Nice works: If it is not Pond related, or if it is a personal dispute, no you should not ask it here. Thank you.

alexlee: I don't play them much anymore, but I signed up for a bunch

Crescent City: A description is here : http://brainking.com/en/OldFAQ?ht=21

There isn't much to see, by looking at a current game. (It's not a game with an actual board)

pedestrian: There's a link at the bottom of EVERY page.

Bwild: Only thing I can think of is maybe somehow you had gone to a past round of it.

Bwild: Why shouldn't it be? All the others have fallen in the pond, and one person is left, and they won.

Cougar727: I assume you are talking about this pond: Hyper Mega Pond

If you notice, the person who dropped out this past round was a pawn. Once a member turns back into a pawn, they cannot play the ponds. So, their last bid as a member, is the forced bid, until they drop out as the lowest bid. People just looked for that, and knew that anything over 487 would be safe. So, many bid 488.

I somehow removed a player from one of my fellowship ponds. (Had to be a clicking mistake of some sort, because it was definitely not intentional.. I have to BEG people to sign up for the pond, lol) They tried to sign back up to the pond, but it won't let them. Does anyone know how I can let that person back into the Pond? Or is this something only Fencer can do?

Vikings: Yeah, after round 2 I figured something of the sort would happen. I really didn't think it would be a 17 way tie though! LOL

LOL The Champs Run in the rain (BKR >=2000) had a 17 way tie for first place!

I guess all the top rated players play about the same.

Vikings: Maybe she meant to say biggest PRIZE?
I wonder what $100 Australian is in US dollars... I'm too lazy to go look. lol

Here is a link to that pond. :-)

On Golden Pond #3

Czuch Czuckers: I like that idea.

BerniceC: You must be a rook to create ponds.

Czuch Chuckers: LOL.. you have a very good point there. Unless part of the new feature is that it is made clear that pawns will NOT be taken out of ponds early. That they will have to wait until the ponds end. No exceptions.

rabbitoid: That might be good too. Being a game that NEEDS so many people to start, a bigger pool of potential players would be awesome.

Those all sound like good ideas BBW. Lower than 10 people would not be good in my opinion...

I still love the ponds! (Even if my rating is falling lately! lol) and I personally prefer the 1 and 2 day ponds. I would help by joining your fellowship ponds, Czuch, if I were in your fellowship. :-)

I would like the ability to after a certain amount of time, to make our fellowship ponds public. For example, if the minimum don't sign up by the time the deadline comes, the pond then goes to the public pond list. (If the creator wants that, that is)

Well personally, the reason I look for your ponds first, is because I can look for ones that will be starting the soonest. (Many times I look for the ones that have 15 people entered already, knowing my entry will get it started the quickest) So, the less you make, the lower my odds are for finding one. (Yeah, I'm impatient some times! lol)

But that's just me..

and like I said before, I don't tend to have many ponds at one time, so my vote shouldn't count for much!

I still love the ponds, and have not lost interest at all. I don't like to have more than 10 ponds at once, however.
I hope you don't stop creating them, rabbitoid! When I am getting low on ponds and want to add a few more, yours are the first I look for. (Because they are always close to starting after signing up, and they are 1 day ponds)
I signed up for a few that were past the sign up time last night..

Thad: Well, it was a case where in my mind I was rewording what I was typing, and was careless and didn't go to the beginning of the sentence and adjust it.
Median still wouldn't be as accurate, just my opinion.

I personally refigure the average eliminating the highest and lowest bid when they go out of wack with the rest. I think that is probably a little better than the median. Median will probably often give similar results, but not a lot of the time.

WhisperzQ: Yes, this happened to me also. Thankfully only in one pond. I ended up falling in, in the first round because of the downtime! My BKR fell significantly also. (I don't remember off-hand how much)
Both ponds and Fischer clock games need a different handling when there is site downtime. Especially when it's a lengthy one like 30 hours!

