PE, he asked "Without giving away id..."

Well i got PE idea ask someone else to promote it.
Ta

Ok. :)
I guess it depends both on what is an anon game in your opinion and on why you think you need to promote it further (since all starting games are already promoted in the 'New' page).

I habe some cool ideas about this, but it will take some time to implement this.

Olli your are a wiz . i play on webdip as well and inovation here is streets ahead.
Extend etc for games.
Understand you can find new games @ games.
But have posted a number of a varient i played once but have had no luck in a month getting it up.

@webdip vs vdip Yes, here advancement is much ahead than on webdip. I love playing here!

in the vdip vs webdip debate, its a tough argument:

# of variants: advantage vdip, however to those who only want to play classic, this could be seen as a disadvantage...

Innovation: Extend feature, Reliability Rating, Block feature, Mods Forum, first turn cd, game ends time, pick your own country. The list goes on.

When it comes to the site features, Vdip is way a head of webdip.

however,

# of players: here on vdip, there are 396 active accounts (active being defined as a player who is participating in at least 1 active game)
Over on webdip there are 1699 active accounts.

having more then 4 times the number of users makes it easier to find and join games.

I enjoy the experience on vdip more then webdip, but when it comes to play games of diplomacy, ofter webdip is more enjoyable because the players your playing with don't know you as well. Even in anon games, midway through the game I have a pretty good idea who is who, simply because of playing with people frequently, this is unless its a gunboat.

That being said, I have only played 1 games on webdip since last September (3 if you the pacifist variant, which forbids moving units, or what the heck, which was a game where we just wanted the map to looked messed up), so the size of this site has slowly become less and less of a factor in determining the enjoyability.

The epicness of this site, despite being smaller, has definitely surpassed that of webdips. Congrats to Oli and all the hardwork you have done into making this site, you're the best.

Guaroz - true, but if someone else advertises and not him, no one knows he's in the game (which I assume - perhaps falsely - was the reason for asking). I mean, an ad necessarily requires either explicit or implicit revelation of the game in question, so I assumed from there that he didn't mean "how do I advertise something without saying anything definite about what that thing is" (after all, little contradictory, no? ;) ), just "how do I advertise something without revealing my own presence in it."

@Strider. Yeah Oli is fantastic! :)
I had no luck as well, getting games started, the first months I played diplomacy online. So, first of all, I realized there are preferences pepole like more than others and I learnt how to create a game that has good chances to actually start. I noticed (as you probably did) which are the most "popular" settings. But mainly I noticed which are the most "unliked" preferences. Some examples:
- Expensive games. They're exciting, but: the higher the bet, the lower the chance to start. Because people, even liking the game, may not have enough points avaliable to join it or may not be willing to spend a lot of points into a single game. So a cheap game (say 10 or 20 ) got much more chances than the same game with a 50 or 60 buy-in. A difference of only 30 can be a huge difference for so many players!
- Slow paced games. You won't find many people willing to play a game with a phase longer than 2 days on this site. Yes, they start, but I guess they're not a big slice of the total.
...and so on. You can make your own considerations about every single preference you can set. IE, a few months ago Oli released the "RR Requirements" option. If you set harsh restrictions, it looks obvious that the other settings should be very "popular" to give the game an actual chance to start (Infact, in that section it's written: "This might lead to people not able to join your games, so choose your optionS wisely.". Well, you should always choose each option wisely, I believe.
So, I learnt how to create a good game observing how people reacted to each setting and to the combination of them. Experience was my teacher. And in a few months the ratio of games I got started over those I created grew. I was happy enough, because you can't hope that *all* the games you create will start.
But one day, I noticed that the "Economic" game I created 2 days earlier didn't still get any joiner. "It's absolutely weird!" I thought "I gave popular settings to it, and it is even a new Variant! It was released less than 4 days ago! Only 7 players! and there should be tons of players willing to try a new Variant!"
Well...there were. A suspect got into my mind and I opened the New page. Yes, there were tons of players willing to try it, but there were also a lot of "Economic" games already starting. Also, I made a search and found that some Economic just started. So I figured out that while I was waiting (alone) for joiners 2 days long, the other players simply joined those Economic games with settings similar to mine. If you see 2 similar games starting and you don't care much the setting differences, which one do you choose? The one with more joiners, no? It will probably start sooner. More: it will probably start!
So I canceled the Economic I created (leaving it: I was alone) and I joined another similar Economic that was waiting for its 7th joiner.
And I learnt 2 more things.
First of all, I learnt that if I want to have fun playing a game of diplomacy, perhaps there's already a starting game I like enough. So first of all I check new games @ games, because maybe there's no need for me to create a new one.
Then, once I know there's no interesting game for me to join, I can decide to create a new one. And probably I won't choose a Variant that's already gathering people with 2-3 games of it already starting. There are 73 Variants to choose on. I might choose one that has a game already starting if, say, it's a full press and I want a gunboat: different sports, different people interested.

