Bring stories and popcorn!
Welcome
- Thread starter Emperor Tippy
- Start date
Bring stories and popcorn!
Circle of Willis
Well-known member
Thanks!
Haven't got too many stories from AH.com, personally, and none of them really dramatic - I can't even remember the last thing I ever posted there, I think it might've been something to do with Canute's North Sea empire though. I was around when Gamergate blew up, and saw the mod team & admin there go nuts cracking down on any remotely positive mention of it.
As someone who (in 2014 at least) had no idea what the hubbub was about but did have a RL friend who was a staunch GG supporter and who I knew to not be any sort of sexist, racist, etc. I was put off by the censorship and bizarre attitudes of other AH.com goers around the controversy, since they all seemed to think Gamergaters were all goosestepping incels and you'd be lucky not to get kicked or banned for suggesting the contrary or worse, that they might have something resembling a point re: the state of game journalism. The replies I got when I asked for an explanation of what they thought GG was was enough to convince me never to bring it up again.
After that it was just a long, steady slide downward. I wasn't blind to the bar for kicks & bans being set much lower for those right-of-center than those left of it, for the former it seemed like the moderation would punish you without allowing you to explain yourself if they so much as thought you were being a bit too positive about historical fascists (or other movements deemed far-right, like absolute monarchists or theocrats) - I guess they must all have thought they were mind-readers - but for the latter, only blatant genocide denial (usually of the Holodomor or Great Leap Forward/Cultural Revolution) or saying that anyone killed by Communists deserved to die would get them to drop the hammer.
As someone who considers himself to be a center-rightist I didn't feel welcome or in the least bit comfortable posting there anymore, so soon enough (probably shortly before the 2016 election, IIRC) I just stopped, period. Hoping to make up for lost time talking about alternate history here, prior to today I mostly hung out on the History What-If subreddit where replies tend to be spotty and extended, quality discussion rarer still.
With regards to AH, I can affirm what @Circle of Willis is saying as being 100% true.
I am a recent immigrant from AH, after witnessing the true face of the board.
Things are terrible there now, especially with regards to the Politics section.
Anything that remotely praises/supports an ideology right of center is regarded with suspicion and distaste.
Anything further and the mods (Thought Police) start putting tabs on you.
Blatant support is a near instant ban by the admin (Big Brother) or the mods (Thought Police).
Many others there are all left wingers, so there is really little to no support for anything that's even a millimeter right of center.
And if you reveal yourself to be disloyal to the "Party" the lefties (Outer Party) will report you and get you banned.
The place is literally turning into 1984 as I speak.
Which is why I chose to get while the gettin's good.
I originally found out about this place long ago but I was still holding out hope that AH was still a decent place.
And then I took 5 seconds to read the AH rules, which revealed the true face of the board.
Their (AH) rules state that supporting Nazism and Holocaust denial are instant banning offenses but makes no mention to Stalinism, the Holodomor, Maoism, the Great Leap Forward, etc.
Unlike here (the Sietch) where all three ideologies are equally prosecutable.
I suggested on AH that the rules be changed to make more sense but my request fell on deaf ears.
Which is why I chose to liberate myself from AH (Oceania) and join the Sietch.
*Rant over*
But yeah, I'm shifting all of my stories over here now.
I've got one Axis Victory TL that I'm currently turning into a 3 book trilogy (I'll still be posting sample chapters and stuff like that), one ASOIAF AU story, one ASOIAF SI story, and a Marvel Earth 616 SI that I'm porting over to my new hideout here. Four in total.
Yeah, basically just add popcorn and a drink of your choice.
At the end of the day, as a strong believer of ars gratia artis (art for art's sake), I think I've finally found a nice place to hang out without being judged or persecuted.
See y'all around the corner!
-Black Dragon
I am a recent immigrant from AH, after witnessing the true face of the board.
Things are terrible there now, especially with regards to the Politics section.
