fakar10: As it is i get numerous taken out of the Waiting Room by people who never move and just time-out. I get nothing for that

That was just an idea, but i was asked many times by top players what happened to my rating in various games.
Yet, they would still have to play me in those Tournaments and lose a lot of BKR when normally, they would of only changed by 10 or something either way.

Your point is valid of course, people would just time-out when losing.

I just think there should be a better and fairer way

fakar10: You got me, I am too verbose :-)

MadMonkey:
>Maybe a solution to this is games Won or Lost by timing out should not be counted by BKR.

No way ! I know a lot of players who would deliberately time out in a lost position if it was the case.
I don't think there is any good solution to the massive time-out problem. My philosophy would be that your opponents were going to win their BKR points back soon if they were worth them. It sometimes happen that you play underrated opponents, but don't forget that it also happens that you play overrated opponents - e.g. the ones you timed out against :-)

MadMonkey wrote: "Maybe a solution to this is games Won or Lost by timing out should not be counted by BKR."

Then there would be a bunch of kids timing out intentionally when losing.

nabla: I think there should be some sort of cap to BKR changes for a simple reason.

Earlier this year my ratings for Ataxx & Assimilation (among others) were 1800+

Then because my computer had a meltdown, i lost a lot of games (about 600) through timing out.

The problem is, that when i got back i was still in Tournaments i had entered with my high ratings, playing other top players. Obviously, many of them suffered badly (BKR changes up to 200) when i won any games as my BKR was under 1000 by then.

I personally feel sorry for those players as it was not done on purpose, and the same could happen anytime to anyone

Maybe a solution to this is games Won or Lost by timing out should not be counted by BKR.

rednaz23: That had me puzzled for some time too. That different games have different rating scales is absolutely normal, those depend on the skill differences (new games have few experts) and the "skill factor" of the game (a very skillful - and long - game will have bigger rating differences). But the average rating of all players should remain approximatively equal to the entry rating (1400 if I remember correctly).

What happens in backgammon is probably that many players have hundreds of started games when they suddenly leave the site and lose all games on time. As a result they fall to a ridiculous rating, but this rating disappears from the lists because they are not active any more. An average on all players, including the inactive ones, should be much closer to 1400 than the average you see on the ranking lists.

The ratings would be more realistic if they were shifted from time to time to center them around the 1400 value. But it is not really required if you keep in mind that absolute ratings do not necessarily have any meaning, only rating differences have.

wetware : It is not correct that rating differences are capped to 400 in the USCF=BK system.

wetware: I get the same with Dice Chess. I used to think it was just because it was a new game, but as it is not anymore and i have played may games like yourself i do not know why it seems to make huge changes to BKR's

My poor graph looks like a ............ well a upey, downey thing

coan.net: In ponds, ratings swing extravangently, especially when you fall in an early round.

wetware: The ratings are quite funny... How can a BKR of 1800 in the dice poker games put you in the top two or three percent, while a 1800 for backgammon means you are in the bottom ten percent? That tells me the starting point for games are all different, and they should all be the same. Otherwise, how can you accurately compare people on the statistics page?

coan.net: Our FAQ says that ratings are based on the U.S. Chess Federation system.  But as far as I know, once one has an established rating in the USCF, the rating formula computes changes by ignoring any differences greater than 400 points between the ratings of the 2 opponents.  This used to have the effect of limiting rating changes to ±32 from any single game--even if I were to miraculously defeat Hikaru Nakamura...or were to lose a game to one of my cats (more likely, I think).

wetware: it shouldn't - but the ratings take many things into consideration - your current rating, opponents current rating, amount of games you've played, amount opponet has played. But I don't claim to be an expert on the ratings or anything.

coan.net: Is Dice Chess an exception?  Despite having finished a lot of games, my rating swings (both up and down) still seem substantial.

tonyh: The more completed games you have, the more stable your rating will be - which in turn, if by the time that pond is over, if you have already finished a few others - your rating change will be less.

tonyh: I'm not sure exactly how the Pond ratings work, but I do know that they are based on the ratings of the other players in the pond. Is it possible that everyone needs to be finished before the ratings can be correctly applied?

I have fallen early on in my Ponds, which have a 7 day time span. That means that my rating will be reduced by something like 250 points in around two months from now. Any wins I might get from now on won't make a shred of difference to that eventual outcome.
Therefore, I urge fencer to calculate a player's rating, as soon as he/she falls into a Pond.

How bout a way to show approval or "kudos" regarding a post without having to make a new post. The Laugh it Up" brings this to mind.... you like to let the post-er of a joke know you liked it or laughed when you read it - but posting a smiley or comment after each joke gets tedious and board clogging.... so how bout a section on the bottom of the post where you can update appreciation and such...

rod03801: It would also be nice if when doing this the play next game button only used those games that have been filtered

El Cid: Yes, I would like to see a little "tick" box up there where the filter that says something like "Keep this filter until unticked".

Not only does what you describe happen when clicking "More", but also if you play one of the games and go back to Main Page. There are times when I'll want to see all of a certain game type, and choose individual games of them to play. (Not necessarily ALL of them, or not just ONE of them). I go back and have to filter again. Not a huge deal, but it would be nice to be able to just keep the filter a certain way, until I want it to go back to the regular way.

