08-08-2016, 12:30 PM
So, this is the first of various threads I'm aiming to spin off from the 'if you could start OA over from scratch' thread.
Re the topics here:
1) I would like to propose doing some 'weeding' of the OA timeline. While I haven't done a comprehensive review of the whole thing, in the course of my travels, I've come across a number of entries like these:
54 - Serious earthquakes rock California and Japan.
59 - Fourth Persian Gulf War. Allied powers occupy Iraqi, Kuwaiti and Saudi oilfields.
60's - Silicon computing reaches practical upper limit
63 - Economy picks up
66 - US involvement in the Saudi 'Regency Rig' features Transmissions Viruses
69 - Tokyo brown-out causes minor hysteria and crashes financial network.
72 - First photonic computer (10-gigahertz range),
75 - Central Asian Oil Crisis resolved through UN-mediated ceasefire
75 - Terahertz diamond film processing
82 - US President Davids consults Senate to provide watchdog on maverick Corporations.
108 - EF Senate moves to Berlin.
Most of these don't seem to have any obvious connection to existing articles in the EG. Some of them run the risk of being dated or otherwise inaccurate. Some seem to be either near content free filler, or even downright non-sequiturs that generate a reaction ranging from 'Huh?!' to 'Who cares?!'
For these reasons, I would like to get the group's OK to go through and 'weed' the timeline - locating entries that have problems such as mentioned above and posting them to the forum for consideration for removal. If anyone else wants to join in, more power to them.
Consideration for removal would be based in part on group discussion and consensus and in part on a set of guidelines for generating EG entries depicting the early timeline. Which brings us to:
2) Based on several of the responses to the main question of the 'what would you do if you could start OA from scratch?' question, as well as some discussions and posts made earlier this year, I would like to suggest that we create a set of guidelines for authors wanting to generate articles about the early timeline (events, cultures, races, etc.). Some (roughly described) possible guidelines might include:
a) Cultures from the early timeline will rarely persist to the OA present day. Even more rarely will they persist unchanged. Anyone wanting to describe a RL culture still living essentially unchanged in Y11k will need to be spectacularly persuasive in their arguments - otherwise they will need to include information on how the culture in question has evolved and changed across thousands of years and in response to the many elements that make up OA civilization (eg., life extension. provolution, AI, xenosophonts, etc.).
b) The first century of the timeline should be left vague (a longstanding policy we've been somewhat lax about the last few years). Wars, natural disasters, and specific technological plateaus in this period should not be discussed without excellent reasons (as judged by the group or the managing Board, if necessary.
Etc.
There are likely other guidelines that we would want to consider, but that's all I've got off the top of my head.
The overall goal is to allow for members who want to to develop historical EG entries, but to also not end up with an early timeline that is over described or filled with items that seem implausible or at odds with the rest of the project or its ethos.
Thoughts on this?
Todd
Re the topics here:
1) I would like to propose doing some 'weeding' of the OA timeline. While I haven't done a comprehensive review of the whole thing, in the course of my travels, I've come across a number of entries like these:
54 - Serious earthquakes rock California and Japan.
59 - Fourth Persian Gulf War. Allied powers occupy Iraqi, Kuwaiti and Saudi oilfields.
60's - Silicon computing reaches practical upper limit
63 - Economy picks up
66 - US involvement in the Saudi 'Regency Rig' features Transmissions Viruses
69 - Tokyo brown-out causes minor hysteria and crashes financial network.
72 - First photonic computer (10-gigahertz range),
75 - Central Asian Oil Crisis resolved through UN-mediated ceasefire
75 - Terahertz diamond film processing
82 - US President Davids consults Senate to provide watchdog on maverick Corporations.
108 - EF Senate moves to Berlin.
Most of these don't seem to have any obvious connection to existing articles in the EG. Some of them run the risk of being dated or otherwise inaccurate. Some seem to be either near content free filler, or even downright non-sequiturs that generate a reaction ranging from 'Huh?!' to 'Who cares?!'
For these reasons, I would like to get the group's OK to go through and 'weed' the timeline - locating entries that have problems such as mentioned above and posting them to the forum for consideration for removal. If anyone else wants to join in, more power to them.
Consideration for removal would be based in part on group discussion and consensus and in part on a set of guidelines for generating EG entries depicting the early timeline. Which brings us to:
2) Based on several of the responses to the main question of the 'what would you do if you could start OA from scratch?' question, as well as some discussions and posts made earlier this year, I would like to suggest that we create a set of guidelines for authors wanting to generate articles about the early timeline (events, cultures, races, etc.). Some (roughly described) possible guidelines might include:
a) Cultures from the early timeline will rarely persist to the OA present day. Even more rarely will they persist unchanged. Anyone wanting to describe a RL culture still living essentially unchanged in Y11k will need to be spectacularly persuasive in their arguments - otherwise they will need to include information on how the culture in question has evolved and changed across thousands of years and in response to the many elements that make up OA civilization (eg., life extension. provolution, AI, xenosophonts, etc.).
b) The first century of the timeline should be left vague (a longstanding policy we've been somewhat lax about the last few years). Wars, natural disasters, and specific technological plateaus in this period should not be discussed without excellent reasons (as judged by the group or the managing Board, if necessary.
Etc.
There are likely other guidelines that we would want to consider, but that's all I've got off the top of my head.
The overall goal is to allow for members who want to to develop historical EG entries, but to also not end up with an early timeline that is over described or filled with items that seem implausible or at odds with the rest of the project or its ethos.
Thoughts on this?
Todd