A dystopian 2050 Wiki - crazy enough to work?

Here's the idea:

A simulation of the internet - at least the few remaining parts that are text-based - in 2050.

The goal of this project would be to give the reader a vision of a dystopian future through isolated fragments of its media.

The canon would be heavily moderated and kept realistic, but people would be able (and encouraged) to start Character Blogs where they can pretty much write whatever stories they want within the setting. (The best ones would be featured on an equivalent to our Made Of Win page.)

The Purpose

I'd like to have the wiki function as a free-use setting for stories in general. I would love to have all of the information on it either in the public domain, or put under a creative commons license so people can use the setting for novels, stories on other websites, etc.

Futurist stories tend to have a “written for the past” quality to them. Characters often stop to explain what is, in their world, basic technology. It would be like if books written by modern people were constantly explaining that the internet is a visual-based computer networking system invented by DARPA.

However, a lot of authors, in attempting to invert that, go too far in the opposite direction, leaving you to figure everything out from context. The characters are babbling away in future jargon and, unless the author’s exceptionally skilled, it will take multiple readings just to figure out what the hell everyone’s saying.

I wanted to create a coherent world for anyone to use so they could avert those problems. Anyone could write a story full of natural-sounding futurespeak, but easily be able to link to pages on the wiki to explain what they’re talking about.

The Backstory

Much like the SCP Foundation, the 2050 Wiki would have a canon, which I'm already starting to write:

See this thread. It's dedicated to what I have so far. It's undergoing Rolling Updates.

I'm not arrogant enough to insist that it stick to what I've written - it would undergo Rolling Updates and accomodations for current events helping to shape the plot. It would basically work like Andrew Hussie's early projects, where people submit ideas and, if we (me and whoever else would end up moderating it) like them, we write them into the backstory.

The thread seen above primarily focuses on the US, but that's only because this idea originally started as a novella about American social dysfunctions in the next 40 years. I'd like to expand it to include more of the outside world.

The rules

The future we'd present is an admittedly bleak one. But it is also balanced. No specific party, faction, religion, or economic system will have caused the predicament the world is in. That's to keep it from becoming a sounding board for people's political opinions.

It would also be fairly hard sci-fi: only things that could easily happen in Real Life would be allowed into the canon. Of course, what "could easily happen in Real Life" is debatable, but that's mainly to keep aliens and the supernatural out.

It would also be strictly moderated to keep it from turning into either Warhammer 40k or Encyclopedia Dramatica. If anyone keeps submitting things like the former's lurid stories full of genocide, nuclear war, and massacres, or the latter's stupid, racist/sexist/homophobic literary abortions, they'll probably end up banned.

"Standing on the shoulders of giants" - incorporating influences from current social trends and other futurist fiction - would be encouraged, but blatant ripoffs, Shout Outs, and Follow the Leader would also be seriously frowned-on.

Various "websites."

The "dry facts" of the backstory would mainly be told via "Wikitanica," a fusion of all the big online encyclopedias we have currently.

There would also be some equivalent to an Urban Dictionary that defines common slang terms.

In the ‘20s and ‘30s, ezines completely replaced paper magazines as the primary source of specialty information and opinions worldwide. Although they, too , are currently on their way out - being 80% replaced by webshows and holo-commentators, they still attract a large and dedicated following among the people who still prefer to read.

Ezines are the direct evolution and refinement of the most popular gaming websites today, (e.g.: Kotaku, Giant Bomb, The Escapist) and humor sites (Cracked, Collegehumor, The Onion), except that format is now being used for all possible topics.

Just like today, they rely on user-created content and revolving casts of freelance writers. {i.e.: you.)

There would be all kinds of science/technology, military, gaming, lifestyle, political, news, opinion, health, and social issues publications.

(Although, we'd only get to see one of each type, to keep from getting repetitive.)

Also, it should go without saying that the sites will be much smaller than they would be in reality, as we're only seeing limited portions of the text-based parts of them.

Intended Mohs Scale Of Science Fiction Hardness Rating

5.25

Various other stuff

• The wiki would be kind of a Gateless Ghetto. It's implied that we're only seeing a microscopic fraction of the whole internet. Since, as I mentioned, the majority of the web is video and hologram-based now, there would be links to nonexistent sites outside the wiki, but they would just bring up a faux error message saying the reader's computer isn't advanced enough to handle them.
• One month in reality would equal one day in the wiki's time, to simulate how fast people are updating.
• "The 2050 Wiki" wouldn't be what it's actually called. I have no idea what I want to name it yet.

—

I'm currently writing a basic manual for the wiki, if anyone wants to see it when it's done.

But if this doesn't sound plausible, I'll just go back to the original idea of writing it as an online novel after I'm done with my current project.

edited 5th Jul '13 2:58:54 PM by Wheezy

Although I have zero interest in dystopian settings and so won't be actually participating, I think this is a brilliant idea. I'm sure someone's done something like it before, but it's still pretty unique, and I urge you to pursue it.

Thank you.

I have a backstory for the wiki itself:

Working title: Cloud Archive.*

Slogan: Preserving the Present.

About us:

Web 3.0, a virtual reality and hologram-based evolution of the internet that launched in 2045, is rapidly becoming the most popular form of digital communication. Now, "traditional internet" servers are starting to shut down at an alarming rate, threatening vast amounts of unique information and creative work.

Google has already done a laudable job of preserving websites online content created between 1990 and 2019. You can search their database here. Our job is to do the same for content created from 2020 to 2049.

We're trying to preserve as much as possible, but due to the enormous volume of content and our limited volunteer base, we're focusing on the most interesting and historically relevant websites. Due to budget and time restrictions, we can only preserve text and static images for the time being. We do not back up actual websites, just snapshots of them. We will work on adding other content when the means become available.

