So. I have come.

[Drashner1]

Hi there, Welcome to OA

So.

I'm a college student. I've been interested in Orion's Arm for a significant amount of time... I don't remember exactly, but it's probably been around a decade or so, likely more, since I first looked at the website. So I definitely have an overall familiarity. More recently, I've started reading through the timeline, which is taking a while since I also stop to look at links, and sometimes links from there, which can go on a considerable while. I'm a little past the first federation now.

Heh. This is actually fairly normal from what I've heard (and remember). OA apparently has a reputation for sucking people in and sending them down link after link after link into the wee hours of the morning.

To review my relevant knowledge/interests: Primarily I'm a writer, I suppose, or at least interested in the creative side of coming up with ideas and filling in details and so forth. As far as hard science and technology go, I have enough knowledge to understand those sorts of ideas in the setting but probably not add to them. I do know a fair amount about liguisitics, come to think of it, but that doesn't really appear to be a big focus here. Probably I'd be most interested in designing worlds, ecosystems, clades, historical events, cultural stuff, maybe come up with some daily life applications of technology, whatever. And definitely I could be interested in filling in details for some of the more sketchy articles or what have you. I like filling in details.

We're pretty laid back about what folks work on here. Basically, everyone focuses on whatever interests them with occasional exceptions if someone volunteers to take on something that needs doing for some reason. So, it's not really a matter of linguistics not being a focus here as no one having joined yet who decided they wanted to add to the setting in that area. If you'd like to play around with linguistics in the setting, or any of the other things you mention here, or anything else that interests you, by all means have at it.

1. The planet Orwell really caught my eye. Would it be possible for me to make an Outline of the Evolution of Life on Orwell? I've assembled a few notes already. It'd sort of be a period-by-period sketch of the major groups. And then maybe there could be another article for an overview of contemporary lifeforms. Being as the world's been settled a while it seems to me that xenobiologists should have a decent idea from genetic and paleontological surveys (nanoswarms could help?) of the prehistory rather than merely what's left, which could allow an interestingly different approach from what we currently see with, for example, To'ul'h Prime.
If I were to make such an outline, would it start with a thread on General Discussion, while I'm still working out the overall sketch?
I should disclaim here that my visual art skills are... unsophisticated.

2. I was especially intrigued by the article on the Pluton Volumes and the Epp War. As more of a long-term goal I'd be really interested in what could be done to flesh out that region and series of events, and I'd like to, although this may be too ambitious, write a series of connected stories that outline the historical events recounted by that article. I've taken some notes about this too, largely just jotting down articles that seem like they could be relevant or connected, and also bits of questions. Would a question thread about Pluton and the Epps also be appropriate fodder for a General Discussion thread?

By all means, please feel free to take a shot at these. As you suggest, the General Discussion sub-forum is the place to discuss and develop the ideas and get them organized to go into an article. Once you have initial drafts of articles created, you can post them to the EG sub-forum for consideration as articles rather than ideas under development.

As far as artwork is concerned, several of our members are artists. Like most everyone else, they largely work on what grabs their interest. If one or more of them decide to lend a hand with your writings, they can likely help out on the visual side of things.

Finally, in case anyone's curious, TSSL stands for Termite Squid Snow Leopard. It's not a spiritual or identity thing; I just happen to like them.

Good to know If you have any questions or concerns about any of the above, or about some other aspect of OA, please don't hesitate to post em. We're a pretty friendly bunch overall, and working together to grow and develop the setting is what we're all about here.

Have fun, and once again - Welcome to OA!

Todd