After six months of negotiations I have finally acquired the right to the board game diplomacy from Avlon Hill. Obviously I'm pretty stoked.

I love this game and really appreciate what Kestas and others have done in setting up the online version and bringing new players to the game. I will not be seeking to charge any royalties or fees for you guys to continue to use the diplomacy concept.

It goes without saying that now I have a brand to protect that I'm going to have to insist on some small changes to the forum. As many of you probably haven't noticed I have never once swore in any of my posts. I think swearing puts off new-comers and/or children. Can everyone please refrain from swearing from this point on. That includes the 'F' word and all its variants like Fcuk, F$$k, etc? the 'C' word also can not be used, but you may use the variant 'front bottom'. 'Libtard' should definitely never be used.

Until I know that everyone is going to abide by the minor change I'm imposing, I will be restricting membership to the 18+ age group. I realise that this will mean the average age will increase and this is at odds with the young vibrant site I want to create. So I'm also banning the over 25s.

As you know the mods, whom I would like to thank for doing a thankless task, sometimes disagree on what can and can not be posted. This leads to inappropriate threads being set up. In future all new threads will be submitted for approval before going live. The mods will scrutinise them and refer them all to me before they accept any new thread. We hope we won't have to screen every individual post, but watch this space.

For the avoidance of doubt discussion about lawns, backyards and flower boxes have no place on a site like mine which aims to embrace people from all backgrounds.

I'm sure my minor changes will hardly be noticed and I hope you will all continue to enjoy a full range of debates, which should be limited to talk about diplomacy which after all is what we're all here for.

-Maniac