Fencer: I'm a simple guy Fencer,I speak little computer lingo,but logic tells me that the sky is still blue

Jim Dandy: I don't want to repeat that again. That's why the article has been posted. If you want to add a comment, please use this page.

Fencer: The article seems to come from the perspective that nothing has recently changed from your end.How does that explain a large number of players experiencing similar issues at pretty much the same time?

Jim Dandy: The article answers this question.
By the way, "so many people" is a relative notion.

Fencer: Yes,I read it,but my question still stands.
How did the site speed become so crappy all the sudden for so many people?

Jim Dandy: There is a link "when you have connection problems ..." at the board description section and the article is still valid for everyone.

just wondering?

the current bid is 44.6 billion USD

I know if it were you Fencer, you would hold out for at least 50 billion USD before you would sell Brainking!

(but, I could probably talk you into a special black rook or something for a measly 44.6 billion?)

Add Game to a Tournament
Very useful, and been much needed, no more deleting Tournaments if you forget a game

Puckish: yes that is true..

Bernice: The point is, it seems like us non Europeans have the option to get a refund for any VAT that we pay, and we would need some sort of confirmation that we actually paid a VAT to get this refund, I assume?

Puckish: now that is an interesting question...

I havent a new membership, but anyone who has, does the cost reflect a charge plus a separate tax charge?

Bernice:


Me too!

MadMonkey:

MadMonkey: Ponds are waiting too...
Seems like the timed scripts have stopped working.

Is there something up with Team Tournaments ?

Perseus went from Open to waiting at 7.00am today, and is just sat there and now it seems to have skipped Herkules as well

A note about messages

ScarletRose: thats what i mean .. and so does brainking

rod03801: I can feel another holiday coming on ROFLMBO :)

even if the VAT would not appliable to users who can prove to be from another country .. then the site owner can always decide to raise the membership price because of his own VAT increases his costs to keep up the site .. so fencer could also say that he wont take any VAT into account for us users .. but that he has to increase the membership price because his own VAT is making it more costly for himself to maintain the site

(i know i could have worded that in better english ;))

Fencer: it sounded like you were saying the VAT was imposed on you - as if to say - something regarding the costs of running the site required you to pay this VAT and memberships are increasing to reflect compensating your additional expense....

this would be different than a VAT imposed on the user....

am i correct or mistaken....

Bernice: But regardless of all that, I think the main point is that no one here HAS to give a confirmed address. If everyone knew that anyone outside the EU didn't have to pay the extra, everyone could just say they lived in any country outside the EU.

So, even if it was true that Americans (or whoever) don't have to pay the "VAT" tax, there is no way currently to prove that you are or are not American (or whoever)

alanback: I asked the same or similar question on 2 January 2008 on this board,but was ignored.....

My understanding is the same as yours....you do NOT have to pay another countries taxes as imposed by them on their own citizens. As I said in my post then....if we do work for someone in the UK for instance they are not and cannot be charged VAT or GST as it is called in Australia...if it a universal tax then that is a different story.

Fencer:  There's no practical difference in any case, since you are (or believe you are) obligated to collect the tax.  As far as I know there is only one kind of VAT in the EU, since the EU regulates it and requires a great deal of conformity throughout.  I know rates and taxable items differ from country to country (within a specified range), but the basic structure is probably the same everywhere in the EU.

alanback: Nope, I am correct, according to my accountant. It's probably a different kind of VAT than you mean, but I don't know the right English word for that.

pauloaguia:  I think you're correct that the problem is one of establishing the residence of the customer.  My colleague also mentioned that. 

I believe that Fencer is incorrect in stating that the tax is imposed on him; in principle it is imposed on the customer, and the business merely collects it.  Businesses pay VAT on their own purchases.  Presumably Fencer pays VAT on the fees charged to him by the company that hosts the site, for example.  He also pays VAT on purchases of computer parts and supplies, etc.  This input VAT paid is creditable against the obligation to pay over VAT collected from customers.  Hence, the VAT is not (in principle, again) borne by businesses, but ultimately by consumers.

I suppose that customers outside the EU might be able to claim a refund of the VAT they pay, but that would hardly be worth the effort.

Fencer: I type to slow... :P

alanback: alanback: Actually, VAT must be taxed for any UE resident, not just Czech Republic. As to residents from other countries, the supplied services takes place where the customer is established. Therefore I think it should be safe to assume that Fencer could charge no VAT for residents outside the UE.

At least I think that's what the European Directives about VAT state (I'm no expert in the area). But then again, Czech Republic may have gone beyond the directives and added some other rules on their own.

The main problem here, I think, is how to prove without a doubt if someone is a UE resident or not? You're just buying an account, there's not even a mailing address envolved. Getting this information from IP address could be a possibility, I think, but it's a rather obscure system (and not even bullet proof, IP addresses can be spoofed)
That's why most (smaller) businesses decide to charge VAT no matter what. They prefer the simplicity of order processing as opposed to any competitive advantage that lower prices could give them. Usually only larger companies, with clients spread out worldwide and a large volume of business go through the trouble of implementing measures to treat their clients according to their geographic residence.

