I've been working on a history of Talossa, as some folks know, and I'd like to find out more info about the Republic. I have some info written out by CCX about their government during one period, and there are snapshots online of many of the now-vanished sites. But there's a ton of basic info that just seems to be gone. Is there a version of the Republic's message board anywhere? Are there any other primary records? For example, where are the election records and legislative records? Is all of that just lost or inaccessible?
I have some folders scattered on various hard disks, with citizen lists, versions of the Constitution etc. I will sift through it, delete personal details like birth dates, addresses etc, and see if I can get a zip over to you.
That would be great! Absolutely anything you have. I can also try to make a public-facing archive, although then I'd want you to look at it carefully to make sure nothing sensitive was published even beyond redacted personal data. I'd also encourage you to make an unredacted archive and give it to someone you trust to keep it safe, like our Archivist GV, just to make sure this info doesn't get lost.
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on May 27, 2021, 12:08:15 PM
I've been working on a history of Talossa, as some folks know, and I'd like to find out more info about the Republic.
That would be an interesting read for sure. I know there are message boards, like this one, and of course legislative records but it would be nice to read the history of Talossa in a history or novel form.
Quote from: DixhetFira on May 28, 2021, 08:16:08 PM
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on May 27, 2021, 12:08:15 PM
I've been working on a history of Talossa, as some folks know, and I'd like to find out more info about the Republic.
That would be an interesting read for sure. I know there are message boards, like this one, and of course legislative records but it would be nice to read the history of Talossa in a history or novel form.
There's not a lot out there right now, but there is some. There is one history running up until about 10 years ago, written by our founder, but it's pretty biased throughout, often downright malicious, and not very well written. You can also look on the wiki at the history page, where I assembled a pretty good timeline when I first got started on this project years ago. And there was also a recent effort called the new history project, written by two former citizens of the Republic, but it focuses on some specific times and I think is still in its early stages.
What I was asking about here were for records for the Republic of Talossa. Because of the behavior of the founder of the country, a group of citizens left to form their own version and the two coexisted for quite some time, before eventually merging again. There isn't actually that much info on them available right now, although I'd like to change that.
Quote from: anglatzara on May 28, 2021, 06:16:14 AM
I have some folders scattered on various hard disks, with citizen lists, versions of the Constitution etc. I will sift through it, delete personal details like birth dates, addresses etc, and see if I can get a zip over to you.
Please send that .zip to me as well. Thanks so much!
Most of the history of the 2004-2012 Republic is stored on Wittenbergs X, XII, and XIIb (XI being 'OldWitt'). MPF knows the need to have these back online, but has literally not had the time to get to these projects and will not have time to do that for the foreseeable future.
Of course, he can correct me on all of this.
I don't know that we do need him to put them back online. I think even I have the technical chops to do it, as I understand it. Just need the files.
It's been 9 years that we've just let this drift. Right now the main account we have for most of the republic's history comes from the view of outsiders in the Kingdom. I know that probably sounds silly to people who were there the whole time and are here speaking now, but aside from a few exhaustively discussed moments, very little is written down or available. And the longer we wait, the more likely that situation is to become permanent for much of it.
Sorry, not trying to be melodramatic. I just think it's important, that's all.
Just bumping this. Still have nothing on the Republic.
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on June 09, 2021, 06:28:07 AM
Just bumping this. Still have nothing on the Republic.
I think it is safe to say MPF literally will not have time to get this data to you or anyone else for the foreseeable future, alas. I have some stuff I will eventually put up, though it's only from the earliest days of the Republic.
Since you will also be very busy, anything you can send me right now will be helpful, even if it isn't organized or published into a PDF like you prefer. I'm also holding out hope for
@anglatzara . Really, it's just astonishing how little info there is right now. It's like trying to write about a hermit kingdom -- I have some official speeches and announcements that were outward-facing, but virtually no actual data or real history. I can't even find a list of officials past 2008/2009, as though there were none from then to the end.
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on June 09, 2021, 08:37:06 AM
Since you will also be very busy, anything you can send me right now will be helpful, even if it isn't organized or published into a PDF like you prefer. I'm also holding out hope for @anglatzara . Really, it's just astonishing how little info there is right now. It's like trying to write about a hermit kingdom -- I have some official speeches and announcements that were outward-facing, but virtually no actual data or real history. I can't even find a list of officials past 2008/2009, as though there were none from then to the end.
