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What if threads - history

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  • 06-09-2012 10:19am
    #1
    nuac
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,769 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    I see Langer's thread on what if England had never invaded Ireland has been closed.

    I suggest Mods consider re-opening, and allowing similar threads because

    1. They encourage discussion of historical topics

    2. Traffic is not exactly hectic here, and any reasoned discussion relating to history should be welcomed.

    ( I am not an academic nor any kind of historian. Last history i studied was part of Classics studies in UCG c 1959, but I over the years have bought a lot of (2nd hand ) history/political books, and have even read some of them.)


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    #2
    pedroeibar1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,108 ✭✭✭pedroeibar1


    I see where you are coming from Nuac but I don't agree. Topics like that can be interesting but they are not 'history'. The real issue is the content that is posted on them. I agree that traffic on this Forum has declined, and suggest that it has been driven down by too many unnecessarily offensive and belligerent posts most of which are biased and contain an agenda. Once certain posters become involved in a thread it can be seen to wither and while the threads they initiate get 'hits' they receive few responses.


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    #3
    jonniebgood1
    Registered Users Posts: 3,577 ✭✭✭jonniebgood1


    Counterfactual threads are allowed in some cases nuac. There was a discussion a few months ago about this link - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056644677

    The one in question was shut down because there was very little in the way of history coming from the title of the thread. It was inviting speculation rather than historical discussion. Your question is fair though on that type of thread and you will see the various diverse views on the linked thread.


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    #4
    nuac
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,769 Mod ✭✭✭✭nuac


    Thanks JBG1

    Have looked thru the first 80 posts there and will have to leave it for now.

    So far ReekWind is nearest to my POV.

    I admire your patience as a Mod there.


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    #5
    jonniebgood1
    Registered Users Posts: 3,577 ✭✭✭jonniebgood1


    The consensus I got from that thread was that people want them if they are done properly, ie they need to generate a discussion that draws reference to historical fact as a base for the discussion.


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    #6
    3ndahalfof6
    Registered Users Posts: 5,184 ✭✭✭3ndahalfof6


    I don't get it, what ifs? that could be apportioned to anything, its the ifs that we need to look at.


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    #7
    indioblack
    Registered Users Posts: 1,936 ✭✭✭indioblack


    jonniebgood1 wrote: »
    Counterfactual threads are allowed in some cases nuac. There was a discussion a few months ago about this link - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056644677

    The one in question was shut down because there was very little in the way of history coming from the title of the thread. It was inviting speculation rather than historical discussion. Your question is fair though on that type of thread and you will see the various diverse views on the linked thread.


    We lost MarchDubh on that thread - shame, really.


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    #8
    tac foley
    Registered Users Posts: 5,504 ✭✭✭tac foley


    The problem is, on a site like this where there are so many hard-held opinions from one side or the other of Irish politics, that 'what-ifs' can rapidly degenerate into 'if-onlys'.

    tac


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    #9
    Cardinal Richelieu
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,407 ✭✭✭Cardinal Richelieu


    Really a topic for the Sci-Fi /Fantasy forum when you enter the bounds of "what if" history.


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    #10
    Fratton Fred
    Closed Accounts Posts: 26,567 ✭✭✭✭Fratton Fred


    Is it though? I think what ifs, to a degree, are insightful.

    What Cromwell didn't come to Ireland? Would the confederates and royalists have reclaimed England for the crown? Would surrender and regrant have happened in England?

    Maybe there could be an offtopic counter factual sticky to see how it pans out?


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    #11
    Cardinal Richelieu
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,407 ✭✭✭Cardinal Richelieu


    Fratton Fred wrote: »
    Is it though? I think what ifs, to a degree, are insightful.

    What Cromwell didn't come to Ireland? Would the confederates and royalists have reclaimed England for the crown? Would surrender and regrant have happened in England?

    Maybe there could be an offtopic counter factual sticky to see how it pans out?

    Insightful but easily ends in the alternative history which is covered by sci/fantasy.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_history

    Even Newt Gingrich is writing it.
    Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen have written a novel, 1945, in which the U.S. defeated Japan but not Germany in World War II, resulting in a Cold War with Germany rather than the Soviet Union. Gingrich and Forstchen neglected to write the promised sequel; instead, they wrote a trilogy about the American Civil War, starting with Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War, in which the Confederates win a victory at the Battle of Gettysburg


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