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A place to discuss topics/games with other webDiplomacy players.
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Sargmacher (0 DX)
24 Mar 12 UTC
Guild Wars
Anyone else play or ever played it?
25 replies
Open
Thucydides (864 D(B))
22 Mar 12 UTC
First ever Webdip Webcam Friday BYOB Live Game Extravaganza
Format - live game, public press, google+ hangout, option of taking one drink per SC captured. Going down this Friday, 8pm ET. Spaces going fast. Express interest here.
200 replies
Open
2ndWhiteLine (2736 D(B))
24 Mar 12 UTC
Anyone heard of VDip?
It's better than WebDip! It has variants!
13 replies
Open
mapleleaf (0 DX)
24 Mar 12 UTC
I googled "Fagnaur" again.
It was pretty hilarious.
2 replies
Open
steephie22 (182 D(S))
22 Mar 12 UTC
Best computergames!
I want to make a list with good computergames so everyone looking for a sec can see a list with good suggestions, next to that discussions would be nice...
61 replies
Open
MadMarx (36299 D(G))
24 Mar 12 UTC
Sean Payton should be banned from the NFL for life...
and the Saints should be stripped of their Super Bowl victory...
1 reply
Open
ibadibam (377 D)
23 Mar 12 UTC
Whole lotta love-2 EOG
Wrapping up gameID=76501
More posts to follow.
13 replies
Open
Thucydides (864 D(B))
24 Mar 12 UTC
This is my favorite website
thats not even a diplomacy lie its the truth yeah
9 replies
Open
therhat (104 D)
24 Mar 12 UTC
Put A Face On People
You can put a face on yourself or a face on other people. Find pictures and post the link. I'm sure you could find a lot of funny stuff to portray someone as.
11 replies
Open
therhat (104 D)
24 Mar 12 UTC
Alternative Rock Music
I personally think that alternative rock music is the best type out there. I will post my top 5 songs as a reply. You can also list your top 5 songs, just be sure to include what music genre it is.
22 replies
Open
fortknox (2059 D)
24 Mar 12 UTC
Hey Tettleston's Chew
The tides go in, the tides go out. You can't explain that!
9 replies
Open
Thucydides (864 D(B))
24 Mar 12 UTC
zultar why did you leave
?
9 replies
Open
fortknox (2059 D)
24 Mar 12 UTC
Sarg, come back!
I can't believe you came in, but then left!
7 replies
Open
fortknox (2059 D)
24 Mar 12 UTC
What happens when you get to know a whole bunch of webdip players face-to-face on webcam?
You end up with drinking, fun, and two mods spamming and trolling the forum.
Sorry (not really).
4 replies
Open
Thucydides (864 D(B))
24 Mar 12 UTC
WHO IS DAMIEN RICE
?
2 replies
Open
Thucydides (864 D(B))
24 Mar 12 UTC
AVA GOT TO 8 CENTERS IN TWO YEARS AS AUSTRIA
GLORIFY HIM

ALSO IM SUPPOSED TO POST ANIMAL PORN FOR DRAUG
12 replies
Open
Sargmacher (0 DX)
24 Mar 12 UTC
Trayvon Martin
Disgusted that this has still not led to an arrest yet.
22 replies
Open
Thucydides (864 D(B))
24 Mar 12 UTC
i love trollz
.
12 replies
Open
Thucydides (864 D(B))
24 Mar 12 UTC
tettletons chew join our hangout just do it are you afraid
,
2 replies
Open
Thucydides (864 D(B))
24 Mar 12 UTC
cheating accusation
cheating. it happens.
3 replies
Open
pjmansfield99 (100 D)
24 Mar 12 UTC
WTF THUCY, WTF THUCY...
Where are you dude??
17 replies
Open
Yonni (136 D(S))
22 Mar 12 UTC
How is Big Bang Theory on TV?
My computer is broke and I don't have many channels so I'm stuck watching Bing Bang Theory. My god, it's awful.
47 replies
Open
Thucydides (864 D(B))
24 Mar 12 UTC
PJ ALLY WITH ME
.
5 replies
Open
Invictus (240 D)
22 Mar 12 UTC
Coup in China?
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/03/21/chinese_coup_watching
Invictus (240 D)
22 Mar 12 UTC
I've said it before. We should be more worried about China's weaknesses than its strength. A serious inter-party fight for power would be incredibly destabilizing, and could ultimately lead to the collapse of Communist Party rule.
krellin (80 DX)
22 Mar 12 UTC
And....the (inevitable) death another Communist regime would be bad....why???? Uh, China's commies have 1 1/2 feet in the grave already. if you hadn't noticed, since they regained control of Hong Kong from Britain they have embraced capitalism with a passion.
Karatur (0 DX)
22 Mar 12 UTC
A bit overblown. Basically, China has been run by committee for over 30 years, in part to avoid the bad old days of cult-of-personality you-know-who. The man in question was building up a following of loyalists around himself, essentially claiming to be the "true" communist that others should follow. Many Chinese feared him but were too frightened of the consequences, considering past history, to speak out. The central government took matters into their own hands and removed him from any meaningful position of power. They will not publicly humiliate him, however, due to the lingering awe that many Chinese still have for the Great Helmsman.
- Shanghai
Invictus (240 D)
22 Mar 12 UTC
The end of the communist regime would be bad because it could lead to warlordism again, or at least open revolt in Tibet and East Turkestan. A civil war in China (even a limited one) or even just sustained political unrest would be devastating to the world economy. I realize this is all a lot of extrapolation, but when you decide who your leaders will be by nothing but court intrigue some sort of pushback like this is inevitable.
Thucydides (864 D(B))
22 Mar 12 UTC
this is just a chinese-twitter rumor.

