How is it that I set up game with "Include unrated players" un-ticked, and I specify >2200 rating points, that I can get an unrated player with a provisional rating of 2015 accepting the invitation.
Is there another place where I should put this?

Border C Rule: I propose that anybody who has had to changed their identity on Brainking should be banned from posting - although I'm SURE it won't happen (worse luck!).

They should also be banned from sending pathetic personal messages.

Aganju: I wish I had known that. Thanks for the info!

I put up 6 invitations to play Backgammon, with the message "Please do not accept more than 2 games" (I like to play a variety of opponents, who might have different active time-of-day). One player then accepted all 6 games, despite my message. Is there some way to cancel some of these games? The player in question does not reply to any messages, not even to apologise for accepting all 6 games, even when I have translated the messages to his own language. (Needless to say he/she has now been added to my "blocked user" list, so it won't happen again, but I'd love to be able to just delete the unwanted games.)

I am playing in a tournament where one section is finished, and the other section, where there is already a winner, has two games which looks like they could take another year or more to finish at the current rate. Now I might not live that long, which will drag out the tournament another three years as everybody waits for ME to move. Is there SOME way to get a tournament moving when the players who are holding it up have ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE OF MOVING TO THE NEXT ROUND! This is sooooooo frustrating and totally unnecessary!

ughaibu: Probably not a bad idea if that would improve your concentration

ughaibu: This usually happens to Brain Rooks who are playing so many games that they don't concentrate on each game!

GoodFoods' 6th Broiling Backgammon Invitational (Backgammon)
It's 9 (NINE - that's NINE) YEARS (YEARS, not weeks or days - YEARS since this tournament began, and there are still TWO players playing THE FIRST ROUND!! I'm 75 years old now, and fear that I'll die before I am eligible to play in another tournament, if I don't die before the end of the first round. Is there anything anybody can do to speed things up?
Could we have a feature which would just purge the two players who have not finished, so the rest of us can get on with the tournament while we are all still alive?

That'll be it! Caused me to time out unintentionally in 8 games when I was away for three days.

Why does automatic vacation get randomly turned off? I set AV and had 8 games "you ran out of time". But I guess the boss is not interested. At least we're not playing for cattle ranches!

Thad:The default now is that the inviting player is white, but irt can always be changed. What I was suggesting was that the default was black (but could always be changed by the inviting player)

Since we are taking about defaults, I think it would be good if your default colour when setting up a game was black. Then when a game invitation is accepted, the person accepting can make a move immediately.

diogenysos: Yes, your suggestion of a Fisher Clock on tournaments would be an excellent solution. I second it!
(Incidently, I was a rook when I entered this tournament, and will be again when there is a sensible autopass feature in Backgammon - but on this one I am not holding my breath))

earldrake: ...My last move was October 5, 2011

You are lucky!! I am in one tournament when my last move was made on 19th February 2007 - that's over 5 years ago. Tournaments that run this long are just a joke. I have noticed that the one outstanding game has got to 10-7, and these are 13 point matches. And these players are taking about two weeks between moves, so it looks like being another year or two until this tournament can progress. There are 135 players in this tournament, and these two inconsiderate players look like holding up the whole tournament for some years more. Ridiculous.

likewowman2cool: Fencer has stated repeatedly that he has much higher priorities in terms of making Bk a better site

This is just Fencer-speak for saying that he doesn't give a damn about backgammon and can't be bothered. (I would be surprised if it was more than a couple of hours work to implement.) Fencer has effectively already told me that he can't be bothered, and that he doesn't really care whether I pay for a subscription again or not (so I will stick to my promise and remain a pawn).

(Here is Fencer's reply in this forum 8th July 2011, when this subject was brought up for the third or fourth time"

8. July 2011, 02:19:34
Subject: Re:
pgt: Ummmm. Hmmmmm. Ehm ehm. Mmmmm. Nope. Waste of time.

Aganju: But if I am still blocked on the bar, my opponent can roll again and get out of his ugly position. If his "ugly roll" forces him to unblock the bar, then the auto-pass ends and I get to roll again. "Blocked on the bar" means that, no matter what I roll, I cannot move - I can only double or "pass". If I am wrong, and there is some sensible way that I may want to double when blocked on the bar, when I did not want to double when first blocked, please give me an example.

likewowman2cool: (For example, one could flag all tournament games that contain a long time control, thus making it easier to play those games when you don't have time to play every game each day, or each log-in session.)

