Fencer: That's weird. I choose not sorted by BKR precisely because I wanted to give everybody a chance to get some byes in a few tournaments.
It doesn't seem at all that obvious to me that by unchecking an option to sort the players, I get precisely the opposite effect... at least, sorting by BKR would have made it a little more varied than it is now...

I think this should either be changed or a better explanation be placed by that option...

Also, since no game has been finished yet, and no BKR changes have yet occurred, would it be to much to ask if the games were all deleted and the tournament reseeded (or restarted with a sorte by BKR option, at least)?

In Single elimination tournaments using byes, what's the criteria to select who get's a bye? In Aventura IX the same people aren't playing a single game and all the pairings are the same (I play every game against the same palyer - over 100 games between the 2 of us)

Why?

tinksbell: Did you happen to change your vacation days?
I got that, some time ago when I removed a vacation day from the end of my vacations. Many games of mine (the non Fischer clock ones) went suddenly from 3 days left to -8 or -9 days left. Since that day was already marked as a vacation day I ended up not timing up on any of those games, but I got quite a scare.

Fencer: I can get here now. Been out for about an hour or so...

awesome: I think she was being ironic...

Bluefin: Depends on what you're trying to accomplish. Maybe the option you want is to have a match with 2 games? (As opposed to a single game match, the default option).
The check box you mention is for when you create multiple games/matches to have them start in alternating colors (so, if you create 8 games, 4 will start and white and 4 will start as black).

Fencer: On the other hand, I am not sure if I reset the start position if multiple invitations are created at once.
I'd bet on this last one. It has happened to me in several games too... However, I have many different as well and they were created at the same time too...

AbigailII: Prize tournaments can just as easilly be restricted to non-paying members only. In fact, many are... I bought a subscription and can't enter many prize tournaments because of that
You don't buy a subscription with BK to win more money, but to play more games at once, take more vacation days, etc.

That said, I aggree with everything else you said...

pedestrian: The player that started the game can also check the board and withdraw the invitation... it's not such a big advantage for the other player...

rabbitoid: I never suggested it should be fixed in a hurry. I'm a programmer myself and know all about "simple things having big impacts" That's one of the reasons why I'm stressing the fact that this doesn't change much over the current implementation - less changes means less things that could go wrong.

Anyway, I was just replying to the thread that came up about people abusing the current system. I've suggested this approach a few times in the past and nothing has been done yet. But I'm patient, I can wait even more days, months or years
Personally I don't care much about people abusing the vacation system against me - I already have a few opponents that drag their games (and come to think of it, I'm dragging some of my own lately).

AbigailII: Fischer clock settings means no vacation days on this site. So I'll assume it's not a Fischer clock game
The fact that you already spend your vacation day is not a problem - it's set on your account as a vacation day. Any other game that would otherwise timeout during that day will also get extended time when the moment arrives without wasting another vacation day, this is already how it works today.

nodnarbo: After a site's downtime no time checking functions are running on the site, if I understand correctly. That's why games go into negative time - there's no function running that will make them timeout in the background. However, if you allow games to go into negative times in normal conditions (while all these processes are executing) changes could indeed be profound.


Again, my main point was that NO CHANGES in the timeout or vacation days mechanisms need to be done. The only change would be the calculation of the deadline for timeout. Everything else would continue to work as currently. But, of course, only Fencer can say for sure if my reasoning is correct or not - he's the master of all time around here

AbigailII: I was just commenting on current site's implementation (as I think it is. I'm not really sure, for all I know it can be as you described already). I aggree that setting it for all the games is probably more efficient, my focus was on not having to implement anything different (but, like I said, for all I know it can already work as you described)

Why subtract 1 vacation day? I suppose you're thinking about autovacation, but pawns have no such feature, they need to set their vacation days manually (and so can paying members). I can't see why a vacation day should be subtracted if one is already set. Activating autovac and actually using vacation days are two different features right now (and will probably remain so)

EDIT: On second though, I don't aggree. The site should only add 24 hours to the games that would expire on the same day, not to all games. Otherwise, we'll get back to the same problem (a 30 days per move game has no need to geting extra 24 hours daily from almost 1 month in advance). Also, if it's not the player's turn, the time settings shouldn't be changed - otherwise I could have extra time added to my games because my opponent was on vacation, even if I'm out of vacation days already).

rabbitoid: The solution is very simple - the site shouldn't set the timeout of games according to vacation days like now but according to their original time settings (much simpler too).

