Understanding a Downed Judge


Much of the technology on which Judge Diplomacy relies is donated: space on a university or corporate system and time from a busy computer expert. When the judge has a problem, it usually shuts itself down and waits for someone to fix it. If you find a judge is not responding your emails, and you know that the problem is not in your system, then the judge is probably down. To confirm, check the Judge's status on the Openings List. Do not flood the judge with test messages. This will only make the problem worse. Sit tight and wait, and when the judge is back, it will go through its backlog in the order received. When you hear back from the judge, you'll know it has been fixed, and soon the backlog will be cleared. Have patience, grasshopper, and your wishes will be realized.

If the Openings List says that your Judge is up, but it's still not answering your messages, there are basically two possible causes: (1) your messages aren't getting to the Judge, or (2) the Judge is answering, but its answers aren't getting to you. Either of these is an e-mail problem, and there's probably not much either your GameMaster or JudgeKeeper can do about them (although you should e-mail your Master and ask for an extension). Check things like your spam filter settings, and see if e-mails to or from other addresses are going through.

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