Diplomacy Zine -- Chapter Seven EP #223 From: Eric_S_Klien@cup.portal.com Date: Sun, 27 Jan 1991 18:36:59 +0000 Issue #223 of ELECTRONIC PROTOCOL: ************************************************************************* ENDS VS. MEANS Hard-headly, I applaud the objective. Hard-headly I dissent from the proposed method of reaching it. -Sen. Arthur Vandenburg (R., Mich.) Congress and the president agree that Iraq must leave Kuwait; we differ on the means, not the ends. -Rep. Lee Hamilton (D., Ind.) WORLD POLICEMAN We Americans must not deceive ourselves into a mistaken belief that it is our role in world history to bring about peace and harmony through the use of the sword. -Rep. George Bader (R., Ohio) Are we to be the international police force, the bully boys of the world? -Rep. Joseph Kennedy (D., Mass) TO SAVE DEMOCRACY? [This is] a war not to save democracy but to preserve territorial power of certain European nations. -Sen. Charles Tobey (R., N.H.) Is [our policy] to defend democracy? Hardly: Kuwait is no democracy, neither is Saudi Arabia or Syria. -Rep. William Gray (D., Penn.) LOOK AT US We can set an example for the world by showing that the democratic form of government brings more peace and happiness to its people than any other. In the end, such an example is bound to be followed. -Sen. Robert Taft (R., Ohio) Our debate in Congress will set an example for the Iraqi people, and show them how a democracy works. -Rep. Patricia Shroeder (D, Colo.) PLENTY OF TIME Germany cannot go eastward. She cannot go westward. She cannot emerge northward. She cannot budge southward. She is hemmed in by an iron ring. She wants to quit. -Sen. Robert Reynolds (D., N.C.) Iraq is no Germany...Saddam has already been stopped. We have time. -Rep. David Obey (D., Wis.) The first quote in each category was made during the October 1939 debate over whether to assist France and Britain in the war that had just begun; the others were made this past weekend. Quotes provided by the Jan 14, 1991 Wall Street Journal. ************************************************************************* Chapter One contains: BAGHDAD, AUSTERLITZ, BLITZKRIEG, KING'S GAMBIT, PASSCHENDAELE, GET SOME, DRAGONS, BLACK OCTOBER And is published by uunet!cti1!rlister or rlister@cti.com/Russ Lister Chapter Two contains: REPUBLIC, BORODINO, JACAL, VERSAILLES, DRESDEN, KHAN And is published by sinhaa@mcmaster.ca/Anand Sinha Chapter Three contains: DAWN PATROL, BERLIN, EL ALAMEIN, SQUALANE, UNGAWE, BRUSILOV OFFENSIVE, CULLODEN, GANDALF'S REVENGE, GOODBYE BLUE SKY And is published by cwekx@htikub5.bitnet/Constantijn Wekx Chapter Four contains: OZARK, DEADLY DAGGERS, YORKTOWN, MONTREUIL-SUR-MER, FIRE WHEN READY, THUNDERDOME And needs a publisher. Chapter Five contains: DEF CON 5, BORDEL, ERIS, MASADA, YALTA And is published by jjcarette@watami.waterloo.edu/David Gibbs Chapter Six contains: TOKUGAWA, BERLIN WALL, HIROSHIMA, GENGHIS KHAN, SEA LION, VIOLENT PEACE And is published by mike@suna.computation.umist.ac.uk/Mike Reddy Chapter Seven contains: HELM'S DEEP, GROUND ZERO, GIBRALTAR, TIBERIUS, BETELGEUSE, IRON CROSS, DEF CON 4, OPERATION DESERT SHIELD ------------- Chapter Seven ------------- Table of Contents: 1939 vs. 1991 quotes at the top of this issue. The Gulf War Gives Computer Buffs Use For Their Machines from WSJ Junk Mail Into The Future by st702537@brownvm.bitnet/Josh Hendrix More responses to the quiz Diplomatic Suggestions by jmc@Gang-of-Four.stanford.edu/John McCarthy: More letters from Danny Loeb DW Interview Letters from Steve Robinson From the front page of the Wall Street Journal, January 25, 1991: Note that Nathan Srebro is EP player #212, playing Italy in EP game #78, appropriately named Baghdad. THE GULF WAR GIVES COMPUTER BUFFS USE FOR THEIR MACHINES They Are Exchanging News Like Radio Hams of Old; Robert Werman's Reports By Michael W. Miller and Paul B. Carroll Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal The night after war began in the Persian Gulf, when many Israelis were glued to their TV screens, Nathan Srebro, a student in Haifa, sat at his keyboard and became part of a live "conversation" with dozens of other computer users around the world. A participant in Virginia described TV reports he had seen from the Pentagon and the White House. Someone else had the latest oil prices. A student on-line in Ann Arbor, Mich., wondered if Israel had been drawn into the war. "There are no sirens now", Mr. Srebro responded, typing out his message. "Just some weird noises on the radio." Then, moments later, he had a clearer idea of what was going on: "Instructed to wear mask. I'll be will you in a sec. ..." HAMS REVISED This really is an electronic global village, an updating of ham radios and shortwave. Computer hobbyists the world over are dialing up networks and so-called bulletin boards and sharing emotional, instantaneous firsthand reports of the war. These dispatches from the front via computer lack