5:
I check this site from my phone all the time, and it sometimes gets suspicious when my "last seen" time has been updated but I can't respond to anyone.
8:
An option to "give up" your slot without making everyone else wait 2 turns. This way, a replacement can be found before the country goes into CD. (also auto-disbands would be cool)

ffs meant 4

@Kamen - no such thing as an auto-retreat as there is always the option to disband instead of retreating. There is only auto-disbands.

@ Kestas:

I know a little PHP, so I'm not just completely guessing.

Is "stickying" a post not just a simple if statement and a boolean variable? Sure, you'd have to code something that would let the moderators actually sticky things (I know nothing about how the mod interface works) but checking if a thread is sticky would seem to be pretty easy.


The code now probably looks something along the lines of:
(I may be mixing some Visual Basic in with my PHP. I've been coding a lot in VB lately. Sorry.)
(And this is going to look disgusting because the forum automatically removes spaces, hint hint)
If(NewPostinThreadID)
{
For(i=0, i < ThreadID'sForumIndex, i++)
ForumAdd(i)
/* ForumAdd is a function that accepts an integer n and increments the ForumIndex for the nth entry in the forum.*/
next i
}
ThreadID'sForumIndex = 0


It's a simple matter of changing that to:
If(NewPostinThreadID) {
NumSticky = 0;
For(i=0, i < ThreadID'sForumIndex, i++)
if(Sticky(i) = False)
{ForumAdd(i)}
/* ForumAdd is still a function that accepts an integer n and increments the ForumIndex for the nth entry in the forum.*/
else
{NumSticky ++}
next i
ThreadID'sForumIndex = NumSticky

Now actually setting Sticky(i) = True would be different. Like I said, I know nothing about that.

"8:
An option to "give up" your slot without making everyone else wait 2 turns. This way, a replacement can be found before the country goes into CD. (also auto-disbands would be cool)"

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.

This encourages quitting.

Perhaps an option to pay 25 nonrefundable points to do that, MAYBE. But don't add that.

I'm in favour of the ability to buy-out of a game, but only if you have arranged a replacement.
@ask - Feels like a nice idea, but people would use it to ditch

@rlum - That's not normally how a forum would work no. Ordering and sorting tends to be done by the database. A more standard way of stickying posts would be to add a boolean flag to the thread entry, and modify the ORDER BY sql criteria by pre-pending a sort on sticky.
And yes, that's much more like visual basic than PHP.

Yeah, changing the SQL to...

SELECT field list FROM Postings
WHERE [ParentThread] = 0
ORDER BY [StickyFlag] desc, [LastPostAppendedDate] desc

...should do the trick. Then just add the ability for a mod to click on the sticky flag to the forum view.

Also for my views - sorry I didn't remember this before:
Most important: Correct game ending place in the cycle - Currently the rules are not correct (as noted on dev-forum)

Option number 1 By far the more important.

Then the option with Facebook will be great too

and the cheater stuff also.

@ Fig: On the websites I manage, our "databases" consists of about 12 different .csv files. I don't know much about real database management. If I were doing it, I'd have an excel sheet with the order of the threads, threadID, Title, Summary, and responses ad infinitum, and just have the website read that, easy peasy.

But ultimately, the database has to do exactly what I coded, doesn't it? SOMETHING does that, and it's just a matter of telling the something to do it a slightly different way...

And be glad I didn't through in MATLAB. What a God-forsaken environment in which to code that is.

Well, I guess in some ways.
However, you never have to deal with it with a decent database, because the database will sort values internally, so externally you have nothing new to deal with.

Wow, I've got one website that uses a .csv database for it's Diary, but that's only because I haven't got round to converting it yet. Seems just so inefficient to me, although I can see the simplicity of it.

*Draugnar runs around in circles screaming 'CSV! Nooooooooooo!'*

Seriously, with all the free databases out there, including SQL Server Express that Excel and VBA for Office can talk to, why would you still use a CSV flat file for a database table?

