Thanks :-)

Since I have to renew my membership soon anyways, i figured i'd have another membership competition so i could pay for them together. I do not want to simply set up a tournament because i want any pawn to be able to enter regardless of their current tournament status, and do not want to give it simply to the person who is the best at a certain game.

So I have decided to have the following competition:

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Any player at the pawn or knight membership level can enter. To enter, you must send me either a private message (to Kevin) or an email (to Kevin_P86@hotmail.com or kevin_p861@yahoo.com) which contains as many english words of a certain length that you can find. However, each word in your list must be the same number of letters and the winners will be decided based on total number of letters in the list of words. All the words must either be found at www.dictionary.com or the URL must be provided to the online dictionary in which it was found. No proper nouns, slang or abbreviations allowed (including those found at www.dictionary.com). The prizes will be a number of 1 year Brain Rook memberships - the number depends on the number of entrants. The deadline for entries will be Friday, March 19, 2004 (the last day of winter). Only one entry per player will be accepted.

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I will allow Rooks to enter as well provided that they give me the name of a pawn or knight that will receive the membership, should they win.

Good luck everyone!
Kevin

Yes, that happened to me as well for a while - a page would partly load, it would show me the beginning of the html tag and fail to load the rest of the page. Eventually i started getting "The page cannot be displayed" messages, at which point i gave up. It seems to be doing better now, however!

I just tested it - created a tournament for signups to end 6:00 on the 15th, and the page loaded and showed 22:00 on the 14th. So (considering i'm GMT -6, and i would assume Czech time is GMT +2), i assume the time entered is Czech time, and it is converted to local time of the user when the page loads.

I just put the chess ratings on Excel, and came up with this:

Total rating points: 407834
Average Rating (252 players): 1618.388889
Total rated games played: 7227
Average games per player: 28.67857143

I find most of my ratings on this site are significantly higher than elsewhere, but that doesn't verify the inaccuracy of the system.

And you'd think there'd be more people towards the bottom of the average (especially provisional ratings) than above, so the median is not necessarily even close to the average.

Try clicking on the link "Time left" again...that should do it :-)

So the total is reset to 30 (in the case of a rook) on January 1? Or does it work like other sites where if you use a vacation day on December 15 2003, you will get that particular day back to use again on Dec 15 2004?

Saskatchewan - 4:21 pm :-)

How would it be changed?

Fencer said he will add 3 months to all existing memberships. And he did.

rod: I absolutely agree. Why not just colour the squares in red and black, and but an "x" or "+" on the square when it's a king?

unbeatableking: Try it. Steal someone's work without their permission and see if they're glad about it.

What if i'm a professional graphician, and draw some checkers graphics. Then someone takes my graphics and uses them, without giving me anything (or even credit) for the work i've done. Wouldn't I be upset, and probably sue for stealing my graphics?

It's not that simple...

No - but if you find some that would work, chances are that Fencer would gladly use them instead of the current chess pieces.

You'd probably just have to draw a pawn (is that what it's called?) and king for each colour (at the biggest size available). And then shrink them for the smaller sizes. I'm not sure how many sizes for checkers graphics are available, but you'd need 4 for each size.

Nope, it's based on when your opponent's last move was - so the game that has been your turn for the longest will show up next.

Well, i was online when tonyhawk's first post was made (the one about unbeatableking bothering him) and what happened was it was first posted with a different user name (i don't remember what). Then, i went on to another db, and saw another new post on this board. The first one was gone, and the exact same post was made with the userid unbeatableking (yes, himself complaining about himself bothering him! lol). Then again, another new post and it was again the exact same post, this time by tonyhawk2004 (the one currently there).

General Chat has 6,813 :-)

No, stored data like this would not slow down anything at all - as long as there is enough space.

Chief: If you want, you can go to one of your games and change the number (after g= ) to the number you want. Or, you can go to their profile.

I had one game where it took it a couple minutes to realize i'd won, but it did eventually, and it only happened that once to me. Hopefully Fencer will look at it.

The ratings aren't saved...if you want your rating restored, you have to know what it was for Fencer to change it :-)

If it matters, there is a limit for rooks which is 1000 started games at once. I know it would be very difficult to reach that limit, and i doubt it anyone ever has, but the limit is still there. I think 100 is a little too extreme to limit. If you are going to lower the limit, make it something a little more reasonable like 400 or 500.

Your restriction is to only be able to join one tournament at a time...as a non paying member.

Yes, but the way it is currently set up, you cannot join a new tournament until all the games in your section finish. However, if you message Fencer (or maybe he'll read this), he can mark you as eliminated (as you have no chance to advance) and then you will be able to join another tournament.

lol...
It seems for me that there is one time a day (approximately the same time every day) in which i cannot log on at all. But other than that, it works great for me! (There might be more times when it's crowded, but i wouldn't know of them ;-) )

Your rating certainly can drop from a win...only if it's provisional. Ratings can do very strange and unexpected things if they are provisional, which is why i sometimes think ratings should not be shown at all until 25 games have been completed. But I'm not saying it should be changed. If your rating it established, it will never lower for a win.

It isn't just based on your total wins and your wins against the people you're tied with! It's based on who you win against, and how many games they've won (and against who and how many points they've won (and against who and how many points they've won (and it's an infinite circle)))
:-)

I doubt it - most games (aparantly including reversi) show the two players opposite boards (flipped). It must show it according to what the current player sees.

Everyone.

It shows it if the user is currently logged on :-)

Do you have automatic log-in on?

Only if you have auto-refresh on. If it is just sitting there with no pages being requested, it won't affect the server at all.

Yep, it would slow it down. But definately not as much as a player actively playing. It might even be good enough to turn auto-refresh off by default, and players can turn it on if they want to.

