hey fencer,as far as any thoughts about futue possible game additions.have you ever considered chiness chess(xiangqi)?
a great strategy game,anyone else here know of it?

Fencer: Lol. If you gave Pawns the ability to search this discussion board, nobleheart could have typed chinese into that there Search box and found that the first mention of Chinese Chess was back in March 2003.

playBunny: pawns have the hability to search DB's (at least they did until 1 month ago...)

so its mentioned again poo to u...lol

But now that I think about it the more people ask about it, the more likely it will happen. I'd like to see it too ;)

nobleheart: Damn, you were faster

3/5th of a mile a sec

but some things are better slow[wink].
ok seriously,I would wish more than anything else to see games were you could play with more than one opponent here.
I would wish to hear if anyone else would be interested?

nobleheart: Oh yeah?! Then and !!

Lol, you'll have to come back when you're a Knight or Rook. ;-))

playBunny: I am a knight:
http://www.medieval-weaponry.co.uk/acatalog/FT1284.jpg

nobleheart: And with a castle. That beats being a knight or a castle! ;-)

Heading too far off topic here, so I'm done. :-)

but how about the main page? it would be nice to have a RSS stream directly to the games

nobleheart: I am learning Xianqi since 6 days ago. Fantastic game! Different from Shogi but also fascinating.

nobleheart: Xiangqi and Shogi are almost finished, I am just doing final tests or the models. Of course, when I release them, there will be definitely some bugs left but it's nothing unexpected.
Of yes, of course, I have to write the rules as well :-)

rabbitoid: How should it work? I know you were talking about it before but I cannot recall a single detail of your former idea.

Fencer: wow fencer great

Fencer: Rules part is reminding me something lol, new job is coming so

Fencer: make an RSS menu from the links to the current games in which the user has to move.

Fencer: and the problem is that if you're not logged in to BK in the current browser session, then who are you?

rabbitoid: Then you are in a guest mode.

do you think we may be able to see how many moves we made at the moment lively ? I know its not usefull too much but it would be fun to see it

I was just thinking the same thing Ebru. Then if we're anywhere near the top 50 board, gives us more incentive to try to get there.

furbster: Its funny coz I dont play for top 50 unfortunately but I would like to see how many moves I made at the moment

Ebru: I don't try for the top 50 either, but if i happen to be near it, i probably would then start trying... i always seem more likely to get onto the board anyway, if i am not thinking about doing so.

furbster: I am planning to spare a day for it lol. I wonder my capacity :-)

Ebru: hehe good luck with it

Please tell me - to which discussion board is chinese and japanese chess related?

chessmec: To Xiangqi and Shogi boards, Chess category.

I suggest an option who limit the choice in "Waiting games". Once checked, we pick up the kind of games we wish to play and that can be used as a filter in "Waiting games".

It could be useful to have the number of posts next to the the fellowship members' names - that way a visitor can see who provides the "flavour" of the fellowship, whether it's a full one with just a handful of active members or a busy one with input all round.

playBunny: I don't see that as 'useful' but more 'useless.' I hope we don't get into having too many features. It gets kinda silly after a while. Why not have a group of numbers after each name too. We could record the number of hours they are online, the number of words they have posted for the week, and the number of post made overall. ;)

ArtfulDodger: Lol 1. If we have the number of words posted for the week then I also want to know the typing rate. If we can get the average heart rate while they're doing it, that would be most informative! ;-)

Lol 2. I originally put "would be useful" but thought I'd weaken the assertion in case someone thought otherwise. Saw ya coming, me fine fella! ;-))

I agree that the other statistics you mentioned are pretty much meaningless, but knowing who the active posters are, especially if you know their posts from elsewhere, gives you part of the picture about what a fellowship is like.

Let's say you're invited to a fellowship (as all new paying members are ... a deluge of impersonal form-letters invitating them to join). They go to the page and read the fellowship's intro (which may be sparse). Being able to see that the fellowship has 100+ members but that only 3 people post a lot and maybe 5 post a sprinkle .. that tells a different story from the 50-member fellowship where 20-30 are active posters.

Given that "big bosses" don't tend to weed their garden and remove pawns who stopped playing a few months or years previously (lapsed subscriptions followed by leaving the site), the member tally is not a reliable figure for evaluating a fellowship. I think the posting activity would be.

When you join up for real**, perhaps find this request will make more sense.