Try searching captures for talossa.com on Wayback between 1 June 2004 and 20 April 2012, inclusive. Yeah, when the Republic disappeared, its online presence disappeared as well.
Quote from: GV on June 09, 2021, 02:27:44 PM
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on June 09, 2021, 08:37:06 AM
Since you will also be very busy, anything you can send me right now will be helpful, even if it isn't organized or published into a PDF like you prefer. I'm also holding out hope for @anglatzara . Really, it's just astonishing how little info there is right now. It's like trying to write about a hermit kingdom -- I have some official speeches and announcements that were outward-facing, but virtually no actual data or real history. I can't even find a list of officials past 2008/2009, as though there were none from then to the end.
Try searching captures for talossa.com on Wayback between 1 June 2004 and 20 April 2012, inclusive. Yeah, when the Republic disappeared, its online presence disappeared as well.
See what you can get for talossaonline.com, too.
I've done that, and there's just very little. Large portions were never captured, or were only captured once. I have collected what I could, though.
I brought up this issue shortly after the merge, and it didn't go anywhere and I couldn't get anything. But there is a very real risk that all of that is just going to vanish into the ether as time wears on. Files get lost, memories fade, and interest wanes. And eventually, 8 years of independent history and culture will be written off in a sentence. What were the campaigns like in the elections? What were the disagreements in triumph? What were the games played or inventions made? How did people react to events in the Kingdom? "Unfortunately, most of the records and discussions from this time are not available or have been permanently lost."
I know there are still people in our country, like yourself, who value that stuff, remember it fondly, and want to preserve it. And it's the sort of thing that always gets pushed to the back burner, year after year. But please send me whatever you have, folks.
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on June 09, 2021, 02:46:31 PM
I've done that, and there's just very little. Large portions were never captured, or were only captured once. I have collected what I could, though.
I brought up this issue shortly after the merge, and it didn't go anywhere and I couldn't get anything. But there is a very real risk that all of that is just going to vanish into the ether as time wears on. Files get lost, memories fade, and interest wanes. And eventually, 8 years of independent history and culture will be written off in a sentence. What were the campaigns like in the elections? What were the disagreements in triumph? What were the games played or inventions made? How did people react to events in the Kingdom? "Unfortunately, most of the records and discussions from this time are not available or have been permanently lost."
I know there are still people in our country, like yourself, who value that stuff, remember it fondly, and want to preserve it. And it's the sort of thing that always gets pushed to the back burner, year after year. But please send me whatever you have, folks.
Many thanks for your interest! I know Derivatism vs. Peculiarism was a big deal for a long while.
I've dropped a line to MPF asking him whether a Culture Ministry grant might help him in making RepublicWitts available for researchers again. However, I must say as a Republic veteran I would want them available in exactly the same format as the Kingdom ProBoards Witt is available - free for all researchers, rather than handed over as a private data dump to one particular writer (who might be rightly or wrongly suspected of having a negative agenda). Imagine if such a shady character were to find, for example, intemperate or embarassing things I said in 2005, but have forgotten, and was to trot them out as part of a contemporary political hackjob on me. No, I want all that stuff in the public domain so I can find it myself if necessary and either apologise or explain the context.
So I have zipped up what I have - and it's a jumble of things, though more proclamations, newspapers and photos etc than actual records. And it's completely unsorted, so it's more archaeology than history. I'll send y'all the link, AD & GV.
Quote from: anglatzara on June 10, 2021, 04:40:26 AM
So I have zipped up what I have - and it's a jumble of things, though more proclamations, newspapers and photos etc than actual records. And it's completely unsorted, so it's more archaeology than history. I'll send y'all the link, AD & GV.
Thank you so much! Some of the correspondence stuff in here is
fascinating, as are the laws, and so much of it is new to me. Excellent!
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on June 10, 2021, 07:06:59 AM
Quote from: anglatzara on June 10, 2021, 04:40:26 AM
So I have zipped up what I have - and it's a jumble of things, though more proclamations, newspapers and photos etc than actual records. And it's completely unsorted, so it's more archaeology than history. I'll send y'all the link, AD & GV.
Thank you so much! Some of the correspondence stuff in here is fascinating, as are the laws, and so much of it is new to me. Excellent!
I don't think there's more correspondence than a letter I sent to King John (sadly ignored by him) and one I sent to a prospective citizen, unless you found something I didn't see. I do of course have tons of correspondence saved away, but going through all that and sorting out the non-personal stuff would take forever, so I'm not giving that to anyone.
