Where did all the Big Timelines go?

[Augenis]

Also, TLs without threads to discuss their basic premise can not really be good, because certainly many of them would be totally ASB.

I really don't get the logic behind this. Research in a subject can be done without the need to put up a discussion thread about it...

My TL didn't have a thread to discuss it's premise, as an example, and I don't think it turned out ASB.

 

[Geordie]

This is the perfect example of what is killing creativity on this forum, and also destroying freedom of speech in the society at large.

What is wrong with allowing holocaust denial or ad hominem attacks on an AH forum? Are people going to die? Is the sky going to fall on our heads?

Well, for starters, there are many Jewish members here. Some of them lost family members in the Holocaust. I think their freedom to remember and commemorate that fact should trump the freedom of a nutjob to proclaim that it was all some grand conspiracy.

This is a small corner of the web dedicated to a very specific hobby. Who cares if a few crackposts rant about their fetishes here? Creativity is messy and creative people are messy. They sometimes lose their marbles and will attack other in a virulent and nasty manner. What is wrong with that? Are the people who find themselves on the reciving end of such attacks going to be scarred for life? Come on. Aren't we all adults?

We are all adults, with the responsibilities that such entails. This is not a free forum. It is, in essence, a private members' club, just one without physical premises. If you want to be a member, then there are rules that you must abide by. If you are too 'messy' to do so, then nobody is stopping you from indulging in a passion for alternate history. You just can't do it here. In fact, you can, providing you don't make your 'messy' views public. By the way, I must commend you on the use of 'messy' as a synonym for bigots, conspiracy theorists and other nutjobs who attack each other in a 'virulent and nasty manner'.

If you insist on straight laced perfect correctness in manners on the model of a victorian salon, what are you going to get? The same kind of things you got in victorian salons: platitudes.

That's a lovely strawman you're building there, but I'm afraid the likeness is only fleeting. Nobody with half a brain cell would equate the rules of civil discourse on ah.com to the 'perfect manners of a Victorian salon' with a straight face.

Yes, mediocrity.

It is a well known fact that truth is often insulting. And that is why truth is rarely welcome in social situations. But a forum dedicated to AH should be an exception. It should be a place where crackpots and eccentrics are alowed to congregate and indulge their obessions without fear of the thought police. This is how good litterature in general is made and AH in particular.

Enlighten us, then. What great failings do the forum's mediocre authors have? Is it the scale of their ambition? The scope of their work? Lack of originality? Failure to consider different effects of the PoD in far flung places? Lack of cultural discussion? Alternative scientific developments? How could they improve? Can you provide something concrete? Constructive criticism, perhaps? The problem is that, rather ironically, you are currently dealing in platitudes. What 'great works of litterature' (sic.) have we missed, thanks to not being a libertarian's wet dream, where anything goes in the name of 'messy' creativity?

 

[BBadolato]

This is a small corner of the web dedicated to a very specific hobby. Who cares if a few crackposts rant about their fetishes here? Creativity is messy and creative people are messy. They sometimes lose their marbles and will attack other in a virulent and nasty manner. What is wrong with that? Are the people who find themselves on the reciving end of such attacks going to be scarred for life? Come on. Aren't we all adults?

It should be a place where crackpots and eccentrics are alowed to congregate and indulge their obessions without fear of the thought police. This is how good litterature in general is made and AH in particular.

Well, there's a thread where people can talk about their fetishes, however, you have an odd view of "creative" people and good literature. Being eccentric for whatever that means does not give you a pass to be an asshole, nor does it guarantee good quality writing.

You can't put the issues of Pol Chat and somehow blame them for a "decline" in timelines. Bigoted views in timelines may only work within the context of the period as a point of view from that character, which has absolutely nothing with author's personal views. I could write a Japanese exile in Ming China as having a low opinion of the Chinese nobility of the time, and possibly the Emperor himself, while I could also write the Jiajing emperor of Ming as hating Buddhists like that Japanese exile because he really did. However these bigoted views are not mine, nor do I intend those characters bigotry as being somehow correct.

When bigoted views start to become personal and out in the open it's a problem that no amount of "creativity" or "productiveness" makes justifiable.

 

[CalBear]

I don't. What I am saying is that if we want to have interesting TLs we must err on the side of permissiveness. I would not be interested in such a TL but I surely would be interested to read TLs from many people who have been banned from this forum. If you want these to stay, you have to ban only those who obviously are not interested in AH, like someone who would start a TL entitled "Fuck Niggers and Jews" and the first post would contain just the words "fuck fuck fuck." Yes, such a person should be banned.

Appart from things of that kind, nothing should get you banned, even ad hominem attacks or holocaust denial. Unles you want mediocrity to rule.

Put succinctly: BS.

You would be AMAZED at some of the crap the Mods stop. More importantly, y'all knew the Board policies when you signed up.

As far as your major question -Where did all the big timelines go? They are all over this Board from pre-1900 to Fandom.

If you don't think those that are here are "big" enough, I have a suggestion: WRITE ONE (or more). That is where the "big" T/L come from, a member here, just like you, putting in the time and effort to write them.

 

[CalBear]

Question asked and answered.

Locked

 

[CalBear]

This is the perfect example of what is killing creativity on this forum, and also destroying freedom of speech in the society at large.

What is wrong with allowing holocaust denial or ad hominem attacks on an AH forum? Are people going to die? Is the sky going to fall on our heads?

This is a small corner of the web dedicated to a very specific hobby. Who cares if a few crackposts rant about their fetishes here? Creativity is messy and creative people are messy. They sometimes lose their marbles and will attack other in a virulent and nasty manner. What is wrong with that? Are the people who find themselves on the reciving end of such attacks going to be scarred for life? Come on. Aren't we all adults?

If you insist on straight laced perfect correctness in manners on the model of a victorian salon, what are you going to get? The same kind of things you got in victorian salons: platitudes. Yes, mediocrity.

It is a well known fact that truth is often insulting. And that is why truth is rarely welcome in social situations. But a forum dedicated to AH should be an exception. It should be a place where crackpots and eccentrics are alowed to congregate and indulge their obessions without fear of the thought police. This is how good litterature in general is made and AH in particular.

Wish I had read this little jewel before I initially responded since it makes clear you weren't just bitching about the actual question but flat out trolling.

This Board is indeed a wee small corner of the Web, one dedicated to a fairly niche subject. It is also a Board where reasonable, relatively respectful adult discussion is expected. That makes it fairly unique, in the best sense of the word. It has been that way for at least 11 years, long before you signed up, so it isn't like you should be surprised that reasonable standards of behavior are expected.

Kicked for a week for Trolling