So, if you have the next month set as vacation days and your opponent moves on a 3 days per move game, the deadline would still be set as in 3 days for now (instead of in 1 month as it is now). However, in 3 days from now, when the game was about to timeout, the system would notice that it was a day marked as vacation day and add another 24 hours (this is already working like this now, I think). And it would keep doing that until either a non-vacation day was reached (timeout) or you moved (business as usual).
Naturally, you shouldn't be able to mark the current day as a vacation day (which you can't already).

So, the site already has everything it needs to fight this problem. This would be one of those rare events where to solve it, all it takes is actually de-implementing something

Undertaker.: AbigailII just pointed out some flaws in the system you were proposing (which, by the way, I also think was preetty weak at some points)
Then took the opportunity to present once more the case for Glicko as a system that already covered some of thos flaws and even addressed the original this last problem you brought because in Glicko, in order to keep a good ranking, you must keep playing or it will decrease because you don't have many recent games...

I'd also like to see other rating systems in place at BK, but seems to me that this discussion is being missdirected because of some missunderstandings about some of the previous messages...

Hrqls: when the person doesnt time out but no vacation days are use .. then it might be that he has that day set as his weekend... or that a previous game has already timed out that same day and the day is already set as vacation. If people monitor the opponent's vacation days only just before the game between them times out, it may appear that the opponent didn't loose any vacation days when autovacation kicked in...

yourturn: You can start New Games (second link, top left) and wait for someone to accept the invitation.
Or you can look for open invitations at the Waiting Games area (third link).

Czuch: thank you. I'll relay that info for him.

Czuch: Yes, he said the table was no limit 500, 5/10 and it happened sometime between 21:00 and 21:30 (22:00 - 22:30, server time)

Fencer: I forwarded your request, but I wasn't asking for a fix (yet).
I was trying to determine if the version currently available is supposed to be free from most of those bugs or if that version will only be made online next week and it's possible to find some bugs now that are already corrected for that version...

And I only posted it on a public board because I'm sure other people are interested in the answer to this question too...

JPS posted on the portuguese board about having lost with a flush to a pair last night
BrainKing.pt (JPS, 2009-03-05 23:23:49) (I don't know the details of when exactly, you can ask him if you need any).

Since the announcement was made that all bugs were corrected and the official version will be released next week, I'm asking if those bugs should have occurred or will only be corrected next week?

Constellation36: And why some players have more than 100-200 started games at a certain time? I mean if they can't keep up with so many games they should not play them and not play like snails.

The number of games a person has says little about his/her ability to play.
I used to have almost 900 games running at one time. Every day I brought my waiting games list down to 0. Many of the games I didn't play every day, though, because my opponents weren't fast enough. Others I played over a dozen moves a day, because my opponent moved as soon as I did.
If I waited for those games to finish before starting new ones, I'd still be waiting for those that aren't that fast to play...
Just to say that having 100-200 games, doesn't mean much per se...

Pedro Martínez: Why do you say that? It says you won the game, not that black won...
Also, Horde Chess is one of the most biased games in the site. Because of that many people choose to play it as 2 games matches to be fair for both players. Often these 2 games matches end in a draw (1 win for each player).
Yet, in the statistics, the number of draws is very small... Most of them probably from agreement between the players.

AbigailII: Brainking reports the match as a draw and your BKR is calculated based on match results.
However, those statistics are color based statistics. I'm guessing they refer to game results rather than match results...

But I'm sure Fencer will enlighten us...

AbigailII: Actually I think it's the number of won games.
If not, in a 2 game match, how would you count it if a player won both games? As a black victory or a white victory?

Snoopy: Oh, I see... I'd call that a bug

Nothingness: I cannot see any invitation from you in the Waiting Games list...
I think in guest mode you can sell all games... I say this because I noticed in the past that the red number by the waiting games list is always much bigger than the one I can see when I'm logged in... but then again, I may be wrong.

Snoopy: You cannot accept games in guest mode... Can you?

Can anybody tell me what would have happened if white had moved the queen to C7? Draw or Win?
Corrida de Reis (pauloaguia vs. jitkasafa)

The rules don't specify what happens in this situation...

Czuch: I can see some reasons why people could prefer to still receive those messages.
I think you still have the hability to get out of the fellowship... or you can always ask the BB to kick you out

Czuch: If I'm not mistaken, only rooks can be Big Bosses.
If a Rook doesn't renew the subscription, though, I think it will become BigBoss until (s)he hands over the job to someone else... but his/her powers will be diminished like you seem to be experiencing...

Tuesday: I didn't ask first because you entered a contest where the prize was an interview - I assumed you were interested

Sorry for the Off-Topic but Interviews is still in this board's subject. I'd just like to warn all that follow the interviews about the Chrsitmas Interview Special. You can read more about it in the Interviews board. Please post any questions and comments there...

