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+---- Thread: April Fool's Joke - New Sections Coming To The Forum. (/Thread-April-Fool-s-Joke-New-Sections-Coming-To-The-Forum)
April Fool's Joke - New Sections Coming To The Forum. - CtahhR - 04-01-2013
I'm pleased to announce the planned expansion of the Soviet Awards Forum.
After the successful expansion of the "Soviet Bloc" 18 months ago which has encouraged over 4,000 new awards to be posted, many of which had never previously been seen anywhere on the internet - in any language.
It is time for further expansion - hopefully leading eventually to the forum covering all awards of the world from all time periods.
The first step is a new section covering the National Socialist world (since we already have "Socialist" the next logical step is "National Socialist"). An area with a large number of awards and a vast amount of interest and also were frequently awarded for actions against the Soviet world so the war can be seen from both sides. Let us all remember the German–Soviet Treaty Of Friendship, Cooperation and Demarcation.
This is fair warning to all members to mobilise this week to photograph their collections so posting can being in the new sections this weekend.
The countries covered in the first expansion will be:
Independent State Of Croatia 1941-1945
Republic Of Finland 1939-1944
French State 1940-1944
General Government 1939-1945
Greater German Reich 1933-1945
German Occupied Territories 1940-1945
Kingdom Of Hungary 1940-1945
Kingdom Of Italy 1922-1943
Italian Social Republic 1943-1945
Kingdom Of Romania 1940-1944
Slovak Republic 1939-1945
Spanish State 1936-1975
"National Socialist" Parties Of Other Nations
Lots of space for all the Second World War period items in our collection (including Oswald Ernald Mosley's British Union Of Fascists).
After this expansion be prepared for the next steps to be The British Empire (And Former Colonies), The United States And The Americas, Prussia And The German Empire, The French Republic And Empire (And Former Colonies) and so on until we have total coverage.
Get photographing and scanning! I'm sure everyone has some great bits and pieces hidden away. I have items taken from the Fuhrer Bunker by my cousin in 1945 along with items captured on Omaha Beach on D-Day. As Spike Milligan would say "There's a lot of it about".
Awards Of The World, Unite!
April Fool's Joke - New Sections Coming To The Forum. - Lapa - 04-01-2013
Just a simple question to Art and the brass.
What is the ultimate goal here? Is it to be a simple showcase of what sits in members' collections, without much more substance than a few pictures, the date of creation of the award and a few bits of trivia, or is it to be the recognized leader in every single fine aspect related to Soviet-block phaleristics?
As far as I knew, this forum had, from the beginning, decided to focus on Soviet and Soviet-block themes, and going into them as deeply and in as much detail as possible. I see this "move" as a complete dilution of knowledge and efforts, whereas there is still so much to discover, study and detail.
Now, without entering into discussions about ideology, opening the Pandora box of, for example, Third Reich collecting is, IMHO of course, "questionable". This area is replete with fakes of such high-quality that even "experts" cannot come to any agreement. It also happens to be an area "over-catered" and which has its long-established, well-recognized specialty forums (eg: Wermacht-Awards.com). What are we attempting to do here?
Marc
April Fool's Joke - New Sections Coming To The Forum. - CtahhR - 04-01-2013
If there is "still so much to discover", why haven't the illustrated posts been flowing fast and free?
The forum is now in its twelfth year and as George Harrison said "It's been done". With forum members refusing (or unable) to post previously unseen awards (or variations of) it only makes sense to expand.
Look at the percentage of posts on the "Soviet Union" section of the forum, a greater percentage of posts over the last year have been in the "fake" section than the "real" so it would seem that "This area is replete with fakes".
If anyone wants to put their money where there mouth is and post all these previously unseen "Soviet" awards and such they can freely post away (In the correct threads - not this one). They can of course also refrain from doing so.
Plenty of Axis uniforms and regulations to discuss and a whole world of awards yet to explore.
Remember now that the Greater German section is just the next step in complete world coverage!
One Website, One Forum, One Reference!
April Fool's Joke - New Sections Coming To The Forum. - Lapa - 04-01-2013
CtahhR Wrote:...Look at the percentage of posts on the "Soviet Union" section of the forum, a greater percentage of posts over the last year have been in the "fake" section than the "real" so it would seem that "This area is replete with fakes"...
