plaintiger: I can see one of our Stairs in bold.

plaintiger: You have right. If you click and go to Stairs from main menu it is okey (bold), but you choose to go to the Stairs from 'Profile' it does not show bold in it! This is a bug

Your list under the Stairs link on the main menu is where you see the names that turn bold when you can challenge someone. (After clicking "show my stairs only")

I would like to see a little red number beside that "Stairs" link in the menu, that tells you how many of your stairs you currently can challenge someone in. And when you click the red number it takes you directly to that list of your own stairs.
That's my fantasy... Yes, I live a sad life.. LOL

rod03801: Will you buy me a new server?

Fencer: How many tee shirts will I get in exchange for your new server?

rod03801: lol.. my little fantasy takes a whole new server, to become reality???!!!

hmm... how much is a server? Can I find one at the mall? :-)

Fencer: ohhhhhh: after i click "Stairs" i have to click "Show your stairs only" before i see which ones are bold (like rod said). i forgot about that - i thought i should see my stairs in bold when i just clicked "Stairs" in the main menu. it would be nice if i did, hint-hint...but this'll work for now. ;) thanks, Filip.

rod03801: you can find a server at the mall if your mall has an Apple Store. a low-end Power Mac G5 plus the server OS will run you about $2500.00 US before tax.

Why there are ladders (for example as in http://brainking.com/en/Stairs?trg=3&tri=223, and there are others) where there are two players, no games playing, no games recently played against each other and yet you have no player to challenge?

tenuki: Abigail got to Step 2 by beating someone who has since left the Stairs. You can only challenge players at your own level and the three below so she has the option to challenge you but you must wait for a third player to join the Stairs.

playBunny: Thanks! Now I understand! :-)
And why it is that some player (I will only give the nickname privately) times out constantly and nothings happens...the game just disappears?

tenuki: You're welcome. If you'd like to tell me more about that timeout-and-nothing-happens in a PM I'll be glad to explain as much as I can work out.

tenuki:Some people are sick as we'll as others have to look after sick people,so give them a break,maybe one Day you'll be to busy or sick to play.
Your a Rook go to the waiting room or post you own there,that's what that implement is for correct.

tenuki: there have to be played 2 moves in a game to make it count for the rating, it still counts as a win/loss though

when the timed out game is in a tournament, then its still used to calculate the winner of the tournament.

the only thing that doesnt change is the rating of both players

(or the timed out game might be part of a multiple game match which isnt finished until all games are finished/timed out)

hi. can anybody tell me how to get on this? thanks.

ouspensky: Select the "stairs" option on left hand side down from main page select type of game you wish to play eg backgammon then select fast/ standard etc. hope this helps, also note you can only enter 1 stairs. Good luck

skipinnz: thanks. i take it i must select one of the games that is listed there.

ouspensky: Yes, I actually reversed the order you select. If you click on stairs then say on standard you will then see a list of games and you can then select the game you want.

skipinnz: Got it. I signed up for backgammon, which I'm pretty good at if you'd like to play

ouspensky: ok I'm on standard stairs

A quick question...
On the stairs here:
http://brainking.com/en/Stairs?tri=776

I'm #6 but only have the option of challenging #4 aledates.
If I lose do I fall to #5 or #4 ?

Thanx in Advance

Marfitalu:

The one listed
http://brainking.com/en/Stairs?tri=776

Marfitalu:

Ok Ty so much

Why are there no Standard Fischer's Stairs? Maybe I don't have time to make a move every three hours, but it would still be nice to know that a game will eventually have an end.

I am playing a stairs game with someone who is not listed on the main stairs page. I do not know if they have left the stairs after starting a game or if they have started a retirement or if it is a bug?

Can we have a way to see who is on retirement and who has left the stairs all together please?

Czuch Chuckers: I come across that quite a bit also, sometimes there are too many people on one step to list all there names and you have to click on a "..." to see the rest of the list

Vikings: Well, this one only has/had 3 people in the whole stairs, now only two of us...

