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Your votes about Romanarmy.com/ RAT v3 needed!
#1
Hi all,
In the run-up to V3, I'll be adding several polls about various aspects of current and future RAT. Make sure you have a say in the next iteration of this community website.

1) Personal area, blogs, galleries and profiles.
2) Your role on Romanarmy.com/RAT v3.
3) The scope of Romanarmy.com/RAT v3.

So [size=150:1rkmochq]start voting![/size]
Greets!

Jasper Oorthuys
Webmaster & Editor, Ancient Warfare magazine
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#2
I posted this on a similar question elsewhere but alas, to my disappointment, the thread took aturn toward chocolate ( maybe not such a bad thing! :wink: ) and there was no response to this.

So......I'll re-post it here, which seems more appropriate, so that all may throw brickbats or bouquets, as the saying goes ! :? ?

"I'm no techie, so alas can contribute little.......but I would endorse what has been said before, in particular a better search engine,(as it is I often have more success with Google than the internal search engine...surprisingly Google often brings up results from RAT1, which is evidently still out there in cyber-space somewhere.....) easier ways to put images in, and some thought given to building an 'Ancient Resource'.

On a more fundamental note, What is the Purpose of RAT? What should the Purpose be?
It seems to me we have an enormous anount of talent, energy and knowledge among our members, which is often frittered away in 'idle chit-chat'. Taking RAT in a new direction, gathering, collecting, sorting and making available data on all the various subjects would be a very worthwhile undertaking. Just members photos alone, for example....or consider this, "The Greek helmet database" project, though not even off the ground yet has already revealed that there are far more helmets to be catalogued than first thought...over 1300 in fact, and there has been no 'Russell-Robinson' to get this particular ball rolling. How much other 'ancient warfare' knowledge is out there? How many other 'gaps' waiting to be filled? And this can apply to all the other sections too...'How to sections' for re-production of equipment ( imagine if we could pool all our re-enactors hard-won knowledge in one place ?)Examples of how ancient musical instruments sounded courtesy of Susannah and friends? You-tube type clips on everything from armouring to ancient tunic weaving! Clips of Roman cavalry exercises....clips of plumbata testing ( Yes, I mean you, Robert! ) Virtual/video tours of ancient sites and battlefields ( either members videos eg of Pompeii or things like google earth)...one member here has already built a 'virtual' roman house. A video scutum making tutorial?...the possibilities here are endless.....RAT is already often quoted as a source to students of ancient warfare, but it can become something so much better.
We older people often bemoan the fact that " you can't put old heads on young shoulders" - meaning you can't instantly pass on knowledge/experience. Well, we can !
I believe RAT's purpose, and its greatest gift to the future, should be as a repository of knowledge, of all kinds, no matter how trivial, on the Ancient Mediterranean world and warfare...and later maybe, expand that to the ancient world generally.... (maybe draw a line somewhere? 500AD? 750AD?).....I could go on, but I'd better not get too carried away! .......I have a dream....! "
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)

"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
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#3
Hi Paul,
Thanks for that. I'd say 'idle chit-chat' is an important part of forming a community, but otherwise, I'd agree. There's much to be done and much that can be done. However, whether we can make your dream come true depends more on the effort of all the members than on the board site admins and mods. We can only enable and attempt to coordinate.
Greets!

Jasper Oorthuys
Webmaster & Editor, Ancient Warfare magazine
Reply
#4
Thanks Jasper...and I'd better hasten to explain that by 'idle chit-chat', I was not being dis-respectful, merely that the many'nuggets' of information are at present scattered through many lengthy and pleasant conversations ...and I'd agree that such conversations/chit-chat are the Glue which holds the forum together. I'd just like to see the 'nuggets/gems' more accessible, or perhaps organised...but since that is time-consuming and difficult ( I've written indexes before! ) then the answer is to have a really good search facility......