So now I create much less games than once, because I find the games I like @ New, but the few games I do, actually start almost always.

Now you say you need to promote it because you "have had no luck in a month getting it up."
Well yes, it may work because there are many people (expecially newcomers) who never check new games @ games and you could increase your chances (decreasing someone else's).
You see many promoted games that started, and this encourages you to do the same. But you should also be able to see that many promoted games didn't start at all.
So the matter, in my opinion, it's still the "quality game". If you don't create a game people need or like, no promotion will help it. Do you remember the New Coke launched in the '80s? A flop. Many efforts to promote it and many efforts to understand why it wasn't successful. There was nothing to understand. People just didn't like it. Things that happen.
A hundred steps far my house there's an elegant Bar with comfortable armchairs selling all most famous Brands of ice-creams (all promoted by TV etc...). Well, people get in there only for tea or coffee because 50 steps further there's a hand-made-ice-cream shop that's always crowded at any time, although the ice-cream it's a bit more expensive there. You must eat your ice-cream standing on the sidewalk because thare are no chairs. It doesn't even got a shop sign above its small door.
So, in brief, my point is: before you think you need promotion, be sure you did a good job.

Fasces - Plus on VDip, if you wait for an ally to catch up on SCs and draw two-way with them rather than soloing, you don't get a huge amount of abuse and a thread in the forum posted specifically to ridicule you (which the Mods won't take down).
And here you don't get half as many sore losers refusing to enter orders when they're about to die.
And people swear a lot less, and are generally more polite here.

All in all, the people on this site are nicer and more fun to play against. That's why I've pretty much abandoned WebDip for VDip now.

@PE. Well yes. I guess it depends on what is an anon game in your opinion.
If you think that a game is Anonymous if *nobody* knows anything about anyone who's in it, then the correct answer was "You can't.".
If you think that it's something else, then different answers might be given, and the one you gave is probably the best.

One idea to get more players to join new and open games would be to have a 4th column in the home page to the left of the forum column.

What it would show is public games which you meet the requirements to join that are starting within the next 24 hours. It would have to show information such as which variant it is, any settings like the EOG, how many people still needed to join to get it to start, etc. By being able to see all games that are starting soon on the home page, it will be easier to find and join games.

The biggest drawback would be space constraints, there are already 3 columns and how small would the columns have to be to fit 4 of them on the opening page?

By having games automatically advertised, the use of advertising in the forum will vanish.

Nice, fasces, I don't know who you are, perhaps you live on the other side of the world, but I had an idea very similar to yours a couple of days ago.

I just didn't have the time to post it on the forum.
Now it's there:
http://www.vdiplomacy.com/forum.php?threadID=28112#28112

"I don't know who you are"
Really? I'm hurt. :(

I like the idea (whoever had it first) of giving more visibility to joinable games by making a 4th column, because I look for new games everyday and I'd like to have them nearby, at hand. So, are we moving the "4th column discussion" on the thread DL said? I'll add my thoughts ASAP.

With all due respect, whatever is actually due, I have thought for quite a long time that this is much ado about nothing ... no offense Guaroz, as you seem to be the flame keeper or flame thrower on this issue ... I just don't see why the person who starts the game can't advertise that ... nobody will know which country of 7, 10 or more he is -- he is just the host of the game and what is wrong with that?

Also, I just have to take this opportunity to once again question why people even want to play anon if its not a gunboat ... it so much preferable to know who the players are, so much truer to the real game. I have played hundreds of face to face, and you always know who is at the table and what country they are

I agree with you rancher joining anon games, however if you are in one, I agree with guaroz that you should advertise and ruin anonymity

@fasces
"I don't know who you are" was meant "We don't know each other in real life nor we have played much together in the web". No offense. I'm simply glad we had the same idea.

