Yea, I am trying to be "extreme" to make a point. I had another user track me for over a week, and they did it with a privacy issue that is currently on this site - the show last action so called "feature".

I know many users like this, and it isn't something that should be taken away - But if a user is being tracked and bothered by another user who is using this flaw, then I think it is something that a user should be able to turn off. Again, don't get rid of it - just let a user choose if they can play on this game site in peace in a "stelth" mode, where others can not watch and harass you while you try to enjoy this great game site. Possible make the "Stelth" mode only an option for paid members - another benifit for getting a membership.

Well BrainKing is currently a site that does not take privacy too serious as of right now, so is a person is serious about the privacy now, they probable should not be playing on this site. This would just be another cool feature to break down the privacy issue!

Actually, now that I had some more time to think about it, I would really love to see what IP address people are using to get to this site. (Possible even make a page that list the "last 5 IP's used)

This would be great for the pervs who love to know what everyone else is doing. They would also be able to do their own checking and possible find cheaters and such which in turn would make this site a better place.

Let's open this place up and become one big happy family!

"Youll soon find out if you on it, when you try to send a message etc. So no need to show it really"

... well then in that case, there is really no need either for the spying "what are people doing at this time" - since you can just wait and find out sooner or later what they have done anyway!

All I'm saying is if this site is going to be a site where you can spy on what others are doing, lets open up the friends/enemies list also!

How about letting user see who is on another persons friends/enemies list.

I normally would think this is a bad idea, but since privacy is not an issue here, and you plan to keep the "spy" what you are doing option, I think this would be a great way to dig a little deeper into other users personal busness!

... So what I'm actually saying is that there really is not a way to turn off the auto-pass.

The option would really be if you want to actually see everything screen, or just auto-pass to the current move. If you elect to see every screen, then you would still be able to chat and comment on every move, and since all the conversation stays on the page, it would also not be lost.

Kevin - This is how I would have it so a situation like that would not happen.

Lets say I'm playing User A which has the "Auto-Pass" option turned on. I make a move, person A can not move, so I'm allowed to make another move RIGHT AWAY without no wait. User A comes on-line, goes to the game and because he has "Auto-Pass" turned on, it goes directly to the current move that is ready to be made (possible with a little note saying "XX number of passes were made for you because you had no moves".

Now lets say I'm playing User B that DOES NOT have "Auto-Pass" turned on. I make my move, and the other player does not have a move so RIGHT AWAY I'm able to make another move (note - Still the same for both options). (now is where it will differ). User B logs on, and because they have auto-pass turned off, they will now see the FIRST screen where they have to pass. They can then RIGHT AWAY go through all the screens just like normal and just hit "pass" after "pass", since the other player has already moved.

This way User B does not get "lost" with a board looking different - they are able to go through all the screens like normal.

As for an example, I just recently had a backgammon game where I had 19 out of 20 moves that were passes - and this took a couple of weeks just to go through those moves. All those could have been done basicly in one day! Even if a person has it turned off or on, it still would have taken one day.... just the person with it off would have went through EVERY screen instead of just trusting the computer and going to the last screen.

At least that is how I would do this option, with the only exception being backgammon with a CUBE dice since it is possible for a person to cube even if they pass.

I hope I explained that well enough - if not, I'll try to do it a little better. :-)

Reason #1 - "the board can change substantially in one move" - I don't think this is a valid reason, because if someone has the "Auto-Move" feature turned off, they can still be able to go through each move (or each pass) as if it were happeing - just to speed things up, they can do all the moves in a row so they don't get lost, and the other person does not have to wait 15-20 moves.

NOTE: Good point about double cube in the Gammon games, there may be times I have a pass situation but want to double - so auto-pass would not work in those games, without more complex programming and such like DailyGammon has to "roll-back" the game to the point of the double.

But I guess my thinking is even if not everyone wants to use Auto-Pass, they could simply turn off the feature and go through each move and hit "pass" - while the other person has already went through the same moves. The only difference is it would take only a few mintues, instead of days/weeks/months to go through the 15-20 passed moves!

Bottom line - But the most important rule is this is Fencer's site, and if he does not want a certain feature or game or something, then it is 100% his decision not to have it. (Hopefully he will keep an open mind about what others want and read all opinions, but that is his choice.) So if he does not want it, that is cool with me - As long as he knows others think this would work well at this site.

BBW (BIG BAD WOLF)

That is a feature that has been discussed on here even long before I first came to the site. (Because I also brought it up. *EDIT - Just looked, did that on Feb 18th, 2003!)

I believe one of the original reasons Fencer did not want to put it in is because it would take away an option to chat in between moves.... or a conversation could get lost or something.

