Fencer, please may we have Autosave without getting agreement from both players?

SUBMIT AT TOP OF PAGE, or just underneath board!!!

I know I've suggested this before, but now that I've looked at the archived games with the new castle theme, and seeing how the game board can be pushed even further down the page, this suggestions will be needed more then ever!

I would like in settings, and option for "Quick Submit at top of page"

Then after a move is made, this is what I would like to see when the option to submit a move.

Top line (same as now): "Frog Finder (show rules | discuss - 13, 13 (3))"

Next line: "Move and go to....." submit box

At this point, go ahead and have everything like it is now. (Along with the message input box below the board, along with another submit box below that input box)

This way if you are going through a lot of games, the quick submit button will be near the top of the board - always in the same place - so you don't have to scroll down every screen just to then look & find the submit button. And if you want to leave a message, you can still scroll down below the board and type a message.

Anyway, if you are going to change the page design to push the board down even further down the page, a "quick submit" button above the board will be needed

Fencer: lol! dont run away .. dont let it scare you :)
hmm .. got a screendump ? ;)
(maybe put the buttons on the side ? or a small (extra) link instead of a button ?)

Hrqls: I've tried it but it looks terrible.

tonyh: I just noticed you asked for AutoSave. Well, how does AutoSave apply to starting a Staris game?

tonyh: I'm not sure Fencer has implemented it for Stairs.
I know that in tournaments, this setting is taken from your Settings page, under game filter. at the bottom of the page you can select which games will have AutoPass automatically enabled on your side. Of course, Autopass is only activated if both sides have this option set.

Not sure if this is how it works for Stairs, thoug,

Sorry We just remeber we already have Line 4 lol

pauloaguia: I have just started a cubed Cloning BG game (in Slow Stairs); where the heck is this Autosave feature (I've looked everywhere)

maybe we can have Connect 4?

maybe we can have Chinese Checkers?

Maybe Sometime in Feature maybe we can have more Memberships Free? , i know we have paid members that will Help for that but not everyone gets a Higher level

tonyh: It applies to a cubed game. Thing is - when you have the cube you can roll the dice or double. So you have two choices, and anyway, only after rolling the dice does the computer know if you must pass or not.
When your opponent has the cube you can only pass, so autopass will kick in, indeed.

[Maybe this will make people double the cube more often .]

Luke Skywalker: Why not Fischer clock games? Most play Fischer clock games to speed the game up, so why not let autopass help speed the game up also? (Of course there are a few who play Fisher in the hopes to win by timeout - but that brings up a totally different argument of why play if you don't want to win by playing.. but will save that rant for another time.)

tonyh: In a cubed game if I'm stuck, I still have two moves (pass and double). Even if one of them is very bad most of the time I wouldn't want the server to make that choice for me. Compare to chess, when there is only one move that saves from a checkmate, I'd still want to chose that myself.

I also think it should not depend on agreement, except in fischer clock games.

pauloaguia: I was not aware of Autopass - but are you saying that it doesn't apply to a cubed game? If I am stuck in baulk, there's no way I want to double my opponent anyway!!
I like your suggestion that it should not depend upon agreement!! Very sensible.

AbigailII: True. Which is why I'm one of those that stands by that it shouldn't depend on an aggreement. If I want to autopass, then my opponent probably won't mind if I do, even if (s)he doesn't want to activate it on his/her side. In the end the game will play faster anyway and I won't have to open all those pages where all I have to do is click a submit button.

(the only exception I can figure out is for fischer clock games, where autopass might become an advantge)

pauloaguia: I wonder, are there any stats of how many people have autopass turned on vs how people who haven't?

Given that the default is autopass off, I'm afraid only a handful of people have turned it on.

grenv: Firefox works well on Linux, yeah, but not on every Linux. I've tried installing Firefox on the box I'm using as a workstation, but Firefox hasn't been written with backwards compatability in mind, and it doesn't run if it can't find the versions of the libraries it wants.

And no, my box runs too many things to risk updating the libraries for a mere browser.

And beside that, I use certain little things often enough on my Mozilla that don't work, or don't work the same way as in Firefox. Little things, but often enough to not even want to use Firefox.

tonyh: If you and your opponent have aggreed on using autopass when the game started it should work like that...
If you're talking about a game with the cube, then one of the players has the option to pass or double the cube, so autopass won't kick in in that case.

Inthis game, you can get a piece off the board and absolutely no way of getting it back on. This happens often and it can stay that way for many moves.
Any chance of having an automatic 'Pass' without a player having to make a 'fruitless' move?

AbigailII: Anyway, so that deals with your objection number 1.
As to your objection number 2, you have the same problem if you upload your own stylesheet - it may grow out of date as Fencer changes things.

This said, I'd also like to have the choice of uploading my own stylesheets and use ones uploaded by others (or at least check them out). I'm not trying to argue against this particular idea at all was just trying to offer some alternatives while this option isn't made available.

grenv: If you don't use IE, Firefox or Opera, then you probably won't find people accommodating your needs
How untrue :)

AbigailII I don't use Windows you're the wisest of us all

AbigailII: If you don't use IE, Firefox or Opera, then you probably won't find people accommodating your needs. Firefox works will on Linux and Opera is good on Mac, so I'm assuming you could use one of these if you wanted to, no?

pauloaguia: I don't use Windows, so no IE either.

