TIMELINE CONTEST: Sign-up & Planning Thread

Agentdark · Jan 7, 2007

I'll enter, but I want to do it as part of a Team, I have PMed blochead if he is interested...

Othniel · Jan 7, 2007

Thande said:
Even if you're a Butterfly Nazi, surely a man is shaped by his experiences as well as his birth. The only thing I could see making a big difference necessarily is if he had a disease or was born female (or vice-versa for historical women).

But I ascribe to the therory that if it happened once it can happen again, (As opposed to 'Lightning only strikes once'.) unless acted upon by an outside force. For example, I'm sure a few people will change the Vietnam War. Perhaps they'll have it take less lives, or by not having it at all. In doing so they take away a social barrier to allowing more reproduction to take place, thus increasing the number of childern born and changing the dynamic of the populace in which soldiers are taken. However, given that soldiers aren't widely taken from richer famillies in this era this would likely not effect them as much. (Less Soldiers were drafted from them because richer famillies could often send their boys to college and get them jobs more important to the civillian sturture. If they weren't drafted in OTL they likely wouldn't be drafted here... likely finding the same girl, and likely having kids simular to OTL)

Othniel · Jan 7, 2007

Glen said:
That is fine. Just be up front that it is a very parallel timeline.

Can a timeline be parrelle and very divergent at the same time?

I brather have the events changed within a timeline and rather not concern myself with people, especially given the short timespan. In my opinion timelines are better if they put fimilliar things in unfimlliar situations.

Akiyama · Jan 7, 2007

Glen said:
Are you entering, Akiyama?

An idea for a timeline with this POD came to me this morning, after reading this thread last night, so perhaps.

Do I have to commit myself? I am a commitment-phobe, for the reason that my attention is always wandering off elsewhere so I rarely finish anything I start!

EDIT: Aha! Just noticed this:

Glen said:
People planning to submit their timeline should give notice on the TIMELINE CONTEST thread, and if working in teams should list every team member.

Does "the TIMELINE CONTEST thread" mean this thread, or some other thread that doesn't exist yet?

Presumably the timeline may be written in any form you like, as long as there is at least one divergent event per year, yes?

EDIT2: Okay, I decided I will definitely be a potential contestant!

Blochead · Jan 7, 2007

Agentdark said:
I'll enter, but I want to do it as part of a Team, I have PMed blochead if he is interested...

Confirmed, so you can mark us as a team, Glen.

Jasen777 · Jan 7, 2007

I'll enter. I may need someone to help though, especially with maps.

Glen · Jan 8, 2007

So far I've got

Potential contestants (individual thus far) as:

Imajin
Diamond
Amerigo Vespucci
FENK
Keenir
Nek
Matt
Glen
Akiyama
Jasen777

Persons needing team-mates:

BlackMage
Jasen777 (needs a mapmaker)

First potential teams:

Othniel & Justin Pickard
Blochead & Agentdark

Glen · Jan 8, 2007

Othniel said:
Does it matter if they are dizygotic twins who happen to be identical? It has the same occurance rate as identical siblings. (They are much easier to track you see.. and are better documented.)

What you are saying makes no sense to me. Identical twins would be monozygous, Oth. There would be no way to prove that dizygotic twins were that one in several billions chance of happening to have the same genome. Occam's razor would indicate that it would be MUCH more likely that they are monozygous.

If it is better documented as you say, then I really think you need to cite your references. Quite frankly, I half think I'm not understanding what you're trying to say here, because I don't see how this would even be discovered.

Glen · Jan 8, 2007

Othniel said:
But I ascribe to the therory that if it happened once it can happen again, (As opposed to 'Lightning only strikes once'.) unless acted upon by an outside force. For example, I'm sure a few people will change the Vietnam War. Perhaps they'll have it take less lives, or by not having it at all. In doing so they take away a social barrier to allowing more reproduction to take place, thus increasing the number of childern born and changing the dynamic of the populace in which soldiers are taken. However, given that soldiers aren't widely taken from richer famillies in this era this would likely not effect them as much. (Less Soldiers were drafted from them because richer famillies could often send their boys to college and get them jobs more important to the civillian sturture. If they weren't drafted in OTL they likely wouldn't be drafted here... likely finding the same girl, and likely having kids simular to OTL)

Othniel said:
Can a timeline be parrelle and very divergent at the same time? I brather have the events changed within a timeline and rather not concern myself with people, especially given the short timespan. In my opinion timelines are better if they put fimilliar things in unfimlliar situations.