But it would be a great option - I have been playing a backgammon game recently where in 20 moves, 19 of them were me just passing.

Anyway, it could work. For example, if I make a move, and the next person can not move, the computer lets me keep moving until the other person can move. Then when the other person comes on line, they will get a message like "You could not move for XX turns, would you like to go through each move or go to current move?" - Then they could go through each move if they wanted, or just skip to the current move which is ready for them to make.

But, bottom line is Fencer does not want it, so O'well.

(more about CafePress)

Some items you could choose from:

T-shirts, Jerseys, Hoodies
Ceramic and Stainless Steel Mugs
Posters and Framed Prints
Caps and Visors
Stickers
Bags
Baby and Kids
New seasonal items added ongoing!

And as a side note, a site I use (Nitpickers.com) has used CafePress for years. I've never used them, but I have only heard good things... other then their base price seems a little high on some items.

Actually you would not need any "up front" capitol if you use a site like CafePress

You can create a store with up to 50 products, with a logo(s) that you upload. And then you set a retail price OVER the CafePress.com base price.

It's not the best option since you would only make a few dollars off items (and CafePress makes the rest), but it does all the work for you and it would basicly run itself after awhile!

I believe Fencer has is own "to-do" list (similar to the one above but with a lot more on it)

But I think it would help Fencer if he finds that only 2 people what XXX, and 100 people want XXX.

New Poll Idea for Fencer - How about a poll about which game / improvment the users want the most (That way you have an idea of what the users want you to work on... after BK 2.0 is done.)

STEVE R - HOW DARE YOU EVEN THINK THAT!

Carid - Ahh... cute!

:-)

So what do I do with these scissors?

Man, this version 2.0 sticks! What have you been spending your time on Fencer, couldn't you have done better then THIS?????

--- sorry, just getting ready! :-)

(let me know if you need help testing anything - I'm great at finding "bugs") :-)

I don't think a limit of 1 fellowship would be a good idea, since each fellowship gives something different - and for example if you wanted to join my Gammon Cube Fellowship, then you would not be able to join any teams for other games in other fellowships.

It had been brought up to limit it to 5 or 10 - but I also don't like that because it would limit the membership of any new fellowship that is yet to be created. But if it was to be limited, it should be NO LESS then 10 since you could easly get that number with the amount of individual game type fellowships and other "non-game chat" fellowships we currently have.

Well I don't think I would like to recieve an invitation for tons of tournaments. As more Fellowships are created - as more tournaments are created, the invitation could start to add up pretty quickly.

What I think would be a better suggestion is to by default, when a person joins a fellowship, to automaticly add it to their favourites board. (Where they can then remove it if they want to) - But that way more people will see the "XX new" and then go and read the board, and hence - find out about new tournaments and such.

Backoff - I suggested that awhile back (Idea from LittleGolem.net - where if a game is about to time out, a 1 day vacation day is taken instead).

Fencer at the time said it was a good idea, hopefully it made it to his list. :-)

Another Battleboat Idea: Loop Battleboat (Also can be Loop Battleboat Plus, Dark loop Battleboats, etc...)

Overview - if you can hit your opponenets ship with the correct amount of shots without missing, you don't give it time to "sink" and you capture it! You can then place it back into play as one of your own ships!

Details: Sink ship with correct # of hits = let say you make a hit, if you can finish hitting the rest of the ship without any "miss" shots - you capture it. So a 4 ship will take 4 shots from the first one that hit. (If you miss with one of them, the boat has more time to take on water and sinks - not letting you capture it.)

Place back on board: Not one can you place it back on the board, you can also place it in an area that your opponent already shot! (So instead of "hit marks" on the board, you will have a "1", "2", "3", "4", etc.... that way you you can tell when you last tried to shot in an area easier.

There are a few other details I'm working on - but feel free to visit the Battleboat Board to discuss this idea some more!

BBW (BIG BAD WOLF)

I also look forward to what Lythande suggested.

Which is a way when you get ready to submit a move, you can be taken to the next game with the least amount of time - or at least some what to know what that game is easly.

Currently you are stuck going back to the main page each time to see which game has the least time left, then click on that game... and with the main page being the one that takes the most time to come up - if cuts playing speed in 1/2.

Why it is needed - if you have about 10 mintues to play, and you have 10 games with only a few hours left (and 90 with over a day), you want to try to get those 10 games with little time played first.

... and I know it is on Fencers to-do list, but wanted to add that I look forward to this feature also! :-)

That would be a good idea. And if it was something that could not be done, a good suggestion to users if you are going to change your name is to put in your profile something like "Once known as XXXX"

BBW 2004 aka BIG BAD SANTA aka BIG BAD WOLF

Question: If someone deletes a fellowship, do the current running tournaments & games also get deleted?

