Puckish: yes that is true..

Add Game to a Tournament
Very useful, and been much needed, no more deleting Tournaments if you forget a game

the current bid is 44.6 billion USD

I know if it were you Fencer, you would hold out for at least 50 billion USD before you would sell Brainking!

(but, I could probably talk you into a special black rook or something for a measly 44.6 billion?)

just wondering?

Jim Dandy: There is a link "when you have connection problems ..." at the board description section and the article is still valid for everyone.

Fencer: Yes,I read it,but my question still stands.
How did the site speed become so crappy all the sudden for so many people?

Jim Dandy: The article answers this question.
By the way, "so many people" is a relative notion.

Fencer: The article seems to come from the perspective that nothing has recently changed from your end.How does that explain a large number of players experiencing similar issues at pretty much the same time?

Jim Dandy: I don't want to repeat that again. That's why the article has been posted. If you want to add a comment, please use this page.

Fencer: I'm a simple guy Fencer,I speak little computer lingo,but logic tells me that the sky is still blue

Jim Dandy: I've just checked your BrainKing account with 3 different browsers and through 2 different internet connections. In all cases, all pages have been loaded in less than 1 second and I have not observed any other issues.
Ergo, whatever the problem is, it is not caused by BrainKing. Q.E.D.

Fencer: I drank the kool-aid and switched to firefox,the steroid version.It has improved the speed,but it's still not what it was

I will post this here, as i posted it as a bug and now its gone

On our main Fellowship page (where Members & Teams are listed), in the Team box, it shows if there is an Open Team Tournament at present, and gives you a clickable link to it.

I would like to know why in the Random Team box there are not 2 links as there are 2 open Tournaments at the moment ?

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

pauloaguia: So there it is, i could not see it

Though i do not understand Fencers reply:
Status changed to "not a bug".

If it should name both tournaments, the label would say "Open Team Tournaments".

So, why should it NOT name both Tournaments, after all the other one is a Team Tournament for the Random Team as well

MadMonkey: Then it is a feature request, not a bug. But I am aware of it now.

Fencer: lol, well its half a request then, as part of it is already there, more of a Feature Extension or Add-on (gets more like Firefox everyday lol).

OK...I looked for a "Support" forum and didn't find it (maybe Fencer should add one). So, I am posting here. Hope I am not offending anyone.

I have been a paid member of Brainking for a while now and have loved the site. But lately, it is running REALLY slow for me. I have been dealing with it, but was thinking maybe someone could help me out.

1. Pages will sometimes take 35 seconds to load. This makes playing games, tedious.

2. I have cleared every cache I could think of.

3. I have tried multiple browsers. IE and Firefox behaved the same. So I downloaded and installed Opera (has never been on my computer). It behaves the same also.

4. I have tried other websites, and they respond just fine.

5. I have tried from multiple locations (work, home) with the same results.

6. I have tried multiple computers with same result.

So...anyone have any more suggestions? It's like have a little rock in your shoes, no big deal, but DRIVING ME CRAZY!

Summertop: I play on a webtv so I can lie down while I play games. I get messages such as publisher refuses access to the page. I can usually click continue and get there but sometimes I get a blank white screen instead. There is definitely something wrong here.

Summertop: A few tips which can help (not solve) the slowness.

1. Check out this post of mine: Computers (coan.net, 2007-03-12 20:16:01)

2. In settings, there is now an option called "Use the "lightweight" version of BrainKing (disables many extra features but could speed up loading of pages)"

The above 2 helps some.... that is instead of 20+ seconds per page load, more like 1-5 seconds per page load for me most of the time.

plus if you want more detail, you can take a look at Fencers blog entry about it: http://brainking.info/archives/414-About-the-complexity-part-1.html

coan.net, Thanks, most of the settings I had already changed for faster performance. I was not using the "Lightweight" version...so far it seems to be better.

coan.net: A certain player, who shall remain nameless,provided the best assessment I've yet heard regarding the state of the site speed.