the intimacy of the human voice but have more personality than a wire service. "Sitting in the anti-gas room, members of the family try to put on a brave face, make jokes -- how we all look like elephants", wrote Robert Werman, a Jerusalem neurobiologist whose bulletins have been read by dozens of U.S. computer users this past week. "Only the dog, a rather stately collie, sits quietly and does not appear at all excited. We pity the dog, for he is the only one without a mask. But then we remember that - without a mask - he is our [canary] in the coal mine..." In Saudi Arabia, computer hobbyists have traded war stories on the "Jebel Rebel" electronic bulletin-board in Dhahran. A message from "Gus" said he longed for a fresh cup of coffee when missile explosions wake him up, and proposed a high-tech solution to the problem: "I guess I could install a second sensor so that when something goes BOOM! the coffee pot starts." HEAPING ABUSE On the "Dark Star" board in Dhahran, a message concerning Saddam Hussein arrived with the heading "Scuds and Scum." It read: "I sure would like to talk to that guy, especially after spending three long nights between the washing machine and dryer." A Dhahran resident signed on the "Last Outpost" board in Ras Tanura to respond to questions about how bad the missile attacks were. "Kaboom City it was", said he. "It seemed that the Scuds that were intercepted were all over my house." Another man dialed up Dark Star to describe driving through heavy army traffic to a place called Nariyah: "I remember in June I was up there. What a dull drive! I can handle dull. Dull is really nice. I'm ready for some dull again." David Libsona, who works for a computer software company in Israel, turned on his system after a missile attack Tuesday and dialed up the CompuServe network, a big subscription service with hundreds of electronic bulletin boards. "I spoke this morning to an old girlfriend of mine who lives alone with her two-year-old son some 200 yards from where the missile fell. She was thrown to the floor by the force of the explosion... She, like many others, is thinking of leaving the Tel Aviv area... but is scared of being caught by an attack. Terrible fateful decisions have to be made, and every move out of one's house has to be weighed." As the first days of the war passed, the computer underground's particular brand of humor, always a bit warped, has taken a newly morbid tone. An oil-worker in Dhahran posted this weather forecast on Last Outpost: "Baghdad will be bright and sunny, with lows in the mid-40s and highs in the uper 10,000s. Winds will be from the south, southeast and southwest at 1,500-1,800 knots. Sunscreen 300 is recommended. Chances of precipitation of molten objects are 90 to 99%." On Dark Star, someone told a story about a teacher at the Dhahran Hill School who asked her class: "Do any of you boys and girls know who is causing all of the trouble in Kuwait and Iraq?" Several silent seconds passed, then a child said, "Yes, it's Suddenly Insane." Some network managers are also modifying their systems to suit the times. The "Comm House" board in Tel Aviv now greets all visitors with a special wartime message about Saddam Hussein: "The little [obscenity] makes some problem -- don't worry, there's people that will take care of him." In Riyadh, the King Saud University bulletin board opens certain communications with this message: "Honerable Fortune Cookie Say: Better to die on your feet than live on your knees." NEW USE FOR THE HARDWARE Many of these networks began as places for computer buffs to talk to one another. In Saudi Arabia, some were set up to provide a sense of community for employees of the government's huge Aramco oil company, especially American and British expatriates. Some are run on big computers at universities or companies. Many are just a personal computer with a phone line or two. In the first days of the Gulf war traffic on these networks has become especially busy and complex. The communication from Mr. Srebro to Haifa, for instance, was monitored by a computer-user in Finland, who posted a copy in an electronic "mailbox", where it was retrieved by a Michigan engineering student, who sent it to a computer at this newspaper. The traffic has also become urgently useful. Saudis have shared among themselves information about where to get gas masks and how to use them. (Beards should be shaved, someone advised, because they interfere with the seal between mask and face.) While international phone lines between Israel and the U.S. have been jammed, CompuServe subscribers have managed to keep Americans posted about friends and relatives in Israel. Many networkers have also searched for computer link-ups into Iraq and Kuwait, so far without success. SKEPTICAL NETWORKER Late Tuesday afternoon, amid fresh news reports of Iraqi missiles landing in Israel, a computer user in New York managed to dial up Comm House in Tel Aviv. The only