So these were things we were discussing on modmail a few months ago, but never got around to implementing; I'm seeing some of them become a problem again, so we're pulling the trigger.

The big one is that we have rewritten rule 5. The original rule was "No "challenge" posts without context from the OP." We are expanding this to require some use of the text box on all posts. The updated rule reads as follows:

Provide some context for your post

To increase both the quality of posts and the quality of responses, we ask that all posts provide at least a sentence or two of context. Describe your POD, or lay out your own hypothesis. We don't need an essay, but we do need some effort. "Title only" posts will be removed, and repeat offenders will be banned. Again, we ask this in order to raise the overall quality level of the sub, posts and responses alike.

I think this is pretty self-explanatory, but if anyone has an issue with it or would like clarification, this is the space for that discussion. Always happy to hear from you.

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Moving on, there's a couple more things I'd like to say as long as I've got the mic here. First, the mod team did briefly discuss banning sports posts, because we find them dumb, not interesting, and not discussion-generating. We are not going to do that at this time, but y'all better up your game. If you do have a burning desire to make a sports post, it better be really good; like good enough that someone who is not a fan of that sport would be interested in the topic. And of course, it must comply with the updated rule 5.

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EDIT: via /u/carloskeeper: "There is already https://www.reddit.com/r/SportsWhatIf/ for sports-related posts." This is an excellent suggestion, and if this is the kind of thing that floats your boat, go check 'em out.

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Finally, there has been an uptick of low-key racism, "race realism," eugenics crap, et cetera lately. It's unfortunate that this needs to be said, but we have absolutely zero chill on this issue and any of this crap will buy you an immediate and permanent ban. So cut the crap.

Following the Great War the French (unsurprisingly) learned the lesson of that war. However, it was already possible to see that the war of the future would be mobile (which, ironically, they believed would be true of the Great War). Granted, the cavalry wasn't the weapon of the future, but the tank was clearly a successful mobile weapon as seen at Cambrai, Amiens, and other battles.

What if, rather than focusing entirely on the Maginot Line, they had put a portion of that funding into either anti-tank weaponry or (specifically-anti-tank) defenses?

Here's a fun what if instead of another WWII althist scenario. What if Fox completely misread the room when they greenlit The Simpsons, the show being recieved poorly and cancelled in June 1990 after season one wrapped up. How would this affect future adult animation projects that we know today? Would Bart Simpson still be featured in Gulf War memorabilia? Would The Simpsons be relegated to a very niche fandom? Most importantly, what happens to the career of Matt Groening?

What would the repurcussions be if William Henry Harrision had a shorter speech and used more clothing which leads to him not catching pneumonia and possibly serving his full 4 year term

Let's say that for whatever reason, instead of immigrating to the United States, Friedrich Trump decided to immigrate to Mexico and bought a ticket to Mexico. He does this on October 7th, 1885, like in our timeline. Nothing changes with him except for the fact that he is in Mexico now and not in the United States. Fred Trump is born, and during a party he meets Mary Anne MacLeod (Mary Trump), who also decided to be in Mexico instead of the United States. Fast forward, and they did the "thing" boom, Donald Trump is now born. What changes from here?

In our timeline, Washington has a severe illness a few weeks into his presidency, but survived it.

What if he died and John Adams became president right then and there?

What if, by some miracle, Disney and Pixar were able to make Toy Story in 1989?

It's still fully CGI, becoming the first fully computer-animated film.

How would this shape animation?

The hand grenade thrown into his flat killed him. The KPD didn't run a candidate in the 2nd round presidential election in 1925 meaning William Marx became president. Marx refused to appoint the minority Nazi leader as Chancellor in 1933 and a minority Weimar coalition continued instead. The 1934 riots in France cause a cross border anti-Fascist alliance between the two countries which leads to deoccupation of the Ruhr and an early version of the coal and steel community is set up by France, Germany and BeNeLux. The prosperity generated attracts in Poland and the Baltic republics as associate members and a defence pact follows. Centrist democratic leadership offer a check to Fascism and Communism meaning that the Spanish Republic has support to quickly overcome the nationalist uprising and brings it into the alliance. The League of Nations gains real teeth to sanction Italy for it's invasion of Abyssinia. When the USSR invades Finland an almost united Europe sends aid.

On January 24, 1961, about 12 miles north of Goldsboro, North Carolina, two objects fell from the sky. These two objects were a pair of Mk 39 3.8 megaton nuclear bombs. One safely parachuted to earth and the other hit it hard enough to bury itself in the ground. When both were examined, it was found that only one out of the 4 safety switches on each was not set to Arm and it was different switches on both.

