Preserving History

Preserving history is an important aspect of flying purple policy, and the central tenet of the philosophy of Preservationism. Preservationism holds that historical quirks, threads, and other embarrassments are a vital part of clan identity, and that preserving history is thus one of the formost duties of any Purple Eminence and Templar. Largely accepted throughout history, the divine right of preservation has been challenged by deletionists, who hold that certain elements of history are a taint on flying purple identity, and should be eradicated. The preservationist holds that this is a self-defeating gesture, since deleting posts is deforming the very identity the deletionist wants to protect.
==History==
Most preservationists hold that their movement was founded in the early days by Martin himself, when he decided not to destroy that godawful angelfire page. What is clear, however, is that by 2003/2004, when the Myths stopped flowing as freely as before, preservationism was well-established. Internet archaeologists point to all the classical myths as evidence that if the clan didn't care about preserving history, they sure as hell wouldn't have kept these lord-of-the-rings-meets-age-of-empires slashfics.
Another artefact of preservationism are the IPBoards, which the Clan has stuck to despite money concerns and the fact that it isn't really all that great forum software anyway. The average Templar has supported the software and even drawn their wallet to keep it, with the intent of preserving all the old threads and posts on the Forums.
More recently, preservationism has become politicised as a result of opposition from Deletionists. Starting with outrage over the Theiasite deletion of hundreds of old posts, this movement has coalesced into political movements circa 2011.
==Schools of Preservationism==
Over the years, a variety of preservationist philosophies have emerged. While all share a core belief in preserving history, many schools of preservationism have arisen. Areas of contention include different interpretations of what preservation means, political implications of preservationism, and the death penalty.
===Traditional preservationism===
Traditional preservationism holds that preserving our history has been, and always will be, one of the cores of clan behaviour. Without our history, most of our jokes would be even more incomprehensible, and we would have approximately 80% less material to get upset about. The proper templar must always keep the preservation of history in mind, especially if he is given moderation or admin duties.
===En passant preservationism===
En passant preservationism (from french: in passing) reject the normativity of traditional preservationists. Rather than making preservation a duty, they hold that it just kind of happens in passing because we're all too lazy to really change anything. As a result of this, our cumulative history takes its place in our identity naturally, without any sense of personal duty on part of the templars.
===Holistic preservationism===
Holistic preservationism is broader in scope than traditional preservationism. This politically left-wing philosophy stresses the unitary character of the forums in creating our identity. Because of this, merely preserving old posts and threads is not enough; the holistic preservationist strives for the protection of old forum backgrounds, titles, and the old forum older. Notable holistic preservationist groups include Freudpartei FPH and the terrorist group Mothers Against Forum Re-ordering.
===Raiderpost preservationism===
Raiderpost preservationism (from ancient egyptian: raiderpost, slightly embarrassing hieroglyphic) is a modern offshoot of traditional preservationism, claiming that to truly protect our flying purple history, we have to intentionally protect our most threatened minority, Raider's posts. Noting that most of our other history isn't presently in danger, they stress political involvement to protect raider's posts. Notable examples of political raiderpost preservationist organisations are Protect Our Heritagehttp://www.fph.fphblog.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12552&view=findpost&p=479953 and the Confédération Générale du Lief's Quatorze-Millième Post Travail.
===Raiderpost exceptonialism===
An offshoot of Raiderpost preservationism, the exceptionalists hold that raiderposts have their own special kind of hilarity. Sharing the same political ideals as the raiderpost preservationists, they claim that the templar has a special duty towards raiderposts not only because they are threatened, but also because they are kind of awesome. A notable exceptionalist organisation is the Raiderpost Connoiseurs.http://www.fph.fphblog.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12552
===Raiderpost restorationism===
A smaller offshoot of Raiderpost preservationism, the restorationists claim that merely fighting to preserve surviving raiderposts it not enough. They encourage hypnotizing Raider and other templars to delve into their memories and recreate raiderposts of old. Alternative techniques include gathering the content of lost raiderposts from their preserved context, and making it up entirely. Most other preservationists reject restorationism as too radical, although it has recently gained traction among guilt-riddled ex-deletionists.
===Tardism===
The Tardists (from latin: tardus, late) stress that it is already too late to achieve perfect historical preservation. They hold that atrocities such as the raiderpostocaust have resulted in an irreverisble damage to clan infrastructure and a clean vision of the clan's identity. The only solution to this problem is to travel back in time and prevent the destruction of raider's threads before it ever happened.
==References==
Category:Philosophy