the universal rules say "no secret alliances or secret collusion between any two players in a game, etc." it is possible there some may read this rule and think, "as long as it's not an actual agreement to work together and/or an agreement not to attack each other, it's can't be that bad."? So where in legal teritory does this place sharing bits of info via PM on Fog of War games?
It is noted in the rules that, while any agreements between players must be declared openly in game chat in English and/or other language that all players understand, using PMs to discuss said agreements is legal, as long as the aforementioned agreement is declared openly to exist. So, technically, the way i interpret this rule, if u PM a player asking a question along the lines of "are you interested in discussing..." your not breaking this rule, not technically. You just have to declare it in game chat IF and WHEN you and the other party come to an agreement to act certain ways. And i think a lot of people are jumping the gun by reporting such questioning via private messages as cheating. I'm glad that such reports are usually just "Noted" and folks don't get "Busted" and kicked out and/or suspended for doing this once, and after the mods come in and say "well, he shouldn't have done that..." these people often just don't do it any more, but still... i think the point is still worth debating about what the implications of this rule are.
Anyhow, since this IS in sorta grey territory, using the above mentioned questionable activities is NOT something people who truely want to stay completely clean should do. But the way the rule is stated, it is sort of a stretch to say it covers some of the area that it's been extended to by folks in the cheating and abuse reports. The yelling at's and negative feedbacks i've seen some folks recieve for this sort of stuff is kinda harsh.
Of Course, rather than debating the meaning of the rule the way it is worded, there's another simple solution: Lack could just reword the rule to explicitly show what he means by it, giving examples of what's legal and what's not, and eliminating such fuzzy words that's definitions, as far as in risk/cc games, is unclear, such as "collusion". Dictionary.com defines "collusion" as:
1. a secret agreement, esp. for fraudulent or treacherous purposes; conspiracy.
2. a secret understanding between two or more persons to gain something illegally, to defraud another of his or her rights, or to appear as adversaries though in agreement.
both these definitions can be interpreted to mean any agreement that leaves others out of the loop at all, at any point during it's planned existance, or even the planning of the planed existance. Alternativly, they could be interpreted to mean just a secret agreement that was reached and put into execution without notifying others.
So, in brief, the question i'm asking is: Is asking about whether your interested in an alliance or truce via PM cheating? Is asking about whether your interested in Fog of War info sharing via PM cheating? Also, here's another question that i just thought of: Is info sharing via PM in fog of war games legal at all, even when it's existance is declared oppenly in the game chat?
i write very little 
