One is "the first eddie spahgetti fast tourney (Horde Chess)", the other was due to start in March but hadn't been started by the creator, so I could remove myself from that.

Done.

:-) thank you x

A BIG HUG for all the sign ups!! ((((PLAYERS))))))

The teams that need some more players are especcially the Chess Variations & Halma 10x10

Patty will be very pleased! :-)

Just read your message here & joined up for the halma 10x10 tourney. hoping Patty gets to be back with us very soon . I enjoyed chatting & playing games with her as did many others here did too.

Great DreamBear :-))))))

I hope all the sign ups will put a big Smile on Patty's face I Would have signed up for Halma but i am Lousy at that but i Did sign up for Chess!!

ThAnkS runningwolf :-)))))

For anyone interested in a fast tournament, I have created a 1 day Halma 10 by 10 tournament, maximum 6 players, which means the tournament will probably only be one round. Who likes those long drawn out tournaments anyway?

Good luck to everyone who joined Pattymelts Tourney!

Hey Fencer, are the timed out games going to be re-instated since the site was down for so long tonight?

Sure, give me the game IDs.

Well 67542 and 67543... They didn't time out on my end, but my opponent's. I don't know if that makes a difference. But I would like to continue them! :-)

Done.

I've been trying to get into a tournament game of Anti Line 4, but usually not enough people sign up. I like to play many different games, at least a couple of times.

SO - This is an invatation to anyone who would like to at least try a game of Anti Line4 - Please check out THIS TOURNAMENT and sign up for Anti Line4 if you would like to give it a try.

I'm hopeing to get at least 4 people into that tournament so we can play it - and if anyone else would like to at least try to play the game - now is a good chance to get in and give it a try! ☺

Come join us for some serious fun in the Spring 2003 open Pente / Keryo Pente championship tournament.

I would like to make this a fairly large tournament (minimum 10 players for each game) that continues moving along without waiting for long time controls. (3 days/move)

I will be looking to start these once/quarter and to eventually run sectional tournaments as more players obtained established ratings in Pente and Keryo Pente.

See all the specifics at the tournament. May 31st is the last day to sign up.


Gary

To all -

I'm afraid that I messed up on the Pente/Keryo Pente tournament that I set up. Please forgive me because I usually check everything before setting up something big like this.

I appreciate Kevin's comment on the Pente discussion board and it alerted me to the fact that I set the tournament up wrong. It was my intent to set the tournament up for 2 games for each 2 players and I was almost sure that I looked right at that before creating the tournament. Unfortunately the default is 1 game for 2 players and I somehow interpreted that incorrectly to mean 2 games for each 2 players. I would never want to run a serious tournament with only 1 game between each 2 players. I have attempted to edit the tournament to change that and it won't let me change that option.

It seems as though I have NO choice but to delete the tournament and create a new one. Unfortunately 10 players have already signed up for the Pente one and 3 for the Keryo Pente one.

Sometime this evening, I'll delete this tournament and create a new one. I'll also post this message on all 3 message boards that I did before and send a personal message to each of the players that had signed up for this one informing them of what happened and to sign up for the new one. I'll also change the end of sign-up from May 31st to June 7th. Perhaps that will allow some players to finish up some games or tourneys as needed in order to enter the tournament.

I hope that this will not create problems in the Brain King system. In other words, I hope that once I delete the tournament, it will 'clear out' the fact that non-members had signed up for a tournament so that they can sign up for the new one. If you have problems signing up for the new tournament after having been allowed to sign up for the erroroneous one, please let me know about the situation and I will forward an explanation about it to Fencer.

I'm sorry about the problem and thanks, Kevin, for bringing it up.


Gary

To all -

I've thought about all of this some more and have decided on two things for the big Pente / Keryo Pente tournament:

1. I'm going to go ahead and put June 7th as the end of sign up. This is because I'm also going to advertise it some at www.pente.org and www.itsyourturn.com. I want players to have plenty of time to see the advertisement and if they are new to this site, have time to come here, create an I.D., and get comfortable with the site before playing in the tournament.

2. I'm going to change the time control from 3 to 4 days. This is because for a large tournament like this, there is a good chance that there will be one or more sections that will have 8 players in them which means that at least some players will have 14 games for this tournament going at once.

Also, I want to make all non-members aware of the situation here at Brain King. Since a player could potentially have 14 games going at once for this tournament and the max for a non-member is 20 games, in order to play in this tournament, you will need to be down to 6 current games in order to play in the tournament.


