Re: [DipKnights] Re: Re: (Cat23's Life, or Lack Thereof)

Can we reorganize the worldmasters' Cat23 subpage? I don't want to 
detract from bigger changes but small adaptative "dolphin projects" are 
often more feasible than large "whale" ones, as my sister says so often.

The two most important things to start with should be:

1. A clearer inroductory page that explains that Cat23 is an open PBEM 
Diplomacy club that welcomes everybody with interest for the hobby, with 
maybe a brief history to add some flavor - I can't help with that: I'm 
only in my late 30s ;-)

2. An easily linkable Yahoo-groups links list (and not that mirror). 
Explaining and emphasizing which are the most important ones to join 
(i.e. n-game and the currently ongoing games list - the 1200s) and the 
meaning of the others (we have a large handful of lists, what may be 
confusing in itself).

3. Additional helpful links for the newcomer: not just GM hints, model 
house rules and a link to Dipknights (sincerey, I hought the knights' 
project was deceased) but maybe also something as basic as a link to 
Realpolitik download, to the game rules (1996 ed?) and maybe relevant 
Diplomacy sites like the Diplomacy Archive with all that historical stuff.

4. If there is a Diplomacy web ring (and I believe there is one) the 
Cat23 page should be part of it with the ring navigation tool on bottom 
of it.

So far the easy-to-do "dolphin project". Additionally larger changes can 
be done as well. Personally I believe that a separate portal page and 
even creating a forum (in the line of Redscape, for instance) could 
help. GMs can find a lot easier to post maps and adjudications to their 
game threads in such a space than to upload and modify HTML pages as the 
game goes, provided they have a site. The forum would also allow for 
general discussions like this to take place in another type of 
enviroment. The forum itself seems like an better, more attractive 
"bait" for newcomers than email lists alone, that may be percieved as 
less friendly and maybe even somewhat prehistoric.

If we finally get a separate site, we can always migrate the page easily 
just by copying and pasting the HTML source code, with no or only minor 
changes to be done.

Regards,
Luis.



Chris Babcock wrote:

>(...)
>  
>
>>Anyhow, it seems easier than linking to Cat23's
>>lists after the 
>>relocation under the Worldmasters' wing: the Cat23
>>subpage has no 
>>information whatsoever on what it is about (just a
>>board pic and GM 
>>instructions), plus the yahoo lists are not directly
>>linked but you go 
>>through some "g-mane" mirrors that make it all too
>>complicated for any 
>>casual visitor to find his/her way to the lists.
>>    
>>
>
>Withing the current site structure, the URL to put
>links to the Yahoogroups would be: 
>
>http://www.worldmasters.net/cat23_diplomacy/lists/lists.htm
>
>I can lift descriptions of the groups from the
>Yahoogroups home page for each group, but I agree that
>the lack of content on the Cat23 home page is
>appalling. That's not something that I can fix. I need
>someone to send me a couple paragraphs at least. Ideal
>would be enough pages to define a site: 
>
>Home - Crass promo and blatant gloss
>About - Who is Cat23? What are its core values?
>History - How did Cat23 happen? Why?
>News - What is Cat23 doing and when?
>
>Get me content (words) and I'll plug them into the
>worldmasters.net look and feel. If anyone wants to
>redo the layout, that's OK, but you have to think
>about making the site maintainable on a non-Windows
>platform unless you're going to be do hand maintenance
>yourself
>
>  
>
>>I wholly agree with David Watson on Cat23 needing a
>>better portal. Other 
>>improvements could be nice but the portal and easy
>>access to the lists from it seem essential.
>>    
>>
>
>Cat23 is the lists these days. Those certainly need to
>be more conspicuous than they are in the site I
>inherited. 
>
>Chris 
>
>
>
>
>      ____________________________________________________________________________________
>Never miss a thing.  Make Yahoo your home page. 
>http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
>
>  
>


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