(** Lol, you know you're going to, eh? ;-) - if only to see the smileys! )

playBunny: lol :) But the only way to really know what a FS or DB is like is to simply read the posts. In fact, that's really the only way.

And yes, I must rejoin if only for the smilies! I can't stand trying to look em up all the time. Fencer is one smart cookie!

ArtfulDodger:

harley: No bout a dout it!

I have a serious reservation about the Automatic Vacation option. While I believe it is great in principle, in practice it is being abused by some players here to indefinitely delay many of the hundreds more games they have in progress than they can reasonably handle! I know of a few here (and there are perhaps numerous others) who have well over 1,000 games going. It's not that they aren't entitled, it just isn't sensible. Even if you have nothing to do all day but log on to BK, you cannot possibly keep up with that many games.

My suggested remedy is to revamp the automatic vacation system so that it only activates on days when a player DOES NOT log on to the site. After all, should it not be to protect a player from timing out when the computer crashes, power outages, etc., or there arises some personal emergency? The time limits arranged in tournaments are plenty gracious.

What do other members think of this situation?

Pioneer54: I agree with this. It's a bit frustrating when I meet the conditions of the time controls and then my opponents get to use the auto-vac as a cover in case they time out.

Can't games or tourneys be set up where auto vacation can't be used?

ArtfulDodger: I quite agree; reading the posts gives the full information. But you can't read the posts to decide whether to join because joining is the only way to read them - they're private to the fellowship. Catch 22! (I may be wrong on that but it's been the case in all the ones that I've checked out.) Thus, posting activity would be informative for some (lol) people.

Fencer Can fellowships have publicly viewable boards? If so, are they for Knights and Rooks only?

Pioneer54: I suggested this myself a long time ago. I totally agree, people playing too many games should time out.

ArtfulDodger: But doesn't using a vacation day mean that they will eventually run out of that resource? (I admit I don't understand the holiday system yet; all my game invitations are fixed-weekend.)

playBunny: Why not just join, check it out, then leave if it's not what you expected? ;)

playBunny: That's a good point. ;)

ArtfulDodger: Rofl. 'Cos I'm lazy!! haven't you figured out how many of my requests are to save me effort? Lolol. ;-))

Seriously, though, you have to apply to the controller to join (Oh, how I don't like that title "Big Boss"!) so there's a delay in getting in. That's a put-off for someone who is window shopping now while their interest is high. It's also a bit like buying something just to find out that you don't like it, and have to bring it back; a waste of time for all involved.

Also, I bet you there are more than a few people who join fellowships but stay in them when it's not their cup of tea because they don't want to cause offence by leaving. That may strike folks as wierd but that's my understanding of people. Assertiveness is not something that everyone has in abundance and leaving a fellowship does require a certain amount because it's a rejecting action. Sensitive people, too, tend to find it very hard to reject. And that's certainly bad for the joiners and no good for the fellowship.

Can you let me resign from the March Medley Tournament so I can join the Purple Pawn Tournament?
Thanks very much!

Spirou:
I am learning a new game too
if you like backgammon,this you will like:
its not a variant something completely different
http://www.littlegolem.net/jsp/games/gamedetail.jsp?gtid=dvonn
also there a unique word game:
http://www.littlegolem.net/jsp/games/gamedetail.jsp?gtid=gwg
---
but brainking is still my heart & my home
---
which reminds me thank you fencer so much for the kool new games.

ArtfulDodger: An organizer can "red dot" a tournament, which means absolutely no days off. Lately, I'm glad to say, more of these offerings are showing up on the tournament listings, I suspect to attract the players who move in a timely fashion while discouraging those who don't. It is a grand idea, since just one slow player can really drag down an entire tournament.

However, even this will not entirely alleviate the larger problem, and while I don't expect any radical action to be taken in the near future, it is a situation that will need reckoning at some point. The fact that it is now under discussion is a successful beginning.

Pioneer54: ".. since just one slow player can really drag down an entire tournament."

Agreed. This is a major problem for a knight who finds themself in such a tourney.

Pioneer54: Regretfully it has been under discussion on numerous previous occasions, but to no avail.

playBunny: We're thinking along much the same lines. I've finished with my games in quite a few tourneys, but will not be able to enter another like event until a delinquent player relying on the auto-vac to keep from timing out finishes their games!?

These players would eventually run out of vacation days to use, although that could still take weeks or months.

nobleheart: I thank you very much but I don't like games were dices are implied.
Cheers.