I agree with WOLF. This site runs just fine at least 95% of the time. I dont play chess but the tournament prize of 250 bucks is a lot of money for a new game site. Heck it is a lot cash for any game site. Where else can you play a tournament for some cash and prizes with no entry fee. Something like that could get the word out and encourage more people to the site and get more memberships. Afterall you have to have enough empty slots to get into the tournament.

April 1st deadline??? Wow you have almost a year to register. LOL

Well said TTjazzberry. However everyone has made good points and I have said in my situation where I have lost my job, my home, and have no money to support myself, a membership of $2 a month is out of the question. Even if I started working today fulltime and started to pay off my debts and contributing in the home I am staying in, I still couldnt justify it as I cant even live on my own at the moment. The internet is my lone source of entertainment, interaction, news, and job search at the moment. Keep in mind though,this whole things is a what-if thing as Fencer has not said that he would change the brain pawn policies. However I am sure he has given it thought. If he has then I think we have given plenty of opinions to help make his decision. I think though this has started to get a little nasty and think we should move on before someone gets out of hand over this what-if situation.

This has been outstanding exchange on a subject that hasn't really come up. However it is something to consider as this site grows. I really dont ask for anything from Fencer. I am satisified for way this site is. I am not asking for any more features or upgrades. I would like to see some new games like Battleship or Stratego, but I can play those at IYT if I so desire and I do keep at least one of each on going when there is inactivity here. This is a great site and lets keep it alive and strong.

I mistyped earlier. I meant brain knights should be limited to 50 games not brain pawns. My mistake. Then I went checked it out and brainknights already can play 50 games. I apologize for the screwup. LOL

Right now BBW it is a what-if thing. However being realistic with all the work that is being put into making the site better limits will be soon I am sure. I think however everyone here should have a say in the potential limits and then some kind of compromise can be reached. Right now it appears that game limits as opposed to move limits seem to be better.

I think that all accounts that have been inactive for over 3 months should be deleted to make some more room.

BIG BAD WOLF: My question is how many of the over 5000 accounts have been active in the last week. If you look at the player list there are hundreds of players who do not play here anymore.

What do you think would be a good game limit TTJazzberry? Right now Brain pawns get to play up to 20 games at a time. I could see 15 games. This would reduce some of the strain on the server. Maybe limit brain rooks 100 games and brain pawns to 50 games just to relieve the stress on the server. I know there would be complaints by these paying members. However the new restrictions wouldnt take effect until the current
paying cycle is done. Also give brain pawns 2 weeks to get down to meet the lower game playing limit or forfeit the most recent games to reach the limit. Does that sound fair?

I usually try avoiding anyone brain rook on up when looking for a short game to play as they usually have so many games going on already. However I think they need a server that can handle ever increasing volume of growth on this site. However I know this takes money to accomplish and some down time to get the job done. I as a non-paying member dont mind some limitations as long as it is reasonable and fair. The notion that Dream made about only 20 a day will only drive players away. That is the way I view it. Just make it fair and fun for everyone regardless of their level of membership.

Dream, if you limit non-paying members to 20 moves a day you end up hurting the paying members as games will last weeks if not months. Also if alienate the non-paying members then they will not pay for a membership or they will just not play. Non-paying members bring new people to the site who can and might pay to be a member. I would venture to say at least half of the players are brain pawns. I would agree to a move limit that reasonable or reduce the number of games you can play at once. Non-members help build the site as well as the paying members. IYT reduced their site moves to 25 a day and people are leaving that site in large numbers and coming here. If they get that way here, you will see that happen here and there are other sites similar to this one. You will then have a lot fewer style of players to choose from to play.

I chose the 100 move limit based on 5 moves per day on 20 games. I normally average about 15 games at a time. SO based on that I would get 6 moves per day on each game but would probabl carry 7 to 10 games at a time if the 100 move limit were implemented so I could make 10 to 15 moves per day on each game which I feel is a good day's work on any game. I feel 60 moves would be a bit low as only averaging 3 moves a day on a game would be a bit slow. Just an opinion. However there are no move limits so the right now the point is moot.

I would add that I feel Fencer and the people who assist him do an awesome job in making this a great place to play games. I also commend him on listening to what everyone has to say and trying hard to please everyone, though that is an impossible task as some people will never be happy regardless of what you do. I also am glad to see that the shutdowns on the site have been less over the past week. There have been a few short outages but nothing significant. Great Job Fencer and friends.