There's some other exchanges interspersed and with the talossa.com archive. I also had never seen the census records before, and those will be a great resource -- I can visualize the chart already! Thank you again!
Unfortunately, MPF has written me to let me know that all of the electoral records, candidate records, legislative records, and all of the old Wittenbergs -- everything he had, basically -- is gone, without hope of recovery. Does anyone know of anyone else who might possibly have retained anything?
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on June 10, 2021, 10:32:18 AM
Unfortunately, MPF has written me to let me know that all of the electoral records, candidate records, legislative records, and all of the old Wittenbergs -- everything he had, basically -- is gone, without hope of recovery. Does anyone know of anyone else who might possibly have retained anything?
Ouch. This is a tragedy. This will take me some time to process.
Okay guys, we were all getting worked up for nothing.
By the time of Reunision, MPF wasn't administering Republic Wittenberg at all, that was
@Dieter Vercária. (I should have remembered that MPF set up a rather complex CMS for talossa.com that we simply ceased to use in favour of a simpler Wordpress setup.) Dieter says:
"I still have a final copy of the Witt XII b database somewhere on my computers, as well as rough web crawler copies of Witt XII b and the last Witt that was hosted by MPF (the infamous "stolen" Witt, so to speak). By the time of the reunion the web crawler copies of Wittenberg were published on a host of a Mexican guy (
@Danihel Txechescu ???), but I don't know what became of this."
Great, let's get those out and about to people! MPF said that his servers with all of that stuff had been accidentally written over, which means that Dieter's copies of that info are the only existing ones, probably (maybe hosted in two places still, it sounds like?).
I have located the package D.N. Vercária shared with me a couple of years ago. Will share with our Archivist
Quote from: Danihel Txechescu on June 11, 2021, 10:32:58 PM
I have located the package D.N. Vercária shared with me a couple of years ago. Will share with our Archivist
Please also forward to me.
Share it with me too, please!
if interested, i have in my personal archive some stuff from republic times.
i have all three of my small side projects & contributions archived (el verbånd talossán dal ficziun siensiâ & whisky; cxhn. inâ és cxhn. minâ - comicseu de talossa d'iens vidançeu suôrschár; el gac'hláivasqåb ¡büvetz-noi és cîntetz-noi!) + plus some stuff from my ministerial times (i was like two times cultmin in republic) - some immigration posters, one historical proclamation and suchs. i was also the peculiarist (NPW) who advocated non-derivativist looks at republic of talossa (movamáintsch për l'estat da talossa).
Quote from: Ián S.G. Txaglh on June 16, 2021, 07:29:08 AM
if interested, i have in my personal archive some stuff from republic times.
i have all three of my small side projects & contributions archived (el verbånd talossán dal ficziun siensiâ & whisky; cxhn. inâ és cxhn. minâ - comicseu de talossa d'iens vidançeu suôrschár; el gac'hláivasqåb ¡büvetz-noi és cîntetz-noi!) + plus some stuff from my ministerial times (i was like two times cultmin in republic) - some immigration posters, one historical proclamation and suchs. i was also the peculiarist (NPW) who advocated non-derivativist looks at republic of talossa (movamáintsch për l'estat da talossa).
Put everything you have to libraryoftalossa.com If you need access, send me a PM, and I'll drop you an invite.
Thank you so much!
Quote from: GV on June 16, 2021, 07:40:02 AM
Put everything you have to libraryoftalossa.com If you need access, send me a PM, and I'll drop you an invite.
Thank you so much!
so could you pls let me (jan.havlis.r@gmail.com) to upload files there? i can read there, but not upload. anyway, all i have has only slightly above 2 M zip-compressed.
Quote from: Ián S.G. Txaglh on June 16, 2021, 08:20:53 AM
all i have has only slightly above 2 M zip-compressed.
and it is uploaded now :)
Quote from: Danihel Txechescu on June 11, 2021, 10:32:58 PM
I have located the package D.N. Vercária shared with me a couple of years ago. Will share with our Archivist
Did this happen?
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on June 27, 2021, 08:08:53 PM
Quote from: Danihel Txechescu on June 11, 2021, 10:32:58 PM
I have located the package D.N. Vercária shared with me a couple of years ago. Will share with our Archivist
Did this happen?
