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Frequently-Asked Questions

Most Recent Updates April XLII (2008)

THIS IS THE FAQ PAGE for SCAdia. I don't actually know how frequently (if ever) these questions are being asked by my readers, but if I called it the Questions I Thought Somebody Might Ask (QITSMA) page, nobody would know what I meant.

Who is Seamas Mac Daibhid, and why did he create SCAdia?

I want to teach a class / write an article / build a website. Can I use material from SCAdia?

Can I link to SCAdia from my website?

Will SCAdia link back to my website?

I don't want to build my own website. Can I contribute something to SCAdia?

I know Seamas is a bard. Where are his songs?


Who is Seamas Mac Daibhid, and why did he create SCAdia?

I first encountered the Society for Creative Anachronism in May of A.S. XXI, the week after the Society's Twenty-Year Celebration. Three weeks later I went to my first event, and have never looked back (you could say it was love at first site). In the time since, I've been (to greater or lesser degree) a herald, a bard, a minister of sciences, a leatherworker, a calligrapher, an autocrat, a cobbler, an artist, a games-master, a weaver, a writer, a teacher, a student, a researcher, a cartoonist, a hermit, a tailor, a poet, a menial, a devil's advocate, a village idiot, a quest designer, an unskilled laborer, and even (shudder) a seneschal. For years now I've called myself a professional dilettante.

Smythkepe Device

Device of the Shire of Smythkepe

Although I started in the Shire (now Barony) of the Small Gray Bear, I have spent nearly all of my time in the SCA with the Shire of Smythkepe, in the extreme northwest corner of the Kingdom of Gleann Abhann (and of the Kingdom of Meridies for two decades before that).

Smythkepe was founded in A.S. XXI, a few months after I joined the SCA, and I have been a regular member since its incipiency. Smythkepe borders on the Kingdoms of Calontir and Ansteorra, and has been heavily influenced by both; indeed, for much of its existence the two closest groups geographically to Smythkepe have been in Calontir and Ansteorra (although the situation changes yearly). Of my various accomplishments and activities in the Society, I am undoubtedly proudest of the fact that I have—so far, anyway—done at least a small share of the work at every single official Smythkepe event.

In my sixth year in the Society, I wooed and wed the young woman now known as THL Moira nic Bryn, who is frequently referenced in these pages and who has been one of the backbones of Smythkepe. We met at Lady Moira's very first shire meeting, became constant companions just a few months later, and have now added two young citizens to the Kingdom of Gleann Abhann.

SCAdia, to a large extent, is my attempt to sum up everything I've learned (or wished other people would learn) in over two decades in the SCA. Many of the articles herein have previously appeared in the Smythkepe Cronicle, our local newsletter (renamed The Forge in recent years). A few more I promised to submit and never did, and several were created especially for SCAdia. If you have any comments, corrections, remarks, or recommendations, please feel free to contact me.


I want to teach a class / write an article / build a website. Can I use material from SCAdia?

Well, no and yes. The material on SCAdia is copyrighted, and I will not look happily upon its use without my permission. As a writer I take a dim view of unauthorized reproduction or republication, and can get downright nasty about plagiarism.

[Icon for permission to reproduce and distribute]

Permission
to Share

That said, certain articles on SCAdia are intended specifically for distribution within the Society for Creative Anachronism, and may be reproduced and distributed in printed form without my prior permission. These articles will be plainly marked with the Permission to Share icon shown at right (with or without the PDF notation). Wherever possible—as I am allowed by time—a PDF version of the article will be available, well-formatted for printing on 8½"x11" (A-size) paper.

No material on SCAdia may be distributed by any electronic means. Please do not copy text, graphics, or files from SCAdia to your own website, distribute it by email, or post it on newsgroups or bulletin boards. Thank you.

Can I link to SCAdia from my website?

[Small stained-glass SCAdia logo]

I will of course be delighted if you wish to add a link to SCAdia to your own site. Any site may copy the stained-glass SCAdia logo at right for the single purpose of creating a link to this site, but for no other purpose. For the link itself, you may use either http://scadia.org or http://www.scadia.org.

However, please do not link directly to any images or PDF files on SCAdia. This procedure, known as inline linking or hotlinking, uses a website's bandwidth without bringing any visitors to the website itself, and is a very naughty practice.


Will SCAdia link back to my website?

I don't maintain a page of links to SCA sites—there are too many people doing a far better job at that than I could ever do (see the SCA Research & Resource links page or the SCA WebRing Hub for a couple of good places to start). Instead, when I find a good site specifically related to a topic on SCAdia, I add a link to the article for that topic.

If you maintain (or know about) a good site related to a specific topic on SCAdia, then drop me a note and I'll see about adding a link on the appropriate page. Otherwise, I'd suggest you join the SCA WebRing; you should also check whether your local Kingdom has a web ring.


I don't want to build my own website. Can I contribute something to SCAdia?

I would love for SCAdia to become one of the best-known and most-Googled websites in the Known World, but a quick study of the Updates page will reveal that I'm not too reliable about maintenance. I am interested in contributions from other members of the SCA, but if you're desperate to get your material out, SCAdia may not be your best choice.

Does your local group's newsletter need articles? Better yet, does your local group have its own website in need of material? Is your material well-enough researched and documented that you should submit it to Tournaments Illuminated, the SCA.org website, or even The Compleat Anachronist?

If you think you have something that might be suited for SCAdia, feel free to send me a brief query about it. If I'm interested in your topic, we can talk about whether you want to submit the full text of an article to me. I reserve the right to edit any material submitted to SCAdia for content, grammar, and style, but I will not publish anything until I have your approval of its final form.

I am particularly interested in items for the Tales section of SCAdia, but even there I will be limiting myself to contributions that I find especially entertaining or of strong historical interest. (If—when—I show a bias toward tales of Gleann Abhann or auncient Meridies, I hope you will understand.)

One final thing: Please do not ask me to publish any material on SCAdia if you are not the original author. As I mentioned above, I take a very dim view of plagiarism.


I know Seamas is a bard. Where are his songs?

At my last count, there were exactly 32,191,800 English-language websites with song lyrics on the Internet, of which 883,491 were SCA-related. I didn't collect song lyrics on SCAdia because I think there are already plenty of such sites available. However, the Bards of Gleann Abhann are planning a website for sharing music, lyrics, poetry, and stories, and I hope someday to be a frequent contributor there.


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SCAdia: Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2008, Seamas Mac Daibhid. All rights reserved. Except where otherwise specified, reproduction or redistribution of this material in any form is prohibited. SCAdia is written and edited by Seamas Mac Daibhid. Some material is used by permission of other authors; copyright resides with them and will be noted where appropriate.

SCAdia is not an official web site of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.. and does not delineate official Society policy. While much of the material on SCAdia is instructional or educational, much of it is provided entirely for entertainment. SCAdia makes no claim to support the Society's substantially educational purpose, and should not be considered to reflect upon the Society directly. SCAdia is also not an official web site of the Shire of Smythkepe or the Kingdom of Gleann Abhann.

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