Czuch Chuckers: I don't think there is a "list" anywhere, but if you know the person, you can go to their profile, click on the "Stairs" page.

In the "Step (your/max)" column, if it shows like "-/2", that means they are on retirement from that stair. If nothing shows up, it means they quit the stairs (but just finishing up their current games). For example, in my profile - I'm retired from a few stairs like the the swap 5-in-line stairs and such.

What happens when some in many different stairs becomes a pawn? Since pawns are only allowed to enter 1 stair..... how is it determined which stair they stay in and how long can they remain on the leader board in stairs that they are no longer able to play in?

Czuch Chuckers: That is a good question. I remember suggesting if that happened, then first send user a warning to get out of some, then if they don't "randomly" put them into "retirement" in all but 1..... where if they do renew their membership at some point, they can start from where they left off from.

But I'm not sure what Fencer ever did or if something like that is in place.

Fencer?

BIG BAD WOLF: Nothing yet. Stairs improvements are to be done after more important things.

When you look at the current games in progress, what do the figures in brackets after the player's name mean?

tonyh: i think you are talking about their bkr ?

tonyh: If you're talking about a page like this, the number behind a name tells you what step the player is on within the stair.

In the ratings charts, non-active players disappear after rules as can be read in the FAQ. The argument for this is to keep the charts more accurate, and I think that works fine. This does not happen in the stairs, which means, that in-active players (in this case Line4 games) "fill up" the stairs, which makes it impossible for some players to invite or be invited. In some cases it seems that the stairs are "dead" with many steps occupied by inactive players or players too far apart to invite or be invited. Can the rules for the rating charts and in-active players, be applied to the stairs?
I think we would get much more competition, and more games played in that section

regards john

SimpleMind: One of the big differences between Fencer's Stairs and the traditional ladders is that the player above does the inviting. Or not! Speaking as a player who's enjoyed being at the top of a couple of Stairs, it's nice to be able to relax and enjoy the view without having to defend my position until someone has made a successful effort to reach me. Of course I'm not always relaxing for there are heads to be pushed down and fingers to be trodden on as people dare to climb up!

But that pause for relaxation can occur half way up a Stairs if there is a gap of empty steps above, and it's equally nice to relax there too.

Thus to remove non-active players would potentially mean removing the top player and those having a rest in the upper ranks.

The problem you face in your Line4 Stairs isn't having inactive players so much as it's having too few players. There are 12 players and no games going at all. Removing the inactive ones .. that would empty the whole Stairs! ;o)

If I might suggest doing a marketing campaign targetting a selection of active players in the Line4 ranks. Check people's game sheets and see who's got a reasonable interest level (a handful or more games, perhaps) and then write a short note to remind them about the existance of the Stairs and invite them to the challenge.

SimpleMind: But maybe I misunderstood you. Now I'm wondering whether you meant truly inactive players such as Ryna from Ohio who has been MIA since last year.

Such players will inevitably get pushed down to the bottom step but, unlike leaf mold on the forest floor they are non-biodegradable, so that step would eventually get cluttered. Such players do provide a free boost up to Step 2 when they timeout but I only rarely enjoy a win of that nature. So I second your recommendation that they be removed at some point.

On the other hand, lol, the above applies to Backgammon, say, but a sparsely populated Stairs like your Line4 one would look even emptier than before and a half empty room has less appeal as a party venue!

is demonviper i am in a backgammon stairs game with him and he hasn't moved and i hate winning due to a timeout

Fencer: Might the 2 games matches be changed to 2 wins matches in the Stairs, please? At least that way someone's going to advance. ;-)

playBunny: I agree completely. I have also been wanting an additional set of "Normal Game" stairs with a decent time limit. (The only set of stairs with "Normal Game" are "Very Fast Fischer Stairs", which for ME personally are too fast! And the Standard Stairs take too long, since the games are played one after the other, instead of at the same time. Plus with so many draws, there isn't enough movement in them.)

playBunny: A 2 win match would then be unfair for 1 player in the games in which 1 color has an advantage over the other - since 1 player will get the advantage twice.

