I recently noticed that I no longer have any vacation days. I have had a busy week with some things preventing me from playing as often as I normally do, but I still managed to log on every day and move the quick games that were getting ready to time out. I may have had one or two in the red, but not that many that I know of to have used all my vacation days.
But last I looked, I had something like 17 vacation days left and now they are all gone.
Has anyone else had this trouble- is there some sort of bug?

bwildman: I thought we already had the daggers LOLOL

It's really interesting to see the male/female points of view about the cloak mode!

I still don't see any difference in 'cloak mode' .... I can still see what everyone else is doing .... not that I want to!

Im hidden on members board, shame the person who done it ... dont have the balls to pm me to let me know

bwildman: LOL and rename the site MEDEVIL TIMES he he lol

Andersp: "Cloak" seemed to me strange, too. (But, my opinion should not count in this matter, because I'm no English man). - For Esperanto I translated it with "hidden mode".
Btw., at first it seemed strange to me, why I should see, what my opponents are just doing. Then I thought it over, and now I compare it with a tournament room, where everybody can watch each other. - So, I have no reason to use the cloak mode. My secrets are outside of this room. ;-)
So

Pedro Martínez: Yea..has to be something like that, cant use what first comes to my mind when i see "cloak" :)

Andersp: In Czech, a "masking mode" is used...

Pedro Martínez: trying to translate BK to swedish and cloak is the most difficult word to translate LOL

Andersp: that's how cloaca smells in the Czech Rep. also...LOL

Walter Montego: Do you think it could work to ask an opponent to "uncloak" while we are playing a game? I agree 100% with you, who cares what people are doing but while i play a game and he/she is online its nice to know if i can expect moves back (checking opponents on line).
I support this new feature 100% but i think its very sad that it was needed...in Sweden kloak smells like this

cloak is a perfect name....now all we need is daggers

harley: I thought this site was fine without it, but that's not how it is any more. It seems more balanced having the cloaked ones not being able to follow people around as they aren't letting themselves be seen. As paranoid as I am, I think the whole concept of it is silly. I could care less where someone is as long they would just make their moves when they log on. The cloak did interfer with me playing fast with some people, but most of my fast playing opponents shunned the cloak option and stayed visible. Perhaps with this change a cloaked person might toggle it back and forth depending if they want to play faster or not?

Yes, I read the arguments of AbigailII and pgt. Both of them made valid points for me to consider. I'm glad the cloak has been modified as you say it is now, though I'dve just as soon it had never been installed in the first place.

Walter Montego: Yes, thats how it is now. Personally I don't mind either way, I never used the cloak mode and I didn't mind cloaked people seeing what I'm doing. Nor did it bother me that people are cloaked (even though my friends list went down to three people who were uncloaked!).
But I can see the logic in hiding uncloaked people from cloaked people.

harley: Is that how it is now? Good. I'm no fan of the cloak system, but if there's going to be one then it seems fair to have its use come with some loss for the user too. I mean, if I can't see you, then you can't see me and it is up to the user to use the cloak or not and I can be left out of it completely.

tazman7474: Have a look at feature requests, Fencer says; "Who wants to be hidden, shouldn't have an advantage to see others."

why was the cloak mode changed so that i can no longer see what uncloaked players are doing while i'm cloaked?

Fencer: ah great! thanks :)

Hrqls: Nothing happens. Once the tournament is started, the participating teams become independent on any further fellowship changes.

what happens if you leave a team which is still busy in a team tournament ?

what happens to the games you are still playing, do they still account for the team ?

what happens if the team which you just left moves on to the next round .. will you still play in the next round ?

streetrodder: i have turned on automatic vacation as well

for my planned vacations (or other days when i known i cant be online) i set real vacation days though as that will also add a day to my other games which wouldnt time out on that day

only in some rare cases i would turn automatic vacations day off ... for example if i only have 1 game running .. and only 1 vacation day left .. while its only august .. and know that i will need that vacation day later that same year for a planned vacation day .. then i might take this 1 timed out game .. and preserve the vacation day for the other day which could save more than 1 game

but thats about the only reason i might want to turn it off .. normally it doesnt hurt when its turned on :)

furbster: lol - blame the cat - I always do when there is a smell knocking around...

ah thanks fencer it worked, and i was blaming my cat lol

furbster: Try ctrl and mouse wheel.

hi i duno what ive done but the text on teh site has gone smaller does any1 knwo how to biggen it up again

ScarletRose: as I was just informed, and it is the way to set up your vacation days, go to settings, and click on calendar, tick automatic, or choose the particular days on the calendar that are needed..

uptowngirl: "vacation days can someone tell me where i find out how to use them please"

Just call a travel agent.. I am sure they will give you great ideas for vacations..

