Hosting notices can only be seen by a handful of people - only those people who have logged-in. The same goes for the shoutbox which is also used to say that a game is about to start or has started. The majority of people interested in SimSig aren't logged-in and they can't see anything about multi-player games. While you will want to protect IP addresses, the fact that a game is in the offing doesn't need to be kept secret. No wonder there were only 11 games for a whole week!

Some new ideas are needed. If SimSig doesn't want to advertise games then perhaps we could start a new group on Facebook or use Twitter. What do you think?

i would say that protecting IP adresses reduces trolling and the suchlike. people who are genuinely interested will take the 5 minutes to sign up and log in.

that said, making access to hosting information more widespread may be a good idea

There's nothing to prevent anyone arranging network games outside of the SimSig forum anyway; as for myself, I don't have, need or want any facebook etc accounts, so wouldn't make any difference here.

As has been previously mentioned SimSig does no advertise games- it provides a forum for members of the forum to advertise any game they are hosting. Way back the sentiment was expressed that this should be hidden behind a log-in, partly due to disruption experienced by some players.

Peter

There are at least 2 Fa(r)cebook groups for Simsig that I am part of, however no one really uses them. They only become active around meets.

Tugz

Roadrunner wrote:
It's not a secret. If it were, you wouldn't be able to see it! You've already described the simple process for getting the information which, if somebody is looking to join a multiplayer, will know where to find.
Roadrunner wrote:
A few months ago there would only be a handful per week, so that's an improvement.
Roadrunner wrote:
Facebook and Twitter would be somewhat limiting in their audience. Many of the older generation here do not use it (personally I use FB for family, not for SimSig mostly, and I have only read the occasional tweet, never tweeted). In fact there already is a Facebook page.

However, there are already plans for an additional module which will advertise multiplayer games without logging in, but with the IP address and suchlike only visible after logging in. I just need some donations to help pay for it.

I cannot personally say I have ever seen a problem with the present system for advertising multiplayer games.

It is well documented in areas visible to non-members that you need to be a member to view the multiplayer host threads. I personally think that it is best this way as it prevents, as Geoff states above, the disruptive element because those type of people cannot be bothered to join the forum just to disrupt a few multiplayer games.

I also think that the shoutbox only being visible to members is no bad thing - especially considering you have to be logged in to post on it. When it was more widely visible on the site in days gone by it tended to get clogged up with so much irrelevant information and spam that I personally never read it anyway - nowadays its only use tends to be to point people in the direction of the hosting details forum for any game being hosted at that time, and as such it is effectively a far more useful tool.

Whilst it is true that probably only a small minority of signed-up members of the SimSig forums ever play multiplayer games, all who are members can see the threads and join if they so wish. It is likely in my opinion that anyone who has become sufficiently interested in SimSig to consider playing multiplayer will have already reached the stage of joining the forums.

11 games for a whole week actually sounds higher than the usual amount of games for a whole week - some weeks no games at all are being hosted. I see no problem with the current system and so I'm completely behind keeping hosting details private, as the current system does. As that classic saying goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Instead of a forum, you could also make a form where a host can enter the sim, date, time, IP, port etc.
That way the topics can be sorted on the time the sim will be running (or has run) instead of the time the last post is made.

Albert wrote:
Technically there is no reason that this could not be done, although I would imagine that the cost involved would be difficult to justify.

The forum-based system has the advantage that it does not cost SimSig any more money to advertise multiplayer games than is already spent on the forum anyway. There is not a huge difficulty in seeing what is being presently or next hosted because Peter Bennett (I think) regularly deletes the expired multiplayer sessions from the forum.

For instance, at this present time there are only three threads advertising multiplayer on the forum - one of which ended yesterday, one of which was cancelled without a train being signalled yesterday, and the other of which I have just posted as an intention to host in an hours time.
UKTrainMan wrote:
I cannot personally see how different methods of publishing multiplayer games would increase the number of games actually hosted. Also, generally one game a night is sufficient to keep everyone who wants to play happy.
UKTrainMan wrote:
I agree 100% and would go further and say that as someone who hosts fairly regularly I would no longer do so if IP addresses were not restricted in this way as the security risk would be too great.
UKTrainMan wrote:
Agreed again.