Fencer: Well you asked:

1. Backgammon

2. Ludo

3. Hyper Gammon

4. Chess

5. Backgammon Race

6. Nackgammon

7. Crowded Backgammon

8. Battleboats Plus

9. Dark Battleboats

10. Cloning Backgammon

11. Connect 6

12. Checkers

13. Scrambled Eggs

14. Spider Line4

15. Hyper Gammon 5 Cube

16. Backgammon 5 Cube

17. Hyper Gammon 21 Cube! (yes, 21 cube - but hyper, so won't be too long)

18. Dark Chess

19. Sphere Froglet

20. Sphere Battleboats Plus (Hey - make a new game!!!)

21. Another new game - will let you choose this one.

I still have 50 minutes to go.

http://coan.net/bk-smile/29/random_1221_17.jpg

MadMonkey: I think multi-player (3+) games would be a great addition to this site. At GT, out of my 150 games there - now over 1/2 are multiplayer games - they make some games much better.

I'm not sure how much work it would be - but now that Fencer is looking at autopass, maybe he can start looking at multi-player games also.

Even though the one suggestion I would make is PLEASE make separate ratings for 2 player & 3+ player games. With multi-player games, the chances of losing raises and brings down most all ratings. Plus for many games, it changes the way you play enough that it is basically different games you are playing.

Mousetrap: Well great! If you get run over by a bus, then you don't need the money anyway - spend it at BrainKing for all your on-line friends to enjoy!

Mousetrap: Well if he were to ever sell, i would think the current memberships would be part of the sell. So currently a black rook is worth 5 years of rook membership - so if you think you will still be playing of the site in 5 years, then it is a good deal.

MadMonkey: The only problem with that is lets say i'm going to take a 5 day vacation - ponds are about the only non-vacation games I will play. Plus I always try to join 4 day+ ponds. Which if I move on day one of a pond, then the last day of the next move - it is really 8 days (giving me enough time for vacations). If the ponds started to automatically go when all moves done, then some sort of vacation would then need to be applied to the ponds also. (in my opinion)

Jason: I think there is still 1, maybe 2 that the payment is "pending" which Fencer is counting, so I think we made it to 70 for the 10 games in January (plus I think he is counting the black-rook prize tournament going, so that should be around 71-72 as of right now) - of course that does not mean auto-pass - maybe if we can get that number to 75 in the next day - THAT should really get the autopass feature in Fencer's mind...

Czuch Czuckers: The other person may have you on their blocked users list.

alanback: You can continue all started games, but will not be able to start any new games.

The exception is 2nd rounds+ in tournaments - those will start like normal.

xmas is soon: Which tournament is it? Make sure to look at the main page of the tournament for the edit link, and not in the game signup page where I don't think the edit button is.

xmas is soon: Changing the start date - it should let you I think. It will give you a message about waiting for administrative approval or something like that, but start time usually changes right away.

xmas is soon: You can only edit description and name - can not edit importnat things which may mess up game play for players who are signed up. (like time limit).

What are you trying to edit?

"Snoopy": "i know i should already know this answer but if you start retirement on a stairs do you go back on to the same stair when your retirement finishes?"

Yes, when you un-retire, you start on the stair where you left off.

Of course if you still had games when you went into retirement, those results will still move you up & down - just will not be visible.

Mr. Shumway: Oh, did not catch the difference.

For "started games" - or amount that has been played, you can see the total of the game rules page for each game.

Czuch Czuckers: Um... we already have the "started games" stat - that is why I was suggesting a "completed game" stat.

Maybe a "moved in game of this type" stat for the day/week/month or something similar would be another idea.

joshi tm: Speaking of those stats in general, I wonder if Fencer could make a table for completed games each month - which might be a better was to see what games are more popular.

For example - Hyper Backgammon is a game which usually takes a lot less moves then Backgammon - so I would guess that Hyper Backgammon would be closer to Ludo & Backgammon, but can't get there with ongoing games since they end too quickly.

Completed games in the last 30 days of a game type. Or maybe there is a better was to show the popularity of a game type in addition to the ongoing games (that I can't think of right now.)

naughtypawn: I think if you renew, you get your vacations reset right away. (not 100% about that.)

But everyone's vacation days are reset on Jan 1st.

Rose: I believe it is still is "testing" mode, so I think a few tournament/stairs/game invites were set up then removed.

This is just a guess since I can't invite, add tournament games, etc... (Just join the few who did made some before)

heavenlyemma: Are you talking about the ones on your favourites boards list? If so, I seem to remember once when something like that happened when I had a board in favourites which was deleted (Fellowship removed). Could something like that be what is causing your problems?

Buz: Because your rating was higher then your opponent, then you *should* have won - so by your opponent getting a draw overall, he actually beat the odds and was able to gain a few points.

The ratings take into consideration current ratings of you & your opponent, plus how many games you and your opponent has played. The more games complete, the less of a rating change there will be. But yes, it is normal to have draws change your rating.

