plaintiger: phooey. it didn't. maybe it has to do with the width of the message display field? even though all the smilies are left-justified?

in my original post, all the smilies looked fine except the huggy one, which appeared as

*537
*

(that's asterisk - 537 - linebreak - asterisk).

on a matter that may or may not be related, i'm using Safari (the web browser that comes with Mac OS X) and erroneous line breaks are appearing in some of the messages i write after i post them, especially when i use a number of smilies in a row. i copied an example from an in-game conversation; let me see if pasting it in here demonstrates the problem:

=-=-=

:)

yep - it does for me, insofar as i remember the codes for the ones i want to use. :)

so far i've committed the following to memory:









and i'm working on some others.

=-=-=

now i have to post this to see if the problem appears.

Fencer: oh. i was hoping there was a way to do it that would let me keep only my favorite boards in my favorite boards list.

i'm finding that when the big boss of a fellowship has made a board in some language other than English the primary board for that fellowship, i no longer get red numbers next to the name of the fellowship to indicate new messages on the English board. is there a way to fix this? thanks!

um...new question: why are there Google ads for other gaming sites ("Play Backgammon with Us!") out on the login page? isn't that a bit self-defeating? wouldn't Filip rather people came and played backgammon *here*?

volant: excellent - that's just as i hoped. thank you!

got a question: i've just clicked the "remove" link at the bottom of Fencer's latest news post to make it go away, but having never used that link before, i don't know: will the next news Fencer posts appear when he posts it? or have i just turned his news off until i turn it back on again somewhere?

thank you! :)

Fencer: great. thanks, Filip.

what do the red dots next to the time remaining for some of my games in my game list mean? no days off?

many thanks.

oh, and mrloupcity - i love the way you express yourself. :) great message (though unfortunately i can't shed any light on the problem you cite). :)

i'd like to request that, since the "overwrite" option seen during setup in Espionage is potentially destructive (and will be used less often than "load position" option), it be placed lower in the list. the more potentially destructive an option is, the later it should appear in any list, to reduce the possibility of its being chosen by accident. so with this thought in mind, it's my belief that the list should read:

- load position
- rename position to __________
- overwrite selected position [or whatever it says]
- delete position

does that make sense?

(i think it does, obviously... ;)

is there a way to see my standings in relation to a whole team tournament with just one click, instead of having to check my standings opponent-by-opponent? if that makes sense? :)

right - understood. :)

i sleep now. 'night - and thank you to you and/or liquid and/or whomever for giving us back our spies and sappers. :)

while you're looking at new servers, i might suggest you look at Mac OS X Server, if brainking could be run on it (i don't know if it could). i only think of it because it can do cool, staff-reducing things like page an admin if it goes down and stuff like that. i don't know if you'd want that, but if it sounds appealing, it does exist...

and if i come into any money soon (which it's possible that i may, a little) i'll send some your way. :)

lol...no comment... :D

heehee! well, neither have i (though i think i could have - it might have been more a Word thing than a Windows-specific thing), but i've seen similar aberrations, and read a bug report about that very one (give or take the hot and horny part). :D

lol - that's right! :D and sometime next year the text of the hot and horny love letter you thought you deleted will show up in the middle of the resume you just emailed to a hundred prospective employers... :D

and for any who haven't noticed, it now seems to be Espionage's turn to display question marks or Xes or whatever your system displays in lieu of graphics it can't display. :)

no, actually, if you buy a Macintosh and press delete, the Macintosh will say "are you sure you want to trash all your hard work without saving it first?". and if you then say "yes" and then say "whoops," you have no-one to blame but yourself. :)

and if you buy a Macintosh, you won't get viruses (or popup windows), you can slap in a TV tuner card and have your TV right there, and like ScarletRose said, a wireless keyboard and mouse'll have you on your comfy couch in no time. and if you're really attached to any Windows applications, there's software that'll let you run that too.

just another thought... ;)

ah. i see.

would having HDTV improve that situation at all?

but then, if one's going to have HDTV, i guess one might as well buy a computer while one's out shopping, huh? :D having HDTV and webtv would be kind of like having a beverly hills mansion with an inflatable kiddie pool in the back yard. :)

interesting. then i wonder why its appearance seems to be so isolated.

well, i know it's not pleasant to hear it, but if nobody else is experiencing the problem, it's not likely to be an issue with the site.

if you're using webtv, i'd be suspicious of that. i know imupchucking isn't having the problem, so maybe it has to do with the model or age of your tv or something...but i've recently become friends with a webtv user and She says the frogs in Froglet look like little tied bags - they don't have any faces - and She can hardly tell one piece from another in Espionage, and She can't get to 80 percent of the websites i send Her the URLs to because webtv just can't handle them...so i get the impression the whole webtv system is just very horky and ill-behaved and it just up and does stuff like you're describing sometimes.

