I believe it will show you the last action I did. (or went through the system)

So for example, sometimes I may want to look at someone's profile but do not want them to know I'm looking, so I will open that person's profile, and very quickly make a move in another window - that way if they look, my last action was making a move, even though I'm back at the original window looking at their profile. :-)

It will always show yourself as viewing on-line players (since that is the last/current activity you are doing when you envoke that command) :-)

You can go to the "Players List", and sort by last action - so you can see who has done what recently. (That is where I got the number of 2,300 in the last month, and 1,700 in the past few days)

There are a total of 414 people that has above a "pawn" membership (Can be seen on the "Paid Membership" page) I know some paid members do not play here no more, and I don't have the time to go through the 2,300 to count all who activly play, so that is why I estimated 360-390 paid members are still active here - but again, that part is just an estimate.)

Just as a side note, I did some calculating on Febuary 17th, and here are a few numbers I came up with.

During the past month, only 2,300 users were active (Total Rook + Knight + Pawns)

During the past few days, only 1,700 total were active (Rooks + Knights + pawns)

(now my guessing part) - Out of those numbers, I would guess around 360-390 are paid members, with the rest pawns.

If someone does not like the site, why would they be here?

I believe you could still judge their suitability as opponents by looking at their win/lose stat. If they lost 200 chess games, and won 5 - well you could easly tell that they are probable not too good at Chess.

"People dont play to get a rating" - well some do, or they would not cheat to try to get their ratings higher. The way they cheat is by using free pawn accounts, and this would just take that away.

And if they are playing just for fun, then they don't need their ratings anyway! :-)

I like ratings - I try my best to keep my ratings good while at the same time have fun!

OR, how about all pawn non-tournament games be unrated (not counting towards rating for either player)

For tournaments, let the games against Pawns count towards ratings, but just don't "show" the pawns rating in any list. Let it add up in the background, and if someday that pawn become a paid member, then those tournament games that were already played could then be included in the ratings list.

A pawn would still be able to play their games here, but without paying, they will not know how they stack up!.

(Downside is when joinging tournament for a range of rated players - for example, under 1500 tournament)

Good side - A person could not create a pawn account and just play private games with them to help their ratings.

If I remember correctly, I was thinking Fencer liked the idea of possible having different "ratings" or ladders and such.

Then again, maybe I'm just wishfully thinking!

I'm not sure if this has a negative effect on the server, but how about turning off e-mail notification for pawns?

Hum... an animated rook holding a beer can - and taking a drink from it..... that's an idea! :-)

OH, and for $100 - you can have a multi-color cool looking tie-dye type of rook!

Well an idea that I like (even though I don't think with my money situation I would do it right now) - but for the user who do give lets say $10 more then their membership gets a "Blue Rook" instead of the normal "white rook". And then maybe make $25 extra a "Red rook".... $40 a "silver rook", and then $75 a "gold rook"

They would have no more privledge then a normal rook, but it will give a user something extra - a status symbol - to show that they have invested to help this site grow.

(note: The $$ amounts and colors would need to be fine tuned, but that is the general idea)

Money for membership extention.

What needs done now is a new server. Without a new server, the quality of this site suffers which then turn into less new users comming to this site, and more long-term users leaving.

But once a new server is in place, that would hopefully turn into a more reliable site, which would turn into more time into improvements & game development, which will turn into more users using the site and hopefully buying new memberships. Yea, the $$ might be a little lower next year because of users who have already paid for their extention - but think of it this way. It's the same money for the extention now or later. Now (with a small discount), the money can be used for a new server. Then, well the quality of the site might still be down and the user who was going to extend might just go elsewhere.

Well let me throw out this idea.

A limited time Special of $20 for a year Rook membership or extension of of rook membership for a year.

I know for myself, I was unemployed for a year 1/2, and now working at a non-profit children center, so I'm now very "tight" with my money, so for myself I can not give money away without getting something in return - and if I could get a discount at extending my membership for another year, I would look at that very hard, and I'm sure others would also - especially if the money will be used towards a new server.

I just want to make sure you are away of the problems (and details) in case they help with anything.

