This is ludicrous. This is a freakin' GAME! Some folks don't provide their email address anyway. How do you describe your signals to incognito teammates? Tornade says emailing guys on your team is cheating. It's foolish NOT to!
I'll continue cheating, thank you.
One of the beauties of WS&IM is how close to impossible it is to cheat. Quit your bitchin'! My email address is available anytime someone is on my side, or even if you're not.

damn right its cheating...
in the Blue Max side of the site any form of instant messaging or emailing between players regarding game tactics is considered cheating... there's no punishment for it...and you might still win...but you will soon find yourself with no one to play with
ships of that era did not have any method of communicating other than signal flags or a conference of captains prior to an engagement... i dont know of any navies of that time that had the NTDS system (Naval Tactical Data System) nor did any of the fleets have radio communications
so if winning is so important that you feel the need to cheat...then be my guest
i wont be entering any games with you and i would encourage others of a like mind to do likewise
You forget that I may be entering games with you. And, contacting you regarding stategy. I know, YUCK! Quit being so anal! This is a game, and reality is out the window. Private signals were flagged between ships, with ship numbers. Also, wind direction could make flag signals unreadable. Just play the stupid game!