How about a way for players to simply drop out of the pond.

The system would probably have to send all the remaining players a message saying who dropped out.

I suppose it wold be unfair to have players drop out last minute right before the end of a round, so maybe limit it so that players can only drop out when more than 25% of the time per turn is remaining. This would be way better than the way it is now!

My membership is about to expire. I am thinking about renewing as a bishop for a few months. Can a bishop play in ponds? I am in a pond now with 99 players and would hate to drop out so soon!

Fencer,

Could you please put a colored background (a nice light blue would look good) behind the bonus winner in the list of pond participants on any pond page just like you put a grey background around me in any pond I'm in? Please? ;-)

Vikings: Then just remove all the pawns when it starts. It stinks to have them floating around anyway.

Are pawns in the game? Or are they out? Seems to me they're half in/half out. Kinda stupid way to play a game if you ask me.

Sorting out the starting issue, sorting out the pawns issue, and allowing different starting point totals and bonus would make this good game a great game!

I'd like to see the way Ponds work changed. I think a player should make his (or her) first move when he signs up. Thta way, everyone's first move would be made and all the confusion about players falling with a zero bid and the lowest other bid also falling in round one could be eliminated. Not much else would change. The pond would still appear on your list of ponds once it has started and you could edit your first bid just like any other bid. I see no drawbacks to this change.

This game would be better of you were required to make your opening bid when you signed up. That way, there wouldn't be any confusion over how the first round bids differ from all the other rounds. Of course you could still change your opening bid once the game starts. Essentially, the game would start as soon as you sign up, but the timer would not start until the minimum number of players signed up or the starting deadline was reached.

How different do you thing these Pond games would be with different starting values and bonus amounts? It seems to me that if the number of players is fairly small (under 20) that running out of points rarely becomes an issue. If we started with only 1000 instead of 20,000 then play would be different.

I'd like to see changes made to BK so that the creator of teh Pond can set the initial number of points and the value of the bonus.

alexlee: Automatically placing the same bid as last round (or all your points if you don't have that many left) is better than auto-biding zero.

Technically, I don't think you can call it a tie for first, since there was no winner. I'm not sure how to properly phrase it, though.

I hate waiting. I'd like to see Ponds advance when all players have submitted their bids.

I'd also like to see a version where (if there are more than a certain number of players, say 10 or 20) the last person to bid falls. This would encourage fast play. Or better yet, a -500 penalty for the last bidder. That's an even better idea. ;-)

Skittles: So the questions are:

When will it peak?
What will it peak at?
Will it come back down?

Czuch Chuckers: Now there's a surprise. ;-)

Nothingness, I suggest sending a PM to Fencer asking about the calculations for Pond ratings. Also, you could go waaaaaay back in this DB. There may be some useful info there.

Czuch Chuckers: The box automatically sets the subject for you, which the top message area does not. People who reply without entering a subject are on my list of pet peeves. ;-)

rod03801: Accurate isn't the right word there. Unless one is calculated incorrectly, they're both accurate, but let's not quibble... ;-)

Sounds like a good oppourtunity for a wager! I'd think that betting the median of the previous round would be better in general than betting the mean with the highs & lows eliminated. But, generally, I think one can stay below either average in the early rounds and build up a lead strong enough that the 'average' bidder would get into trouble sooner or later anyway, especially in larger ponds.

Of course I'm only rated 1642, so what do I know. ;-)

rod03801: Median will probably often give similar results, but not a lot of the time.

Isn't a lot of the time what often means?

Fencer,

1) Could you make the headings at the top of the colums clickable so we can sort the player list by name, points bet in the last round, etc.? At times, I would really like to see the last round sorted by how much was bet by each player.

2) I assume the average you list is the mean (all the bets added up and divided by the number of remaining players). When one (or more) players make a bet that is way off from the others, then this statistic is less meaningful. A better 'average' would be the median. Median is the bet in the middle (or the mean of the pair in the middle if there are an even number of items). Could you add the median to the items that are reported?

BBW, will you be keeping this board? What happened to Stevie? I would like to moderate this board.

