AlternateHistory.com

AlternateHistory.com is a web forum dedicated to the discussion of alternate history. The forum was founded in September 2000 by Ian Montgomerie, a Canadian immigrant residing in New York, as a split-off from a Usenet newsgroup. It is currently the largest English-language forum dedicated to the study and discussion of alternate history, with around 10,000 active members and over 400,000 discussion threads.[1][2]

AlternateHistory.com
Type of site
Discussion forum
OwnerIan Montgomerie
URLalternatehistory.com
CommercialNo
RegistrationFree, some forums only visible to members
Users65,365 as of February 3, 2021
LaunchedSeptember 2000
Current statusActive

In 2020 Alternatehistory.com received some attention when a doctored image of a Washington Times headline declaring Al Gore winner of the 2000 presidential election was taken from the site and retweeted by Trump campaign official Tim Murtaugh to give an example of the media making an incorrect call of a presidential election. Murtaugh received pushback from the Washington Times, which informed Murtaugh that it had never published a headline like that.[3]

Description and impact

AlternateHistory.com is centered around discussion of how history may have unfolded differently with only small changes made to the past, a phenomenon described as the butterfly effect. The forum is divided into Administration, Discussion, and Off-topic sections, and also contains a wiki. Its users, along with those at other alternate history discussion boards, have developed a lexicon unique to the discussion of alternate history. It is also known for hosting a community of map-makers who contribute maps for timelines and for works of fiction, such as the alternate history world of The Handmaid's Tale.[4] The site has also been used as a resource by newspapers like the New York Times to describe the concept of alternate history to their audiences.[5] Posts on AlternateHistory.com made by a Wikipedia editor who had controversially deleted information critical of Canadian politician Adrian Dix also became a minor political issue.[6]

Subforums
  • Before 1900 is for alternate history before the year of 1900.
  • After 1900 is for alternate history after and including the year of 1900, with the exception of modern political issues, which is placed in Chat.
  • Finished Timelines is for alternate history stories that have been finalized, so that they can be posted without other people's comments so that people can just read a story without going through pages of comments and also not have to worry about the timeline being abandoned.
  • Books and Media is for discussing alternate history works.
  • Maps and Graphics is for flags, maps, wikiboxes, and other sorts of images used for alternate history.
  • Writer's Forum is for discussion of writing, whether or not it is alternate history.
  • Future History is for imagining scenarios about the future and what may happen.
  • Alien space bats, or ASB, is for alternate history scenarios that are completely unrealistic and require some sort of magical intervention, which is referred to as alien space bats, has some fandom AH though most comes under Fandom.
  • Fandom Alternate History is for discussing alternate versions of fictional worlds derived from books, other TL's, movies or tv series. This used to be part of Alien Space Bats, but was split off in early 2017.
  • Shared Worlds is meant for playing games in an alternate history context. This includes election games, where players influence or act out a nation's politics and/or government to govern, map games, where players collaboratively create a map and a backstory to it, RPGs, where players act out various scenarios, nation games, where players control a nation each and interact with each other through diplomacy or war, and modded games, which is similar to nation games but both faster and more flexible regarding nations, generally stemming from a point of divergence in the past. Shared worlds also contains more traditional roleplays and double-blind-what-ifs, in which users roleplay as people from another timeline asking about points of divergences that would lead to our history.
  • Media and Fandom is for discussion of media in a non-alternate history context.
  • Non-Political Chat is for discussion of non-alternate history topics, with the exception of politics that goes in (political) Chat.
  • Chat is for discussion of politics and timelines relating to modern politics generally from 2013 onwards..

See also

References
  1. "Considered Alternatives". Real Life. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  2. "Alternate History Discussion". Alternate History Discussion. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  3. Evon, Dan (8 November 2020). "Was a 'President Gore' Headline Published by Washington Times in 2000?". Snopes. Snopes Media Group. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  4. Prince, S.J. (4 May 2017). "Republic of Gilead Map: What Does the World of 'The Handmaid's Tale' Look Like?". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  5. Olsen, Jonathan; Gross, Sarah (21 March 2014). "Skills Practice | Alternative History as Narrative". The Learning Network. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  6. "Wikipedia editors restore critical historical information about B.C. NDP leader Adrian Dix". Global News. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.