Gary

Yes. Your Settings / Calendar values are applied on all games.

Congratulations to netvenus for winning the ArtfulDodger's Backgammon Tourney with a score of 6 of 7!!! Way to go!! And hooray for Artful Dodger for coming in last place!!! ;)

This is a great site, Im gonna join it in the summer after my exams are over...I would like to create my own tournaments...does anyone know if its possible to create a 3/4 man team tourny? e.g. Say at spiderline4, I would like to set up a world cup / ryder cup stlye tourny with 3/4 people representing their country! They each play each opponent in the match twice & whichever team has the most points wins the match, therefore progresses into the next stage! If theres not enough countries wanting to take part, then I know just the U.K. versus the U.S.A. would be a great battle alone at spiderline4! there are many excellent players from these two countries alone!

just a thought for you! :)

SPIDERMAN

lol what about those of us not from USA or UK? :-)

I did actually mention a 'world' cup in my original message...as in ALL countries from around the world! I just used the UK & US as an example if there was not enough 'world' wide interest. Yes you should get a team together from Canada...it would be very interesting and most of all it would be great fun wouldnt it??

:)

Spiderman: a great idea you came up with.
Team tournaments between different countries would be quite interesting in many game types.
Interfellowship tournaments would be a way to do it easily (after that feature is added).

Thanks sundance...

..Yes the five-in-a-line world cup would be a great one too..as long as we, the UK, can avoid Finland until the final, otherwise we could go out! :) No seriously, it would be great fun for all countries in every game type played on here...The world cup should be the biggest tourny on here and could be held say once or twice a year, depending on the response it could be more...this site is rapidly growing, and who knows in 10 years this world cup could be phenomenal with ALL the best board game players from around the world from which ever site they play at attending this one special anual event!!

:)

Have 3, close when we have 6. Come play!

Need 8. 5 slots left. come play the craziest chess game that is loads of fun!

Artful's "Let's get loopie" Loop Chess!

ArtfulDodger's Backgammon For U1600 players :)

...I have a question.I posted a message to hannilore about this,just as my webtv went "stunned".so I dont know if she got it.thought this might be a better venue to ask.anyway..
I am in hannilores tank battle tourny.
I confess,I have not done well.and now in the last game with Boondoogle.I have 3 times waited until the last hour before he times out,to see that he finally made his move.watching his profile,I see he appears to be waiting out several the same way.I think this practise is perverse,holds things up unneccessrily.
reagrdlessly,I resigned the game,with the hope of trying another tournament.being a non full member(that will change ,I'm becoming addicted too)I am limited to one tourney.
but it appears that I cant get out of the tourney until it is finished..so my questions thus:
can a non full member quit a tourny?
can a full member quit a tourny?
if so please tell me how.
perhaps the mechanism for tournys does not allow this.

I asked a similar question when I first came to the site before I became a paid member, and I have seen similar messages from others since then.

And basicly the only answer I ever see is "o'well.... unless you want to become a paid member, you have to wait for all the others to finish their games in that section of the tournament before you can join a second tournament." I believe this is really unfair to the unpaid players who play there games regularly - since a paid member could hold up a tournament an extra 40+ days if they use all their weekends & vacations. Add to that if they use all there time for each move - they could extend a tournament up to 4-6 months... and depending on the game time limit, maybe even longer!

Hopefully if Fencer see enough people who have this problems, maybe he will try to at least change it somehow.

:-)

BBW (BIG BAD WOLF)

Clever, thats crappy that you have to keep waiting on him like that. Sounds like a silly mind game to me, but as the old saying goes "small things amuse small minds". Lets hope your opponent see's this gripe about the topic and keeps to the game at hand.

"I believe this is really unfair to the unpaid players who play there games regularly -"

how can anything possible be unfair to the unpaid members? They aren't PAYING anything. That they get anything at all sounds very fair to me.

Again, if the tournamnet limitations are that much of a problem for a non-paying member, there is a simple solution.......

Yet, for whatever reason, non-paying members are under some delusion that all their inconviences should be alleviated.

I'm not sure why your always so down on non paying members, I'm sure they dont all feel that way, we were all one once. From a business standpoint its smart to give non paying members the best service possible to entice them into becoming paying members so they may enjoy the enhanced service and priviledges that come with membership. Thats what helped me decide to become a member.

