Kitti, you could still cancel the game if you have not made many moves. You wouldn't lose any ratings points at all.

kitti: I agree, i am not the best spider play in the world as you know - why dont people who invite others make it best of 2 games - black & white :)

People who decline invitations because their rating might drop if they lose bug me. I just got an invite to play spider line4 with me playing black. In this game white has a huge advantage. I accepted the invition and sent him invite for another game with me playing white to even things out. But he declined the invite saying that he doesn't want to risk losing many points (he has much higher rating than me) by playing black against me!

I really can't understand such behavior. Are the ratings really more important than fair play to some people? Maybe there should be different ratings for black and white in each game.

vikings, if you are surfing the site and clikcing on different pages, the auto refresh serves no purpose. I am not sure you understand what it does. The auto refresh refreshes the page when you are idle, doing nothing at all. So it does not apply to the situation you described.

I try to look at both sides of it, but must say i dont really see any need for it at all.
Is there any real difference between that & hitting the F5 key on a PC (None).
Going back to earlier when myself & tonyh were talking about it, if 120 people are on line & only 40 are playing games, BUT the other 80 have there refresh set at 10 seconds - surely this is just putting the server under pressure that isnt needed, as little as it may be.
I think that if a person does not make a move or do something on the site after a certain time either there auto-refresh could be disabled OR maybe they should just be logged off & have t log back on again.
Just a few thoughts :-)

to be honest if fencer thought it would help the site i would have thought he would have temporaroly disabled that feature , maybe fencer could give us his opinion

I think its wise if people knew they could turn it off (Under Settings - general) that they do that. I wonder if we all turned it off for a week if there would be a difference in performance? Can't hurt to try it.. I turned mine off just now

When I was new to the site, I found it very usefull when I was surfing the site, reading boards etc. After about a month I turned it off to help the server, I really liked it as a new member.

I don't mean to be a pain, but in what way is the auto refresh useful? I can't think of any uses for it.

there was only 22 people online when i couldnt log in (for over 2 hours again) so i doubt taking away auto refresh will make the slightist bit of difference (i disabled my auto refresh months ago)

I disagree! I find 'auto refresh' very handy at times, and would hate to see it taken off the site. Admittedly, there are those who will abuse or take it to excess, but this does not validate the negation of it for everybody.

This has to go. what is the point iof having auto refresh? If it slows down the server AT ALL, GTE RID OF IT! IT is NOT neeeded! I have heard only one person give a reaosn for having it, and it was a TERRILBE one. The reason was "I can sit on the couhc and watch TV and not have to gte up to see if it is my turn."

A statement of such extreme laziness should come as no surprise in a nation where 50% or more of the people are overweight and 20% are obese.

BUt it is hardly a reason for hacing auto refresh and I tihnk it is time to get rid of it.

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.

I will ask a friend Kevin.
So maybe if someone was to leave there pc logged in & not do anything but refresh every minute or whenever it will slow down the server - maybe an auto-logout is not such a bad idea then ???

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?

I never noticed that with Knights as well, thats quite funny :-)

Does auto refresh count as a request being sent then, if you have 100 people just letting the screens refresh every minute that must have an effect - maybe not.......

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 must bit get even more Crazy than i am, if you look at a pawn profile - it has Brain Rook beside there name - one way to get more Rooks i guess LOL

I know who they remind me of, surfers lying on their boards off Fistral Bay, Newquay, waiting for the next big wave. And then they stay on it for 5 seconds!!

I agree tony, there are alot of people just sitting there (people at work maybe lol) I wonder if some sort of Auto-Logout may stop people from just hanging here :-)

It's just occurred to me; perhaps the guys 'browsing' are waiting for a game to turn up!! Wow! How much capacity do they take, just waiting, like basking sharks.

MM - perhaps the 120 guys weren't doing too much (a lot of them appear just to browse the Main Page!!). We are at 115 now and it's creaking.

tonyh: I have come to a conclusion that the site activity error message doesnt seem to make sence lol.
I was here yesterday with over 120 people on line & the game were flying by, BUT other times yesterday there were only been between 50 & 60 & still got that message - odd eh :)

Fencer; is the Site activity increasing, decreasing or staying much the same? Also, are there times of the day when it is much less used?