Sorry, not yet. I'll be off of work the following days, so that'll happen.
Quote from: Danihel Txechescu on June 27, 2021, 10:27:43 PM
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on June 27, 2021, 08:08:53 PM
Quote from: Danihel Txechescu on June 11, 2021, 10:32:58 PM
I have located the package D.N. Vercária shared with me a couple of years ago. Will share with our Archivist
Did this happen?
Sorry, not yet. I'll be off of work the following days, so that'll happen.
Just touching base with this again.
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on July 28, 2021, 10:51:56 PM
Quote from: Danihel Txechescu on June 27, 2021, 10:27:43 PM
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on June 27, 2021, 08:08:53 PM
Quote from: Danihel Txechescu on June 11, 2021, 10:32:58 PM
I have located the package D.N. Vercária shared with me a couple of years ago. Will share with our Archivist
Did this happen?
Sorry, not yet. I'll be off of work the following days, so that'll happen.
Just touching base with this again.
I shared the files with GV "the following days" after that message.
Thank you!
@GV , did you add them to the archive?
Quote from: GV on August 03, 2021, 10:01:14 PM
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on August 03, 2021, 02:45:32 PM
Quote from: GV on July 30, 2021, 02:57:06 AM
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on July 29, 2021, 01:35:34 PM
Thank you! @GV , did you add them to the archive?
Let me get to that...
Great! Thanks!
I will get to it...in time. lol
Great! I'll check in again soon, since I know you have a lot going on.
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on August 04, 2021, 10:44:25 PM
Quote from: GV on August 03, 2021, 10:01:14 PM
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on August 03, 2021, 02:45:32 PM
Quote from: GV on July 30, 2021, 02:57:06 AM
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on July 29, 2021, 01:35:34 PM
Thank you! @GV , did you add them to the archive?
Let me get to that...
Great! Thanks!
I will get to it...in time. lol
Great! I'll check in again soon, since I know you have a lot going on.
Hee, hee... Dowload of the compressed file went great, and the archive opened with no issue.
Uploading this file on my 2014 Mac Mini with no eGPU is more than my meagre machine can take. Which means I will need to ask you to upload at least the compressed file to the GoogleDrive Library of Talossa at www.libraryoftalossa.com
Thank you so much for your work on this. My fancy image formats and other means of archiving I will do myself, but once your archive is up on that GoogleDrive, others can download it.
HUGE thanks to you for your work!
Quote from: GV on August 04, 2021, 11:36:05 PM
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on August 04, 2021, 10:44:25 PM
Quote from: GV on August 03, 2021, 10:01:14 PM
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on August 03, 2021, 02:45:32 PM
Quote from: GV on July 30, 2021, 02:57:06 AM
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on July 29, 2021, 01:35:34 PM
Thank you! @GV , did you add them to the archive?
Let me get to that...
Great! Thanks!
I will get to it...in time. lol
Great! I'll check in again soon, since I know you have a lot going on.
Hee, hee... Dowload of the compressed file went great, and the archive opened with no issue.
Uploading this file on my 2014 Mac Mini with no eGPU is more than my meagre machine can take. Which means I will need to ask you to upload at least the compressed file to the GoogleDrive Library of Talossa at www.libraryoftalossa.com
Thank you so much for your work on this. My fancy image formats and other means of archiving I will do myself, but once your archive is up on that GoogleDrive, others can download it.
HUGE thanks to you for your work!
I don't have this file, unfortunately, so I can't do that. It was sent to you. Did you already upload it to the drive?
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on August 05, 2021, 07:36:14 AM
I don't have this file, unfortunately, so I can't do that. It was sent to you. Did you already upload it to the drive?
I do. It was shared with the Archivist so that he could go over the file and assess the privacy of its contents and it if could be shared in its raw form.
GV, I can upload the file to the Google Drive, just let me know if it can be shared as is.
The file Witt2.7z is on libraryoftalossa.com already as it turns out. Now that I recall, I downloaded it, but am now in the process of removing it from my computer entirely.
I had put it to Trash, but when I put it back to Desktop, the 'bird' process kicked in, and my fan started spinning madly.
Not AD's fault! His work was and is beautiful. The archive opened beautifully, but my machine cannot work with the resultant folders, but again, not AD's fault.
My cheapo MacMini cannot handle the complicated file structure, and I'm nearly maxed out on disk space as it is. The Empty-Trash progress dialog indicated more than 50,000 individual items!
