ANSWERS
1.What is the UK Pirate Brotherhood?
The UK Pirate Brotherhood is a loose federation of re-enactment societies, interest groups and individuals.
It was originally formed as a networking system amongst members of different re-enactment groups who, either as a main historical period, or as a sideline to their key era, represented pirates. With the aim of encouraging communication between the many different, small groups, so that they could collaborate in order to stage bigger and better shows than would have been possible with a single group.
The UK Pirate Brotherhood IS NOT, nor will is it intended that it ever should be, a governing body for pirate re-enactors.
Every group within the Brotherhood remains completely autonomous. Although one of the aims of the UKPB is to provide access to information that will enable groups who wish to follow the historically accurate route to improve the authenticity of their kit, the Brotherhood has no say in the running of individual societies, or in the decisions that they make regarding the style or authenticity of their presentations.
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2.How Did the UK Pirate Brotherhood Start?
The UK Pirate Brotherhood was formed after the first South West Pirate Festival at Brixham in 2002, in response to the expressed desire to continue the cooperation between different societies which had made that event such a success.
The inspiration for the Brotherhood was FODAS, The Federation Of Dark Ages Societies, (There now follows a brief history lesson). During the early 1980's, the national organisation representing Dark Ages re-enactment was the N.F.P.S, Norse Film and Pageant Society, however there was a large number of small, independent societies. FODAS acted as an umbrella organisation. Communication between groups was established by a regular newsletter which was used to publicise "open invite" events in which the various member groups would participate.
Now, in this internet age, It is hoped that this website will take the role of the magazine, and that the Brotherhood will be more-or less, self administrating.
The UK Pirate Brotherhood Yahoo e-group was set up in June 2002, so that the different enactment societies involved could talk to each other. and in the intervening years, it has grown both in size and scope. At the last count, there were over fifteen different historical societies taking part, and the other interests of individuals participating are as diverse as Maritime Historical Research, and Live Role-play.
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3. How Do I Join the UK Pirate Brotherhood?
In short, there is no official membership of the Brotherhood, All that you have to do, is to become involved. Either by participating in the Forum, or in the E-Group, or by contributing to one of the other sections. You can, for example, upload pictures to the Gallery, or send in details and a URL of an appropriate website to the Links list, or you can submit a contribution for publication in the Articles section. If you represent a society, or a similar group, please send in details so that we can create a Directory entry for your organisation, and put together as complete as possible listing of participating groups.
To go to the directory
CLICK HERE
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4. Do I have to be a Pirate re-enactor to be part of the UK Pirate Brotherhood?
No. Although The Brotherhood was originally formed to provide a service for Pirate re-enactors, It has attracted the interest of a wide diversity of different groups and individuals. So, whether you are a Historical Enactor, involved in pirate re-enactment, or are involved in the re-enactment of any other part of the history of the age of sail, or if you are an enthusiast of any aspect of maritime history, Pirates, Pyracy or the era known as the Golden Age of Piracy. You can be a part of the Brotherhood.
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5. Do I have to live in the United Kingdom in order to be involved in the Brotherhood?
Again, Although the UK Pirate Brotherhood was initially set up to benefit re-enactment societies based in the United Kingdom, as its scope and range has diversified, it has also attracted interested parties from all over the world. We presently have contributors from America, Australia, Holland & Germany, to name but a few.
So, Wherever you are from, if you wish to be involved, you are more than welcome.
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6.What is a Minniweb?
A "Minniweb" is a miniature website, it is part of the directory for groups within the brotherhood.
Each Minniweb contains Information about, and pictures of each organisation, and contact details for anybody wishing to get in touch with the group either wishing to join them, or wanting to book them for an event.
The main function of the Mini Website is to ensure that no group within the UK Pirate Brotherhood gets preferential Treatment, each society gets a maximum of 500 words, and three photographs to promote themselves, and it is up to each organisation how this is best used to promote the crew.
Each page will also have whatever contact details the group wishes to be made available, including a link to their main website if they have one.
Another advantage of using Minniwebs is that not every organisation has an internet presence, so groups that do not have their own website can use this facility to promote themselves online. Contributors will be given the option of choosing keywords that will be added to their minniweb as meta tags so that they can attract the attention of internet search engines.
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7. Do I Have to contribute to be part of the UK Pirate Brotherhood?
Whilst we would like to encourage anybody who has something to contribute to do so, The UK Pirate Brotherhood has always had a significant number of lurkers. If you are benefiting from the material that is on this website, then you are contributing to its success. You do not have to feel obliged to add material to this site, but equally you should not feel afraid to make your feelings about it known, or to simply join the forum to say "Hi".
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8. How do I send in contributions for the website?
There are plans to create forms to make it easier for you to send in information for this website, Unfortunately this is still in the development stage, so for the time being, the only way to send in information is by email.
The default email address for this site is admin@ukpiratebrotherhood.co.uk . Since different contributions require different data, we have set up a page listing the data required for different pages.
To Contribute,
CLICK HERE
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9. How Can I Help?
The best way to help is to make use of all the services that this website provides. At the moment, it is very new, and it will only grow from your contributions.
Join the Forum, if you ask questions, people will begin to answer, If you send in pictures to the gallery, we will be able to create Albums showing what happens at events, and if you have any ideas for new features for this site, send them in!
Beyond that, the best way that you can help is to spread the word, the Brotherhood is set up as much to benefit individuals as it is societies, so tell your friends about us, tell other members of your group about us, and if you have a website, create a Link to us (Let us know, and in return we will put you in our links site.)
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