I'd certainly agree with you that quality of content can only come from the input and contributions of members generally, and like any ancient general, the organisers and moderators etc can only play the cards they are dealt :wink:
...But, and it is a big but, we can lift our game, aim higher .....e.g as I mentioned, just consider the collective photos/ images we must have between us, that alone represents a vast repository of knowledge that could be made available to the future, or someone's ten years of experimentation in scuta construction for example.....we can save future generations having to 're-invent the wheel' if members will just give thought to the future and others....nothing ever posted on the Net actually dies.....!!! Confusedhock: Confusedhock: Smile D lol:
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)

"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
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#5
yes better image input as ive yet to complete my photbucket business, its the last thing i think of with the limited time i have on here day to day, set up profiles for us that we can upload images to in our own albums and link to our posts...like dare i say..."myspace".

also how about a tool that links re enactors by region with historical societies, production projects, events, requests for involvement or assistance of anykind in their particualr region

as in petrininus, myself, would be alerted of all other reenacters, events, etc in my region, so lets say history channel types could log and say hey i want to shoot this documentary in tx and i need people...oh look theres legioIIAPF in tx, convenient!

ok im rambling i know but that would be pretty sweet, better networking sums it up.

also maybe some online education tools links with universities where rat members can take classes at reduced rates as long as their topical to the ancient world? thats maybe to crazy but it would be cool

ok, nuff out of me...but in a perfect world?

ciao for now
-Jason

(GNAEVS PETRONIVS CANINVS, LEGIIAPF)


"ADIVTRIX PIA FIDELIS"
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#6
I looked at the options for the scope of v.3, and had these thoughts:

1. ....about Rome's military only. Nothing else. I don't see Rome's military, or any, developing its characteristics in isolation.

2. ....about all warring civilizations up to 600 AD in North Africa, Europe and the Near East. This got my vote.

3. ....about all aspects of ancient civilizations. Not for me; this site and forum appears to have grown out of a vision of Ancient Rome's military rather than a passion for all ancient history.

4. ...about warfare in the ancient world up to 1453, the Fall of Constantinople and 5. ...about warfare worldwide up to 600/1000/1492. Not for me, for the reasons below*.

6. ...exactly the same as it is now. No - I think it's obviously healthier for the site's and forum's future development if parameters are agreed on.

*My decision and views rely on my (non-scholar's) vision of Ancient Rome - which is:

The Roman armies that:
. unified the Italian peninsula to the 2nd Century BC;
. gathered in the Mediterranean shores, Britain and deeper Europe; and
. eventually began to exhaust themselves against the East by the 5th Century AD;
seem to have been tools of a discrete culture that was born in the original tribal set that occupied Rome's seven hills. To me, the resulting behaviors, attitudes, values and social mores with their attendant social structures, formed a distinctive culture that I feel was "Ancient Roman" - as others have said, a succession of Mafia-like families and godfathers appropriating whatever resources they perceived as already "theirs" to aggrandise themselves and acquire more. Within this culture, nothing was ever static, all was in a continual state of evolution, there was cultural eclecticism, yet I feel it is still possible to throw a blanket over that whole and know it belongs together.

But, over the 3rd and 4th Centuries AD, the Western Roman Empire seems to lose - not just wars and territory - but the former values associated with pagan religion, fama (and family), client patronage and so on. It doesn't matter, I think, that the Western Roman armies could have been considered "Germanised" long before. They were still employed for "Roman" agendas by "Romans". I don't know what one calls the culture of the ruling-elite after the 4th Century, but it seems to become increasingly less what I've thought of as Roman. In the East, I can feel a lingering Romanism to the late 500s, but not much beyond.

And that's my thoughts for what they're worth. I just wish the knowledge base they're resting on was broader (lots!).

Cheers


Smile
Spurius Papirius Cursor (Howard Russell)
"Life is still worthwhile if you just smile."
(Turner, Parsons, Chaplin)
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#7
Quote:Hi Paul,
Thanks for that. I'd say 'idle chit-chat' is an important part of forming a community, but otherwise, I'd agree. There's much to be done and much that can be done. However, whether we can make your dream come true depends more on the effort of all the members than on the board site admins and mods. We can only enable and attempt to coordinate.

While I'm new to RAT I have already observed what I consider to be the obvious: That the memberhsip is composed of individuals bonded by a common interest in the Roman Army pursued individually by academicians, reenactors, and the occasional hobbyist alike. To that end, I believe that the existing structure of RAT serves the purpose with perhaps some tweeking. It's the responsibility of each group to expand their respective areas of interest in the RAT. I don't think that you'd want to turn this into an purely scholarly research-oriented forum...look at the SAMH and others like it.

As for the "idle chit-chat", I find this refreshing in that it provides some insight into the membership, albeit some of it more relevant than other. and promotes closer ties amongst members. Petrinus' idea of additional links to relevant sites and educational opportunities (BA/MA workshops, classes, summer programs, digs, et. al.) has some merit and bears consideration.
Iosephus Augustus/
Joseph Augustus Clark
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