other "networker" on line was Shaul Efraim, who runs the system. He greeted the unexpected caller with considerable suspicion. After reading several questions on the extent of the missile damage, he replied curtly: "U R American just like I'm Saddam Hussein. Where did u hear about my board?" Several informative exchanges later, he still wasn't buying. "Give me a phone number where I can reach u now", he wrote. Then: "Wait .. Can u call again please? I had a power failure here." With that, the line went dead. Here is a letter from st702537@brownvm.bitnet/Josh Hendrix: Subject: junk mail into the future I got this from the Sci-Fi list HIT, (Highly Imaginative Technology). More on Lotus's latest brainstorm, I've deleted most of the intermediate posting info, it was posted to Macintosh and Amiga lists previous to HIT, If you've already read this somewhere else, sorry. It's about 250 lines long... Obviously, I doubt there will be a great deal of support on this list for Mr. Seilor's solution to Lotus's perceived invasion of his privacy, (Sure we need more legislation :-), any other suggestions? Ed Craig ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- ***************************************************************** Subj: Confirmation of Lotus' plan to sell data on individuals -- including income estimates and addresses Folks, I recently forwarded a message about a new Lotus product -- a database on CDROM of 120M US residents with their estimated incomes and buying profiles. Someone questioned whether Lotus is really doing this, so I checked by calling Lotus and speaking to someone in pre-sales service. It really is true. Lotus is still gearing up to sell their "Household Marketplace" product, and it really does give information on individual people, not just regional statistical summaries. I learned the following (and I asked for literature, so I'll soon know even more): 1) Yes, it really *DOES* have names and addresses of individuals. 2) They have divided up the database by regions, and you specify the region you are interested in when you buy the product. That explains how they could have 120M people in their database and still sell you just 1 CD (or a few) for your purchase price. 3) They also have a "Business Marketplace" CD with data on 7 million US businesses. I forebore yelling at the sales-type who handled my call, merely asking if there was a place to write with comments about the service. Apparently the sales types haven't heard of the controversy the product is raising, since she replied that several different reports can be generated by the product, and some of them do have space for comments. GREAT! So not only do they have the audacity to print an estimate of your income (which could be quite damaging if they get it wrong, and is an intrusion into your privacy if they get it right), they also have space on the disk for arbitrary comments about you -- and they'll be selling this data in volume to mass marketing companies across the country! In interviews, Lotus has said that individuals will NOT be able to correct their own entries, or even see what they are. I didn't try to confirm this in my call to Lotus, but I did confirm that the person who reported it -- Rich Salz of BBN -- has an excellent reputation on the internet. Also, everything he said that I checked with Lotus is absolutely accurate. Further, the Wall Street Journal has reported on it -- saying that the database has ages, marital status, and other such personal data as well. So I believe it, and you should to, since it is going to affect your life. Remember -- a database of 120 million US residents comes to almost half the people in the country. Considering that the database is probably biased toward those with higher incomes, the chances are *really good* that anyone able to electronically read this message is in the database. What can you do about it? A couple of things. Lotus has said that they'll omit from their database anyone who asks. Therefore, start by writing to the address below. Tell them that you don't want to be in the database, and tell them exactly what you think of their database. I've appended a copy of my letter to Lotus for an example. Second, pass this message along to anyone whom you think might care. To me, this is not just a matter of privacy. Lotus is going to sell information behind our backs -- we are not allowed to dispute their data or even know what it is. Worse, Lotus is going to sell rumors about our income. Still worse, they will do it on a scale never before achieved. This should not be tolerated. Please help to stop Lotus. Thanks, Larry Seiler Write to: Lotus Development Corp. Attn: Market Name Referral Service 55 Cambridge Parkway Cambridge, MA 02142 Here's my letter. Also send copies of your letter to the president and the CEO of Lotus, if you want to let those at the highest levels know that you are displeased with their product. I've also appended a net copy of the