I have been reading this string about Members and non-members. I agree that members should have benefits that non-paying members dont have. However I think members should have their own board. Members are the only ones who can belong to fellowships and play in multiple tournaments. Also members can play more games at a time than the non-paying members. So if you are really an addict to playing the games and you have time to play a lot then you should pay for a membership.

For me personally, right now with the downturn in the economic market of the USA, I am unemployed. I lost my apartment and was forced to move back home as i am also in debt. I can barely afford to buy groceries for myself right now. I cannot afford to throw away 2 bucks a month on a game site. I have the time right now to play but when I start working fulltime again, my time will be limited and a membership will be a waste for me as I will not be able to take the time to make it worthwhile. If Fencer wants to put more restrictions on non-paying members, that is fine. He is in this for fun and to make a profit. That is good business. However I would encourage him to make the site friendly to those who cant pay. ItsYourTurn.com has made it less friendly as they have cut daily moves to 25 a day. this means I no longe play in their tournaments and dont play more than a couple of games at a time there. I dont know how many people could finish a game in just 25 moves. So if Fencer decides to put limits on moves at some point, let me make a suggestion. I know this makes some paying members crazy, but I think a fair limit would be 100 moves in a day. I am one of those non-paying members that can deal with some limitations.

Personally I like the auto fresh. I do not have to sit there and manually do it constantly. I can walk away for a minute or two and do something and come back and see if anyone has moved. I think however the problem was said though. There are people who are logged on and using the site and not even at home or at the computer. For common courtesy people who are not going to be playing should log out of the site. I know I have taken games from the waiting room when I looked and saw the player was on the site. However they must not have been playing because no response from that player for over an hour. So staying logged in even when you are not playing on the site is discourteous and deceiving.

I was wondering what happened with Brainking today. For a good 3 hours there was no getting into the site. I am on MSNTV and everytime I tried getting in I got the message that Brainking could not access the requested page. Any reasoning for this Fencer?

I notice this too. It sometimes lasts just a few minutes though. Today between 6 and 7pm Central USA time for me the problem occurred. However i had to make dinner for myself so this might have been a good thing. LOL. However it is frustrating especially in mid-move on a game.

There are periods where it seems like the site gets slow or jammed up. I just check some e-mail or go to another site for a few minutes and usually things are better after that. I also delete cookies and clean up storage folders which seems to help a bit. I also have the main page saved to my favorites folder and it seems to work better by clicking on that. Just some suggestions that may help most of the time.

Hey Scooby,

That happens to me too on occassion. Sometimes the board will be fine then when I click on a piece the board does go nutty. I am on MSNTV so it might be that. However I just go back to the main page and click on the game again and it works fine.

I would like to thank Fencer for adding the new feature to allow us to know when the site will be down. It is a nice alternative to what I suggested. I saved it in my files for reference.

That is why they allowed it then. My roommate does not play at IYT anymore but plays here. I only play at IYT for battleboats and sabotage. When they get those games going here I wont play at IYT anymore. They raised prices and reduced the non paying members moves to 25 a day. There are not too many games you can get done with only 25 moves and if you want multiple games they will take way too long with that restriction.

YEs that is what we were told Gubbe. Let me ask you this and this could make a difference. Are either your wife or you a paid member of IYT? If one is then they will allow it. If not they look at it as you trying to play more games and get more moves by creating another account.

My roommate and I have two internet connections. She has a PC and I have a webtv in my bedroom. When her computer was in the shop she used my webtv and would play her IYT games on my webtv as well. So we both were using the same internet system to play at IYT. They sent her an e-mail that two accounts cant come from the same place and one of us would have to pay an upgrade on the site for both of us to use the same internet box. IYT would not allow for both accounts to play from the same place.

Excuse me it is performance enhancers. It is called Centrum Performance vitamins. Well I use a generic brand as I am a cheapskate. LOL

LOL Gubbe. If playing white all the time was not enough of advantage, they need a phony account to secure their rating. LOL.

Keep in mind I know not all top players are this way about white so lets not get into that here please. i have played some top players and know they will go either way on the color.

Hmmm...that is interesting. I thought you could only have one account at BrainKing.com

If you can have more than one account it would defeat the purpose of getting individuals to upgrade as they could create multiple accounts to play more games. I wonder what Fencer has to say about that.

There have been times recently that the site has been down to do some maintenance on the server. I think this is a good site to play games and have fun. However can I suggest a little warning when the site will be down for upgrades and such? This could be in the form of a mass e-mail to all members or post it on the main page like a day in advance so we know the site will be down and for roughly how long. Thanks.