Anything that remotely praises/supports an ideology right of center is regarded with suspicion and distaste.
Anything further and the mods (Thought Police) start putting tabs on you.
Blatant support is a near instant ban by the admin (Big Brother) or the mods (Thought Police).
Many others there are all left wingers, so there is really little to no support for anything that's even a millimeter right of center.
And if you reveal yourself to be disloyal to the "Party" the lefties (Outer Party) will report you and get you banned.
The place is literally turning into 1984 as I speak.
Which is why I chose to get while the gettin's good.
I originally found out about this place long ago but I was still holding out hope that AH was still a decent place.
And then I took 5 seconds to read the AH rules, which revealed the true face of the board.
Their (AH) rules state that supporting Nazism and Holocaust denial are instant banning offenses but makes no mention to Stalinism, the Holodomor, Maoism, the Great Leap Forward, etc.
Unlike here (the Sietch) where all three ideologies are equally prosecutable.
I suggested on AH that the rules be changed to make more sense but my request fell on deaf ears.
Which is why I chose to liberate myself from AH (Oceania) and join the Sietch.
*Rant over*
But yeah, I'm shifting all of my stories over here now.
I've got one Axis Victory TL that I'm currently turning into a 3 book trilogy (I'll still be posting sample chapters and stuff like that), one ASOIAF AU story, one ASOIAF SI story, and a Marvel Earth 616 SI that I'm porting over to my new hideout here. Four in total.
Yeah, basically just add popcorn and a drink of your choice.
At the end of the day, as a strong believer of ars gratia artis (art for art's sake), I think I've finally found a nice place to hang out without being judged or persecuted.
See y'all around the corner!
-Black Dragon
Welcome to @Circle of Willis and @BlackDragon98! I got banned from AH a number of years ago. After liking a post about an Israeli girl who was brutally murdered by a Palestinian in her own bedroom. Most of the posts were of the "That's horrible, but what the Israelis do in Palestine is worse." One brave guy said "So, I guess you'd tell a girl who got raped she had it coming, right?" He got banned, and the rest of us were kicked anywhere between a week to a month for liking the post.
So, I called Ian an anti-semite and a coward in a PM. I was taught a long time ago: Praise publicly, chastise privately. Thin skinned twerp banned me. Oh well. His loss.
So, I called Ian an anti-semite and a coward in a PM. I was taught a long time ago: Praise publicly, chastise privately. Thin skinned twerp banned me. Oh well. His loss.
What was your name their at the time?
Panzerfaust 150
I posted something in the Politics section inquiring whether people thought Joseph McCarthy was a prophet or not (there was also a picture about Communism infiltrating Hollywood that I found in the wiki article for McCarthyism) due to the current situation right now.
Less than 5 minutes later, the "Outer Party" members swarmed me like Soviets who just heard that borscht was for dinner.
I was kicked less than an hour later by the "Thought Police"
And I dunno if anyone knows there was this whole mass purge of AH members in relations to a spat between the leadership of the AH discord and Ian just last year. Anyone who expressed any shred of support for the other side (AKA did not lick Ian's boots) was instantly banned. That event really opened my eyes to what AH really was; a cyber version of 1984 mixed in with the Matrix. You don't know about the 1984 part until you inevitably notice one of these "purges" (AKA take a red pill). Anyway, the whole incident was quickly swept under the rug and anyone who mentioned it got banned as well.
But yeah, I remembered bookmarking this place, so after I got kicked, I came and took a good look at the Sietch before making an account and finalizing my "immigration".
Everything here seems to actually transparent, unlike the facade of transparency that is maintained at AH. Decisions are made by a council/board instead of one little tyrannical dictator.
So yeah, here I am.