...Not complaining, just letting you know! :-)

Well now I can see those tournaments again... glad I'll be away from BK for most of today, hopefully the site is feeling beter tomorrow! :-)

I was just going in to look at my tournaments, and I'm getting only 1/2 page on all tournaments that I look at.

When I go look at a tournament (Like This One) - The last line I see is the "Last term to sign up: 15 February 2004, 19:00:00

Does anyone else see this error, or is it just me?

(All tournaments - tried to reload a few times)

I've seen some weird things for that past week (on different computers) Like today, I have seen the background image of the "Brain" show up every once and awhile. (even though on my settings, it is off) - and seeing the same thing plus more last week (which I posted about already).

Wow, getting ready to play some games, then it looked like all my settings were wiped out - it now has a gray background, with the Rook icon on it - with a 1 minute refresh - showing a tournament... (none I had just about 3 minutes ago)

I'm not complaining yet, but thought I would post somewhere about it. :-)

LJ - Yep, I'm playing - I read the boards while I wait for my slow connection to submit the move and display the board back to me. :-)

Actually I think the first step would to ask the user to leave the fellowship. As long as there is a reason, I would think some users would leave on their own. If they refuse to leave, then that would be the time to ask Fencer.

(to add to MM's post) - Just have the person who deleted the invite to go to the main fellowship page.

Since they never accepted or declined the invite (just deleted the message) - they just have to go there and accept.

Well I think it is always good to look at ways to improve the site. If you don't try new things, this site will start to get "stale" and boring.... which is what had happen for me at IYT - which I don't think had a new thing there for a year or more!

... and some of the things that are removed right now as I understand it is just temporary - until the server problem is fixed or updated.

emergency vacations - if you mean like LittleGolem.net has, where if you run out of time, 1 day is added (which I think GoldToken also now does) - I believe Fencer has something like that on his list.

Which basicly lets say something happens (bad weather knocks out power for 5 days) - and you are unable to log on to any comptuer, as long as you have vacation days left, it will automaticly use 1 of them instead of timing out games.

At any time, you could have went into your setting and turned them off. I personally like having them on so I can look at how I'm doing in certain games - but also agree to leave them off until the server is doing beter.

I would be for disabling where you see what the other person is doing (while playing a game with them). I know it is handy for some, but for me I could care less that the other person I'm playing is currently looking at XXXX

You know if you just removed all the games, these discussion boards would run a lot faster! :-)

... I don't follow exchange rates, but is it possible for the US $ to start doing better, and then by the time it is ready to renew, it would actually be cheaper for us, or will it probable always be more expence for us in the US?

I knew that BrainKing would be unavailable yesterday.... since I had a lot of free time, and access to a very fast internet connection which would have given me a chance to play many games, I knew that the game gods would be against me!

Anyway, true question below. Someone asked me in private message, and I'm not sure of the answer. Please post here and I'll make sure the person gets the answer!
= = = = = = =
I'm new at BK and wanna ask you about the resign-rule in backgammon on this site.

If I resign a game in 3-win match - is the resign for the match or the game?

I know it from itsyourturn that the resign is a resign for the complete match.

Fencer - Don't mean to "bug" you about it, but about how close is the new version of BrainKing?

The only thing I worry about not letting pawn post is if they do have a problem, they will have no place to go and ask (other then private message - which they may not know to use).

I could think of a couple of examples of how pawns can get into multiply tournaments.

1) They were a knight/rook whos membership has expired, but are still playing in other games.

2) During the "new year bug" when games were timed out, a pawn may have had their games gone, signed up for another tournament, and then got their old games back.

3) A known game bug which I have reported to Fencer at one time of how a pawn could enter multiply tournaments, which when I last checked was not "fixed" yet.

In the "My Profile"

Click "Edit" which is at the top next to your name

You will there find the password change area.

FINAL TEST! Did you/we/it pass? :-)

Now I'm going to have to log on more often so I can be one of the first to find out. :-)

The BrianKing.com board is the only board that still allows pawn's to post.

Hopefully it would be used for pawns who TRUELY have a question or problem with BrainKing, and not abused by other pawns who might hurt it for all the others.

Well you have been doing something right Fencer - that is the first time I have seen the "Server down" message for a long while!

