Re: [DipKnights] Re: The Life of the Cat

Games 1-100 of the Academy and Games 1-100 of Cat23 were, I believe, one and 
the same.  The split off occurred right about the 101 mark, though that is 
somewhat before my time (my first Cat23 game was 274).


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>; "Cat-23 NGame" 
<[email protected]>; "Cat-23 DipKnights" 
<[email protected]>
Cc: "Scott Fort" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 7:15 AM
Subject: Re: [DipKnights] Re: [CAT23-Ngame] The Life of the Cat


> Hey Scott!
> I most certainly remember you and vaguely remember that game too.
> Mexico was a most difficult position. Thats about all I remember. :)
>
> Yeah, way back in '95 I believe it was when a friend of mine at work told 
> me to do a search on Cat23 Diplomacy. I lurked around for the 200 series 
> and got courage to join in a late 200 numbered game.
> GMd in the 300's ....and DipKnights was born in the 400's from a 
> collaboration with Steph and Pete.
>
> For someone who acts like they don't know much you certainly ran down a 
> concise and accurate history.
>
> Does anyone know when the Academy spun off? SCD ?
> The recent rejoining and combining to create ACD had me curious and 
> wanting to add that bit of trivia too.
>
> Not to mention some interesting and memorable Dip games too ...like 
> 387...who remembers that one?
>
> Fun times.
>
> I'm fluent in HTML and can whip up some good pages when I have an 
> inclination.
> Everyones nemesis is the same as mine...time. I also know time is of the 
> essence...I'll try to get a mockup done by this weekend.
> Then we can work from there...
>
> Scott Fort...man, start pounding the woodwork and you don't know whats 
> about to come out...! :)
>
> Dave W
>
>
>
>
> -------------- Original message -------------- 
> From: Scott Fort <[email protected]>
> 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 se
> e 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
>
> -----Original Message-----
>>From: The White Wolf <[email protected]>
>>Sent: Mar 17, 2008 6:37 PM
>>To: Cat-23 NGame <[email protected]>, Cat-23 DipKnights 
>><[email protected]>
>>Subject: [CAT23-Ngame] The Life of the Cat
>>
>>Folks,
>> I posted something similar to this on the DK list,
>>but it seems I forgot to add the NGame list *sigh*.
>>I've copied both lists on this one, since there are
>>unique points in this email that I left out of the
>>DK-only mail I sent earlier.
>> The idea of a unique website is probably a good one.
>>I personally don't see a problem with being a part of
>>the WorldMasters website, if that's what is decided. I
>>think Gavin Turner is very generous in offering
>>webspace and bandwidth, Adam Kuehn volunteered to
>>front the registration fee, and Chris Dziedzic offered
>>to be our PR guy, so it seems we have the resources.
>>All we need is the manpower and know-how.
>> I, for one, am willing to volunteer manpower, when
>>I'm able and when necessary, but I certainly don't
>>have the know-how. We'd need a person knowledgeable
>>enough with HTML to design something. I know a guy, as
>>the saying goes, but sadly he's incommunicado on a
>>deployment to Afghanistan for the next six months or
>>so. We'd be best served by finding someone within the
>>community, who knows what we need and what appeals to
>>new and old players alike, without having to be
>>directed second-hand.
>> I like the suggestions from Stephen Worthy and Chris
>>Dziedzic about FaceBook and MySpace. On the subject of
>>volunteering my time, I'd like to offer myself and my
>>wife for setting up a MySpace Cat23 community. I know
>>from past searches that MySpace has a fair share of
>>Dip communities already, and I'm sure they'd all be
>>happy to be added as friends, which could definitely
>>help with recruiting new members. I'll start on that
>>tonight, and provide the link as soon as I have
>>something viable.
>> If anyone can think of something I can add to the
>>community, please feel free to email me directly. The
>>more help and suggestions I get, the better we can
>>make this thing.
>> I wish you all well, and I hope to see some
>>wonderful things from this thread of discussion.
>>
>>The White Wolf
>>
>>__________________________________________________
>>Do You Yahoo!?
>>Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
>>http://mail.yahoo.com
>
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