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A place to discuss topics/games with other webDiplomacy players.
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obiwanobiwan (248 D)
26 Jun 14 UTC
Worst Non-Sitcom TV Show You've Ever Watched? (4 Episodes Minimum)
Friends were raving about this Netflix show, "Orange is the New Black." Watched. ..It's awful. Wall to wall. The main lead (not the actress herself, she seems to be trying, at least) is like the adult equivalent of Bella Swann meets Every Yuppie Character Ever. Every character's a stereotype. Every guy is a perv, sex-crazed ass, douche, OR just has no life whatsoever. The writing is as bad as I've seen...and yet, this won awards? xD So, worst shows?
73 replies
Open
NigeeBaby (100 D(G))
25 Jun 14 UTC
Is it just me or .....
..... is there a lot of death and destruction going on at the minute.
91 replies
Open
ssorenn (0 DX)
26 Jun 14 UTC
JMO = King Mod
We all want to thank JMO for his service to the site.

No crying from the Mods!!!!!!!!!
23 replies
Open
glisbao (185 D)
25 Jun 14 UTC
Populism and Democracy
I've heard in here that populism is the plague that affects democracy (the topic praising appeasement). I would like people to elaborate on the subject - how does populism undermine the democratic principles, and what can we learn about this in history?
56 replies
Open
ArmaGGedon (100 D)
26 Jun 14 UTC
live game
hi, someone to anime live game :P
3 replies
Open
NigeeBaby (100 D(G))
26 Jun 14 UTC
The link between having a large penis and self-confidence
Here is something you guys should all know something about, please share your thoughts if you've got the balls to do so :-)
11 replies
Open
peterwiggin (15158 D)
25 Jun 14 UTC
Man walks into McDonald's with knife in back
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-mcdonalds-knife-back-20140625-story.html
12 replies
Open
rayanking (0 D)
25 Jun 14 UTC
join fast victory 4 $$$
it's a great and a live game, it cost only 10 D and in classic map. So let the game start.:)
2 replies
Open
jmo1121109 (3812 D)
18 Jun 14 UTC
Many open games
Today's number is 38. I suggest everyone check out some of the open games. Post here with any games you take over for the next 48 hours and you'll get reimbursed for them. PM me for anonymous games. Games with more then 1 banned cheater will probably be cancelled so don't join them.
58 replies
Open
Putin33 (111 D)
25 Jun 14 UTC
Appeasement: unfairly maligned strategy?
I've been reading quite a bit about British & French foreign policy at the turn of the century, and it seems like appeasement (reduction of tensions through concessions) has gotten an unnecessarily bad reputation.
19 replies
Open
Tolstoy (1962 D)
22 Jun 14 UTC
(+1)
Can atheists believe in free will?
If our consciousness is simply a product of the mushy 3-dimensional circuit board we call a brain, governed entirely by the fixed and unchanging laws of physics and chemistry, is there any kind of free will? Or are all our decisions in life predetermined, like a computer program running through its code, simply responding to various inputs?
126 replies
Open
rojimy1123 (597 D)
25 Jun 14 UTC
Taking over CDs
I have recently taken over 2 positions in games where players left. I am wondering why my profile says I haven't taken over CD's at all.
8 replies
Open
obiwanobiwan (248 D)
20 Jun 14 UTC
Again--This is NOT a Christian Country...
http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-obama-must-defend-christian-values-192212780--election.html Christians live here--AND Jews, AND Muslims, AND Buddhists and Hindus and Atheists (fastest growing group!) AND dozens of others (including, hey, all those Native American tribes and religions...many of which were criminalized in part until the 1970s)...WHY? Why must Obama defend the values of a specific sect, when the Constitution clearly is anti-favoritism in terms of religion?
74 replies
Open
Birchford (167 D)
25 Jun 14 UTC
Parameter 'fromTerrID' set to invalid value '32'
Hello, has anyone encountered this error before, and if so do you have a fix for it? Thanks for your help.
13 replies
Open
dr. octagonapus (210 D)
24 Jun 14 UTC
Commenting on ongoing gunboat games
I realise of course that you are not allowed to circumvent the no talking rule, like press via email or pm or f2f talking etc. but why is discussing the board in general disallowed? I get that I should not say who I am in the game but if someone is to talk about the board unbiased and without revealing who they are would this be acceptable?
23 replies
Open
ssorenn (0 DX)
09 Jun 14 UTC
Two team members per country game?
Would anyone be interested in creating a game, that each of the 7 clasic countries were comprised of two team members consulting together. I understand that only one can actually be listed in the game itself, but maybe create a side pot for the second team members that would pay out equally at end of game
236 replies
Open
KingCyrus (511 D)
24 Jun 14 UTC
Boys State
Anyone familiar with this program?
5 replies
Open
Buzzle (1531 D)
23 Jun 14 UTC
multi-players
What if you have strong suspicions that someone is multi-playing in a game? Who do you contact to check into it?
38 replies
Open
fulhamish (4134 D)
24 Jun 14 UTC
US constitution
I readily admit to starting from a low base on this one, but.....
23 replies
Open
SYnapse (0 DX)
24 Jun 14 UTC
Jihadists in Syria
Right now David Cameron is going on about the "threat" from Jihadists leaving the UK to go fight in Iraq and Syria.
Am I missing something? Why are Jihadists fighting in Syria a threat here? To me, it seems no more different than Orwell fighting in Spain.
Maniac (189 D(B))
24 Jun 14 UTC
I think david cameron wants to be fighting out there and if too many missionaries go out there the fighting will be all over before he gets there.
SYnapse (0 DX)
24 Jun 14 UTC
It seems to boil down to the assumption that:

