It is my pleasure and honour to officially open the Brass Goggles and Aether Emporium Steampunk Forum to the public! Some weeks ago it became blindingly apparent that Steampunk fans are not only amazingly creative (as made obvious by the things that I have the pleasure of posting about) but also enjoy lively discussion and are remarkably open to helping each other when someone has a Steampunk question to ask.

In short – Steampunk fans are a community, and a wonderfully mature and helpful one at that.

The comments section here at Brass Goggles isn’t really suited to discussion on anything other than what one small person has decided to post about, and while the Aether Emporium is a excellent resource for links and interviews – it too lacks somewhere that a community can engage in chat from things as diverse as tea choice, to prop making resources, to Steampunk holiday destinations. That’s what this forum is for.

Please feel free to pop over, join in the discussions or start a discussion of your own – perhaps you’re having trouble with some steam power, or wondering what fabric to use on a cog-cushion, or even feel that the music discussion was too brief – do feel free to have a natter. There are other forums, and places that people have gathered in the past (the Clockworkers Guild Livejournal Community, the Steampunk2 Yahoo Group, and the Nov-Net Steampunk board, in particular) – this is just another, different one (more or less specialised/open/technical/searchable/brown etc).