EatTurkeynotHam: Like already said, it is something to do with your browser. If you already cleared your cache, then try to restart the browser or PC. You can also force a full reload by holding down SHIFT key and hitting the reload button. (on some browsers)

bouncybouncy: Is the card expired?

gambler104: There is a link at the very bottom - but I would agree that a link under the "Logout" where an ad used to be would be a good place for a link to Brainrook.com

Foxy Lady: Actually they can now see the smilies - but if they try to post a smiley or the number, it will not work for them. (Fencer changed how it worked awhile back)

MadMonkey: OK, hold on - let me clarify what I'm thinking.\

BrainKing.com board - this would be for pawns & everyone to ask questions about brainking, learn about brainking, and brainking issues.

General Chat - this is NOT for brainking related stuff, but rather a place just for what it says - general chat. It's not to teach pawns or anyone more about the site, but gives them a place to chat with others - which in turn keeps pawns on the site longer, hopefully allowing them to form friendship with others and in the end - hopefully being a positive thing for newer users.

Some people don't like general chat, and in that case do not have to go there. I don't go there much myself. But some do like to chat, say "Hi", "hows the weather", etc... for those people, having the board on their favourites list will possible give them a positive to the site.

MadMonkey: Well it sounds like pauloaguia does not read the GC board because of past problems.... and those types of members most likely already know about the discussion boards, and are not the ones I'm thinking about targeting. I'm more thinking of the ones who never visited a board before, or maybe once but does not go through the trouble of trying to find the boards - possible coming here, playing a few games, and leaving. Giving them quick access to the BK.com board allows them a place to ask questions about the site, and see other site related information & questions that users post. Having a link to GC board allows them a place to "chat" so they don't come on bk.com board and start a friendly conversation - which most likely will get them a warning to take it to GC, which in turn puts some people off as the boards not being friends, and in the end turning them away from the site.

Why can't the GC board be used with pawns to post also? What would the purpose be for a pawn only board? That is for the current example where some paid users want to find pawns interested in trying out the bishop membership, if the paid member can't post on the pawn only board - then the pawn only board would be pointless. And if you say that paid members can post on a pawn board, then it goes back to why can't everyone just use the general chat board?

pauloaguia: I'm not sure what you mean about it changing - basicly I would say both so if let say a new pawn wants to say "hi" and only sees the bk.com board on his list, they may be tempted to start a general conversation there. If they see both bk.com & general chat, hopefully there will be more of a chance to go to the chat board to have a nice chat.

Fencer: Someone mentioned this on General Chat, and I think it is a good idea - a way to get pawns more involved in the site.

By default, I think all pawns should have Brainking.com & General Chat board added to their favourites list. That way when the see the red (X new), they will start to read it - which in turn may get them more interested in the site - which in turn may help the site membership grow also.

First, all current pawns, I would put those 2 boards on their favorites list. Then make it so whenever someone new signs up on the site, those 2 boards are there by default.

Of course pawns can at any time take the boards back off their favourites list if they don't like it. You might get a little negative reaction from current pawns if you put those boards on their favourites automaticly, but I think the benifit would be worth it.

1) If I buy 12 months worth of a Bishop membership, and extend my membership an extra 12 months. Do I have to find 12 different pawns to give those to, or can I say "group" them together in 4 month group and make 3 different prize tournament for the prize of the 4 months of bishop memberships?

2) Can you still get brains for writing articles on brainrook.com? http://www.brainrook.com I have not had a lot of time to write much, but would still be interested - more interested if I can earn brains while doing so.

MadMonkey: Working from your idea, this is what I see:

Each fellowship has 1 team of 6 players in the stairs. Or beter yet, maybe 7 players, that way there will be less ties. But getting 7 might be hard for some fellowships. Maybe 5, but allow fellowship to enter 2 teams for those who have a lot. But now I'm getting into more work for Fencer.

Since it's backgammon, I would say just do a 1 game per 2 players.

Each team captain can challenge 1 team, and can also be challenged by another team. So no more then 2 team stair matchs can go on at the same time. (like current stairs)

The players on the team when the challenge started stays until that match is done.

I'm not sure what I like beter:
1) Limit a team to changing 1 player once a month (or)
2) A player has to stay with a team at least a month before they can be removed or leave. (which means every month, a fellowship could technicly change their team completly.

I kind of like #2 beter since sometimes you will get a few people who will all of a sudden not want any more games and may need to be replaced.

Of course the extra rule would be that if a person drops their membership to a pawn level, they can be removed and replaced right away without the limits above getting in the way. (*** When I say right away - they can complete current games, but no new challenges can be made or accepted until the pawn is replaced by a knight/rook fellowship member ***)

Other then that, most of the regular stairs rules would work. The time limit of 4-5 days I found work for the majority of players (a few find it too slow, a few find it too fast - but most find 4-5 days pretty good).

So this is my more complete thoughts about MadMonkey's team stairs.

CuteAngel1732: Check out http://brainking.com/en/Board?bc=36 - General Chat for a good place to have a nice conversation!

Fencer: Don't forget to let us know what the special prize was for Waterfall - the first to break the 10,000 moves a day mark - still interested in what that was.