So we're talking about two different things. The file Witt2.7z is the archive that I made of the old Kingdom Witt. It sounds like you aren't able to really open it and use it, which is too bad. It's more than a gig when uncompressed, so you'll need some space to unzip it.
But did you also get the Republic Witt archive from Danihel? He says he sent it to you. Can you open that?
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on August 05, 2021, 01:54:45 PM
So we're talking about two different things. The file Witt2.7z is the archive that I made of the old Kingdom Witt. It sounds like you aren't able to really open it and use it, which is too bad. It's more than a gig when uncompressed, so you'll need some space to unzip it.
But did you also get the Republic Witt archive from Danihel? He says he sent it to you. Can you open that?
Downloaded, opened, and in good working order from what I can tell. This archive covers the demise of this forum in 2008 back to November 2004. The Lytheria Codex covers the inception (FEb 2003) through May 2004. We are missing posts from June 2004 through about mid-November, but this is not Danihel's fault. MANY THANKS to him!!
Danihel, please upload your copy of this archive to www.libraryoftalossa.com - You should still have access to that GoogleDrive. Again, a thousand thanks and many apologies to all for dropping the ball on this and to AD who got me going on this again.
GV, RArchivist
Quote from: GV on August 05, 2021, 05:03:04 PM
[...] Danihel, please upload your copy of this archive to www.libraryoftalossa.com - You should still have access to that GoogleDrive. Again, a thousand thanks and many apologies to all for dropping the ball on this and to AD who got me going on this again. [...]
Nopi, no access.
Quote from: Danihel Txechescu on August 05, 2021, 05:49:47 PM
Quote from: GV on August 05, 2021, 05:03:04 PM
[...] Danihel, please upload your copy of this archive to www.libraryoftalossa.com - You should still have access to that GoogleDrive. Again, a thousand thanks and many apologies to all for dropping the ball on this and to AD who got me going on this again. [...]
Nopi, no access.
You should have an email invite to that GoogleDrive.
Quote from: GV on August 06, 2021, 09:43:39 AM
You should have an email invite to that GoogleDrive.
Uploaded.
I just got back to my home computer, and was able to grab a copy, too. Thank you to you both! Good to know these records didn't evaporate forever, and that posterity will be able to find out some things about the life of the Republic.
Okay, this looks like it captured everything from November 2nd, 2004, to the closure of the forum on March 15th, 2008. Everything prior to the former date wasn't grabbed by the backup utility, however much that might have been. At a first glance, there's no list of threads or chronological menu available, so there's no way to see how many pages weren't backed up. Kind of a weird forum to navigate, actually. Seems like you have to click twice just to read a thread, by first opening up and then clicking to see all the posts? But probably there's just some thing I'm not seeing yet.
As far as I understand, this means that the first 6 months of civic life of the Republic are lost to us, except for a handful of specifically preserved threads. That's pretty unfortunate, because that was obviously pretty important to history. That was when all of the institutions and everything else were being set up and the first elections held. I know GV preserved some of that personally, but there's still bound to be a lot of stuff missing.
Rather more unfortunately, it looks like the second message board used by the Republic wasn't backed up anywhere by anyone, except for some of the titles of the threads in 2008. So that means all of the discussions and most of the records from 2008 to 2012 would be gone. Does anyone have any leads on where we could obtain either of these bodies of records? I feel like I'm forgetting something. Is it just that Dieter still has the second forum somewhere? If so, we should make getting that a priority next.
@anglatzara , any thoughts?
@GV ?
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on August 19, 2021, 07:32:24 PM
@anglatzara , any thoughts? @GV ?
The final authority on this is MPF. I will kick this ball to him for now.
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on August 19, 2021, 07:32:24 PM
@anglatzara , any thoughts? @GV ?
No thoughts or comments. I have given you all I have and I have no clues about how to retrieve stuff that's still missing.
Quote from: anglatzara on August 20, 2021, 02:39:14 AM
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on August 19, 2021, 07:32:24 PM
@anglatzara , any thoughts? @GV ?
No thoughts or comments. I have given you all I have and I have no clues about how to retrieve stuff that's still missing.
@anglatzara If you have anything else re Talossa in digital format, please send it to me. If in physical form, if you could scan same and send it on to me, it would be greatly appreciated.
Quote from: GV on August 19, 2021, 07:33:22 PM
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on August 19, 2021, 07:32:24 PM
@anglatzara , any thoughts? @GV ?
