[Dixonary] OT: Game archive, rounds 49-979

[Paul Keating]

Courtesy of Russ Heimerson, who retrieved old zip disks out of his
attic at my request, you will now find in Pages | History and
Statistics a zipfile that contains selected but otherwise verbatim
records of the game on CompuServe from Round 49: DRUSE (when record
keeping started, December 1989) to Round 979: RONYON (February 1999).

The markup has been translated into XML, not to be fashionable, but to
make the data accessible to software that no longer understands Tapcis
mail headers.

Included in the zipfile are two stylesheets, one XSLT and one CSS. A
modern browser (such as IE 6 or Thunderbird 3) will use these
stylesheets to render the xml tags as round and message headers,
rather than simply displaying them as <scarequote>geeky stuff</
scarequote>.

Why would anyone want this? I don't know if anyone will, but here are
some reasons.

Does the game, now in its 20th year, deserve a history? If so, the
historian will need some source documents.

And if I assert that there is precedent in round X for interpreting
rule Y as saying Z, someone may want to read round X to see if I'm not
making it all up.

There is a tradition in this game that we never revise the rules, no
matter how far actual practice wanders from the game those old rules
describe. If we make new rules in forum messages, players must simply
_remember_ them: a longstanding principle, dating at least from round
554, but explicitly enunciated in round 1824. Go and look it up if you
don't believe me.

Completists like me have the problem that the game's archives are a
bit sprinkled.
Rounds 1-48 predate proper record-keeping and are probably gone
forever.
Rounds 49-979 are from today available here in the Files section.
Rounds 980-1560 are currently a gap.
Rounds 1561-1612 were played on CompuServe, but I saved them as
WebView exports as insurance against the CompuServe forum closing
without warning. Those files are still available in the Coryphæus
group, though they really belong here now.
Rounds 1613-1802 were played in the Coryphæus group and the messages
are all available there.
Rounds 1803 onwards have been played in this group and the messages
are all available here.

[Daniel B. Widdis]

PK> Rounds 1-48 predate proper record-keeping and are probably
PK> gone forever.

Wasn't there a file KECKLE.ZIP or something like that in the old TAPCIS
forum library? Did that ever get downloaded by any of our players prior to
the forum's demise?

--
Dan

[Paul Keating]

Dan,

When the closure of the forum was announced I downloaded stuff from the
files section over a period of days, and put it in the Coryphæus group, and
also started saving rounds in progress, as insurance in case the forum
closed without warning.

No date was announced (though I think the sysops must have known it) and in
the event the closure happened only months later.

I thought I had got everything of value, but maybe I missed it. Or maybe I
even saw it and decided that 48 rounds weren't of much value since without
the intervening 1,513.


--
Paul Keating
The Hague

----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel B. Widdis" <widdis (AT) gmail (DOT) com>
Subject: [Dixonary] Re: OT: Game archive, rounds 49-979


> Wasn't there a file KECKLE.ZIP or something like that in the old TAPCIS
forum library?

[Guerri Stevens]

Might the old TAPCIS forum files be available on tapcis.com?

Guerri

Daniel B. Widdis wrote:
> PK> Rounds 1-48 predate proper record-keeping and are probably
> PK> gone forever.
>
> Wasn't there a file KECKLE.ZIP or something like that in the old TAPCIS
> forum library? Did that ever get downloaded by any of our players prior to
> the forum's demise?

[Paul Keating]

At the time the forum closed, tapcis.com could only manage files as sticky
messages. That might have changed since, of course.

--
Paul Keating
The Hague

----- Original Message -----
From: "Guerri Stevens" <guerri (AT) tapcis (DOT) com>
Subject: [Dixonary] Re: OT: Game archive, rounds 49-979


> Might the old TAPCIS forum files be available on tapcis.com?