Which, of course, is definitely not the case with Third Reich items, for example
So, I take it that, in your opinion, the Third Reich Germany section will display only genuine pieces... :laff
Now, if you are looking for world references, a very short and random sampling would include:
. First and foremost, the Gentleman's Military Interest Club
. Megan Robertson's Medals of the world site
. Wermarcht Awards, for the nostalgic ones...
. Forum Insignes & Medailles for all things French and French colonial
. British Medal Forum for all British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, Indian, South African and all Commonwealth Medals
. US Militaria Forum
. Sammler, extremely slanted toward the former Soviet block and Germany, but with some incredible things in many other categories
. and last (of this very limited list...), but not least, the OMSA Forum/
You wanted references, you got already quite a few. Now, if going into local languages, then we can come up with authoritative Hungarian, Polish, Spanish, etc sites and fora
Once again, my question stands: is the future of this Forum to be a mere exhibition of purported awards (in which case, Google Pictures might be a better variant), or a learned place? In my book, quantity never could, and never will, replace quality.
Marc
April Fool's Joke - New Sections Coming To The Forum. - Eryk - 04-01-2013
:laff
Ahh, too short... wonder what today is...
April Fool's Joke - New Sections Coming To The Forum. - RedMaestro2 - 04-01-2013
CtahhR Wrote:since we already have "Socialist" the next logical step is "National Socialist"
Much in this "logical" train of thought strikes me as non-sequitor.
CtahhR Wrote:With forum members refusing (or unable) to post previously unseen awards (or variations of) it only makes sense to expand... If anyone wants to put their money where there mouth is and post all these previously unseen "Soviet" awards and such they can freely post away (In the correct threads - not this one). They can of course also refrain from doing so.
What "unseen" awards are you talking about? We may have "discovered" some obscure badges here and there, which is great of course. But why the obsession with them over more practical knowledge? Most members don't collect these anyway. Why is knowledge being defined in terms of new species that really don't exist?
CtahhR Wrote:If there is "still so much to discover", why haven't the illustrated posts been flowing fast and free?
IMHO, in line with Marc's comment about quality over quantity, what the forum is really lacking is any incentive for real experts to share and discuss their insights. Few if any changes to the forum have signaled the leadership's interest in deeper knowledge.
As Marc pointed out, the proposed expansion is pointless considering members' interests and other available resources. It leads me once again to conclude that this forum has become a near one-man show, seriously alienating many knowledgeable members in the process.
April Fool's Joke - New Sections Coming To The Forum. - Auke - 04-01-2013
I agree. I have almost all variations of the Order of the Red Star, but why would I post them here? They have already been pictured in several reference works. The unique selling point of a forum is that one can enter in a discussion on these awards with fellow collectors and share knowledge that has or has not yet been published. A forum is not about pouring out pictures. And please let the Axis world stay on the many, many forums that have been dedicated to this specific area of collecting...
April Fool's Joke - New Sections Coming To The Forum. - Christophe - 04-01-2013
Hi to all,
I can only agree with what has been previously said by others.
This Forum is named "The Soviet military Awards Page Forum".
Art, in founding it, explained his view of it by saying:
"This forum exists to serve the Soviet (1917-1991) militaria collecting community by helping disseminate information between collectors."
We already expanded it to the Soviet block states, and the new States founded after the fall of the USSR. This was legitimate, for historical, cultural, cooperation, similarities... reasons.
For the now proposed domains of expansion,
1. There are other fora, as already said.
2. I don't see the necessity to make links with the new "countries" proposed above.
3. As there are some other good sources of information about these, I can't see what we could add of new value.
Sorry... :confused:
Cheers.
Ch.
April Fool's Joke - New Sections Coming To The Forum. - Esteban_cool - 04-01-2013
IMHO we should keep the focus on Soviet and Soviet bloc. That is, the very name and purpose of this website. Adding completely non-related topics such as TR/Fascist regimes' awards makes them completely senseless.
April Fool's Joke - New Sections Coming To The Forum. - Tommy - 04-01-2013
I admit that i too, feel a little uncomfortable with the new additions. There are already forums who cover awards from all countries, what would make this forum stand out above those? Why don't we just stick to what were good at?