TTJazzberry, I find your statements objectionable. First of all, I have made it very clear why I am down on non paying members, haven't you read anything I have written? They are paying nothing yet thye want their inconveniences alleviated or eliminated.

You are correct, BIg Bad wolf was discussing this, but it is the NON PAYING members who actually complain about it, since they are the ones affected.

Your statement that "we were all non paying members once" is just ridiculous. SO WHAT???????

WHat does that have to do with ANYTIHNG? For starters, I was a non paying member for about three days, at which time I paid for a membership, so I am not sure what your point is there. Additionally, when I was a non paying member, I did not write to Fencer or make posts on the message boards saying "Hey, I am not paying you anything, but I have a problem with X y and Z that I would like you to resolve."

Now, on to your next comment:

"From a business standpoint its smart to give non paying members the best service possible to entice them into becoming paying members."

I can only hope you are joking here, because this statement is asinine. If you give the NON PAYING members the BEST SERVICE POSSIBLE, then they would be getting better service than the PAYING members! WHY would you give those who pay NOTIHNG the BEST service possible? Maybe you can explain to me, FROM A BUSINESS standpoint (since you used that term) WHY anyone who is already getting the "best service possible" would consider paying for a membership?

I think the best way to entice people to get a membership is to give them a taste, but not the entire meal.

Non paying members get PLENTY. thye can play 20 games. they can enter a tournament. they can participate on the message boards.

What exactly is the problem? That isn't enough value for the cost of NOTHING that they are paying? Why should they get anything more? Why would that make them become PAYING members?????

The whole POINT of becoming a paying member is that you DON'T have to deal with these issues! If the existence of these "problems" are not enough to entice someone to pay up, WHY ON EARTH WOULD HE PAY UP AFTER being GIVEN what the paying members all had to PAY to receive?

The people who aren't paying for memberships but are asking for more features are CHEAP. It has not been my experience that a cheapskate stops being a cheapskate when you give him more than you are already giving him.

Obviously my last statement is oging to elicit responses of "some people can't afford a membership."

Save it, because we all know that's a load of crap. The non paying members choose to spend their money on other things that they obviously deem more important, yet they want to have similar benefits to those of us who have deicded that a membership is what we would rather spend our money on.

Yes I have read what you said, I just dont agree with your point of view. You said "Your statement that "we were all non paying members once" is just ridiculous. SO WHAT???????
WHat does that have to do with ANYTIHNG? . Again you have to resort to describing someones statements as "rediculous" when you dont agree instead of merely putting your side forth in a polite manner, but I'm used to your debating style by now so like water off a duck anyway. To answer your question, it has to do with EVERYTHING!, you see if you treat them right they may become paying members. There are many people who take the site for a test drive for a while before deciding, so you cant assume they will all join within 3 days like yourself.

On my other point you obviously misinterpreted what I meant, and maybe I didnt elaborate enough. By giving non paying members the best service possible I didnt say anywhere that they should recieve the "same" or "better" service as paying members, I merely meant they should get as good as service possible given their non paying status in order to entice them into paying for the enhanced service.

I still maintain there are people out there who can not afford to spend part of what little money they may have on a games site, but I know from your previous postings you dont agree so I'll leave it at that, but to blanket them all as "cheapskates" is totally off as far as I'm concerned, whether they post or not. Then you have the nerve to call my comment "asinine"...go figure, again I'm used to your debating and I guess I'm fortunate not to be called a moron once more.

geeh,I never dreamed my 2 questions would provoke so much name calling.
being a non paying member,I appreciate what is given to entice me to join.I'm not bitching.I agree with the 1st paragraph of TTjazzberrys post of May24-17:16:24.it's exactly how I would have expressed it.depend on us for you entertainment,eh?bet you say that to all the boys...lol

some sites re free members:
1-limit # moves
2-limit game type access
3-limit tourny involvement
brainking does the 3rd type
this is perhaps the wisest for them,because the other 2 woulds slow things down for free & paying members.
I take it that I must wait for the tourny to end,I did not see a direct answer.
my second question was never answered.can paying members quit a tourny?what's the harm in knowing.will want to know when I sign up.

please lets all leave the name calling at the door.I know that I have played/talked to a lot of you people.and most of you are fairly bright & good spirited lets make an effort to treat each other descently.we can agree to disagree.

yes,you kiddies play nice,or I will take your toys away.jazz ,even the ones that take batteries[wink].

