Hi,

after that nice letter from GW, Christer did all that he can to keep the site running. But now, one month after the publication of the letter here on fumbbl, some major changes in the history of this site appeared.
This month usually 350 games per day were played, while one month ago the number was about 500. During the time, that cyanide's game is available, the number has already reduced, but not by 150 within one month. So I asked myself, what happened to the site, that so many coaches quit playing here. When I opened the Games-page a few minutes ago, there were 2 games running. I remember times, when there were 15-20 games running even at such an early time of the day (here in central Europe :-) ).

At first, it is reasonable, that some of the "old" coaches have different things in mind - family, different hobbies and stuff. Some might be more interested in the new cyanide game, which has implemented most parts of LRB5 (no cards, no choice to use skills, most of the teams are missing, no RR2008, very predictable AI, and so on). Some coaches (like me e.g.) got rid of the LRB4 and don't want to play that rulebook any more. The result is, that fumbbl dies out over a certain time - it bleeds to death.

The Skijunkie client is no longer available and most important, the support for the client, that could be found in the Help section has been deleted. It is still not clear, what happens, if the fumbbl-Login gets part of GW's list in c&d, because it is certain, that this client is only used to play here at fumbbl.
The BOTOCS client is a very good one (like the one K. did here, no question) and has implemented all LRB5+RR2008 (without Animosity), but has the same problem than the Skijunkie client and is no longer available and supported over the internet.
Therefor new players will not be able to get support for their clients and this will lead to less new players, because not everybody is interested in a complicated configuration of java/client and so on to try this out.

What can be done to not totally disappear after all these years? There has to be a quick change in the mind of those, who manage the site. The client works for those, who have already installed/used it on their system.
Perhaps cyanide is a good possibility, to keep the page running. With a huge number of coaches playing here, cyanide might allow fumbbl an interface, so that at least the game and fumbbl work together. I don't think, that this idea is so unlikely, because fumbbl has a great infrastructure for BB games and cyanide has a (well, lets say) working game and is interested in selling more copies of this game.
There might be a result upload for all people, who want to host their rosters here on fumbbl, play in groups...
Make an xml upload for a certain xml pattern would be another possibility, that allows people to upload their games in a certain way. The BOTOCS client uses a nice pattern for this. Of course, the results can be manipulated, but perhaps we find a way, to make this possible.
The most important thing for me would be, that LRB6 (or 5 with RR2008) is available for this site, because otherwise I would prefer not to play - like all the others, who have already left fumbbl.

There has to be done something soon. But the most important thing is, that it is done before this site vanishes in the internet.

Greetz,
gan

Addition: http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=stats&op=games&type=week