Im surprised to see that you were directed here for this discussion :(

This is my answer to the following thoughts of Sumerian which were put on feature request board but we were asked to discuss it here:

"to reza: I am surprised finding me being a subject of a cheating discussion here. Why not simply ask me directly?

a) Before participating in a tournament I am asking its creator under which conditions I would be welcomed or not. If not accepted I am simply not participating. Concerning the most actual GC tournament I have been explicitly invited.
b) If I would use the assistance of my unready and still error containing growing Smirf engine, it is merely a form of organizing my own experiences. Others will use databases of their commented game notations, books or take help from third persons or use unmentioned bought programs. But instead I am relying simply only on MY OWN means.
c) It is no secret what I am doing. I have it openly documented in my profile, that I will mostly be testing a self written engine.
d) Moreover I am mostly waiting to be invited for to play a game, thinking the invitor will have seen and read my profile.

What more can I do than to make those details open and clear for everybody instead of preferring a secret use?"

Dear Sumerian,

First of all, I really don't know what I should have asked you directly. Perhaps why you use a computer to help you?

You have been explicitly invited by Mr. Trice?
Well then I personally don't think he has acted fairly enough. He has offered a big prize and I think it is fair that all the participants of the tournament are in the same situation and use their own abilities alone.

What I giv eyou as my answer to part b of your comments is that using "others" is not the best choice. What I get from that word is that you mean all other people here while it's not true. many of those others do not use notations or help from a third person. Yes, you are using your own means but that Gothic chess tournament isn't the proper place for it. You can use your own means bu putting tens of invitaions on the waiting games page mentioning that those who pick up the invitation are going to play with your "unready and still error containing growing Smirf engine."

Let me put it this way. You are the biggest brain and most qualified person in the world of computers, just pretending. You have with help from no one else created a program that can play gothic and janus chess. Still if you use it to challenge others, I think you are cheating. You can challenge others to make a better program than yours but you cannot challenge them to win your program. That has been a gothic chess tournament and the object is to play gothic chess with no help and to finally determine the one who is able to play gothic chess the best of all not the one who is able to make a program that playes Githic chess better than humans.

Yes, it's no secret what you are doing. You have honestly put your secret on your profile but in this particular case, others have no choice but to play with you. many of those who have lost to you in the tournament and many others who WILL lose to you later, may not choose to play you if you put invitations on the site. But here, they simply have to. I myself will never play you a game of Gothic chess fo two reasons. I am not that much interested in that game since regular chess is still quite challenging for me and second for the "assisstence" you are using. In the tournament it is different. If I can manage to win all in my group, I'll have to play you finally and test my abilities against a machine assissted person. I think you see how different these are. To choose to play you willingly and to be forced to play you by the system controling the tournament.

Finally, yes I admit that putting your secret on your profile is still a lot better than those who have the same secret but never reveal it. But I think you yourself must decide when to join a tournament and when not to. This very tournament, you shouldn't have taken a part in.

Stevie: How can you think so?!!!..behave!!

Last call for interview questions!!

You have about 24 hours to send me any last minute questions for BRY!!

Don't hold back! It could be your last chance to grill him!

Stevie: They don't. End of subject.

do Globmods have special privaledges in fellowships also?

aparently English is hard to learn.
And when you think about it..due to regional dialects etc etc etc all languages have multiple words for one meaning.
Im glad I aint a translator LOL

you can bring any language in you like...I still say that Czech is one of the MOST DIFFICULT to learn...and if it isnt.....who will teach me please....I have heard that there can be dozens of words for the same thing and it depends on how, where, when, if, and why, you use them LOLOL as to what they mean :(

Will you be having Chinese as a language....I bet not LOLOLOL....even a man a Clever as yourself wouldnt be able to have all the dialects required....Czech is the same I think....Give me a good translator please :)

it obviously hasnt Rod

Fencer has the limit of 5 autovactions in any game been implemented yet? (I think that's the number that was said...)

Summertop: lol - Master Yoda trained him well....

Luke Skywalker: Use the "Force", you should be able to Sense the number of days left.

Since you don't seem to make a secret out of it, could you show the number of vacation days a user has on the profile?

yep...and my first bg tourny win LOL

Stevie: Does that mean the party has been cancelled?

okie dokie

Five.

OK
Ive had thoughts though..maybe he had a gap between his vacation days and when the autovac days were activated.