Of course I agree with you for many of the games - well sort of, for most I would rather see just a 1 game match. I know my 3 day Stairs (no cube) (Sstairs in ◙ The Gammon Cube ◙ Fellowship) are pretty popular with just 1 game matches.

BIG BAD WOLF: MMMM.. true.. good point.

It would be nice if there was at least a way to have the 2 games of the match, be played at the same time (like in tournaments) instead of one after the other.

I do think a set of stairs using "Normal Game" (1 game matches) (fast, standard and slow) would be popular. Yes, you can get them in some fellowships, but they tend to have less people participating.

Fencer did say he would think about it, the last time I asked him about the possibility. :-)

playBunny: I have to agree with BIG BAD WOLF (and not only because sharp teeth are more persuasive than floppy ears). With the match types currently available on BrainKing, it's not possible (except in backgammon and its variants) to create a match that is fair to both players and has no possibility of a draw. For my part, I prefer fairness over drawlessness, and I hope the existing stairs will remain as they are.

Having said that, I would have no objection to the creation of additional stairs with single games or 2-win matches or whatever. And maybe you'll have more success than I've had in my attempts to get a set of Fischer-clock stairs with longer time controls.

Another possibility would be the implementation of a new type of match, similar to the n-win matches, but with pairs of games (rather than single games) as the basic building block. Thus after the first two games, if one player has reached some predetermined victory condition, then he wins the match; otherwise they play two more games, etc.

KotDB: Lol. You do agree with me. -- it's not possible (except in backgammon and its variants)

Given that I was prompted to make my posts as a result of getting nowhere on the Ludo 2-games Stairs, and that I otherwise only play Backgammon and its variants, it's nice that you do agree with me. ;-) BBW's objection on behalf of the starter-has-the-advantage games is no problem for me and I agree that 2-wins isn't a flawless solution to the problem there. But in fact I have no idea whether there is a problem perceived by the climbers of those Stairs, so I won't make any claims on their behalf. ;-)

But on the other solutions put forward, I don't see much difference between a single game and a 2-wins match. The starter in a single game has the advantage. More so than in a 2-wins match, surely? I like your paired-games idea. 2-wins of paired games. It could make for a lot of games, though, lol, but at least it would have a winner.

I don't particularly mind what solution was be used, just so that in games where draws are most likely there be some way of playing only for a win. Restricting it to game types where there's some small difference between the who-starts-wins percentages (say 5%) does makes sense although, in the long term, players wouldn't benefit from the advantage given that starting colours are randomly assigned in the Stairs.

playBunny: I don't think colors are randomly assigned. It looks to me like the challenger always makes the first move.

But random color assignment would be a decent system. Even if a game is tilted heavily in favor of one color (Maharajah chess, anyone?), the combined procedure of first randomly assigning colors to the players and then playing the game is fair.

I have entered Fast stairs for loop chess, but on step one, there are only two players none of whom play on BK anymore!  What should I do?

King Reza: I will join and give you a game King I am not the best Chess player though, just enjoy trying to win a game, especially different versions.

I had the same problem 3 times on Backgammon stairs lately, actually starting games just to watch them time out as they are not here anymore. I think inactive players(say 2 weeks) should be removed, or get automatically set to leaving the stairs (then they could get an Automated warning sent to there message box).

MadMonkey:Oh thanks for the offer.  Yeah, I think they should be taken out of stairs after a period of time too.

King Reza: that can be a little tricky as there are some people who have reached the top of the stairs and are inactive waiting for someone to catch them

Vikings:

Vikings: Brainking should be able to check each player/step to see if there are people for them to play. Maybe an automated message could be sent to them. If they do not play anyone after a certain time of being available then, either removed from the stairs or dropped a place. It could all be done automatically after Fencer writes the code