Anonymous Changes and Online Indicators

[JECE]

Bumping this request:

Now that we've gone overboard in the direction of anonymity, can we remove the approximate "~" timestamps from anonymous games? They seem to be redundant given all of these changes. Accurate timestamps help players gauge whether players actually cross-posted or feigned a cross-post.

[Tom Bombadil]

I find making requests in super passive aggressive ways works wonderfully. Keep at it

[jmo1121109]

Bumping this request:

Now that we've gone overboard in the direction of anonymity, can we remove the approximate "~" timestamps from anonymous games? They seem to be redundant given all of these changes. Accurate timestamps help players gauge whether players actually cross-posted or feigned a cross-post.

Currently the 1 way to break anon that still exists is partially limited by this. Without the obfuscation a script could easily be written to break it. When we get that issue taken care of, I'll be able to remove the timestamp changes. Unfortunately the fix is currently eluding me and Oli as it exists on vDip too so no timeline here.

[Kremmen]

I don't know why everyone's complaining about retreats. Just look at the board and you can see easily enough who has retreats. But maybe that could be a doable fix. Idk, I'm not a Dev.

I almost always play larger map variants, as I find the standard game pretty boring. If you can "just look at the board" (that small map on the middle of the screen) for a World game and see "easily enough" who has retreats, you have way better eyesight than I do. Even bringing up the full map, then expanding it, I'd be checking the orders log as well to ensure I hadn't missed one.

You used to be able to see, from the main page, who had orders to put in on every game. Now you have to visit every game, visit the detailed map and/or the orders log. It's a huge amount of additional effort which would easily be fixed by just putting icons back on the main page just like it used to be, except that the symbol won't change when that player enters orders.

[JECE]

I find making requests in super passive aggressive ways works wonderfully. Keep at it

Talk about being passive aggressive, sheesh.

[peterwiggin]

I find making requests in super passive aggressive ways works wonderfully. Keep at it

Talk about being passive aggressive, sheesh.

Yeah, let's all be more actively aggressive in the forum. We definitely don't have enough of that!

[Mercy]

Awesome improvements!

[ziran]

i support these changes, especially removing the "last seen" time in non-anon. i've played one non-anon game and noped-the-fuck-out for that reason.

[ghug]

The measures I've installed for this World Cup went into place because last tournament, the local village idiot went around and figured out everyone's identities in every game, and that gave his team an overwhelming advantage.

Are you trying to credit the victory of a past World Cup tournament to one sole mysterious evil genius level player?

You and your crazy conspiracy theories.

Sometimes talent conveys an overwhelming advantage and people get confused.

[VillageIdiot]

The measures I've installed for this World Cup went into place because last tournament, the local village idiot went around and figured out everyone's identities in every game, and that gave his team an overwhelming advantage.

Are you trying to credit the victory of a past World Cup tournament to one sole mysterious evil genius level player?

You and your crazy conspiracy theories.

Sometimes talent conveys an overwhelming advantage and people get confused.

Can't believe it took him a full year to come up with his excuse for losing.

If you still have ways of breaking anon and are the first to report them to the mods at [email protected] and they are valid, I'll pay out 250-500 points depending on the severity of the bug.

Almost feels like that chap Goldie was referring to did a bunch of the bug identification already, you should throw him some of those free points as a big thank you from all of us for a job well done!

[CptMike]

Sometimes talent conveys an overwhelming advantage and people get confused.

Yeah! I am sure that xorxes has my password and read my orders so that he can play the right moves at the right time. I don't see any other reason why he would win against me so often! And his perversion is so deep that sometimes he gives me a 'draw' so that I don't wonder too much how all this is possible

[webdip]

[MadMarx]

Check your inbox, 500 points please, thank you and you’re welcome.

[PRINCE WILLIAM]

The last seen indication had a use, in my opinion always, to know when someone had seen a message or not. Someone can tell that this is useless in a game of lies and deception, but it kept some things in a line.

[Yonni]

The last seen indication had a use, in my opinion always, to know when someone had seen a message or not. Someone can tell that this is useless in a game of lies and deception, but it kept some things in a line.

I found that to be way more of a pain than a feature. For instance, sometimes I want to check the game from my phone but won't reply if it requires a lengthy response. I like the freedom of playing this game casually but the "last seen" indicator restricted that.

[VillageIdiot]

The last seen indication had a use, in my opinion always, to know when someone had seen a message or not. Someone can tell that this is useless in a game of lies and deception, but it kept some things in a line.

I found that to be way more of a pain than a feature. For instance, sometimes I want to check the game from my phone but won't reply if it requires a lengthy response. I like the freedom of playing this game casually but the "last seen" indicator restricted that.

Completely agree. That online indicator totally messed with my head that I had to continually remind myself people have lives and I may not be being willfully ignored or that they're not responding because they're too busy talking to my enemies. This update is going to do wonders for my sanity.

[Javatiger]

I dislike the changes, especially that you see not who readied and who not.
In the future not all players will ready the games, games will endure longer and make less fun.
Why this change? :-/

[Tom Bombadil]

So people can't break anonymity which was a big problem on the site.

I would think that if you join a game with a set phase length, you should expect every phase to take that length - even more so going forward. I also do not think this will cause an uptick in people not readying.

[Tom Bombadil]

Plus, now you can't see which player is about to NMR - which helps lessen the blow of another big problem on the site.

[Porphyry]

I am grateful to the mods for trying to improve the site, but I preferred the older arrangement regarding anonymous games. I see the case for more thorough anonymity in tournaments, but I never play in those. I use the site mostly for anonymous non-tournament games. As people have noted upthread, NMRs are a fact of life in online games. I would never email a moderator about that, and just accept it as something that means I may have to change my orders at the last minute. Indeed, it can sometimes add a touch a drama as the clock counts down, wondering if someone will submit orders and whether I should change mine or not.

People upthread have already mentioned other advantages of the old arrangement. Like them, I also like being able to see at a glance who had to retreat; being able to name and shame someone who is dallying putting in their orders; and being able to ask someone to press "Ready" in order to hasten along the next turn.

I get that not everyone feels the same way about managing NMRs and other preferences I have mentioned here. I am wondering though, rather than require people who preferred the old arrangement to always play in non-anon games, whether it would be possible to make anonymity a customizable feature. So someone could chose how anonymous they wanted the game to be when they set it up. That would accommodate the widest range of user preferences, perhaps especially if strict anonymity were enforced for tournaments.

[Javatiger]

Plus now you lose overview of your own games -
until now you saw in the gamelisting under "my games" (http://www.webdiplomacy.net/gamelisting ... earchOn=on), if you had to retreat in a retreat phase or not and which other nations had to retreat. Now it is strange to scroll through your own game list, you dont get any useful info there.