So as you suggest.....FENCER, how many vacation days does Madmonkey have left?

i think vacation days are only used up when a game needs them

a game only needs it when the normal time of the game is over (the 5 days in pauloaguia example)

i wonder though .. if i have 2 games running .. 1 games times out monday .. the other game times out on tuesday

suppose i wont be online on monday .. the first game will use 1 vacation day and time out on tuesday ... my question is if the other game will also be awarded the vacation day (and time out on wednessday) or if the vacation day which is used only counts for the first game and i will use another vacation day if i only move in the first game on tuesday and dont play in the second game

But this is autovacation: it only kicks in on timeouts, so you only start spending vacation days on your first timeout...
At least that's how I understood it when it was first explained in this board a few months ago. And it will still be how I see it working until Fencer corrects me (after all, he was the one who implemented the system, so who better to clear any doubts about it?)

nope..it doesnt work like that..I knew what you meant.
Vacation days pass no matter what is supposed to happen on each day or not ( except weekend days) the end of a 30 day period is 30 days + weekends..not 30 days + weekends + extra's.

Maybe I didn't explain right:
Imagine he has only one game, and that he last moved on 6-Jan. If that is a 5-days-per-move game then he would timeout on 13-Jan (because of weekend). Now, he times out on 13-Jan the first time, so that will be his first vacation day. He is given an extra day, so he timed out again on 14-Jan, being his second vacation day. and so on (excluding weekends) till he times out for the 31st time, on 24-Feb, this time for good.
So, to know exactly when his vacation days are over, you need to find out the fastest game he has and start calculating the number of vacationed days from there...

Of course, it's easier to just wait another week

nope..the five days for example would not be on top of that

Stevie: Don't forget to include the days he had to move in the first place. For instance, if all his games were 5-day-to-move games then you need to had 5 days to those numbers...

All I know is that yesterday I finally got rid of my opponent that was autovacationing since the begining of this year :)
You'll get your turn soon as well ;)

Can someone else work out when his games should start timing out?
He hasnt been online since 6th January and gets 30 days holiday. weekends are sat and sun.

I worked out that he should be timing out today as 30 days not online ran out yesterday....but his games are still renewing.
Have I misscalculated?

NTL Oxfordshire here so only 45 miles in it. so maybe NTL at its best then

It's slow for me (NTL - London).

Is the site slow..or is it my end?

MagicDragon: the idea as i understood it was for everyone to reset their password before the change takes place.

mrloupcity: Have a safe trip

On the main page, you mentioned that we have to update our profile/password. I had to change my password because I cleared out my cookies in my browser. Would I have to do that again in a couple of weeks (or longer) or just have to reset my password when I can't into the site when this change as occurred? Thanks!

harley: I know is , but just want people to know I'm not slow playing on all my games. I'm out of town tell Sunday night. TYVM all for waiting.
:o{P

boy, this issue has been raised a few times. I promise you the computer dice are completely random. I've had that happen to me in backgammon, and I've also rolled the same dice myself. It happens. If you want to continue the discussion, please move it to the backgammon board, thank you.

harley:
not mpossible harley, i swear to you, few months ago he got 3 double 6,s on the trot to win, again now, 3 double 6,s ,now he still needs at least a double 3 to win, well see if he gets it, i know he,s cheating somehow

boy, its impossible to cheat with the dice on BrainKing. Plus you're off topic

i played california man months ago under a diff name, i was winning until right at the end he gets 3 double 6,s, luck u might say, well, same thing is happening again, , i,m winning easy, then suddenly 3 double 6,s, NOW I KNOW WHY HIS RATING IS SO HIGH AT GAMMON, I,D PUT MONEY on it that he is deff cheating somehow, how sad he is

Czuch Chuckers: So true!

BerniceC: I wonder what you will do after I add ten other languages :-)

Ladies Only Lily pad - It may be translated as "Liliová poduška jen pro dámy"
Please ... LADIES ONLY ... just for fun = "Prosím ... POUZE DÁMY ... jen tak pro zábavu"

:)

http://brainking.com/game/Pond?g=195&trnst=0

could a Czech person please look and see how the translations are...Im sorry but it is hard and I dont want to upset someone by calling them on their sex LOLOL...
Sorry Harley... but it would be nice if there was a site we could rely on and stop making fools of ourselves when trying to translate :)

WoNdEr hOw mANy LiStz i'M oN

You know what 'they' say.... "keep your friends close, and your enemies even closer" ;)

harley: Thank You for the info! Was always wondering about that & didn't know on which board I should ask that question. I for 1, don't have anyone on my enemies list & not planning to do so but I do have plenty on my friends list however!

BIG BAD WOLF: I agree.

BIG BAD WOLF: Well, valid point...Watch my next post on the "Features" board.

I don't like that idea because sometimes I will add a person (who lets say is causing trouble posting on boards) - I will add them to my friends list so I can see when they are on-line, and in turn watch the boards a little closer to make sure nothing inaproprate gets posted...... so I really don't need them knowing that I've added them.

Fencer: I can see not showing it publicly, but it would be nice for a user to be able to see who has added them, specifically, to either a Friends or enemies list.

I am not sure if such information should be released. Actually, I myself have no problem with it but maybe some people wouldn't like other users to see their friends lists.

harley: