Not currently, sorry. We'd like to add it, but it's quite a bit of work, so it won't be any time soon.

~webDiplomacy Dev Team

But yes, it's clearly a massive improvement. It's on the todo list!

Thank you for the immediate reply! I look forward to the day you launch it ;)

If you do that, can there be an easy way to opt out? I'm already a webDip hobo, I don't need emails to remind me of that.

curiosity, are text alerts as hard / harder ?

I vote for an old fashioned letter.

Would be good but as sais easy way to opt out needed

A good way to cut down on CDs/NMRs is to set a reliability rating gate for every game.

I do sometimes wish there was a more immediate notification, perhaps a beep, shortly before a live game gets started. Too often people step aside for a few minutes and then come back only to have missed the first phase.

Dear jpuhrer,

I have a great solution for you.

For a fee of just £10 per day, I will spectate any game that you join and send you an email when the game starts, and whenever a turn processes.

Deal?

bo: Of course you'll be able to turn off email notifications if/when it eventually gets added. Currently, I assume that they'd be on by default for new users, and off by default for everyone else.

Byron: Text alerts would cost the site money. Currently the only money the site needs is to keep the lights on (which has so far been supported by donations).

I think I'd have them off by default for all users, maybe enable them on a per-game basis, or maybe have a stage length threshold? I wouldn't want notifications for live games, but for me they'd be useful for a 24+hour stage game.

@text alerts.

I know that a good while ago a local university internet society setup free webtexts to irish numbers. Because texts are charged when they enter the system and there is no extra charge for being sent to different nodes within the system. They managed to offer a web interface which was already inside that system.

I don't know enough about the underlying issues, but i suspect it is still possible. Though reliability depends on the national network in question. (I have an implementation i can look at, and find out if a) it still works, and b) it is free)

Creating an app with notifications is probably the current industry standard.

Just use WhatsApp or something :-)

Orath: Yes, it's possible. But as you point out, it varies from country to country. A free solution is probably possible in some countries. A non-free solution would be the only possibility in others. I don't want to have webdip's features depend on the country you're accessing it from, nor do I want to have webdip have paid features.

An app with notifications would be excellent.

I would consider it spam.

Not everyone remembers this, but the account creation page is the same as the settings page. So, you'd be able to configure the email settings as you like when you set up your account.

This is why it would be off for default for existing users. To prevent expectations for how much email you get from the site from being violated.

Another way would just be an HTML 5 hook that pops notifications. As long as the user leaves the webpage open in the background, they can be alerted to any developments.

@Hastati

This would be incredibly helpful for live games. I don't know how many times I refresh the page during those phase changes.

I know nothing about the coding/technical requirements to implement, but something along the lines of what an instant messenger/facebook service does to put a little beep or message in the tab title when a new development posts.

It should be noted that such an alert does not activly change anything in the page or allow interaction, it's more like the sort of toolbar popup you get in Windows when an application has an issue, but instead for a webpage. But still it would at least alert you to the fact you need to refresh the page.

@Joshua, the technical requirements are non-trivial.

Especially getting it to work smoothly without crashing the server. (Old methods like long polling are nice, newer ajax is fine, but newest websockets are the best... Still there are server side limitations even then)