Thanks Jason for asking this question. It`s something that i was thinking about.!
With myself just being able to "Work" a PC, let have any knowledge of coding i have no idea if it`s at all feasible but i would hazzard a guess that it would involve re-coding the entire programming software.!
I would be interested to know from players with a background in programming what it would indeed require.:)

I don't usually post on these boards. For the reason of offending someone or stepping out of place. But I have to now. Can't we all just play? Not worry about who's paying for what or how? Or what fencer is doing? Or what being a pawn or knight or anything else is? There are lots of other things that could be and are worse. Like if this site wasn't here at all..maybe we should just appreciate that it is. I think everyone should just throw your arms up in the air..smile..say I'm alive!! If we all work together and just play the games and have fun then the site will be what fencer wanted!

fencer i dont know if its at all possible but is there a way that people with a powerfull connection and a good system could help boost the sites performance when the site is struggling at say peak times ,i dont know if this is even a possible thing just an idea im sure there would be people willing to help out if it was possible

also posted on feature requests

Danoschek, agree with all you say, except perhaps Russia!! They had vast wealth in the early part of last century and squandered it. they also had the best chess players in the world, until Bobby came along.

to speak to you on my behalf.
Im capable of speaking for my self.
Below is the message I sent and her answer...subject closed

Thank you for your apology.


You are reading a reply to this message:
please accept my deepest apologies....I misunderstood what you were saying....Please forgive me :(

Well Bernice you got one one of your friends last night to talk me into accepting your apology labelled OOPS. On reflection I don't owe you or anybody else an explanation of my situation or the sacrifices I make in order to have a computer or to pay for the internet. Congratulations you have sucked all the fun for me out of this site. Goodbye to all my friends and fellow players.

A lot of suggestions, stirred and shaken brings me to one nightly-build yet ... :D

Pawns could have a one-month trial time as it is now.
Then a moves-restriction to (let's say) 40 pd would become effective.

During that month also visiting one fellowship could be possible.
That way all the features are easily to be prospected before deciding.

:D a veteran-pawn who just wants to make one quick chess game
would get along as well as everybody just spending an hour average here ...

the 20-games-restrictions should be handled tolerantly
in cases of someone qualifying for an additional round or, final ...

a thought I have had for long is to decrease the monthly fee
for Africa, India and perhaps even Russia aware of the clearly
lower income there ... Increasing the price for North-America,
the European Union and, Australia to let's say 18$
per semester would be tolerable then imho ... ~*~

what the heck started this nonsense? Bernice, I am not sure hwat it is that Jason did that bothered you so much. Your reaction was somewhat childish. Jason-- I am not sure hwy you are so bent out of shape about the tehc info page. I found it quite interesting and informative. It is there to provide information. If you don't care about the technical aspects of the site and its probklems, I understand, but why are you so annoyed that the info is there fior those who want it?

Pioneer54-- I agree with you on all points. Multiple panw IDs should not be allowed from the same IP address. If there really are tow different pawns using the same computer, oh well.

I am sure I will sound like a broken record, but one of them can buy a membership to solve that problem.

thanks for the moderate tune ...

harrassing of the bernice-type should not be granted to come up here. ~*~

Clearly, two PAYING MEMBERS who use the same computer (and therefore submit the same IP address) do not fall into the category of pawns (who, of course, do NOT pay) with multiple accounts.

A policy of one pawn account per IP address would be appropriate and weed out those who are breaking the rules. And yes, a few users who happen to share a computer due to same household or friendship would be alienated, although I suspect they are outnumbered by the cheats.

I appreciate that the tournaments are largely unfettered because of the "one per pawn at a time" rule, and perhaps Fencer is content to let it go at that. So be it, but as for casual games, the 20-game limit (or ANY limit) is virtually meaningless as long as any user may create more than one account.

Everyone: I am somewhat new to this site. I think it is the coolest and most oppurtunistic on the web! I realize that Fencer is doing his best to keep this site up to speed and I appreciate that very much. Thank you Fencer. About not being able to get on, I am a pawn myself and there have been times where I ran into a "technical problem" and couldn't get through. My feeling is that most pawns, when confronted with a problem such as this, will leave and find another site. I have stayed because I know people like Fencer are trying and as a pawn, I am an equal. MadMonkey is right, limiting moves increases accounts and slows even more. It will get better, just give it time.

