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#1
Um, some nervous lurker just asked what I was going to, so that thread pretty much sums up most of my questions. One thing though... how 'tight' is everybody wound here though? I'm on the spectrum, and I'm pretty high-functioning, especially since I have all the time in the world to edit my posts before submitting them. But somehow people always find out on account of because I'm a little strange. So I decided to start things off with a Flanderism so I can start off on a goofyfoot... or something.

So for an actual question, you don't get banned if your Science Fiction is too 'soft' or anything do you?
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#2
(03-08-2021, 03:50 AM)ninetyeightpointsix Wrote: Um, some nervous lurker just asked what I was going to, so that thread pretty much sums up most of my questions. One thing though... how 'tight' is everybody wound here though? I'm on the spectrum, and I'm pretty high-functioning, especially since I have all the time in the world to edit my posts before submitting them. But somehow people always find out on account of because I'm a little strange. So I decided to start things off with a Flanderism so I can start off on a goofyfoot... or something.

So for an actual question, you don't get banned if your Science Fiction is too 'soft' or anything do you?

Hi There - Welcome to OA!

Re the links you posted to other conversations - Ok, then. If you have any further questions or concerns relating to those (or there's something outstanding in that thread that it doesn't answer), please feel free to ask.

Re how tightly wound everyone is around here - The OA community is made up of all sorts of people with all sorts of different personalities. Personally, I'm an anal-retentive control freak and proud of it Cool . But others here are much more laid back. Perhaps more importantly we are - by and large - a pretty friendly bunch who would much rather work out ways to make ideas work rather than shoot them down. In fact, a good rule of thumb if folks are telling you an idea is unworkable as presented is to ask if there is any way it could be adjusted to be made workable - because most of the time that ends up with us figuring out a way. Big Grin

Beyond that, our moderation/forum etiquette policies and enforcement are pretty aggressive compared to most online communities (so I gather) and so the sort of flaming/trolling/personal attacks kind of thing that often seem to characterize other online places (I've been told) don't fly here and will trigger a firm (up to and including the 'nuke it from orbit' sense of the word) response from the Admins as soon as we become aware of it.

Because of the age of the community (many of us have been around for literally years and some for decades) and our passion for the project, debates may occasionally become a little heated - but we always shake hands and make up afterward. And sometimes the same people arguing with each other passionately on one thread will be in total agreement and working closely together on another. It's that kind of place.

As far as people on the spectrum - I believe we have a number of members who can say that, both here and on the OA Discord. Those inclined to share about it will and those not so inclined won't. Personally, the only issue I can think of that I've ever had with anyone in this area is that I don't notice any difference between their posts and anyone else's, which means I tend to forget they are on the spectrum, and so sometimes they've had to remind me. Which perhaps says something about OA, the mediating effect of everything going through a keyboard, or my own general obliviousness. Or all three at the same time more likely. :p

Speaking more generally - As long as people are willing to play by OA's rules and are reasonably pleasant to interact with when they are here, the details of how their minds work don't worry us. With the exception that if someone ever did come here and decided they wanted to give our members a hard time about being on the spectrum (or being a particular race, religion, orientation, gender, etc.) they would quickly find themselves dealing with the Admins - and not in a good way.

Re your question at the end - Nope, liking or creating soft SF will not get you banned, warned, or even admonished here. OA is a hard SF setting, but the days when anyone thought hard SF (which does not have any single agreed upon definition btw - we've looked) was somehow 'better' than soft SF are more than a decade gone in our past these days. Youthful exuberance from a few members back in the day and we're mildly embarrassed about it, basically. Blush

If you were to try to force us into adding some soft SF element to the OA setting - in a form that we couldn't re-engineer into a hard SF equivalent - and were being really obnoxious about it and refusing to listen to us when we raised objections or pointed out that the idea wouldn't work in OA, then yes that could get you banned if it went on long enough/got bad enough. But for being really obnoxious and refusing to listen, not for the idea itself. We do accept (and expect, really) for people to advocate for and defend their ideas here - but we also expect some degree of maturity, ability to compromise, and general reasonableness about it as well.

Finally and re your mention of being a little strange - Don't worry. Hang out here long enough and we'll have you up to being a lot strange in no time. Angel

Hope this helps and once again: Welcome to OA!

Todd
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#3
Welcome to OA!
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#4
Welcome!


Quote:Re your question at the end - Nope, liking or creating soft SF will not get you banned, warned, or even admonished here. OA is a hard SF setting, but the days when anyone thought hard SF (which does not have any single agreed upon definition btw - we've looked) was somehow 'better' than soft SF are more than a decade gone in our past these days. Youthful exuberance from a few members back in the day and we're mildly embarrassed about it, basically.

In OA you can deal with these kind of things in virches (virtual realities); there are plenty around that usually answer to "What if?" questions of historical nature.
If you want to introduce something that do not adhere with the setting's rule you can do that in a virch. It's a cheap work around but it can works Big Grin
Semi-professional threads diverter.
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#5
The vast majority of sophont beings in the Terragen Sphere live in virtual realities, many of which would appear to have soft science rules to our eyes.
These can make for interesting tales, although perhaps they would be more interesting if they have some sort of interface with the real universe outside at some point.
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