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Does anyone know of a similar site or forum to RAT, but centred on discussing the armies and society of the middle ages?
As there's a Medieval Warfare magazine alongside Ancient Warfare, I thought something of the sort might exist online, but I can't seem to find anything much out there...
Nathan Ross
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(12-28-2016, 08:28 PM)Nathan Ross Wrote: Does anyone know of a similar site or forum to RAT, but centred on discussing the armies and society of the middle ages?
As there's a Medieval Warfare magazine alongside Ancient Warfare, I thought something of the sort might exist online, but I can't seem to find anything much out there...
Most have gravitated to Facebook...
Unfortunate, as I'm still not on it.
aka T*O*N*G*A*R
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Starting a forum from the ground up is very difficult now, for exactly the reasons Tongar mentions. It'd be easy of course to expand the remit of RAT with the more or less spurious excuse that the Roman empire lasts through 1453 anyway, but it'd likely take a while before you get a decent number of people truly interested in and knowledgeable about the Middle Ages.
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(01-12-2017, 10:12 AM)Praefectusclassis Wrote: Starting a forum from the ground up is very difficult now
Yes, the age of vigorous new web fora seems to have passed, perhaps for now... But I was surprised to find that nothing of the sort existed already - you'd think the interest would have been out there.
Facebook can be useful, but posts come and go so quickly and get buried so fast it's not much of a resource!
Nathan Ross
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Which is where every Dutch person quotes the Sage from Barcelona: Every advantage has its disadvantage. :-p
But you're right, the fact that RAT still does comparatively well is wonderful, but an exception to the rule.
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(12-28-2016, 08:28 PM)Nathan Ross Wrote: Does anyone know of a similar site or forum to RAT, but centred on discussing the armies and society of the middle ages?
As there's a Medieval Warfare magazine alongside Ancient Warfare, I thought something of the sort might exist online, but I can't seem to find anything much out there... As far as I know, no such thing has existed in the last decade. There are forums for wargamers, for arms-and-armour enthusiasts, for armourers and armour collectors, for historical fencers (mostly dead or moribund), for re-enactors, but nothing like the RAT of the oughties.
Nullis in verba
I have not checked this forum frequently since 2013, but I hope that these old posts have some value. I now have a blog on books, swords, and the curious things humans do with them.
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Very interesting, now that you mention it. The last decade witnessed the rise of quite creative forums, all around, yet there is still no Middle Ages specific version of Roman Army Talk. The closest to one would probably be the various general history forums, and also the Paradox Interactive forums (their games are very popular with medieval history enthusiasts, especially Crusader Kings II, and they also have both game-specific and real-world history boards).
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I made a similar suggestion just now before I saw this thread.
https://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/showth...?tid=31461
Stefan (Literary references to the discussed topics are always appreciated.)
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I wish everyone the best of luck setting up a board for Medieval military discussion. I am also of the opinion that we should not do this on the shoulders on this one.
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I'd say there's an excellent case for a RAT subforum on early medieval Byzantine armies -- an arbitrary date dividing 'ancient' and 'medieval' eras is based more on academic convenience than history, and we've come to view the Dark Ages as more transitional than degenerate.
But I concur with Jasper that a new MAT forum will be unlikely to match the brilliancy of the Golden Age of RAT, and I second Robert's contention that RAT.com is best kept Roman.
I also agree with Nathan's point that Facebook is a very poor host for knowledge-based groups like ours, so a new MAT might experience the same travails on Facebook as its RAT equivalent.
Cheers,
Jenny
Founder, Roman Army Talk and RomanArmy.com
We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson
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