[Nathan Robinson]

As 2006 fades into the past and 2007 continues to unfold before us, I'd like to take a few moments and reflect on last year's accomplishments and what the future holds. Before I do this, I'd like to offer some words of thanks.



Acknowledgement
I'd first like to thank our membership, both those who post on the forum and the many thousands who read our articles but may not participate on the forums. We appreciate your discussions, comments, and feedback on all that we do, but more importantly, we thank you for allowing us to share our work with you. Without an appreciative audience, none of this would matter.

I'd also like to thank those who have given so generously to this site. Whether purchasing an enhanced membership or making a donation, your generous financial support has been crucial to our ongoing efforts. This site is very expensive to run and your donations have helped greatly.

Also deserving of a great deal of thanks are the over 50 contributing authors that have added their hard work to our featured articles and hands-on reviews. These pages were read a staggering 4,130,928 times in 2006. Many people in the arms and armour community and elsewhere have benefited from our author's efforts.

I'd like to thank our small but prolific contributing team members from 2006: Chad Arnow, Sean Flynt, Alexi Goranov, and Bill Grandy. In addition to authoring articles, each myArmoury team member has taken on the responsibility of brainstorming, editing, and reviewing every article and review that gets published. They also work with our other authors to continue to bring content to you every two weeks: a pace unequaled among sites devoted to arms and armour. My heartfelt thanks goes to them all.

I want to take a moment to single out and give credit to Chad Arnow for being especially monumental in making this site the success it is. For years Chad has been my "go-to" guy for so many tasks that were beyond my capacity to handle on my own. Every single article and review that is published on this site goes through Chad's hands first. He's stepped up repeatedly and has always finished every task he's taken upon himself. Thank you, Chad, for making it possible for me to keep this project going.

Growth
We saw a tremendous amount of growth in 2006. Our bibliography grew to be one of the largest and most complete lists of sources available for the arms and armour enthusiast. Our bookstore continued to grow, giving this community over 150 reading lists to view encompassing over 1,000 titles. There are over 600 book reviews written by our members, allowing bookstore browsers to not only see how Amazon.com customers rate a title but also see what our own community members think. These ratings and reviews will only continue to grow. We encourage everyone to create a reading list and update it regularly.

We also added a completely new section to this site in 2006: our Contributor Center. This section contains helpful information, simplifying the process of contributing to myArmoury through articles, reviews, and donations. For our authors, it contains additional content to form a toolbox for creating the content you see, making the process of authoring for myArmoury easier than ever.

In addition to sections above, we also added several new series to our featured articles:
- Visitor's Experience
- Man of War
- Great Battles

These series provide a greater context to our study of arms and armour, giving us a look at great museums of the world, taking us to distant battlefields, and allowing us to meet the people behind the steel. We plan to expand each of these with additional articles, in the hope that through these articles, we will gain a better understanding of our hobby. We also added many more featured articles including two large works, one covering the typology of Alfred Geibig and the other a tribute to Ewart Oakeshott.

Future
As we look ahead, we see a bright future for all sections of this site. As I write this, there are literally dozens of articles and reviews in the works. But, we still need your help. At the end of 2005, we publicly called on the community for more authors and additional team members. Those requests resulted in many new collaborations between myArmoury.com and authors and also identified a few possible new team members. We still need your help. While we have many pieces in the works, we always need more authors, articles, and team members to pull it all together and keep up the frequency of our updates. Please review those topics and our Contributor Center and contact us if you're interested in contributing content to this community.

We look forward to expanding our hands-on reviews section as well, adding to the over 175 published reviews. We are seeing expansions of product lines from the makers and are running across more and more craftspeople who are new to this community. Yet, our review submissions don't seem to be keeping pace with the growth of our other articles. Craftspeople: we encourage you to submit products to us. Our reviews reach a wide base of potential customers and we are interested in reviewing your products. To our readers, please consider reviewing the items from your collection so that your firsthand experience (good or bad) can be shared with others. if you are uncomfortable with authoring or taking photos, we can help. Another option is for you to send the item to one of our experienced reviewers. We will care well for it and ship it back to you promptly.

2007 holds much promise for us and our community. By mid-year we will be making some important changes in the way we do our publishing. Things will change but we will remain the most relevant content provider in our niche. We look forward to continuing to bring high-quality, relevant content to our members.

Again, my heartfelt thanks go to everyone who has helped make this Web site what it is. We have something unique in this community and, together, we'll continue to expand this resource for us all.

[J. Bedell]

Nathan,

I am sure that everyone here at myArmoury will agree that we greatly appreciate your thanks. It is truly a pleasure to participate on a forum where everyone, be they professionals in the field, hobbyists, or manufacturers, truly care about the other members. Such a friendly community could not be possible without a dedicated staff to oversee this wonderful site. I am constantly impressed by the dedication Chad and yourself have for this site.

Your thanks are greatly appreciated, but truly Nathan it is us who owe thanks to you. Without you this site would not be possible. So please accept my sincerest thanks for your amazing work to keep this site successful.

