Bernice: Thank you and Happy Christmas to you and all.

Bernice: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S :)

El Cid: as we cannot set vacation days anymore, i mean to assign them to specific dates and are dependent on the automatic use i am strongly against your suggestion .. i might be on vacation or a working trip without spare time to play for more than 1 month ... that is what my vacation days are for

you can see i didnt use all of them this year, so i dont delay games on purpose

if you want games which cannot be delayed, then use any of the appropriate time controls

El Cid: I understand what you mean, but it has the same effect - who cares how many vacation days he has left after all his games timed out.
My point is that if you think that people have to much vacation, the total vacation time should be reduced, not its usability.

The whole discussion comes back to the old point of 'some people drag the games out too long by using up all the time they have'. That has been discussed often here, and looking at vacation days is just another flavor of it. There is no solution, except not playing with people who do that, or not playing in tournaments that allow it. So take your pick.

No, what I mean is that if a user doesn't login for a month, then their autovacation would be set to off. That is, they would keep all of their remaining vacation days, but the autovacation feature (that automatically reduces the vacation time you still have left, when you timeout in a game) would be suspended. Therefore, instead of delaying a game for two months (until the 30 vacation days are used), the game would end when it times out and if the user logs in again in July, he(she) would have all of the vacation days left.

I'll give an example Gamão (Royal__Flush vs. ennukene00) Under my suggestion, ennukene00 would still use the autovacation days for january 1st, but after that the game would timeout (when the time limit was reached) and he would keep the 29 remaining days for when he logs in again. As it is now, the game will probably only end in late february, the site will be considering a time-out for every hour during two months and an hour of vacation days left will be reduced.

I hope I was clearer this time

El Cid: do you mean you want the vacation they have invalidated? Either they have it,or they don't. What you asked is basically to cut all vacation down to 30 days.
I could agree with that, but it would be a clearer statement that way.

coan.net: Given the "kick off" ... how about the feature I ask every year, at this time, that people that do not login for a month have their autovacation suspended?
The checking is already being made (they appear with a grey background in some pages) and it would reduce the two month delay that happens with the vacation days renewal...

Hey Fencer - since you are playing around with the code, you could always throw out a couple of quick new games. Here are a couple of variants that I wouldn't think would take much work, but should be just as popular as the current games.

#1: Logik-6: Logik-6 is the same game as the popular Logik game, but with 6 spaces instead of 5.

#2: Ludo Express: Ludo Express is the same as regular Ludo, with the following changes: (1) Get out of the start with either 1 or 6, (2) Roll 2 dice each turn... double mean nothing special, (3) Each dice is separate - like Backgammon, you first make your move with one of your dice, and then the other - with the same or different piece.

Ludo is already a popular game, and quicker games are always popular - so making Ludo an ever quicker game would work very well.

(Can't blame me for always trying for a new game here and there! Merry Christmas!)

Fencer: Sorry I was away from the computer for most of the day. I have checked now and everything is okay. Thanks for sorting that problem out. Happy Christmas to you.

fine again now

Fencer: its working now can see completed games thanks so much fencer merry christmas

Can you check it now?

crosseyed: Oops! Due to a misclick in the latest update, some games were incorrectly moved to a database that is reserved for year 2015.
A fix in progress.

SL-Mark: I am glad it is not only me. Hopefully it will get back to normal soon.

SL-Mark:  now I see it that is strange maybe fencer will take a look

crosseyed: Yes, happening to me too.
For example in Beach's tournament Christmas Greetings
Christmas Greetings
the completed games against Doris and tigar4o are not viewable.

I'm having problems viewing the results of the Nackgammon VII team tournament. Is this the same for everyone?

crosseyed:  not seeing that but I will watch for it

Is anyone else getting the same thing as me where a game ends but I cannot see it anymore as it states the game has been deleted?

Fencer: I believe we must trust (and support) the plaisure of share and give. Besides, that's the spirit of christmas... :)

Fencer: Good to see you here...:} Merry Christmas to you and yours Fencer.

