ASCII King
Frequently Asked Questions... about Judge Email
I am not getting mail from the judge. What's wrong?
I don't
think the judge is working. What do I do?
The judge is
working, but I'm not getting mail. What do I do?
How do I send a
test message?
What
should I expect when I send a test message?
What if I
don't get a response to the test message?
I've
waited and still nothing. Now what?
I still
can't haven't gotten anything from the judge. NOW what?
I've waited
and waited. What do I do now?
What if I
can't find the GM's email address?
Is there
anything that I should *not* do?
Is there
anything so totally obvious that it is not mentioned above?What about the judgekeeper?
What is the scope of this FAQ?
The Answers...
I am not getting mail from the judge. What's wrong?
It's
all your fault. Well, maybe not. You need to find that out first. What
you'll want to do is read these questions in order and follow the
instructions given in each answer. If you aren't getting mail from the
judge you should check that the judge is working, send a test message,
write to the GM and possibly try another email address. The questions
below tell you how to do that and they are presented in the order in
which you should probably try them.
I
don't think the judge is working. What do I do?
Go to the
DipPouch
Openings List.
If your judge uses
this service, it will be polled every hour for open games. At 5 to 10
minutes after the hour, the list is updated. If the judge is not
responding,
this page will tell you if the judge is down or delayed. Depending on
the judge, you may be able to find more information by checking the
rec.games.diplomacy
newsgroup or the judge's homepage if it has one.
The
judge is working, but I'm not getting mail. What do I do?
Don't panic. Check your bulk items and trash folders for mail from the
judge. Check your sent items to be sure you are sending things to the
right address for the judge. The
Openings List
contains the most recent address for the judges that use that service.
A complete, but in some places dated,
list of all
judges is also available. If you are using the right address
to contact the judge
and you do not have any mail from the judge going into any obvious
places in your mail client then it's time to send a test message.
How
do I send a test message?
First clean up any place where you could lose the reply - deleted
items, bulk items, etc. Then write an email to the judge. It could be
anything,
but the best thing is either a blank sign on to your game or a press
message to yourself. Which you use depends on whether you are more
concerned with whether your orders were received or whether you are
receiving press from other players. Either method will show you your
pending orders. Sending a press message to yourself generates more
mail, but doing so stresses spam filters slightly and may reveal
intermittent mail stoppages due to varying spam scoring systems. Add
the judge to your address book. Some mail clients use your address book
as a "whitelist" to bypass spam filters. Mail clients that do this will
often prompt you to add a recipient when you send mail.
What
should I expect when I send a test message?
If you send a blank signon, you should get one reply from the judge. If
you send a press message to yourself, you'll get the press message as
well as a confirmation that it was sent, or at least you should...
What
if I don't get a response to the test message?
Panic. No, just kidding. Check all of those mail folders that you
cleaned out earlier. See if it wound up there. With processing time
from the judge, transmission time in both directions and most mail
clients polling for new mail at ten minute intervals you should give it
20 minutes before you start getting too nervous about it.
I've
waited and still nothing. Now what?
OK, I know you want to do something other than wait, so try this...
make up a unique phrase to include as the subject line of a second test
message. Send it out then spend the next 20 minutes learning how to use
the "find" function in your mail client to search for messages whose
subject line *contains* your phrase.
I
still can't haven't gotten anything from the judge. NOW what?
Go do something else for at least 5 hours. Seriously. Then check your
mail again, searching every folder for a reply. The reason is that mail
servers will try again to send a message if it receives no response
from the destination or for many error messages. Sometimes a
destination mailserver will respond with an error message to suspected
spam to see if the sender behaves as a proper mail server rather than a
spam bot. A proper mail server will retry the message, usually in 4
hours.
I've
waited and waited. What do I do now?
Contact the master of your game. Go ahead and use his email address
this time. It's
why you have it. If the GM gave you an alternate email address (perhaps
because his primary email is on the same server as the judge) then
write to both addresses.
What
if I can't find the GM's email address?
Look up your game on
floc.net
if you didn't
save any mail with the address on it. Contact the game master rather
than the judgekeeper. He will often know already if there is a problem.
The JK, if a different person than the GM, will usually be busy trying
to fix a problem to respond to everyone who expresses a concern about
the operation of the judge.
Is
there anything that I should *not* do?
Do
not use
"press to m" to send a test message. Use your own power for
your test message. You'll get a quicker reply if it works. Do
not send
a
broadcast for a test message, either. Neither is better than a blank
signon for an immediate diagnostic. Broadcasts make especially annoying
test
messages in novice games as few people seem capable of refraining from
joining in the chorus once one player has already replied. If there is
a problem with the judge's mail server, the situation would not be
helped by the 2500 emails generated by one person from each game on an
average judge sending a test broadcast and having 4 to 6 players reply.
Mail from the judge, the judgekeeper and your GM must not
require confirmation to be delivered to you. Do not use challenge
response systems with any judge. Doing so on most judges will be
ignored, resulting in no mail delivery. The consequences on
asciiking.com or worldmasters.net is a permanent ban on asciiking.com
judges and a temporary ban on worldmasters.net judges.
Is
there anything so totally obvious that it is not mentioned above?
Yes. Unless you are on a private judge, try using a second email
account. If you are on a private judge, like USVG, you probably have
enough experience to have a back up email already registered, right?
You can send orders, including
press from any account and the responses always go to the address of
record as well as to the origin.You can
either use the "set address" command to send all game mail to both
addresses or you can just use the alternate account for testing. In
most clients, you can insert the alternate account as the "reply-to"
address. This has the virtue of testing outbound bound mail from the
same account you are trying to use while providing multiple
destinations for the reply. By comparing the responses to each account
from the judge, you improve your chances of being able to diagnose the
problem yourself.
What about the judgekeeper?
If
your GM doesn't reply after a couple days and you have tried everything
above, you may contact the JK. The JK for the judges on the
asciiking.com and worldmasters.net domains regularly checks the logs
for "Undelivered Mail" and may try to contact you or the postmaster of
your mail provider from an alternate address.
What is the scope of this FAQ?
This
FAQ covers situations where the judge does not appear to be responding.
i.e. how to tell whether there is a problem with the judge or whether
you simply are not receiving mail. Once problems with the judge have
been ruled out as the source of the problem, it tells you step by step
by step how to troubleshoot your own mailbox. This FAQ does not (yet)
deal with error messages in responses from the judge, including those
caused by malformatted mail. If you are getting mail, but do not understand the error message, ask your GM.