TTJazzberry-- apparently you have difficult with reading comprehension. I called ONE of your comments "asinine," yet you spoke as if I called ALL your stetements asinine.

If you take it as such an insult to have your comment referred to as asinine, then don't make asinine comments.

The fact is, you said "Remember, we were all non paying members at some point" as if it actually means anytihng, whne it clearly does not mean anything!

That wasn't even the statement I called asinine though (although I should have). No, theasinine statement of yours was that the non paying members should be given "the best service possible." You derided my understanding of business, yet you failed to explain why anyone would PAY for a membership if they are given everything for free.

Please enlighten me.

BY the way, the reason I did not call you a "moron" is I do not wish to engage in childish name calling. Calling someone names is a weak debating tactic. On theo ther hand, there is nothing wrong with taking issue with a particular STATEMENT that someone makes, wihch is what I did-- I attacked the STATEMENTS, not the PERSON.

My debating tactics are to opitn out how asburd some of the ocmments people make are, and then I defend my position with facts and logical arguments. It is a pity you feel the need to attakc this method of debating, although it does not surprise me, as the trend on this board is for people to utter mindless drivel asuch as "Remember, we were non-paying members once!" as if they have any meaning.

Regarding memberships, which seem to have a significant effect on the number of tournamnets people can enter:

TTJazzberry, you disagree with me when I say that people can afford a membership, they just do nto want to.

I pose a question to you:

Of the brain pawns, of wihch there are 4800 (approximately), how many do you think really cannot afford a membership? Conversely, how many just choose to do something else with the money?

Remember, we're talking about twenty dolars here. Someone who goes to the movies twice in 6 months can obviously afford a membership, but like many people, he has decided that movies are more important than a brain King membership.

I am curious about your response to this question. If you don't want to count the inactive brain Pawns, don't. Just take a numbetr at random, say 1000 brain Pawns. How many of those 1000 do you think cannot afford a membership?

Here is a second question-- why do you think the current benefits extended to non-paying members are INSUFFICIENT for their being able to decide whether to become a paying member?

You indicated that people take the site for a "test drive" wihch I agree with-- but what I do not understand is why you think they do not have enough available to them to figure if they want to be a member or not.

One final note--if you do not agrreee with qwhat I say, and youtell me so, I do not consuider that "name calling." If you think my argument is asinine, please tell me so, I am a big boy and I can handle it. I don't go whining about "name calling" when someone uses a word like ridiculous or asinine. Those are just two words used to describe an illogical or nonsensical argument.

Your ENTIRE arguement about whether people can afford to pay is totally irevelent seeing as I merely said SOME people cant afford memberships, and your whole point was about the percentage of pawns who claim they cant afford to join, again I'm only saying SOME cant afford to join, so I'll ignore all of it.

Now, I was a non paying member once, after I liked what I saw...I paid, many many people have done the same, do you understand what it has to do with it now? Remember now, I said non-members should get good service and features, NOT the best, just good. Members get premium service, thats what the non paying members are enticed by. Thats how it works.

As for name calling, I was referring to your lashing out calling me a moron just a couple weeks ago on the GC board, in fact you referred to ALL of us as "a bunch of morons". I agree with you on that one point though, "Calling someone names is a weak debating tactic."..indeed.

My argument about whether people can afford to pay ie IRRELEVANT? That is another asinine statement. Of course it is relevant!!!!!!!

If people do not like being limited to one tournamnet, they can simply PAY FOR A MEMBERSHIP!

BUt, instead, their stance seems to be this:

1) I like the site enough to want to be able to play MORE GAMES and/or MORE tournaments....

2) BUT, I don't want to buy a membership.

In other words, they like what they see and want more of it, but thye don't want to pay for it! Evne though msot of them can afford to but just choose not to! AND YOU SAY TIHS IS IRRELEVANT???

also, I must potn an innaccuracy in your last post, you said "Remember now, I said non-members should get good service and features, NOT the best, just good."

I remember what you said just fine. you said that non paying members should receive "THE BEST SERVICE POSSIBLE." (caps added by me for emphasis).

NOTE YOUR use of the word Best there. NOw you are changing it to "they should get GOOD service" (again, caps added by me).

Well, the service they get now is PLENTY GOOD! Yet you repeatedly ignore that obvious fact! thye get a loyt of features for ZERO dollars! So, they are already GETTING the good service you say they should get.