Appreciative Pawn,

-cm5127

i agree harley , but i dont like people telling me to shut up when i think i have a valid point to make , i was the one that started the ideas of on this page for extra income for fencer , (was this a good idea or not , im not sure now ) so i think i will just "shut up and give up now" .

Could we calm things down a little please? We all agree this is a great site, Fencer is doing his best under difficult circmstances and we would all like to help. Agreed?
The niggly details that are being argued about really aren't that important since most are hypothetical anyway.

bernice , what was you thanking fencer for exactly ?? if you read my post correctly i never said anything about you or your post . so dont please tell me to shut up !!!!

shut up....give up...god ....some of you people are sounding like the knowit all KIDS that get ontp yahoo IT chat boards....if you can do better....do it and shut UP....all I did was post a thanks to Fencer...POOET
now figure that out

if brainking only allowed one account for an ip then im sure he would lose members i for one pay for myself and my brothers account we both live at the same address and im sure there are lots of other people here who have a partner ect that use the same pc for thier games

I think the tech info is aimed mostly for the people who post every once and awhile about how the site always seems to be down. (And I'm sure there are plenty of e-mails also)

... and I know that I don't need the tech info to know the site has troubles. Would I have paid if I knew this site was going to have trouble? Well yes - heck when we were talking about this site on IYT a few months ago, I even said "Wait a few months, BrainKing will start growing too big and have problems also!" People did not believe me, but I knew it was going to happen. :-) Now, will others pay if they know the site might have troubles? Well I'm not sure - but it's better to let them know now then to just find out later.

tech info , who is this aimed at ??? the majority of us on this board was trying to help you fencer !!! come up with ideas for helping you out , yes the site doesnt always work as it should , but i think that aproacch you took with the tech info will just upset the people who are already paying members ........
as for pawns they will now read that and think why get a membership the site isnt stable enough to spend my money on the could go elsewhere and spend there money .

i will most likely have upset people with this post but tuff . (i wouldnt buy buy a dozen eggs to be told i could have only 8 untill the hens was laying properly )
sorry everyone but im in a mood now !

Tech Info HERE

where is the TECH INFO ???

I have just read your updated "Tech Info" and you are quite right...a few who keep complaining should read it and look at the link you left there....WOW...

I agree, considering i spend most my day (and night) on here lol, i have very few problems & just accept if i cant get on for a while & go to play a few games somewhere else. I suppose the only other thing with pawns is haveing the 20 games, but limiting moves per day, bu would that just lead to more i.d.s being created lol.

Well, maybe you have a point there. Perhaps there is so much debate about this because there is no good answer. Flaws have been opinted out in every proposed solution. Of course, I am not sure there is really such a big problem. The site seems to be running most of the time.

Is what i am saying Dmitri is that Pawns do not really know what they have to gain by becoming a Member.

It is not just about more tournaments & Fellowships, its the others small things like drop boxes etc... that to me make alot of difference as well.

Maybe someone should take the time to write down ALL the advantages of ungrading either to a Knight or Rook as i don't think it is very clear for them and they will never know unless told.

I don't quite know how we can give them less than they have now. They could have games cut from 20 to 10 or only be allowed on at certain times. I don't really think that would help a great deal though.

mad monkey, I never said any of that. I was very clear in what I said. But, I'll repeat it anyway. What I said was this: If Brain pawns get LESS then what they have now, they might be more inclined to be paying members.

It is clear that the high number of brain pawns has more to do with their being satisfied with what pawns have than inability to pay for a membership.

to put it another way-- people pay for something when they have enough to gain to make it worthwhile. Perhaps there is not enough to gain by becoming a rook instead of a pawn. There are two solutions: Give rooks more (this would be difficult, if not impossible), or give the pawns less.

So you see, I am not suggesting giving pawns less because I don't give a crap about them or because I think it would be cool to stick it to them. No, I that wasn't what I suggested at all. My suggestion togive them less is to make the gain by becoming a member GREATER than it currently is. Obviosuly the gain right now is not enough because the pawns are NOT becoming rooks!

IT does not take months to decide if the site is worth it or not. After a few weeks, any Brain pawn who has not become a rook or knight is CONTENT being a pawn.

Dmitri: Good point, i think that point should be made. Is what you are saying is that we don't need Pawns or that they should have a couple of days to decide to join or get kicked out - don't think that attitude will help anyone or the site.