SMBC Comics Forum

mountainmage wrote:Maybe these topics in some way relate to the forum, but without including real events, etc. from the forum's history, they're spurious.

They're retelling things that actually happened, not claiming that x caused y when it make more sense to attribute it to z. Will you not be happy until they explicitly state what event or concept the authors drew inspiration from? Or do you want to take it a step further, only allowing embellishment of the original story?

I guess I just took history of the forum too literally. If I did, then there's no problems with those articles, and I retract my complaints.

It is history as written two centuries after the Forum dies. If we start from the assumption that this place goes off-line sometime next Thursday, you are absolutely correct in your interpretation. However, the consensus seems to place the End much farther out than that. So, we have articles detailing what will happen, all of them in some way related to the Forum. The concept is similar to Wells' book The Shape of Things to Come, albeit with a different starting point.

Alright, fair enough. Our descendants are writing our history (meaning everything that has occurred up til now) as well as the period occurring between then and their now (having little basis in our history, but still part of the overall history of the forum).

Good post, for the most part (I'm referring to Dendrowhatever). I feel that something akin to a technological explanation of integration might be in order, and with that I would be content with the linking of the 'Net world and Meat world.

Also, I've been doing my best to tie in where possible to actual board events. All but SMB City of mine have been (which is probably why I struggled with it so). Banishments was only roughly connected, but I did include an actual quote from Dani.
Then again it is relatively easy for me, as I've been rather active on the board since near its inception.
On that note, my "E" topic should do something towards connecting some of the future events with real events. I haven't actually decided on a title yet so I could push it off to "F" if I'm needed for another topic (I have a title for both letters, though I prefer my "E" one as it is less obvious).

mountainmage wrote:Alright, fair enough. Our descendants are writing our history (meaning everything that has occurred up til now) as well as the period occurring between then and their now (having little basis in our history, but still part of the overall history of the forum).

Don't get me wrong, this entire Project is still based in our History, but that just comprises a very small part in the overarching timeline. If you look at the Chronology, everything pre-Blogosphere Offensive is what has happened so far. We don't have very many articles regarding it because nobody feels qualified to do so, combined with the fact that we've only got five regular players.

Five articles interspersed throughout the Whole of Forum History per turn is not a very large number to deal with. Perhaps I should start assigning people Eras to cover each turn, in order to ensure even coverage? What do you guys think?

Rereading this whole interchange I'm going to add to what I said earlier (I would've editted, but as the convo is going continuing as I started the edit, and I saw mage online and Ed had since posted, that seemed a poor idea).

I've quite warmed up to this whole project now, and I would say that I am attempting to write as if I am a scholar from the future taking sketchy source material and filling in the blanks. Kind of.
1. As I said, SMB City was a poor start for me, and needs some work, obviously. Actually I kind of wrestled with the same issues that are being presented in this conversation, which is why it is mediocre fare.
2. My inspiration for Banishments came from a single quote from Dani in the original Caption This post (where I actually made my first post) that I included in the entry.
3. Central Nuclear Core wasn't directly connected, and I had no source material, but I think most would agree that it does tie in well to really any era of this fabricated history as well as actuality (it is almost more of a sociological/philosophical entry as opposed to straight history).
4. Department of Redundancy Department was actually pilfered directly from a post by Epoch (well the title and the initial inspiration), and further inspiration from the conversations around that time and topic (across the board in several threads).
So, mostly in Banishments and Department, I have tied actual posts/events to future ones and drawn connections. And my "E" or "F" one will do the same.
As Ed said, there aren't many people qualified to write on existing board lore, and I hope to be able to find enough time to continue to make more of these connective posts (as they require more effort*, I believe, than the more total fiction than has dominated thusfar).

*The most difficult thing about it is trying to figure out where to draw the line. I've had to ignore some actual --albeit minor-- events (such as Dani's infrequent return visits to the board) to make a decent entry (hence "sketchy source material", and face it, this is the way history has been written). On one hand it is difficult to ignore the actual events when writing the Lexicon, because I was there for them. On the other hand writing strictly (or even mostly) on real events would be pretty boring (and would look pretty strange for anyone coming in to browse the forum, as fictions would be so easily disproven, and it could be just generally confusing if they were unfamiliar with the project).

I'm a little disappointed that the round D was called off already, I really only have time on weekends to wrote this stuff, and I already spent ages on a lengthy debate with ChooChooTrain, but I suppose I'll just have to skip an article then, if you can't wait for tomorrow.

You can still submit the article, Sahan, it just gets half-credit.

Edminster wrote: Blogosphere Offensive
Remember how Zach calls people to vote at some Comic Popularity site? And how the turnout is amazing? And we conquer right up until the point where we forget? The Blogosphere Offensive is allegorical to that. Only, instead of being number one, we Dominate the Internet.

You give me altogether too much credit.
My thought process for that article went something like, "What starts with B? Blogosphere starts with B. How about Blogosphere Offensive? Oh, man, such a great title. Now I just need to make that into an article somehow."

Also: Any post that begins with the word "antithetical" gets my automatic approval. Well done, Laneth.

Damn you, Crab Lord! I was hoping that you really understood the ways of the Forum, and were not just pulling ideas out of your chitinous ass.

Just as I suspected! No one actually went with some allegorical bullshit, this is a forum game, not something "important."

Edminster wrote:Damn you, Crab Lord! I was hoping that you really understood the ways of the Forum, and were not just pulling ideas out of your chitinous ass.

Get used to it, pal. I'm a whirlwind tour through disappointment city.
Also, ew.

I want to use the same excuse for not having much knowledge on the forums, but I wish to couple it with blaming everyone else.
I'm gonna stop saying I'm going to write an article and just write one from now on. I just can't have any ideas that won't derail everyone.

I think my problem with writing the articles is that I don't know enough about the forum's history.