Carnie: not sure that's true the last 10 recent paid memberships are all recent.

One must decide this year whether to renew or not because as Fencer said this could be the last year and nothing is guaranteed beyond 2017. I am not sure if that is a positive statement for the site's financial future. I came here from IYT like many others. I recently looked back at IYT and decided I didn't want to play there again. I was analyzing Goldtoken as I have never played there. They seem to have some different games that are not available here and would be interested in playing there. I was checking out the cost of their membership levels and not sure if it is a good deal or not. I guess I would have to examine my needs and how much time I want to devote to playing there. I have scaled back so much in pursuit of other interests but still love playing games as I grew doing so. Though I have misgivings about Brainking now and moving forward, I still would like it to continue stay running if for nothing else to have a few games to play here. I would never sink my money into it again as I feel there is no commitment from the ownership to advance the site. I kept renewing in the past because I felt I was contributing to the advancement of brainking. If new ownership takes over, I will see what level of commitment they make and decide if I can afford or wish to support their efforts with a paid membership.

ellieoop: Ellieoop you are correct in saying she has given lots of memberships...I got one as a sympathy gift when my daughter died in October....That was such a nice thing to do....

Clandestine 1: I too hope that Brainking is able to stay alive.

ellieoop: I gave up trying as it did not work and it is a most strange way of signing up for games.

ellieoop: Yes she might be very kind hearted. But she needs to move with the times that children use bad language so to not use words in the word games that she considers is bad language is so silly. For example Sod. 1. Sod is earth with grass and roots in it. 2. a piece of turf. 3. a man thought to be foolish and/or annoying.
Most children today are far more street wise than I ever was as a child.

crosseyed: Badger is a wonderful person. she has given lots of memberships to players that can't renew because of true problems. she is very kind hearted.

Goldtoken is very easy and if you go to the top right where it says tournaments, click that and you'll see all the site tourns.. my name is the same there. if you need help, I'll try.

Gabriel Almeida: Ive been there 15 years and dont know how it works hahahahaha

crosseyed:Goldtoken is more difficult to navigate,  but you can join tournaments, you just got to play around a bit to figure it out.

Gabriel Almeida: The same here, I cannot work out how to join tournaments.

Bernice: They are not a patch on this site.
The 'holy than thou' Badger wears thin sometimes and I cannot work out how to do several things in Goldtoken. Having said that she does her best in trying to improves some things about the site.
IYT is very dated.
This merger talk is rubbish.

Bernice:i joined goldtoken yesterday, but still have no idea of how it works.

Clandestine 1: agreed

crosseyed: i didnt say they were BUT...if Fencer is going to let this slide then they are MUCH better...common sense tells me that.

Carnie: I agree, but let's say no investor will be found, that makes Fencer a great offer. what if he decides as announced to shut down the site instead? in such worst case situation i would prefer IYT or Gold Token to take over. BUT i clearly prefer the solution of brainking staying alive under a new ownership.... brainking is cool! me I started at Gold Token and IYT, after I met this site I stopped there. let's hope Fencer gonna be fine with some offers

Could be some neat team tournaments with a merger or two... add some much needed new excitement and create rivalries.

Carnie: Yes indeed.

Bernice: But they are not as good as this site.

Gabriel Almeida: I came from IYT and still play there and also Gold Token :) I like them both :)

speachless:indeed.

Bluefin: might be a very good idea...at the end of the day, if options runs out, IYT or Gold Token could be a chance

ellieoop: Yep, me too on what you said. Except I came from IYT.

Bernice: No to that suggested too.

Bluefin: that's exactly how I came here..I saw Fencer's post on GT and came here and brought other players with me..I started a club. I hate that fencer won't be able to be here.. I really like this site..I will miss it..

Bluefin: sounds like a possibilty....also IYT could be interested.

Bluefin: No to that suggestion.

I used to be on a chess team with Fencer at Gold Token. Then he said he was leaving to start Brain King. I got my first membership for BK from who is now one of the owners of GT. I still play chess there and here. Would there be any possibility of contacting Gold Token about a possible merger ? Just a thought. I fully understand where Fencer is coming from.

Well I've certainly had fun. I'm one of the reasons there are globs. . But I've mellowed. Age will do that to me. That and cold beer.

Marshmud.....Have you considered trying again to take over BK?

Fencer: Please do not make it a final decision. Could you not employ someone to run the site for you? You must know by now that there is are SO many people who love this site please do not turn you back on us.

Fencer:  thanks for all you have done with this site.  I have been a member for along time.  It is my favourite turnbased site.  I will be sad when and if it goes, but like everything in life nothing lasts forever.  I hope the site stays but understand that life must go on for you.  Again thanks for a great site

Fencer:that's it, Fencer.

