The Armour Archive

Okay, over on the Armor design and construction side there's been an ongoing discussion about SCA kits that give a good impression; Link. I have offered to place a sticky thread here so people could offer their kits up to be seriously reviewed and critiqued by some of the experts and anyone willing to offer serious ideas and constructive criticism. So place your vote and let's see if this is something that might be of value.

There are already a ton of threads where somebody says 'please look over my kit' and a host of people with dubious credentials (like me!) post comments and suggestions. I consider the other idea on that thread - getting a panel of confirmed experts to do something at a major event - to be better.

If it is done, can I suggest the name "Archive's got Armour", and possibly a whole sub forum for it, much like the good old "Ask Duke Logan" and "Ask Dread Lord" forums? That way, it won't just be a single thread that gets inundated, which will be difficult to read.

Also, can it be for everyone? The other topic is just SCA, and I reckon it would be cool to allow SCA and LH kits. Possibly bias on this, as I'm a LH chap who isn't in the SCA.

my $0.02

As an example, I picked a fairly basic question from near the middle of the SCA time frame and did a search for the answer. My question was "when were mantles worn on helmets and what should they look like/can I get a pattern?" I found two other people who asked that same question in 2011. Neither received an informed answer.

I can't see how placing these kind of questions in a separate subforum where they will be even less likely to be looked at is an improvement.

That's a very different kettle of fish, as it requires specialized knowledge across the ages about one tiny specific part of the armour. You only need to look at the popularity of the "show your kits" threads over the past years to know that that forum would get a whole load of traffic, and it would allow any comments and suggestions to be linked directly to the individual kit, instead of having all kits and all comments in one uber thread.

I would say yes, but only if it is kept to the critiques, extraneous posts would just clutter the thread. My $0.02.

Zachos, since I am the only 'no' on the poll, it is very likely you are right.

zachos wrote:If it is done, can I suggest the name "Archive's got Armour", and possibly a whole sub forum for it, much like the good old "Ask Duke Logan" and "Ask Dread Lord" forums? That way, it won't just be a single thread that gets inundated, which will be difficult to read.

Also, can it be for everyone? The other topic is just SCA, and I reckon it would be cool to allow SCA and LH kits. Possibly bias on this, as I'm a LH chap who isn't in the SCA.

my $0.02

I think a subforum would work better than one thread as well.

If it were a sub forum, I doubt it would be read as widely, thereby reducing potential input from knowledgeable persons.

Tomburr wrote:If it were a sub forum, I doubt it would be read as widely, thereby reducing potential input from knowledgeable persons.

Oh, I honestly doubt that. It would be a forum stocked full of PICTURES.

I mean, how often do we see this?



I think it might just be the most popular forum yet, so long as there is a ready stream of folks willing to put up with abuse, and it stays reasonably helpful.

Ground rules would be very important though. One important thing to note would be that when someone submitted their kit, they should be ready to say "kit must remain SCA legal," which would key folks in to the fact that yes, the Roman does have to wear gauntlets, or "my attempt is for a true Living History impression" which would mean that all bets are off and we can talk about wrought iron vs. mild steel if anyone has a mind to.

Could I add another plea for a subforum? It would be amazing.

I'd like to see both armor and soft kit reviews in the new subform

I'm not looking at starting another sub-forum and that would really be a JT decision any way. Let's keep this leaning towards a thread type deal or nothing kind of deal for right now.

Well a Sticky thread is better than nothing, and I guess it could act as a proof of concept to show how popular and worth it a subforum would be.

Okay, two new threads are up. One for SCA and the other for Living History kits. Let's see where this goes!

I agree with setting up some ground rules. Being SCA legal definitely, but maybe having some knowledge of the time period. And when you post a picture indicate your persona/time period. That might help people get suggestions on how to make the kit more period.

Great idea thanks for doing it.

i get asked a lot of questions on the good old archive but i dont have a forum like duke paul and that silly red ninja fella (whom i love dearly, i just wish he would join the sca). now if i were offered one........

regards
logan

zachos wrote:If it is done, can I suggest the name "Archive's got Armour", and possibly a whole sub forum for it, much like the good old "Ask Duke Logan" and "Ask Dread Lord" forums? That way, it won't just be a single thread that gets inundated, which will be difficult to read.

Also, can it be for everyone? The other topic is just SCA, and I reckon it would be cool to allow SCA and LH kits. Possibly bias on this, as I'm a LH chap who isn't in the SCA.

my $0.02

Duke Logan, if Nissan ever feels like stepping down from his forum, you can have that slot.

As to the question at hand, I think its a bad idea, because it unneccessarily clutters up the top of the forum with stickies... the way it worked before (I'll post a pic of my kit in a thread and ask for advice) worked just fine...

I would have said don't do it... One permanent sticky at the top of a forum is enough. Tack on two temporary stickies occasionally, and that's where I like to draw the line.

But then, we've discussed this in the admin forum, and you knew that already.

The living history kit sticky thread is totally in the wrong forum btw. The SCA kit thread is sorta borderline, too.

Well I don't know about that Broadway. I read the "rules" for the Interpretive Forum and yet I have seen people get jumped all over for being historically inacurate. Even though it is for interpretations which I read as higher level SCA attempts. The living history forum should be for the super sticklers. But hey, that is just me who reads the english.