Actually I love that it now tells you when it will be turned back on. I'm not sure why 3 extra lines for about 24 hours would be a problem.

nightmagic: Well the 2 or 3 that you find and upload to your profile, you would be able to use. They can be the same as others, but if I have 3 of my own loaded - lets say all different "wolf" pics, I can't use one of your personal smileys that you have saved.

gogul: That would be cool - maybe allow a user to have up to 5 at a time that they can "choose" from, so if someone wants - they can switch back and forth between the 5 all day long... since they would already be approved, it could happen right away. And of course the same approval if you add a new one to the list - after you remove one of the 5 to make room.

Of course it would only work for some people since some users browsers will cache the old image and will not see it switching all the time.

Another thing I would LOVE to see is if a user can have 2-3 personal "smilys" that they can choose to post in the post, and only they can use.

MadMonkey: I've been asking about that for awhile (animated gifs). I asked about it when image icons where first allowed, and even recently when I seen you can upload gif files.

(But if you notice, it automaticly converts them all to .jpg format.)

imsoaddicted: Could be - the system is setup now to automaticly know about "down" time and turn off the time control funtion. Of course myself I don't know of any downtime, but who knows what the site did while I was sleeping.

imsoaddicted: Yes - since a "random" game will be choosen from the list of "real" games, and you will win/loss/rating will be applied to the "real" game that you played.

gambler104: Yes, in thery if player 1 plays the second after the time out script plays, and the other player plays the second before it runs again - it could keep running forever - adding up to 9 minutes to the timed out time - but in reality, getting more then 10 minutes would be very hard - 20 minutes would be super hard, and super risky.

WellyWales: The people who make one hour games should label them as 2 hour games, or 1 hour time limit for each player (1+1 for each player = 2 hours for a game) - again, within 10 minutes or so usually.

Hrqls: The timeout script is ran every 10 minutes (not every hour). So a user *could* possible be down 9 minutes before the script runs.

pauloaguia: You have at least 8 games which did not make it past move #1 - games that don't make it to the 4th move are not counted towards the ratings (but are counted in your win/loss record) - so that is why you see a difference.

MadMonkey: Not a bug, but I think is a good feature. Sometimes a team just needs 1 or 2 more people, and for players who like to play - being able to sign up for that team to play, then possible go back to their original team is a nice feature.

I think there was once a bug where the same player was playing in the same team challenge/match (against themselves) - I'm not sure if that was ever fixed or what came of it.

But as long as that does not happen - it's nice to be able to move teams. (But I would support maybe some kind of limit - like you can't join anouther team for 30 days since you joined another or something)

furbster: Well I noticed that the person's membership runs out in 2009 - but I'm not sure if it was like that before, or if a special prize was a couple year membership or something.

Another question is if someone else breaks 10,000, will they get the prize also or was it only for the first?

Did Fencer ever say what the special prize was for the one who did break the 10,000 moves in 1 day was since it was done a couple of days ago?

I remember getting my 2,222 moves - I spent so long on-line, only taking about a 5 hour break to sleep. I was so happy to get 2,222, and it was near the top of the list! Now that does not even get me into the top 50!

My connection to this site is also having problems - will work good and fast for a minute or so, then page not found for about 30 seconds, then another minute or so of fast response again.

MadMonkey: Maybe Fencer is getting ready for a "scavenger" hunt - to see how many a person can find.

But I also think it would make an interesting "hidden" points - randomly put the little brainy icon on a few pages throughout the site, when clicked, hidden action points are rewarded - plus if it keeps moving, they can't just go tell their friends about where it is.

OK, am I going nuts - occasionally this morning, I have seen some small BK icons on top of some discussion boards - sometimes to the left of the board name, sometimes on top/middle of a discussion board. I go back to the page, and it is gone.

Fencer - are you playing around with something new again or did I not get enough sleep last night and my mind is messing with me?

tarcellius: Yes, the many options of tournaments can be both a good & bad thing. The bad, which you already pointed out is it is there are many many choices.

The good is that you can almost always find a tournament which will fit your needs. (And if you did not know, paying members of rooks & above are able to create any new tournaments.)

For a pawn with limits, you are limited to 1 tournament at a time - so you may want to look for tournaments with lower time limits, or tournaments that do not let players take vacation days (tournaments with red or green dots). If you get in a tournament where another player takes A LONG time making moves, you will be stuck in the tournament and unable to join another tournament.

Also there are different time limits like the Fisher clock games - where the important thing to know is the "BONUS" time - the bonus time will ALWAYS be at least the minimum time you have to make a move. So if a bonus is .1, it can cause your games to time out. But if you know you will sign in at least once a day, then a bonus of 1 (day) will always allow you time to make moves without timing out.

So for a new users, the best would be to go to the tournament page, search (filter) for the game you want to play - then find a tournament which will start some-what soon that has time limits which fit your need and give it a try.

There are also many discussion boards that cover all the games, and many different topics (like a touraments board) which will always get you answers to your questions.

playBunny: I knew I sat down once and figured out what all the differences in the win totals were - glad you remembered where I wrote it all down at.

Jason: The secret points changed location a few times last month - could it be possible you had an "old" location where it already changed when you tried?