Wait... Balaran. Is what u said about draws before fall 03 NOT counting towards GR true? I was not aware of this. Can I get confirmation on this from someone who knows Ghostmaster's system? Or if it is speeled out somewhere please furnish the link.

I'm certainly going to be interested to play from time to time, but should I wait for the 150cc to get up and running?

The difference between 150cc and 50cc is going to be primarily of quality, you might run into a CD or two around here.

But you're more then welcome to play in either, or both. If know I certainly might pop into both. From time to time.

I wouldn't say that, unless my understandings of the different classes is wrong. I thought the only difference between 50cc and 150cc was GR...

What I mean is it isn't very exclusive initially. CDers won't be playing twice. But that doesn't stop them from playing once.

Would it be too much to ask for the host to do a quick background check before handing over the password?

@Babak, that's right, games ending before Autumn 1903, win or draw don't count. TGM's main page says this -

Q: I have fewer games in Ghost-Rating than on webdiplomacy- why?

The Ghost-Rating list filters out games where the game ends before Autumn 1903. This is because these games cannot be won without CD, and before the cancel feature was introduced, people used to 7-way draw games that they wanted to cancel for whatever reason.

Here, i know it's a big ask, but if there is a way of making games Oz friendly, that's be super handy. I'm not so sure about dragging my arse out of bed at 7am for a game of Dip :)
but i do want to be involved, love live games.
Hmmm tomorrow is saturday, i can get up, have coffee and play, no? perhaps

http://tinyurl.com/fiftycc

morning all. I will answer the questions as best i can. yes GR ratings are uneffected by games finishing before fall 03. As previously said it is in the GR rules. So no one has an excuse for not hitting the draw button.

I do carefully vet everyone who wants to play a game. As a general rule if someone is playing a lot of live games I am more forgiving than someone who just started. So if you dropped out of 10 games but have played 100 I am more likely to value you higher than someone who has played 20 and dropped from 2. If someone really wants to change their ways I will ask them to play say 5-10 more live games outside the club to see if they can play without going into CD.

All club games will be password protected. I will collect the names of interested players and when I have 7 I will start the game and hand out the password. If I'm not playing in the game I can drop out before the start to allow a 7th player to join.

I intend for all games to be numbered: 50CC-001, 50CC-002 etc. This means that I can find the games easily in the history If I'm not around when a game finishes.

Games may be started in the Australian timezone, but I will need one Australian volunteer to collect names and publicise. The job also involves keeping me up to date with dropouts and games that have run. This is the same for USA/canada. Geofram asked about hosting but I've not had any further message from him so I assume I am still looking for someone stateside.

Nice survey Geofram. I hope enough people take the time to complete it so that the results are meaningful.
Ultimately though, I think you just need to look at the live games that have finished each week to see when people are playing live games. Generally speaking most games take place between 6pm and 4am GMT with slightly more starting after 11pm than before it.

That survey I've been linking will allow members to find out who's usually available and what nights are best to try and get a game going (after more people click it of course).

The link: http://tinyurl.com/fiftycc

I'm not sure "hosting" has to be that big of a deal. The club should be, and will have to be, member driven. If seven members are online, they get a game going, they post the link in this thread or somewhere else. If there were issues, they report it. That's it. The name of the game won't matter, no one has to make a game and then step out, and there's no wasteful bureaucratic procedure that makes trying to get a game going even more difficult.

Just play! The club is essentially a desire for better live games. The best things that will come out of it are a public blacklist no one wants to be on and a sense of prolonged competitiveness between games. We're not here to collect dues or recite creeds.

That survey should essentially serve as a member list. There's no reason for anyone wanting better live games to NOT fill it out. It takes seconds. It's a start. A page to record games, keep a blacklist, and maybe even a separate thread/board would be good too. But have we even had any games happen under the 50CC banner?

We've got a page to keep the blacklist, and if you really want to record games. So long as the info is sent to me I will put it up on a 50cc site on ghosts site.

I wasn't able to play yesterday due to Thanksgiving, but I'm interested and should be around for today's game.

Might be around for one tonight...

Hmm. Ok the problems with making it a free for all are this.

1) If no one is monitoring who signs up, then anyone can sign up and you get the dropouts the same as before!
2) If a blacklist is on a different site, then the chances are that those creating games are not going to be bothered to check all 7 players out!
3) Most games are anon, therefore if there is no password control and vetting, then anyone can see the game and join it! Banned members included!

I feel we need 3 or 4 people who are willing to host and get games together when they are online. These people can be kept up to date with banned players from a central list which I am willing to keep up to date and distribute.

@Geofram "But have we even had any games happen under the 50CC banner? "
Well considering the 50cc only started last night and I spent 2 hours beforehand spamming members with recruitment messages and then a further 2 hours trying to get a game together on one of the quietest evenings on the site, then NO we haven't had a gamestart yet! However it has not been due to a lack of effort, and I have had many messages from players saying that although they couldn't last night they hope to play in future, and also what a good idea it is!

Tonight we will try and get a gunboat game going. contact me around 7.45 gmt (2.45 EST) and we will see if we have enough.

I'll be on about an hour later if you haven't made it work...

collecting names now for Live Gunboat WTA classic 20pts

looking for 2 more players for a live gunboat game. message me now for an invite.

Nice initiative! when will the game be planned for start? Im GMT+1, so I would prefer it to start soon.

you are the sixth so shouldn't be long ;)

Game is full. please join as soon as you get the password ;)

http://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=73204

about the required drawing whenever a CD (hopefully seldom) occurs - is it regardless of the CD'ing country's size, or is it a joint estimate of the biased balance of the game?

whatever is fine by me, since the quality of this club should be quite high in short time, just wanted to be sure of the rules.

It is required if the CD will unbalance the game ;)

alright - but it might get tricky with any disputes, when the games are gunboat :)

If the power in CD has a center then it will unbalance the game for someone! ;)

ok i'm sorry but i want to get this straight so i don't mess up.

if italy cds but only has an army in tunis, we do or do not draw?

How about cds before 1903 draw it and restart.......anything after keep playing?

I like the idea of drawing nomatter what and then ban the CD player - zero tolerance should clean this club up, to avoid the situation from occurring often.