Re: What happened?

Just to add a semi outsiders view from the inside, Cat23 is not the only 
forum experiencing a drop in participation. I tend to do my game playing on AOL, 
with adding some spice to my life in the Academy. I seldom play more than one 
game at a time, so that could be a few years all by itself. But more to the 
subject, AOL game starts are way down. They have two forums there, Open Games for 
everyone and Club Games like the Academy. A few years back, Open Games would 
fill up within two to three weeks, and at least three games were always being 
formed at the same time. Club games would use the same multiple game offerings 
and fill a game within a two week time frame. Two months ago, my son came to 
live with me and attempted to join an Open game. He has not been contacted 
yet. Club games take at least two months to fill. 

Officers of the Diplomacy forum on AOL don't know why we have experience such 
a dramatic drop off. We are fearful that it has to do with how hard it is to 
find us now that AOL has changed its format to accommodate Web access. In the 
past, it was a closed community. We never made the move to AOL's Web offerings 
and are probably suffering the consequences of our poor decision.

There is much more being offered than ever before, which is surely tapping 
past reservoirs. The challenge today is bringing them all together, as the WM is 
attempting to do. Maybe we should have a world tournament of Diplomacy 
Forums? Send out an invitation to all the forums to have their Champion Team 
represent them in a Tournament of Champions. That would be something Ray could get 
his teeth into! Just what he needs, another 10 year project. ; )

Mike


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