I totally agree with you, Gary. Reversi is infact the same game as othello. The "parallell" opening gives a huge disadvantage to the player who moves first (which is white here ).
Top players will never come to this site as long as the following isn't corrected:
1.) Fixed diagonal opening
2.) Black moves first
3.) A1 has to be the upper left corner (letters on the top, number on the sides)

The official championships are played over the board, not online; but it still would be fun to have some real competition in here :)