Hrqls: Put every button above the message while you're at it. I like to move to previous and next without having to scroll the page too.
Better yet: since some messages are to be read all the way anyway, just place the buttons above and below

AbigailII: 1) If you use IE it has this feature as well (never tested it though, but under Tools -> Internet Options -> Accessibility there is an option to specify your own stylesheet - but I don't know exactly how it works). Other browsers may have it too, I just can't know them all...
2) These features are usually incremental - that means you may build a CSS only changing some things. The original CSS will still be used for everything else. So, if you just specify the background color on a personal CSS, the other changes will still be reflected on your pages. Only if Fencer changes the background you won't realize because your own personal setting is overriding the server's CSS. I hope I explained myself properly...

Fencer : could the 'delete' button in the message box be placed above the message ?

when you open a tournament game message, you now have to scroll down to delete the message
it would be nice if that could be done without scrolling :)

AbigailII: I don't think there would be some important style changes in the future, regarding the main layout parts. At least the ID based properties (starting with # at the css file) should remain constant.

pauloaguia: There are 2 problems with that: 1) I use neither Opera nor Firefox. 2) You will have to redo the work each time Fencer changes the style sheet, or at least does something to the side that requires style sheet changes.

AbigailII: Some browsers allow users to specify personal stylesheets to be used for specific sites (Opera comes to mind, I think Firefox has the same ability, but not sure). This implies no change in the server. If your problem is that you'd just like some colors to be darker, this could be the solution for you. Just download the current CSS, make your changes and set it as your personal CSS to use.

BIG BAD WOLF: It would be nice if everyone could add their own CSS (which shouldn't be too hard to program as CSS cascades, so it would just be a matter of pasting something in the database to each page - or solve it with a link). For instance, the pages I've seen so far aren't that bad - except that I don't like the white background. It gives too much constrast and that tires my eyes much faster than pages with less constrast do. So if I could just inject some CSS to make the background a light grey (or light brown or light pink), I'd be happy. Fencer wouldn't need to review it, and it wouldn't look 'ugly' on someone elses screen. Others might prefer larger fonts or different colours to give them better contrast (or suffer from some form of colour blindness).

Of course, that still doesn't prevent people writing style sheets with complete different themes.

And hopefully, the site will still be useable if someone has stylesheets turned off for whatever reason.

Fencer: I think the castle theme looks great - for many people on the web looking for a game site, first impressions can be very important.

Of course every day playing, the castle theme could be too much - the "simple view" you have already created looks great - similar to what is here now with just a few color changes.

Plus for those who would rather having it look more like it does now, I'm sure it will not be long before someone submits a design that will be very close.

Question - can anyone use anyone's submitted site design?

Blue Duck: You have the choice. Read the BrainKing.info blog.

Blue Duck: good idea!

"Snoopy": Make an option button
Show the board when the game is over
Do not show the board when the game is over

I suggest that we have a choice
The new pages vs the old pages

Fencer, how about modifying the Message box so its the same design as the Notepad.
In other words make Archive & Outbox Tabs and the option to create other Tabs possible. That would be great and very handy for keeping certain messages where we need to get to them (e.g. Fellowship ones, Tournament ones etc...).
Having an edit button could also be useful as i am sure we have all sent messages (with Links) only to find out they dont work, having the option just to go back and edit them correctly and resend would be nice.

My autoplay server is down and I really don't want to bother fixing it. Any chance we can get ludo added to the list of games?

TarantinoFan: No i never re-use mine either

Yes. Frustrating but understandable in those circumstances I guess............... I never re-use my boards so .....

TarantinoFan: Yes it is frustrating isnt it, but i can understand what Snoopy is saying 

TarantinoFan:
people like to reuse boards again and couldnt if the boats were shown

I don't get to see the ships I have missed when a Battleboat game ends??? I check at the end of the game to see which I have missed but none of the games will show me.  

Would be nice to have my dice on top of the page and the last play of my opponent on the bottom.

Could we have a page somewhere in a Fellowship that displays all Team results (the same as we have in our profiles for finished games).
It would be handy to see all Teams for a Fellowship on one page with all relevant information Game type, win, draw , losses, BKR, rating etc...

When designing a knock-out tournament, players are sorted on their rating, tennis style, so the two best players can't match each other until the final.

Example for 8 players, call them 1-8, lower number has higher BKR.

First second third round:
1-8 - w(1-8)-w(4-5) v
4-5 ^ ---> Final.
3-6 v
2-7 - w(3-6)-w(2-7) ^

It would be cool if the tournament desginer could choose for a random position of players each round, like in soccer.

Example:

1-2 ---> the 4 winners are randomly paired up.
3-6 ^
4-8 v
5-7 --->

According let us say the best win, so 1,3,4 and 5 play the second round.

1-4
3-5
And so on.....

Gordon Shumway: You are totally right.

TarantinoFan: Ok sorry. I was looking for a link called Shogi because that is how it was referred to in the description section of the game. I found the rules under Japanese Chess.