BGBedlam: Well, I didn't plan to create any action at all this year, so this one was started without any preparation or detailed rules. Ergo, I would like to keep it simple.
Maybe next time I will define more sophisticated rules, along with an automatic system that would prevent any possible exploits.
I guess that some people won't take it as a real membership promotion because of a "what's in it for me?" problem. It's their prerogative, of course. As I say, this is just a simple "let's try it and see where it goes" action, nothing more. For the time being, I would like to keep it as it is.

Fencer: I see that you're discouraging people swapping vouchers with each other Fencer, but is there anything wrong with this really. Maybe a limit of one voucher per friend would be sufficient. I the vouchers are going to be given away anyway. does it really matter if they go round in a circle?

I've updated the action description, regarding this issue.

Aganju: Yes, I know that no matter how good a system is, some people will always try to exploit it. However, until it becomes a large scale problem (and I hope it won't), everything can be solved on an individual basis.
But of course, if someone is given a friendly hint "please do not do it" and refuses to cooperate, his vouchers can be cancelled, passed to other people of my choice, etc. But it would be applied only if everything else fails.

Fencer: First of all, thanksfor putting the offer up!

Question is, as you are stating that the vouchers cannot be used for the buyer himself, you obviously don't want people to use that as a simple 'buy 1 year, get 2.5 years', but for *giving* to others - very nice also in the sense of Christmas. But now John could buy a year and give his vouchers to Jane, and Jane buys a year and gives her vouchers to John, basically circumventing the limit. Do you actively discourage that, meaning you will not assign the vouchers then? Or is that accepted?
I thought about not posting that to not give people ideas, but, realistically, many will come up with this. Easily.

Should be a flurry of prize tournaments upcoming I will be posting 3

Very well, it's been posted.

Fencer: what about a single 50% discount on the Brain Rook Forever membership? maybe for those who finances on the same time a 3 or 6 months abo for someone else?

Roberto Silva:I heard one logged on and surfed briefly in 2004 but it could just be one of those urban legends. She was said to have required institutionalization after her ordeal.

Gabriel Almeida: There are no girls on the internet. Those who claim to be one are actually undercover FBI agents.

Fencer: Indeed. Or people can send a pm to you, something like "I want to give 6 months to Gabriel Almeida (cof-cof), 6 months to a nice girl (I'm sure we have some in BK) and 6 months to... Gabriel Almeida, again!" :D

Gabriel Almeida: Vouchers sound good. I don't have time to code an automatic system for it, though, so they would be handled manually. It's not a big issue, I guess.

Fencer:here's something. Action "give a gift"! A member buy a membership (for example, 1 year rook membership) and receive  1 more to give to another member... 

Fencer: Black Rook for all kind of action

Hmmm. I don't know. What kind of action? Any suggestions?

Hi Fencer!

Fencer: I'm hoping you might run a sale on your brain rooks this Christmas.

Bernice: i noticed later in the description of your tournaments. nice!

crosseyed:naaah... It's fine that way! :)

crosseyed:

Gabriel Almeida: Seek help....

Hrqls:I ran tournaments with a prize of aussie paraphernalia - nothing to do with this fencer...I sent T/shirts, caps etc.....

a prize tourny. But the site would not go for a take turn. Like I would put up a prize one year if they would set for 2nd year. But as U can see I will not even re up my membership. If they will not put up then I will not put up. Plus I heard that they might be trying to sell the site. I think that is Y so many people don't play here anymore...

SL-Mark:no way! I took a picture of that board with my name highlighted! :)

Bwild: ah, Bernice sent the prizes by herself, not via the site, i see it now

Hrqls: you have to actually open tournys to see prizes...and no..you didnt win lol

Gabriel Almeida: Depends what S-B rules will be applied at the time the second round is created! Thom27 still has a chance if S-B Hrqls rules are applied!

furbster: thanks!!! :-)