@Rancher
“it so much preferable to know who the players are” is subjective… usually I prefer anons to avoid personal preferences among players. Both from my side and from other players.

Ahaha I got no offense, Rancher, don't worry. Also because I didn't understand the whole "flame" thing! Wanna set up a barbecue? :-)

As I said, it is a matter of what you think an anon is.
In my opinion, a game is Anonymous only when nobody knows anything about anyone.
This means that I must not know whether you're in the game or not, whether I am in the game or not.
Very simple, isn't it? No possible issues with it.

If you start adding some "if" "but" "however", the matter gets complicated. Yes, they're little issues in the majority of cases, but they're insurmountable issues, so why should we handle them?
When you join a game, I guess you want to be reassured that all players are playing by the same rules. So why should I play a game not knowing whether someone knows a thing I don't know? Or knowing a player is not playing it by the same rules I'm playing? Or, if I joined that game without reading the forum first (it's not mandatory checking the forums, right?), even being not aware that someone knows a thing I don't know. The game's rules are not symmetrical amymore for each player, so in the best case it's a different variant (like a special rule game threadID=26974). I can continue. Do I have to play a whole game living with the thought that, although it's unlikely, someone could abuse an information he simply should not have? And if someone makes a little abuse and get caught, should we start discuss how little that abuse was? and if it was relevant for the game or not?
It's the typical situation in which who's losing the game says "Cancel!" and who's winning says "It was not relevant!" and whatever you decide is wrong. And if he don't get caught?

Why should we wonder all these questions?
Because someone wants to advertise a game that is already properly advertised?
(btw, did you read my yesterday's post @Strider?)

If you like a game like that (semi-Anon) there's nothing wrong, but please consider it a Variant. Consider it a special rule game and give it a password. Then you can advertise it on the forum, because you are sure that whoever joins it knows what he's joining: a semi-Anon.
"he is just the host of the game and what is wrong with that? " Nothing wrong. Make it a Private game and you'll be the host. Public games are public, so they got no host.
****
Rancher, I also wonder "why people even want to play anon if its not a gunboat".... I don't like "Anons with Press" but I see nothing wrong with it until someone breaks anonymity.
Actually, I like Non-Anon Gunboats as well as Anon ones. It's a different sport when you know who's playing with you. I'm making up a set of rules for a "Special Gunboat" that's non-anon, starting from an idea I took from another site a couple of years ago. I may propose it in a next future, I hope you'll like it.

"another site a couple of years ago"
Facebook diplomacy?

Yeah :-) It was "Contract Gunboat" or something... I'm trying to remember all the rules and make them coherent with this totally different site. Also adding a couple of ideas.
It was my first special rules game. Great! Also Rupert's "No Stabbing" was exciting. I miss it as well. ;-)

yeah, I participated in 3 or 4 no stabbings on facebook diplomacy.

I tried to bring it over to webdiplomacy but to no such luck (people weren't keen on following the rules).

By the time I had arrived here on vdiplomacy no stabbing had already morphed into the treaties games seen here, which I think a new one has just started.

"No offense. I'm simply glad we had the same idea."
That was mainly a joke/surprise that you didn't know about me. The surprised being that we have yet to play a game together.

"The surprised being that we have yet to play a game together. "
Sometimes I wonder if I've played any time before with a certain user. Since I'd have to scroll 12 pages in my profile checking carefully all names in all my finished games to look for his name, I open his profile hoping he played less games than me and have a quicker search, looking for my name into his list. But in the last times, I meet many players who have played a lot of games and their finished games list is often even longer than mine.
Do you know if there's a (faster) way to search the game you have in common with a user?

with the ctrl+f function seaching through games is not that challenging.

"Do you know if there's a (faster) way to search the game you have in common with a user?"
This is one that the mods have at their disposal. If you insert 2 userIDs into our multi-account finder, it will show you a list of games they have played together, as well as a few other things that can be used to determine 'cheating'.

However I don't think any of us have used it for this purpose, lol.

Ha! Good idea, thanks fasces! ctrl+f searches very quickly, pity only into one page per time.

Yeah, lol. I've made it...idk... less than 10 times until now. You know when you meet someone and "Who's he? I've heard of him before. Did I play with him once? Yeah..maybe....which was the game?...". I'm as curious as a cat and so sometimes, having the time, I look for answers.

Ok... nevermind. Thanks. :)