"you don't rip all the seats out of a car because it is underpowered, you get one with a bigger engine"

Jim Dandy: unless when that costs too much

Jim Dandy: That does not sound like a good one to compare the site with. Something like "making the car more streamlined" is what the lightweight version does.

It's the same car (site), but with less drag (data) being driving (sent), it will speed up the car (site) some. It won't fix the issue of the car (site) being underpowered (slow), but should help some.

coan.net: I'm pretty much spent in regards to discussing the issue,worn out basically,but regardless of my lack of knowledge regarding the finer points of the wonderful world of computers,I just don't buy the theory that the issues originate from the players end.If they did,this wouldn't be a unique issue on the web,and I travel all over the place online

Summertop Even the lightweight version is loading blank white pages for me now and I have to keep reloading.

Jim Dandy:Have to agree. Its pointless for anyone to complain though. Why arent all other sites slow? Why only this one? WHY is it our fault? I will never understand that as long as it keeps being repeated. When I first thought it was my machine months ago I replaced just about everything. Then realized it was HERE not ME and I gave up. It isnt just a few people that are going through this. It is a very large number of paying members, most wont speak up openly about it after reading so many negative replies ( who wants to be called a troll by a site owner? I dont!)
 Doesnt matter how many ppl try to explain how slow it is for them or complain it seems it will always be our fault because it works GREAT for some.  (I dont think youll find it working GREAT for a large majority of folks in North America though, maybe in Europe or Czech )
Someone was nice enough to tell me if I didnt like it to leave. My analogy is if you buy a car and it doesnt work right do you leave it by the side of the road? No you ask for it to be fixed.

Rose: hahaha.....actually the "certain people" who are called "troll" and "told to go elsewhere" have their own names for the owner but in general are too polite to say them....The ignorance and arrogance are "par for the course" and are expected from someone who thinks they are far better than the rest. Only time will tell .......

Rose: well put Rose I agree with you 100% was going to post to Jim's message, when I saw it, but figured there is no point, its been worse for me this week too, although I do think for the majority of us at least the people who I play and speak with most are just tired of repeating the same old problem, getting the same old response, and then getting one of the few who it works good for to point us to the all entry where it is all our fault not this site, as for the lighter version I tried it, the improvement was so small so I switched back to what I previously had. Many people that I play say they are just decreasing their games and becoming pawns they are just so fed up with the whole situation.

Who keeps on saying that the slowness of the site is the user fault? I thought it has been clear that what seems to be the main problem is the connection between the user and the site - which because each user / each area connect to the site with a different connection, speed differences will be different for each user.... but yet I keep reading how people keep saying that they were told it was the users fault. Other then checking settings, checking to make sure you don't have spyware - there is little for BK to do other then change server locations.... and little for users to do other then change settings to see what works best for them. [I'm not defending the site or slowness - I have the same slow connection that most others do - but I know it is not my fault - and it's not BK's fault - it is just a product of the internet - how international lines are ran - how computers find their way through all those wires to find the final destination.]

coan.net: hate to be complaining here as it just causes problems, which is why I rarely post anything anywhere.on this site anymore, I am computer smart, and have a problem with that answer, I play on several game sites in several different countries, I play on 3 computers all with different isp's all are top of the line computers,non are infect with spyware. The reason I don't buy that answer anymore then that it is the users problem and not the site problem is this. We are all playing from several different countries, on several different servers, all don't have the problem anywhere else on the internet except with this site, I play roughly the same type of game sites, and this one at one time was the best you could play at, but it isn't anymore.

coan.net:
maybe some precedent examples from some other fairly high profile sites would help,otherwise Brainking seems to be unique in this situation.

beach: "all don't have the problem anywhere else on the internet except with this site"

Agree - but at the same time:

There are many users who have zero problem with this site while many others do have problems.