So, to make a long story short....of course lightning can strike twice, its just very unlikely. And timelines could have elements that are parallel and elements that are divergent, some can even be convergent....going divergent then coming back to more parallel track, though these are the least likely timelines of all. Write your timeline how you want, Oth. Never let probability theory get in the way of a good story.

PS - I think most of the timelines given the short 59 year span will be likely to avail themselves of OTL figures....for example, all of the presidents of the USA we have had thus far have been born before the POD.

Glen · Jan 8, 2007

Akiyama said:
An idea for a timeline with this POD came to me this morning, after reading this thread last night, so perhaps.

Do I have to commit myself? I am a commitment-phobe, for the reason that my attention is always wandering off elsewhere so I rarely finish anything I start!

EDIT: Aha! Just noticed this:

Does "the TIMELINE CONTEST thread" mean this thread, or some other thread that doesn't exist yet?

This thread.

Presumably the timeline may be written in any form you like, as long as there is at least one divergent event per year, yes?

EDIT2: Okay, I decided I will definitely be a potential contestant![/QUOTE]

Glen · Jan 9, 2007

So, anyone else thinking of entering?

And do we have a team-up for BlackMage yet?

Also, is everyone clear on what they're doing at this point, any further questions?

Glen · Jan 9, 2007

Glen said:
So, anyone else thinking of entering?

And do we have a team-up for BlackMage yet?

Also, is everyone clear on what they're doing at this point, any further questions?

Hey, BlackMage, how are you with maps?

Diamond · Jan 9, 2007

Glen said:
Also, is everyone clear on what they're doing at this point, any further questions?

So just to clarify, the TL doesn't have to be in strictly 'timeline format' as long as there's at least one entry per year, right? Because I was going to do mine as a series of interviews, newspaper clippings, statistics, vignettes, etc...

Glen · Jan 9, 2007

Diamond said:
So just to clarify, the TL doesn't have to be in strictly 'timeline format' as long as there's at least one entry per year, right? Because I was going to do mine as a series of interviews, newspaper clippings, statistics, vignettes, etc...

Right you are, mate, right you are....

Diamond · Jan 9, 2007

Eeeeexcellent...

Wendell · Jan 10, 2007

Would the circumstances of this victory matter?

Fenwick · Jan 10, 2007

Sign me up

Glen · Jan 10, 2007

Wendell said:
Would the circumstances of this victory matter?

Meaning?

Basically, you start with the premise that everything is OTL until the actual election day, but enough votes differ that Dewey wins the electoral college.

Glen · Jan 10, 2007

So far I've got

Potential contestants (individual thus far) as:

Imajin
Diamond
Amerigo Vespucci
FENK
Keenir
Nek
Matt
Glen
Akiyama
Jasen777
Fenwick
Wendell?

Persons needing team-mates:

BlackMage
Jasen777 (needs a mapmaker)

First potential teams:

Othniel & Justin Pickard
Blochead & Agentdark

Diamond · Jan 10, 2007

Glen said:
Meaning?

Basically, you start with the premise that everything is OTL until the actual election day, but enough votes differ that Dewey wins the electoral college.

I think you're going to need to give us some leeway there. Granted, California, Ohio, and Illinois (the swing states in this election) were very very close, but there needs to be a reason why they went the other way. IMHO, the POD needs to be at least a month or two back - something along the lines of Dewey being a more dynamic speaker, and responding to Truman's lambasting of him. OTL, Dewey 'knew' he'd win the election since the Democrats were so fractured, so he was content not to say anything at all that might be considered controversial. So, he ended up looking boring, bland, and not at all dynamic.