Rob,
I think all sorts of pistols could be grouped in one sub-forum.
I would prefer to see rifles grouped as percussion;  and flintlock; and all others.
Since there are few people here that are interested solely in handgonnes or snaphaunces or matchlocks, there is no need to seperate them individually.
Although it appears that the concept of club or association is going away, I think it would be nice to continue to at least have the designation of Charter Members.  Granted there are fewer and fewer of us, it's kinda nice to feel like somewhat of a pioneer.
Wondering if there is still going to be a "club store"?  If that is going away, I better hurry up and replace my coffee cup, as after gallons and gallons of coffee going through it and many of those cups were warmed up in the microwave, the inside is starting to show signs of wear.
I will stay tuned to see how this all works out.
John
PS:  I never minded paying dues here.  I always felt it was worth the money and I got a lot of value for it.  Hoping we will continue to have postal shoots.

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.

That's great John, thanks for the photos.
 You look quite dapper indeed
Kevin

Rob, I think you nailed it in a nutshell.
Too many of the original people dying off and not enough people to replace them.
And you are spot on about the social pages drawing people away from the forums.
The forum Beaverman started for horners, for example,  suffered near catastrophe when it started a Facebook page.  It went from a very active site to me being nearly the only one posting about horns.  And that was mainly about horns in my collection, not what I had been working on.  Nothing new there, move on.
What's the answer?  New members.  How do you get them?  I dunno.
John