The truth about the new forum

[brainbomb]

and she left webdip to go to playdip which she described as being more welcoming of a community.

I cannot speak on if there is truth to playdip being welcoming. no one from there has welcomed me as of yet

[Kakarroto]

I, for my part, welcome you, sir brainbomb. It is a delight having you here. Even when my opinion differs from yours in some points (not saying which right now).

And I mean it with zero sarcasm.

I pretty much welcome everyone else (in me being just a single user of the forum/site, having no official anything, just to state this so no one misunderstands), I hope everyone and everymany has a good experience being here. I'm just not doing the work right now to personally welcome everyone and everymany, brain gets this special treat right now because of his post (and making me feel bad that he didn't got any welcome).

Anyways, I'm back to lurking, hope you have fun in here!

[flash2015]

BTW, just in case someone didn't know this (I didn't :) ), if you go to "Quick Links -> Active topics" it gives you a list sort of the active topics like the front page but with politics and hidden topics added too...so it is possible to see everything in one big list.

[MajorMitchell]

I'm playing a game at the moment over at playDip.... I hadn't realised that Durga is over there, probably using an alias and kicking me all over the place in disguise as the Fiend with Turkey..
I want to see a WebDiplomacy picture calendar with Jmo in a green bikini & peterwiggin in a purple mankini with red polka dots wrestling with a rampant fire hose, and no that's not a euphemism. Maniac in traditional blue checked flannel pyjamas with Teddy Bear and Dipbro Brainbomb in a knitted cardigan & cordoroy pants. & Dipbro Jamiet99uk in ermine & red silk wearing a rose tinted monocle

[e.m.c^42]

I want to see a WebDiplomacy picture calendar with Jmo in a green bikini & peterwiggin in a purple mankini with red polka dots wrestling with a rampant fire hose, and no that's not a euphemism. Maniac in traditional blue checked flannel pyjamas with Teddy Bear and Dipbro Brainbomb in a knitted cardigan & cordoroy pants. & Dipbro Jamiet99uk in ermine & red silk wearing a rose tinted monocle

This. This.

Three cheers for marvelously good taste.

[stefanodangello]

I'm under the impression we're unable to fully elaborate on what makes us feel as if the new forum was a major blow to the sense of community there was before and precisely diagnose it.

I agree it would be interested to know whether our overall changes made the site more friendly, specially towards women - to evaluate how and where we need to improve our guidelines and make for a more inviting website, rather than to criticize past decisions. Even though I agree with most of Octavious' assertions on why things took this turn.

On the other hand, Flash offers great insight. Firstly, I did not realize there were people who got particularly bothered by the political issues being debated on the old forum, and especially because they appeared so clearly in the home page, as RoganJosh pointed out. It had not occurred me this could be a thing in such a way.

But more importantly, if we think the changes to the site - both in behaviour guidelines and in structure - somehow made our community more fragile and less engaged, we need to understand what had an impact on what, so that we can coherently propose something that would directly address the causes of our grievances.

Just as we're impressed and feel different things when we walk into a cathedral, or an impressive government building, or a nicely designed house, feeling ourselves what the architects had in mind, because buildings and urban planning shape how people act, behave and engage with each other, we're feeling similar things when dealing with a different site structure.

We feel the forum is less lively, the community, smaller, tournaments are less of a thing, and we don't feel as if there is as much life in webDip as there once was. I don't know whether or not the new forum is objectively more or less lively, in terms of posts, but I do know I was unaware there had been a SoW since the new forum began, and I often kept track of previous editions even when I did not take part.

Why do we think that? Is it because the forum is essentially separate from the site? I mean, you actually have different profiles for the site itself and for the forum. Is it because things are divided into countless categories and it doesn't feel natural or accessible? Is it because we no longer see what's happening/threads about politics on the home page? (In that case, could Flash's idea of allowing for the display of these topics as well be a step towards a solution? Worth trying? Technologically feasible?)

I'm aware this is a website devoted to playing Diplomacy which happens to have a forum, and not a forum with webDip attached, but if we can locate what are the causes behind our perceptions of how the community is now, we can perhaps tackle some of the issues and make it all better. At least I feel getting a good game going is becoming more and more difficult.

[stefanodangello]

Also, regarding tournaments... @Goldfinger, any chance we can have a 2020 World Cup? I'd be more than willing to help you set it, if assistance is needed.

[MajorMitchell]

Thanks emc42. If you met my Adorable Fire Breathing MemSahib Her Serene Imperiousness Indoors lounging on a sofa eating cakes your opinion of my taste would only, I believe, be strengthened. Her latest blue rinse perm Hairdo is a cracker.
I was wondering what other members of WebDiplomacy would desire to see me in, what sort of outfit for a WebDiplomacy pictorial calendar..
I came to the conclusion that the most likely scenario is me wearing blindfold & smoking small cigar in front of a well armed firing squad, possibly with my Lovely Fire Breathing MemSahib holding sword aloft ready to give the command to fire.

[Fluminator]

Webdip forum/community had a similar evolution to almost every internet community.

Everyone remembers the glory days of their internet community where it was just a cluster of people arguing/shouting about whatever, wild west rules. Internet culture in general has evolved.

Twitter also absolutely SHATTERED any charm in wild-west style talking with other people of different ideas and backgrounds.

[bo_sox48]

webDip shattered that charm before Twitter made it cool

[goldfinger0303]

Thanks @stefanodangello. I was planning on running a World Cup sometime late summer, once the last of the Masters games should be winding down. One every two years seems to be a healthy frequency. If there's an appetite to run it earlier, I'd likely need help. Otherwise I'm good with my trusty mod-friend bo.

[Squigs44]

Any thought about expanding the format to include bot games or 1v1s?

[Restitution]

you can buy more storage space pretty dirt cheap on just about any web hosting service. its like 400 bucks a year for 1 billion forum posts worth of data on some providers.

I think you should trust the lead dev when he says there are technical issues with a feature, and not your own random guess. Unless you actively work with a codebase, multiply how hard you expect something to be by 100x.

[Restitution]

If anything, the solution to this problem should just be a more prominent (and permanent) link to the discord, which is how communities are maintained in this modern year of 2016

[Restitution]

1. Add a new forum and allow images and imbeddable youtube videos like 99.9999999999999% of all other active forums in every known corner of the internet.

2. Invest in forum content add more categories, including sports, writing, film

3. add more emojis, add more fonts and give users avatars

4. get rid of hidden forum areas and bring everything back into the light

5. allow award winners to have tokens on their forum profile showing theyve won an award before. Give awards to tourney winners.

6. host yearly awards like they used to for most improved gr, best gunboater, best full press player, mvp, best mod, best forum game, best debater.

7. allow alt accounts that cannot join games and auto link to your existing account using current tech that is used to track and unearth multis

Shit man, if these features are such no-brainers, why don't you submit a pull request for it? This site is open-source and anybody can contribute. Instead of whinging forever demanding changes, why not do it yourself?

Or do you just get off on demanding free labor from volunteers?

[goldfinger0303]

Any thought about expanding the format to include bot games or 1v1s?

I hadn't given it any thought. To include those would likely involve a lengthy round-robin of 1v1s. Something like 14 games. Creating a fair scoring for that would be challenging.