the system as it is right now doesnt take away all your remaining vacation days at the end of the year ... it fills them back up to 30 day on the first day of the next year.
plus, as bbw said, you can renew early. my membership runs out at november (i think), when i renewed i was back at 30 days again, and i will be back at 30 days again in january (minus the 5 which i will spend on the very first 5 days :))

just use the vacation days when you need them .. try to be clever with your weekend days, and use automatic vacation days for unknow situations :)

the 'days per month' solution is pretty bad when you first start, as you will start with only a few days. this will even out when a couple of months have passed and you saved up enough. if you are above 30 days it should not add more (otherwise someone could hoard 100s of vacation days and abuse those ;)) .. which would make no difference with the end of the year as it is right now

for me the system as it is right now is the most flexible system there is .. as long as you keep yourself in hand just a little tiny bit and save some for later :)

automatic vacation: its like BBW said, i know from experience.
when a game times out and you ahave automagic vacation days set, then 1 day will take from your total vacation days and the game wont time out. that day is now counted as a vacation day for any games which would time out on that same day
(it doesnt add 24 hours to all of your games though)

the fact that it doesnt add 24 hours to all your games make the difference between fixed vacation days and automagic ones ... when you are sure you will need a certain day as vacation day .. set it as a fixed day! .. that way all your games will profit from it by having 24 hours added to them

playBunny: nah .. you understood her perfectly .. i think .. i understood her the same way :)

user options are always my favo(u)rite :)

playBunny: *nod* thats what she is asking .. and if she isnt .. then i am asking the same thing :)

the frist week of 2006 i will on vacation (probably athens), so i will need 5 days for that

then in march i will be away for another week (austria) so i will need 5 or 6 more days then

that wont work out with just a few days per month

i like the 30 days at once and try to use them wisely (in combination with weekend days :))

thanks fencer!!!!!!! now i wont miss them anymore .. i hope ;)

and i wont get confused by old notes ... at least if i dont forget to remove them ;)

(hey! i am dutch! and blonde :))

Jules: ok thanks .. i will ask him to :)

how can i stop being a mod in a fellowship ?
i am a mod in one fellowship at this moment, but i want to be just a normal member

if thats not possible, then i will just leave the fellowship

TC: true .. i had the same problem some times as well .. i think it is caused by the drop down box at the top of the page .. but i am not sure ..

when someone with a bit more knowledge than me doesnt respond you could post this on the feature request board as well or on the bug tracker

TC: you mean in a tournament you created ... you have added some game types you dont want ?

i dont think you can remove those .. i think you will have to create a new tournament (and delete the old tournament)

you can only do this when its not running .. and any players who are signed in already wont be signed in into the new tournament

Czuch Chuckers: *nod* i often set the mid part of my holiday with fixed vacation days .. but leave a few days at the start for my automagic vacation days as it might be possible my opponent hasnt moved before that and i wont be needing the vacation day at all (of course this might leave me with only 1 day for my games once i get back)

another advantage of using automagic vacation days is that your opponents (in pond games) cant see you will be away .. fixed vacation days are shown on your profile, so other people in your pond can view them and know you will autobid the next round :)

Fencer: lol .. sorry, you are right .. i misread waynes post ... lets say its still early ;)

Fencer: you mean .. that if i block fencer, then i cant add fencer to my friends list, but fencer still can add me to his friends list ?

(i also read it as, when i block fencer, than fencer cant add me to his friends list)

efenaye: not exactly ... automatic vacation only applies to games which would time out on that day

suppose you have 3 games running, all with 5 days per move

your opponent made his move in the game A and B at the 10th of that month, so they would time out on the 15th

your opponent made his move in game C on the 11th of that month, so it would time out on the 16th

you have automatic vacation enabled, and wont be online ... so on the 15th game A and B would time out .. due to automatic vacation they have 24 hours added, so they will now time out at the same time on the 16th

the game C has nothing added to it .. because it doesnt time out on the 15th

now you come online at the 16th and only have time to play 2 games .. but all 3 games will now time out on the 16th ... so on the 17th one game isnt moved in yet .. and it will cost you another vacation day

if you would have set the 16th to be a fixed vacation day .. then 1 day was added to all 3 games and you would only have to move game A and B on the 16th and could move in game C on the 17th .. which would have cost you only 1 vacation day

so when you know your days for sure ... use the fixed vacation days .. they will cost you less in the end ... use automatic vacation days only for emergencies or days you arent sure about

hmm .. i hope this makes sense :)

Luke Skywalker: lol :)

i cant add fencer to my blocked users .. *growl* :)

i never noticed ... nice though :)

Fencer: i dont like the idea to be able to buy more vacations either ... 30 days per year is reasonable imo

when its possible to buy more days it might be always like the end of last year .. when people are just using up their extra vacation days

of course there is an advantage to it as well .. for the site it will mean more income .. and therefore probably a faster hardware upgrade :)

R2D2: lol! ... is there a yoda as well ? ;)

Luke Skywalker: *phew* :)

Luke Skywalker: i was just kidding ... i like yoda .. he is my hero :) .. he is what makes the starwars movies fun :) (as well as r2d2)

hmm .. i guess this is off topic .. sorry .. forgot myself ... was thinking of the movie .. made a deep impact (once again ;))

Luke Skywalker: lol :)

Fencer: i usually sleep at midnight .. and watched starwas VI yesterday evening :) ... what can be more fun .. to see yoda die .. or to play games at bk ? ;)

lol .. that will take about 8 hours ... which will be to midnight for players living in europe :)

