Getting this off the ground

[holyschist]

So, in the interest of making this community a more active place, I've been thinking about some ideas. I'm going to start posting discussion-ish questions once a week or so (I expect to eventually run out of ideas for these, so if you have a topic of discussion relevant to historical clothing that you think would be interesting...go for it!).

Would there be any interest in any of the following:

• Community challenges (e.g. "Over the next three months, make a hat" or "Add embroidery to a garment", stuff like that)?


• A yearly contest, where people post pictures of their favorite outfit made that year and the community votes, possibly with a small prize?


• A gift exchange, where people make small dress items or accessories for each other?


• Resource posts (I'm thinking the top-level post would be a topic, like "Italy, 1500s" and then people would post their favorite resources in the comments)?

What would you guys like to see happen here? What would encourage you to post and participate more?

Comments

[finch]

There's nothing in particular, except that "hand embroidery!" sounds pretty intimidating when my interest lies more along the lines of "what's the easiest way to make a rennie costume?" XD It's mostly based on my own experience with SCAdians tbh.

[holyschist]

Eh, well, it was a random example. Please feel free to give me less-intimidating ideas--I am on the "more authenticity plz" end of the SCA spectrum*, so I'm not necessarily going to be good at coming up with less-intimidating ideas. Perhaps I shall put up a brainstorming post for that.

(Plus, I really love embroidery--I mostly sew so I have stuff to wear embroidery on. So it came to mind.)

Scadians vary in approach a lot by group and kingdom and other factors.

*Well, it's my ideal, anyway. The reality is that I cut corners all the time while I'm working out patterns or in a hurry. The nicest Elizabethan I have right now is made of polyester.

[finch]

I'm pretty sure I just knew some really neurotic ones. I don't have a problem with more advanced topics, they're really interesting to read. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to be too off topic.

[holyschist]

*grin* I may be one of those neurotic ones, and I'm a bit snobby, but I try to keep most of that to my own efforts, not other people's. Although neon makes me cringe.

I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to be too off topic.

Not at all! I think a lot of the people who've commented on this post are intermediate+, but there are definitely some folks here who aren't and I want this community to be fun and useful for everyone!

[holyschist]

Er, eta: I got confused and thought this was the post about favorite periods, which does seem to have a lot of fairly research-focused folks in it.