gambler104: I'll probably stick with one year at a time. I have trouble believing the internet will be much as it is today or that my interests won't change in six years. If I get the money and don't mind being wrong, I'd certainly get the lifetime membership. It seems like a good deal to me. This site is still best that I've seen so far in a lot of ways. Plus the owner is a hands on guy that actually exists and talks to us. As Fencer points out, he can make capital investments now which might make him more money than he'll lose years later from the few people that buy the lifetime memberships.

gambler104: .
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I personally wouldn't have given a lifetime membership for the equivalent of 5 or 10 years. I would have done it for the equivalent of 25 or 30 years

And the result would be that no one would purchase it....! ♫♪♫♪♫♪♪♫

Pythagoras: I agree that in the end it does hurt Brain King, but Fencer's point about the short term help is very valid. Almost all companies that sell membership have some form of a discount to increase immediate profits. I personally wouldn't have given a lifetime membership for the equivalent of 5 or 10 years. I would have done it for the equivalent of 25 or 30 years or had something like buy five years, get two more free.

Fencer: I know, but i rather test auto-pass

Andersp: You can test the incoming fun toy on your Notepad page.

Fencer: because smart people can change their mind but i suppose it means that you can add more "fun htmltoys" for the discussionboards, right?

Andersp: Why do you ask when you already know the answer?

Fencer: ok..thanks...does "launch new services and enhancements" means that you'll be able to add auto-pass? ...just asking!!

Andersp: The May Action ends today, right. But the Black Rook can be purchased anytime, of course.

Pythagoras: Well, you may be right but only from a long term point of view. For example, I need to purchase a new application server (or two to make a fail-safe cluster). The estimated price is, say, 3000 Euro. With 10 new Black Rooks I could buy it immediately and the site would be faster and much more reliable immediately as well (which is an undoubtful benefit for everyone and also brings a possibility to launch new services and enhancements without worrying about the site performance). With standard membership payments, I would have to wait for several years to accomplish the same deal. Yes, the final sum would be higher but the faster availability of the resources is more important.
Anyway, any help and support is always welcome, of course.

Groucho: That's about a five year membership and you get a lifetime!

So if someone wants to really support Brainking it has to stay away from these black devils....!
Since if i stay for example 7 years as a white Rook at Brainking i will pay 270 € while as a black Rook i will pay only 150 €. And it gets worse as years pass.....

Personally another and actually the decisive reason is the: "you will have a membership for a lifetime"! This brings me in front of the devastating inevitable and i hate to see so far in the future
I prefer to see only 6 months ahead even if i also hate this..... 2 days ahead is enough!

Update: Someone has taken the offer!  Thanks!  ;)


If anyone is interested in taking advantage of the Black Rook special (1/2 price if you find someone to share the cost with you) then please let me know. I may have another interested party. It's 150 Euro each which equals about 200 US dollars. That's about a five year membership and you get a lifetime! A number of people have already grabbed at this chance. It's a great offer if you've got the money and you are going to be at BK a while. ;)

PM me if interested. ;)

Summertop: smileys, HTML, graphs, f/s, yes

So...Are smileys only for paying members?

Hrqls: hmm cant find an online movie of a puffin flying away .. its a fun thing to see :)

Fencer: hey! puffins cant help it to be slow .. did you ever see one taking of ? (fly away) ;)

Hrqls: It is already fixed.

Mr. Shumway: i can view the graph bbw just posted

last week or the week before that i once had a graph not showing though . i didnt investigate further at that time .. and i now have no problems . not sure what caused it .. i am not even sure on which computer or with browser i was viewing :)

BIG BAD WOLF: Very strange. In the page source, the middle cell where the graphs should appear shows up as an empty "<td></td>". Many seem to have this problem, but many don't. It isn't caused by the browser, it doesn't occur in general, but if it happens to you, it always happens to you. Must be a curse..

Mr. Shumway: Strange. Looks perfect to me. I guess that is why they call it a bug.

BIG BAD WOLF: I donüt have the graphs too, for some days now

BIG BAD WOLF: that is just a grey page for me too.

Marfitalu: For example, this works fine - can you see this page:

http://brainking.com/en/BKRGraph?u=2560&tp=23

Marfitalu: They are working fine for me also. Seen a couple of bug reports about it also, so it sounds like you are not alone.

