What has this Discussion topic become?

[zoomar]

"Talk about published works of alternate history and post reviews and opinions on them."

That is what it says on the tin and its about time for my annual bitch that this discussion thread is not what it claims to be. Looking over the topics from the past several months, the discussion seems dominated by people talking about their own (unpublished) timelines (joint and individual), stories they might write, topics devoted to the creation of flags, uniforms, maps, etc. with no relationship to published works, and other things unrelated to the stated purpose of this section of the AH.com site. Not that I don't like these other topics and even contribute to them at times, but why aren't these somewhere else?

 

[Alex Richards]

Mainly it's because after the initial run through there wasn't really much published AH Media and a the Books and Media forum seemed the logical place to put both self created media (Maps and Flags) and also neutral timeline resource stuff (Because the maps cover all history, so before/post 1900 doesn't work and certainly not ASB or future, while it's actually AH so Chat isn't a good fit either).

After that it's sort of ended up becoming a general books and media thread rather than necessarily published stuff.

 

[Martin23230]

"Talk about published works of alternate history and post reviews and opinions on them."

You're looking at the description not the name. Alternate History Books and Media - I would say that flags/maps etc.. fit under the AH media section pretty clearly. This section is for the discussion and creation of Alternate History in any form other than text - be it an image (maps/flags) or film/TV series/videogames etc... I would say most things in here fall under that category.

I would say the subforum is fine in scope under that name but that the description should be changed to be more in line with the actual contents. Perhaps as a starting point what I said above would do (reworded to fit the other subforum descriptions):

Alternate History Books and Media
General discussion about alternate history scenarios in forms other than text. This includes images, books, films, TV series and videogames.

Any strong feelings about that? Any suggested changes? I would prefer to have a better split between web-text and books, but the wording escapes me.

 

[Petike]

Alternate History Books and Media
General discussion about alternate history scenarios in forms other than text. This includes images, books, films, TV series and videogames.

Any strong feelings about that? Any suggested changes? I would prefer to have a better split between web-text and books, but the wording escapes me.

I like this and would support the change.

 

[Turquoise Blue]

I like this and would support the change.

I like it also, and support it.

 

[Alex Richards]

Alternate History Books and Media
General discussion about alternate history scenarios in forms other than text. This includes images, books, films, TV series and videogames.

Any strong feelings about that? Any suggested changes? I would prefer to have a better split between web-text and books, but the wording escapes me.

Good idea.

How about 'This includes images, published fiction, films, TV Series and videogames.'?

 

[Color-Copycat]

I like to think of this as the catch-all subforum.

 

[zoomar]

I'm a fuddy-duddy. I rather this be divided into two separate topics, one devoted only to reviews, comments about, and extrapolations on published AH (books, film, games, etc) and the other devoted to creation and discussion of our own AH-related things other than timelines themselves (the flag, map, uniform, etc stuff)

 

[Greg Grant]

Mainly it's because after the initial run through there wasn't really much published AH Media and a the Books and Media forum seemed the logical place to put both self created media (Maps and Flags) and also neutral timeline resource stuff (Because the maps cover all history, so before/post 1900 doesn't work and certainly not ASB or future, while it's actually AH so Chat isn't a good fit either).

After that it's sort of ended up becoming a general books and media thread rather than necessarily published stuff.

I agree with this response. There isn't enough AH out there to really review freshly, and most on this forum have seen (at least are aware of) every piece of English language AH published in the last twenty to thirty years and had been in semi-mainstream.

I also do not want this forum to be balkanized with narrow focus of subforums to split hairs and argue over how many cthulhus can dance on a single tip of the Kaiser Bill waxed mustache of the characters in the American Front.

I am not a fan of everything posted on this forum, but the way I deal with that is by not reading things that do not strike my fancy, and I do not think it clutters up the site. When you look at the number of topics and pages, it does not strike me as too much to scroll through and enforcing new rules (or reinforcing old ones) more strigently because the forum evolved (or mutated) and some people are not comfortable with it and it's changes seems silly.

As long as I do not see topics advertising discounted shoes, gold watches, or hot nekkid barely legal teen bitches that want to make me a Nigerian millionaire, I'm good.

 

[rudebadger]

I'm a fuddy-duddy. I rather this be divided into two separate topics, one devoted only to reviews, comments about, and extrapolations on published AH (books, film, games, etc) and the other devoted to creation and discussion of our own AH-related things other than timelines themselves (the flag, map, uniform, etc stuff)

I have to agree with this ideal for this forum. Looking at the clutter on the first page I have to scroll past a dozen stickies to begin with. Then there are a couple of pages of threads flags, maps, political polls, etc., to get past before the items start to appear that I am looking for here.

I visit this AH forum to get the news and reviews of new (or new to me) books, films, TV, that I might like and more importantly that I might not like.

There's nothing wrong with any of the other stuff, just give it a forum to itself.

 

[Nerdlinger]

I admit that I am in large part to blame for the recent influx of off-topic threads. The Retrospective US Presidential Election project and three of its spinoffs (Canada, UK, and Japan/Korea) are refugees from the Chat forum. Glen kindly rescued them and transferred them over here when polls were banned from Chat. I don't know about anyone else, but once my project is complete, I don't intend to start any off-topic projects here. I would encourage others to avoid starting new off-topic projects here as well. With any luck, a forum/subforum for political polls will have been created by then or polls will have been permitted in Chat again. I apologize if I've annoyed anyone who frequents this forum.