Alexander Wallace: What made you want to found a new alternate history forum?
Roel Hendrikx: I started the site after seeing that AlternateHistory.com had become so big, when I updated my works, they would on be the second page before the end of the day most of the time.
AW: Your forum used to be mainly for your own works; what made it change to a general alternate history site?
RH: Yes, my forum was originally called the A Different Dutch War forum, named after my first timeline, but feeling that nobody would go to a forum for one timeline I decided to take the step and transform my forum into a general alternate history forum.
AW: What do you plan to do differently from AlternateHistory.com?
RH: I try to award members with what I call Orders and Grand Orders for numerous things like posting, creating maps and flags; also, I try to give members the ability to like posts, or to criticize posts with a score.
AW: How will you encourage those who might otherwise be primarily on AlternateHistory.com to stay on your site?
RH: I do not know; I hope that members see that, when they post here, they do not have to worry that their works are swallowed up and that this forum is a fun and nice place to post.
AW: How will you encourage a sense of community on your site distinct from that of AlternateHistory.com?
RH: I think every forum out there tries to be different from each other. It all depends on who is a member of the forum, but for now I think the small size of this forum is an advantage because its members can better communicate with each other than when you are a member of a larger forum.
AW: How will you encourage writers and promote creativity on your site?
RH: By awarding its members with Orders, and allowing its members to nominate those who have created timelines, flags, or maps with Grand Orders.
AW: What do you think the future of online alternate history will be? Will AlternateHistory.com continue its dominance, or will the community fracture?
RH: AlternateHistory.com, at its current state, is going to remain among us. The few smaller forums for now are not going to make a difference. Maybe in the future, but for now I think AlternateHisotry.com will be the place where most of the people interested in alternate history will go.
AW: Do you think that the alternate history community will leave forums for other types of sites?
RH: More people will become members of online Facebook groups, and others will seek new ways to show off their work on blogs, or even creating their own forums.
Thanks for posting the interview here.
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