What defines an active user? I have no ongoing games for a number of reasons, but I haven't gone away. I'll join games when I can commit to them. I hope Mafia players are given 'active users' status.

In soccer 'Cup' games rise passions more than leagues. Especially if all levels are allowed to compete. How about setting up a 'WebDip Cup' anyone can enter. Games end after x seasons and top three go through to next round (if three players remain).

Ending games after x seasons ensures they don't run and run and organisers can plan to have the whole cup finish in a set time.

Satire is at it's zenith when people think it's real. Nice one Capt.

I'm gonna sign as "webDip Mom" more often. Nobody has ever taken me that seriously.

Who made bo a mom?

Site features are always welcome, but that isn't the main issue, imho.

You can't find the site on google unless you already know it exists. That probably isn't too hard to fix with even some basic SEO.

More importantly, though, Diplomacy, and particularly online Diplomacy is still quite a niche hobby. But, just look at how D&D has absolutely exploded recently. We could probably jump on that bandwagon. We just need better marketing. I'm sure most people here don't exclusively talk to people on webDip. Do you bring up Diplomacy and webDip in your other forums? In real life? I've introduced perhaps 2 dozen people to Diplomacy. Most don't stick, but some do.

Hi all,

I'm still around, just busy with life but I check the forum multiple times a day and the mods do talk to me about big pictures. The site usage has slowed down, but as someone pointed out earlier, comparing user counts only doesn't work because we have gotten rid of a lot of cheaters and multiaccounts. Also, checking around, all Diplomacy site usage seems to be on the decline at the moment, maybe due to general interest, maybe due to many other distractions that exist. Diplomacy isn't an instant gratification game and many of the youths seem to gravitate more and more towards that. Mods and developer work have also slowed down. It's hard to tell and explain to non-mods how much work mods generally put in and how much it can wear most people, even the dedicated ones, down over time. In any case, regardless of the reasons, ultimately it falls on my shoulders with the mods' support to try to make changes with the aim of making this site the best place to play Diplomacy. Maybe it will all be for naught if Diplomacy is just one game among too many choices, but we should try anyway.

Moving forward, I think we are going to need to enlist the community's help and crowdsource of the work if you will. There are some things I think we need to get going ASAP:

1. If anyone knows a serious developer who can work on developing our site, please contact that person and have him/her email us about his/her expertise, examples of work product and rates. If we can get some actual rates, then I am willing to do some fundraising to get the money to pay someone to work on developing our site. We have enough money to keep the site running for about another year, but not enough to pay for a developer.

2. We do need a new interface and a new forum. The site's forum is very much outdated and we would like to change that, but we'll need to figure out how the forum and game interface will interact.

3. I think it's time we add more variants, particularly some 1 on 1 variants. If someone can create a spreadsheet of variants that are balance or just plain fun to add, we can vote on it and we will add them to our site.

4. RR: I think this should be kept but let's make it easier for people to recover the RR. What if we do something like calculate the RR for only the last 20 games or games only in the past year and use the higher RR? This way, if you haven't played in over a year, your RR goes back to 100% or if you do not NMR or CD in 20 games, which isn't unreasonable.

5. Integrate GR or new rating system but it has to be automated and live, not created every month. This will require developer work on two fronts: new rating system and site integration. I think we have a couple of people who can do the new rating system but we will need the developer to integrate it.

I am sure I am forgetting something important but that's what I can remember at the moment. Let me know what you guys think and where you can help.

If you're concerned about fewer players on webdip, the most important thing you should be doing (instead of pestering the one unpaid Dev to implement your favorite pet feature) is....

RECRUITING NEW PLAYERS!

I'm surprised this apparently has not been mentioned yet. Some of us might have friends and/or co-workers who would be interested in Dip. If you are concerned about the future of our hobby, it is your duty to evangelize and recruit fresh blood. New Diplomacy players aren't spawned by programmers or willed into existence by magic fairies waving wands. They are made by Dippers who care more about Dip than keeping their IRL friendships.

there he is^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

jimthegrey does an excellent job of recruiting. I have asked him to host a live game using webdip platform. have not done it yet, but he thought it was a good idea..windycityweasels and Boston backbiters should try to incorporate the site into some of their games

A couple of my old high school teachers use the site and recruit students for private games. There'll be at least a little bit of a jump when that happens. But that's only like 20 people. Also, when ODC kicks up next year I think I'll actually play games again, whether or not it's this site.

