If that's your biggest worry, consider yourself lucky

I think it's interesting and in my case, I like fast games so it helps to know who plays alot. Question answered?

I think they should Flash the most Active players on the site in Bold Gold letters! :)

Why should it matter to any one else but the player???? You never know who's on the other side of a keyboard. I'm not one of the most active players here, but I used to be at IYT,and plan on being here soon. I played at least 12 hours a day. I had broken my leg and it was all I could do. It helped me keep my sanity being able to talk with people and play instead of looking out a window all day wishing I could get out. I also have a neice that has a brain stem injury and being on the computer talking and playing is her world. So the next time you say these people need to get a life, you just think about how much some of the people would if only they could...Don't put so much into what other people are doing and worry about yourself. I think Michael Jackson said it best in his song: I'm starting with the man in the mirror..

if their breathing...their hearts are beating...aint that life?

in their defense...they are proabably playing games with me..

i work 51 hrs/6 days a week...in charge of $25,000 to $30,000 worth of fresh produce inventory a week...thats over 1,000,000 worth of fresh produce a year...so when i get home...i relax...to relax...i play games...when i play games...im happy....this is better than having a wife always saying why dont ya get off your butt all day? and all of that...at least when i get tired of playing games...i can turn it off...ok so i turn off many women too but hey thats life...:-)

Would it be possible to also include what State we are from on our profiles? I Like to find and play games with others from the same state.

Following on from the comments below and having seen how the ratings system has worked at GoldToken and other places I would like to offer some observations:

1) As others have said, the USCF ELO system does not work at all well for Backgammon and its variants. There is too much luck involved in these games and soon the higher-rated players will refuse to play the lower-rated ones because they lose too many points if they lose the game. FIBS is a much better system for these games and its introduction at GT has resulted in the top players lists becoming much more representative of ability. FIBS is probably better also for the other games which involve luck such as the Battleship-type games.

2) The Provisional Ratings formulae used by the USCF ELO system are designed to facilitate a small number of new players reaching their correct rating in a large pool of established players. On a site such as this the opposite applies - a relatively large number of new players with no real established base. I don't think they are of any benefit here and I would simply get rid of them. ie just use the established formulae. They are particularly inappropriate for Backgammon etc as they quickly take you to an (almost) arbitrary rating (see 1 above) from which it can take around 300 games to approach your true rating.

3) The treatment of multi-game matches is I think a little simplistic. I think common sense suggests you should receive more credit for winning a long match than for a short one. Fortunately multi-point matches are common in Backgammon and FIBS copes with them simply by multiplying the rating adjustment by the square root of the match length. So you get 3 times as many points for winning a 9-point match as you would for a single point one. An n-point Backgammon match is equivalent to an n-wins match here. There is no such thing as a draw in Backgammon but the same formula could probably be applied to an n-points match. I think an n-games match can be considered as an (n+1)/2 - wins match. I'm not sure how you would treat a tied n-games match - again there is no such thing in Backgammon.

4) Ratings based on all matches played are easily manipulated by the unscrupulous. They would be more meaningful if based on tournament matches only.

I verify that.

That seems a little strange. Can anyone else verify that.

grenv: even multi point/game/wins matches are treated the same as a single game, so whether you win a single game or a 10 wins match, your rating is effected the same amount at the same time (the end of the match).

Why does the system wait until the end of a match to update the ratings? Is each game considered separately? If so the ratings should update intra-match.

Very frusterating isnt it harl..
I realize Fencer is working on this and he is very generous etc etc
I do like the idea that someone mentioned yesterday about giving us daily updates on how the progress is going. There are still alot of people who cant get in at all, as well as the most of us who cant play proper games fromhaving to wait and wait for pages to load only to get that upgrade page.

Fencer what will it take to fix this? A faster machine, limited moves per day for non members, a new Hosting company??

I give up. 2 hours and I've managed to post 2 messages and play NO games.

Maybe short messages are better... I was saying new sites are bound to have problems and Fencer has been generous giving us another days membership for every day the site has problems...

Rose, I just wrote a long reply then got the site unavalable!! ARRGHH!!

Can I add a request that the backgammon and variants ratings be changed to something more suitable for the game ie: the fibs system. The current ratings system just doesnt work well for backs, the fibs info can be found here http://www.fibs.com/ratings.html

I know harl I have never had this much patience in my life!!! I guess any of us who can get in are lucky as a ton of ppl cant even access the site at all. I mean not even to the opening page.

