LIVING UP TO ACADEMIC STANDARDS

ariel · 2nd June 2012, 12:42 PM

With all due respect, the last thing I'd like to see this Forum turn into is an internet-based, correspondence-style degree granting entity. There is always the University of Phoenix and a multitude of other fly-by-night operations advertising on the late-night TV.

The purpose and the level of internet Fora differ from the legitimate departments of history/art/archeology etc at real universities. The latter require focussed career paths, total dedication to the profession and the field, much more stringent criteria of proof, deeper and more focussed topics, peer-reviewed publications and structured educational backgrounds.

This is not to say that museums do not make mistakes and that an amateur collector cannot make a valuable minor contribution to the field, but the whole structure of science has changed over the past 200 years. It is no longer the province of a "gentleman-scientist", but of a consummate professional. None of us would dream about spending months and years in multiple libraries, digging out original references ( not other books, written by true professionals!), translating obscure texts, delving into esoteric fields to find a snippet of paleographic information etc, etc, etc, - just to describe a fragment of a rusty sword in the storage room of some forgotten museum. I suggest to my potential opponents to read a chapter on persian daggers by Ivanov in the Elgood's monograph on islamic arms to understand whom do they propose we start competing with :-)

To think that you and I can suddenly and magically produce a professional treatise on arms and armour akin to Elgood's books, is just as realistic as expecting Elgood to write credible articles on signal transduction, system analysis, molecular biology, topology or engineering of bridges.

All of us have our own careers and we should strive to advance within their frameworks. Arms and armour is our mutual hobby and it gives us a lot of freedom to advance crazy ideas, ask naive questions, make silly mistakes , - all without detriment to our professional reputation. This is our enormous advantage over the professionals, and we should rejoice that this and other Fora give us a suitable platform for such games, a small intellectual sandbox where no professional arm historian would dare to be seen.

With best wishes to all.

Rich · 2nd June 2012, 03:10 PM

I would tend to disagree with making this an accredited academic forum. There are few (I don't know of any offhand) accredited universities that grant doctorates in ancient or ethnographic weapons. There is also the problem of who on the forum would be responsible for verifying the poster's degree and the accreditation of the institution? Of course there are many internet sites where you can purchase a degree of any level in any topic you wish. We have lots of knowledgeable folks on the forum and (as a scientist) I also consider any reply as an opinion not necessarily as absolute fact. Let's leave well enough alone.

Rich S
------------------------------------------------------------
Richard Stein, PhD

The Japanese Sword Index
http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/nihonto.htm

"Never go anywhere without a knife"
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs
--------------------------------------------------------------

Mefidk · 2nd June 2012, 10:36 PM

I'd like to support the last two points of view.
I do this for fun, and because its great to learn more, but if it became 'accredited' and I suddenly began to feel that I should up my game, then it would be just like work, and the fun would go out of it pretty fast. Like a number of others here (as far as I can gather), I am also a professional academic in a whole other field, and that functions nothing like the EAA forum. The differences being that 1) by and large most people here are happy to share and help those just starting out or asking questions because they would like to learn more. 2) here you can make mistakes, use the

smiley and not worry - this should not be confused with professional academic practice.
The forum makes a fantastic contribution to the knowledge in the area precisely because anyone can contribute and people feel relaxed about doing this regardless of their status. So my personal point of view is please leave the friendly and well functioning forum alone.

2nd June 2012, 03:10 PM	#2
Rich Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: comfortably at home, USA Posts: 432	I would tend to disagree with making this an accredited academic forum. There are few (I don't know of any offhand) accredited universities that grant doctorates in ancient or ethnographic weapons. There is also the problem of who on the forum would be responsible for verifying the poster's degree and the accreditation of the institution? Of course there are many internet sites where you can purchase a degree of any level in any topic you wish. We have lots of knowledgeable folks on the forum and (as a scientist) I also consider any reply as an opinion not necessarily as absolute fact. Let's leave well enough alone. Rich S ------------------------------------------------------------ Richard Stein, PhD The Japanese Sword Index http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/nihonto.htm "Never go anywhere without a knife" - Leroy Jethro Gibbs -------------------------------------------------------------- Last edited by Rich; 2nd June 2012 at 06:02 PM. Reason: delete email address

2nd June 2012, 12:42 PM	#1
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	With all due respect, the last thing I'd like to see this Forum turn into is an internet-based, correspondence-style degree granting entity. There is always the University of Phoenix and a multitude of other fly-by-night operations advertising on the late-night TV. The purpose and the level of internet Fora differ from the legitimate departments of history/art/archeology etc at real universities. The latter require focussed career paths, total dedication to the profession and the field, much more stringent criteria of proof, deeper and more focussed topics, peer-reviewed publications and structured educational backgrounds. This is not to say that museums do not make mistakes and that an amateur collector cannot make a valuable minor contribution to the field, but the whole structure of science has changed over the past 200 years. It is no longer the province of a "gentleman-scientist", but of a consummate professional. None of us would dream about spending months and years in multiple libraries, digging out original references ( not other books, written by true professionals!), translating obscure texts, delving into esoteric fields to find a snippet of paleographic information etc, etc, etc, - just to describe a fragment of a rusty sword in the storage room of some forgotten museum. I suggest to my potential opponents to read a chapter on persian daggers by Ivanov in the Elgood's monograph on islamic arms to understand whom do they propose we start competing with :-) To think that you and I can suddenly and magically produce a professional treatise on arms and armour akin to Elgood's books, is just as realistic as expecting Elgood to write credible articles on signal transduction, system analysis, molecular biology, topology or engineering of bridges. All of us have our own careers and we should strive to advance within their frameworks. Arms and armour is our mutual hobby and it gives us a lot of freedom to advance crazy ideas, ask naive questions, make silly mistakes , - all without detriment to our professional reputation. This is our enormous advantage over the professionals, and we should rejoice that this and other Fora give us a suitable platform for such games, a small intellectual sandbox where no professional arm historian would dare to be seen. With best wishes to all.

2nd June 2012, 10:36 PM	#3
Mefidk Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Denmark Posts: 157	I'd like to support the last two points of view. I do this for fun, and because its great to learn more, but if it became 'accredited' and I suddenly began to feel that I should up my game, then it would be just like work, and the fun would go out of it pretty fast. Like a number of others here (as far as I can gather), I am also a professional academic in a whole other field, and that functions nothing like the EAA forum. The differences being that 1) by and large most people here are happy to share and help those just starting out or asking questions because they would like to learn more. 2) here you can make mistakes, use the smiley and not worry - this should not be confused with professional academic practice. The forum makes a fantastic contribution to the knowledge in the area precisely because anyone can contribute and people feel relaxed about doing this regardless of their status. So my personal point of view is please leave the friendly and well functioning forum alone.