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"Weeding" the Timeline & Early Timeline Contribution Guidelines?
#1
So, this is the first of various threads I'm aiming to spin off from the 'if you could start OA over from scratch' thread.

Re the topics here:

1) I would like to propose doing some 'weeding' of the OA timeline. While I haven't done a comprehensive review of the whole thing, in the course of my travels, I've come across a number of entries like these:

54 - Serious earthquakes rock California and Japan.

59 - Fourth Persian Gulf War. Allied powers occupy Iraqi, Kuwaiti and Saudi oilfields.

60's - Silicon computing reaches practical upper limit

63 - Economy picks up

66 - US involvement in the Saudi 'Regency Rig' features Transmissions Viruses

69 - Tokyo brown-out causes minor hysteria and crashes financial network.

72 - First photonic computer (10-gigahertz range),

75 - Central Asian Oil Crisis resolved through UN-mediated ceasefire

75 - Terahertz diamond film processing

82 - US President Davids consults Senate to provide watchdog on maverick Corporations.

108 - EF Senate moves to Berlin.

Most of these don't seem to have any obvious connection to existing articles in the EG. Some of them run the risk of being dated or otherwise inaccurate. Some seem to be either near content free filler, or even downright non-sequiturs that generate a reaction ranging from 'Huh?!' to 'Who cares?!'

For these reasons, I would like to get the group's OK to go through and 'weed' the timeline - locating entries that have problems such as mentioned above and posting them to the forum for consideration for removal. If anyone else wants to join in, more power to them.

Consideration for removal would be based in part on group discussion and consensus and in part on a set of guidelines for generating EG entries depicting the early timeline. Which brings us to:

2) Based on several of the responses to the main question of the 'what would you do if you could start OA from scratch?' question, as well as some discussions and posts made earlier this year, I would like to suggest that we create a set of guidelines for authors wanting to generate articles about the early timeline (events, cultures, races, etc.). Some (roughly described) possible guidelines might include:

a) Cultures from the early timeline will rarely persist to the OA present day. Even more rarely will they persist unchanged. Anyone wanting to describe a RL culture still living essentially unchanged in Y11k will need to be spectacularly persuasive in their arguments - otherwise they will need to include information on how the culture in question has evolved and changed across thousands of years and in response to the many elements that make up OA civilization (eg., life extension. provolution, AI, xenosophonts, etc.).

b) The first century of the timeline should be left vague (a longstanding policy we've been somewhat lax about the last few years). Wars, natural disasters, and specific technological plateaus in this period should not be discussed without excellent reasons (as judged by the group or the managing Board, if necessary.

Etc.

There are likely other guidelines that we would want to consider, but that's all I've got off the top of my head.

The overall goal is to allow for members who want to to develop historical EG entries, but to also not end up with an early timeline that is over described or filled with items that seem implausible or at odds with the rest of the project or its ethos.

Thoughts on this?

Todd
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#2
I have a feeling several of these short entries were inspired by similar 'current events' entries in the timelines of Brian Stableford and J R Mooneyham. Since neither of these people have ever been contributors to this project we may as well remove the entries; they add little useful information.
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#3
Weeding along these lines is fine by me. On balance little things like this are worse for the project by being both overly specific (thus painting us into a corner) and weirdly vague at the same time.
OA Wish list:
  1. DNI
  2. Internal medical system
  3. A dormbot, because domestic chores suck!
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#4
Agreed, we should toss anything in the very earliest part of the timeline that is in the real-world's future and is too specific. Especially if it does not connect to other parts of the setting. Also agreed that we should try to steer clear of new content of any kind that gets into specifics for events of the next few decades, and have a second look at anything we have now that falls in that range.
Stephen
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#5
So, I went through the timeline from the Information Age up to 415 AT, 'weeding' as I went. Removed the following entries:

49 - First commercial autonomous car.

51 - Economic boom in many countries, the 'Bounty Economy'

54 - Serious earthquakes rock California and Japan.

56 - Puerto Rico becomes the 51st US state.

59 - Fourth Persian Gulf War. Allied powers occupy Iraqi, Kuwaiti and Saudi oilfields.

60's - Silicon computing reaches practical upper limit

63 - Economy picks up

66 - US involvement in the Saudi 'Regency Rig' features Transmissions Viruses

69 - Tokyo brown-out causes minor hysteria and crashes financial network.

71 - Oil war flares up in Central Asia, great powers intervene through proxies, the military-entertainment complex has a field day, ratings go through the roof.

