Forum:Official collaboratives/Withdrawal of the Bai Empire project
English
Hello everyone,
It is with deep regret to inform everyone that the Bai project has been withdrawn and archived. Whether it is terminated or suspended, I don't know. That is on the admins to decide the fate of AR909.
I can still distinctly remember how the project began. Well, the idea of it, which began in 2018–2019. Back then, the plans for the Bai Empire were centred in the Lycene region, where the other Chinese-speaking nations of Kaosha, Cinasia and Meilan were located. This was all before the massive reorganisation of OGF. The idea of an oriental empire was generally well-received by the few Chinese-speaking mappers I've spoken to. Sure, there were also other jeers in the unofficial OGFC discord as I continued developing various concepts, particularly its history, for this homeland. But I like making lore, after all, and I took those comments in stride.
The plans have kept changing since. At some point, it was in Orano, or East Uletha. Eventually, in February 2021, the first phase of the Bai project was launched in Northern Archanta in former northern Commonia. It was partly ironic, given I was initially rather invested in Commonia for a while, despite what others thought of this blue nation hellhole. But I was happy with the location, all the same. At the same time, the nations of Kaosha and Cinasia moved accordingly to maintain regional cohesiveness.
All was well and good. I also had more time back then to implement my concepts which up till then existed on paper or in chats. And then there were a few others who were active and dedicated to work alongside to set up the Bai project. It was a dream come true.
However, all of that changed rather recently, especially after Bai expanded.
Firstly it was the creation of Huaxia. While the OSM mainland mappers were receptive to OGF, they were not keen to join the Bai project. Understandably, the concept of a Chinese empire is totally alien to them, and they are more comfortable instead to recreate their PRC in OGF south of Bai. I would be happy to coordinate, but the mappers are not at all interested to tie our histories, preferring to keep a distance while maintaining a very similar language and culture with Bai. This wasn't what I find satisfactory, especially when the differences between these two homelands are just the mapping styles. But no matter what I proposed, they were less than receptive. Any efforts to collaborate have been nothing short of frustrating.
Secondly, I don't think I am a right fit for OGF. I prefer to create lore, which unfortunately isn't compatible with OGF's emphasis on map-first lore-last. I must say the writing is already on the wall for me a few years ago when I was forced off the old wiki to continue mapping. The new wiki continues to be very restrictive of what can be posted and written. I know I have my own wiki, but it's just very frustrating and I don't find myself welcome or part of the OGF community. I know my mapmaking skills on JOSM are decent, but I don't find as much joy in that compared to writing. As such, I have struggled to maintain my activity on OGF for these past few months especially with my civil engineering studies and other hobbies. The novelty of the project has also worn off and the few other mappers like me have other projects in OGF or real-life stuff. This left me to try maintain the project, which has taken quite a toll on myself. I admit I had bitten off more than I can chew.
I'm sorry this has to happen, for the few who are still interested in this project and have pledged to commit. But I'm not feeling great at all these past few days. I hope everyone will understand the reasons for my resignation from this project as its coordinator. I am proud of it, but I don't wish for Bai to be a white elephant or paper empire in OGF. It's quite a price to pay to maintain dedication for this project, requiring more than just passion, and it wasn't going anywhere for the past few months.
This might not be the end of Bai, nevertheless. I'm fine if anyone wants to salvage this project and take over my concepts.
I would like to thank all who were part of this project, and the admins and other peers who have been supportive of this endeavour.
Regards,
Zhen Kang —Unsigned comment by Zhenkang (talk).
Chinese / 中文
大家好，
非常遗憾地通知大家，百帝国项目已被撤回并归档。无论是终止还是暂停，我不知道。这要由管理员来决定AR909的命运。
我仍然清楚地记得这个项目是如何开始的。确切地说，它的想法开始于2018-2019年。当时，百帝国的计划集中在莱森地区，那里还有其他讲中文的国家，如高砂、德华和美览。这都发生在OGF大重组之前。东方帝国的概念总体上得到了我与之交谈过的少数讲中文的制图者的认可。当然，当我继续为这个家园发展各种概念，特别是它的历史时，在非官方的OGFC Discord频道中也有一些嘲笑。但毕竟我喜欢编写背景故事，我也欣然接受了那些评论。
从那以后，计划一直在变化。在某个时候，它是在奥拉诺，或者是东尤勒塔。最终，在2021年2月，百帝国项目的第一阶段在北阿坎塔的前北普国启动。具有讽刺意味的是，我最初对普国相当投入，尽管别人对这个“蓝国地狱”有不同看法。但我对这个位置还是很满意。同时，高砂和德华的国家也随之搬迁，以保持地区的连贯性。
一切都很顺利。那时候我还有更多的时间来实现我的概念，这些概念此前只存在于纸上或聊天中。那时，还有其他几位活跃且致力于共同推动百帝国项目的伙伴。那真是梦想成真。
然而，这一切最近发生了变化，尤其是在百帝国扩张之后。
首先是华夏的创建。尽管OSM的大陆制图者对OGF持接受态度，但他们并不愿意加入百帝国项目。可以理解的是，中国帝国的概念对他们来说完全陌生，他们更愿意在百帝国以南的OGF中重建他们的 “中华人民共和国”。我愿意进行协调，但这些制图者完全不愿意将我们的历史联系在一起，而是更愿意保持距离，同时与百帝国保持非常相似的语言和文化。这并不是我所满意的，尤其是当这两个家园之间的差异仅仅在于制图风格时。不管我提出什么建议，他们都不太接受。任何合作的努力都令人沮丧。
其次，我觉得我不太适合OGF。我更喜欢创造背景故事，而这与OGF强调 “先地图，后背景” 的方式并不兼容。我必须说，几年前当我被迫离开旧维基继续制图时，事情对我来说已经显而易见。新维基对可以发布和书写的内容继续保持非常严格的限制。我知道我有自己的维基，但这真的很令人沮丧，我也不觉得自己受到欢迎或成为OGF社区的一部分。我知道我在JOSM上的地图制作技能还不错，但相比之下，我在写作中找不到那么多的乐趣。因此，过去几个月我在OGF上的活跃度很难维持，尤其是在我的土木工程学业和其他爱好之间。这个项目的新鲜感也逐渐消失了，而和我一样的少数其他制图者也有OGF的其他项目或现实生活中的事情。这让我不得不独自尝试维持这个项目，这给我带来了相当大的压力。我承认我做的比自己能承受的要多。
对于那些仍然对这个项目感兴趣并承诺投入的人，我很抱歉不得不让这种情况发生。但这几天我感觉非常不好。我希望大家能理解我辞去这个项目协调员的原因。我为这个项目感到自豪，但我不希望百帝国成为OGF中的白象或纸上帝国。要保持对这个项目的奉献，需要的不仅仅是激情，而且它在过去几个月里也没有取得任何进展，这是一个很大的代价。
尽管如此，这可能并不是百帝国项目的终点。如果有人愿意挽救这个项目并接手我的概念，我完全可以接受。
我想感谢所有参与这个项目的人，以及那些一直支持这一努力的管理员和其他同仁。
此致，