Rose: When the servers changed, the old server was redirecting to web.brainking.com which has probably been created in advance for DNS servers to be properly updated by the time of the change.
If you still haven't closed your browser since or have one of those session saving features that reopens all your tabs when you open the browser, than it's likely you never got redirected back to the standard address. Just type brainking.com at the URL text box and you're all set.

But it will work either way, as long as Fencer doesn't deactivate the web.brainking.com address

coan.net: Which could also be made easier if the teams list was sorted
thanks anyway, I think I'll just leave a message at the Feature Requests board about this...

WellyWales: Those are the ones I'm in. Isn't there someway from the fellowship page to knows the ones I'm NOT in?

What is the easiest way to find out which teams in a given fellowship I'm NOT currently in?

MadMonkey: it either didn't last an hour or didn't affect that many people. I've been online for a few hours now (coming here every now and then) and didn't notice anything unusual...

Binabik: Goto Settings. At the bottom of the General tab set Sort next game by "Time of Last Move" (ascending order)

Bernice: Daylight saving time started in Europe, where the BrainKing server is located... so the server time has been adjusted.

Bjornalmar: You can create games with 1h / game (each player has 1h to make all his moves, meaning the game can last up to 2h max - usually less).
If you create games with such settings either one of three things will occur - you find nobody willing to play such games against you; or you find players to play against you but realize that it's not such a good idea to play very fast games on this site; or you find players that play fast just like you want and all goes well.

Good luck with your games

Czuch: Sometimes I say those things. Sometimes I say much more. Sometimes I go a whole game without saying nothing at all...

Should such a setting let me play against you or not?

wetware: 5 days ago this line was published in the BK.info blog:

<quote>However, there is something ... (to be continued)</quote>

I wonder...

nabla: I could swear it didn't used to...

AbigailII: Just delete the email address before posting. It's not mandatory.
That's what I do every time I comment (I just wish I had an option to turn it off completely)

Czuch: The problem is, that if that were the reason for problems here, it would not be a unique problem just for this site alone, would it?
It depends on where the problem lies... if it's a problem closer to the server, then you may only notice it on a few sites (those at the same host that BK.com, for instance).
Why only some people complain about it is what I think doesn't fit into this theory, not the fact that itonly affects one site.

The only reason I can think of is perhaps this is the only very commonly used web site that hails from the Czech Republic, and perhaps if we were all using another site from Czechoslovakia, we would find similar inconsistencies that we see now?
Which is why I suggest people check to see BK.info when they have problems with BK.com. They're hosted on different machines (I think) and at the same provider... if people only have problems with BK.com then I'll start supporting the "server problem theory" again.

P.S: Czechoslovakia hasn't existed over a decade now

nodnarbo: Sometimes the button doesn't appear when you click a game directly from the MainPage... I think the idea is - if you choose a specific game then you shouldn't want to play it later (I don't aggree with this principle but that's how it works - fortunatelly it's only some of the times)
coan.netThe button shows up in lightweight version.

Czuch: But you have yet to address the reason Brainking seems to be so inconsistent between uses by the same user? Why are some days "normal" and other days with "problems"? Why is it different for Brainking than for other sites that all appear to be at least consistently good or poor?
The theory about problems in the connection between the user and the server is consistent with this symptoms - one hour you can be directed through a quick, less congestioned route; other times you can b routed through half way accross the world before getting to the destination. The internet can be very unstable sometimes...

All this recent talk about BrainKing.info just made me think about one thing though - if the problem is indeed in the route between the user and the server, then I guess people also have problems with the BrainKing.info site? I mean, the pages can be 2-4 times smaller than the regular BK.com pages but for the people complaining about the pages taking over 30sec to load I'm sure they'll notice some slowness too...
If, on the other hand, BK.info pages take only a couple of seconds to load, then other alternate theories should be considered...
And anyway, it's an alternative to test for people that say they don't know of other sites in Czech Republic to test from...

(For the record, I think that this is the most likelly theory... but it doesn't mean it shouldn't be proved somehow)

Fencer: The comment form will only be displayed if you are already logged in. If not you have to click the "log in" link (in tvery tiny letters at the bottomof the page), log in, be sent to a weird page that seems to be an administration menu of some sort, click the "back to weblog ink", find the entry you want to comment and click the "comments" link and finally scroll down to the log in form.

With practice this takes just a few seconds, but it's boring nevertheles...

MadMonkey: http://brainking.com/pt/ReadBug?bgi=1469

MadMonkey: Ponds are waiting too...
Seems like the timed scripts have stopped working.