but yeah i agree that instability in the future in china will probably be the century-shaping event.
krellin (80 DX)
22 Mar 12 UTC
Bahhh...I still remember sitting in my parents living room with ice packs on both jaws and an ace bandage wrapped around my head to keep the ice in place because I just got my wisdom teeth out...and on TV, I watched the fall of the Soviet Union...

The world got along just fine. Did it change the geo-politcal stage? Of course...but the geo-political stage is ALWAYS changing, and it is ALWAYS affecting the global economy. For example, have you seen was little piss-ant Greece has done to the global economy because of their overzealous socialism? so yeah...a change in China would be change to the world. And this is bad...HOW? Right now they use underpaid labor in lousy working conditions (even though the Apple story was bullshit), and they manipulate currency, and dumping money into their military to produce their new military (which bears a *remarkable* resemblance to our technology...)...and they steal technology like mad. So...a change to a more Democratic China would be bad HOW????

And, NO, China isn't going to erupt into civil war. That's hysterical nonsense.
orathaic (1009 D(B))
22 Mar 12 UTC
'And....the (inevitable) death another Communist regime would be bad....why???'

the fragile american and world economies wouldn't do too well at the moment.
orathaic (1009 D(B))
22 Mar 12 UTC
greece population: 11 million (~ 0.15% ~76th)
china population: 1.3 billion (~20%, 1st in the world)

greece gdp: ~309 billion USD (~00.49% of world, ~38th)
china gdp: 11,316 billion USD (~17% of world, 2nd only to the US)

yes, this may happen all the time, but Greece is no where near China in terms of scale. If you can't see that (or just plain don't have the common knowledge in the first place) then perhaps you should try some schooling...

(also instead of complaining about greek socialism - why don't you talk about neo-con bank and trade practices which exposed the world economy to a failure in the greek banking system.)
krellin (80 DX)
22 Mar 12 UTC
And when Russia fell? The impact was? Yes, there was impact, but life went along.

I'm too old for hysterics, the sky is falling nonsense.

Was I complaining about Greek socialism? I think I was bringing up a FACTUAL EXAMPLE.

If China's government changes, they will stil buy our rice, still produce our electroncis, etc. Change in government does not mean that everybody stops doing everything. This is nonsense...I know that if you are young enough to not have witnessed "big things" in the world this is like "WOW...China could explode...and the world as we know it end..." and like...SO WHAT?
Invictus (240 D)
22 Mar 12 UTC
Sure life went along. It went along in large part because the Communist Party didn't fight to stay in power or even to preserve the Soviet Union. As Tienanmen Square has shown that probably wouldn't be the case in China. If some Chinese Yeltsin or even Gorbachev took over you may have point, but that's not too likely. And that's leaving aside the separatist movements in Tibet and East Turkestan that could make Chechnya look like nothing.
orathaic (1009 D(B))
22 Mar 12 UTC
I would have also assumed that the USSR's economy was far less integrated with the global economy, than china's is now.
orathaic (1009 D(B))
22 Mar 12 UTC
Oh and your 'factual example' fails to notice the dofference in scale.

