Fencer, I am only speculating, but you can do a lot with .swf files (which is why you don't see many of them allowed on community sites). If you are really concerned, I recommend you not use .swf banners and only use animated .gif files.

jadarite: If it is true, how come that I wasn't redirected anywhere although I always see all banner ads for testing purposes?

The banners are .swf banners. This means any frame in the "shockwave flash" movie file can contain a redirect. They can be programmed to go off at different times.

pauloaguia: All banners are hosted on BrainKing and nobody can change them after they are published.

Fencer: Are the banners hosted on BK or on third party hosts? Can the advertiser change the banner after you approved it? Or the server be reconfigured to redirect to certain pages when certain files are requested?
anybody: If it really is a banner on BrainKing causing it, can you identify what banner(s) were present on the page when you were redirected?
How come there's only a few people complaining about it when there are thousands seeing these adds? Maybe there's some other external factor involved (like having spyware or addware on the computer, as has been suggested already).

(I don't have adds activated and really don't plan to, so I won't be answering any of these questions )</b>

grenv: I agree with you. My PC had been on, but idle while I was out of town for the weekend. BrainKing was my first site visited with IE upon my return. And www.errorprotector.com welcomed me very shortly thereafter. Pure coincidence? I don't think so.

Regardless if people want to accept it or not, banner ads can contain spyware. I have tested this, and reformatted a hard drive, installed the program in question and as soon as banner ads appeared, the virus came and my firewall program and anti-virus programs lit up like a Christmas tree. This particular one was so malicious that the only way to stop it was to disable IE. The following day a friend from Thailand PM'd me with the same problem and the same symptoms, same virus.

I am only saying this to show that it is possible. In this case, it's not as severe. It appears to only be a redirect, but keep your eye open. This could be just a test for something worse down the road. Also, banner ads do not represent the site. Fencer cannot do anything to completely stop viruses from leaking through them. If you absolutely do not want any chances of lost data or spyware, then backup any important files and if the paid service here removes banners, you won't get them.

If you are like me, you will fight these nasties as they come and learn the system. If anyone thinks they are infected, feel free to contact me and I can try to help you further or send you to the right people that know more than I do.

coan.net: Of course not. I don't see any bad banners here. Furthermore, I have three computers and none of them is infected by any spyware or adware and all of them are used to test BrainKing pages (which means that people who observe "something strange" are obviously doing something wrong).

grenv: I thought all bad banner ad's were already removed: http://brainking.info/archives/299-BrainKing-is-safe-more-than-before.html

Did Fencer bring them back?

rod03801: and/or how about the "computers"-board? a whole bunch of experts may await you to solve any-spyware-prob... ;-))

Well it seems to me a good "feature" would be to get rid of the offending banners. It has now happened on 3 computers, all of which are clean, and only at this site (i.e. i get redirected from this site)

jadarite: Well, I suppose the original post of the thread would have been appropriate on the brainking.com discussion board... But it certainly wasn't a feature request.

rod03801,

Is there a support forum?

This is the FEATURE REQUESTS discussion board, folks.

I got it too, yes, it could be spyware. However, the spyware could be originating from the banners. I have had a few of these come up while using Paltalk. So, if you want to catch the banner, you can clear your cache before visiting here, and next time you get it, go to your temp folder and the culprit should be there.

grenv: A google search for errorprotector makes me think you might have got spyware on your computer.

does anyone else get redirected to www.errorprotector.com from this site? I can't find a problem with my system and it only happens from brainking.

pauloaguia:
i agree completely with this request!
had the same idea quite a while ago and its imho definitely an important feature!

A request that comes from the portuguese DB: when we create an invitation to a specific player we cannot see how our BKR can be affected by that game. However, our opponent has access to that information before (s)he accepts the invitation.
Is it possible to see how a specific game will affect my BKR at invitation time and when the opponent is already know even when I was the one sending the invitation?

It would be nice if in the tournament search part we could find tournaments according to the match type.