Wall Street Journal artical about it. 198 Linden Street Boylston, MA 01505 December 6, 1990 Lotus Development Corp. Attn: Market Name Referral Service 55 Cambridge Parkway Cambridge, MA 02142 Dear Marketeers, I do not want my name included in your "Household Marketplace" CDROM database, nor that of anyone in my family, at any address I have ever lived at. To be specific, please make sure that the following entries are **NOT** included in your database: any last name (especially Seiler, Schmidt, Poffenberger, or Zwerner) at 198 Linden Street, Boylston MA any Seiler family name at 53 Oak Street, Waltham MA any Seiler family name at 77 Reed Road, Hudson MA As you have it set up, I think your "Household Marketplace" CDROM database is an incredible intrusion and ought to be illegal. I am a computer professional, so this opinion is not based on any native dislike of computers or databases. The problems I have with your proposed service involve the way in which you plan to administer it, the way in which the data will almost certainly be used, the type of data you are including, and my conviction that you will vigorously seek to avoid responsibility for errors in your database. First, administration. I have heard that you are not providing any means to correct errors in your database. The potential for long term damage to individuals from use of your database is therefore enormous. Even if an individual knows that your database is false, users of your database will almost certainly believe the CDROM data in spite of any disclaimers or evidence offered by the individual. Second, use of data. Given the fact that law enforcement agencies are nearly powerless to shut down obviously illegal boiler-room businesses, it is absurd for you to claim that you will only provide the data to legitimate businesses. You won't be able to prevent your product from being used to defraud individuals by huge numbers of illegal operations. One way or another, essentially any business who wants your database will be able to get it -- and it will be of special value to illegal and borderline businesses. Page 2 Third, type of data. I understand that you plan to publish "income estimates". There is no legal way for you to verify income, unless an individual voluntarily provides that information. (I never do, except when the data is legally required to be held in confidence.) It is absolutely unacceptable for you to publish what amount to rumors about people's income. The possibilities for abuse are tremendous. Fourth, responsibility. I understand that you will not permit individuals to find out what information you are spreading about them. The only likely reason for this is that you don't want anyone to find out that your information about them is false. Therefore, while you will sell this product on the basis of providing reliable information, you aren't prepared to be responsible for the accuracy of your information, or for the damage that false information (or even true information) might cause. So as you see, my concerns about your product are not primarily about privacy, although privacy is involved. If you were prepared to take responsibility for the accuracy of your information, then I would be willing to accept your service. For example, you could send copies of the data entries to *each* individual in your database, with a request to write back if any of the data is incorrect or if they want to be removed from your listing. If you did this, and *made* the requested corrections, then I would feel that you were providing a positive service, rather than making abusive use of unverified data. In conclusion, if you market this product, it is my sincere hope that you are sued by every person for whom your data is false, with the eventual result that your company goes bankrupt. That would be a pity, since you make many fine products. However, that is preferable to permitting you to spread rumors and encourage abusive business practices. It would be better if your chief officers went to jail, but that will apparently require new laws to be passed. If you persist in your plans to market this product, a lot of people will be pushing to make that happen. I suggest that you abandon this project while there is time to do so. Yours most sincerely, Larry Seiler Lotus - New program spurs fears privacy could be undermined {The Wall Street Journal, 13-Nov-90, p. B1} Privacy advocates are raising the alarm about a new Lotus product that lists names, addresses, shopping habits and likely income levels for some 80 million U.S. households. Due for release early next year, Lotus Marketplace packs the data on palm-sized compact disks aimed at small and mid-sized businesses that want to do inexpensive, targeted direct-mail marketing. But critics say the product is just too good. "It's going to change the whole ball game," says Mary Culnan, an associate professor at Georgetown University's School of Business Administration. "This