MadMonkey: I don't say it is a final decision, just the most probable one. I guess that nobody expected me to run this site for 50 years just on my own. There are several reasons that led to this announcement and some of them are quite important to me. Life goes on.

Retep: Well there is nothing illegal or untrustworthy about the lifetime memberships. At the time they were offered, there was no intention of the site going offline. They were purchased in good faith, in my opinion. Also there is no definition of lifetime in this case. It could be a year or 10 years or whatever, depending on how long you decide to play here or as long as the site is active.

MadMonkey: I would consider it very untrostworthy (and maybe not legal) to sell expensive "life time memberships" and then just put the site offline. Completely stopping support (like it was announced) would not be much better. It would be nice, if after 2017 at least major bugs are excluded or any other fair solution is found.

It makes me feel sad to read Filip's post
Brainking, and its players have been through a lot of ups & downs over 15 years. The site was very new when i found it in 2002,(I can't remember how many games, about 20 then i think) and i had been playing at IYT & Goldtoken. After a while many friends from those sites moved to playing here as well, and the site started to grow.
After a while Fencer revamped the site (I called that Brainking 2.0 lol), and along with harley, BBW (coan.net as he is now) and some other we introduced a sort of customer service, which then turned into Moderators & Globs...(love that word lol). It looked like the site was going to take off.......
Sadly over the last few years, since Liquid cutting back his input, and Fencer not having the time anymore it has been getting buggy and stale
I really hope someone (or a group of people) will step up and save it, it’s part of daily life for me to come and play my games, sort out the Fellowship, and have a chat with whoever is up for one
I have also made a lot of VERY, VERY good friends here over those years, lots of moved on now, but many are still here.
It will be a very sad day for me, when i will click on my brainking.com link and "Page not found" comes up.....

All i can do is hope someone saves the day
MadMonkey (Ian)

p.s. I would still like to wish Filip all the best for his future in everything he does, and thanks for creating an awesome place for us to play our games

Brian1971: My point is that *you have no idea* if there is money to be made. You just *assume you know* it because you are an accountant or whatever unrelated experience you have.

Aganju: I wouldn't buy it as there is no money to be made in its current form. That is my whole point. If you are a player here who would buy it just to keep it alive, then fine but then I am sure you would find you would not have time to play games as you would be too busy maintaining the site and implementing new things that players are asking for. I am not sure how much fun that would be, just a lot of work for really no gain. Again just my opinion. All opinions are welcome and no need to run someone else's down to make their own point.

Every time this discussion comes up, I find it astonishing how many people that have exactly zero experience in handling a website or developing and maintaining a major code base know how it should be handled and how not.

In other words: If you think you know how it should be done, why don't you create one, and get rich? And if you don't know how, just shut up.

Brian1971: Then I recommend you just refrain from buying it.

Bernice: I will grant you that point Bernice. I do have a college degree in accounting and business management. I made a career on restaurant management and later my own insurance sales business as well. Then I got sick and disabled. I now take care of the financials for my church and oversaw the financing of our recently completed building expansion. I look at the income that Brainking generates now. I do not see how the site on its own entity is making money based on just membership fees collected. They may keep the site online,but not necessarily making a profit. I could be wrong. However like I said if someone was looking to buy it as an investment that could be profitable, changes would have to be implemented to help generate a return on that investment. Also working on the site would be a full-time job. Just things one would have to consider.

Bernice: I dread to think what the church account books are like.
And in response your other post it would be interesting to know what this site is worth.
All I can think is that Fencer must very wealthy to let this site just end.

Has something gone weird with the tournament tables? The behemoth chess tournament im in seems to be wrong, was fine this morning though.

Brian1971: Brian I had 50+ years accounting/bookeeping...that was what i did for a job...How can you even say that when you havent seen a financial report of Fencers Business (assuming he has financial reports) You have NO IDEA what the situation is/was at BrainKing, and in my opinion you cannot comment until such time as you have "checked out the financial records" for the last 5 years at least.

Im not trying to cause an argument here, just having my say :)

Looking after the church books isnt exactly a good example.....sorry

What would be the financial upside in buying Brainking? It would cost a fair amount of money to keep it online and unless you have the time and knowledge to implement new things and make repairs, you would have to pay someone to do it at a high rate of pay. You would need to demonstrate you have a growing site with lots of activity to coax businesses to advertise on the site to even start to get a return on the investment. ANd if you are like me, you do not to interrupted with popup ads or have them all over your game boards. It is a distraction and annoyance and can cause the site to run slower on your computer device. This may in itself would cause some to leave the site. Whoever would buy it would want a return on the investment at some point. Advertising, higher paid memberships, and perhaps a reduction in benefits at different membership levels are all ways to make it happen. As someone who is studies and works with finances at my church, I see buying brainking as a poor investment, and an bottomless money pit. Unless you are wealthy and do not care about costs, then that is the person who would be interested. Just my opinion.