Chad,

I would also like to thank you for your dedication and dilligence. I truly appreciate your work on this site, and would like to thank you for moderating the forums to ensure successful, friendly discussions.


Nathan, Chad, and all contributing authors, I would like to thank you for making myArmoury what it is. I truly appreciate this site and admire the work you do to bring all of these resources to us.

With great thanks and appreciation,
-James Bedell

[Torsten F.H. Wilke]

I would like to personally thank Nathan for letting me be a member of myArmoury.com. The site has helped reignite my deep passion for the martial workings of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and has let me learn intricacies probably not accomplishable on my own. Certain moderators and members also deserve many thanks for helping me along on occasion... Cheers guys!!!

[Edward Hitchens]

I'd like to add in my own Hello and Thanks to everyone I've met on this site. Most of the time, it's only been through PM's and forum posts, but every so often I get meet a face and shake a hand. Whatever the form of communication, it's been an honor to meet and learn from all of you! Here's to the continued success of this site, our comraderie, and our endless desire to learn!

To the moderators: Nathan, thanks not only for this spectacular site but also for your professionalism. Many of us are very serious about wanting to know more about this hobby and the period(s) in history it encompasses. Your approach has not only brought together a knowledgable group of individuals, but ones who are dignified, mature, and cordially willing to share their experiences with others.

And to Chad, for welcoming me to your home on multiple occasions to play with your swords ... and your cats! I've spent many an hour and day in all four seasons hacking pool noodles (and pumpkins) in your backyard much to the fascination of the neighbors' kids -- and much to my aching forearms after trying out your Baron. But more importantly, thanks for assistance in putting together the A&A Black Prince sword review and the Edward III article.

Let's keep up the great work! -Ted

[Dan Howard]

Yes indeed. This is a wonderful resource. I know I can be a little "abrupt" at times and am still working on being more patient with people. Many thanks to the admins for forgiving my transgressions. Here's to a peaceful and productive 2007.

[Pamela Muir]

Hi Nathan,

I want to express my sincere and heartfelt thanks to you and also to the entire myArmoury team. This site is an absolutely incredible resource. The variety of information is mind boggling. Book recommendations, museum visits, weapon reviews, articles on famous persons, armies, battles, weapon care and construction,... Sort of an information convenience store for the arms and armour enthusiast.

I want to thank the moderators for their hard work to maintain the professionalism of this site, something that I don’t always see elsewhere. It’s that welcoming atmosphere that keeps me coming back. I’ve made several friends through myArmoury. (And lady and gentlemen, you know who you are. ) Some I’ve met and the rest I truly hope we get a chance to meet face to face someday.

And thank you to the editors! It’s your blood, sweat and tears that make even my writing look good.

Again, Nathan, I owe you so much. Thank you. :-*

[Michal Plezia]

Thank you for your work Nathan and Chad! Thanks too all members of myArmoury! You were great help for me many times.I've learned much in the nice atmosphere of this forum and I hope to learn much more thanks to more experienced colleagues.Thanks for your patience and forgiving my imperfect language

[Richard Fay]

Hello all!

Hey guys!

I think you already know how I feel, so I won't go on about how wonderful this site is.

Thanks for giving me a "cyber" home on the net. It's been great to be able to share ideas with others here, even if we don't always agree. I've spent so much time here it's crazy.

I will say again that I appreciate the opportunity to write articles for this site. It helps a budding writer to have something published.

Let's see even more great stuff in 2007!

[Jean Thibodeau]

Hard to say much more that hasn't been said by the previous poster about this great site: Intellectually stimulating, great members and moderators really good at herding cats ( Must have something to do with Chad being a cat person. )

Nathan when I started reading your post I rushed reading it just in case there was some bad news at the end like I'm closing it down. You know how those things start out the same way by saying how nice the previous year was.

So, I'm really glad my initial bracing for the worse was wrong ! Gave me a good scare though

Oh, and as Pamela said I also have made some good friends here and got to meet a couple of them that live in my area.

Well, Nathan thanks for all the work and money you have put in, and continue to put in, building a quality reference for all things arms and armour and general history.

[Chad Arnow]

Nathan,
The kindness is appreciated, though I really hate being singled out. There are so many that deserve thanks; I'm just one cog. I do the things I do because I love this site and believe in its mission. I also do it for the friends I've made here and the friends I'll encounter down the road. My thanks go to everyone in this community for making it what it is.

Ted,
You're welcome in my home anytime. At least, any time I'm there, too. I guess we should start thinking about a Spring get-together.

For everyone else,
Thank you so much for your kind words. I enjoy the chance to give back to a community that has guided and influenced me for many years.

I also appreciate our posters for their understanding when Nathan and I have to don our Moderator's hats. When we try to re-focus or steer conversations, or if all else fails, come down on someone, it's never done with any personal malice. Thanks for not taking it that way and for understanding that we're always looking out for what we feel are the best interests of this growing community.

I'm excited about the growth we've seen and I'm encouraged by thoughts of the days ahead. Thanks again, everyone.

[Nathan Robinson]