Hey kestasjk,
Wouldnt it be a great idea to put webip into git? (github.com is nice)
Much easier for collaborative working, when others have time to help. I don't know php myself, though. Still a very nice tool for projects like this.

*Watches what Draugnar just said fly over his head*

Wooooosh!

I have no idea what SQL even is, although a remotely intelligent monkey could deduce from context that it's a database client of some kind.

Seriously though, if you have suggestions, make some. Just today, I started designing a new website for my research lab, and in a couple days, unless you all give me a decent alternative, it might have dreaded CSV files. :-P

Sorry for derailing your thread Kestas. :-P

Oh, and Kestas, I'm not exactly sure what the cutoff point is, but if you look in Threads/Replies posted in someone's profile, it only displays results a certain number/time/whatever old. This is really irksome, when I'm looking for a thread several days old in which I just posted.. If this could be fixed, or the forum made searchable, that would really help a lot.

Another thought: (Now I'm spamming your thread, but at least I'm getting it back on track...)

Having some kind of asterisk next to when a player takes over a CD would be really nice.

I like the:

1. non-anon pre game, then anon idea
2. auto-disbands
3. a new one - a pause proposal that is voted on is to a specific time on a specific date. ie Pause game to Saturday 20 June at 8pm GMT. then everyone votes on it

What about voting to determine starting countries? I'm surprised that isn't on your list. Seems a pretty easy request. Everyone pics 1-8 on starting countries in the order in which they want, computer randomizes the users, top player gets his first country, next player gets his top choice (and if it is gone, the next choice), etc...

I don't want to be turkey anymore! ;)

Its not really constructive to discuss how something might be implemented here, either it's already clear or there are other complications that haven't been factored in, but I appreciate the thought at least of aiming for easier features even if it's rarely true to the reality of it

I'm still interested to see what people think, but don't worry about how hard it'd be to do etc

In order of priority:

8. An improvement to the reporting system
8. Official sitting support
8. Deposits for games as an option
8. WTA/ PPSC hybrid as standard scoring system.
8. No-NMR as an option (if a user NMRs, give an extra phaselength and after that, pause putting them into CD)

Possibly: give the option to mods to edit the FAQ etc.

One thing I forgot, as a pretty high priority (1st/2nd): Require an agreement to the rules on the sign up (possibly with checkboxes by each of the rules)

No. 7 shouldn't be necessary until October btw, because I'm going to be able to put in a fair amount over the summer. Also, I'm not quite sure how it would be done.

Making the Mod tools quicker/nicer to use will have greater benefits.

Deposits?
8. Game notifications continuing to show up in the top-bar for 2 phase lengths after completion. Allows you to discuss a game that you've just finished with the other players, but without having to start a forum thread.
8. PM notification in the top bar

8. An improvement to the reporting system
8. Official sitting support

Agree totally with those, the reporting system in particular could be a lot easier, it's a lot simpler than emailing anyway and (i think) would require less work from the mods.

5, the stickying and possibly making it to the third page where they get locked, rather than the second (if it's possible)

7, if it could actually be done :P

figle's suggestions in that post are v. good too.

Deposits: Bet is 10 , but you put down a deposit of 10 (say, possible to choose) which you get if you play on until the end.

The agreement to the rules thing would never work. The people who don't pay attention to the rules normally will be the ones that simply check the boxes mechanically. It's just a pain and could reduce registrations. I get the intention, and perhaps it would be better solved by having a short quiz on site rules to let you play WTA games or something.

Anyways, I think we should get more variants in, especially the simple ones that have to do with small modifications of the basic maps.

Otherwise, my number one improvement would actually be improved smartphone support. I don't use a smartphone, but from the way things are going, I feel like this is the next big thing in terms of exposure. Smartphones are becoming pretty standard and support would bring in a larger player base in the future and give us an edge on other sites. I feel Diplomacy is an especially good game for someone to play on a smartphone, and I think webdip's design can be incorporated well on to a smaller screen.