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As far as I can tell, better history and background research makes alternate history/fantasy-inspired-by-history better--both richer and less likely to unquestioningly gloss over the not-so-nice bits of the past without realizing who you're leaving out.
I posted a while back in a steampunk meta(ish) comm about wanting a blog or something rounding up useful/inspiring history for people interested in doing steampunk worldbuilding. I got a bit of "oo, that would be neat to read and I might contribute a little to it"... and I think I want to read it also. But it doesn't exist yet, and I am an extremely distractable non-historian geek with too many potential-projects already in the works. So if I want this to exist, I'll definitely want help. I have a few options for what format to go with, each with pros and cons:
-Start a (wordpress? something?) blog that I post in and seek out guest posters for
Pros: this would probably be the option that got me the most cred with the Greater Steampunk Internet, I think. Cons: I'd be the single point of failure unless I could coax a co-author to join me.
-Start an LJ or DW comm that I moderate and post in
Pros: This seems like a good blend of participation and editorial control. Cons: less Greater Steampunk Cred, I'd have to figure out whether to have it be on DW or LJ, sometimes communities have Teh Dramaz, maybe people would show up and Not Get It and I'd have to figure out how to moderate, maybe if I spend too much time talking to myself at the start, nobody else would start posting and it would effectively just be a blog?
-Start a wiki of some kind
Pros: best option for organization of interrelated information across time, maybe has some internet cred, lots of open-feeling opportunity for participation. Cons: seems like the hardest thing to get started without an active team of moderate-to-very excited participants--less easy to get something interesting/useful if I was the only one working on it.
-Some blend of the above options, like a blog that synthesizes/unifies/pretties up the stuff that's brought up in discussions in a (linked, of course) LJ comm. Or a blog with an attendant forum where people could bring stuff up (even though I haven't listed forums as a possibility so far).
Pros: the indecision monkey is happier! Internet cred *and* community! Kittens and ponies! Cons: I could be a single point of failure for migrating things between one place and another, and maybe spreading people's attention among multiple services would be too complicated and asking too much.
Oooorrrr I could just decide that this is too hard and should be done by someone with more research and writing skills who can pull it off singlehandedly without needing as much help as I will...
I posted a while back in a steampunk meta(ish) comm about wanting a blog or something rounding up useful/inspiring history for people interested in doing steampunk worldbuilding. I got a bit of "oo, that would be neat to read and I might contribute a little to it"... and I think I want to read it also. But it doesn't exist yet, and I am an extremely distractable non-historian geek with too many potential-projects already in the works. So if I want this to exist, I'll definitely want help. I have a few options for what format to go with, each with pros and cons:
-Start a (wordpress? something?) blog that I post in and seek out guest posters for
Pros: this would probably be the option that got me the most cred with the Greater Steampunk Internet, I think. Cons: I'd be the single point of failure unless I could coax a co-author to join me.
-Start an LJ or DW comm that I moderate and post in
Pros: This seems like a good blend of participation and editorial control. Cons: less Greater Steampunk Cred, I'd have to figure out whether to have it be on DW or LJ, sometimes communities have Teh Dramaz, maybe people would show up and Not Get It and I'd have to figure out how to moderate, maybe if I spend too much time talking to myself at the start, nobody else would start posting and it would effectively just be a blog?
-Start a wiki of some kind
Pros: best option for organization of interrelated information across time, maybe has some internet cred, lots of open-feeling opportunity for participation. Cons: seems like the hardest thing to get started without an active team of moderate-to-very excited participants--less easy to get something interesting/useful if I was the only one working on it.
-Some blend of the above options, like a blog that synthesizes/unifies/pretties up the stuff that's brought up in discussions in a (linked, of course) LJ comm. Or a blog with an attendant forum where people could bring stuff up (even though I haven't listed forums as a possibility so far).
Pros: the indecision monkey is happier! Internet cred *and* community! Kittens and ponies! Cons: I could be a single point of failure for migrating things between one place and another, and maybe spreading people's attention among multiple services would be too complicated and asking too much.
Oooorrrr I could just decide that this is too hard and should be done by someone with more research and writing skills who can pull it off singlehandedly without needing as much help as I will...
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