It's in the settings.

Good luck Fencer! I hope you win.

Thanks for clarifying. :)

Buckwheat, I have no idea, nor do I care what your W/L record is. You make a good point that the $250 should go back into the site, but you also mention that it's not a huge amount of money (to some people, or, say, compared to buying a new server). Besides, the chess tournament is just a fun thing to do, so why criticize it?

Too bad you have trouble accessing the site sometimes. Why not try a little constructive action, like sending money (of which you obviously have a great abundance).

no problem, harley. I find it quite amusing, and even moreso with your explanation! I'll have to make sure I read DK's messages more thoroughly before I go willynilly and agree with him ever again!

harley, you crazy moderator you...I think you deleted my response to Dmitri too! I remember saying something about how I agreed with Dmitri AND with TTJazz, (yes, I know, it's shocking) and wondering if this rare occurrence might have something to do with the fact that we're approaching our second new moon of the month (is that the opposite of a blue moon?). I'm an addict too, so I understand Dmitri completely... this time, anyway. LOL

Once again, I agree with DK and with TTJazz! (Must have something to do with the second occurrence of a new moon this month...is that the opposite of a blue moon?)
This is gonna be a good week, I can tell already. Happy gaming, everybody, from a fellow addict!

The site runs fine from here (San Diego).

Thanks.

No matter what time zone he's in, I still don't believe he sleeps.

Thanks. Now let me get this straight... Are you saying that Fencer actually sleeps?

The PayPal option from the USA is pretty easy. There are a few screens/names that could use a bit more explanation (like SWREG, and Atlantic Coast PLC), but the immediate email from Fencer was reassuring once the transaction was complete. All it took was a little persistence and trust.

(I can't help much on setting up the PayPal account, as I did that a few years ago and don't really remember much about it.)

Now let's see how long it takes for the pawn next to my name changes to the new piece. tap...tap... tap...

I think everyone is trying to make positive suggestions here. Remember, more than half the world can't even afford the Internet, never mind these silly games.

Let's just keep throwing out positive suggestions to increase the number of members, and not worry about who's agreeing with whom.

Sure, it's a choice to be here. It's a decision that will be made by individuals who feel good about playing here and using the discussion boards.

We all agree, it would behoove the site to get more paying members. I'll likely become one myself, eventually. Since I've only been here two weeks, I'm not quite ready to pay up. To me, it's sort of like a magazine subscription. Not too hard on the wallet, but will I read it all year long? Will I have time for it? Those questions are still open.

If you look at the Player List sorted by join date, it's what you might expect, the longer a person is here, the more likely s/he is going to upgrade to non-pawn status. This is still quite a young site. With 200 members, starting last October, that's about 30 members per month, right? Of the people who joined during the first 3 months (last year), there is a higher percentage of members than the site average.

I would also expect that Fencer could do (or has done) a few database queries to see what the average number of moves a person of each level makes on this site. I would expect that most pawns make lots of moves when they get here, but only a few of them stick around and keep making lots of moves per day. My guess would be that 70-90% of the pawns just try the site for a while and then abandon it for the most part.

Of course, these are just guesses.

I like the current free evaluation system, and 20 games seems like a good limit. One thing that Fencer, et al., could possibly do is to target the pawns who are making lots of moves with a little stronger marketing campaign. It could be something as subtle as placing the "Support Us" link on a more prominent place on the page. If the site used advertisements, it could be "ad-free" for pawns up to a certain bandwidth, with more and more obnoxious ads filling the page as the bandwidth got higher. Of course, paying members would be ad-free no matter what.

Just a few ideas from a rather newbie to the site (who is getting quite hooked on it quickly).

You can tell exactly how many pawns are on this site, and thus the percentage of them, by going to the "Player List," then sorting by "Level." At this very moment, the pawns start near the bottom of the 4th page, meaning there are about 200 non-pawns out of the 5000 or so on this site (that's about 95-96% pawns).

I learned quickly that if I set long time-limits for my games, the number of moves I even get a chance to make each day goes way down. Even with 3-7 day limits, I really can't move very much in any day unless I happen to be online with someone with whom I'm playing.

I am seriously considering joining the site and will recommend that the 3-4 family members with whom I play try BrainKing as well. I'm a member at GoldToken, but not at IYT. My brother is a member over there.

I would encourage anyone who loves playing games on these sites to send a payment, not for the features or for the number of moves, but for the guys who run the sites. I know Chad over at GT is in the same boat as Fencer over here. He has a full-time job and a family. Somehow he manages to spend what seems to be 30 hours per day developing the site and keeping everybody happy. If nothing else, think of it as a donation to chip in for a new server. This site is so good that it will continue to grow indefinitely.

I'm amazed that BK has no advertising and I'm very impressed with the detailed features available here. Supporting something like this site is akin to supporting public radio. People will pay from the heart. The trade-off of limiting nonmembers is that you'll lose a few more potential "site-lovers" right off the bat.

Best of luck to you, Fencer! Thanks for creating a great place to play.

eddie: With 371 games going, you're probably one of the noodliest. :)

And I thought I was hooked on games.

This site is so well organized and detailed. Hats off to Fencer!

I thought we had all those options already, but with more buttons. I liked being able to go to the main page or to the next game without much fuss. It's no big deal. So far, after a week or so, I'm greatly impressed by this site.

It was nicer without the drop box. Now it takes two clicks to move instead of one (unless you always want to do the default).