BuilderQ: Ok, Thanks :-)

Bluefin: As stated on http://brainking.com/en/Help?ht=10:
6) The player who does not make a move before the current round deadline (similar to a timeout), automatically uses the same amount of points as in the previous round. Warning! No days off (weekends, vacations, holidays) are applied in this game.

How would vacation days work with pond games ?
Do you have to put in your bids in advance ? I'm refering to games with 1 day move time.

uptowngirl: happy to have been able to help :o)

Fiona: thanks for that

uptowngirl: go to 'settings' on the main page then choose the calender tab then you will see them - just select which ever box you want as a vacation day

can someone tell me where i find out how to use them
please

rod03801: Maybe an option to see the game DB's only in my language like there is one for fellowships? But then again, I use the portuguese version of the site but would still like to see the english DB's (and maybe a couple more). So maybe an option for favourite languages or something?

And there is no visual hint that those flags are clickable. Everyone that has been here long enough will try to click them to access the DB, but newcomers might not get that idea... the link should be on the numbers, or a small message like "board (click flags)". It's just not very intuitive the way it is now, in my opinion.

Nothing is really wrong with it.. And what paulo said is true.. but I unfortunately don't speak any of those languages, and will never click to see what's on those discussion boards anyways. I wish I could though! lol..

Fencer: Well, probably what rod means is that "With more and more languages being added to the site, it won't look nice to display (4/12/3/8/4/9/2) or similar numbers :-)"

rod03801: What's wrong with that?

Fencer, it seems like that is starting to happen on the game boards now? I notice I am told how many new messages the Czech discussion boards have, when I am playing that game..(at the top of the game board) ..

For example, when playing Backgammon, at the top, it tells me that the Czech Backgammon discussion board has 215 new messages..

Fencer: Is there any chance to get an option to show the "sub" boards listed under the main board - kind of how it was for about 12 hours the other day? I kind of liked that setup, but of course make it an option for the people who do not like that setup.

Fencer: lol Ok. :)

Jules: With more and more languages being added to the site, it wouldn't look nice to display (4/12/3/8/4/9/2) or similar numbers :-)

Hrqls: thanks for helping me understand this..... I certainly can loose without the aid of timing out..... is there a good reason not to "tick" the automatic vacation day box... I did "tick" it, and now hopefully a vacation day may appear in my life somewhere in the future, but this seventy hours a week for the past, oh my, twenty years does take a toll

Fencer: Ahhhh that explains why. Is it possible that it could show that there are messages on any board within that F/s like it use to please :)

Jules: The red number next to the fellowship name shows only new messages in the main fellowship board.

I've got all languages ticked on my settings page so I can see F/s boards that are in other languages as some of the ones I need to read are still in Czech.

Yet, it's not showing that there is a new message on these boards.

thx. fencer, i meant i changed it, and was wondering if i did it right.

ellieoop: There were no changes.

it seems my setting was on last move time but the ascending button was active, now the descending button is, is it supposed to be like that?
thx.

streetrodder: when you set a fixed vacation day (in your settings page) then no game will time out on that day (i think it behaves like a weekend day)

if you have automatic vacation turned on .. then you dont have to set a fixed vacation day .. but in case a game would time out on a certain day .. that game will get 24 hours added to its time .. while 1 vacation day is substracted from your remaining total .. if another game would time out on that day as well .. then it will cost no extra vacation day

i think with fixed vacation days all games will have a day added when their period goves beyond that day ... with automatic vacation days only the games that would time out exactly on that day will get 24 hours extra on that day

so when you are sure you will time out on that day you can best use a fixed vacation day as it will help in your other games as well

only use the automatic vacation days for unsuspected problems