[JohnnyB]

Paul

I have complete lists -- on the google group files as Wordsabc.dix/txt
Words123.dix/txt

I don't update them as frequently as I should - every 10 rounds, because I
am not sure who, if anyone, still uses them but I will do a 2000

JohnnyB

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dixonary (AT) googlegroups (DOT) com
> [mailto:Dixonary (AT) googlegroups (DOT) com] On Behalf Of Paul Keating
> Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 10:13 PM
> To: Dixonary
> Subject: [Dixonary] OT: Game archive, rounds 49-979
>
>
> Courtesy of Russ Heimerson, who retrieved old zip disks out
> of his attic at my request, you will now find in Pages |
> History and Statistics a zipfile that contains selected but
> otherwise verbatim records of the game on CompuServe from
> Round 49: DRUSE (when record keeping started, December 1989)
> to Round 979: RONYON (February 1999).
>
> The markup has been translated into XML, not to be
> fashionable, but to make the data accessible to software that
> no longer understands Tapcis mail headers.
>
> Included in the zipfile are two stylesheets, one XSLT and one
> CSS. A modern browser (such as IE 6 or Thunderbird 3) will
> use these stylesheets to render the xml tags as round and
> message headers, rather than simply displaying them as
> <scarequote>geeky stuff</
> scarequote>.
>
> Why would anyone want this? I don't know if anyone will, but
> here are some reasons.
>
> Does the game, now in its 20th year, deserve a history? If
> so, the historian will need some source documents.
>
> And if I assert that there is precedent in round X for
> interpreting rule Y as saying Z, someone may want to read
> round X to see if I'm not making it all up.
>
> There is a tradition in this game that we never revise the
> rules, no matter how far actual practice wanders from the
> game those old rules describe. If we make new rules in forum
> messages, players must simply _remember_ them: a longstanding
> principle, dating at least from round 554, but explicitly
> enunciated in round 1824. Go and look it up if you don't believe me.
>
> Completists like me have the problem that the game's archives
> are a bit sprinkled.
> Rounds 1-48 predate proper record-keeping and are probably
> gone forever.
> Rounds 49-979 are from today available here in the Files section.
> Rounds 980-1560 are currently a gap.
> Rounds 1561-1612 were played on CompuServe, but I saved them
> as WebView exports as insurance against the CompuServe forum
> closing without warning. Those files are still available in
> the Coryphæus group, though they really belong here now.
> Rounds 1613-1802 were played in the Coryphæus group and the
> messages are all available there.
> Rounds 1803 onwards have been played in this group and the
> messages are all available here.
>
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> Version: 8.5.287 / Virus Database: 270.12.7/2085 - Release
> Date: 04/28/09 18:02:00
>
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 8.5.287 / Virus Database: 270.12.7/2085 - Release Date: 04/28/09
18:02:00

[Paul Keating]

No, Johnny, I'm not talking about word lists. I know you maintain one for
the benefit of Dixomatic and another for visitors to the Dixonary group; I
maintain one (along with rolling and cumulative scores) for the benefit of
Coryphæus; and Dodi has announced that she maintains one for people who want
it by email.

The archive is a complete transcript of all the messages in a round, from
announcement to results. Dan recalls there was such a transcript for rounds
1-48 in the files section of the old CIS forum. If he's right, then maybe
Judy will have a copy somewhere. I do remember something about all of the
files being saved, but I've been combing through the posts for May 2005 and
I can't find it.

--
Paul Keating
The Hague

----- Original Message -----
From: "JohnnyB" <johnnybarrs (AT) gmail (DOT) com>
Subject: [Dixonary] Re: OT: Game archive, rounds 49-979

Paul

>> I have complete lists -- on the google group files as Wordsabc.dix/txt
Words123.dix/txt

[Daniel B. Widdis]

PK> The archive is a complete transcript of all the messages in a round,
PK> from announcement to results

Ah. IIRC the KECKLE file had the word and all submitted defs for the first
50 rounds, but I'm not sure it was an actual collection of messages...

--
Dan

[keating@acm.org]

Even that would be something. That is, after all, all we have (that I
know of) for rounds 1561-1612.

> Ah. IIRC the KECKLE file had the word and all submitted defs for the first
> 50 rounds, but I'm not sure it was an actual collection of messages...

[Toni Savage]

I have them going back to round 1615 (TRAGOPAN), but it's in yahoo mail, and would be difficult to archive as a single file.