Circle of Willis
Well-known member
I dropped out of AH.com altogether a good while before this happened, but I do remember a controversy back in 2015 or so that caused a small exodus. I can't say I recall all the details, but IIRC it was actually a bunch of SJW types who left in a huff because Ian and Calbear weren't appeasing them enough and/or deigned to punish one of theirs for breaking AH.com's oh-so-hallowed rules. Eternal clash between the establishment and the useful idiots they tolerate until the latter are no longer so useful, I guess.
The latter actually founded another forum for themselves - Althistoria or something like that, I believe, for which they're due a bit of credit since they went & made their own space rather than colonize someone else's - but I'm pretty sure it's long gone by now. I haven't heard from anyone who went on there in years. Ironically, it sure sounds like that entire affair was unnecessary and that they'd have been 100% (and not just 99%) at home if they had just stuck around a few years longer.
Last edited:
CastilloVerde
Active member
The 'Doxing Incident'. It's funny because the entire fiasco started in the Map Thread over accusations of plagiarism by a member but then quickly escalated to a mass banning of what seems to be an unrelated Discord server.
If what I read on another forum is correct, the Discord server Ian banned wasn't even the correct one. It's almost comical if it wasn't so serious.
___
Anyway, welcome everyone, I heard about this site through a link to 'The Turul on the Bosphorus' TL back in last January, but decided to make an account fairly recently. I wish everyone here the best.
Tiamat
I've seen the future...
Welcome, BlackDragon98, CircleofWillis, CastilloVerde, and other recent members. I sincerely hope you enjoy your time here.
I really do wish this was all under better circumstances, but it seems, sadly, the cycle of history is repeating (or rhyming) itself yet again.
"If you wish to know the future, imagine a boot stamping a human face, forever." George Orwell
I hope and pray that Orwell was not entirely correct, but recent events I confess fill me with ill dread. Oh well, we each only do what we can. In the meantime, I am an aspiring fanfic author currently (Okay, recently getting back to it!) writing "World War III: 1988", you can find it in the Alternate History section (shameless publicity, as always 😙 ). Check it out and drop a line if you have anything to share, and I look forward to your stories. Again, welcome aboard!
I really do wish this was all under better circumstances, but it seems, sadly, the cycle of history is repeating (or rhyming) itself yet again.
"If you wish to know the future, imagine a boot stamping a human face, forever." George Orwell
I hope and pray that Orwell was not entirely correct, but recent events I confess fill me with ill dread. Oh well, we each only do what we can. In the meantime, I am an aspiring fanfic author currently (Okay, recently getting back to it!) writing "World War III: 1988", you can find it in the Alternate History section (shameless publicity, as always 😙 ). Check it out and drop a line if you have anything to share, and I look forward to your stories. Again, welcome aboard!
AnimalNoodles
Well-known member
Not even orwell could have imagined a crowdsourced tyranny where the police state was outsourced to corporations. We live in a wierd inverted cyberpunk dystopia where the netrunners work for the megacorps and volunteer to police the populace while taking delight in ruining the lives of normal citizens.
Tiamat
I've seen the future...
I feel robbed. What the hell happened to the flying cars, holographic projectors, and gynoid pleasure units?
But on a serious note, yes....people forget just how seductive and appealing authoritarianism really is until it's too late.
KilroywasNOTHere
"BEEP!"
because they always assume they will be one of the player characters, no one realizes they are an NPC until they wake up one day and realize they are in the great waiting room awaiting God's judgment.I feel robbed. What the hell happened to the flying cars, holographic projectors, and gynoid pleasure units?
But on a serious note, yes....people forget just how seductive and appealing authoritarianism really is until it's too late.
Agreed!
Well, I try to.
I tried making a few but they never got many bites or got buried so now I just go back into our archives and bump up old Versus threads of interest.
Welp, I've just officially announced my move to the Sietch on AH.
Let's see if I cause a minor exodus or something.
Edit: One of my readers have already followed me here lol.
The Exodus has begun.
Let's see if I cause a minor exodus or something.
Edit: One of my readers have already followed me here lol.
The Exodus has begun.