Jihadists hate Britain
Therefore, when people fight a Jihad, they will come to hate Britain

Where's the link? I'm sure a lot of people hate Britain for a lot of different reasons, none of them related to the reason that they hate the regime of Syria.
steephie22 (182 D(S))
24 Jun 14 UTC
As UK citizens, they can sometimes go back into the UK after they've been to Syria.
That would mean having experienced, battle-hardened jihadists in the UK.

Also, they'd be fighting for hostile forces, so if you prevent them from going, hostile forces get less recruits. That's good, right?

Not certain how evidence-based that talk is, just to give you a possible answer to your question.
SYnapse (0 DX)
24 Jun 14 UTC
"they'd be fighting for hostile forces"

I don't see how the Syrian rebels are hostile to us, or Shia fighting Sunnis.

"That would mean having experienced, battle-hardened jihadists in the UK."

Yes, but I don't see where "Jihadist" becomes "enemy". This is what I am questioning.
TheMinisterOfWar (509 D)
24 Jun 14 UTC
(+1)
The argument goes, like Steephie says, that they'll come back battle-hardened and traumatised. There are some indications that the attack on a synagogue in Brussels was the work of a former Syria vet. This has sparked quite some extra security measures in Netherlands as well.

The threat of that is real, though it's hopelessly overstated nowadays for largely political aim. It's not a coincidence that this statement comes in the same week that UKIP has launched its official European platform.
Theodosius (232 D(S))
24 Jun 14 UTC
As TMOW says, just trying to score political points and stay in the news.
Octavious (2732 D)
24 Jun 14 UTC
(+2)
Several hundred men, eager to fight and willing to kill for their beliefs, join an Al Qaeda type organisation and receive training and propaganda in large doses for a few years... and you don't see what there is to worry about?

Seriously?
Putin33 (111 D)
24 Jun 14 UTC
(+1)
It's called blowback. Cameron, one of the ringleaders of selling arms to these throat cutters, is now worried that they're a magnet for UK radicals who might go back to the UK when they go back. And indeed they are. Germans are facing the same problem.

The west never learns.

steephie22 (182 D(S))
24 Jun 14 UTC
Also, when our guys go to Syria to fight there, the people they are fighting there might avenge their comrades by fighting 'here'.
Putin33 (111 D)
24 Jun 14 UTC
Which is why we should be helping Assad crush them, and helping Iran crush them in Iraq.

But that will never happen.
TheMinisterOfWar (509 D)
24 Jun 14 UTC
(+1)
What I just read:

'The west shouldnt have helped those throat cutters'

'We should really help thise other throat cutters'
Putin33 (111 D)
24 Jun 14 UTC
The Syrian army doesn't behead people. Or eat people. They're a regular army.
Bob Genghiskhan (1258 D)
24 Jun 14 UTC
(+3)
Thing is, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, etc. are all totally synthetic states. Their boundaries don't reflect anything other than the convenience of British and French colonialists divvying up the Ottoman Empire. So maybe these boundaries don't need to exist. Maybe the people who actually live there can establish the boundaries they like and are able to keep against their rivals. If a bunch of them want to set up an atavistic, 7th Century style state, our response should generally be "Good luck, enjoy that, and if your citizens start bombing London or New York, we will wipe your government out and let someone else take charge."
steephie22 (182 D(S))
24 Jun 14 UTC
Problem is that we don't want to take the risk that they ever become able to start bombing London or New York in the first place.
Putin33 (111 D)
24 Jun 14 UTC
"Thing is, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, etc. are all totally synthetic states"

If they were totally synthetic the various pan-Arabists would have eliminated them by now.

"Their boundaries don't reflect anything other than the convenience of British and French colonialists divvying up the Ottoman Empire."

