facebook page. I'd start there.

I don't know how representative I am, but I've looked for info about the status of the site on Reddit, specifically here. I basically don't look at other forums any longer now, myArmoury is the last I consult...

Regards,

I met myArmoury before Facebook became a thing where I lived (it's not yet a thing in Iowa currently, so whatever). After I discovered groups like XIV-XV century armor and such I spent more time there since it's more dynamic and convenient.

I don't go for other military forums, and I like the idea of this website using your actual name, so you can actually trace the work of someone.

I tried to find info on the shutdown, but no luck with that. It lasted so many days that I either thought it was forever down or the website was deactivated in some countries (Hellenic Armor's website wasn't available in South America, especially the Greek one). I commented about the shutdown in a Facebook group about swords and a guy was surprised it was down, he probably heard it first from me.

Vikingsword is where I began in 1998. It is currently one of the most stable and reasonably active sites. I do though hesitate to announce some migration.

There is so much discussion here regarding topics not suited to the vikingsword ethnographic board that it would get loud and angry quickly.

Everything has become so compartmentalized that the dilution is almost complete and it leads the surfers to skip over the waves instead of riding them.

Usenet is free, etched in the ether forever. I personally champion usenet for discussion. Of course we ten little indians set up camp outside of the mean webbies and the family grew. Three years to peak at a couple of dozen cyber friends and now 20 years later its just a couple of us that post up on the holidays. At any rate, all that stuff is still out there. Flood the spam out of news:rec.knives and move in! :) Or find an unused one and use it. We used alt.fringeware for a year or so.

SBG is OK by me but it is dwindling as well. It's ok to have fun until someone lacks dry humor. SBG recycles the new recruits and some learning is going on there. I deleted my account there but like usenet, it's all still there for now. I would think post to the pub for anything not sword related but you'll find discussions throughout the rooms there. Most are on their phones, addressing the first page, without reading through the past years.

I can sympathize with those that have difficulty searching for info and we see a lot of that on facebook. I spend time in both reproduction fb groups and antique fb groups. Not a week goes by that I don't run a search in one of these older groups, sharing what is out there. I kind of hate fb for a lot of the formatting but look for a person's posts to follow a trail or simply search independently.

Iirc, Nathan's hope was to focus more info to the header, with the forum never really designed for expansion beyond European medieval and renaissance periods. While my first post here way back was regarding 19th century swords, I don't think you'll find more than a couple of dozen threads here regarding them. So, folk splintered of as dilution increased. More group started and as quiet as myArmoury and little used.

Anyway, I am around. Just remember

Cheers
GC

to

find

me

at

SBG 8^)~

gcleeton@gmail.com

I think the facebook idea is great. I follow the facebook page enough though it has had no activity since 2020. Even if a message like "the forum is down and we're working on it" with an update every couple of days would have been wonderful.

It there an email address that would work even if the site is down?