Picking a Diplo Leader

[Sullla]

"Did we ever send that message?"

Too often, we've been seeing this show up in our diplo thread. The problem as I see it is that we have no clear person in charge of our foreign stuff. Working together on the drafts is good (and should continue), but we will be better served to pick an individual who is clearly responsible for sending, receiving, and keep up all updated on foreign correspondences. Let's work on that right now in this thread.

It isn't really important who does this job. What matter is that we have someone who can log into the game on a daily basis, post frequent updates in the diplo threads, and is prompt about sending messages once the team has decided on the content. This position will take up a decent time commitment, so be warned. Ruff did a fantastic job earlier, and he would have my support if interested in continuing again.

Any takers?

[sunrise089]

Sullla's idea is fine, but I have a proposal for a smaller commitment that I think still gets the job done. I feel that when new diplo news gets posted we're doing a good job on providing feedback quickly. I think a simple rule (and diplo lead role) to get a response out within 48 hours no matter what will more or less fix this problem. Either by 48 hours we will have come to a consensus, or the discussion will have languished and the diplo lead can send what they feel is the best proposal at this point.

My thought is that after 48 hours the improvements to the message are outweighed by the delay's impact.

[Swiss Pauli]

I don't see myself logging into the game on a daily basis, but if we lack a permanent volunteer then I can cover this until the end of March. After that work & holiday commitments mean I'm largely unavailable until mid-May/early June.

One suggestion I would make is to consider sharing the workload between somone in Europe and someone in North America, with a handover at, say, 1800 GMT each day. I'd hope that such an arrangement would lessen the burden, and increase the speed of response.

[ruff_hi]

My comments ... it was fairly easy to run the diplo when Templar and Imperio where involved. The addition of PAL, Rabbits and (some day) banana will take up more time. Anyone interested in splitting up the role?

That said, my life is going to get very busy and I don't see myself having much time for Civ (if at all) after Feb.

[Sullla]

The idea is good in principle, sunrise, but I fear at the end of the day, 48 hours is going to come and go, and everyone will still be saying, "I thought you were supposed to send the message...?"

Having one person in charge would be best, IMO. If that's not possible due to time constraints, at the very least we need to have someone in charge of sending out the messages, and posting an "Email Sent" message in the threads whenever something does go out. Our diplomacy has been pretty good thus far in the game (remember how we settled directly towards both neighbors, with no resources at all, and got away with it? ), we just need to tighten things up a bit. Having contact with more teams has meant more confusion, naturally.

[sunrise089]

The idea is good in principle, sunrise, but I fear at the end of the day, 48 hours is going to come and go, and everyone will still be saying, "I thought you were supposed to send the message...?"

Having one person in charge would be best, IMO. If that's not possible due to time constraints, at the very least we need to have someone in charge of sending out the messages, and posting an "Email Sent" message in the threads whenever something does go out. Our diplomacy has been pretty good thus far in the game (remember how we settled directly towards both neighbors, with no resources at all, and got away with it? ), we just need to tighten things up a bit. Having contact with more teams has meant more confusion, naturally.

Sorry Sullla, I should have been more clear. What I propose is a supplemental rule to tack-on to your proposal for a diplo leader. I think my 48 hour rule makes things both easier and harder, but that it will make things flow more smoothly overall. It will make things harder because the diplo leader will have a hard rule to follow, but (much?) easier because everyone will know the right time to send the email.

I fear otherwise even with a diplo lead we will still have "have you sent the message?" problems when the lead knows it's his responsibility but doesn't know when enough discussion has taken place.

Feel free to disregard my rule out of hand if we're confident the diplo leader will always know the proper time to send messages, I just know that if I were the leader I might sometimes delay messages due to indecision without a rule.

[Dreylin]

Did we ever choose an official diplo-guy to replace Swiss?

It seems like we may have been a bit lax recently in actually sending messages. (did we ever sen anything to Pal?)

I can probably take it on ... although Iprobably couldn't be guaranteed to be available to send anything during work hours.

[Dreylin]

Having said that; I'm going to be on holiday from 1st-11th May with intermittant access...

[mostly-harmless]

I would apply, but my view on diplomacy in this game does not represent the team's wishes very well, I fear.

Anyway, top priority must be to secure Banana. Talking to them all the time is crucial.

mh

[ruff_hi]

I'd be happy to step back into the role of sending out the emails once the team has agreed on them. I haven't got tonnes of time to write them - but I can send them and monitor our inbox.

Just a heads up: I am starting to loathe both Imperio and Templars, well on the way to loathing PAL (already angry), totally ambivalent about Rabbit and pretty happy with Banana. I say this because these views will color my comments on these teams.

[Dreylin]

Ruff, could you send out the Templars and Imperio e-mails; I think there is broud support for them, even if there are doubts they'll have any effect.