Except that's not exactly true. The contours of Iraq were made for the purpose of setting up an independent Muslim state, because the British after the end of the Caliphate were worried about anti-British agitation being used against them by the Germans in the Middle East. Modern Iraq corresponds more or less exactly with the provincial divisions set up by the Turkish government - the vilayets of Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra. The French even maintained the Turkish vilayets roughly as they existed for 25 years after taking over, establishing five "states" under their protection.

"Maybe the people who actually live there can establish the boundaries they like and are able to keep against their rivals"

The ISIS aren't "the people" they're a terrorist group who want to annihilate non-Sunni Muslims in a religious diverse region of the world, and the only reason they exist is because we enabled them to fight the Syrian army.


Octavious (2732 D)
24 Jun 14 UTC
@ Bob

We often dismiss what those who came before us did as folly, but they had good reasons. The Middle East simply cannot be divided easily along ethnic or religious lines, even if you wanted to. If you tried you would be left with States without the resources to be viable.
Putin33 (111 D)
24 Jun 14 UTC
The people who complain about colonial boundaries seem to neglect the fact that it's the 3rd world that has been the most insistent on maintaining them. And also the fact that in certain regions of the world there are no natural frontiers and people are highly mobile due to climate.
Bob Genghiskhan (1258 D)
24 Jun 14 UTC
(+1)
@ Octavious

I don't care. I simply do not care how people arrange themselves in the Middle East (and indeed, pretty much everywhere else). I don't see the point to trying to arrange things to our satisfaction. The whole of the Middle East is not worth the bones of one Guardsman. Throw the doors open, let essentially anyone who wants to emigrate to the US do so, but enough with the trying to impose order on places where we're not really wanted and the primary result of our intervention is to temporarily install a friendly wog wrangler in charge.
@Putin

Well, I'd observe that it's usually the locally dominant tribe that is most insistent on maintaining the precolonial boundaries. And if they want to maintain it and are able to do so, bully for them. I'd rather we had fuck all to do with it, however.
SYnapse (0 DX)
24 Jun 14 UTC
Bob Ghengis has a point. Why do we care what goes on in other countries? It's that colonial, "democratic" interventionalism that makes Jihadists consider the UK a target. If we did not kill any Muslims, I am sure they wouldn't want to kill us. There will always be people opposed to capitalism and who may resort to terrorism. But I don't link that with Islam, even if the WTC bombings happened to be orchestrated by a group of Muslims. It's the same as if Quaker anti-capitalists bombed somewhere, we wouldn't go to war with Mongolian nomads right?

But somehow I fear the whole thing was blown out of context and there is no turning back from the past 10 years of ideological division.
Putin33 (111 D)
24 Jun 14 UTC
"Jihadists consider the UK a target. If we did not kill any Muslims, I am sure they wouldn't want to kill us."

We're actively helping jihadists take power throughout the region and they still want to kill us. Killing us, as Zawahiri stated, is simply a propaganda ploy to recruit more fighters. Their real objective is to establish a puritanical Islamic government in the whole of the Middle East.
mendax (321 D)
24 Jun 14 UTC
(+1)
The best recruitment tool terrorist organisations in the Middle East have is the existence of drone strikes.
SYnapse (0 DX)
24 Jun 14 UTC
I can't help but feel that without the Palestinian situation and drone strikes, there would be no Jihadist terrorist orgs. Or at least they would be a handful of nutcases with some dynamite, rather than a fledgling international army.
Putin33 (111 D)
24 Jun 14 UTC
(+1)
The jihadists don't care about Palestine. If they did they'd target Israel. They don't. They kill Muslims. And their high profile attacks on the west never target Israel either. Palestine, despite being a 4 decade long problem, has very few foreign fighters going to rally to the cause. Whereas Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, is full of foreign jihadis. There'd be no jihadists if secular governments were allowed to actually exercise authority. The collapse of state authority leads to the rise of jihadists. They only exist where government lacks institutional control. The drone strikes certainly don't help matters.
glisbao (185 D)
24 Jun 14 UTC
(+1)
Secular state authority in the Middle East has to be authoritarian - democracy enables Islamist governments. But since the West can't tolerate either, all there's left is anarchy. Good luck getting Iraq and Syria back on track.

The only country which successfully avoided this trap (apart from Israel) was Turkey, but only AFTER decades of authoritarianism - and even now, Ankara is sliding back into more religion and less freedom.

It also seems like authoritarianism breeds a successful democracy only if it's pushed by the same dictator that benefited from it. Ataturk could bring democracy to Turkey, but look if the Egyptians, even after decades of a secular dictator, could successfully implement it in their country. No one in their right mind would argue that Tahrir was actually a good thing.

