I would encourage you to give a more wait and see approach. Fencer works a fulltime job as well as keeping up this site and making time for his family. THings have been busy with the whole switchover. It has been said in one of the discussion boards that it was done to give player accounts more security. By having players login they are more protected against hacking situation. There must be a threat of someone wanting to hack into player accounts or they would not have it set up this way. Please give the whole thing some time.

Great look for BK2.0. I am glad the webtv bug is taken care of. I was skeptical about that. Lots of stat info on the games as you play them and it is nice to have the rating tables back on the main page. I am very pleased with the effort.

May I also suggest that game time be suspended for that weekend and maybe 2 or 3 days thereafter to compensate for any problems players may experience like they did in the first attempt to make the switch.

Remember SKyking that the exchange rate changes slightly each day depending on the international markets.

I am on webtv. I started having problems getting in here starting Friday evening and couldnt get in until tonight. Most of the webtv people here are probably IYT players who were looking for a better place to play. They found it here. I love this website. With the exception of a few bad apples most of the players I have met are great people and it is fun to come here when comical things are happening on the discussion boards and in the fellowships. I would hope Fencer and Liquid would take their paying webtv people seriously and with great consideration. I still play parttime at IYT with a tournament and a ladder. If webtv becomes unusable source to play from at this site, there are others that are webtv friendly. I would hate to see that happen as this is the best game site on the web. However I am confident that Fencer and Liquid will do everything to accomodate us webtv players.. IF 20 percent of their paid membership comes from us that is a huge portion to lose to the competition.

AD is a walking problem. lol

AD has a fart fetish I think. Gas seems to be a topic of discussion when he is around, not to toot his horn or anything. Just an observation.

Yes it works good for webtv now. However my comment was such that if and when BK2.0 is here for good and if webtv will not be supported due to the coding or whatever reason, I feel webtv customers should be compensated for the unused portion of their membership as a result. Unlike other things like phone, cable, electric, etc where you pay so much a month and you are paying as you go, here you are paying in advance for a certain length of time based on the accessability. If the time comes that service is no longer available due changes beyond the consumer's control, they should be compensated accordingly. However I do feel they will take care of the webtv bug, because they do have a number of paying members on webtv. I am also curious if the NTL service had problems like the webtv service did.

If Fencer makes this site unsupported from a webtv then I would need my funds back. I am paid through December 2005 on the basis that this a site that is accessable with webtv. If it changes then I think it would be reasonable to expect a refund.

I also believe LJ is Qwerty as well. OF course Lj is not always LJ either. He keeps changing into something else. Now LJ is MapleLeaf GZ for those who did not know. At least with AD changing his name, you know it is AD because the AD is always in the name. AS far as me having a second ID, I do have one. I admit it. However I havent used in since November. It was my original ID but after the big crash last year and all those games were lost as a result, I created a new ID and quit using the old one. So if anyone wants to accuse me of multiple IDs and cheating as a revenge motive check it out. The old ID is BlazinBrian. You will notice it has been stagnet since November. I hope with BK2 we will be able to rid the multiple ID situation so people dont cheat.

I putting in for the position of money manager for BrainKing. I have a degree in accounting and Business Management. I currently am a manager at my current place of employment. I would be able to handle the incoming money for Fencer. one for BrainKing, two for me. etc etc etc. lol

Ok Fencer then how will the new BK2.0 be able to catch cheaters with multiple accounts then? I guess I dont how you will be able to do this the automated way as you suggested previously. I think however it is not unreasonable if you have a household where everyone plays at the site, to have one account as a paying member. The ideas here are to increase membership and reduce the incidents of cheating players. There is no full proof way of geting rid of cheating but at least try to keep it to a minimum. OF course we are all watchdogs. I routinely check out my opponents previous game records as a way to scout them, particularly new players I havent played before. That is how you catch the cheaters. Fencer has shown to me in the past to take swift action when it proved to him that cheating is going on. I commend him on his actions and commitment along with Liquid to improve the site for us now and those future players that will join the site.

Of course the best way to catch player with phony second accounts is being able to track their IP address. Using this tracker too you can create a rule that the only way more than one account can from the same computer source is by having one account as a paying member. Also in situations where there appears to be a lot of timeouts against one person, you can close out the dummy account and then lower the legitimate player's account by 1000 BKR. This would discourage cheating.

With BK2.0 hopefully it will be easier to sort out the players with multiple IDs being used to boost ratings. However one way to make it more time consuming for cheaters like this is to increase the minimum moves for a game to be a considered a rated game. I was thinking increasing it to like 10 moves per side. As always you can always scout your opponents profile. When investigating their gameplay you can see awkward things like many games against the same opponent and it is under 5 moves and then a timeout. I noticed this in a couple of people before and alerted Fencer and he gave them the boot.