Could the "more" button, on main page, keep the filter. It's frustrating when you put the filter to show the games against a specific opponent, and if they are more than the "visible by settings", if you press "more", you have to look by that opponent anyway, because you get a view of ALL games

Take Two: I just got a message from a Bishop i look after (bless here little cotton socks lol) asking if when her membership runs out (thats was today) she would lose games over her 20 etc... being a Pawn again.

Needless to stay i have sorted her membership out, but it would be nice to get a reminder from the system to let us know when any Bishops or Knights that people do look after, when there membership was about to expire

gogul: LOL, I am too possessive of my name 'Eriisa' to play under any other name.

coan.net: Thats it. BK keep staying a normal site.

gogul: I know some sites, the moderators are "hidden" and such - but at least for myself personally, I don't plan on doing anything on-line that I will every need to hide from - if it is something I would not want to say or do myself, then it is very simple - I just don't say/do it.

I would suggest the Globs to douple nick. At least it's normal thing on anykind of social sites. Maybe you allready know .

tazman7474: I bet your Nephew is glad to hear that!

tazman7474:  True.  But are you the Unkeys Muncle? 

I just want everyone to know that I am NOT the monkeys uncle! lol

Fencer: Please think about this sitiuation.

Well, I'm coming home after three weeks of non-BK activity, well, say, holiday. I log on, a few time outs, but I knew that; those were games with a no free days time control. But there is something else; the number of new posts in the BK main Discussion Board was over 200 and the the active duscussion three weeks ago is totally buried.

So here my question:

Have you ever thought of using a discussion board system, what almost every forum uses, with seperated subjects and so on?

Eriisa: I will go get it from the works and take it to Fencer then

Silly monkey if a funny mood today
Hey, i am dog sitting for a few days. Took him for his first walk of the day this morning, nearly killed me, he is an ex greyhound

Hmmm, thats not a Feature Request , ah, got it, could i have a trolley to sit in please so my doggy can pull me on his walk

well, back to the games i think

(me think monkey has lost the plot)

MadMonkey: I remember him saying once it was in the works.

Just one small request today

Could we have a Preview button for messages as well please, just so we can see if any links (well and spelling lol) are ok

Fencer: Thanks so much--that's a great addition to our "move and..." options.  I'd recently gotten to the point where I'd no longer challenge pawns, because I hated to make them wait for my replies.  But that was a sad solution, because I'd much rather play anybody...any kind of piece...any rating (or even none at all).

rod03801: I have asked for that as well.
In fact when hexkid was here, we had it in his Greasemonkey script. (he has some great stuff in there)
Underneath every board was a clickable link that said 'Add as priority game'

Once this was clicked it would then be flagged by the system as such, so when the game got back to your turn to move it would appear basically at the top of your list.

In fact it appeared twice in the drop box we have, the list was split in two.
All priority games would show as being top of the list, BUT also still be in the proper place as your list is determined.

Well, the one I have asked for 2 or 3 times would help get rid of SOME of the "Move and go to" requests.

Move and go to Next Flagged game, where you have an option in each game to "flag this game".

This would be helpful for games you want to play fast that don't necessarily fall into any of the current categories, or games you are especially interested in, for whatever reason.

trohat: Move and Goto Jail, do not pass Go, do not Collect £200

Right, enough messing or uncles rod & taz come tell us off

Oceans Apart: The option with bed would be great ... please, Fencer, will you write it for us ?

how about " Move and get yaself to work/bed

AbigailII: ROFL - I that one

mctrivia: How about "move to random game", "move to game closest to victory", "move to games with least amount of pieces on the board", "move to game with opponent with shortest name", ... ? ;-)

mctrivia: hmmmmm maybe, but not one i would use, with a lot of games, there are plenty on 0,1,2,3 etc....
Most moves (which we have) i can understand , but i only use a few of them myself, which is the idea. Have all feasible options and let people select the ones the use from the list.

Family Man said about move and goto his Stairs, well you can goto next Stairs game.
I would probably use that in the Context Menu, which i think is great and understated here on brainking. I have none of the left Menu in my games so pages loads a bit faster, BUT all the Main places i need to go i have in the Context Menu at the top of the page, just Hover and Click

MadMonkey: i can think of one more. Move and goto game with least moves.

Here i am again
I have thought of one more useful Move and Goto option for you to write on your To-Do list Fencer.

The only thing not covered now is Move and Goto next Non-Tournament game

That would give you options for everything i can think of lol

I would like to be able to "move and go back to my stairs" please?

srnity: Yes, great eh..........

Me thinks that Fencer can have prize and a drink

This is NICE, it even sends me to games in tournaments where I'm playing a pawn

Eriisa: Ahem, i gave up my Team places so others could play

But i would still like to make sure all my Teams are in

Fencer: Awesome - Thanks - No more hunting em down

Eriisa: Well, have to catch Fencer when he is in a 'Lets write some Code' Mode

I have mentioned these things before, but never know if Fencer sees them or they just get buried lol
And they are useful things

Would be nice to have a copy of Fencers 'Requests to be worked on' list

MadMonkey: ahem, if YOU were on the teams, you would see the green dot.