Pre and post-game player lobby

[JorenC]

Goal

Add a persistent player-identity chat channel — the Lobby — that exists outside the active game lifecycle. Unlike Public Press (which is nation-based and only available once nations are assigned), the Lobby uses player names and avatars throughout. It gives players a social space to connect before the game starts and to debrief once it ends.

Definition of done

• Every game has a Lobby channel.
• During staging: joined players can post; non-joined users can read but not post.
• When a player joins a staging game, they are prompted to write a short intro message before the join is confirmed. Blank submissions are rejected. The message is posted automatically to the Lobby on join.
• When the game goes active (nations assigned), the Lobby is hidden and Public Press becomes the visible channel.
• After the game ends, both the Lobby and Public Press are visible; the Lobby appears above Public Press. Only players who were in the game can post in the Lobby post-game.
• The feature works for gunboat games — player identity is naturally concealed during the game because the Lobby is hidden while the game runs.

Context

The North Star (#581) described Public Press being open from staging with a mandatory intro message on join. This RFC supersedes that intent with a dedicated player-identity channel. Decoupling the pre/post social space from Public Press avoids the awkward question of what happens to those early messages once nations are assigned and Public Press becomes the nation-voice channel.

Channel name — "The Lobby" and "Player Lobby" are candidates; the name is open for discussion.

Intro message character limit — undecided; input welcome.

[JorenC]

Potential issue breakdown

This is a sketch of how this epic could be sliced into board issues. Each item is scoped to roughly one PR.

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MVP

These form the foundation. The feature is not usable without all of them.

1. Backend: Lobby channel — new channel type that auto-creates for every game; messages carry player name and avatar rather than nation; visible and writable by joined players during staging, hidden during active game, visible and writable by game players post-game.

2. Frontend: Lobby tab during staging — renders the Lobby channel in the staging game view using player avatars and names; message input shown only to joined players; tab absent entirely when the game is active.

3. Frontend: Lobby tab post-game — Lobby channel reappears once the game ends; positioned above Public Press in the channel list.

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Increment 1 — Mandatory intro message

Adds the commitment friction on join. Independent once MVP is live.

4. Backend: Intro message on join — join endpoint accepts a non-blank intro text; rejects blank submissions; auto-posts the message to the Lobby as the joining player.

5. Frontend: Intro message prompt in join flow — a step shown before join is confirmed; player must write something; blank submission blocked; no pre-filled default.

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Increment 2 — Observer read access during staging

Makes the Lobby public-facing, like Public Press, so it can influence join decisions.

6. Backend: Lobby readable by non-joined users during staging — unauthenticated and non-member users can fetch Lobby messages while the game is in staging; no write access.

7. Frontend: Read-only Lobby view for non-joined users — non-joined users browsing a staging game can see the Lobby channel and its messages; no message input shown.

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Notes

• Increments 1 and 2 are independent of each other and can be sequenced in either order after MVP.
• The channel name ("The Lobby", "Player Lobby") and intro message character limit are open — both can be wired to whatever the community lands on without touching the core implementation.