Playdip is back on line.

If Playdip is run for money, I'd find it rather distasteful if Kestas doesn't see any of it. I gather from the story that it was a 3rd party that screwed them both but the point stand that he'd stand to see a share of pie. That being said, I know nothing of their settlement and nothing of how much Playdip actually makes. Just my two cents about open source software.

It's back up now so my next point is moot but I think it would be great for community to have large influx of fresh blood. Not necessarily people new to diplomacy but new people to give life to the tournaments etc.

However, if 100-200 people did join this site over a short period, do you think this forum format would survive? There has to be some point where posts will be made too frequently for this to work.

On play dip there are 2 levels. The free portion allows you to play in 3 free games. For 12 euros a year you are a premium member. This entitles you to play as many games as you want, including all the varents, join tournments, and play in live games. The site has a different feel to it then this one, but to me both sites have very good points, and I enjoy them both.

welcome all playdip immigrants. join my game gameID=696969

playdip is back up, but I think I am staying here, or at the VERY least playing both.

I like your speed games here a lot.

Oh my, this thread has gotten a lot of attention.

To be clear, no one is at all hostile towards players who want to play on playdip; it's the admins we have a problem with. There are a few people who regularly play on both sites and I don't think they're ever hassled. I would love to see more people from playdip come and play here.

Also, I should be clear: I'm not bitter at playdip because of what they did to Kestas.

I'm angry at them because they run diplomacy like a business. It seriously jeopardizes all of us because if Hasbro finds out someone is making serious money off of their game, they could shut us all down.

@abgemacht:

"its the admins I have a problem with"? -- what problem is that?

"what they did to Kestas"? -- If you are talking about their unreceptivity to his complaints, I cut them a little slack as they were victimized for significant $. If you are talking about something more, then please let me know.

"It seriously jeopardizes all of us because if Hasbro finds out someone is making serious money off of their game, they could shut us all down."? I think we have somewhat different ideas of what constitutes 'serious money,' but more to the point it sounds like your beef is with Hasbro, not playdip.

Playdiplomacy.com is a business. I like their services. If you have a reason for boycotting it, I'd like to know what that is because I don't want to support crooks. If they are not crooks (or something equally vile), then I wish them well and hope they provide such good service that they make some money.

playdiplomacy.com is for diplomacy players.
webdiplomacy.net is for diplomats.

@valent

They are a business selling something they don't have the rights to: The Diplomacy Boardgame. It puts us all in jeopardy.

@ Abge, I concurr. I would love for some of them to come here. I learned a lot over there before finding out about this site. A lot of them are quite good players, and they aren't the kind that play games for the draw. They want the win! :D

"but more to the point it sounds like your beef is with Hasbro, not playdip."

Yes, along with the lawmakers, the judges, the courts, etc.

Not really. Why should someone be able to make money off of someone else's game?

I think sites like this are fine because they aren't for profit and they provide free advertisement to the game maker. But, playdip seems to be out to make money.

Sarcasm, abge.

Also, somewhat ironically. Despite the owners of playdip being adept at search engine optimization - or whatever it is - I found this site when searching for a only dip site. Weird.

I have migrated there for a game with my friends and am very happy with some of the features.
Choosing countries - my god would this make running a tournament easier
Not processing on weekends - one of the more humane options...

Speaking of features...
What features do you like at playdip.com.
With the new git-code-management it's a lot easier to add custom code. Maybe we can add some features at vdip and maybe kestas can merge them back here too...

I like having some ability in picking my own nation.

I like their maps better there. Easier to look at, and easier to figure out which armies belong to whom there.

How are tournaments organized on playdip?

I never played tournaments there, so I can not vouch for that.

Usually tournment on playdip are run by a person who coordinates who has played what country and how the are ranked. The game master notifies players when there tournment games are starting, finds replacements when someone leaves ect.
They recently had a 7 game tournment with players playing each country once. Everyone was anomous until the game ended.

Hey people are saying playdip is back online, but it is not for me!

?

@Stressedlines, armies and fleets belong to the country whose color is in the background of the territory. For water territories and centers in the spring it will just be a box behind the unit image. Maybe it takes a bit getting used to, but once you do it is easy to read. Hope that helps.

well i am glad playdip is back up and running and i don't think i'll stop playing there. There are features on both sites i like, but it's the game i like best and playing on several sites against a multitude of players is my absolute favourite.

"There was some bad blood a long time ago because playdiplomacy were slow at crediting Kestas (until he called them out). And playdiplomacy was clearly in the wrong. But that is sorted now. I find it embarrassing that peope still bring it up. It makes us webdiplomacy people look bad by harping on about it."

Once they decide to give kestas and/or phpdiplomacy credit, I agree. Also, they don't own the rights to the diplomacy boardgame, and therefore shouldn't be allowed to charge money for it. Somehow I think they can't plead ignorance if they've had a few years to let it sink in, unless you want to claim the webmaster is mentally retarded.

Yes, the site probably has improved to an extent where they could charge money for those improvements, however, they still need to give credit to kestas for the original code. As it stands, their site isn't just a little immoral, it's actually illegally run. That site is a copyright infringement, but I think the cost of taking them to court outweighs any rewards.

Sorry, I just realised it is there somewhere, it's just extremely difficult to find (still looking). Apparently they have given credit, they just made it so difficult to discover the location of that nobody has seen it. So they only infringe the copyright laws which make it so the information is reasonably visible, which is a grey area. The fact that I'm looking for it, and am unable to locate it, indicates something is wrong.

jdDST they have given Kestas credit:
http://www.playdiplomacy.com/LICENSE.txt

Haha, ok, I found it. It's as well hidden as the mod e-mail address here. Its in the rules->about section. Why you have to go through rules is beyond me, but I must retort my original claim about it being illegal. It's just a little dodgy. "The code was initially partly based on the open-source project phpDiplomacy" 'Partly based', heh.

initially? partly?
Jerks!