roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) (11/17/85)
I've noticed a disturbing tendency for people running pbm games to post blow-by-blow descriptions to the net. Is this necessary? Does the whole world really have to know that X bought Park Place or that Y found a +2 magic sword or that Z has to retreat out of Serbia? The volume in net.games.pbm is still fairly low, but growing. In these days of increased concern over costs, especially in non-technical groups, we should be careful not to abuse the system. The best way to avoid having the entertainment groups cut is to keep a low profile. May I suggest that we limit net.games.pbm to announcements of new games and occasional *short* summaries of games in progress. If you want to run a game,or play in one, post a notice to let the world know. Once the game is underway, however, use mail to communicate results. It's far cheaper, and contrary to some suggestions I've seen recently, it's much faster. If non-players really want to watch and/or kibitz, they can write to the moderator and get on the game's mailing list. -- Roy Smith <allegra!phri!roy> System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016
ekblaw@uiucdcs.CS.UIUC.EDU (11/18/85)
I (as a moderator) have been mailing the moves to the players. I post the notices on the net, however, for two reasons: 1) I have been told that other people might be interested. 2) There are three other Monopoly pbm's going on, and we figured that we could keep track this way (I still don't know what one of them is up to). If enough people tell me that the postings on the net are bad, I will remove them. However, I do nothing on the opinion of just one person. As egotistical as that one person may be, one person is not a majority. Robert Ace Ekblaw
cjsgro@watrose.UUCP (Carlo Sgro) (11/18/85)
Contrary to Roy's feelings, I happen to enjoy the posting of Diplomacy game results. I find them valuable in examining the way that people play the game and the strategies that they employ. The Monopoly games I don't really care for, since Monopoly is, basically, not a great game of strategy (although I'm not claiming that there is no strategy; it's just that I don't think that I could learn much that would improve my game from following the PBM monopoly games that are going on). I feel that, if the posting of game results does not facilitate learning about the strategy, then Roy has a point. I feel that other types of postings are justified (such as the Diplomacy postings, which spawned discussions of strategy and commentaries about the games) and should be encouraged, so that our newsgroup doesn't die out. -- Carlo Sgro ...![ihnp4||decvax||allegra||clyde||utzoo]!watmath!watrose!cjsgro "ihnp4 Express: Overnight to the USA or you don't pay!"
squires@csd2.UUCP (Charles S Squires Jr) (11/19/85)
Sir, Your complaint about people posting complete game results on net.games.pbm is ridiculous: 1) Traffic is low. 2) Some people care. I suggest not reading the notes you don't care for. After all, pbm stands for "play by mail." We're playing by mail, we're all USENET subscribers, and this is our forum. I think a bigger waste and disturbing trend is the number of meta-discussions (this is my first and lst posting of a metadiscussion nature) discussing the validity of discussions.
gates@bdmrrr.UUCP (Al Gates) (11/19/85)
> > I've noticed a disturbing tendency for people running pbm games to > post blow-by-blow descriptions to the net. Is this necessary? Does the > whole world really have to know that X bought Park Place or that Y found a > +2 magic sword or that Z has to retreat out of Serbia? > > Roy Smith <allegra!phri!roy> For most games I guess I agree. But I enjoy reading the play-by-play of the Monopoly game. To the person running that game: Please keep posting results. -- Al Gates BDM Corporation ^ ^ ^ ^ {seismo,rlgvax}!bdmrrr!gates 7915 Jones Branch Drive McLean, Virginia 22102
flynn@kcl-cs.UUCP (ZNAC429) (11/21/85)
I'm just writing to say that I enjoy the 'synopsis' type articles published by the coordinators of PBM games and that I can see no harm in publishing such in a newsgroup as comparatively "quiet" as this one usually is. Yours. Anthony Flynn.
ln63fac@sdcc7.UUCP (Rick Frey) (11/22/85)
In article <2930012@csd2.UUCP>, squires@csd2.UUCP (Charles S Squires Jr) writes: > Sir, > Your complaint about people posting complete game results on > net.games.pbm is ridiculous: > 1) Traffic is low. I'm coming from UCSD, and I've already received warnings from a number of the computer staff people here that Net usage (in general) is too high. A number of locations have started dropping non-technical news groups and the major concern of the original arrticle was to use a little common sense and not abuse something that for now is frree and unrestricted to hopefully keep it that way. What is ridiculous about that? > 2) Some people care. > I suggest not reading the notes you don't care for. After all, pbm stands > for "play by mail." We're playing by mail, we're all USENET subscribers, > and this is our forum. There's a big difference between playing by email and reading postings in the net. People don't read notes they don't care for and I don't think that was the point that the original article was making. Just a request for a little thought as to the necessity of a posting. > I think a bigger waste and disturbing trend is the number of > meta-discussions (this is my first and lst posting of a metadiscussion > nature) discussing the validity of discussions. Would you care to discuss that? :-) Rick Frey
ekblaw@uiucdcs.CS.UIUC.EDU (11/22/85)
To Al Gates: Thank you. I will keep posting the Monopoly moves. Sincerely, Robert A. Ekblaw Moderator Ace Mono PBM
oyster@uwmacc.UUCP (Vicious Oyster) (11/23/85)
<**** SARCASM WARNING ****> Carl Sgro is right. Monopoly pbm postings don't belong here. After all, *he* won't benefit from them, so why should he have to go through the bother of 'n'-ing past them? I think we should also not permit Diplomacy postings, since *I* certainly won't be able to get any strategy hints from them. And while we're on the subject, I don't ever want to see another Rail Baron posting in net.games.board, because I don't like the game. Thank you for your consideration.