Again, I'm not trying to blame the user - not trying to say the site is fast (it is slow for me also), I'm just trying to say that it's hard to see it being a BK problem when many people don't have issues. One of the things that can cause some people to have problems, while others don't have problems is an issues somewhere between the user & BK - a slow connection somewhere that for some reason, many have starting going through causing the slowness. Not the users fault.... but not the site's fault either.

Jim Dandy: Yes. Easyjet. I gave up checking ticket prices last night as each page was taking 40-90 seconds to load.

And it's a local shop

Jules: I'm aware that sites have their bad days,it happens,but I was speaking of a longterm scenario that is similar to the one here a Brainking

Rose: Well said & probably true Horrendously bad the last couple days, no matter what I do

Jim Dandy: Long term? It ain't been that long and no-one knows how long it might last.

.. Maybe Fencer.

Jules: Well,I'm done chasing my tail in regards to the issue

Jim Dandy: Best thing. Much more important matter I'm sure.

coan.net: I'm just trying to say that it's hard to see it being a BK problem when many people don't have issues



I think it is hard for many to swallow that line, simply because the problems appear to be unique with this site only. If what you and Fencer are saying is true, then BK would not be the only web site that has the same types of issues. But I havent seen any examples where this is true? I happen to be one of the people who have few problems, I do have some sometimes, but it rarely seems as bad as others profess, but it just makes no logical sense to anyone that slow connection problems are unique to brainking only, yet brainking has no responsibility for them?

Has anyone else noticed, that the only players that never seem to complain about ANY sort of connection problem OR site speed, are players from the Czech Republic (or surrounding countries) ?

Do they not have problems ? If not, Why not ?
Could that be looked into ???

As a note i would like to say, as many of you, I have had lots of problems in the last few months, BUT this week (Wednesday & Thursday nights UK time), BrainKing was flying, both night i made over 400 moves in a few hours, which is amazing for 2 reasons.

1) the recent problems, i did not expect it at all
2) i was at work, and WAS actually working as well

So WHY were those 2 nights so special ? Who knows ? They should not have been, as normally all our friends from the States would have been on, so site should be slower if anything

Just some observations to think about

MadMonkey: Well, time has come to move, right? Why to stay in good old England when the great Central Europe is waiting for you to live there?
All right, now seriously. I have promised not to provoke anybody here, so I will do it at the blog site. Soon.

Jim Dandy: sometimes DailyGammon is slow for me .. slower than BrainKing

FaceBook is almost always slow showing me pages that the page/part of/the application cant be loaded and i should try later

Hyves is slow as well sometimes

those are the 4 sites i visit most ... when i sort them from fast to slow it would be :
DailyGammon
BrainKing
Hyves
Facebook

(and i think ebay would be somewhere between BrainKing and Hyves for me (remembering from the few times that i used it)

Of course i am living in the Netherlands while you are not so the order might be different for you for the reasons coan.net posted

The reasons why other sites you visit might not have the speed problems is that they are not located in the Czech repulic and on the same provider as BrainKing

a solution would be to move the BrainKing server to another location .. but as said before that can cost quite a lot of money

Fencer: Thats not a bad idea you know

There must be plenty of room as most of them are over here

Fencer: Its quite simple really..... Use Firefox, with all the correct extensions, use the lite version of this site, and move to the Czech Republic, and you will experience no problems whatsoever!

...Two down, one to go ...Less snow hopefully, it's never-ending here this winter

Czuch: MadMonkey is a smart guy. Unlike you, he understands.

Fencer: I have just spent 10 minutes trying to figure out how to respond in the blog section???

I have made a "new" log in etc., but dont see where to click to make an entry, or where to click to make a response? i tried clicking on someones name, like Fencer, which is clickable, but took me to an email page to write a note, and after I did this and went to send, it said that fencers email addy was not formated correctly to send it? I just got more frustrated and came here.