I like playing matches of several games and to several wins, simply because some games seem slightly slanted towards the white or black player. Multi-game matches even out the odds of winning.

If we can search tournaments according to match type, I would be able to find those tournaments with matches rather than just a single game.

jadarite: But I don't want to add a ton of game related features. It's too boring job. I like changes and experiments.

I enjoy all the videos posted on the music board and being able to embed is even better, thanks very much Fencer!

Summertop: At this time, only Rooks have the privilege of adding a video. Everyone can see them however.

I believe Fencer created it with the intent of incentive toward a Rook membership, just as only Rooks can create Fellowships.


added: but as pauloaguia said, it could be just a beta testing thing.

Summertop: On that same blog you can read Since there are many things to test yet, the feature works only for Brain Rooks or higher membership levels. From that I figure that it just for Rooks while it's on this test phase... but of course, I'm not in Fencer's mind, so he'll have to confirm that personally.

Rose: Have I done something to offend you? If so, sorry...but I can't imagine what it was.

FYI: Every feature request here has some discussion following it. Yet this one, you as GM, asks us to stop. You have the right to do that so I will stop. However, Fencer has "given" us the right to make requests, so I will re-state it so it easier to understand the request. And so it looks more like a request. Fair?

Request: Could the youtube implementation be changed, so that ANY membership level can embed objects.
Reason: As a rook member, I don't like being able to watch some videos inside BK, while others I have to link out of BK.

FYI: I haven't watched any of them yet...but I can still make requests for the way I would like to see it. If Fencer, chooses not to change it, thats fine. I won't be upset at all...just giving my suggestions.

And now, back to feature requests!

jadarite: Anyone who reads the Music board will see the music discussion often includes a link to a YouTube video.

You do not need to be a Rook to see the video, only to embed it. I think its a nice addition.

jadarite: Ah, I wasn't the one suggesting that only Rook level members could post. This was suggested by Fencer in his Brainking.info blog. Personally, I see no reason to limit the implementation to certain membership levels. But, it is not my site. Since I DO have a rook membership, I don't care. Is that selfish?

jadarite: I agree completely. This has already largely become a "lonely hearts" site for backgammon players. Youtube is not a game... It's already an established hobby on a different kind of site.

Summertop:

Why would I pay to be able to post youtube videos when I can just send a link to a friend through a messenger like Yahoo or AIM already for free? I am not trying to attack you in any way, but I question sites which base payment on services that don't need payment. If we are to pay into the system, shouldn't the money go towards more productive causes like improve on the 90's interface look this site has, and integrate training applets to help people who play strategic games like chess, go, etc...?

There are a ton of features that could be added which directly relate to games that would improve it overall for everyone. That's where my money would go if I were to become a paying member.

Youtube support in BrainKing...Way cool.
I hope this is the right board...Is it OK to discuss Features fo Features?

1. I am sure I'm not alone here...My company blocks youtube. So, I assume that won't break the page, just the object.

2. "Rook" membership? Only rooks can embed the object, but everyone can watch it?

3. Brainking.info insinuates that Brainking is a "Static" site....I actually find it quite Dynamic. New stuff (blogs, DB content, even features and games) happens EVERY day.

I apologize for posting on wrong board.

Happy?

Chaosu: What kind of feature request is that?

Chaosu: Best place to post that is in the Bug Tracker: http://brainking.com/en/BugTracker

Even though Fencer tries to read this boards, if for some reason he gets behind - he may miss certain messages. So for a bug where it looks like you should have already won, posting it in the Bug Tracker will allow him to see it, and hopefully figure out what caused the bug and try to see that it does not happen again. (along with fix the game)

Perhaps Fencer don't like me but what I have done to him to stop me from winning this game?
Pente Pro (Chaosu vs. stoneaxe)

Fencer: Yes - option 3 of making tab skip over them works great also!

Thanks!

coan.net: Is it better now?

coan.net: LOL, you do that too, eh?

