Copyright question- I hope this isn't as thorny as it feels...

[Tangle10]

ok - sometimes i want to delete that sentence because i disagree with it, and think it's not helpful to say that as an introduction to new folks who let it limit their brainstorms..

half the premises in OA are written because some of us thought they're cool (Giant empire of Cyborg Dinosaurs in  Space!). There's almost always some kind of more elaborate justification than that, and yes everything is supposedly *possible* according to our current understanding of physics.
I don't even know how many self-inserts exist in the setting, especially from early contributions.

but i'd say tell us this self indulgent idea, if you're comfortable and let others judge if it's actually inappropriate

Todd's outlines of what's allowable is true... but i think the what's appropriate is all about implementation, to be honest..

not appropriate:
"and then the populations of the Vorzan orbital swarm fought a space battle over territory using giant robots using magmatter swords"

probably appropriate:
"In 6092 AT the populations of the Vorzan orbital swarm voted to use their extra automated industrial capacity to build giant mecha robots for a sports event. The popularity of the broadcasts even convinced a S3 to gift the sports league with swords made from exotic matter."

or you could just write up your self indulgent idea for yourself , format it however you want so long as it doesn't look like the EG and... not use OA terminology? just use generic words or make up your own?

"And then Tangle10's self insert character uploaded their mind into the giant anime mecha which had been gifted to them by the T-rex-themed Quantum-Moons (god-like AI superintelligences) and they high fived because it was so awesome. Totally-not-Tangle10 used their new anime mecha body to lead the armies of sentient dinosaur cyborgs to victory and surrounded themselves with hot (insert partner of your preferred gender(s))"

or whatever

Fair enough! To both, haha.

The self-indulgence is really just a high concentration of 'things specifically from OA I find cool'. That's why I've been saying it'd be a bit like a fanfic- though the idea of genericizing it is certainly something I've considered, I was worried it'd be seen as dishonest (it felt like I'd be lifting ideas from OA and pretending they're something else by changing a few specifics)....

The original spitballing I was doing with a friend when I figured the closest this would come to OA proper was as a fun little idea on my computer that would be explicitly tied to OA but not shared included a few things I find likely beyond the pale or at least requiring revision:

- the presence of both a Nekology branch and a derived branch of the Cybyota, which I feel beggars belief and would be better-served by choosing one at most if not discarding the idea of including either of them entirely, or replacing one/both with a more conventional infrastructure set up by the "leaver" ahuman AIs.

- a fairly advanced wormhole network derived from either study of or interaction with the ahuman Taurus Nexus ais, penetrating a notable portion of the region- more likely, I feel, is an analog to or outgrowth of the lightways and beamrider network; especially as in an open cluster distances between stars are relatively small.

- a coordinating AI of roughly low archailect class, derived from an early interstellar mission ai that untethered itself from humanity when news of the technocalypse reached it; which arrived ~several hundred years before other Terragens. This might be better as a visiting AI more fully integrated with the Terragen sphere, perhaps from a specific polity; or perhaps it evolved from the things the "leaver" ahuman AIs left behind.

- the AI having an extremely large variety and number of avatars, to the point that Terragen visitors would initially consider it its own small but diverse polity- I figured this would be rationalized by the coordinating AI still having the influence from the caretaker-like ahuman AIs, or perhaps as an attempt to understand itself due to a slightly botched transcension?

Otherwise, I'm starting to think this idea is a lot more feasible as an actual part of the EG than I thought at first. I hope I can make it fit!