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by wulfheart » Mon Dec 18, 2023 8:33 am
Esquire Bertissimmo wrote: ↑Mon Dec 11, 2023 7:48 pm (the alternative being randomly matching with the hordes on backstabbr, never playing the same person twice, etc.)
by kestasjk » Sun Dec 17, 2023 7:22 am
Esquire Bertissimmo wrote: ↑Tue Dec 12, 2023 4:46 pm Thanks so much for all of the clarifications kestasjk! I was wrong about the existence of Discord-based games -- turns out the one thing I was looking had a Game Master who was manually adjudicating orders 0.0 I'm curious whether this webDip Discord is the official one: https://discord.gg/Q6PtSZc
by Esquire Bertissimmo » Tue Dec 12, 2023 4:46 pm
by learnedSloth » Tue Dec 12, 2023 4:02 pm
by kestasjk » Tue Dec 12, 2023 3:40 am
Esquire Bertissimmo wrote: ↑Mon Dec 11, 2023 7:48 pmThis all raises super interesting questions about what WebDip should be and who it is for. I love the old-fashioned early 2000s feel of the forum. I find it extremely refreshing in 2023. It definitely isn't the sort of thing that grows a community all on its own. But it's something unique that keeps me on the site during periods where I'm less active in actual games.
WebDip could probably grow its player base by taking the backstabbr approach, but it seems like there's other risks to going down this path. Once we're all on Discord, why wouldn't we just play a Discord-enabled version of the game? Being too successful there might mean cannibalizing web-based games.
Also, I wonder how much market share WebDip could ever realistically take from Backstabbr and other established competitors, some of which are already years ahead in critical areas such as mobile development. I want a bigger WebDip community because I think this is a fun website doing something unique and interesting. If WebDip were just a clone of other successful Diplomacy implementations, then at a certain point I would no longer be a WebDip booster - I'd have no reason to preference the site over other implementations. If I were very interested in faster games I'd just switch to the many existing Discord implementations. If I were interested in a better mobile experience, I'd just go to Backstabbr. So the central question is: who is WebDip for? My gut feeling is that this site serves a different segment of players than other Diplomacy implementations. If I had to guess, the community skews towards players who are older, are nostalgic for how the internet was, and who prefer a smallish player base (the alternative being randomly matching with the hordes on backstabbr, never playing the same person twice, etc.). If WebDip exists to fill this niche, then it may forever be handicapped in its ability to grow. But if WebDip evolves and no longer fills this niche, is it even WebDip anymore?
by kestasjk » Tue Dec 12, 2023 1:49 am
CaptainFritz28 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 11, 2023 4:13 pmI'm an oddball on my generation, but as a high schooler I will note that I greatly prefer an on-site forum to discord or reddit. I don't think it needs much if any changing, but I do urge you not to remove any of it in favor of some "nuetral" social media platform.
by Esquire Bertissimmo » Mon Dec 11, 2023 7:48 pm
kestasjk wrote: ↑Sat Dec 09, 2023 8:56 am Regarding your specific thoughts on the forum; based on stats I looked at a while ago, and the trends I see on various sites, I do think built-in forums are a bit of a 2000s/2010s thing that is becoming increasingly old fashioned. I don't think any amount of effort put into the forum would really revitalize it; I think simplifying it, some nice new features etc might improve things a bit, but I think the future is Reddit/Discord. For Diplomacy in particular the community is split across so many sites; I think the best approach is to focus on being the best site to play Diplomacy on, let the community exist on a platform neutral place like Reddit / Discord, and make it easy to link accounts here to accounts on social platforms / integrate in with them. We'll never be as good at hosting a community as those sites, so let's focus on Diplomacy and leave that to them. (I think backstabbr took this approach, minus the linking/integration, and it worked well for them.) Not saying the forum isn't important and a good place to discuss site-specific stuff.. But I don't think it's how you grow a community in 2023.
by CaptainFritz28 » Mon Dec 11, 2023 4:13 pm
by kestasjk » Sat Dec 09, 2023 8:56 am
Marlinspike wrote: ↑Fri Dec 01, 2023 10:05 pm I guess it comes down to whether or not the purpose of the forum is to support WebDip gameplay and grow the community of Diplomacy players. I would argue that this forum is distracted/distracting from that purpose in a variety of ways. Personally, I prefer this platform and think it’s a shame that there is so much distraction. The forum *could* be a valuable tool for the development and growth of the WebDip community, but there seems to be a lack of capacity to make it so. Fixing this Announcement sub forum is trivial. How about fixing the Mentor program? I see so much potential and opportunity here at WebDip, yet, here we are. BTW - I first joined WebDip back in 2014, then dropped out. Now I’m back and I’m totally hooked on playing ai/bot and really like the improved interface. I want to get more involved in the community, but…
by Marlinspike » Sat Dec 02, 2023 2:02 pm
by Marlinspike » Sat Dec 02, 2023 1:45 pm
by JECE » Sat Dec 02, 2023 5:10 am
Marlinspike wrote: ↑Fri Dec 01, 2023 10:05 pmBTW - I first joined WebDip back in 2014, then dropped out. Now I’m back and I’m totally hooked on playing ai/bot and really like the improved interface. I want to get more involved in the community, but…
by Aristocrat » Fri Dec 01, 2023 11:38 pm
by CaptainFritz28 » Fri Dec 01, 2023 10:41 pm
by Yonni » Fri Dec 01, 2023 10:40 pm
by Marlinspike » Fri Dec 01, 2023 10:05 pm
by CaptainFritz28 » Fri Dec 01, 2023 4:30 pm
by Esquire Bertissimmo » Fri Dec 01, 2023 4:14 pm
CaptainFritz28 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 01, 2023 4:01 pm Perhaps, and I think this is what Marlin is getting at, there should be a forum where announcements go and can't be responded to, keeping them in chronological order and restricted to the mods. Meanwhile, each announcement would also be posted here, allowing for discussion. All it would take is the creation of a new forum with the ability to post restricted to mods (called "Announcements"), the changing of the name of this forum (to "Announcement Discussion") and a copy and paste of each announcement posted by the mods in one to the other.
by CaptainFritz28 » Fri Dec 01, 2023 4:01 pm
by Octavious » Fri Dec 01, 2023 3:40 pm
Jamiet99uk wrote: ↑Fri Dec 01, 2023 9:28 am Marlinspike wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 4:00 pm Only moderators should be authorized to post announcements and the comments should be closed to keep it clean. Discussion about announcements should take place in a forum. This keeps announcements in chronological order. Who put you in charge? Awfully bossy and opinionated for a new player.
Marlinspike wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 4:00 pm Only moderators should be authorized to post announcements and the comments should be closed to keep it clean. Discussion about announcements should take place in a forum. This keeps announcements in chronological order.
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