Re: The Life of the Cat

Scott,
  I definitely had my facts wrong in my last email.
Now that you mention it, I remember Halisp clearly. My
first game in the community was 148. I played under
the pseudonym 'Blackhole', and a school buddy played
alongside me as 'Big Blue'. I wish I could remember
what countries we played or if we even finished the
game, but I remember also joining (I believe) 150
before I dropped off the radar.
  I don't think I rediscovered the community until the
4 or 500's, but I have a vague memory of playing in
some of the 7 and 800 series games. Hell, I'm still
subscribed to the 800 and 900 lists.
  Thanks for the history rundown - it will certainly
help us paint a picture of the Cat's bright and varied
history.

The White Wolf


--- Scott Fort <[email protected]> wrote:

> I know I'm probably a stranger to most of you due to
> recent inactivity but I go back to the Halisp list
> days in early 1999.  I think Dip410 was my first
> playing experience as a replacement and I was a bit
> overwhelmed for my first gamestart in Dip431, a
> World variant by Joe Janbu.  Sadly my Argentina
> never got to ally with or mix it up with Dave
> Watson's Mexico.  Anyway.... Real Life has kept me
> from playing for a while but I've stayed subscribed
> because I knew this was one of the places I wanted
> to come back to when my schedule allowed.  I've
> lurked and read emails when the subject catches my
> eye.  Kinda like now.
> 
> I hadn't realized activities had dwindled enough to
> threaten the demise of CAT23 and I'm glad there is a
> core group of you talking about how to fix this. 
> I've caught up on all the emails and I'm afraid I
> don't have any fresh ideas but I want to throw my
> hat in the ring as a volunteer in some type of
> maintenance capacity.  In the meantime I wanted to
> put down some of what I remember about our history. 
> It's one of the reasons I'm partial to CAT23 and
> want to keep it active.  I consider it the first
> online Diplomacy community.  I also remember CAT23
> being the birthplace of the WorldMasters back in
> 1999.  If it is not then my impression is such due
> to my being recruited to help from the CAT lists.
> 
> My knowledge of the early days is scarce and
> second-hand but I hope it's a start to build upon. 
> CAT23 was originally an online Diplomacy forum on
> Compuserve and it's designation was 'Category 23' or
> CAT23 for short.  I don't know how long it existed
> on Compuserve but that came to an end for some
> reason.  The interest of the participants was still
> high so they found another host.  I was never clear
> on what Halisp was but I had the impression it was a
> company that donated it's service to us.  I remember
> the email for the main list was [email protected]
> and there was at least one other list for chat
> and/or admin.  By 1999 there had been over 400 games
> on Compuserve and Halisp and the community was
> growing.  I believe we were becoming too large for
> the provider to continue to donate their services
> and a new home had to be found.  I lost my hard
> drive in the 'crash of '03' and don't have a hard
> record of the changes during this time but IIRC the
> service we landed on initially was Onelist but they
> changed to E-groups which was then bought by Yahoo. 
> Several companion groups were set up over the years
> like the DipKnights and the GM-Mentors.  And a
> standardized set of rules for PBEM play was
> developed.  I know more people deserve credit but
> the names I associate with these projects are Dave
> Watson, Libby McAfee and David Cohen.  Peter
> Richardson and Steph Mabie were also involved with
> the DipKnights.  I think it was Peter Richardson and
> Ted Miller who ran the first couple of WorldMasters
> tournaments.  I see Packrat is still active.  Scott
> deserves a lot of credit as a DipKnights in taking
> over what seemed like hudreds of abandoned
> positions.  Peter also had a periodic Dreathwatch
> report which tried to revive games abandoned by a
> GM.  And I'm sure a lot more has gone on of which I
> don't even have an inkling.  Certainly Ray Setzer
> did a mountain of behind-the-scenes work.  I know
> Ray has moved on but I bet he'd answer some
> questions for us and help construct a definitive
> history.  I see now that I am woefully unfit for the
> task.
> 
> If we can truly lay claim to the first online
> Diplomacy community then I think that is a worthy
> enough reason to keep the CAT23 name.  We can
> certainly lengthen it though.  If people are looking
> to play Diplomacy then it will help to have a group
> name with 'Diplomacy' in it.
> 
> Scott Fort

I'm a Firefly fan and proud! Read my fiction:
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