Fencer: ah great! thanks :)

what happens if you leave a team which is still busy in a team tournament ?

what happens to the games you are still playing, do they still account for the team ?

what happens if the team which you just left moves on to the next round .. will you still play in the next round ?

streetrodder: i have turned on automatic vacation as well

for my planned vacations (or other days when i known i cant be online) i set real vacation days though as that will also add a day to my other games which wouldnt time out on that day

only in some rare cases i would turn automatic vacations day off ... for example if i only have 1 game running .. and only 1 vacation day left .. while its only august .. and know that i will need that vacation day later that same year for a planned vacation day .. then i might take this 1 timed out game .. and preserve the vacation day for the other day which could save more than 1 game

but thats about the only reason i might want to turn it off .. normally it doesnt hurt when its turned on :)

streetrodder: when you set a fixed vacation day (in your settings page) then no game will time out on that day (i think it behaves like a weekend day)

if you have automatic vacation turned on .. then you dont have to set a fixed vacation day .. but in case a game would time out on a certain day .. that game will get 24 hours added to its time .. while 1 vacation day is substracted from your remaining total .. if another game would time out on that day as well .. then it will cost no extra vacation day

i think with fixed vacation days all games will have a day added when their period goves beyond that day ... with automatic vacation days only the games that would time out exactly on that day will get 24 hours extra on that day

so when you are sure you will time out on that day you can best use a fixed vacation day as it will help in your other games as well

only use the automatic vacation days for unsuspected problems

Lamby: lol .. ok .. i will try to use that when i chat with you :)

Lamby: you mean "youre" is correct english for "you're" ?

hmm it means an extra letter ... and some extra thoughts for a word i now type automtically .. i could try it though :)

Lamby: lol ... i always type 'your welcome'... but not because its a mistake ... just because i dont like to use ' or other 'special' characters except the dot :)
(and simple smileys)

hehe i have the same thing when i am typing a text in dutch .. i often type too fast and type down an english word which starts with the same letters ... even when it has a totally different meaning :)

Fencer: hmm .. i have 2 boards in my fellowships .. which can go to 5 .. or even more later ? .. wouldnt be easier to have 'favourite fellowships' ?

Fencer: weehee! i got my fellowship board in my favourites boards again :)

Fencer: ok .. we will be patient(s) ;)

Nirvana: *nod* i would love it back as well .. i had the ones where i am a mod or big boss as my favourites so i would read them first (when i had little time) .. i am missing that feature now

Cranky Franky: lol ... completely digital of course :)

when a computer 'calculates' a random number it looks up a value in a very fluctuating function

when you dont seed the random call it will take the first value from that function .. and the second value on its second call .. that why unseeded calls always produce the same series

most language allow you to perform a seed with the clock of the processor which will then place you into an area of the function where you havent been before and there a new series will be produced .. but still its a series with some periodic repitition

EdTrice: i believe there is some high prize offered for anyone finding a way to create better random numbers on a computer .. random number generators are very important in many fields of applied computer science

(i dont know if the same prize is offered as which is offered for a new record high prime number though :))

Summertop: i had 6 new messages :) lol .. poor people though ...i know one of them is busy in real life and timed out because of that .. the others i dont know about .. several others lost a vaction day i guess as i had a lot of negative times on my opponents list even after the bugged ones were gone :)

it would be fun if fencer resumes game time at once

Jason: i think the ponds are back on already .. but each pond had some extra days added for this round to make sure it wouldnt time out last week .. i guess once those days are over the ponds will be working normal again

the ponds which started today and yesterday were working for me (at the first round)

pauloaguia: mine seem to be fixed as well ..

(but it was funny to see that when i had 2 games with one opponent one of the games always ended up ok .. while the other ended up with a negative time ;))

EdTrice: it was because the 1st of may is a public holiday .. thats why the game didnt time out .. i think it should have added an extra day keeping it positive numbers though :)

mrloupcity: its probably because of public holidays .. isnt the 5th of may a public holiday (and therefore a vacation day on here for everyone ?) .. maybe the friday after it as well ?

this week has only 3 working days for me in real life .. which would make a 3 day job continue on monday (which is 7 days after today)

BIG BAD WOLF: woohoo! that rocks :)

EdTrice: *nod* i messaged fencer as well, and pointed him to the discussion board as well (i thought it might have something to do with my translation so i didnt post it in public at first ... i am fool enough already ;))

nice!

EdTrice: ah! thanks!

that explains something i have been wondering about for some time already :)
i have played more games of hyper gammon than backgammon (323 vs 255) but still my hyper gammon bkr changes a lot while my backgammon bkr behaves exactly like described below (8-13 points difference depending a bit on how many i won/lost in succession lately)

of course my hyper gammon has a much higher deviation :)

taking the deviaton into account can explain both the effect of hyper gammon vs backgammon as well as the effect of a lot of wins in succession


i asked for the formula as well and thought i found it via google .. but then someone else (i forgot who and on which board :)) posted the correct link with the correct formula (fencer responded with 'yes' i think ;)) .. it might be the one pedro posted as well :)

LionsLair: she only has 8 vacation days left (you can see that in her profile) .. so she will time out for real in your game next week on saturday or sunday

Jason: i had it for a few minutes in a gammon and a chess game .. everything is working fine again now though

Bluefin: i had no problems .. only about 4 times a page didnt load .. but then i closed my browser, opened a new one, and could get into brainking nicely again :)

of course you can always ask a machine to play a rated game ;)

everything can be done 'in overleg' (i dont know the right english word right now ... 'when talked about' :))

*nod* the main point of protest though is that it was a prize tournament and not unrated