It is okay to embargo your research, it is not okay to pester those that aren’t ready to share.

I’m going to make this succinct and blunt.

Nobody, not even your SCA bestie, or any academic, has to fork over their research to you for the asking.

Putting your research out there for free comes with risks of plagiarism and those potentially capitalizing off of your hard work. While plagiarism is, of course, abhorrent, and anybody who outright steals information, images, and other research to make a buck off of it is just fucking shitty, SCAdians and other reenactors are by far the biggest culprits out there and I am not afraid to throw you all under the goddamn bus about it.

“But you have to share with me.” Somebody asked, “You’re one of US!”

What does that even mean? And I do share, this entire blog is me sharing. I embargoed my Hittite for a while because I actually had people, when I mentioned I was going to give it a shot, tell me that they were ready to basically make whatever I put out there without a second thought, or, try to steal my thunder first.

When somebody tells you they are working on a major project, you RESPECT THAT PROJECT. You wait for publication, be it on a blog or social media for free, or in print. You provide citations and contact information when that research is made available. You do not pass it off as your own, you do not take somebody else’s documentation and turn it into your own A&S project, and you do not, DO NOT, try to make patterns off of it and sell it as your own (You know who you are).

A freely shared project is still the intellectual property of the owner, and and those that choose to not embargo should not be embarrassed or have to pursue litigation because somebody outright stole their work. I had to have a paid account on Academia.edu for some time because I had a SCAdian steal my research and try to pass it off as their own while at university. The person has since left the game.

All creators, be it hobbyists or academics, have a right to withhold research for publication until they are absolutely ready to share, and I am going to start recommending that all SCAdians consider waiting to share anything, even pictures on social media, of works in progress. It may sound counterintuitive to the educational aspect of the society, but creators should not have to worry about poachers.

I’m very excited about my upcoming projects, but since I am in the position for academic publication, I cannot share anything about it. I will also be embargoing my dissertation completely until it is also in a position for publication.

I look forward to being screamed at by Le Ancien Regime SCAdiens on Facebook for this.