is a big step toward people completely losing control of how, and by whom, personal information is used." Janlori Goldman, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, adds that the product raises "serious legal and ethical questions." Lotus' critics concede that the product offers little more than is already available from established mailing-list brokers. But they say it is a greater potential threat to personal privacy because of its low cost, ease of use and lack of effective safeguards over who ultimately has access to it and why. They also say that the way it is designed allows users to ask a series of increasingly specific questions about small subgroups of people - identifying, for example, unmarried, wealthy women over 65 in a neighborhood. "They've crossed the line," says Marc Rotenberg, Washington director for the nonprofit Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. "It simply shouldn't be allowed on the market." Lotus counters that the product, still under development, has been tailored to address privacy concerns. No phone numbers will be included, it won't be available in retail stores and it will be sold only to "legitimate businesses" at verified addresses checked against a "fraud file," Lotus says. A contract will specifically limit its use and provide penalties for abuses. Owners will be be allowed unlimited use of the names and addresses they buy, at a cost of $695 initially for the program plus 5,0000 names and $400 for each additional 5,000 names. ((Eric's note: Lotus got so many complaints they dropped the product a day ago.)) More on the quiz: From: death@watcsc.waterloo.edu (Trevor Green) > "How many different sets of opening orders are there? Such a >set of orders must specify a legal movement, support, or hold for each >of the 22 units on the board. (Convoys are of course impossible in >Spring 1901.) You must consider all possible movements including >stupid ones like moving Smy->Syr or Lon->Yor with Edi->Yor. However, >you should only count supports which are NOT void. That is to say, the >supported unit must be ordered to do what is supported to do. >Furthermore, only count useful supports. That is to say, only count >supports given by a country "A" for himself or a country "B" which in >theory could prevent the success of the move or hold by a country "C" >distinct from "A" and "B"." >Answer to Daniel Loeb's quiz by Magnus Selhammar/selham@pdc.kth.se > > The number of opening moves are 1.84*10^22.[...] > >((Danny's solution follows, I'll post any comments that Danny and Magnus >make about their different answers. Danny's answer is about a million >times smaller than Magnus's. Although 10^22 and 10^16 are in the same >ballpark of big numbers.)) In reviewing these answers to the questions (Danny's is erroneous as well for reasons which I will explain in my answer, not to mention that he has Naples down as having only 3 legal moves rather than 4), it appears to me that a better question would be "For each power, how many distinct openings are there?" In this context, two openings are distinct if there is a set of openings by the other nations for which these two openings result in a different unit positioning. (e.g. A War-Ukr, A Mos H and A War-Mos, A Mos-Ukr are not distinct, as they both result in armies in Mos and Ukr; but A Par-Bur, A Mar-Bur and A Par H, A Mar H are distinct, since if Germany moves A Mun-Bur it will bounce in one case and succeed in the other.) By multiplying these seven results together we get the total number of permutations of the opening (although there are bound to be a large number of transpositions). Trevor Green Answer (this may be wrong due to my doing everything by hand): Austria-Hungary 173 England 92 France 106 Germany 232 Italy 182 Russia 741 Turkey 51 ------------------- Total 52 786 167 442 364 The fact that Russia has almost as many openings as everyone else combined is mainly due to its extra unit; Turkey's paucity of openings came as quite a surprise to me, but it doesn't seem to do it much harm; Germany's relatively large number of openings comes about principally because Kiel and Munich both have quite a large number of non-conflicting moves. So if we could get the population of the Earth doing a game a minute each, we'd get done all the distinct openings in about ten weeks. Why Danny was wrong: There are places other than Tyrolia where a unit can give a "useful" support to another country's unit. For example, A Mun S(France)A Mar-Bur is a useful support, in that if France moves A Par-Bur, A Mar-Bur, A Mar will succeed in its move where it would have failed without the support. (Whether Germany would like this to happen is arguable; but we're not looking for good openings - just distinct ones.) From: loeb@moon.greco-prog.fr (Daniel Loeb) Having read Trevor's explanation I agree that my figures are erroneneous. However, I can not really determine if his figures are correct until he tells me how