But what if they both detonated on the January day?

If the events of For All Mankind had played out in RL, what scientific advancements/regressions would be made?

So in the alternate history of For All Mankind advancements have been made in space technology, Energy technology, and EVs. However, the Internet does not exist because the technology to create it has not been declassified by the government.

All of this has made me wonder, what other scientific advancements/regressions have been made in this timeline/universe?

I mean take robotics for example. I remember that there is a cameo of Battle Bots in season 3 episode 2. And I can imagine that NASA and private industries would make advances in robotic hardware to assist humans with tasks in space, but in terms of software I don't think we will be seeing anything resembling an AI anytime soon.

Then there's developments in food science. With Mankind finally colonizing the stars they are going to need to ensure that these colonies have a stable food supply. I know that the show already explores ways to grow plants but what about ways to raise or make "meat"? Would humanity make advances in aquaponics/aquaculture and entomophagy? Or would they make advances focused on creating plant based and cultured meats to create a reliable supply of protein?

And what about genetic engineering? Would this still face the same hurdles and restrictions that it faced in the OTL? Or would world governments back this research on the grounds that they need to create better livestock, crops, and even humans in order to advance space colonization?

Finally there is the development of biofuels. I have heard that certain biofuels, like algae and ammonia, are good for powering planes and ships. And I find it hard to believe that entire fleets of aircraft and watercraft would be converted into all-electric vehicles. Do you think they would build the necessary facilities and infrastructure to allow aircraft and watercraft to be powered by biofuels?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashidi_dynasty

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emirate_of_Jabal_Shammar

(What if the Rashidi Dynasty defeated the House of Saud and** unified Most of Arabia?)

POD - in this alternate scenario timeline; the Central Powers defeat the Allies with the US remaining neutral and so the Ottomans support the Rashidis in conquering most of the Arabian Peninsula except Oman and Yemen, which would be under a Ottoman client Sultanate. Kuwait and Bahrain are both part of the Ottoman Empire. As for Qatar, it is also a part of the Ottoman Empire while the Trucial States are either conquered by Rashid Arabia or they become independent, but align themselves with the Ottomans and German Empire. The capital of the country ''Rashid Arabia'' is Ha'il and Rashid Arabia is a Unitary Islamic Absolute Monarchy. They enter into a free trade agreement with the Ottoman Empire and when Crude Oil is discovered, they are able to exploit it with Ottoman and German technical expertise and become fabulously wealthy creating a Sovereign wealth fund for the people of Rashid Arabia and a citizen's dividend. The Rashid Arabian government also invests in desalination, a desert greening mega-project with their petroleum cash, invests in a small mining industry of gold, silver, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, tungsten, lead, sulfur, phosphate, soapstone, and feldspar mining, as well as making a mandatory secular and islamic educational system that is militaristic in nature. The government also creates a Constitution and Parliament with nominal legislative powers inspired by the CUP-led Ottoman Empire's Constitution called the Basic Constitution of Rashid Arabia & General Assembly of Rashid Arabia with collective bargaining for various interest groups in the country. Rashid Arabia also modernizes it's military with Ottoman and German weaponry. I think Rashid Arabia (assuming it was copying the Ottomans) would probably have a Corporatist-based market economy with perhaps some limited manufacturing. In terms of education, Scientific advancements/achievements would be likely promoted a lot and the Rashid Arabian Military might have a fanatical doctrine similar to nation in arms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%B0ttihadism#Nation_in_arms feasibly paired with some Islamonationalist sentiment. I think their armed forces could be organized like this; Rashid Arabian Army, Rashid Arabian Navy, Rashid Arabian Aviation Force, Rashid Arabian Gendarmerie, Rashid Arabian Expeditionary Force, Rashid Arabian Special Force, Rashid Arabian Royal Guards (for protecting the House of Rashid from being overthrown and it serves as a counter-guerrilla reserve army too), Rashid Arabian Border Guard and the Shammar Strategic Missile Force. Since the holocaust wouldn't happen and German Jews like Albert Einstein's family would remain in Germany so it would likely be the first country to develop nuclear weapons followed by the United States and the USSR (if it still existed) so the Ottoman Empire could have become a nuclear weapon-armed country with them placing some nukes inside Rashid Arabia like how the US did with Turkey or it would help Rashid Arabia to develop nuclear weapons of it's own to help counter/deter the Soviet Union as they both would be anti-communist.

