[llamabeast]

Oh man, I hate these ruckusses.

Okay, firstly, about rollbacks: my policy on rollbacks is that I am extremely loathe to do them. I have done a few, and on almost every occasion regretted it. In a situation of such uncertainty, I am especially loathe to do it.

Secondly, here is the LlamaServer message:

"The LlamaServer seems to be having difficulty reaching its mail server at the moment. Fear not. Games won't host until it is fixed, and hosting times will be delayed to allow plenty of time for e-mails to come through once the mail server can be reached again."

Now, this doesn't say what The_Monkey_King says it said.

I'll explain how it actually works. If the LlamaServer can't reach the mail server, it decides it had better not host - after all, if it can't check its e-mail, it might be missing out on some 2h files people sent at the last minute, which wouldn't be fair. So it waits until it can reach the mail server again. Further, it waits a bit more than that - for every 5 minutes it can't reach the mail server, it waits 5 minutes even _after_ it finally is able to reach the mail server. So if it is out of touch for 6 hours, it waits 6 hours for hosting even after the problem is fixed. This is to allow time for e-mails which were previously unable to reach the mail server to filter through the system and arrive.

Right, so the correct thing to do on seeing that message on the LlamaServer is to send in your turn immediately anyway, since the LlamaServer will get it sooner or later when it's fixed.

I am open to suggestions as to how I could make the message clearer. I think it is reasonably clear, but perhaps not amazingly so - so suggestions are welcome (I actually found writing all the LlamaServer messages surprisingly tricky).

In any case, The_Monkey_King's interpretation was a risky one at best - his idea that the turn would be delayed for a significant amount of time was in fact a misunderstanding. I can see how it happened, but nonetheless it was a misunderstanding. I can't go doing rollbacks every time there is a misunderstanding. This message has been there lots of times before, with no problems.

So anyway, to summarise, I am disinclined to do a rollback. I hope the fact I've written all this shows I've taken some effort to think about it. This is despite me getting no fewer than 7 PMs asking me to do stuff this evening, and despite the fact I am meant to be packing for my early morning return to university tomorrow. This has been a reasonably nightmarish evening to be honest.

As I say, I'd welcome suggestions as to how to improve the message. And I'm sorry you ended up staling The_Monkey_King, that's highly regrettable.

Finally, The_Monkey_King, I'd like to ask a favour: could you please remove my e-mail address, which is quoted in one of your messages above? I really, _really_ don't want to get spam on that address, which I will do very quickly if that is left there.