So that tournaments with long time control take even longer than seven years to finish?

I personally would never use that option since I would be giving up equity.

You have all the "equity" you will ever need in the first move blocked on the bar, when you can double, or (hopefully) opt to forgo doubling while blocked. I find it difficult to imagine a game where you are blocked on the bar, and would not want to double on the first throw, but (presumably when your opponent has improved his position significantly) would want to double later. If there is something cunning and subtle that I have missed, that would increase my "equity", please explain with an example.

Hrqls: As a humble pawn, I hate taking on a rook, since I can only move forwards!
(I have pledged to become a rook again when a proper auto-pass system is implemented for Backgammon, by the way!) But whether a pawn, bishop, rook, queen or king. six years for one tournament is WAY too long, and I was (humbly) trying to suggest a way that hung-up tournaments might be allowed to proceed a bit more quickly. I am no longer a young man, but I would really like to try to find a way ro finish a tournament which I entered when I WAS a young man.

Hrqls: ...in fact, even better, why not make it impossible to move in any game when you still have moves to make in running tournaments?

Hrqls: And what about all those games that you don't play because it's not a favourite opponent, and it's a tournament that's already been going for six years and doesn't look like finishing for another ten years?

Orlandu: In a REAL game of backgammon, each player rolls one die, and the player who rolls the higher die starts, using the two dice already rolled. This is what is simulated in BK Backgammon, and no change should be made, in my opioion

It seems to be fixed now!

I'm not sure whether I am describing this completely accurately, but when I view "ratings" there is usually a "forward and backward - first page/previous page" capability. But this seems to have disappeared when I display the page on which I appear, and I have no way to go back to the previous page, or on to the next page.
This has only happened fairly recently.

Carl: I think autopass is not over-ridden. It is just that in a game with the cube, autopass does not cut in if double is still an option. Several of us have been trying to persuade the GODS in BRAINKINGLAND that an autopass feature "until I can make a move other than double" would be a good idea, and possible speed some games up a bit.
For God's sake, I have been in a tournament which began 7 years ago and does not look like ending any time soon. I am over 70 now, and despite my (current) good health, I may not last to see then end of this one.

Fencer: Well done! Just what I asked for. Thank you.

Now all we need is a decent autopass feature and I'd pay for membership again :-)

happyjuggler0: That's exactly the problem. I use Firefox, and don't erase cookies either. I installed a new computer about a month ago, and it was working correctly until a couple of days ago, and I don't recall doing anything new or updating anything in the past week.

There seems to have been a change in displaying Backgammon-type games with the doubling cube. The status of the match used to show above the game board, but it is no longer there - or is there some setting I have inadvertently changed?
If not, PLEASE can we have the match status returned to display above the game board.

The rating system is crap! I would love to accept some game with low ranked players, but why should I lose 58 points to lose, or gain one point to win a game of Backgammon? It is utterly ridiculous!. Surely this can be fixed. It;s not chess. How about some reasonable numbers so high ranked players can play with new member without losing HUGE points when they have unlucky streak.

Thad: Exactly!

I inadvertently checked "include unrated players" on a recent game invitation. While I'm happy to play against unrated players, I thought it was bloody ridiculous to see that I will get 0 points for a win, -12 for a draw, and -24 for a loss. How on earth are unrated players meant to get to play against rated players. How about setting up some sort of rating system which is fair to players with an established rating, and which also gives new players an opportunity to move up the ratings reasonably quickly to reach their level,

I might even be prepared to accept 0 points for a loss in a game of skill, but in games like backgammon, which is maybe 70% skill and 30 % luck (I bet that gets some reaction) it seems a bit silly to award zero points for a win - why would anybody interested in ratings ever play against an unrated player?

grenv: Three years is a bit low. I am in a tournament which has been running for almost SIX years (started 18th Nov 2005) and the first round is still not complete. There should be some way to progress this tournament, because six years is way too long for a whole tournament, let alone one round.

happyjuggler0: Yeah! Maybe one of the tournaments I joined 4 years ago might make a bit of progress before I pass away (Is there some way to remove the deceased from tournaments? It seems it might be very necessary)

Backgammon (pgt vs. grenv)

Why should it be necessary to play for another week or more in this game when it could be easily resolved with a proper AUTOPASS feature? Come on Fencer, listen to the customers. Three years ago I promised to become a paying member again when this was implemented. Don't you want the revenue?

grenv: Might I humbly suggest that a decent autopass system in Backgammon, and a proper grading system would be much better candidates for discussion under feature requests than adding a few more (pretty useless) smileys.

