@abge - I've looked back on this thread and can't find where anyone has said that this would be for newbies that CD. Although I may have missed something. I thought this was to give people a chance to pause playing for a certain amount of time because of RL.

Say Draug keels over from a heart attack. Being a good Dipper, he pushes the nuclear button before going under the knife. Luckily, he survives and is back to Dipping in a few weeks. He didn't have time to find sitters for his 16 games, but he isn't punished for being a good chap and taking care of his games.

@Draug - you are welcome in advance for my having you survive this horrific example.

@Draug - great minds....

I know this is just brainstorming, but what about something like this.

For programmers, there is this site called StackOverflow. It's a peer-to-peer help site. The interesting part about it is that you have to earn the right to do certain things on it by answering questions, answering questions reliably, etc.

So how does this relate to webdip? Imagine if for new players, there was an initial reputation system. For example, when you first join webdip, you can join one game. Once you complete a game, you can join 2 more games. Once you complete a certain number of games or phases, you can create new games. If you miss phases or leave games, you go back to square one.

Just spit-balling... is there anything to this concept?

@jim/Draug

Yes, I understand that this isn't exclusively for new players, but I suspect (unlike other things, which I know) that new players would use it most frequently.

Established members usually on CD in emergency situations. Now, if they have time to press a button, they also have to time just email the mods and request to be booted from their games. So, imho, the features we're talking about here wouldn't help Established Members much. Do you disagree?

What it would do, imho, is make newer players feel that CDing isn't all that bad. They'll click the button when their first 5 games have gone to shit and then be upset they can't immediately start new games.

I may be wrong, but that's what I think would happen.

@Mapu

I would love to completely get rid of points and just establish a reliability system (I believe vDip has one) that limits how many games you can play.

"Established members usually on CD in emergency situations. Now, if they have time to press a button, they also have to time just email the mods and request to be booted from their games. So, imho, the features we're talking about here wouldn't help Established Members much. Do you disagree?"

Well, if you put it that way. Yeah, they may be the same thing. Just throwing ideas out there.

And just so any mod doesn't get upset, anytime I offer a suggestion I don't expect someone to jump up and implement it. Something comes up that sounds good, lets talk it out. I love this site and just want to help make it better if possible. Don't think that I am offering up orders for someone to jump on. I'm sure that most of the people who offer up suggestions think the same way.

@jim

The mods never mind suggestions. The mods don't even do any of the site development. Their opinions aren't really better, other than usually having used the site a lot more than average members.

@abge - But you wanrthem in no uncertain terms on the verification screen/dialog *exactly* what it entails (all games going into CD and them not being allowed to play *any* games for X weeks or months).

And I seriously doubt any mod here has used the site much if any mroe than me. Hell, I fucking live here! :-)

@Draug

What would you say the average level of reading comprehension on this site is? : )

I don't know if that's fair abge. Some individuals from foreign countries have low reading comprehension and are perfectly solid players.

Then again, if we just evaluate English speaking players...Could we implement a button that asks you what your primary language is? ;-p

College level for English speakers and at least as good as high school grad for non-English. Despite some of the willful misinterpretations that occur on the forum, a clear and simple statement:

-- EMERGENCY LEAVE OF ABSENCE CONFIRMATION --

You have requested to have all your games put into Civil Disorder.

What this means:
+ You will not be able to take these games back over.
+ You will not be allowed to play any games on this site for the next 30 days.

Do you agree to these limitations?

[Yes - I agree] [No - Do not go on Emergency Leave]

@Draug

You can make a warning as clear and as big as you want; I still think it will be misused. Now, if it would be really helpful, I would say let some people misuse it as the majority of people will find it helpful. However, in this particular case, I think the majority of uses will not be what it was intended for.

we could always just ban everybody and go do other things. That would prevent abuse of the button. :-)

Or hey, here's an idea. we use the site only for postal games! Abuse rate drops to almost nothing because only dedicated people will spend that much money on postage. *medal please*