Instructions

Please check under Member Area – Account details, on the left, that your Display Name is indeed your name. Update this (and Save Changes) if not. Everybody on the forum needs to see who posts and replies.

On the Special Interest Group – Iron, please select ‘Subscribe’ on the top right of the page. You will get email notification for each new post on the forum. Note: when you are subscribed, the top left corner text will say ‘Unsubscribe’. This can be selected if you wish to leave the Special Interest Group – Iron.

When you receive a mail of a new post, or if you spot another while browsing the various posts, for which you would like to see the replies to that post, select ‘Subscribe’ at the top left on the page of that post. ‘Favouriting’ a forum or topic will display a notification on the forum page but not email you. You would need to access the forum regularly to see updates.

To reply to a topic, write in the text box below and ‘Submit’. Do note that the structure of the forum does not allow ‘branching off’; each reply will follow after the last. If your reply is to a specific reply please clarify this. For example “[to Paul R.] The name of that site is Boxville”.

The Special Interest Group – Iron allows you to post questions on any topic related to the history of the production of iron and its alloys, from slag identification over metallography of iron objects to research on 19^th century steel production. Importantly, the forum allows for the sharing of pictures and pdf and Word files. This can be done in two ways:

• You can use ‘Upload Attachments’ under the text box for pictures and text documents
• Use ‘Ins’ on the row above the text box to insert a picture into that text box. Entering 200×200 as requested measurements gives a reasonable size.

[Note: uploading of the documents can take some time, please be patient]

Do make sure that the tickbox ‘Notify me of follow-up replies via email’ is selected when submitting a post or replying to one.

Some Members might have a specific question for which might not be suited for the Forum. These can be submitted to sigiron@historicalmetallurgy.org after which a relevant specialist will be sourced to reply to the query.

Some tips and information:

• Make sure your question is clear and concise. Asking “Can somebody give me an overview of the history of iron in China’ is too broad but if that is your interest, you could ask for references to relevant publications on the subject.
• Ask only one question per post. If your query has two components, please consider doing two posts.
• Similarly for replies, please make sure that you reply to the question posed and be mindfull of not overcomplicating threads.
• A question can, of course, lead to another in the replies. Admins have the possibility to split off questions from the main thread and repost them as an original post.
• Please be aware, depending on volume and nature of the posts, that the best and most relevant of these can be published on an as yet undetermined platform. Permissions to do so will be requested from the parties involved.