72 - The Oil War becomes a "testing ground" for many new technologies. Each side lauds their moral superiority in using robot drones that "do not target noncombatants" (footage of devastated villages tells a different story)

72 - First photonic computer (10-gigahertz range),

75 - Central Asian Oil Crisis resolved through UN-mediated ceasefire

75 - Terahertz diamond film processing

78 - Global recession, triggered by failure of early nanomanufacturing to produce cheap and reliable nanofactured products, puts an end to further space missions. There is an increasing tendency towards cocooning. Continuing the trend that began with the birth of the information / digital age of the last decades of the 20th century onwards, humanity becomes increasingly involved with electronic and virtual worlds, and exploring the wonders of cyberspace.

82 - US President Davids consults Senate to provide watchdog on maverick Corporations.

96 - Ocean Conflict between South Africa (Azania) and Indonesia

105 - Lawrie Mimoto's Kingdom Quest (popular interactive/immersive VR simulation).

108 - EF Senate moves to Berlin.

110s - Carpenterian Kelp Farms important to Australian economy.

114 - EF Senate moves from Strasbourg to Brussels.

180 - Diamond film processors largely outmoded.

191 - Completion of EF-1

216 - Martian Inner council formed (at this time dominated by Terran appointees).

415 - Following several deaths related to manga-replica kit-nano exoskeletons, CisLunar Optimal Media Act bans anime virches. Widespread protests result

If you feel that any of the entries should be put back for some reason, please post it here and we can discuss.

Will continue going through the timeline and 'weeding' as time permits.

Thanks!

Todd
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#6
I'd like to contribute, so I have some weeding suggestions for up to 130 AT, which is most of need of editing. These examples are very specific for events happening over the next few decades.

61 - Despite intense protests from proponents of independent academia, the EU Parliament decides on a "unified and quality controlled" university standard. The brain drain to the US and emerging academic free states like Peru and New Zealand intensifies.

66 - Treaty of Athens establishes a single European State. The European Union (EU) becomes the European Federation (EF). NAFTA troops begin "police action" against Andean drug barons. Budget cuts mean a set-back to the next Martian mission. But plans for the moon base go ahead

86-87 - Static Music and White Noise becomes the most popular form of music in the 11-24 demographic.

90 - EU ban on Tobacco.

94 - Growth of tobacco Mafias

103 - The Static craze dies out thanks to a counter-meme created by an independent memetic engineer and Elvis Presley fan Ryu O'Connor, despite numerous lawsuits on behalf of the entertainment megacorps

110s - Worldwide weakening of nation states (partly due to the growth of enclaves, many tobacco funded) contributes to the Tobacco legalisation movement as the local regulations prove ineffective.

120's - Smoking associations - Social networks centered on tobacco use - reach notoriety.

130 - EU ban on tobacco lifted.

Thanks!

QwertyYerty
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#7
(09-21-2016, 02:33 PM)QwertyYerty Wrote: 61 - Despite intense protests from proponents of independent academia, the EU Parliament decides on a "unified and quality controlled" university standard. The brain drain to the US and emerging academic free states like Peru and New Zealand intensifies.

I kinda like that one. The US has a rough time in the current timeline; let's throw it a bone.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
----------------------

"Everbody's always in favor of saving Hitler's brain, but when you put it in the body of a great white shark, oh, suddenly you've gone too far." -- Professor Farnsworth, Futurama
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#8
TBH I don't even know what it means, a unified quality standard that triggers a brain drain is terribly vague.
OA Wish list:
  1. DNI
  2. Internal medical system
  3. A dormbot, because domestic chores suck!
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#9
(09-21-2016, 11:51 PM)Rynn Wrote: TBH I don't even know what it means, a unified quality standard that triggers a brain drain is terribly vague.

Vagueness is pretty convenient for future writers. However, it sounds a lot like the US's "Common Core" an attempt at national education standards that irritated everyone.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
----------------------

"Everbody's always in favor of saving Hitler's brain, but when you put it in the body of a great white shark, oh, suddenly you've gone too far." -- Professor Farnsworth, Futurama
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#10
The one issue I have with removing these (And why I didn't remove them initially) is that most of them refer to articles in the EG (Static, various smoking/tobacco related articles). The European Federation is a part of the timeline, although I don't think we have a full on EG about it.

One of the criteria I used when weeding this section of the timeline was that the entries removed seemed to have no real connection to anything in the EG.

These entries don't have a terribly strong connection, but they do have one.

This doesn't mean I'm saying we can't remove them, but are we sure we should do so?

Todd
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