I was looking at a completed Pond.
http://brainking.com/game/Pond?bms=33&g=10
I noticed that the person in last place bid more points in the next round than he had. I'm guessing that the amount of points left shown is incorrect, since nobody bet the obvious amount of 476 points in the next round. Anyone know what's up?

Vikings: Oops. That's a confusing one. ;-)

Vikings:

1. I agree
2. ditto
3. ditto again
4. Too funny!!! LOL ;-)
5. ok
6. agreed, but replace 'are random' with 'are somewhat random'
7. How do I get to be one of those 3 or 4? ;-)

rabbitoid: That's exactly what he claimed! Which we all know is bunk.

Andre Faria: How would you statistically account for the fact that I sometimes go for the bonus and sometimes do not? You can't build that into your model with complete acuracy, can you? I agree that you can come up with a formula that will do well, but not one that will get you all the way thru the game.

Pedro Martínez: That's what I thought, Pedro. Thanks for the info.

I agree, there is not such formula.

Pedro,

Ed Trice claims that your success in pond games and the fact that he gave you his secret formula is not a coincidence. Care to comment? Did he really share the formula with you, or just give you amounts to bid?

You people are making a mountain out of a molehill. You are worring about a problem that you now handle on a regular basis.

Let's say I am playing a game of chess with Walter with a one day time limit. If I move right now, what is the minimum time I would have before I would be required to make my next move? If ponds were changed (or an option added) they would work exactly the same way. No problem.

tedbarber: (1) Never have the lowest bid in a round. (2) Be the last man standing.

I like the new Submit and... options!!

BIG BAD WOLF: probably

Nothingness: It's not that simple. If you think it is, try to finish second in three straight ponds. ;-)

TIGER0005: Four to get a provisional rating, and 25 to get a regular rating, but the entire pond run has to complete before your score is computed.

When I click on the red number next to the 'Main page' link it takes me to the oldest pond, but I have my games sorted by the time to deadline. Shouldn't the numbered link take me to the game with the least remaining time (I.e. the one at the top of my list according to how I have it sorted)?

tonyh: Looks that way to me too, tony. That is wacky!!

The smaller text for BKRs is much nicer. ;-)

Excellent suggestion, rod03801. Here's the first pond for players with select BKRs (under 2000):

http://brainking.com/game/Pond?g=463

Ok, now that we have ratings, can we have it so that we can select the BKR range that we want to allow in our pond? No offense, but I'd like to play a pond without Pedro, BBW, rabbitoid, Maxxina, tonyh, or Vikings.

Too funny!

grenv: Oh, right. Good point. ;-)

tonyh: Here's a link:
http://brainking.com/en/Pond?g=358&trnst=2

You are right. She had 2900 and bid them all, got the bonus (why didn't anyone bid 2901??) and should have 500, not 5,000.

You can see old rounds now!!! ;-)

BTW, as someone who got his first pond bonus yesterday, I say let the messages stay!! ;-)

Universal Eyes: What is correct? Your words do not make a sentence.

Universal Eyes: "Rules are once the 25th pond is completed it will be started,upon the completion of that specific pond is finished"

Um, what?

Victory is never inevitable. A player could be way out front, but for whatever reason, stupidity, error, carelessness, etc., bid zero.

If Fencer set up a tournament for just one group of players, then I might have an issue with it. But if a member wants to hold a tourney for certain other members, I don't see the harm. I could hold a prize tourney just for my friends here, so why not one for just the sexy redheadded ladies, or just the guys who like the same football team I do, players under 6 feet tall (sorry, I don't know the metric equivallent) or whatever.

HEY NOTHINGNESS, IF YOU THINK I'M CHEATING, OFFER SOME PROOF. IF YOU CAN'T, THEN SHUT THE **** UP!!

Congrats to everyone still alive in The very first run. We are half way!

I think players whose membership expire should be able to finish out their existing pond games. The way it is now, they are just clogging up our games and removing most of the fun.

Stevie: Sorry, but I have better things to do than explain to you why a bet of zero is better than a bet of ten to a player who wants to leave the first run.

grenv: Agreed, a bet of ten is better for those of us who will remain than a bet of zero, but someone who wants out is sure to bet zero, after all, they want out.