Board for everybody who is interested in BrainKing itself, its structure, features and future.
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grenvthompson: that's correct. Alot has to depend on the bkr of your opponent. Sometimes a player receives no increase of bkr in a victory if your opponent is less rated then yourself.
Carnie I sent you a game invite for hyper backgammon. I play my games daily and often check in when i have a free moment to make moves. Also as a pawn, I do not have hundreds or even over a 1000 games to get through to get your game with me.
Carnie: I typically avoid multi-game matches in most cases. They take too long. Some people in tournaments drag their feet and we have had tournaments that have gone on for years and are still going on. In a some cases a few players no longer play here or they have died waiting for these tournaments to play out. Like you said the way things are going Brainking will be gone before you finish the 10 wins match.
I hate to play with slow people. I never join a tournament with time more than 3 days. It's not a problem when we are a rook but I understand it's a real problem for pawns, bishops or knights with limited moves.
When I was a rook, I played hundreds of games at a time and rarely ended a day without moving on each game at least once Now i am a pawn and carry 20 games, I find the games tend to move too slow for me I also play at bug cafe but unless you pay, you only get 15 moves per day. However a month long membership is only 5 dollars USD. A year is 30 USD. You can also do 3 month and 6 month memberships. If you like word games that is a great place for you and they have other games that brainking doesnt have like cribbage and canasta.
Carnie: you have the possibility to delete a game before you make the 1st move.... so you have the possibility to make such decition but only at beginning (there is a link on the bottom "delete game", which disappears if you decide to make your first move instead...
Carnie: There could. There could be all kind of such rules, and they have been discussed before (about once a year... scroll down.) In a nutshell, it is not that easy. There are people that have 800 games running, and play all of them multiple times a days. And there are people who have five games and play each one after 30 days once. In other words, the count is not a good predictor of playing speed.
The only solution currently is that you make your own list of 'slow' players, and don't play with them anymore.
P.S.: My preferred idea is that the system shows at each players profile his 'average time to move' for the last 60 days; and that you can chose to 'hide all games and tournaments' where this number is greater than a number you decide.
speachless: Yes, I agree. In France, a young programmer who begins already costs 5000 euros per month without taxes. If you add taxes.... and it depends in which country is the server. And it's necessary too to be helped with a graphic designer. It's a lot of job.
Marshmud: indeed, Fencer made a great job, its unnacceptable that someone injures him. And all the questions we pointed here... Well, Fencer is having them now himself, of course.
purchasing brainking makes to me only sense, if getting first the possibility to look into the accounting of the last years. Followed by a deal which includes a handing over to a new programmer. If a group comes together than I don't see a problem on who gonna decide what, cause for every serious organisation you gonna define the rules for every member since beginning.... for a group to take over I think the only issue could be to get together and deals done, so it sounds time consuming.... maybe better if only a few people comes together from a country, where programmer doesn't cost too much per hour... here in switzerland regular programmer asks between 80 to 200 euro for each hour of work...or some thousands euro a month if it's gonna be a full time job, which probably doesn't make sense....
I told fencer many times it was a mistake to have a open forum where people could bitch to fencer and he has taken some crap over the years. I'm not defending fencer or brainking but I think it is a mistake to have a open forum to complain. Imo he should of kept Rod in charge. lol ...Seriously he needed someone on salary to deal with problems. Not a open forum to just piss off fencer and its author. I know of no other sites where you can log on to a site a talk with everybody on a public forum and complain about the owner.
An interesting idea of multiple players pooling financial resources and share owning the site. However who would be the one in charge. You know what they say about too many cooks. How would final decisions get made on questions raised? And of course as Gabriel points out, you need a programmer or maybe two. Being a programmer could be a full-time job. If you are talking about 30-40 USD an hour based on a 40 hour week that is between 1200 and 1600 dollars a week. If one of the owners or possibly more could do the programming, then how much time would they actually have to enjoy playing games? Fencer doesn't play many games and as far as I can tell, never did. If you are going to make this site an investment, you have to consider not only the money to put into it, but also the time and can you earn your investment back and make a profit? If you are in it for a hobby as it was suggested earlier, is the kind of money Fencer is possibly looking for worth it? There are far less expensive and worthwhile hobbies. It almost sounds like those who can't let go are the same type who can't accept the Trump election results. If the site can be saved, that is great. If it can't let it go. It is not healthy to hold on to something that isn't meant to last. This is just my opinion. Not looking for an argument here.