But then again, like I mentioned, I'm no expert on the matter...

alanback: It's a VAT applied to me, not to BrainKing users. It is not important where the particular customer is from (especially where it is not mandatory to fill any personal information to the Profile).

alanback: That makes sense. Any one visiting Canada that buys something with our tax can get that tax refunded back to them by filling out a form. I wondered about that VAT as well.

Since I work in the international tax department of a major accounting firm, I have some experience with VAT issues even though the US is the only major economy that doesn't have one.  The announcement that membership fees would be subject to VAT as of 1 Februrary made me scratch my head a bit.  I have a colleague who recently returned from spending several years working in Prague so I put the question to him.  He believes that in principle the tax should only be imposed on Czech residents.  Obviously there can be a difference between "in principle" and "in practice", but I wonder whether it's worth looking into a bit more closely.  My colleague would be willing to refer Fencer to our Prague office if that would be helpful.

Jim Dandy:LOL! absolutely!   There's a whole list of cool add-on in the Firefox Fellowship.

Eriisa: cool,firefox on steroids

Eriisa: thanks, Ive just added that aswell!

Jim Dandy: no. download the Addon Fasterfox.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1269

Hrqls: Well, that's exactly how I understand http://brainking.info/archives/207-Team-ratings-and-new-smileys.html:


"The formula to calculate BKR is the same as for classic BKR for players (so a team must finish at least 4 matches to get a BKR), but instead of game results of team participants, the whole team results are used and they are taken from both team tournaments and simple inter-fellowship team challenges. And although this feature is not fully finished, speaking of integrating to more parts of the site, it already provides BKR graphs with the rating history, and lists of top ratings and positions at the fellowships pages."

I have taken the leap and downloaded FIREFOX.
I'll admit I am experiencing slight improvement regarding site speed,but marginal.Is this as good as it's gonna get?

MadMonkey: i think there was a message about it some time ago .. i think it was me who asked for the change then :)

in real life teams are also rated by their perfomance and not by their current players .. i think it would be logical for brainking to have a similar system .. this way there can be team rankings as well (and not just ratings) .. so we can have a list of teams and how they are doing compared to each other .. in the past there was only a list of signed in teams in team tournaments .. now there is a list which can always be viewed and which is indepenend of the players in the team

but i am not sure yet if its implemented that way .. as i said i didnt check it yet :)

Hrqls, Gordon Shumway & Roberto Silva: Well it would be nice if we could be told how it was worked out now

The last i knew is that Team BKR's were an average of players in the Team, and as was suggested (by rod i think, and i agreed) ages ago that it be changed so it was worked out on Team performance instead

If this is the case lets have more stats & graphs for those that take part in Teams

Still nice to see we can have Teams with no players on, that are rated

WellyWales: i dont know exactly what you mean .. but i guess its a bug you report ? maybe someone else reported it in the bug tracker already .. if it isnt there yet you can best report it there

you can also try to press ctrl-F5 to refresh your page and see if the links work correctly then .. on my old computer my cache sometimes messes up the links

i think the team bkr works the same as a personal bkr .. tme team itself plays matches against other teams and from that gets its bkr points .. just like you would get bkr points from playing matches with other players

i never checked this though :)

Roberto Silva: Exactly! One team match, be it a normal challenge or a match during a tournament, counts as one match for team BKR calculation. And I guess there aren't any team tournaments in which you play less than 4 matches!

MadMonkey: How many matches did the team play in that tournament?

The way I understand it, as long as you played at least 4 matches (not individual players, but team vs. team matches) you would have a BKR.

Gordon Shumway: I still do not get it

We have only played in one Team Tournament, and no Challenge matches

When 'You received a new reply to your post' in PM are the 'Discussion board' link and 'Show context' link the wrong way round ?

Gordon Shumway: Actually it was invented nearly a year ago: http://brainking.info/archives/207-Team-ratings-and-new-smileys.html

MadMonkey: I think it is based on team match and team tournament performance since one of the recent piles of team tournaments started and several improvements to the team system have been made.

Fencer (or anyone who knows lol), where do the BKR's of Teams come from ?

I thought it was an average of the signed on players, but it appears not

I was just asked this question in the Madhouse, and that would have been my answer, as i thought a while ago there was a suggestion which i seconded that Team BKR's should be worked out on Team performance in Tournaments & Challenges Matches (which would make more sense).

Anyway, as i was asked this i thought i would check. Looking at the Madhouse ones, our Anti Chess Team is our highest rated (1806). Now i DO NOT have an Anti Chess Team at present, so it can not be an average of those players as they are not any.

So i looked back at past results, we have not played and Team Challenges, and only played ONE Team Tournament. So i averaged those players that took part in that, and thats not the answer.

So, where does it come from ?

I have checked a couple of other Teams and the same applies, so i guess it applies to all.