Lol. No, I don't want to live without this site, but I do want to live without the state.

First off all, what is this Site? Tom Anthony says that the site is "the website where I play my Diplomacy."

Others would specify that the Site refers to a set of webpages that derive authority from a specific mandate (whether that be God, also known as Kestas, or the 'will' of MadMarx). The degree of influence exercised by the Site may vary by example. The Ghost Ratings for example, exercize a more direct influence on the diplomatic affairs in this Site than does points, denoted by the 'D' symbol, but the latter has a more broad role in defining and regulating the site (ie. preventing joining and leaving too many games, and allowing for different levels of play).

Some say that the Site is derived from civil society, that organized existence naturally leads to a system of governance and organization (eg. rlumley or figlesquidge). Draugnarists sometimes draw no distinction between society and Site, while 5nkist thinkers argue that civil society can function without an authoritative site altogether, and that it's existence is as unfortunate as it is unecessary.

Our contemporary is governed by overlapping institutions of power, but the primary set of blocks take the form of sovereign Sites (webdiplomacy.net and playdiplomacy.net) that (generally) recognize each other, whilst acknowledging individual supremacy (taking into consideration the degree to which Sites like playdip readily interfere with the domestic affairs of other Sites).

Most importantly, while it has its critics, the legitimacy of the Site is recognized by nearly all members of modern 'Play by email' and face to face regimes alike, while the instruments of private messages, forums, and the points system are often hard to seperate from it.

Though krellin questioned the relevance of the Site (and everything else), it is clear that potent power is still exercised in the name of moderator regulation, and that the interlinking channels of power do still run through institutions connected with Kestas, Ghostmaker, etc.

So what do you think? Is the role of the Site legitimate? Is the forums contract a legitimate justification (such as regarding the live games threads)? What about obiwan? What about the defense by results? (That without the site we would just be worse off) If not the Site, then what?

@ ava:

Very funny thread. Well done.

Ava +4

Bump

I'm mroe of a fan of the forums than the game itself. mostly because i suck. but if this site broke down i woudl be ok. i haven;t really wanted to get on it recently and am kind of glad for a break in the webdip world cup until september.

Hey look at ne, I'm a pretend intellectual troll!

lol.

My internet once went down, and I had to telephone a friend to get my games paused (it is banned at school, and school hours prevented me from going to a library to ask for a pause). I then spent the next day wondering what I used to spend my time doing. Then I realised that age of empires 3 had once fulfilled the role of "timesucking computer game", but that also needed the internet. Before that was actually doing homework, playing chess and watching television. Neither of these much appealed to me.

I was thinking back to when I was about 8 when I remember that I had a set of toy cars that I used to lay out in a race course and push along, pushing the first car and letting it freewheel up to the next corner, then the second place car etc. before repeating the process. I used to do it on carpet so that there was sufficient friction for the cars to stop relatively quickly. Over the course of about a week, I would run about 2x5 10 car races, to form two seasons, and then would relegate the weaker cars from one division and promote the stronger cars from the other, before repeating the process the next week.

Turns out I'd been organising tournaments longer than I thought! (I also learnt that some things never get boring!)

@Ghost: I used to do things like that.

Ava +1. Outstanding post. And, except when I'm at poker, I'm usually on this site. I even hang otu from my Blackberry when the wife is shopping at the mall (spending Friday night poker winnings). I get more than frustrated when it occasionally has issues.

I used to play with cars too, but never did organize a tournament like that - freaking awesome for an 8 yr old.

But I do feel this site has replaced much of my other internet existance - including Facebook =(

The capitalist state defines evil intent blah blah blah God blah blah blah Bible blah blah blah moral hazard blah blah blah criminals death penalty blah blah blah justice system blah blah blah courts corrupt blah blah blah rape immoral questionable blah blah blah rights sympathy anarchism blah blah blah socialist assholes blah blah blah I am so smart because I use these keywords

"I used to play with cars too, but never did organize a tournament like that - freaking awesome for an 8 yr old."

lol, ty. I developed a vast array of scoring systems. Started with a 10 for win, 9 for second etc. Amusingly, the last system I used was: 25, 20, 16, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1 for places 1 through 10. This year's F1 system is: 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1

Their calculus is a bit off, innit? I'm fine with anything, so long as a second place Ferrari gets significantly fewer points than a winning McLaren/Red Bull.

+1 for using the keywords, ava ;)

I used to play with cars too, but never did organize a tournament like that - freaking awesome for an 8 yr old.

But I do feel this site has replaced much of my other internet existance - including Facebook =(