When I type a message on the boards, I usually write the subject, then tab down and write the message.

But now there are 6 different things I need to tab through before finally making it to the message... many times I will be writing to only find out I did not tab enough times.

With all these "short-cut" options being added to the page, could we either (1) make them optional to show up or (2) move them above the Subject box - that way there are still there to click on, but will not get in the way of writing a subject/message.

In multi game Tournaments where games maybe a mixture Open, Running or Finished it would be nice when you look at the whole Tournament if beside the finished games we could see that particular Tournament winner, rather than having to open each one to see who won it.
We could then see how many and which players have won which, a small thing, but nice

Instead of adjusting every variable for a game invite, I would like to be able to have a default preset invite which I could just send out. To add to this, maybe it could auto do this as soon as a current game is finished.

Fencer, Could we have a Fellowship Stats & Ratings page for our Fellowships please.
It could be set as the Main brainking ones, BUT just for all members within each Fellowship.
Of course we would not need all the options the Main brainking ones have.
We could see which player in the Fellowship is rated highest within it at every game, then as with the Main brainking ones we could click on a game & we could see a list of all established(provisional) Fellowship members at that game.
Also here a column to let us know which players play for which Fellowship Teams in that game.
This could help Big Bosses see what players are available to play for Teams without having to look at each profile individually.
It could also include Number of Fellowship Tournaments entered/won and number of Fellowship Team Tournaments entered/won.
A nice way to see which members are the most active within a Fellowship.

jadarite: I do have to agree with you that it is unfortunate that this site has to be set up to indulge the fringe users over the pleasures of the mainstream users, but that is something you will learn is necessary, else the fringe users will ruin it for the mainstream type.

"there are many negative outcomes associated with allowing or providing for people to simply cancel games without penalty after they have already accepted them."

That's understandable. I am open to finding out whatever negative aspects there are to preventing people from canceling games if they haven't been started. This is a common feature on many other game servers. To not allow it is like not allowing people have guns. The criminals end up with the guns, and the law abiding citizens don't have a means to protect themselves. This is an extreme analogy, but it gets the point across. If someone is to use this feature for wrong reasons, they can still do it now. I would understand it if this feature didn't have a limit, but I think one a day (one a week??) would be very helpful to those that aren't here to cause trouble.

jadarite: Being prone to something means you do it on a continuous basis. I have only done it once. As diogenysos pointed out, there are also common actions we do because 99% of the time it is appropriate. What about that 1% when we our actions don't represent our intentions?


Thats when it is appropriate to message fencer with your request. He is generally very helpful, as long as it is not a too common situation (IE "prone")

"Another solution to your problem is to send a private message to Fencer who has the ability to help you, but I would guess that he would not prefer to do this if you are prone to accepting game invitations on accident"

This site is run a little differently than others. I see some good points and bad points about that. However, because it is run differently, you will get newbies (which I am), that don't know how to navigate through the site until we experiment and trial and error.

Obviously, now I am not going to accept invitations to see the board from now on. Being prone to something means you do it on a continuous basis. I have only done it once. As diogenysos pointed out, there are also common actions we do because 99% of the time it is appropriate. What about that 1% when we our actions don't represent our intentions?

jadarite: One of the problems encountered trying to implement features on a site like this is that there may be many unintended consequences in such an action. Fencer has to balance any positive outcomes of a new feature with any possible negative outcomes, and unfortunately, there are many negative outcomes associated with allowing or providing for people to simply cancel games without penalty after they have already accepted them.

diogenysos: i definatly understood you and though i disagree with you you stated yourself in a polite and respectful way to everyone. the problem with jardartie is that, in my opinion is that he wasn't open to people offering help to him and then insulted the people. i do however agree that Fencer should have the final say if it would in his opinion be benifical to everyone on the site.

I am happy with the feature to be able to edit which smileys we want to use.

I wonder if it would be possible, when we see a smiley used by somebody else that we like, that we could right click it or something to be able to instantly add that smiley to our own list?