he came up with these figures for each country: Austria-Hungary 173 England 92 France 106 Germany 232 Italy 182 Russia 741 Turkey 51 Another comment I have is that it might be interesting to keep track in Electronic Protocol of games results according to which opening each country chose. A collection of comments for each opening actually used could be kept as well. This library of comments would make excellant reading after Spring 1901 of any game. Yours, Daniel Loeb "Combinatorics: The Thought that Counts" Here's a response from selham@pdc.kth.se/Magnus Selham: The Spring 1901 openings. About the calculation of the number of possible openings. I recalculated the opening and found that I did some error the first time. The correct number is, I guess, 1124000727777607680000 or approximately 1.124 10^21. The difference between mine and Daniels is that I included every move that any unit could do, regardless of the other units. Which result is valid depends on what you want to use it for. Here's a letter from jmc@Gang-of-Four.stanford.edu (John McCarthy): The "peace movement" has greatly criticized President Bush for not engaging in genuine dialog with Saddam Hussein and more generally for not understanding the Arab mind. I have come to agree. We are indeed really failing to understand the Arab mind through failure to speak in proper language. Here's the way to do it. A few days ago President Mubarak of Egypt referred to Saddam Hussein as "my Arab brother". Today Mubarak is quoted by the New York Times as saying that if Iraq doesn't get out of Kuwait by January 15, "Heads will turn white, cities will collapse and the mutilated bodies of victims will be scattered in seas of blood." To this the official Iraqi press agency quite naturally replied that this was "crocodile tears", saying that martyrdom was the highest aspiration for the Iraqi and Arab people. It also called Mr. Mubarak a clown, a liar and a stooge of President Bush. A few days ago Saddam Hussein referred to President Bush as a "Judas Iscariot". Bush had the insensitivity to Arab feelings to not reply to this, although admittedly he had previously said something about "kicking ass". If Bush really wants a genuine dialog leading to a meeting of minds, he must respect Saddam Hussein's initiative. Even within Western culture there exist materials for an authentic reply, e.g. in Dante. What he should have replied is something like that if his Arab brother continues in his present course he will end up suspended by his balls with his head in a barrel of molten tar while his feet are being eaten by fire ants and killer bees. He could also call him a pale imitation of Hitler not actually worthy of the attention he is being given. Then he should remind him about leaving Kuwait by January 15. I realize that making up statements for Bush in such language is not what Mr. Fitzwater is trained to do. However, there may still be time before January 15 for Mr. Fitzwater to adapt his language to Arab sensitivities. The cause of peace demands no less. Letters by loeb@moon.greco-prog.fr (Daniel Loeb): The following news should be of interest to diplomacy players. According to the International Herald Tribune Tuesday January 8. Leningrad is considering changing its name back to St. Petersburg. The name change will take quite a while because of the expenses involved. Yours, Daniel Loeb "Combinatorics: The Thought that Counts" This is a Diplomacy Programming Project non-Update. It is a non-update because in fact there is no progress to report. While I have finished the diplomat interface before going on vacation, and at that time several people reported to be working on a Diplomat (diplomacy playing automata) with which I could interface. However, nobody has given me even a hint of further progress. Please people get working on these programs and start exchanging ideas! I would like regular updates from anyone who is working on writting a diplomacy program! Yours, Daniel Loeb, DPP "Combinatorics: The Thought that Counts" The following was scribed by snow@cololasp.bitnet/Martin Snow: From Diplomacy World #60: THE DW INTERVIEW: ERIC KLIEN Q. What is your age and occupation? A. I am 24 and a computer programmer. Q. How long have you been in the PBM/PBEM Diplomacy Hobby? How did you first get involved? A. I got in the hobby in the spring of 1988. I got started in Rebel shortly after it was mentioned in Avalon Hill's magazine The General. Q. How old are your two zines Protocol and Electronic Protocol, and how many games have you or are you running? A. Protocol started February 1989, while Electronic Protocol started in October 1988. I have 8 games in Protocol and 40 games in Electronic Protocol. Q. Describe your initiative to attract novices to the hobby, and report on the results of said initiative. A. I currently run ads in The General and Paper Mayhem with success. Flyers and ads in The Space Gamer, Strategy and Tactics, Battle Plan, and some