There is a big difference between 1 apple and 34 apples, but there is a bigger different if you remember that without greece there is still 99.5% of the world economy to trade with, while without China you're down to ~83%. A huge qualitive difference which makes your 'facts' largely irrelevant to the conversation.
AlexNesta (239 D)
22 Mar 12 UTC
Actually the USSR's economy was very much integrated with the economy of the other socialist countries, their transition to democracy and loosening of economic ties with Moscow actually sped up the downfall of the USSR as well... After that, the few socialist countries that remained (Cuba + some soviet republics that gained independence) went into a long and painful recession.
orathaic (1009 D(B))
22 Mar 12 UTC
I think you are supporting what i imagined - a big division between the socialist countries and the rest of the world economy - and even with collapsing economies benefits to 'western' economies when trade was finally opened up...

But i am short on facts here.
Invictus (240 D)
23 Mar 12 UTC
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-china-coup-rumors-20120323,0,6191555.story

Coup might be too strong a word, but there's definitely tension and the possibility of instability. Just the fact that it's been shown that the Party has internal divisions is a serious blow. China's communist leaders keep their positions because they provide stability and economic growth. If either of both of those fail then dissent will rise, whether from leftists like Bo or from liberals seeking democracy.

Maybe this is the end of it, but I bet the transition ten years from now will be even more eventful.
ulytau (541 D)
23 Mar 12 UTC
"I've said it before. We should be more worried about China's weaknesses than its strength."

This is of course true but it's a thought that won't get you anywhere in a country like the USA, which is the closest analogy to Greece in the West when it comes to military overspending. Greece was paranoid of it's fellow NATO member Turkey, the USA are paranoid of 3/4 of the world. Though one can view the military spending as a generous social programme, where young folks get a school of life in Afghanistan instead of useless liberal hogwash fed to them in actual schools.
spyman (424 D(G))
23 Mar 12 UTC
Krellin said: "So...a change to a more Democratic China would be bad HOW????"

IF China could transition to a democracy AND maintain stability, law and order, and security (so that investors aren't scared off) - thus maintaining economic growth THEN democracy would be a good thing. But is this is not necessarily what would happen. Democracy works well for America but this doesn't necessarily mean it works well for everywhere at any given point in time.

America has democracy - but in America's democracy succeeds in creating the order and power that is required for a productive economy which creates value. In China it has been the communist government that has created that order and power. It has been that communist government, which ironically has overseen the the introduction of free-market reforms which have transformed its economy(in a short amount of time) to an extent that is without parallel in history.

That said I hope China does evolve into a more liberal (and western) style nation - but I am biased. I am a liberal westerner.
krellin (80 DX)
23 Mar 12 UTC
@spyman - the possibilty of China devolving into an all-out American-style civil war is slim to none. the will of the people is not there, and the big ass military isnt' divided. THUS, the likihood is something different....perhaps a tedious, slow change to a more Democratic system. As happened in the fallen Soviet Union..

My point is..."the-sky-is-falling" rhetoric is useless and silly. The suggestion of the initial post is something dark and nefarious....the likelihood, while dramatic and world-changing were it to happen...is much less....how shall we put this....much less the stuff of action movies that young minds like to imagine...
spyman (424 D(G))
23 Mar 12 UTC
I see what you are saying Krellin. The idea of China collapsing does seem hard to imagine. That said will most commentators forsee China will going from strength to strength there are a few who argue otherwise. George Friedman argues that historically the opening of trade to the outside world always creates an enormous disparity in wealth with the inland regions and a decentralization of power and instability leading eventually to collapse. Is this going to happen really? It does seem far-fetched, but it is not without precedence.
spyman (424 D(G))
23 Mar 12 UTC
typo... That said *while most commentators foresee...
Mujus (1495 D(B))
23 Mar 12 UTC
Some visiting Chinese professors were astonished and somewhat nervous that we don't have police on every corner like they do in China. They walked a mile and didn't see one police officer that whole time, and couldn't get over it. We didn't think to bring up the fact that we aren't a police state. Does anyone remember what happened in Russia when they toppled the totalitarian government? They started to undergo a period of severe adjustments in both the economy and the enforcement mechanisms of the state, and to some extent still are. The same thing could happen in China at any time. The problem is that a modern state requires educated people to run, and those people see that something is wrong--for example, when the government draws an east-west line across the country and decrees "No heaters are permitted in buildings above this latitude and no air-conditioning below it," or "Elevators are not permitted to stop on floors 2-4 in order to save energy." (Of course what actually happens in the latter case is that people take the elevator to the fourth floor and walk down, which is easier than walking up, thus costing more energy.)
krellin (80 DX)
23 Mar 12 UTC
The huge difference between China and the Soviet Union is that China has already embraced Western culture, the illusion of democracy, capitalism, etc. They love our technology, as opposed to the Soviet Union that kept western advances away from their people (due in part to the lack of wealth to purchase it, etc.)

