Alternative History:Communities

Wikis are designed to be communal, thus it is no surprise that certain timelines on this wiki have spawned their own communities. These communities are made up of editors dedicated to updating and promoting the timeline they oversee. Often they institute guidelines/rules or use their very own unique terminology. Some of these communities soon come to influence the operations of the entire wiki.

1983: Doomsday

 * See also: History of 1983: Doomsday Timeline

1983: Doomsday was originally created on December 4, 2006 by the anonymous user 70.150.208.34. Exactly who this user was is unknown, though some editors have claimed to have been that editor, including Owen1983 and User:Gblack61. Despite its mysterious beginnings, the timeline attracted another user who began signing his additions as TheNightsphere before eventually taking the name Xi'Reney. In 2008, Xi'Reney adopted the timeline and began to create new articles. His work soon attracted other editors, including many who had experience in community alternate histories from the Ill Bethisad project.

As the timeline grew, so did the community editors who worked on it. The community soon referred to itself as the, or the World Census and Reclamation Bureau. The WCRB acts as an in universe organization where the current contributors hold positions as "directors" of a series of worldwide offices. As the community continued to grow, however, it became necessary to devise a series of guidelines to govern the contributors of 1983: Doomsday. In December 2008, Xi'Reney drafted the first version of the. These guidelines governed the actions of all contributors to the timeline, but they were rarely enforced.

By June 2009, the timeline had reached a turning point. It was as popular as ever and in fact was attracting a large number of new users. New articles were being created at a faster pace, but older editors felt that these new additions more often than not either contradicted older articles or were just to implausible. Meanwhile Xi'Renney's activity had decreased and with the caretaker spending less time working on the timelines there was talk of appointing new leaders to take over his job. In this atmosphere,Benkarnell stepped in and amended the Editorial Guidelines to include a "proposal process." Borrowed from Ill Bethisad, all new articles would be marked with a proposal template and would not be considered canon until a consensus was reached by the community. If consensus was reached the article would be "graduated" (a term coined by Mitro) into canon. 1983: Doomsday became the first timeline on the entire wiki to use a proposal process.

Another Ill Bethisad veteran, Louisiannan, took it one step further and introduced the concepts of QSS and QAA. Meant to protect earlier articles, the two concepts told editors that canonical facts internal to a timeline are to be respected as unalterable, even if the editor who created them has left the project, while assumed information about unclaimed territories with no direct importance to anyone's work is protected. The concept, along with the altered became the law of the timeline and were strictly enforced.

Following the revamp of the governing of the community, the editors of 1983: Doomsday had something to celebrate on August 9, 2009. On that day 1983: Doomsday was finally recognized as a featured alternate history. It spent the entire month of September 2009 featured on the main page.

Today, 1983: Doomsday is the largest and most active timeline on the wiki. 1983: Doomsday articles tend to be in the top five most edited articles of the day. Furthermore, 1983: Doomsday editors have incredible influence on the wiki as a whole. As of September 15, 2010, every member of the TSPTF has created an article in the 1983: Doomsday universe.