I don't know much about what platforms people prefer. I've looked over BGG for some discussion and this thread seems to be the best thus far:
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/980...-online/page/1
The issue is that's pretty few poll respondents. So not sure how much value there is. Years ago I played with friends through webdiplmacy:
http://webdiplomacy.net/
and also some through playdiplomacy:
http://www.playdiplomacy.com/
Overall though it's a mess with how many different sites there are and the player base is therefore quite spread out.
From my reading of the threads, these are my main takeaways:
DPjudge: The Pros are that it supports many map and rules variants. Also tends to have a stable player base loaded with more veterans of the game and therefore has fewer dropouts that plague other sites. Cons are that the player base is fairly small now and the interface is fairly antiquated.
webdiplomacy/playdiplomacy: Both these sites seem quite similar. Both have more modern interfaces for entering orders and displaying things that seem slightly more friendly to new players. Tends to have more active users. Downsides are that both platforms have more limited variants and options it would seem, along with quite a lot more dropouts from an inconsistent player base.
In the end, I don't really care what platform is chosen though, I just would like to play a bit again. No matter what one we choose, it will take just a little bit to get used to it and figure it out as none of the sites are professionally designed and aren't that intuitive. So as you said DS, I'm sure we'd find any of them quite simple to use once we get used to it.
Frankly if the old reliable diplomacy experts think that DPJudge is the best site, I'm fine just giving that a try.