Gabriel Almeida: Most don't know what is involved maintaining a site like brainking. You need a full time programmer or even two if your working on new ideas or games. I spent time investigating the purchase of BK. Its hard to know how much of BK would be transferred on a sale of BK. Most don't know the vast amount of code wrote for BK or over 15 years of game data.. Its truly a one of a kind site. You cant buy it and expect income immediately until you show the public you mean business to attract the old and new players. Plus the expenses just to keep it online. Its not cheap.
SL-Mark:crowdfunding seems a good idea, but I believe the most dfcult question is the technical one. Without Fencer we loose the programer of the site. Im not a programer, but I believe the program codes and experience in this peculiar site are not easily shared. So, we need the money to buy the site, but also the know-how to keep it rolling.
We could have a player buy out , 100 players @ $100 each. And then a further $100 ea / year for the operating costs. These players could then become Maharajahs as well as business owners, though judging by some of the forums, it would make an interesting management team! :)
Anyone thought about using Crowdfunding to raise the capital?
Marshmud: I think that 60000 dollars for this website is actually very expensive, because this site declines. In France, the average price of websites is lower, even for commercial sites with more customers per month and giving more money. But I can understand that Fencer has difficulties to sell his "baby" he created.
SL-Mark: I also looked for the probable value of the site. From France, I don't find the same value (of course : Brainking isn't known in France). Here's the result : http://www.estimasite.com/brainking.com
And you can see on the graph that the value of the site decreases.
ketchuplover: Yes, the number of members is steady but several paying members, as me, aren't very active, and I'm not sure to renew my subscription, and not for a question of money, because I can pay.
Marshmud: And to make it sound as a fair deal, fencer was going to stay on for one year to help for free and I believe liquid was 30usd or 40 usd a hour. This is only a idea of what he wanted then. I'm sure he could update anyone interested in BK but anyone can name any price on something they own.
Mélusine: Well a little over a year ago he wanted about 60g usd . I'm not sure but I think my offer of 25,000 never made it to the table as I thought it would insult him. I got sick with cancer and just stopped communicating with fencer. Everyone I talked to which included many programmers here at BK along with my family attourny said I was crazy, that Bk would have to be a hobby if I bought it. I see BK only surviving if a programmer buys it and can work with fencer learning his code...so to speak. In my opinion I don't see how someone can buy BK and then hire a programmer at 30 usd a hour to repair. That's a lot of money folks imo. It was fencers and liquids brainchild and I don't see how it can go on.
ketchuplover:actual activity in brainking is ridiculous.
See if you can start any team tournament of any non-dice game.
Although, this is clearly the best turn based games site, in my opinion, and people are staying "around", as pawns, waiting to see what will happen. Thats what ot looks to me.
I hope something good happens. In this conditions I also will not renew my membership, but I'll be nearby! :)
The number of memberships has remained fairly steady. Currently there 281 in total. How many are actually active I don't know. 27 are knight or bishop level. Rest are white rook or higher.
Valuation is an opinion. "Ask five website buyers what they think your website is worth, and you’re likely to get five different answers. Each buyer would likely have a different valuation number and potentially a different method for creating the valuation."
But for fun only, these calculators returned the following results for Brainking.com (try facebook.com which has known value and you will see these calculators are somewhat off): http://www.worthofweb.com/calculator/ $22,372 http://www.siteprice.org/ $14,241 www.yourwebsitevalue.com/ $9,168
The price of a website mainly depends on the number of visitors per month. Actually, I think that the paying members decrease on Brainking, so the price of the site decreases too, so to make an offer is difficult.