Bosko Biati: What Avatars? This is a most mysterious request.

grenv: I think Bosko means people's piccies. I'm curious which ones he finds disgusting...

playBunny: Yours is pretty offensive to the carrot worshipping natives of vegetopia. Fortunately they don't usually have internet access.

playBunny: also offensive to bald headed hunters, tazmanian devils, fueding hillbillies, ducks that have a lisp and of coarse angry martians that are only 2 feet tall that wear a broom on their head

grenv, Vikings: funny you should say that. I'd actually edited my post to say that "He surely couldn't mean mine, not even the naked full-sized picture of me with a suggestive carrot", but BrainKing went dead for a while and the edit didn't go through.

Back on topic, please. :-)

playBunny: There are many piccies with awful grimaces which e.g. Bosko and I and other surely want to switch off.
What is the problem about making a switch in preferences: "Show other players avatars: Yes No"?

In game notation you can easily see when the piece is moved from bar (bar-2) but there is no notation when the piece is moved on bar.
It could be shown easily by using some special mark in notation. (12-11!) could mean that opponents piece was captured on triangle 11 and placed on bar.

TJuTZu: Yep. The standard notation is an asterisk. 12/11*

playBunny: That is good as well as long it is there :)

Like this?

excellent! The only thing missing is now the dice rolled. (and then to make it downloadable)

Luke Skywalker: The dice rolled can be deducted from the notation. For example 12-11, 9-3 means 1-6 roll.

Fencer: you cannot always deduce dice roll from a (pass).
But then again, what do I know about game notations?

pauloaguia: Okay, that's an exception.

Fencer: Nice to see those *s. :-D

Dice can also not be deduced when you can only move one number because you are blocked on the other, and on bearing off when you don't use the ecact roll. The latter one is only strictly necessary if doing analysis on the dice rolls themselves - an unlikely need with games played here, lol.

There are two reasons why I'd like to see the dice rolls. One is that when I go through a game I want to look at the dice and then see what I would do with the roll before I see the move itself. Having to work out the dice from the move (which is not an at-a-glance operation anyway) makes this impossible. The second reason is that I have a program to download the moves list into a file for analysis but without the dice values it's unreadable by the analyser. I've made it so that the download program reads every game page for the missing (non deducable) dice rolls, which makes it a pretty bandwidth intensive operation.

Is there any way to view an opponent's vacation table? I.e., to determine what days the opponent has marked as vacation? If not, I think there should be.

alanback: Only the vacation for the future days. Not today or in the past.

Fencer: And how is that done?

alanback: On the player's profile.

Fencer: I don't see any link to check vacation days on the profile page.

alanback: Look at this profile, for example.

Fencer: I see it there, but there is no such information on the profile page for my opponent mentioned before. Of course, it is possible that today is the last day of her vacation.

alanback: Yes, it's the last day of her vacation.

Fencer: Thanks :)

alanback: Also auto-vacations will not show up since those are taken at the "last minute"

BIG BAD WOLF: Right, but in the case in question the opponent has no auto vacation days remaining.

Could the current action of all online opponents be added as a title element, for checking by hovering the mouse pointer over their username in the game list? Or do we always have to click on Online Opponents to see that?

WhiteTower: Huh?

Fencer: I think be title element, he means tool tip.

Thad: Indeed, I used the HTML reference "title=..." - I wonder if Fencer ever reads his own website's source :P Just kidding ;)

Hi,

It should be good, if we can see the user ratings like 1., 2., 3. etc. and total count of players on the profiles without to click on it.

I would like an option to "move and then go to the next fischers clock game".....

Thanks!

In multipoint backgammon matches, since not all games are worth the same, it would be helpful to provide more information in the match history table. Best would be to add columns showing the value of the game (single, gammon, backgammon or 1x, 2x, 3x), the ending value of the cube (i.e. the value after the last accepted double), and the total point value of the game (which would be the product of the first two columns). It would be nice to see the running match score also. I recognize this is asking for a lot of information.