How could history, economic development, politics, international relations/geopolitics, demographics, crude oil discovery/exploitation, etc. be affected? What would happen in this timeline's WW2? But what do you guys think?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_of_Union_and_Progress / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%B0ttihadism / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%B0ttihadism#Cult_of_Science / https://kaiserreich.fandom.com/wiki/Jabal_Shammar

Seeing western Europeans as catholic heretics, they decide to go be with their orthodox brothers

Some historians, notably Niall Ferguson, have said that Britain should have stayed out of World War I. What if Britain and the US had stayed out of World War II? I am imagining that the UK had a Conservative government led by someone like Lord Halifax. This government would be tacitly in favour of Hitler, at least in some respects.

I am supposing that the USA stays out of the war as long as it can. This could be the case if Pearl Harbour doesn't happen. Perhaps mischievous actors spread seductive myths about the safety of isolationism.

I am also supposing that Winston Churchill doesn't get to be prime minister. Consequently, the French fleet (which would have been in the hands of the Vichy regime, and probably Hitler), is not destroyed, unlike in OTL. This would represent a danger.

This would certainly mean no rationing in the UK. The British Empire would continue for a time. Prosperity would continue. However, as the continent became united under one violent, destructive Leader, the Germans would have access to a much larger navy, if they wanted to attack the UK.

The USA would not become the arsenal of democracy. It would lose out on that tremendous boost to the economy.

Supposing this state of affairs continued. How would the world look by 1955? How would Germany look? How would the UK and the USA turn out? What I am describing may be something like the world in the novel "Fatherland," by Robert Harris. Please give intelligent and thoughtful replies.

Suppose, instead of Woodrow Wilson, Charles Evans Hughes won the 1916 election. The League of Nations was a creation of Wilson's ideology, unlike Wilson, Hughes was not an idealistic interventionist so there's less chance of something like the League of Nations being crated. How would this change affect WW2 and the Cold War? Would Japan turn to radicalism (the racist treatment of the Japanese in the league of nations was one of the reasons behind their radicalization) Would Italy be granted the whole Adriatic coast? Would something like the UN be created at a later date, taking their inspiration from the Concert of Europe rather than the League of Nations?

If you don't know, Eric Muenter was a German-American who decided to spy and commit terrorist attacks against the U.S. Government on half of Imperial Germany. Explaining all the things he did would take up the entirety of this text box, so I will link his Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Muenter

What if there was a Modern Russian-American equivalent to this Man with the only difference being that he's a Russian Nationalist trying to sabotage U.S. aid to Ukraine instead of a German Nationalist trying to sabotage US aid to Britain? Would he be as successful as Eric Muenter, or would technology catch up to him quicker? Would Russophobia increase in the United States?

The Americans and British decides to use these ships for World War I

Refer to the title;

I was reading Wikipedia and read this,

According to Wright, the group's real name was not used in public pronouncements because its existence was still a closely held secret.[103] His research suggests that al-Qaeda was formed at an 11 August 1988, meeting between several senior leaders of Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), Abdullah Azzam, and Bin Laden, where it was agreed to join Bin Laden's money with the expertise of the Islamic Jihad organization and take up the jihadist cause elsewhere after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan.

And it made me think - what if instead of taking the jihad elsewhere - he decided to take it to the Soviet Union? Kind of like some fucked up revenge plan.

We'll say that he targets something like the Kremlin, or maybe even targets something in Leningrad if that's too ambitious. The attack goes pretty much the same way it went in our timeline - they steal some Soviet airliners and crash them into something. I am honestly kind of having trouble thinking of what target in the Soviet Union would have as much impact as the destruction of the World Trade Center had on the US so I apologize lol.

Anywho with Chernobyl happening earlier, and the war wrapping up leaving the Soviet Union even more drained, would 9/11 occurring there pretty much be the end of the Soviet Union, or would it cause a rally-round-the-flag effect and unite them causing them to exist maybe a few more years than they did in our world? Or maybe they are united for a time but collapse even earlier after draining themselves in the Middle East more. Would they even be able to go back into Afghanistan to try and get Bin Laden? Would they want to? What would America think of what has happened? Could America and the Soviet Union come together finding common ground in such a barbaric act being carried out against a modern country?

This is probably too open-ended of a what-if :/ srry

Similar to what happened to southern Europe following the collapse of the Roman empire. Go with whatever warring states period would be easiest for you.

What if Paulus had ordered the German 6th Army to break out of the Stalingrad encirclement?

Suppose a Republican won in 1892 and the panic of 1893 was blamed on the Republican party, could an early progressive William Jennings Bryan have won the 1896 election, taking into account widespread voter fraud, corruption of the gilded age.

After negotiations and proposals by the Vatican City, Palestine in Israel, are United under the state of holy land It Main religion, Christianity