Its very hard for me to bite my tongue here as I asked a ton of questions about site slowness before I bought my membership and was told it wouldnt happen! I went ahead an bought a top membership then this happens.. But I remain hopefull this is going to be rectified soon... arggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

Rigattoni.. you're lucky to get 10 goes before you get the upgrade or page unavailable page! I get 3 or 4 turns at the most before being booted! Very frustrating!

Hi Fencer its day 7 of the site being laggy and next to impossible to get in to certain times of the time not to mention that there are still people who cant get in to the site. Can we get an update from you on just how the progress is going? I know half the people I play are very frusterated at how long it takes to access the site or send a move only to play a turn an have it not register then have to play it again when the site is back up.. yesterday the site was down ( for lack of a better word) 15 times while trying to play. I would play 10 or 15 turns then get that white upgrade page.
I am asking every one if they get it. and no matter what part of the world you are from they are getting it whether its North American or Europe.

shaggath: I've never read the rules on chessvariants.com. Just take it as a different chess variation.

That's one of the beauties of this game! I remember an early game where I promoted to a queen, only to see it taken by a rook!! More careful nowadays.

u should check the rules at www.chessvariants.com/other.dir/crazyhouse.html or http://www.uschesslive.org/help4/cl_crazyhouse.htm

shaggath: I don't think so. When a player captures an opponent's piece, it is his extra piece and doesn't matter if the piece was promoted or not.

i think there is a problem with Loop Chess rules. When a pawn promote and be taken later, the opponent have the piece avaible to drop and he should have only the pawn.

actually... its a 9x9 board :-)

Fencer: Nice site. But how about a "pro" version of 5-in-a-line which has a limitation to white`s second move. Check out IYT`s "Pro gomoku" to see what I mean. 15x15 board size would be perfect.
I know many top players who rather play the pro version than regular.

Thanks! :-)

Just in case you can't find them anywhere, try
http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/Fischer_Random_Chess.html

rabbitoid: Where can I find the rules?

Fischer random chess, which is not to be found on IYT nor GT

The variants are good. Some new graphic options would be better. :)

A great big (((((( Bear Hug )))))) for fencer !
can now play my fav game. Thx

I will fix them.

To turn the points off in backgammon race? If the points are going to be incorrect why bother having them?? :-)
Thanx..

Fencer: Wow that is phenominal that you can get so much done and not work around the clock. You do know what you are doing!!!

Stingeroni: BYTE ME!!!! ;-)

Thanks Rose :-) But I relax every day. I am connected to BrainKing only 2-3 hours daily and I work on BrainKing new features no more than 6 hours a day. It is like a normal full-time job.

SHUT UP ROSE!

I want to know when you will take a break and take a few days off! You are so generous to everyone and every day I see people throwing ideas your way... How about you take a few days off and relax for a change!!!

Please fencer ! how much longer in suspense before getting my fav game of Halma .
regards . John

That's perfect. :)
And I don't believe it's a rule, just a convenience. :)

Ah-ha! Now I understand. I didn't know about this rule :-) Okay, I can do it. But if you cannot make a valid move with the first die, the dice are automatically swapped.

i agree, that would be much better.

Sorry, a misunderstanding here. I mean that on each turn, the high dice is automatically the default move. So if you roll and 3 and a 5. The dice show the 5 first, and that is your default move. Many of us are used to the other backgammon sites where this is how it is played, so when we click on a piece to move, it just moves the highest dice number first. (Does this make sense?)

I think that this is already implemented, isn't it? Or am I missing something? The first dice roll shows which player starts a game.

I know your feature request list must be getting huge, but I'm sure looking forward to the day that when I play the Backgammon games (and variants) the high dice defaults to the first move. :)

Absolutely correct, Kevin. Forget my request, fencer; silly of me.

tonyh: Then what if the player decides they don't like that move after they have already seen the location of some of their opponent's pieces that they weren't supposed to see, and then decide to undo the move and do another one, so they eventually just about know their opponent's whole setup without making a move? :-)

Fencer - would it be possible to add a little drop down list for us gaming nutters who create more than a one of the same game at one time for the Waiting room. Maybe in the parameters section & default it to 1 game up to 10 for example :-)))
Just save all the backwards & forwards bit etc....