That sounds good to me, BBW

BIG BAD WOLF: Hard to enforce on the dark pond! :-)

We need the ability to set those parameters! (And the ability to create fellowship ponds.. like regular tournaments)

Maybe... I filed a bug report anyways

Does anyone know how a pond I created ( Club WebTV Dark Pond #2(Fellowship Members ONLY) ..) started with only 15 people????

And since I haven't even won a pond yet, I could very easilly have misunderstood.. LOL

Nothingness, I don't think it is looked at as a tie of 2 people. I think it is looked at as though no one won, since both fell in the pond.
Unless I'm misunderstanding.

Right, the ability to create them within the fellowships would be great. Or Invitation Only ponds would work too.
As it is now, you can say its for your fellowship only, but anyone can still sign up. The creator just has to remove them. As Czuch says, this is impossible with dark ponds, since you can't see who signed up.

LOL..
Guess I need to get out of Moderator mode..

Call me a pesimist, but I see potential problems with that! .. or will the names show up after the pond is over? That might help a little...

Hmmm.. No way to keep people out of these, obviously. (Like creating ones just for your fellowship... Which is why we need to have the ability to do this within fellowships! )

What happens in the discussion in these ponds? Do people's names show up there? If not, I worry that people will take that opportunity to say inapporpriate things anonymously...
Of course names may take away part of the "darkness".. so maybe there should be no discussion on this version?

Just some thoughts..

Fencer, would you consider telling us what the formula is? (In layman terms, preferably.. lol)

Well, as a work-around, until we have that ability, you can create a pond, specify the bkr range, and just remove people who sign up that don't fall in your specified range..

furbster: then why bother with the final round???

I have made it to the final round of a pond for the first time..

I'm sure there is something I'm not seeing, but doesn't the person with the most points in that round automatically win?? I mean, all they have to do is bid one more than what their opponent has?

I'm sure this is really stupid, and there is probably something obvious I'm not seeing.

There are plenty of other ponds, tournaments etc., to sign up for. Why be bothered by it?
People who create ponds/tournaments should be able to set whatever parameters that they want.
It's only a game site! It's not deciding who is going to get subsidized housing or something like that!
I say, lighten up.

I agree with Thad. I think it would solve a lot of problems if pawns were allowed to finish ponds they were currently in.. Just like it is done with tournaments etc.. already..

?????

I'm sure one of the people, who had been bidding 7 for so long, then suddenly bid 6, that round, must be able to remember why... It was only 2 rounds ago..

Ok.. I'm sure I'm probably just being dense...
I don't understand your response to me, Stevie, in the discussion in the first pond.. My question was about round 21. When Bene was the lowest bid, with 5. I understand all the times people have been bidding 7, knowing angelmouse couldn't change his/her bet of 6... but how did many who had been bidding 7, know that in round 21, 6 would be a safe bet??

EdTrice: I think most people agree that your spreadsheet would probably give you an advantage, and probably win you some games. But to say it guarantees a win, is a little silly.

Stevie: You got your point across perfectly. I understand now. Thanks.. :-)

If you bet 19,999, in round 1, all it takes is ONE person to also bid 19,999, to mess you up. (No bonus is given for ties.)

I'll believe it when I see you win every pond you join, EdTrice

Czuch Chuckers: I agree completely.

And I changed the word whining, a few minutes ago. I didn't like the sound of it, and I appologize.

Fine Czuch. I may have misunderstood THAT particular post. But you can't really deny that you were complaining about people with "inside information" taking advantage of that information. THAT is the only part of what you have said that I disagree with! Everything else, I concur with completely! Being in a Lot of ponds, and noticing a trend, and taking advantage of what you know that a person MIGHT do, is only SMART in my opinion.

Excuse me, Czuch, but I understand completely.
I was simply commenting on you calling people who notice a trend and use it to their advantage, "lame".

Multi nicks in this game would be extremely rare, since pawns can't play.

But is it unfair "inside information" when people take the time to study opponent's boat set ups in battleboats? I don't see any difference..
I also wouldn't waste my time SEARCHING out what other people tend to bid in other ponds.. but if I am in a lot of ponds, and notice a trend, it would be stupid of me NOT to consider that information in my own strategy.