Thanx be to God I awoke this morning with a pulse and a purpose, amen to that!

Today I'll carve out a bit of time to cast some .690, .600, .530, and .440 balls.  The .600 balls are for the 16ga Kibler fowler, and they're for making paper cartridges.  The rest of the balls will be used for making gunpowder.

 

On this day in 1841, a short-lived bill authorizing the formation of a French Texan immigration company was introduced in the Texas Congress.

The Franco-Texian Bill, proposed by two Frenchmen, Jean Pierre Hippolyte Basterreche and Pierre Francois de Lassaulx, called for the introduction of 8,000 immigrant families to occupy three million acres of the Republic of Texas. The managing company was to establish twenty forts in twenty years. It was also to develop mines within its territory and pay the republic 15 percent of the gross returns. The bill passed the House but was never presented to the Senate because the sponsors saw that it could not pass over the expected veto by acting president David G. Burnet.

RobD, I appreciate and support what you are doing. I enjoy this forum and try to check new postings every day. I try to come up with interesting questions to inspire other lurkers.
Please keep doing what you are doing.
I plan to encourage people on other forums to come for a visit.

"Social Media" are sites such s Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter/X, and others where the format is linear - just one long never ending vertical stream of posts and conversations.  As such, it's "fast food" because what you see in an hour or day or week or month or year disappears down the line real fast.

Forums are sites that show individual threads, posts, which are much easier to see, navigate, and most important they are easy to search, find, and continue those individual conversations.   

Video channels such as YouTube, Rumble, and others are just that - accumulations of video presentations, and are quite different from social media sites and forums.

Society has broken away from forums and has, for the very most part, endeared themselves to fast food social media websites.  It is what it is.

As times have changed, so have forums - but only in with respect to less interest in them and thus less activity, as folks have moved on to social media use.

What will probably happen with our TMA is a change in presentation but not goals, attitude, or content.  We will respect and honor the good folks who started this association, the founders and original Charter Members.  Wouldn't be here without their good visions and hard work. 

We will continue to insure that all threads and posts are civil and constructive, not destructive as seen elsewhere on too many other firearm sites. 

We will continue to preserve, support, and promote anything and everything about traditional muzzleloading firearms and the peoples and times of the 18th and 19th centuries.  This will mean predominantly firelocks that use flint or percussion cap ignition systems, but we can look back and also talk about hand gonnes and matchlocks and other such primitive ignition systems of previous eras just as well.

We will also no longer be monetary based - no need for Contributing Membership to pay the internet bills.  Funding will be on a voluntary contribution basis and those who do will be acknowledged. 

As it is now, there will be no paying sponsors - we will hold no special interest allegiance to any company, beholding to no one but our goals and forum registrants.

We will no longer need to have a bank account or subscription services.  No longer a need to legalize as an incorporated entity.  There will no longer be a need for TMA Officers.  A council of elders will maintain the website/forum and keep the TMA on course in a positive direction.  There will be common sense rules for all, along with fair thread/post moderation, no more or less wanted or needed. 

This is what your TMA officers have been discussing for some time, and it's only proper to share this with forum registrants.  Without you making threads and posts, there is no activity and thus no forum ... which is what has been happening less and less over the last 5 years or so.

Thank you for continuing to enjoy the TMA forum.