PS: There should probably also be a small change to the start time of a game. If I set up a game now, setting a Joining pre-game period length of 1 week (because I'm away) the game would anyway start as soon as there are 7 players. In this case I'd miss my turn, because I'd think it'll only start next week.

DIpbounced doesn't have CD:s. If you don't put in your orders in time, you get replaced:
http://www.dipbounced.com/

well, I've got 2, one from my first game ever on this site when it was 2 AM and I was very tired and naively didn't yet realize the ettiquette involved, and one from a live game that got paused for several days and none of us realized it had gotten activated (5 min phase) ... so that means if for any reason I would CD in any one game in the future I would be banned from the site?

hmmm ...

In my view CD:s destroy the game.

Hey, no, the poor Mods would have to fire off some mail to you and would easily be able to verify your explanation. Sure, 5 min games at 2AM early in your career should not get you excluded.

As for the second suggestion, I know this already happens for live games. If a game is set to start in 30 minutes, it will wait those 30 minutes even if the game is already full.

Might be easier to just have a little star by the name of players who haven't CDed three times, and the option to make games star-player only? Banning seems harsh.

@Stukus: Then all games would become star-player only, no?

Maybe there should be options for having a max number of CDs in players that join your game, and that number can be shrunk more and more as you get more points? Newbies wouldn't be able to use it (or max 20 resigns or something), and then 101+ can start using it. Maybe at 500 you gain the option of no CDs (or having the minimum be the same as your own). Or something.

The real solution, IMHO, is to stop having the game advance when someone NMRs. If someone NMRs once, the game phase gets reset, and their profile's NMR counter gets incremented. If they NMR again the same phase, the game gets paused and the player goes into CD and can be replaced or the game can be drawn/cancelled without them. Or the game can go on if everyone chooses.

Ratio of NMRs to turns played could be used to exclude people from joining games. People that NMR a lot would find it hard to find games to join and games where NMRs happen wouldn't be so completely ruined.

People suggest things like this all the time, but they rarely consider the consequences. If someone is banned for CDing, you know what they'll do? Create a new account (with a *clean* record) and CD some more. How does that help the situation at all? I agree CDs are an issue, and I like ideas similar to Alderian's, but imho it's better to keep the CDer's around with their records, so we know to look out for them.

Why does nobody read what other people post?

@mang

Who are you talking to? This conversation seems rather coherent to me.

Do you understand that a player can't login to CD? So it means they might actually have something preventing them from getting online or contacting their gamemates such as an emergency or accident? And also that many people play more than three games at once?

So you're essentially saying: "Ban anyone that ever has anything that suddenly and tragically keeps them from logging on to webdiplomacy." It won't work.

The only way you're ever going to get past complaining about Civil Disorders is when you find a group of stand-up guys (and gals) that are more mature and have more respect for their fellow players. You don't have to be high ranked in diplomacy to be accepted amongst the higher classed crowd, all you have to do is show them that you are capable of the same respect and maturity, coupled with a commitment to play a good game.

banning is extreme and abgemacht is right, people will just create a new account. i think Stukus's idea is good. there should be something to indicate a bad record which can exclude you from certain games. it would allow people who dont CD to play with others who also dont. since the option to play unrestricted would still exist CDers would have to play in those games. the restricted games should also exclude newbies until they have a good record of not CDing in 10 games or so to prevent CDers from getting around the problem by creating a new account

back to that original idea. so if a player who clearly does not care about their games CD's and gets banned, they can and will make a new account and do it all again.

We already have two things in place that excludes bad and detrimental players from joining certain games.

The first is passwords. Stop posting them in the forum. Filter the players interested in your game and only PM them the password when you're sure of their integrity.

The second is points. Players that CD often are hardly likely to ever reach above 100 . For those that play often and well enough, points are the number one way to ensure a better quality game.

The solution is to have a system THAT REPLACES PLAYERS. Like this one: http://www.dipbounced.com/

Webdip's shoutboxes are far better than their press system, but Bounced's adjucation and maps are better than webdip's, and it REPLACES PLAYERS that go nmr.

@mongoose998, NMRs and Civil Disorders will never be against the rules.

So this topic is not about what to do with them, its what you can do to avoid them.

problem with passwords is once given to someone they can in turn give it to whoever. in interest of integrity of the game im sure this doesnt happen often but it could. some sort of ranking system would just provide an extra layer of filtering and wouldnt necessarily hurt anyone

@mang how does it just "replace players"?

@manganese,

And what if its a tournament? or a game amongst friends? or what if an NMR is just a bloody NMR? What if I didn't want to join a game as someone's replacement? Do I have a say in the matter?

Even if you have the answers, you're still wrong, because even with all the special cases and problems this implementation would require, the issue at hand is so minor that it would never warrant such a substantial addition to kestas' stack.

You've been a member here for a week., if that website is so much better than this one, leave, you won't be missed.

In a perfect world, this is what I'd like to see:

1) Default orders are blank, not "hold." This means if a player wants to issue all holds, they need to click the drop box for each unit and hit "hold." (Maybe an issue for live games, but let's ignore that for the time being.) This means that if a player has all "blanks" it is a NMR. To me, this seems much better than logging into the game being enough, as it means orders are *actually* submitted.

2) There is an option to pause on NMR. This will slow things down, but will increase quality of play for lower priority games.

3) When you take over for a CD, it doesn't count on your record or GR. I would be happy to always have 1 game that I take over, but I'm not going to trash my record to do it. I feel there are many others who feel the same way.

To me, these are pretty easy fixes (2 might be a bit tricky) and would go a long way in improving the quality of games.

@RedSquirell,

I can see password-passing being an issue, but I also agree that its quite rare, especially if you make a point of PMing passwords and filtering. If it was a bigger issue, it could be a simple matter of allowing the creation of six different one-time-use passwords.

@Geofram

I hardly see how telling people to leave the site for suggesting improvements is conducive to anything.

@Red

I solve this problem by playing pseudo-anon games. 7 people sign up and then I give the pw out. They check in once they join the game, so we all know which 7 players are in the game, but not what country they are. This is probably my favorite style of play.

@1.) Why does this matter? The X's and checkmarks serve the same purpose.

@2.) Who gets the option? How long does the pause last? What is required to unpause the game? What purpose does this really serve? One less NMR before being able to pause and properly replace the player?

@3.) And what if I take over a CD and win or draw and want it on my record? You would add an entirely new parameter to the database just to determine which games were CD-replacements and which weren't? Why not go as far as to say if a player CD's, the game doesn't count for anyone? Oh wait, because then no one would want to play it.

Yes they'd be relatively easy, but also relatively pointless and pointlessly complicated.

@Geo

1) X and Check just serve to let other players know if they have entered orders. It doesn't affect NMR. This way, you would have NMR actually corresponding to not entering orders.

2) The creator of the game. Until the remaining players vote to unpause. Or, pause on CD also makes sense. Either way.

3) ???? It would be an good Samaritan act.

@abgemacht

And I also don't see any improvements suggested in caps by a player comparing that website to this one as conducive to intelligence.

@Geofram

If you really are interested in answers to the questions, I can provide them.



And what if its a tournament? or a game amongst friends? or what if an NMR is just a bloody NMR? What if I didn't want to join a game as someone's replacement? Do I have a say in the matter?

Even if you have the answers, you're still wrong, because even with all the special cases and problems this implementation would require, the issue at hand is so minor that it would never warrant such a substantial addition to kestas' stack.

You've been a member here for a week., if that website is so much better than this one, leave, you won't be missed.