And the good part is games against Slavka do not drag on for a long time. They flow along fairly quickly.

We have been over this subject over and over again. Cheating is wrong. IF someone has to cheat to win at games which pay you nothing to win, then that someone is pathetic and basically is cheating themselves. If I know from someone an opponent is a cheater I will not play that person any longer. There really is nothing at stake to make it worth cheating. Play, have fun, make a few new friends and good luck in all honest games.

I played mrloupcity in a battleboats tournament once. THough the game took a long time to complete, I understand that I was not the only player he was playing and that he has a family to spend time with, friends to do things with, and ajob to pay the bills. Most of us have a life away from brainking and the internet in general. Those who live hear morning, noon, and night I suggest you go outside and see the sun, the moon, the stars. Heck there is a big world out there to see in person, and not just on a computer.

Star is looking for payment for buttering up to Fencer. Sorry it doesnt work that way. lol.

welcome back steve

True Steve, but at least the tables still exist if you are curious about where you stand in a game. My backgammon rating has been on the increase as of late so it is nice to look at that after a game is done.

If you go to the ratings at the top of the page you can still see the tables for any game you wish.

BBW is a BRAINY guy of the site. Full OF Brains and Full of something else at times too. LOL Kidding Wolf.

No need to compete Steve. I am in both tournaments.

What a shameless plug for the club Rod. However we are a good group.

Yeah but I dont have many places I go where I need a password. :-)

This is true Chuck. However I am smart and only have like 3 different passwords I use. I know which one is for which websites. If people are smart they have them written down or stored somewhere too.

I agree with ellie. I have had pages load a bit faster and got fewer error messages.

Start at your MSNtv home page. Click on MSNTV tips. From there go to settings heading on the right hand side of that page and click on delete your cookies. Push try it when you get to the net screen, that will bring up an utilities page. Go down to the end to click on the reset cookies button. Then it will be done. The only down side is that once you turn off the unit you will have to log on to whatever sites you need a password to get into. I have the sites automatically recall my password so I can avoid logging in each time but when you do the cookies delete you will have to reset that option on various websites.

I cleanout my cookies and have fewer problems after that with all websites. The only problem then is I have to relogin everywhere that i have a password. I normally have the login saved so I get right in but after you wipe out cookies you have to log back in again.

I use a webtv too. Have you cleaned out your cookies recently??

Thank you and sorry for the private message words. Lets bury the hatchet.

Thank you Steve R for your offer with your tournament. I am going to be doing good to squeeze in the backgammon prize tourney. If I have some room I might do the reversi thing too.. Reversi is not my strong suit but it is for a good cause.

I would like to publicly thank Linda for setting up this tournament and her hard work with Fencer to allow those pawns and knights with full limits of games to enter this tournament through them. I think it is a great idea and I think we will get well beyond 100 players. I encourage all to join this tournament and throw your 5 bucks into the pot. 5 bucks is like 2 new release DVDs at the video store. So chip in. Also I am also adding, that if I should get lucky and win the tournament, I want to donate the 50 bucks to the boost a pawn program that Linda has to get some more pawns memberships. If you know someone who is a pawn and would like a membership and cant afford it, ask them to get in touch with Linda or get their permission to have their ID turned into Linda. I think this is also a great idea. GO BRAINKING!!!!

Like I had said in previous posts, I feel this idea is a special tournament and they should not count toward your games played limit(20 for pawns, 50 for knights) It also should not count against knights or pawns who carry on in another backgammon tournament. This pay tournament should be considered a special exemption from those restrictions. You will get more response that way, in my opinion.

Like I had said in previous posts, I feel this idea is a special tournament and they should not count toward your games played limit(20 for pawns, 50 for knights) It also should not count against knights or pawns who carry on in another backgammon tournament. This pay tournament should be considered a special exemption from those restrictions. You will get more response that way, in my opinion.

I dont use e-mail notifications or it fills my box up full of them. LOL

Getting things tied up into stock by making BrainKing a corporation would make things complicated from the legal aspect. This would make some lawyers who do this for a living rich and I am pretty sure Fencer does not have the resources to start down that path. If he did we would have a new server on the way. LOL

Must be LJ so he can afford that server for BrainKing. LOL

Steve would pay for the server by himself as often as he hits the top of that list. lol

I know we are focused on the short term solution to the server situation. However while we are discussing ways to afford a bigger and better server, lets think about the long term success of Brain King. The only way is gain more PAYING MEMBERS. The only way is to give the pawns a little taste of what they are missing by not being a member. I still feel the best way is to aid them in becoming paying members. Offer tournaments to get more pawns invloved and make the prize of winning it a membership. Sponsor more pawns. I know Linda is doing this already with her Boost a Pawn club. We all have friends and family that we play with on this site. Maybe extend a 6 month membership to them. You pay for it and they get it. THis is a good way to let them in all that they are missing by being a pawn. How many members would seriously consider being a pawn again??? I know it has been suggested that we invent a different level of membership but how about new payment options. Some do not wish to pay for 6 months or 12 months at a time. Offer monthly and 3 month membership plans as well. When you average it out it comes to about 2 dollars a month or so for a rook. Less for a knight. That option to pay as you go each month might make it worth it. You could even set it up as a automatic bank payment each month so they would not have to remember to renew it. I think any pawn could afford 2 or 3 bucks at one time to play as a member each month. Anyone like these ideas or have anything to add??