Keep up the good work!

kind of like what is going on at GoldToken.com with their ladder system. As long as you are on the ladder, you will have a game going. If you win, you move up. If you lose, you move down. And then you are again matched up with someone else in the same "rung" and play again until you move up or down. (Played games counting towards the BKR)

Then if you don't want to play (or can't), all you would do is lose a rung - and would not affect the BKR. That would be good.

Now if the "ladder" system was a seperate things from the rating system, then I would like to see that. If you join the ladder, and then do not accept a challenge, then you just go down a rung of the ladder, and the challenger goes up.

sorry that you think those are "lame" excusses

But to clerify myself in case you can't read, I was not whining - I was giving some example of why I personally do not think the idea would work. I love to see new and different ideas - and I would be happy to talk about any other idea (or more about this one).

So Chuc, you are saying if you are at 50 games, and if are unable to accept more games - you would be OK with losing rating points. That is fine, that is your choice. But please don't accuse me of whining for trying to point out some example of why I do not think it would work too well.

(it's called a discussion - to just say "i don't like it" without explaining why would not help anyone.) Do you understand now?

I don't like the idea of a "challenge" system since I really only play tournament games.

Plus then you get into the problem of a pawn with 20 games who can not accept the challenge because they are at their game limit, and then you come to the part where some people just don't like others - and would not want to be challenged by then (let alone play them)

OR another suggestion - "flag" ID's that do not finish a game (in 30 or 60 days), and in the rating list - have 3 different settings.

Provisional - established - active (with active just being the people who had finished a game within the last 30 or 60 days)

That way if a player takes a vaacation, or takes a break from the games, he will not lose nothing plus his "true" ratng can still be seen.

Well I personally don't think there is anything that can be done to help against people who use programs - (unless they admit to it - then their rating should be removed or something)

For people that "sit" on their standings when they get so high - well 30 days to complete a game seems like a short time since all it takes is the other player to purposly play slow. But maybe after lets say 90 days... that would make more since. (Or possible rating lower on "paper", but when a game is finished, the old "correct" rating is once again put in place.)

I think that 30 days would be a very short amount of time.

... but I'm not sure what this discussion is really about. Are we worried about players on the rating list who have not played for awhile, or ???? (i'm sort of lost)

This site has been slow for me also - but actually other sites that I'm on right now are also slow, so I figure it is not a BrainKing issue - but some other issue in the "internet"

Yea, I've had trouble also on a few different sites that I go to.

I would not be surprised to hear in the next day or so about either some major internet "attack/hack", or some major problems at one of the main internet routing points.

Yea - Something did happen

Earlier today, the game with the least amount of time left that I had was around 3 days, XX hours

About 4-5 hours later, I look now and the game with the least amount has 1 day, 1 hour.

It'a a Y2K4 bug that lost about 2 days!

Y2K4

I have 8 games where other people timed out against me.

For my sister's account (SueQ), she timed out on 4 games where I did not think she was that close to timing out.

It looks like the games timed out when the system (Fencer's time) possible had their new year.

I have not heard from him for awhile. I know that he was taking a break from playing games, and resigned many games. Not too long ago (a few weeks I think), I ended up starting a round 2 with him, and he went ahead and resigned those games - so at that time he was still checking in....

A suggestion I made a long time ago (and I know some do not like it), but to list in a persons profile the IP address of where they logged on from last. I believe people did not like it since it would give up privacy or something, but heck - if a "hacker" wanted to try to hurt someone, he would have a much better way to get that sort of information then to sign up on a game site to see it. (Maybe make it so only Krights/Rooks can see the IP address)

How will this help: Well I know there are ways around it, but it will help stop some of the cheaters. Other players will also be able to "investigate" other users to try to help find cheaters. Fencer already does a lot, and to try add dealing with cheaters and investigating things himself - this would let others do some work for him!

Are there any plans to remove fellowships where the BigBosses are no longer active - or at least possible put those fellowships up for "auction" or other members to possible take over and run?

The 2 that come to mind for me quickly are The Dream Team and Gammon Geeks, but there may be more, and I'm sure there will be more sooner or later.