The West should enable and protect Assad, and slowly enable him to push a democratic agenda. Much less blood would have been spilled, and we wouldn't be having this major refugee crisis. I really don't see how anyone with a little pragmatism could support the Syrian rebels.
Putin33 (111 D)
24 Jun 14 UTC
(+1)
Good point. Most of the successful (meaning orderly) democratic transitions in Latin America, southern Europe, and east Asia involved dialogue and consent with the authoritarian governments. Franco's transition was a success. Pinochet's was a success. Had they let Mubarak go out in a dignified way, Egypt would likely not be a mess. The gulf sheikhdoms currently are undergoing somewhat of a democratic reforming process (instituting elections and whatnot) and there's almost no pressure on them to do so. That seems to be working well for them.

But then again this is much less about democracy and more about geopolitics. I just wish the US would be open about it instead of trying to play power politics while using the language of liberalism. It's the transparent cynicism that really rankles me.
glisbao (185 D)
24 Jun 14 UTC
Same in Brazil. Sure, the Brazilians went to the streets, but the Military dictatorship organized for a orderly handout of power, and did so with some reminiscing honor. The same goes for Argentina.

The Paraguayan dictator was forced out. Guess what happened? That country is *still* a failed state, and the war was over before 1900.

I have yet to see a good example of a forced transition working out well.
Putin33 (111 D)
24 Jun 14 UTC
Probably the closest case is Indonesia, in that they seemed to bounce back fairly quickly after the transition. Although even in that case they effectively had Suharto-ism without Suharto for a little while (which is effectively what Egypt is now). Another border-line case might be Iran? But then again there was the whole ripping up the Algiers accord and fighting with Iraq thing.


28 replies
obiwanobiwan (248 D)
24 Jun 14 UTC
Putin on Putin: An Open Invitation to Putin33 on the Russia/Ukraine/Syria Crisis
Welcome BACK, Putin33...my oh my, how the world of international politics has exploded since you last graced us with your presence...are you ready to decry your namesake for the scourge of the world that he is? Most assuredly not, but let this be an open letter and open invitation for you to give YOUR take on the whole of the crisis--and your namesake in particular--as so many have been wondering if you'd capitulate to common sense and call him out for the thug Big Bad Vlad is.
26 replies
Open
Jamiet99uk (1307 D)
23 Jun 14 UTC
(+3)
Can atheists believe in free willy?
If our consciousness is simply a product of the mushy 3-dimensional circuit board we call a brain, governed entirely by the fixed and unchanging laws of physics and chemistry, is it possible to believe that a disaffected but endearing youth could inspire a captive orca whale to jump out of the water and over a 15 foot high sea wall?
7 replies
Open
curupira (3441 D)
23 Jun 14 UTC
Classic variant: less than seven players.
I have recent engaged at this online Diplomacy. Long time ago, I did played this game in board. There were choices in the Classic Map for less than seven players. For six players, for example, one have to quit Turkey and Bulgaria. Is there any variants at this webDiplomacy that allow games of this kind? Could it be created?
2 replies
Open
Chaqa (3971 D(B))
23 Jun 14 UTC
Pair of press games
gameID=143769
gameID=143770

If anyone's intereste.
3 replies
Open
steephie22 (182 D(S))
17 Jun 14 UTC
Need some web design in the holidays?
Planning ahead, I'll probably be happy doing anything more useful than what most people usually do during holidays, so I figured that doing some web design for someone is a good way to help, brush up and improve my skills and perhaps even earn a couple of bucks. Perhaps someone has such a project for me?
See inside.
26 replies
Open
oscarjd74 (100 D)
27 Feb 14 UTC
(+2)
Backseat Driver Diplomacy thread
gameID=136645

DO NOT POST IN HERE UNLESS YOU ARE ONE OF THE BACKSEAT DRIVERS IN THE BACKSEAT DRIVER GAME.
390 replies
Open
CommanderByron (801 D(S))
22 Jun 14 UTC
Variant?
New variant idea with alot of changes to Classic. would add to the naval combat substantially and would intentionally reduce ground forces at the start of the game changing possibly the direction the countries attacked at turn 0
17 replies
Open
CommanderByron (801 D(S))
22 Jun 14 UTC
(+1)
Challenge
I am looking for experienced players to play against so I can learn more and better myself? I realize i am relatively new but I think I have a valid argument for why I should be given the chance. Looking for a classic, PPSC, ANON no messaging game.
17 replies
Open
trip (696 D(B))
19 Jun 14 UTC
Lusthog Gunboat
Lusthog = no voting to draw until a stalemate line has been established and held.
Anyone interested in a game or two?
37 replies
Open
the southern lord (0 DX)
22 Jun 14 UTC
Strange orders
Hi,

Has anyone else noticed that the orders you've put in the past week, are often not what happens?
16 replies
Open
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