don't know for sure, but it's a thought...

oh. well then never mind that last bit i just said, keeshound... :)

yeah, rod, thank you - i just now went to the profile of a person with a golden rook and discovered what it is.

i too think they're working on the graphics...

but i still don't know why keeshound4's seeing a color change the rest of us don't seem to be seeing. but whatever the reason, kees, i'd recommend following Viking's advice and going to your settings page and changing the background color.

do all the other sites you visit look the same as ever? i'm just wondering if your monitor's blown a...a...whatever monitors blow. a monitory thing.

yeah, i don't see any color change either, except the membership icons - i've seen a yellow brain rook tonight. and my Amazons pieces aren't loading, which i suspect (but don't know) to be related. but everything else looks the same as it has for months or maybe even years (i don't remember what the site looked like years ago).

color *change*?

yeah, there's nothing blurry on my screen...are you using webtv, by chance? or a ten-year-old and/or very cheap monitor?

yes, either that, or Fencer is just busy sprucing up the graphics and those that have disappeared will be back and...etc., etc.

i'm having the same problem, Lady T. - but because i'm on a Mac i get blue squares with white question marks in them. however, the graphics for what kind of membership a person has - like brain rook or brain knight or whatever - which weren't loading for me earlier are loading now (and the rook i just saw is yellow instead of white)...all of which leads me to suspect that Fencer is just busy sprucing up the graphics and those that have disappeared will be back and even schnazzier-lookin' than ever.

or at the very least, they'll be back. :)

ohhh. well if you put it that way...yeah, i definitely would not be happy with people incessantly shaking me awake and demanding explanations of rating systems! :D

c'mon, Fencer, be nice now. everybody else is.

not everyone has encountered your previous explanations, nor will everyone go looking for them on blind faith that they're around here somewhere (you know how many boards there are here, and how many messages are on each one!). as people join BK and see weird BKRs that don't seem to make any sense, they're going to continue to ask this question. and unless and until a system of BKRs is implemented that *does* appear to make sense at first glance, the questions will keep coming. just ignore them if you like; it's evident that you don't *need* to keep explaining because other people who grasp the system, like BBW, will do it for you.

your time is much better spent on updating and upgrading and tweaking and all the other vastly more important stuff that only you can do.

right? :)

thank you very much, BBW - that's just the kind of explanation i was hoping for!

yea verily dost thou rule. :)

tiger

i recently had some funky business with BKRs too: here are the results of the last four games of Froglet i completed, in order:

plaintiger: old BKR = 1700, new BKR = 1700 (0)
MsDelete: old BKR = 1301, new BKR = 1240 (-61)

plaintiger: old BKR = 1700, new BKR = 1700 (0)
Paula29: old BKR = 873, new BKR = 871 (-2)

plaintiger: old BKR = 1700, new BKR = 1700 (0)
TJ: old BKR = unrated, new BKR = unrated

plaintiger: old BKR = 1700, new BKR = 1707 (+7)
Lorraine: old BKR = unrated, new BKR = unrated

can anyone explain the logic behind this (without getting too much into mathematics, which will serve no purpose but to bewilder me instantly)?

why did i get no points for three wins in a row - for one of which my opponent lost SIXTY-ONE points, and one of which was against an unrated player - and then get seven points for the fourth game, also against an unrated player?

this makes no sense to me at all.

oh yeah: the ratings of the first two players were established (not provisional).

thanks...

le tigre

yep - that was the problem, Fencer - thank you! :)

i'm playing a game of dark chess and as of this afternoon or so (US eastern time) the page my dark chess game appears on is way too wide - i have to scroll horizontally (brrrr!) to see the move list. my opponent, who's using WebTV, poor thing, is having the same problem - and with the full-featured luxury that WebTV offers, She doesn't even seem to have the option of scrolling horizontally and so can only see the left column of the move list.

the game is here. thanks in advance for any help...

oh yeah, and i forgot to mention: none of the other games i'm playing, including my other game with the same opponent, exhibit this problem. and none of them are dark chess, either.

say, is it just me, or are "new message" alerts gone from the top of everybody's main page?

i only see the red number next to my message box now when i have new messages...and sometimes that's off the screen...i'd like my big "you have (x) new messages!" headline back... :)

i don't know if i've said this on here or not, but i'd like an option to display my online opponents at the side of the board just like my online friends, so i didn't have to click the "online opponents" link but could just see at a glance which of my opponents are online.

i miss being logged in automatically when i come to the site. is there any way to make that happen again?

'k, thanks, Stevie. :)

how do i post my photo like everyone else seems to be doing? seems logical that it should be a function of the "My profile" page, but i don't see anything about it there...thanks!