Yes, those are requests too :-)

Although, the listing as "Brain Rook" might just be because we're rooks (so it says rook for everyone). Has a pawn or knight checked other levels to see if it does that too?

And Knights too :-)

By the way, like has sort of been mentioned, it really has nothing to do with how many people are logged on. It is completely dependent on how active they are at the time, aka how many requests are being sent.

I noticed them about a week ago maybe...was surprising to me too! lol

I've found normally between 9pm and 12am GMT (approximately) i can't get it at all. Other than that, it works fine for me! :-)

Ok, if that's what you want :-) Here is Bernice's entry. (And I'm glad you're excited!)



There was a young man named Kevin,
Who ultimately must have come from heaven,
He has offered a lot,
to people who have not,
Any means of getting real even.

Im sorry but I just couldnt resist the opportunity of writing a stanza or two on this.
I hope you arent offended.
I dont have a real reason for not being a member apart from the fact I am a disabled pensioner and can't afford the $50AUS.
What you are doing is just the greatest thing :)
Good luck in life young man....you will go far :)

Bernice

I will not post any entries without their permission...so if they say i can, I will post them (or i guess they could post them themselves?).

But I'm not going to post them without permission for possible privacy issues.

Congratulations and thank you to everyone who entered!

It really was a tough decision, but i decided on three winners.

Bernice received a 6 month brain rook membership.
Apocalyptica and SueQ received a 6 month brain knight membership.

Thank you again to everyone who entered! :-)

As a pawn you can join ONE tournament of any game at a time. When your section in that tournament finishes, you can join another.

As a rook, you have unlimited tournament entry.

As a knight, you would be allowed to join one tournament of each game type. That includes Halma 8x8 and Halma 10x10 as different games, so you could join about 45 tournaments at a time if you wanted to (i'm not sure exactly how many games there are now).

As you may have read other places, try running your own site. When you encounter a problem, wave your magic wand and *poof* the problem is fixed! If you get good at waving that wand, you might get a lot of problems fixed!

In case you didn't get the hint, it's really not that easy to just magically fix every problem. Especially since, as noted on Brainking.info, this connectivity problem is not the fault of Fencer nor Liquid. It is their service provider. So it certainly won't help to harp them about it when it isn't even in their control.

Secondly, posting your message with the same complaints numerous times is not going to help your cause. If people saw it the first time and nothing happened, why would something happen this time? Are your posts about "Boo hoo, the site is slow and doesn't let me in. Boo hoo" going to help the site run better?

In addition, I notice the picture of a pawn beside your name. This would imply that you are a non-paying member. Considering you are not satisfied with the site's performance (Just a guess - you certainly didn't make that obvious!), that is a good enough reason so please don't bring it up. However, being a non-paying member, you again are not helping the cause of the connectivity and speed problems. The more paying members, the faster and better hardware the site can get.

Finally, if you would notice, the site is not sponsoring the tournament. The tournament is held by GothicChessPro (Ed Trice) and such is covering the prizes. This money is not coming from the site, so please don't complain about it.

Thank you for listening, and happy gaming.

Kevin

If that's a problem, you can always highlight the whole of the text you typed and hit "Ctrl-C" before you hit send. Then, even if it does freeze or stop working, you just hit "Ctrl-V" to paste it back later (assuming you don't restart your computer).

For those of you who missed it the first time, here is a copy of my original message. You still have about a week to enter :-)

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I have deicided to hold a membership competition, but have decided against simply giving it to the person who is best at a certain game. I also wanted to keep it open to all pawns, regardless of whether they are in a tournament or not. Here's how it will work:
1. It is open to all brain pawns who are registered on the site as of the date and time of this message (to prevent people creating multiple accounts and entering more than once)
2. You will send me a message with the title "Kevin's Membership Competition". In it, you will tell me in 100 words or less why you deserve a membership.
3. The deadline for entries will be June 1 at midnight GMT. As long as the message is dated before then, it will be accepted.
4. There will be at least one winner, but could be more depending on quality and quantity of entrants.
5. Please try and use correct spelling, grammar and punctuation. If I can't understand it the first read through, i likely will not try and read it again.
6. Good luck everyone :-)

CleverHunk: I meant send me a message - like a private message on this site :-)

Sorry, I meant June. Thanks for pointing that out :-)

I have deicided to hold a membership competition, but have decided against simply giving it to the person who is best at a certain game. I also wanted to keep it open to all pawns, regardless of whether they are in a tournament or not. Here's how it will work:
1. It is open to all brain pawns who are registered on the site as of the date and time of this message (to prevent people creating multiple accounts and entering more than once)
2. You will send me a message with the title "Kevin's Membership Competition". In it, you will tell me in 100 words or less why you deserve a membership.
3. The deadline for entries will be June 1 at midnight GMT. As long as the message is dated before then, it will be accepted.
4. There will be at least one winner, but could be more depending on quality and quantity of entrants.
5. Please try and use correct spelling, grammar and punctuation. If I can't understand it the first read through, i won't try and read it again.
6. Good luck everyone :-)

The thing about limiting moves Pawns can make is if you're playing a game with them and you are a paying member. Like someone said - the game could last months or even years just because they have used up their moves for the day. So in a way, it's also punishing the paying members.

No, the exchange rate does not matter - i was just trying to show that because you have to pay more than $28 CAD doesn't mean it's more expensive in Canada than it is in US.
Limiting moves certainly is not a good idea - if you want to limit anything, limit games played at a time (I think).

Think of it this way - if you make $50000 CAD a year, or $50000 US per year, do you think that's the same? You will surely be able to buy more with the US dollars than with the same number of Canadian dollars. Right?
Why do you think exchanging your money into US will make you money? If it does, why don't you? Then you can purchase your membership for $28 and be happy! :-)