As for the weeks-old argument you are referring to, I thought that was a dead issue, but since you drredged it up, yeah, I called some people morons, because they were actling like morons. But I should not have said that THEY were morons, just that I thought their ARGUMENTS were moronic.

In my defense, I was being flamed by about twenty people at once, wihch makes it difficult to maintain composure.

Yes it was irrevelent because you went on and on and on about what percentage of people can afford to pay when I merely said SOME cant pay, so your arguement about the number of people who cant afford is COMPLETELY IRREVELENT. Now if I had said ALL people who dont pay cant afford to, your arguement would be revelent.

I remember what you said just fine. you said that non paying members should receive "THE BEST SERVICE POSSIBLE." (caps added by me for emphasis).

NOTE YOUR use of the word Best there. NOw you are changing it to "they should get GOOD service" (again, caps added by me). Its obvious you cant or choose not to read, nowremember I said On my other point you obviously misinterpreted what I meant, and maybe I didnt elaborate enough. then I went on to say that they should get good service, not better. Nowhere did I say they dont get good service now, I said many times they DO get good service and I think it should remain and I challenged you before when YOU said it shouldnt remain as such, so no idea where you dug THAT one up from, so I'll leave it alone.

Again as for the name calling, yes it was on an old issue you called us all morons in your tantrum. I was pointing it out since you pointed out how it is bad debating tactics, thought it was a little ironic given you resort to just that.

I enjoyed this site as a nonpaying member and enjoy it just as much as a paying member. So far, I haven't taken advantage of any of the membership perks, other than the nice extra pull-down menu for making moves.

I agree with Tjazz about the "best" service possible. That doesn't mean we have to give pawns all the perks of membership, only that we should all welcome the pawns to the site and help them out as much as possible. That's what Fencer does. That's why I joined, because I was treated well as a pawn.

Refreshing to see someone see's what I mean, thats exactly what I'm trying to say pipilo.

TTJazzberry, you engage in name calling as much as anyone, so give it a rest.

NOw you are just making no sense at all. It seems that you AGREE with me, yet you are acting like you disagree.

Letm e help you try to make sense of this, I can see you are confused.

You just said that you did NOT sat that the brain Pawns do not get good service?

OK, fine! Then, if nothing is lacking, WE AGREE! That si what I ahve been saying all along! I have been saying that nothing is wrong with what the b rain pawns get now, and if they want more, they should pay.

It seems that we agree on this, yet you are arguing with me.

as for the relevance of who can afford to pay and who cannot, yes, the point is mostly irelevant, except that people use that BS excuse as a reason for wanting to get more features without paying for it. People have used the exact wording "Well, I cannot afford a membership" while asking for more features.

Maybe I should go to my next car service appointment anddemand a complete detailing of my car-- when they tell me I can have extra features, I'll say that I cnanot afford them!

Well, guess what they'll say! TOUGH! My not being able to afford extra services is not a reason for htem to just give me those services!

The same applies here. If someone truly cannot afford a membership, well, hey, life sucks sometimes, and you can;t always have everything you want. A gaming site is a pure luxury, and it just amazes me that cheapskate freeloaders want more than what they already get. YEah, that's right, I said cheapskate freeloaders, because that's what they are.

Where did I join in the name calling? Enlighten me I'd like to see. Making up crap isnt good debating either, its desperation.

TTJazz, I don't see why anyone wouldn't see what you meant. Seemed obvious to me! The more superlative service this site offers to nonmembers, the more members we can expect to get onboard. These days, everything is a choice when it comes to spending money, unless you're one who has so much that you don't care where it goes. Making a game site a priority for your $20-$30 or more per year takes more than tournaments and the ability to play 21+ games, it's a choice that's made more with the heart than with the wallet.

"In my defense, I was being flamed by about twenty people at once, wihch makes it difficult to maintain composure."

- There's a good reason for everything...

Well exactly pipilo. If I had twenty people telling me I'm wrong in accusing someone of being a cheat, I would swallow a little pride and admit maybe I went a little overboard. I certainly wouldnt resort to calling them all morons.

I certainly agree with TTJazzberry in the sense that pawns should get good service to get them to pay. And I certainly agree with Dmitri in the sense that they are already getting plenty! I see it definately as a priveledge to join tournaments at all - and some of them (not recently that i've read, however) are complaining and want more. Fencer chose to allow them to play in tournaments to see what they're like, and they should be happy, not complaining.