The problem with China, as stated, is an underclass of farmers, etc living in a near 3rd-world environment...but to suggest that all the farmer's will up and rebel someday is not accurate, either. One, they can't organize for any number of geographical, educational and cultural reasons, including language. One of China's biggest problems now is keeping people employed and happy...but with an economy growing at about a 7% clip right now (down from about 9%), and industry coming in, and the building trades *booming*...they are making progress towards their goals of stability.

sometimes that means taking entire villages and sticking them in the new city they just built...and the people do it...

Anyway - the point is - China is a vastly different situation than the Soviet Union (bread lines, etc.) and isn't in the situation of the Soviet Union (bankrupt due to the Cold War/Military spending) and therefore would not collapse as the S.U. did.
Gunfighter06 (224 D)
24 Mar 12 UTC
@ Invictus

"Coup in China?"

I hope so. The Chinese people have suffered under the heel of communism for far too long.

Better dead than red!
largeham (149 D)
24 Mar 12 UTC
"Better dead than red! "
Are you fucking serious?

How the bloody hell is China communist? Also, China has a lot of undustrial unrest, we just don't hear abut them.
krellin (80 DX)
24 Mar 12 UTC
Better Dead than Red....Haaa ha ha! Ahhh...that's an oldie but a goodie!

Uhh...largeham...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_China

Not a big fan of Wiki's...but seriously dude...
largeham (149 D)
24 Mar 12 UTC
Just putting a red flag and the name communist doesn't make a person or a state communist.

Communism is a classless stateless society based on a revolution from the working class, not the peasantry.
krellin (80 DX)
24 Mar 12 UTC
Let's see....they call themselves Communist....they have distinct Communist roots...but yes, like ALL communist states....their philosophy has FAILED...and they are starting to embrace Capitalism. So....just because you *completely* lack any knowledge of history does not mean that Communist China is not one of the last, lingering bastions of Communism. largeham....grow up.
largeham (149 D)
24 Mar 12 UTC
What are these distinct communist roots? As I said, communism is based on the working class, not the peasantry where Mao got his base from. It is based on workers controlling the means of production, not the government owning everything.
krellin (80 DX)
24 Mar 12 UTC
largeham....go pick up some history books, chum. I suppose by YOUR definition no Communist state has EVER existed, because I've yet to see any form of classless society anywhere ever. I guess that's how yo dyed-in-the-woll whack-jobs hold tight to your demented belief systems...by saying they've never *truly* been tried.....(which is, OF COURSE, because they are impossible systems WITHOUT a class system in place....that is, one group with guns forcing the others to work...)

I'm done with you, Troll-ham
largeham (149 D)
24 Mar 12 UTC
Tolololololololololololololo- the reason the USSR was so cool.

Like you people claim that capitalism has never existed. And yes, no communist state ever existed. As for a socialist state, the last one was Russia in the early 20s. But I guess Putin will disagree.


30 replies
2ndWhiteLine (2736 D(B))
24 Mar 12 UTC
YOU DON'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT THE SECOND
WHITE LINE
3 replies
Open
The Czech (41806 D(S))
24 Mar 12 UTC
Mods please check your email
I'm in a live game and I have reported it.
12 replies
Open
krellin (80 DX)
24 Mar 12 UTC
As yet Unscathed England Opening
http://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=83011&nocache=536
1 reply
Open
Octavious (2732 D)
24 Mar 12 UTC
What the hell has happened to double yolk eggs?
Seriously now, where did they go? There were never huge numbers of them, but they cropped up every now and then to provide unparalleled excitement at the breakfast table. Now they seem to have vanished into the murky depths of history along with the space shuttle and the cream that used to float on top of a pint of milk.

Is this evidence that humanity is in terminal decline?
3 replies
Open
Yellowjacket (835 D(B))
23 Mar 12 UTC
Unpretentious Wine...
...it creates as many problems as it solves. Discuss?
9 replies
Open
SynalonEtuul (1050 D)
23 Mar 12 UTC
This conversation is considered resolved.
"[name], I'm sorry you don't understand, but given our past interactions, I suspect you don't actually care and are just looking to waste my time. This conversation is considered resolved."

Can someone explain why I keep seeing this in basically every thread (not to me, mind; just in general)? Did someone keep saying it and now it's sort of an ironic in-joke? I don't understand!
17 replies
Open
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