Also do the tournament & game results also get deleted?

Maybe we should give him 10 days... it is the holiday season! :-)

A suggestion could be that there could be a few "global moderators" - which are able to edit/delete messages that may need it (and not have to wait for the main moderator or Fencer to get on to deal with it.)

At the same time, there should be someway to track what the global moderators do that way if there are problems, it can be tracked.

(For example - make a "bad stuff" board which can only be seen by Fencer, and whenever a moderator edits or deletes a message, it first gets copied to the "bad stuff" folder with the information of who deleted/edited which messages. That way, if a another moderator gets too big of a head, they can be tracked and delt with.

Yea, it would still be nice for the tournament creator to still have the option to start the next round. I know for one of my tournaments, Danochek was the winner and getting ready to move to the next round - which I was waiting on an answer from Fencer to know if the ban was perminate or just temporary, but never got an answer.... which I did not want to start it if he was going to be back. But actually now that I look, the other player has not been on since Nov 10th, so I guess I'll start the last round and just let the games time out. Since they are 2 games per player, it should end as a tie which I believe is fair! :-)

Actually if someone has a lower score, they should never go to the next round. The only time the S-B comes into play is when 2 (or more) players have the same score.

But to have a smarter game engine that could determine when the winner is first noticed would be nice, and also where the next rounds start automaticly without the tournament creator having to do anyting would also be good.

Well a couple of things that could be done is PUT IT IN BOLD - or do something like this: = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = IMPORTANT RULE - PLEASE READ! = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

But I think it would be even better if we could change the color of the fonts and such.

I also don't like the idea of "rollover" menus and such - making things too fancy can make it harder for some players to play.

I don't use the waiting room, but an idea - how about orginizing the waiting room by game type. For example:
CHESS GAMES:
chess game #1
chess game #2
Loop chess game #1
anti chess game #1

BACKGAMMON GAMES:
backgammon game #1
backgammon race game #1

etc......

I think possible orginizing it like that might be better then just alphabetic.

How about a page somewhere with interesting BrainKing statistics.

For example your recent post in General chat of the top 30 Discussion board posters, and other interesting stats.

In order to speed up and play many games quickly, I went and made these changes in my settings:

YES - Show game boards at the top of game pages
YES - Show move buttons directly below game boards.

Problem is that the move buttons are not directly below the game board - so I'm still having to take time scroll each page down to submit a move.

Here is what I see (from top to bottom)

Game board, game title, finished move instructions, opponents name, opponents rating, opponents current doing, opponenets last move, my name, my rating, my last move, draw offer, message for opponent box, notes box for self, then finaly MOVE button to submit a move.

Any chance to actually get the "move" button right under the game board?

yea... it would be very simple if you have only played a total of 100 games. But when you have things like 743 wins, 18 draws, 379 loses - it's a little harder to know the winning percentage without doing a little math.

That is what I'm saying - the computer figures it out with many decimal points (but the rating on the screen - what you & i see - are without the decimal points)

So if it was a rated game, it is very possible that the rating did go up - just not enough to raise it another point.

.... and as you finish more games, the more "established" a rating will become - and the less it will fall/raise with wins & loses.

Since this is Feature request - Hey Fencer, any chance of possible in a persons profile, show the rating out to a couple of decimal points. I would be interested in them!

california man: It probable did go up. The more games that a person finishs, the more stabe the rating will become.

So for example, you might have had 2210.1 before you won the game, and after the game you might have a 2210.8 (But since the decimal is just droped on the screen, it looks like it just stayed the same)

Mine is like that also - it happen after the "big crash" and the restore.

I never said anything since it is a field that is not seen by anyone else. :-)

I wouls support limits, if the limites were only to stop (or slow down) people who might be taking advantage.

For example, limit a pawn to 100 moves per day. Most pawn will not even hit that limit, but only be hit by the ones who take a lot from the site.

crowded anti backgammon - I do not know if that would be a very good game since anti-backgammon is not very popular, I personaly don't think crowded anti backgammon would get too much play either.
------
Some of my new "gammon" game ideas:

1. Dark Backgammon Race (or Regular/Nack/Crowded?)
- Basicly just like regular backgammon. You don't see ANY place that you don't have your own piece, so you will never be "blocked" and allowed to move to any place.

Now when you move to a place that is open, your piece stays there. If you move to a place that only has 1 opponent piece, you take it like normal gammon. If you move to a place that has 2 or more oppenent pieces, your piece will be placed back to the bar like it was taken out.

So this game would involve a lot more strategy - making you want to set up many places of 2 or more pieces to take away your opponents pieces when they land on you.

