User:SnowyCinema/IDL


 * Interactive discussional library

Ever thought the people from the middle ages up to the 1960s could never have something similar to the internet? Dead wrong!

Introduction
This is my idea of a fictional but technically possible idea of a discussional system that is similar to that of the modern Usenet or the internet that is based on the mass transportation of paper or parchment. Basically an advanced form of mail and the library system, which both already existed.

It is a complex system. To put it a little more simply, the idea is to make a system of internet forum-like discussions, except it's all on paper or parchment. It is a way to allow people to easily (and by easily I mean more easily than was currently possible for them) to have discussions with people from all over their nation, or even the world.

Fictional history
Started in Europe in the middle ages (12th-14th centuries sometime.) Used all the way up until the 1980s, when it is outdated by Usenet.

The system
Okay, so imagine yourself in this scenario. Let's just say you live in a fairly populous city in Pennsylvania in the 1840s, for example. There's a thing in your town called an "interactive discussional library" (IDL) that you want to use for the first time. You're probably either in your late teens or early twenties.

The pseudonym
So you walk in, and you have an entrance. A man asks you (in whatever mid-1700s speak) "Hi. And how may I help you today?"

"I would like to buy a pseudonym."

Now you may be wondering what this "pseudonym" is. The pseudonym is what it sounds like: a name given to yourself. It could be whatever you want it to be. Someone from back then would more than likely pick a pseudonym based on a hobby, career, or just name it after their own name. And only one person can get a pseudonym. The pseudonym itself is cheap, but you have to pay weekly to keep the pseudonym for that long, so it's more expensive than you might think overall. Why do they do this?

Because the pseudonym is not only a way to identify yourself in the discussions, but also to identify how the discussions are going to you. So the man lets you in after you pay for your pseudonym, and he shows you your personal pseudonym's cabinet and gives you a card with its code number (see the analogy to a password?). There'd be thousands of these in this library.

Now for getting to the part where you actually do stuff.

Discussions within the library
The man shows you to a huge central section of the library with several different tables, which are full of stacks of organized and kept papers. They are each organized alphabetically per table. Each table holds a different general subject matter of discussion, such as the sciences, mathematics, careers, agriculture, politics, religion, (heck, there'd even be a sex and dating section, you just know people would want that), history, popular culture, etc. Or maybe something similar

You see literally thousands of papers per table, and other people around you shifting through the paper stacks that are alphabetically organized by title to find which is of their best interest at the moment. But what are these papers? Well, each of these papers contains a written discussion. The paper may look something like this. Let's give a little example here. Each time I say <> it means it wouldn't actually be on the paper, but it's just a comment from me.

CATEGORY: Politics

SUBJECT TITLE: I believe slavery should be abolished, but am from the South

Zla.man ; August 2, 1843 in Atlanta Public IDL, Georgia, US

Though I am from the south, I don't think that the treatment of people as slaves is immoral. Many in my community do not seem to agree. Why do people try to justify slavery as such?

Opaque_22 ; August 20, 1843 in Montpelier Public IDL, Vermont, US

I do agree that slavery is immoral and shuld[sic] by all means be abolished. However, slavery would completely destroy the South's economy in its current state. It is very much dependent on slavery.

PluekDog ; December 16, 1843 in London Public IDL, England

I am quite surprised that this issue is going on. We in Britain have abolished slavery years ago. It is very immature how the US is still tied up in this mess.

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