Issue # 209, March 2026

A Quiet Anniversary, A New Beginning, and a Small Request

This month marks something we never really stopped to celebrate: SBG quietly turned twenty‑one years old. No fanfare, no announcement, no big milestone post. It slipped by in the middle of everything else happening behind the scenes. But it’s worth pausing for a moment to acknowledge what that really means.

For more than two decades, SBG has been a place where people learned, shared, argued, bought, sold, reviewed, and discovered the sword world together. We never charged a fee. We never put up a paywall. We never asked for donations. The forum, the guides, the reviews, the classifieds, the store — all of it has always been free to use.

And now, as we prepare for the next chapter, we’re asking for something we’ve never asked for before.

Where We Are Now

The last few months have been challenging. We’re operating with very low funds while also trying to build something much bigger behind the scenes. SBG 2.0 is already in development — a complete overhaul of the site, the platform, the tools, and the way everything connects. It’s a huge project, and while the foundation is already being laid, there will come a point where expert help is needed to take it the rest of the way. That means we need to keep the lights on long enough to reach that point.

On top of that, I have a personal trip to Japan coming up to see my daughter, and I need to focus on that as well. Life doesn’t pause just because the work gets heavy.

If SBG Has Ever Helped You…

For the first time in 21 years, we’re opening a small tip jar for anyone who wants to support the site:

Ko-fi Kofi SBG26

There is absolutely no pressure.

But if SBG has ever helped you — if a review saved you from a bad purchase, if the forum taught you something, if the community gave you a place to belong, if the store ever delivered a sword you loved — then even a small tip genuinely helps us push forward into an uncertain but exciting future.

Every little bit makes a difference right now.

Looking Ahead

The plan for the next few months is nothing short of a full rebuild. SBG 2.0 will take time, and most of the work will remain behind the curtain until we have the funding and support to bring in the specialists needed to finish it properly. When it gets closer to reality, I’ll share more — and eventually, later in the year, a Kickstarter campaign is likely.

For now, we’re doing everything we can to keep things running, keep the community informed, and keep moving forward one step at a time.

Thank you

To everyone who wrote in after the last issue: thank you. I wasn’t able to reply to everyone, but I read every message, and they meant more than you know. I’m doing everything I can to keep SBG alive and moving toward the future it deserves.

This temporary version of the digest will continue while we stabilize things. With your help, we’ll get back on our feet and build something worthy of the next twenty‑one years.

Thank you for being part of SBG — past, present, and future. And until next issue, Happy Swordening friends!

— Paul

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