My back? What's that all about? Ouch! Oh yeh... :)

@Duke -- my story of getting to this place was very similar to yours

Hi & welcome to the site & good luck in your gaming.
I am sure we will get to play a game, at some stage together.

Greetings, Mr. Duke!

What do you think of Nietzsche and Shakespeare and History and The Economy and God and World Politics And Kant and The Beatles and Obama And Mozart And Lady Gaga and The Meaning Of Life?

(Just for starters, of course...its a very active forum...just remember--John Cage's 4:33 is NOT a musical piece and not a song, it lacks notes and has all rests which is the equivalent of a sentence having no words and only a period as a rest is intended to signify a break from action, as is a period, and so firstly it may be argued that arrest with no notes is absurd as then it may be stated there was noting to rest from and secondly the concept of a sentence without words is absurd, hence a musical piece without musical notes or some form of sound is absurd, and so we may draw the conclusion that 4:33 is NOT a song...right?

For those that get the reference--shhhh...let us here what the newcomer has to say...)

So hello--and be prepared for the most mind-boggling discussions ever! :D

^ Unfortunately we can't keep all the crazies out...

Anyone out there ready to mentor a relatively experienced player new to the site? I see I get 100 ... somethings. I see I have to "bet" to join an existing game. What if I go to zero? I don't mind taking a few losing games ... but ... would love to get a sense of the situation. I was a regular at another site that evidently crashed yesterday ... just as my beautiful triple stab was going to secure the game! LOL! Look forward to hearing from you all!

Never mind my question ... I found the answer in the FAQ. Would love to have any willing mentor explain their experiences.

In case the answer you found wasn't clear, Zmeya (cool name, by the way), you won't get the points back if you CD (although there is a bug in this) and CDs early on are frowned upon. They occassionally happen, but not in your first 10 or 20 games should you let one happen.

Welcome to the site. Stab ya' later!

lol bombadil.

well thank god you wont NMR, duke.

welcome.

"Anyone out there ready to mentor a relatively experienced player new to the site? "

I've been here for over three years. While I had fun for most of it, sadly, the forums have devolved to become a cess pool for trolls and other ne'r do wells. And the worst of it is that the mods refuse to do anything about it.

Piss someone off in these forums at your own risk, cuz anything goes here. There is no ban-able offense unless you cheat in-game.

My suggestion is to look elsewhere. Here, for instance: http://olidip.net/

Darwyn, he wasn't asking about the forums at all. You're bringing an argument from one thread into the next. Plus, there are relatively few trolls compared to the total amount of players who use the site.

And welcome Duke! I hope you stay with us

Actually, he asked about a mentor for the site. The site includes the forums. As a resident here with three years under my belt, I felt I was qualified to tell him about my experiences with the forum.

I don't doubt that you're qualified to tell him, but nonetheless I don't feel that the forum is a reason for him not to use this site

@ obiwanobiwan, um... Nietzsche: not much a philosophy kind of guy, me, but it worked for Siegal and Shuster, I guess. Shakespeare: wrote a lot and couldn't spell his name, hmm. Reminds me a lot of Machiavelli, though: occasionally says what he thinks, but doesn't want to get in trouble with the authorities. History: bunkum... but only if you use words like "bunkum"; otherwise fascinating stuff (but as I'm currently wrapping my head around the 100 Years War, that might give it away). The Economy: that one's simple - make money mean something other than numbers again and things might be worth the numbers we pay for them. God: I speak to God everyday, but then I'm clumsy and stub my toe a lot; also, probably not in the way she'd like me to speak to her. World Politics: EVERYTHING is a conspiracy these days... which makes me wonder if the lovers of conspiracy "theory" realise how close they are to Marx? Kant: if you think you're Kant, or if you think you aren't, you're right. The Beatles: great in their time, possibly good after their time, but if they wrote Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds WITHOUT knowing it would link to LSD, I'm disappointed (and they didn't know semaphore). Obama: see "Kant". Oh and the Americans who call him"socialist" really don't know what "socialist" is. Mozart: a genius... if only he'd known about the steel guitar *sigh*. Lady Gaga: aptly named. The Meaning of Life: Douglas got it right, beyond 42 it's meaningless.

@ everyone else, thanks for the welcome :)

Oops... I nearly missed Cage off. I'll leave you with this interesting thought......
.......
....... Hmmm.

@Duke

Welcome to the site!

This site has a lot of very high-quality players, but if you find yourself in not great games, you could be looking in the wrong places. Make sure to skim the forum to look for people advertising new games. Those ones are usually much higher quality.

Also, as some people have said, cheating is taken seriously, but the Forum is unmoderated. So, if you have an uneasy stomach, be careful with threads you open! : )

Hope you enjoy it here!

Welcome to the site Duke. Don't listen to naysayers like Darwyn. I'm newer to the site than he is, but I'm a frequent forum poster and player, and I have fun.

But uhh, what's with all the Lady Gaga hate? Seriously?

"the Forum is unmoderated. So, if you have an uneasy stomach, be careful with threads you open! : )"

The forum is definitely unmoderated. And that means anything goes around here. Including (but not limited to) looking you up in real life and accusing you of sick and demented crimes. Just hope you don't share a name with a pedophile....seriously.

And no, that wasn't even a joke. :(

The people of this site need to be warned.

@Mafia

Were you here for the Great Gaga Debate? It's was pretty much obi against the entire Forum.

Tbh, I probably won't be dropping in the Forum too much anyway, time at a premium and all. And I think the game quality is pretty much the issue on a lot of similar sites: where to find the games. I'll keep a look out, though I don't see myself playing in more than one game at a time on a regular basis... back to time issues again.

Mmmm... oh yeah. That was kinda bad. To be fair though Darwyn, it's not as though all of us do stuff like that all the time. That was an isolated incident, carried out by one person. He was quickly and universally called out as an asshole for that, and has himself admitted it was way out of line.

"the Forum is unmoderated."

Actually, I take that back. The site has moderators. They don't give a shit about the very people that make this site popular. Their choice is to always do nothing.

"Welcome to the site Duke. Don't listen to naysayers like Darwyn."

Most everyone here are pretty good people...like Mafialligator. But some of us ruin it for the rest of us. And the mods allow it.

@Darwyn

You need to chill. We all agreed he was out of line and nobody took him seriously anyway. At this point, you're doing more to hurt the community by trying to scare people away.

And no abgemacht, I missed the Great Gaga Debate. Which side did obi take, vs. the rest?

obi thought she was a hack. The rest of us love her. Try to find it. It's an excellent read.

"That was an isolated incident, carried out by one person. "

This is true. We've since buried that hatchet. My beef is now with the mods who have had plenty of opportunity to take action, but chose to do nothing. And by action, they cannot even delete the thread in question.

What a fucking shame that is.

Yeah, Darwyn it wasn't my intent to marginalize your opinion or contradict you. I just wanted to give a newcomer a warm welcome and not scare him needlessly away from the community.

@Darwyn, the mods actually have no powers over the forums, beyond banning a user from the website entirely. No way to edit or delete posts or lock threads. I believe that the occasional poster has been banned for forum abuse.

But in general we are expected to be thick skinned and understand that someone being a jerk says more about them than you.

"At this point, you're doing more to hurt the community by trying to scare people away. "

I'm simply telling the truth. So anything that hurts the community will be the mods doing.

OK, I'm the guilty party. And I just asked Kestas to delete the thread in question if he could/would. If anyone can do it, he can. And I can't wait until the day Darwyn gets to bury the Diplomacy Knife... Right in my back. I deserve it:-)