University newspapers were complete failures. Most of my subscribers are from free ads that I post weekly to the Usenet electronic mail network. I am raising money for a full page ad in Paper Mayhem, so would appreciate contributions. Q. How does the Portal Network connect with other PBEM Diplomacy players? Is there significant crossover between PBEM players on different networks? A. Portal (the network I use for Electronic Protocol) connects up to Usenet, which is the largest network in the world. I have one CompuServe GM who uses an undocumented link to hook up to Usenet. But there has been no mass migration from CompuServe to my zine even though I am larger and cheaper. Note that advertising Portal on CompuServe would be frowned upon by the CompuServe authorities. Q. Will PBEM take over the Diplomacy hobby eventually, as some have suggested, or is there a reason for having games or zines run by conventional mail? For example, is there a satisfactory way to transmit "reading zines" by Email without the reader having to scroll down the screen and develop eye strain? A. I think PBEM will takeover completely. Remember that you can print out zines sent via Email if you are worried about eye strain. And you can print them out in larger type than most postal zines use. More importantly, PBEM is MUCH faster! I have games with only two day deadlines between turns. It will take longer than that for this letter to be delivered to you by government-controlled snailmail. The only hope for snailmail is if the government gets out of the business. Rabbitmail with delivery times of one day for all US mail could keep the postal hobby alive, although it is still much easier to post one copy of my zine to Usenet than to print out 250 copies, staple them, put them in labeled envelopes, and then put 250 stamps on the envelopes. Remember that you would be doing all this work at least four times a month due to the faster pace of your zine. And I wouldn't even want to think of the work involved in doing this for a 500 copy circulation! And my fast international games would still be impossible unless all governments converted to rabbitmail, which would involve two-day turnaround for international mail compared to the two hours that international Email currently takes. (Email is getting so fast that complete games in one session are becoming feasible on more and more networks; one day the delays will drop to less than one second for Email worldwide.) Q. Are Diplomacy variants popular on the Email networks, and if so, which ones? A. Gunboat is the most popular variant. I also run blind games, 1914 games, and the original classic game. I also run games in French and Dutch if you consider that a variant. I almost have enough people for my first German-language game! Q. Describe your famous "no-NMR" policy and its implementation. Have there been any problems or complaints? A. My no-NMR policy has gone quite well. Occasionally there are complaints, but since my competition has gone from 15 GM's down to about 3 GM's on Usenet, most if not all people like to play in my games. Considering that Email connections can suddenly die just as postal mail can be lost, it is important to maintain my no-NMR policy. I have thrown out lots of people for being incompetent, but I never NMR them! Q. Are conventional Diplomacy games by mail worth the wait, or do they just last too long for someone used to playing Email games? A. Conventional Diplomacy games by mail are just too slow. The games take forever to finish. I bet most people burnout before their first game comes to conclusion. Q. How would someone who knows little about Email get involved in Email Diplomacy? Describe the basic procedure for running games on Email. A. To get involved in Email Diplomacy, the person should find out if they can get a free Usenet account. All universities and lots of companies provide them. They should then contact me at eric_s_klien@cup.portal.com. Usenet is also called Internet and Bitnet. If they can't get a free account, they should contact Portal's voice number at (408) 973-9111. If they have a CompuServe account they can contact me at >internet:eric_s_kline@cup.portal.com. Games are run the same as in postal zines, except that the GM's directly send results to the players so that people don't wade through one huge zine looking for their results. (This would be ridiculous for 40 games!) For record keeping purposes, we post the 40 games throughout the seven chapters of my zine, with the seventh chapter mostly being article-based. I have people called guest publishers who take care of the first six chapters. I also have people called Scribes who type in articles, people called Email Wizards to help people out with Email problems, and people called archivers who hold copies of all the chapters and issues of my zine. (We're up to issue #193 so this is a lot of info!) Q. Should ratings systems rate PBM and PBEM games together, or is that just