In addition, would it be possible to display the match history table every time the board is displayed, rather than just once per turn?

Since the stair system is supposed to be an alternative methode from BKR or tournaments to determine a ranking of players, doesn't it make sense to have all stairs games played unrated? There are some people with low ratings who it is not worth me playing when BKR is involved, since I will gain 1point if I win and lose 12 if I lose, for example. And in a game like backgammon with a lot of luck involved, it just isnt worth the risk to play someone with a low rating in a normal game. But we sometimes have to play these players in a stairs match as we dont have contreoll over who challenges us.

So I would like to have the stairs games unrated!
Thanks.

alanback: It would also be nice if the current score (Ex: pauloaguia: 5pts - alanback 6 pts) would also appear in the message sent when each game ends...

Czuch Chuckers: Why dont you suggest that your games against higher rated players are rated and the games against lower (not worth) players are not rated...then you dont risk anything?

Czuch Chuckers: I think that's the worst idea I ever heard. If you play a competitive game it shouhld be rated. If you play a low rated player try beating them, that won't affect your rating.

grenv: he must be joking :)

grenv: I've got a worse idea! Let's use a Chess rating formula for Backgammon and other games with luck in them. That way the ratings can be unfair and wrong at the same time!

grenv: Low rated players may not be bad players, just new to Brain King

playBunny: Or how about the idea that the ratings actually mean something that has a material impact on your life and choose your opponents accordingly. Relax, it's just a game. Nobody cares what your stupid rating is.

grenv: Wow, grenv, you sound so angry! Lighten up dude.

playBunny: If I jump around happily will that help?



I'm just tired of people complaining about playing players with low ratings. I play all sorts of lower rated players without too much affect on my oh so important rating.

grenv: Speaking of ratings, I'm back at number 1 again. You up for a couple games? :)

grenv: LOL.

Tired, sure, but I imagine you understand the point of view, even if it's not one that's matters to you.

For me the ratings are important because they are another game, and one that I can be keenly competitive about. Stairs is a new competition, also great fun. In these "meta-games" the actual matches are simply moves in the outer competition. This tiring discussion is about whether the resulting moves are appropriate. Naturally it's of no importance to those who don't care about the game and don't play it. ;-)

I recently joined this site, therefore I am a low rated player. My favorite game is Halma 10; I had beaten some of the best Halma and Halma 10 players on IYT before dropping that site. I very much liked the way their Halma 10 tournaments were set up-most fair and challenging and all in the open. I'm holding my own here in my Halma games and have won most of my Halma and Halma 10 games on Goldtoken site, which I also recently joined. "Do I have any challengers for Halma 10?" The best are welcome in single or tournament play to take on this low rated player! ;~)

Dryznik: This is actually the wrong board to be making such a request, as it's not about additions or changes to how the site works - the main topic of this board. However it's strangely appropriate because of the timing and the current topic, lol.

I'd recommend that you join all the Halma Stairs. That way you get to choose matches with the highest player available and they can't refuse. Stairs are a great way for a strong new player to get a high rating!

Welcome to BrainKing, Dryznik. I think you'll find that it's an experience way beyond what you're used to at the other sites.

playBunny:

If the ratings work properly it shouldn't matter how lowly the opponent is rated.

If the ratings don't work properly (as may be in backgammon) then it shouldn't matter what your rating is.

Either way I think the ratings will be more accurate and therefore more meaningful if EVERY competitive game played is counted.

1) True. The right formula allows anyone to play anyone else equitably.

2) Too black and white. It means that the game (chase the ratings) is flawed, not that it's invalid.

3) I disagree. If some match results are fair and others are not then accuracy is compromised.

I'm not saying that Stairs matches shouldn't count towards ratings. I'm glad that they do, in fact. But I will stay away from the single-match Stairs (and also tournaments) until the day we get a proper Backgammon formula. And I'll keep pushing for that periodically despite everyone getting tired of it, me included.