—

Note: If this works out and lasts past 2020 in Real Life, we'll simply keep shrinking the time period we're working with so the "beginning date" for the sites we archive is always five years ahead of the present. Our in-universe explanation will be that the oldest servers are shutting down first.

The only thing I haven't figured out yet is what to do if some massive, world-reshaping surprise happens in Real Life, like another historically massive terrorist attack or World War III. If it proves big enough to be impossible to write into the storyline without pitching everything and starting over, but not big enough to justify shutting down the entire wiki, maybe this will just end up being an alternate universe.

edited 5th Jul '13 7:38:27 PM by Wheezy

I like the idea of it, it'd be an interesting way of portraying a fictional world that'd allow the readers to effectively go where they like and know as much about it as they want to know.

I had an idea for creating a similar set of phoney pages, news articles etc for the purposes of a live-action role play game (Post-Cyberpunk) that the players could access through their own mobile devices or internet cafes - to provide not only a "realistic" Alternative Reality background but also give hints and clues as to what's actually going on in game (which, if they pick up on them, would help them make useful decisions in game).

Of course, for the purposes of a game such a thing would have to be large enough and filled with enough "irrelevant background noise" to hide the real stories (nothing would be more suspicious than all the "news stories" being directly relevant to what's going on).

For your project, you could reduce the amount of stuff that's not related to the plot in favour of keeping the overall size down and not having too many "irrelevancies".

Well, there won't be an overarching plot, just the theme of exploring a somewhat Cyberpunk-ish world shaped by the effects of overpopulation and current/predicted social trends. (Also, I need to add that it won't uniformly be a dystopia. It would be stupid to assume the entire world will be a shithole. If anyone wants to suggest some ways in which we'll be doing better, or some places that might be spared, feel free. But keep in mind that science currently predicts that things look pretty bleak.)

I'm hoping it will eventually grow big enough to be used for almost any genre and tone of story.

Within the smaller stories people add-to it, wicks and Wiki Words will be the default way to provide exposition on the non-entertainment "websites."

They'll have an in-universe explanation, too: In order to avert the "future readers are experts on the first half of the 21st century" trope, we've taken the liberty of embedding links to definitions of slang, scientific terms, etc. into the more complicated texts in our collection.

edited 5th Jul '13 4:00:25 PM by Wheezy

Personally, I think it's better to just make it an alternate universe from the start (with the POD presumably being whenever you start writing) than to try to incorporate ongoing current events into the setting's history.

Maybe.

That does tie into one idea I was considering, where the character who proves to have the most influence on the US's future will be born on the day the wiki launches in Real Life.

edited 5th Jul '13 5:52:01 PM by Wheezy

Found a name:

The q2 Archive.*

(Usually just called The q2.)

edited 7th Jul '13 8:26:53 PM by Wheezy

I'm looking into wiki hosting services. I'll start by filling out an application for a Wikidot Community Wiki.

This is the part where I'll soon start needing some serious help. More updates to come.

BTW: Does anyone know CSS?

edited 7th Jul '13 10:15:40 AM by Wheezy

I'm interested. However I'm not sure how exactly will my musings about wars and revolutions be perceived. I'm a political scientist, not a propagandist, and see them as exposing some of the current trends that others tend to gloss over, but while I list various possible outcomes I tend to elaborate more on those I consider favorable.

Maybe I formulate them as prognoses of some fictional think tank from 2013?

edited 7th Jul '13 10:31:26 AM by aurora369

Thanks. The Contributor's Guide should be done by tomorrow, so you can take a look at that to see how your ideas could fit into it.

Logo!◊

As a side note, I want to change up the logo once in a while. Maybe on certain occasions, like Google, if I have the time to plan for them.

Homepage mockup!◊

I really don't like this one, but it's just one idea. Tomorrow, I'll develop an alternate one inspired more by The Twelve's homepage.

And...

"Outer frame" mockup!◊

(The frame that will appear around everything except the homepage.)

I'll start researching how to make a functional version of this in CSS soon enough.

All done in Photoshop Elements.

—

Since the Inner Pages will all have their own color schemes unique identities (and I will find a way to pull that off, dammit), I think a minimalist, B&W outer frame that'll stay out of the way is the only way to go. Ads will go on the inner pages, if possible.

Finally, yes, I know the black frame widths are uneven, but fuck it. It really is 1 AM, I've been working for twelve hours straight, and I'm going to bed.

The final version will also use a more interesting font than Calibri.

—

Edit: As a matter of fact, I think I want the entire "outer site" to be minimalist, so the "inner sites" can shine through.

Second edit: The Q looks like a 4. That's a common problem in experimental fonts. But this logo will do for the first draft. I don't know if the implied Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy reference works for or against this logo, though.

BTW: Any feedback from here on, even if negative, is welcome.

edited 8th Jul '13 9:45:07 AM by Wheezy

Alternate logo.◊

Alternate logo 2◊

Which one looks best? Original, Alt. 1, or Alt. 2?

Edit:

Way better.◊

In the interest of fairness, the page image is by this guy, and won't be used in the final without his permission.

And a new frame.◊

I've decided to go for a minimalist silver/white look on the whole site.

—-

The hardest part of this design will be the "archive" homepage, which will take the user to the actual sites. Clicking on the icon or the picture on the homepage will take you to it.

But I'll get to that tomorrow. Today, I have to finish the first draft of the contributor's guide and put in some more work on Yume-Hime.*

edited 8th Jul '13 7:02:48 PM by Wheezy

It's not exactly a "contributor's guide," but it's a more coherent proposal.

BTW, since this is already underway, do you think I should start another thread called "The q2 Archive?"