Well I think this is a great site for Diplomacy
Is it possible that Google gives preference to more commercial sites than non commercial sites ? So search result position is influenced by a range of factors ?
Thanks Zultar for your post

^My history teacher introduced Diplomacy to the class (including me) and it became a fad for half a year. Some of my friends even created accounts on webDip, but that was 3 years ago, and I was the only one to stick around for more than 2 games.

It gives preference to popular sites, and playDip definitely gets more traffic than us. The question is how it became so popular in the first place, since webDip even had a head start.

we need a better vehicle to teach the game. A while back a game was created where two players controlled one country. All press and moves for each country could be controlled by either player.
1. help with teaching the game
2. might lower the amount of NMR/CD's that happen

Lots of good discussions here: I couldn't read it all.

I started in July 2012, things that I miss about 2012-2013:
-there were more tournaments
-there were more live games and the clock didn't lag (that's how I really fell in love with this game)
-the GR was updated monthly including the sub GRs

But I burned out and disappeared for 2 years, when I came back recently:
-love the updates for game options (hdv, RR etc)
-I don't miss the forum clowns one bit

Perhaps a forum with sub category's to keep all the political crap in one place the mafia crap in one place and game related threads and discussions separate

Yeah, it was great except it was a logistical clusterfuck.

^ re: ss

why?

Because people had to keep logging in and out of accounts.

that was because you created these dummy accounts and had separate login's. why not make it a game option

use are regular accounts, it has to be a possibility

our^^

As a relatively new guy, I'd really like to be a part of The Leagues I keep hearing about. Please start that up again. Zultar, thank you so much for coming on and giving us the good news, I'm excited.
As far as getting new players, I think I've introduced upwards of 30 people to the site over the last 2 years. No one seems to be fanatical enough to stick with it, though.

@Zultar: things you didnmt mention.

SEO - how to get more people finding us on google.

Mobile friendlyness - two options, a dedicated mobile app (which gets us in the apple store and andriod equivalent, and thus opens a new avenue for new users to approach) but is a big development investment.

Or responsive web design. (I know someone who can help there, though they are working full time at present) this would improve usability on my phone and is the biggest improvement that would benefit my personal enjoyment - is less work.

Ok, thinking about how people find games, the steam store is pretty frakking big. How do se get webdip onto steam? Even as a free game, it would raise our profile dramatically.

Ok, that's all i've got for now. My 2 cent.

I noticed just last week vDip was having almost this exact same discussion regarding declined activity and need for updated enhancements. Meanwhile we're asking increases in variants.

I don't know much about the background politics between the two sites but obviously there are common origins based on how close they are to each other. Should not a consolidation be considered to bring in WebDips clearer and more advanced development and better exposure with some of vDip's more interesting variants?

I do strongly agree a credible and instant gratification rating system is pretty important to keeping players continually interested. If there's no continuity in the scoring then players are just going to nonchalently come and go as the urge hits them with no real competitive investment of building towards something. Players lose interest and attrition kicks in as we're not able to attract new players.

Probably worth noting that the pay competition is supposed to be launching a mobile version of their site sometime this fall, so may make things even harder over here if we're not able to keep up with trend expectations of this nature.

Just a quick note to say:

* Love you, Tolstoy.
* Z is correct that all diplomacy sites are in a decline. I suspect we have more active users than playdip, but knowing that for sure means we need to decide what active user means (and getting a reliable figure from playdip is challenging).
* I have a lot to say on this topic. More soon.

"Should not a consolidation be considered to bring in WebDips clearer and more advanced development and better exposure with some of vDip's more interesting variants?"

Based on the same open source project. Webdip decided to release limited numbers of variants (originally only gunboat and public press on the classic map) so vdip took the lead on developing variants - which can be ported over here fairly easily...

Very friendly communities.

"Consolidation" in terms of actually merging the two sites would of course be impossible as there are some users over there who are permanently banned here.

Plus I'm playing there with a different player name..if you amalgamated both sites I'd have two accounts & get busted. I'll bet there's quite a few players in same position.
PS here I have a win % of about 12 or 13 %
There I have a win % between 75% and 80%
Seems I don't play as well in a group compared to one V one games.

Yes Jamiet99uk..
He who's name cannot be mentioned is a member over there and not here, which is to all our Good