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Re: MR-Disc: Instant Correct Heraldry fo




Poster: petersr@spiegel.becltd.com (Peters, Rise J.)

I appreciate all the thought folks are putting into what I spotted as an 
issue, which is the discouraging effect of having folks interested in making 
heraldic "stuff" have to wait months for devices to be approved.  But, note 
that the topic name above ("Instant Correct Heraldry for Newbies") suggests 
only one way of approaching the problem -- and not a way that I'd favor.

Instead of emphasizing the need for 'correct' heraldry for newbies, I'd 
prefer to focus on getting them involved in heraldry at all.  Warn them 
that, if they duplicate something registered to someone else, good manners 
will require that they give it over as a gift, and then let them go to town. 
 They'll get off to a rocky start; just as first pieces of garb may be made 
of doubleknit, and first attempts at names may be drawn from Darkover books 
or Tolkien, first banners, etc. may have the "wrong" colors or be otherwise 
less than optimal.  But we don't demand perfection-or-nothing in any other 
field of endeavor; why in heraldry?  Why not allow a learning process that 
rewards people as they go, instead of focusing so tightly on the "right" 
outcome?

And sure, ready-made heraldry may be an acceptable option for some folks, 
just as some folks will choose to buy their garb.  But even my six-year-old 
had strong preferences for what banner would identify her, and I don't 
expect many new SCA members would really be happy taking random armory, 
however heraldically correct.

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