Here's my favourite smiley :-)

pgt: I guess after the deafening silence that the answer is "despite the clearly expressed wishes of the customers, I can't be bothered and It ain't going to happen any time soon"

tonyh: It seems that there is pretty general agreement about what would be desirable new features. The only thing we are missing is an authoritative statement saying "great ideas - these will all be implemented in the next three months" or "despite the clearly expressed wishes of the customers, I can't be bothered and It ain't going to happen any time soon"

tonyh: You're not the only one. And I may even pay for a membership when it happens!!!

tonyh: This was discussed some years ago. and I promised to reinstate my paying membership when it was implemented. One also needs the ability to resign and not concede a gammon, thus avoiding many tedious moves until a gammon situation is (inevitably) avoided.

Anybody playing 1000 games and making 1 move every minute would need slightly over 16 hours to make a move in each game. Assuming that even 10% of the opponents are on line and move on the same day, he would then have another 100 or more moves to make. That leaves precious little time for sleeping, eating, going to the toilet, interacting with real human beings, browsing bulletin boards, watching television, shopping, going to the movies. I don't believe that anybody needs to be signed up for more than about 2-300 games concurrently, let alone join a tournament if they are already playing 500 or more games. I have just turned 70, and am still locked into a tournament which started when I was 65, and in which I have not made a move since I was 66. I am likely to time out in the final round(s) simply because I will probably be residing underground before the tournament finishes. That should help to prolong the tournament for another 5 years while I time out involuntarily.

coan.net: Having two or three timeouts is not the problem - it has happened (against me) when playing games with "1 day moves, no days off" and suddenly have to be out of town for three days at a funeral, with no computer access. And I only had 12 games running at the time. The problem is people who have one or more timeouts every week.

Thad: I;d still like to "like" the autopass issue!

Fencer:
Yes, I agree, you are the one who decides which feature requests are important - to you.  But I am the one who decides which feature request are important to me. 
I was about to resign my membership after some years of pleading for a cube implementation on backgammon seemed to fall on deaf ears, and just before my membership expired you implemented a great cube version of the gammon games.  Because I love the site, I renewed my membership for the past two years, in the hope that some of the features which I consider important might be implemented in the future.
The current implementation of autopass is totally unacceptable for the cubed game, and several suggestions for improving it have been made over the last couple of years, but have been completely ignored.  It might be nice to have gold / silver / bronze rooks, but it does nothing for me - unless perhaps maybe I could be a gold pawn when my subscription expires?
I'd be happy to renew my subscription if I could see some evidence that gammon players requests for feature improvements were taken seriously and scheduled for implementation in some realistic timeframe.

Fencer: But even nicer would be a good autopass feature in gammon games (I'll probably not renew my rook membership next month - the important feature requests seem to be ignored)

I know this has been raised before, but does anybody have any idea if (whether) there is a plan to implement a proper workable autopass capability for gammon-type games, including cubed games. It seems to me that this has been a part of the feature requests for some years now.

tonyh: Ok - Bridge is not actually a "turn-based: game, There are plenty of good sites on the internet where you can play bridge real time (for example, www.okbridge,com). I play bridge two or three times a week at real bridge clubs with real people, and when somebody takes three minutes to make a bid, it is S L O W !!! Imagine somebody taking two weeks! It just would not work. But go ahead and push for turn-based bridge at three months per hand if you like. I think I will stick to 28 boards per night. I'll stick to backgammon and chess and variants which this site is brilliant at.

tonyh: Not a major change!! Rubbish! It would not be bridge at all.

tonyh: Absolutely! I have a game like that which has been going about 7 weeks in just this situation (in reverse - I have to wait for a couple of days for my opponent to pass, when he has no option.) It is time something was done about it. The tournament I am in will probably finish about 3 years after my funeral at this rate.

The old presentation made it obvious which were Backgammon and which were Cloning BG games, The new blue top and bottom borders on both games is a definite confusion. I have just played three Backgammon games as if they were cloning backgammon, because of the top and bottom blue border. Can we PLEASE have some sort of obvious differentiation on these game boards?

tazman7474: Oh dear! I was about to propose a compulsory Genealogy feature, where we could build a great big Brain King Family Tree. We're proably ALL related if we can go back far enough

emmett: What if the family members live on opposite sides of the globe?