Hi Ambassador,

there have always been periods, when Oli had no time for vdiplomacy and actions like managing the variant development was neglected for some time. However, that was always temporary and I'm sure Oli will be able to continue his works here at some point.
You've really got bad luck, that you started your new variant when Oli's ability to manage the variant development was affected by real life business.

Of course, it could happen at some point, that Oli won't be interested to run this site any more, but I'm pretty sure he would inform us about this and won't just let this community disappear.

You're right that "at least one of the mods appears to have fallen off the radar". In fact we have two long-standing members of the mod team, who retired during the last months: Guaroz and kaner.
However, we currently have a mod team of five active members and are able to run this site without Oli's permanent presence. So I can assure, that this website will keep running for the next time and nobody have to worry, that vdip could suddenly just disappear. Just the variant development, that have to be managed by the Oli since that's the place where malicious software could be installed very easily, has stopped until Oli will have some time again.

Could the site continue if oli was permeantly and suddenly unable to return? What if he had an accident?

The question is if anyone else has the passwords/etc to the server(s) and codebase.

You should really just join WebDiplomacy. The community is much larger and more active. There are fewer variants, but other than that, it's a much better site. *awaits dark-suited officials to drag me away*

Many of us are on both sites, but the whole point is that the variants are only here. And they are worth protecting with a contingency plan.

Hi guys

Tobi - I take your point and as a former Mod I've seen Oli drop off the radar for long periods. But this is longer than normal.

Another mod PMed me and indicated Oli's absence is likely to be a lot longer than the past. In light of this I think its appropriate for a group of the trusted Mods to email Oli and say something like, how about we pause work in the Lab (if nasty code could be inserted) but maybe look at some way that the site could continue on if for one reason or another Oli didn't return/was unable to return. This is more in line with Devonian's thinking and addresses Mapu's concern.

I know from talking with kaner a little while back that there was another coder on the site beyond Oli. It sounded almost like they had ninja coding skills that were even better than Oli's. Perhaps this should be investigated too, otherwise our collection of variants will stay as is.

And on Pretzel's point, I'm a webdip refugee because the number of variants there are so limited. Classic is great, but after the 57th time its losing its ability to hold interest. And yes, they now have Modern, Ancient Med and Fall of the American Empire (none of which were there when I played - World Dip IX being the only other variant which is crap), but there's still hardly any variants there compared to vDip.

Would like to see what we have here never lost, and to continue to grow.

Pretzel, the mods at WebDip lost their collective mind and had a banning party about 18 months ago. Even if they ever offered reinstatement, most of us banned would tell the to f*ck off.

Hi all,

Just to let you know that vDip vanishing isn't something you have to be worried about. Oli, Kestas, A_Tin_Can and some others have had a couple of conversations about how to make life easier for both Kestas and Oli. Kestas seems pretty open to the idea of moving the hosting to the same server cluster as webdip if Oli cannot continue maintaining the site. If that happened we'd keep the same modding team here (so no concern for banned webdip players), and A_Tin_Can would work on the vDip code until we could get another dev in place.

That said, I don't expect we'll get to that point anytime soon - just wanted to reassure everyone that vDip is not going to suddenly disappear.

Good to know. Thanks Captainmeme.

Thanks Cap'n.

I got a PM from Oli, and his outlined plans for enhancing the role of Mods was very encouraging.

If A_Tin_Can can also support coding assistance/verification in the Lab that'd be brilliant. Is that possible?

Either way I'd like to personally post my thanks to Oli for creating this site, and putting in place measures for the future. Real life can often get in the way for any of us. Him concentrating on that for the moment is the right thing to do. I wish him all the very best until he can come up for air again here.

Cheers Oli!

If you notice, the two sites are nearly identical, right down to the forums and the interface. So, the absolute only differences are the community and the variants. On the plus side, vdiplomacy has the variants, but I can never seem to find a single person to play with.

(also, the color scheme creeps me out a little.)

You supposedly just joined so what are you talking about unless you're a multi?

Also, we have cool features, eg the interactive map, extend vote, the mod forum, country switch etc...which you would know if you would really play a game here, so just try it ;)

As far as all the features go, everything is open source, so download it to your pc and you have a back-up if vdip goes down and you can save the day.

I can't even work out how to do the php coding for variants. How the hell am I meant to run up an alternative vdip server?

I think we shouldn't stress as much as I started in this thread. We may be having a break from the vDip halcyon variant heyday of a new variant every week, but at least the long term surety of the site is looking pretty good.

That said, any respectable php coders out there should make themselves known to the Mods. Your skills are needed!

"respectable php coder"... The very definition of an oxymoron. :-)