PbF Plus External Messaging (Either Cisco Spark or Slack)

[NoPunIn10Did]

I'm also looking into a different message platform, Slack, as an option. It's a bit more well-known than Spark and may have more of the features I'm looking for.

The main downsides are that in Spark we had a platform contact (Chris Martin) for questions and issues, and we won't be building familiarity in a platform that's currently widening in usage by other Diplomacy player communities.

[DQ]

I'm also looking into a different message platform, Slack, as an option. It's a bit more well-known than Spark and may have more of the features I'm looking for.

The main downsides are that in Spark we had a platform contact (Chris Martin) for questions and issues, and we won't be building familiarity in a platform that's currently widening in usage by other Diplomacy player communities.

I mean, don't discount the downside of having to work with me.

I have used slack, and yes, it is more mature, but we have a robust ecosystem, and an eager dev community, and as you say, more than 100 f2f & online players using Spark. Added about 20 people over the weekend at WDC!

If you want features, lets talk - there are a lot of ways to do things that just require a little python, or willingness to work with visual coding tools like built.io.
Full disclosure - I work for the company that makes Spark - but so do 69,000 other people, and I don't have anything to do with the team that makes/supports/sells it. I DO have contacts in those areas, since I've been advocating for the platform since late 2015.

[VGhost]

Whatever happened to IRC? True, it's not got the same features w/r/t saving messages and stuff, but for me the chief weakness of the forum communication is lack of functionality for real-time conversations, and I guess I'm getting old enough to start being resistant to new "unnecessary" complications.

[Strategus]

Huh? Chisel and tablet Still works great for me!

The SHIV

Don't put the chisel through your tablet. It won't work afterwards

The Proposal
Would players be amenable to running a sort of hybrid-communication game? Official orders submissions would still be submitted via PM, so that there's a full record of them (should an admin ever be needed to investigate a dispute). However, player-to-player conversations would be handled through Cisco Spark, a robust messaging client that has been pretty widely adopted by the face-to-face community, particularly when they play online games in-between tournaments.

Can this be used on a PC? I am in favour of anything to improve the comms, as they are a bit clunky using the forum messaging system. Is there anything to stop people using either, if they don't want to change? Also, can this app (?) be linked to the website, as it is easy to sign in once and use the same site for all games (PbF or not)?