It may seem abit outdated to start a web forum in the year 2020 when so much of internet conversation has moved to sites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, reddit, Discord etc etc etc
Maybe it is. It very well could be that this forum is not heavily used as a result of so much conversation taking place on these other kinds of platforms.
We think that would be disappointing though. In the past some of the important conversations in HEMA took place on forums like this, several which have been lost to the ethers as they have been shutdown with seemingly no backups.
This is also an issue we believe exists with moving conversations to the aforementioned platforms. It becomes difficult to archive good threads that provide excellent information of value to those who come into the HEMA community when all conversations are taking place on things like reddit and Facebook groups.
Additionally, when the conversations take place on Facebook new people cannot retrieve the information when they perform searches on Google and so on, because Facebook is a closed platform. There is lots of information people are pushing out there, taking their time to write, and it's just getting lost into the ether and consequently hindering the growth of HEMA by making that information more difficult to find.
We hope this forum will fulfill some need that these other services leave unfulfilled. Only time will tell if the effort and cost of configuring this forum and paying its hosting will be beneficial to the community or not.
Maybe it is. It very well could be that this forum is not heavily used as a result of so much conversation taking place on these other kinds of platforms.
We think that would be disappointing though. In the past some of the important conversations in HEMA took place on forums like this, several which have been lost to the ethers as they have been shutdown with seemingly no backups.
This is also an issue we believe exists with moving conversations to the aforementioned platforms. It becomes difficult to archive good threads that provide excellent information of value to those who come into the HEMA community when all conversations are taking place on things like reddit and Facebook groups.
Additionally, when the conversations take place on Facebook new people cannot retrieve the information when they perform searches on Google and so on, because Facebook is a closed platform. There is lots of information people are pushing out there, taking their time to write, and it's just getting lost into the ether and consequently hindering the growth of HEMA by making that information more difficult to find.
We hope this forum will fulfill some need that these other services leave unfulfilled. Only time will tell if the effort and cost of configuring this forum and paying its hosting will be beneficial to the community or not.
