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RAT / Romanarmy.com v3, ie Future RAT
#1
At the next RAT conference I hope to present some of my ideas for the new Romanarmy.com/RAT v3 site. But before I do that, I'd like to hear the opinions and ideas of the RAT community at large.

So, let's have them. Think big, structural changes are fine, think RAT, facebook, wikipedia, marketplaces, thoughts about scope, forum structure, everything could be up for discussion.

No guarantees it'll all be done or be possible, but once in a while you just have to try!

This is the time to tell me what you'd want this forum & the site to be like for the future. Speak now or forever hold your breath! Big Grin
Greets!

Jasper Oorthuys
Webmaster & Editor, Ancient Warfare magazine
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#2
Two suggestions:

-is it possible to show the latest post first in a thread? I know I can choose it but could it be like that by default? I mean when I am following a thread which has about 28 pages I will always have to start from the first page. Irritating :wink: !

-Is it possible to make the time zones work? Mine doesn`t work, the time is always 7 hours late, no matter what I do Cry ...
Virilis / Jyrki Halme
PHILODOX
Moderator
[Image: fectio.png]
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#3
Probably, but you are thinking waaaay too small, Jyrki. :wink:
Greets!

Jasper Oorthuys
Webmaster & Editor, Ancient Warfare magazine
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#4
How about collaborative workspaces, like project management, or meeting room? something where you could give a presentation and everyone could watch, perhaps with voice and video? Something along the lines of Webex, which has an auditorium/classroom arrangement. You can also store lectures/collaborations and play them back.
Richard Campbell
Legio XX - Alexandria, Virginia
RAT member #6?
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#5
Hi Rich,
I think live voice & video may require special server software, but something else might be doable.
Question is, though, why would we need such a feature? Would that be better than a thread/members' section where members show what they're working on?
Greets!

Jasper Oorthuys
Webmaster & Editor, Ancient Warfare magazine
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#6
I would like to see the section "History" and "reenactment & reconstruction" split up a bit into smaller sections.
e.g.: reconstruction split into armour, helmets, textiles, weapons, leather products, fittings etc...
At the moment it is more or less impossible to quickly collect relevant info with the search function, try by using "belt" for example...
Narrowing down the topics would also help when you are just browsing for info about a certain topic.
Also link collections to the relevant sites for these topics would be great.
And a link collection to museum sites. And Chocolate. I want loads of chocolate. Smile
Christian K.

No reconstruendum => No reconstruction.

Ut desint vires, tamen est laudanda voluntas.
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#7
I know where you're heading Christian, and that's also on my wish list.

The problem here though is that within a thread, subjects tend to change - most posts about Late Roman helmets are in a thread about the changes in the 3rd century.
Similarly, a lot of discussion that belongs to history/archaeology is done in the marketplace and reenactment/reconstruction sections.

So how to keep threads to the point. In my experience, that's nearly impossible, it would be seen as far to restrictive. There's in fact no way to stop this from happening.

In my opinion therefore, we don't need smaller sections, we need a better seacrh engine that is more capable to keep the results down to a minimum of hits.
Robert Vermaat
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
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#8
I too understand where you're headed, but perhaps the solution should be different. One of the current problems with RAT is that many people use it in a way it's not really meant to be. A forum system was never designed to be an encyclopedia, after all. As I indicated, think bigger than a forum!

And yes, I agree, the current forum system's search is a piece of doo-doo. But then, it's not very likely we'll stick with this system in a new RAT.
Greets!

Jasper Oorthuys
Webmaster & Editor, Ancient Warfare magazine
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#9
And what about my chocolate? Big Grin
Christian K.

No reconstruendum => No reconstruction.

Ut desint vires, tamen est laudanda voluntas.
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#10
You can have virtual chocolate as much as you want. If you come to the RAT conference, I'll take you to a chocolatier here that makes the most awesomely yummy chocolate.
Greets!

Jasper Oorthuys
Webmaster & Editor, Ancient Warfare magazine
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#11
Did someone say chocolate? Are you trying to lure the women in Big Grin

As a newbie, whatever it is you do please keep it easy to use!
Kat x

~We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars~
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#12
I would very much like a simple, quick way of tacking a foto (or several) to a post. No more photobucket uploads. If the picture is given a caption, perhaps you can search for a given type of picture on RAT (dolabra's, for instance) I know it is not much and also not really big, but it would improve my enjoyment of RAT.
Then, a picture galery of all our re-enacting members showing their impression, one you could search through by name. If multiperiod or several impessions, show them all. For the non-re-enactors, just a snap would be OK.
Could full colour digital books be made available for out of print volumes everyone keeps refering to but are impossable to attain? It would really help people do research!
Salvete et Valete



Nil volentibus arduum





Robert P. Wimmers
www.erfgoedenzo.nl/Diensten/Creatie Big Grin
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#13
I agree with Robert here - like I addressed in my last point, I think one of the strong points of RAT is the wealth of information hidden in the discussions. If there could be as way in which we can retrace the images, that would add immensely to the power of RAT! How about a function where we can not only addd an image to a post, but alo add the image to a database? With simple choices as to the description (source, object, date, etc.)?
Robert Vermaat
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
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#14
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'. Confusedhock: 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! Smile ) 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! :roll: :roll: .......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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#15
I'd like the darker background of RAT v1 with more Roman-like motives as top frame instead of the grass lopes..

More variety of emoticons (check out the French Late Roman Forum).

And more women! (I don't eat chocolate...):wink:
[Image: 120px-Septimani_seniores_shield_pattern.svg.png] [Image: Estalada.gif]
Ivan Perelló
[size=150:iu1l6t4o]Credo in Spatham, Corvus sum bellorum[/size]
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