[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Community building

[Mike Kaufman <mkaufman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

hi-

I'm reposting this to <freeciv-dev> which is not quite as dead in my
opinion as <freeciv>. Perhaps the list will have some suggestions for
you.

I am not the "www" maintainer, but perhaps he who is would think about
this. There _is_ an offsite online forum whose name escapes me at the
moment.

So what do people think?

-mike

PS: netrek was [is?] a fabulous game. It's too bad people are so
addicted to snazzy graphics nowadays... 

----- Forwarded message from Yon Uriarte <ukl2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> -----

From: Yon Uriarte <ukl2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2002 10:24:55 +0100 (CET)
To: <mkaufman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Community building


Hello,

 I write to you because you are the current freeciv www mantainer.
During a discussion with another player (John Bull) after a game, he
commented how he would like to have a tournament (if he was rich he would
organize one).

 I remembered how for netrek (another online game) there were tournaments
organized and how ppl then met in person. I feel there is no community
feeling in freeciv, there is no forum for players to meet outside of the
game. The freeciv players mailing list is dead. He said he didnt want to
have is mailbox spammed, so he didnt subscribe to the mailing list.

 His suggestion was to have an online web forum on the freeciv.org site,
for easy reachability with any web client.

 My suggestion as a former usenet junkie was to use alt.games.freeciv,
which, as far as i can see, is not mentioned on the website. I like usenet
because of its asynchronous nature. You read it when you feel like it, no
spamming involved.

 Ideally a mail-news and mail-web gateway could be setup for the freeciv
mailing list. This could help develop a players community and if that
happened, an excellent repository for game tips and strategies might
evolve. This could ideally lead to a tighter knit community, one which
might support in-person meetings and tournaments.

 For the netrek community, with its extensive use of rec.games.netrek
it lead to yearly meetings, where people would drink, play and have fun.

 I guess the software to do the gatewaying is free out there. It would be
just a matter of installing it, that is, prioritizing your (and
others) work. Maybe a poll could be set up on the web site, to see what
kind of interest this ideas generate. OTOH I'm not so sure many people,
specially better (more involved) players, use the web site too often. I
guess the metaserver is what they only use.

 What do you think about this suggestions?

TIA, HAND, HTH
 yon


-- 
 For the traditional victims, the New World Order is not likely to
 be an improvement on the old, [...] .
                                     Noam Chomsky

----- End forwarded message -----