I believe this would be better as Dark Backgammon Race. Also I'm debating if it would be good to hide the opponents dice or not.

2. Backgammon Attack.
- Basicly it is the same as Backgammon, but with the rule that you can also win once you land and move your oppenets piece to the bar for the 10th time. I also think this would be good as Backgammon Race Attack - since then you could try to keep many of your own pieces in your own bar to come out and "attack" unprotected pieces that have been places in your area.

3. Domino Gammon - Basicly instead of dice, each player will have 3 domino's, and can choose which domino to use for their next move, in which the domino that is used is replaced with a new domino. The other player can see your domino, so you can plan ahead since you know the 3 possible "rolls" the other player will have. (With other minor rules like if a player is stuck on the bar, they can change all three domino's)

Or possible have a "toggle" option for the moderator to see deleted/edited post, or just see current post. Then only if the moderator wants to investigate things said on the board they are watching, then they will be able to.

Or if Pawns (or even knights or rooks) are able to edit/delete their own post, possible still let the moderator (& site owner) still see the "original" post.

... possible just "hide" and mark special in the message list that only the moderator can still see the original.

... or maybe a "little boss" - to help the "big boss" ???? :-)

Well I answered 1/2 of my question. I just tried starting a 5 player tournament (2 games each) - meaning a total of 8 games each.

A pawn who had 8 game slots free was removed from the tournament (SORRY PAWN!)

So now the remaining question is: Do you they have to keep 9 or 10 game slots open?

Hopefully Fencer will answer soon - I like to put into the rules of my games how many game slots a pawn/knight should leave open to enter a tournament!

I know that if a tournament has 5 people (meaning 4 games for each person) - and a pawn has 16 games (4 free game slots) - that tournament WILL NOT start.

My question is about the 2-games per person rule & pawns. Lets say the tournament has 5 players again, this time 8 games for each person. Do a pawn have to have 8 free game slots, or 9?

Normally I would say 8, but since there is the above bug - I'm not sure how that will work in this situation.

Thanks!

BBW (BIG BAD WOLF)

The part about the "Unrated games" and "Private tournament" with the yes/no options I think still messes some users up.

How about this in teh tournament details:

Type of games: (rated or unrated)
Type of tournament: (public or private)

I know this has been said before, and I believe Fencer was going to work on it (or at least think about it).

It would be nice when you "close a tournament", that is will start right away (without the extra step of starting it).

I was just looking through my tournaments, and noticed that there was a backgammon tournament that I closed, but never started! I'm not sure how long it has been sitting there (It is my "Fast Start Backgammon #72" - and I'm up to #83 now!)

Anyway, I'm guessing I was trying to start it when the server was overloaded, so I only got half of it done.

Just thought I would post a quick message about it! :-)

BBW (BIG BAD WOLF)

The new rule of when you look at a person's profile, you now have to click on "Show unfinished games" - almost messed me up!

I was checking pawn that had signed up for my "first 5" tournaments and WOW - they all did not have any games going! (until I looked closer and now have an extra step to see if they have any other unfinished games)

Is there a way to put something like this in a person's profile:

Number of unfinished games: 14

It would make it easier to check if pawns have enough room to play in tournaments or not. :-)

pictures: Why not let users link to pictures that are hosted elsewhere - then it does not take any server space?

.... and possible a paid member only option. (If you open it to pawn, you will probable start to get many unappropriate pictures - which you may get some from members, but not as many as you would by pawns.)

BBW (BIG BAD WOLF)

I think I read about this before, but I don't remember....

If a pawn has 16 games going, and he is getting ready to start a tournament which will start 4 games (giving him 20 games - the pawn limit), it will not start it because the system thinks they do not have enough empty slots for all games...... but they do!

So I was just wondering if (1) this bug is known about by Fencer and (2) if this is going to be fixed.

Thanks!

BBW (BIG BAD WOLF)

Actually now that I think about it, it would be nice is Backgammon race had a different color around the board.

It does have a different starting position, but what happens to me a lot is that I will leave 1 or 2 of my pieces on the "bar" until later in the game. If I'm not paying attention, I will quickly look at the game, see the pieces on the bar (and thinking that it is regular Backgammon), I will start to move them off the bar.......... instead of moving pieces that are already on the board since I don't have to take the pieces off the bar yet.

For Nackgammon - it is similar enough to regular Backgammon that it does not need a different color, but for race... I could use a light green or blue or something... :-)

BBW (BIG BAD WOLF)

P.S. I also agree that Extinction Chess needs a different color.

... until you make someone mad, and they start making 10-20 pawn accounts and inviting you to 20 Pente games each - giving you 400 games to delete when you get on-line.... :-)

If a game ended because of server problems, I think that would be something you need to ask Fencer to fix.