The final authority on this is MPF. I will kick this ball to him for now.
As I recall, we have pretty definitively established that MPF doesn't have anything. I believe the Seneschal said that
@Dieter Vercária had any remaining materials. Dieter?
Repeating what Dieter said:
Quote
"I still have a final copy of the Witt XII b database somewhere on my computers, as well as rough web crawler copies of Witt XII b and the last Witt that was hosted by MPF (the infamous "stolen" Witt, so to speak). By the time of the reunion the web crawler copies of Wittenberg were published on a host of a Mexican guy (@Danihel Txechescu ???), but I don't know what became of this."
If I'm interpreting what Dieter says correctly, then Danihel should have rough web crawler copies of Witt XII b as well, not just the ones of Witt X which have been uploaded. And Dieter has the real, complete database. So let's not panic.
I have put Dieter and GV in touch on Facebook. Of course they're both members of the FreeDems group, so GV should have just contacted Dieter himself... but for some reason the idea didn't occur to him?
Dieter says that the Witt XII b database is in plain text, including all private messages, and is thus not in a state to be opened to the public in toto. Discussions are ongoing with the Royal Archivist on how to make the public domain stuff available to researchers.
I spent some time looking into this, and it seems like in most configurations the private messages are in their own directory. It should be pretty easy to just avoid copying that directory and copy everything else over to a server.
I'd really rather not just let this go. The last time I asked about this some years ago, I got the brush off. And no one ended up doing anything and so we're back in the situation. It's very hard to write about more recent history of our country if a lot of it is completely closed off.
You might want to reconsider your project of writing it all on your own, then. I am struggling for a way to put this gently, but here goes: you have spent your Talossan political career accusing prominent Talossans of theft; betrayal; corruption; telling them that Talossa would be better off if they resigned and became inactive; etc. Surely you understand that such people are not going to be co-operative sources for your project; that such people will naturally assume that anything you write will be by turns dismissive, condescending, prurient and scolding of the people whom you have targeted throughout your Talossan political career. Why would anyone co-operate with someone who has made their Talossan lives a misery? Why would former citizens of the Republic be happy with having our story written by someone who disagreed with our various existence and characterised us as criminals? I sometimes despair that you show so little insight as to why, to be blunt, you will never be on friendly terms with people who you've spent your Talossan career characterising negatively.
A real Talossan history has to be written - if not by a completely neutral, dispassionate historian - then collectively to make sure of a balanced authorial voice. For this reason I implore you to rejoin, and help restart, the New Talossan History Project.
Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on October 03, 2021, 07:59:41 PM
You might want to reconsider your project of writing it all on your own, then. I am struggling for a way to put this gently, but here goes: you have spent your Talossan political career accusing prominent Talossans of theft; betrayal; corruption; telling them that Talossa would be better off if they resigned and became inactive; etc. Surely you understand that such people are not going to be co-operative sources for your project; that such people will naturally assume that anything you write will be by turns dismissive, condescending, prurient and scolding of the people whom you have targeted throughout your Talossan political career. Why would anyone co-operate with someone who has made their Talossan lives a misery? Why would former citizens of the Republic be happy with having our story written by someone who disagreed with our various existence and characterised us as criminals? I sometimes despair that you show so little insight as to why, to be blunt, you will never be on friendly terms with people who you've spent your Talossan career characterising negatively.
A real Talossan history has to be written - if not by a completely neutral, dispassionate historian - then collectively to make sure of a balanced authorial voice. For this reason I implore you to rejoin, and help restart, the New Talossan History Project.
I do not think it would be a good idea for me to contribute to the history that you and GV have written. When it first got started, I was happy and enthusiastic, and I contributed a big chunk of writing. You were upset at my effrontery, since I was just jumping in and you already had plans for what you wanted the outline to look like. The conflict seemed like a pretty good sign that we were going to have some friction, so I backed off and wished you luck. I don't think anything has changed since then. It doesn't seem likely we could work together productively.
I love Talossan history, and the more of it we have, the better. I wish you nothing but success with your own efforts. I know you have a specific vision for it, and I'm sure it's going to be great when it's done. I look forward to reading it. As for myself, I'm just going to keep chugging away at my book. Thank you, though.
Your point about your willingness to assist me is well-taken. It was silly of me to be speaking to you as an intermediary rather than doing the legwork myself. I will take your advice.