Chris Babcock <cbabcock@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
>> What signal, Chris? I count barely ten Diplomacy posts per month
>> here.
>Busted. I was being deliberately provocative... but in a *good*
>way. :-)
You devil you, you have been QUITE successful..... ;-)
>> There's no discussion of strategy.
>It's rare. I'd like to see more. Just because other newsgroups shout
>"read the archives" at any reasonable question doesn't mean that we
>have to do it too.
I actually don't think we do that, but it also is true that I've not seen
a question in years of that sort that hasn't been discussed at some level
somewhere in the archives. And there used to be more REALLY active,
clever writing posters here, much better than a hack like me....
>> No FtF or RT meetings scheduled anymore.
>RT moved completely to Yahoogroups when it moved off the judges. I've
>been using a group to try to organize FtF in Phoenix, AZ for a couple
>years without success. I'll start cross posting my RT and FtF inquiries
>here.
I think this is a decent place to troll for FtF inquiries, but that
frankly is the hardest thing to find in the hobby since so few people know
where each other lives.
>> Rarely do people post for replacements
>> compared to the number of games langui****ng for months on the
>> Pouch Listings page.
>One big problem was the "reconstruction" games on USAK. Now that those
>are cleaned up, however, there are still a lot of old games floating
>there. My pet peeve: Huge games like chaos and void that start after 6
>months only to have half the board go CD the first phase.
Especially if they're anonymous??? ;-)
>> The Pouch itself (which I love dearly) is
>> plagued with broken links.
>Re****t them! Seriously. I jump right on anything in the Email or Online
>section when I'm not AFK for an extended period. I fixed a lot of
>things when I first signed on for the task, but I don't have the
>wherewithal to spider those huge directories.
I know there are still some broken links in the Postal section, but ditto,
tell me where they are and I will correct them.
>> The last comparison of traffic on the
>> Lowe judges compared to other judges was very disappointing.
>There are very few GMs. Some of us got tired of the difficulties
>policing games (especially Dip Pouch Queue novice gunboat - ouch!) on
>the older judges where the player registration database precedes some
>of the security features of the judge 1.5.0 code. As a result, you have
>new judges running that have been set up by myself and others with
>little or no prior *nix administration. We've been distracted from
>starting games by the many other concerns of running a server and
>learning a new OS. I'm easing into it, because I have some long term
>scheduling concerns, but I expect to see 80 games running on USAK
>before summer. I'll also be starting other judges to handle niche games
>so that USAK can remain a general purpose public judge.
Chris, this will be VERY useful..... I've not looked, but I hope the
E-Mail pages on the Pouch that you've been updating are up-to-date on the
key questions for people:
1) Can I join a queue and what should I expect when I do?
2) If me and my friends want to put a game up, and we don't have a GM but
trust each other to just let it run, what Judge will not erase the game we
set up and just let it run?
3) Which judges should I join if I'm more experienced to look for games to
try to get into more dedicated games?
Aren't those the top three?
>Sure DPJudge has 800 games, but how many are active? As for other
>adjudicators... Where do I look up stats?
DipWorld has an archive, but I don't visit it so I don't know where it is,
Peter? Are you around? Jeremie's new stabbeurfou site has all the stats
for that, there are quite a few games there, including the World Cup
Tournament. I'm not sure which others have stats to look up.
>> Yes. We need more volunteers to maintain the Diplomatic Pouch,
>> handle the queued newbies waiting for games, and to keep things
>> moving, but the question I would pose for this thread is, "Has
>> interest in Diplomacy declined enough to threaten closure of some
>> online resources?"
>I, for one, am opening more resources under the theory of "If you build
>it, they will come." That means additional judges to segment the market
>according to interest (the way additional channels segment the
>television audience) and the creation of forums that are geared towards
>exposing a broader audience to the hobby.
See my questions above, just be sure you're answering the key questions
before you get too fancy.
>> It may be that certain forums are quite slow (here and Cat23 come
>> to mind),
>> but others are quite active. Perhaps it is just cyclical, though
>> I suspect
>> the advent of a lot of full-featured Dip bulletin boards, and the
>> convenience and ubiquity (a 50 cent word there!) of yahoogroups
>> may tend to make the decline here somewhat more lasting
>>
>> And if they are better fora for fostering discussion, so be it. The
>> traffic will be driven by the quality of content.
>...and traffic is the talent pool for generating content.
>I never realistically expected to start a new newsgroup. The discussion
>so far is good, however. In addition to such great initiative, I'd also
>like to restart a FAQs rewrite discussion and create a finished
>do***ent that can be auto posted at regular intervals.
>Chris
Really? Is the old FAQ still sitting there (I've not looked at it in a
dozen years since the last successful rewrite -- if memory serves there
was an unsuccessful one around 1999 or so)?? But hey, knock yourself
out!! A bit more seriously, I'd be willing to help with history if you
want.
Jim-Bob
|