Where are you clicking to open the graphs? (from what page are you trying to see graphs from)

Marfitalu: Mine are showing, nto sure why yours aren't.

ScarletRose: have one for me!

Czuch Chuckers: well.. it must be fixed.. I am outta here.. have a nice evening.. :)

ScarletRose: a half hour or so??????

Czuch Chuckers: yes.. maybe he was implementing some things .. just getting home so I don't know how long it was down..

ScarletRose: I see liquid is up and about, so maybe he had to fix something?

Czuch Chuckers: yep.. I did.. it just let me in..

Anyone else have problems accessing this site recently?

pauloaguia: OK :)

Walter Montego: Disregrad that last post... I wasn't thinking clearly

pauloaguia: You'd better think about what you just said about clockwise and how it looks to each player. That's like saying we have a clock laying face up between us with you at the 6 and me at the 12 and the second hand appears to move in opposite directions! My clockwise movements will look the same no matter where the observer is placed if he's looking down upon the game. How can we be moving them in the same direction? That's not Backgammon as I know it.

Walter Montego: Actually, if the two opponents are sitting one in front of the other both will be moving their pieces in the same direction. In this case, you'll move them anti-clockwise (for instance) and it will look like your opponent is moving clockwise, though, in his/her point of view, he's moving anti-clockwise as well.

However, if the two opponents are sitting side by side, they will indeed have to move each one in opposite directions.


This said, it doesn't matter to me which way the board goes, just as long as it stays the same during the whole game

Walter Montego: That's how it worked here (one player clockwise and the other one counterclockwise). After protests and complaits of the majority of backgammon players on BK I decided to make it as it is now. From my point of view, I see no difference if the pieces move one way on another - it's just another view of the same position, nothing else.

whopper: I agree with this skepticism. When playing on a real board in person with someone one player goes clockwise and the other player goes counterclockwise. It is only with the computer do both people think they're going the same direction. Kind of like having the declaring hand in Bridge always played from the south seat in the newspaper, but that's not how it is in real games. I don't see any reason for not allowing the player pick the direction of travel for his pieces, but I also don't see why it would matter in the first place. It doesn't change the game, does it? Is there not a standardized direction of travel for the checkers? As in a book on Backgammon? Why not adopt that and have them go in that direction? Since the current way of notating the games is 1 to 24 instead by the table they're in, I would imagine that having the 6 to 1 inner table in the same place for both players would take care of it. If me, it's on the lower right and my pieces would go counterclockwise. If my opponent, it'd be on the upper left of my screen and my pieces would go clockwise toward the 19 to 24 inner table which would be on my side of the board in the lower left of the screen.

Anencephalsaid: Everybody play backgammon clockwise here in iran. I have to edit my mind when switching between OTB and net games :)

They do? How is this done? One board each, with a third person who updates your opponents board after you have made your move (and vice versa)?

Pythagoras: Well said,Its a good thing they have books and programs for playing games on game sites,Or there would be alot of lost players LOL:)

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If chickens can play tic-tac-toe and draw against humans, then i find it ridiculous if human brains complain about not being able to think things mirrored....

Anencephal: .
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And here in Greece where Backgammon is a little more inside our DNA compared to other countries we play both ways with no problems....
But clockwise or anti-clockwise? It doesn't matter. Human brain has he ability to adapt with no problems! You just have to try.....

Baked Alaskan: Everybody play backgammon clockwise here in iran. I have to edit my mind when switching between OTB and net games :)

furbster:
Currently I'm playing a "clockwise" game at another site and its driving me nuts LOL I have no option to change it tho

But I'm only there for Mancala... Will be glad when Fencer adds It here so I can quit the other site LOL
*hint*

furbster: I think that only might apply when playing on live sites and both people play /look at the same board

I've never heard of nplaying backgammon in the clockwise direction, i'd be so confused if i had to do that lol.

pauloaguia: yes i understand this but on some other game sites you have the option of which way you want to travel round the board clock wise or anticlock wise

Buz: It seems that sometime in the past changes have been made regarding that subject:
http://brainking.com/pt/News?bms=106