like comparing apples to oranges? A. No one pays attention to ratings systems so this doesn't matter. I guess you would want to rate them separately since the faster Email games suffer from less dropouts. By the way, Mark Nelson is about to send me an Email article rating all my games if anyone is interested in reading it. Q. Why are there no Diplomacy Cons in New England? Would you be interested in running such an event in the future? A. I may run a Diplomacy Con in the future, but since my players are spread out over 13 countries, I really don't have that many New England players. Q. Please include any other comments you may have about the state of the Diplomacy hobby. A. I think the BNC and MNC are way too slow. I am owed tens of numbers. This should either be corrected or I should be appointed the Email BNC and MNC. In the meantime, I have been forced to assign "EP" numbers as most of my games don't yet have BNC or MNC numbers. I think the Diplomacy Hobby will explode as it goes Email. I am starting one game per week this year, and this rate continues to increase as I get more players. (I have 200 players as I type this.) Since postal Diplomacy is so slow, I have closed openings in my postal zine Protocol. If anyone needs more players for their postal zine they should let me know (my US mail address is 10 Sinai Circle #B10 Chelmsford MA 01824.) I am currently referring all leads to Penguin Dip but that zine won't have openings for long. Letter from shr@clemson.clemson.edu/Steve Robinson: I enjoy the reading part of your zine a lot. The interview with Fred Davis was very good. It gives a view of the personal history of the hobby that relatively new people like me would otherwise never see. Please continue to provide this sort of thing. Steve Another letter from shr@clemson.clemson.edu/Steve Robinson: i liked the feature on the top of page 1. the comparison of the quotes was fascinating. i don't by any means know the names of all the members of congress, so i didn't catch on that the times and events were so different until i saw the sen. charles tobey quote, and even then i couldn't quite put my finger on the problem. it's sort of eerie how history and politicians repeat themselves. am i the only one who has thoughts like this, or are the news media trying to manage this war? even worse, it seems that they want to do it in such a way as to increase the drama and shock value of it. we're not making a movie or a "docudrama" here!!! the reporters keep asking 58 times a day when we will begin land attacks and how much greater the casualties will be then. i guess more blood makes better copy. whenever there's a siren heard anywhere in israel or saudi arabia, the tv newspeople switch over immediately, but when it turns out to be just a firetruck instead of an air-raid siren, they can't cut away quickly enough. "sorry boys, no blood - no air time." probably the worst of it though is the pervasive attitude that the media should be allowed to broadcast anything at all any time at all. if the information was available and they could find a way to do it, i think they would announce to the world (including sadam) the departure time, destination, and mission of every flight we send and loudly proclaim their right (and even duty) to do so. it makes me a bit ill. we entered this war for compelling reasons. sadam must be removed, and his military capability must be reduced or eliminated. i do hope that we keep in mind that the syrian head of state is every bit as bad and that we are careful not to strengthen him in the process. i also hope that our nation and the rest of the free world have finally come to realize that whatever our alliance of the moment is in that region we cannot continue to arm these despots. no free aid and no arms. if they want food, they have money out their ears, let them *buy* it. if they want arms, the answer must be ***NO*** !!! not so much as a slingshot! we have the best equipped and best manned military in the world, and this includes the leadership. let's let them do the job they're paid to do and not let the media choreograph it to their liking. let the generals make the battle plans, and let the media spread the news when and only when it is safe to do so. to hear it told, the dirtiest word in the english language is "censorship". I'd rather see 1,000,000 censored broadcasts than have one gi killed with a microphone. i want to know as much as i can as soon as i can, but what i can see sadam can see. if it makes a difference to a gi's safety, i can wait. wow! i thought i'd just comment on the protocol piece. i guess i had a bit more on my mind though. thanks for listening. ****************************************************************************** To join in the fun, send your name, home address, home and work phone numbers, and country preferences to Eric_S_Klien@cup.portal.com. ****************************************************************************** Up