-- Toni Savage


--- On Sat, 5/2/09, Paul Keating <keating (AT) acm (DOT) org> wrote:

> From: Paul Keating <keating (AT) acm (DOT) org>
> Subject: [Dixonary] Re: OT: Game archive, rounds 49-979
> To: Dixonary (AT) googlegroups (DOT) com
> Date: Saturday, May 2, 2009, 7:21 AM
>
> No, Johnny, I'm not talking about word lists. I know you
> maintain one for
> the benefit of Dixomatic and another for visitors to the
> Dixonary group; I
> maintain one (along with rolling and cumulative scores) for
> the benefit of
> Coryphæus; and Dodi has announced that she maintains one
> for people who want
> it by email.
>
> The archive is a complete transcript of all the messages in
> a round, from
> announcement to results. Dan recalls there was such a
> transcript for rounds
> 1-48 in the files section of the old CIS forum. If he's
> right, then maybe
> Judy will have a copy somewhere. I do remember something
> about all of the
> files being saved, but I've been combing through the posts
> for May 2005 and
> I can't find it.
>
> --
> Paul Keating
> The Hague
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "JohnnyB" <johnnybarrs (AT) gmail (DOT) com>
> Subject: [Dixonary] Re: OT: Game archive, rounds 49-979
>
> Paul
>
> >> I have complete lists -- on the google group files
> as Wordsabc.dix/txt
> Words123.dix/txt
>
>
>

[Toni Savage]

I will foreward KECKLE.TXT, for your archiving pleasure. It should match the others in format, I guess.


-- Toni Savage


--- On Fri, 5/1/09, Paul Keating <keating (AT) acm (DOT) org> wrote:

> From: Paul Keating <keating (AT) acm (DOT) org>
> Subject: [Dixonary] OT: Game archive, rounds 49-979
> To: "Dixonary" <Dixonary (AT) googlegroups (DOT) com>
> Date: Friday, May 1, 2009, 5:13 PM
>
> Courtesy of Russ Heimerson, who retrieved old zip disks out
> of his
> attic at my request, you will now find in Pages | History
> and
> Statistics a zipfile that contains selected but otherwise
> verbatim
> records of the game on CompuServe from Round 49: DRUSE
> (when record
> keeping started, December 1989) to Round 979: RONYON
> (February 1999).
>
> The markup has been translated into XML, not to be
> fashionable, but to
> make the data accessible to software that no longer
> understands Tapcis
> mail headers.
>
> Included in the zipfile are two stylesheets, one XSLT and
> one CSS. A
> modern browser (such as IE 6 or Thunderbird 3) will use
> these
> stylesheets to render* the xml tags as round and
> message headers,
> rather than simply displaying them as
> <scarequote>geeky stuff</
> scarequote>.
>
> Why would anyone want this? I don't know if anyone will,
> but here are
> some reasons.
>
> Does the game, now in its 20th year, deserve a history? If
> so, the
> historian will need some source documents.
>
> And if I assert that there is precedent in round X for
> interpreting
> rule Y as saying Z, someone may want to read round X to see
> if I'm not
> making it all up.
>
> There is a tradition in this game that we never revise the
> rules, no
> matter how far actual practice wanders from the game those
> old rules
> describe. If we make new rules in forum messages, players
> must simply
> _remember_ them: a longstanding principle, dating at least
> from round
> 554, but explicitly enunciated in round 1824. Go and look
> it up if you
> don't believe me.
>
> Completists like me have the problem that the game's
> archives are a
> bit sprinkled.
> Rounds 1-48 predate proper record-keeping and are probably
> gone
> forever.
> Rounds 49-979 are from today available here in the Files
> section.
> Rounds 980-1560 are currently a gap.
> Rounds 1561-1612 were played on CompuServe, but I saved
> them as
> WebView exports as insurance against the CompuServe forum
> closing
> without warning. Those files are still available in the
> Coryphæus
> group, though they really belong here now.
> Rounds 1613-1802 were played in the Coryphæus group and
> the messages
> are all available there.
> Rounds 1803 onwards have been played in this group and the
> messages
> are all available here.
>
>

[Guerri Stevens]

I use the lists, downloading new versions from the Dixonary group files.

-- Guerri

JohnnyB wrote:
> ...I don't update them as frequently as I should - every 10 rounds, because I
> am not sure who, if anyone, still uses them but I will do a 2000