Why should people be forced to pay for their moves they make in a day? Members are already paying for these moves so why charge them more?? I still like the tournament thing and the idea of renewing memberships, and buying friends a membership and converting pawns into members. That may very well get us to where we need to go next.

I have been getting error stuff for the last couple of days now. Sometimes I try to gain access by typing new.brainking.com into my browser or try getting in through brainking.info. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt.

I do enjoy playing on this site and having a brain knight membership is a luxury item for me as I make only about 10,000 USD right now and have a basic monthly budget of 700 a month. I do not have extras such as cable or satelitte TV or even a car. I get around with help from those who are willing to help me in bad weather. Otherwise I hike to work, grocery store, laundry, etc. I cant afford to pay more. However the members unless they want to should have to pay more. We are already supporting the site. Giving extra perks for donating money is a good idea but it makes those who cant feel inadequate. Sending private donations is ok if you want to. However lets try encouraging pawns to join brainking as at least 6 month pawns for a trial. They can see what membership advantages there are and if they are like me they would never go back to a pawn. Heck 10 USD right now or 10 EUR as of March 1 is a bargain. Be polite and reasonable and not pressure them, but in conversation see what they feel about being a member when you outline the advantages you enjoy. Assist them to the right customer support people for any questions they have about payment too. If just 400 pawns would buy into a brain knight membership for a year there would be enough then to pay for the server and have some left over for saving for future upgrades to the site and BrainKing2. Also I am sure Fencer would hate to do this but maybe for a short while get a sponsor or two for the site. After about 3 or 4 months maybe this would help too. Think about it 400 pawn memberships converted into brain knights is not much at all. That means if each of us can convert one the money would be there. I havent converted any, but I have had a few who said they would when they had the money to do so because they think this is a great site.

and so these are the days of our BrainKing lives. Each board tends to be a soap opera. Why watch them on TV? Just come here to play and you can find one on some board.

I play on a webtv, but occassionally I get to the library and play on there for a little while and the site is fast then. The speed might depend on your system. However yes this site needs a better server which takes money which means we can help by selling this site to others who are pawns or others we meet on other sites. I was a pawn under a different name for a year before I was able to get some extra mad money and now I am a brain knight. I thought about a rook but felt with my schedule I wouldnt be able to handle the load of games that you can play as a rook. I play between 35-40 normal games and the rest of the space is filled by tournament play.

Yes, His wife cole. You jealous?? LOL

There is no doubt this site has so much more upside than IYT. I played at IYT for a good year before discovering this site. I found a link to this site from a message board posting on IYT. Fencer clearly cares more about the players on his site and gives even the pawns more than IYT ever did. I started playing on IYT when it was 40 moves a day. Now I get 25. IYT is a dormant site with no new innovative ideas or games. Fencer has been doing this such short time and already has more features and has more games and creative ideas for games and new features that IYT will never have. This site is just starting its rise while IYT long ago reached its peak and now is falling down the toilet. I know you are not advocating for IYT LJ. However when Fencer gets all the improvements to the site and the better server up and running, look out. Some creative marketing and this site will be unstoppable as long as he continues to devote his free time and energy to this site. I am sure he will.

YEs LongJohn but how many of those players have paid memberships. I know they have a link with the MSNTV people. If you have an MSNTV (webtv) and you go to the games section their site will be linked in with some of the games. SO many of their users either are or were webtv people. Like I said I only play their part time for the games that Fencer has YET to implement but is on his todo list.

I play a few games at IYT that are not available here yet such as the battleboats plus and dark battleboats, sabotage and variations and I play blackhole reversi and ITalian Checkers. Those games are not here yet. I stress the word YET!!! I see some of them coming here in 2004. I would never pay IYT money though. THey want 30 bucks for a membership. THere are limitation on games with that unlike a brain rook for 28 USD here costs.

I know the exchange rate between the Euro and the US dollar varies daily. However just curious what the current and average exchange rate is. I am year long brain knight so I paid 18 USD. WIth the new Euro measurement for paying what does cost me in USD to renew the membership. I know the new exchange does not go into effect until March 1.