WhisperzQ: I thinkg that's just a function of what's been happening in the previous ponds. 59 has been too low and 69 had been too high, so we all hit 66. No conspiracy, just a limited amount of numbers in that range.

UzzyLady (et al): If you could be convinced that there was no collusion, the progression of the sophistication on the bidding would make an interesting PhD study into the dynamics of human adaption in a (semi-)closed environment.

My dailys are now starting almost a week late, it's more and more difficult to enlist 16 players. I should be talking, I kind of lost interrest myself.

rabbitoid: yes I noticed that as well ;( where i used to have 20-25 games (ponds) going at once now it is flat out getting 10-15.....I think if you leave your numbers of entry open you might fare better...instead of 16/- or 16/16 make it say 12 or even 8....see what happens...JMO

BerniceC: at least 16 is required to start a pond.

Vikings: OH :( i didnt realize that not having set up a pond in about 8-9 months....call it short memory LOLOL

There is too much ponds . Some people - me for example is geting tired from that numbers of ponds and playing just few of them . Must relax from them . I will be back . Dont know when , but i will .

I still love the ponds, and have not lost interest at all. I don't like to have more than 10 ponds at once, however.
I hope you don't stop creating them, rabbitoid! When I am getting low on ponds and want to add a few more, yours are the first I look for. (Because they are always close to starting after signing up, and they are 1 day ponds)
I signed up for a few that were past the sign up time last night..

rod03801: they cost nothing to create, so I'll continue. But my question is , should I continue to create one per day? or is one every 2, 3 days more reasonable?

Well personally, the reason I look for your ponds first, is because I can look for ones that will be starting the soonest. (Many times I look for the ones that have 15 people entered already, knowing my entry will get it started the quickest) So, the less you make, the lower my odds are for finding one. (Yeah, I'm impatient some times! lol)

But that's just me..

and like I said before, I don't tend to have many ponds at one time, so my vote shouldn't count for much!

rabbitoid:
I usually have about 20-30 ponds active at the same time. Most of them 2-4 day ponds of all kinds. I also look for the ponds with most players in, as I think they are easier to play. The raise in bids is slower and easier to predict with 25-40 players involved.

Before I sometimes had 70-80 ponds at the same time, and it took me a great deal of time wading through them all. However I have not lost interest. :-)

has anyone ever seen a pawn win a pond?
http://brainking.com/en/Pond?g=1625

Vikings: Once a pawn they can't bid any more can they?

Rose: they cannot change their bid so their last bid will be used, since it is over 500 and no one else has that many points, he will continue to receive the bonus and win with a final score of 500

Vikings: lol that worked out well for him!

Vikings: well thought out by the pawn LOLOL....

Vikings: I knew, that my membership will expire so I tried to make this few bids ago...
And I am really glad, that it managed to me ;o) ( it wasnt just my work, the others fortunatelly for me, bet fortunate numbers for me ;o)
I dont know if I am first one, but with this pond and a bit unluck for the players(I dont want something bad for them...) above me I will be the first pawn on the top of this ranking LOL:o)

Zach: it's possible, however, you will dissapear after one month of inactivity as a pawn

Don't think I will ever understand why some folks keep playing all the ponds when they clearly dont grasp the concept on how to play them. To bid 110 or something when someone in the last round fell in the pond with a 112 bid makes no sense to me what so ever. I can see doing it one time by not paying attention but in many, many ponds? I dont get it.

Rose: I told Linda the same thing in our backgammon game..her only reply was "thank you". *shrugs* That was about a month ago.

Pedro Martínez: Just doesn't make sense to me.

Well, the answer seems to be definitely "yes". Unless something is done soon, the pond system is dead.

I'm suspending the creation of the daily ponds until the backlog goes down a bit. Currently there are 20 ponds that can't be started because of an insufficient number of participants, 8 of them mine. I have started ponds until May 2nd. There's really no point anymore to start new ones.

rabbitoid: I have stopped playing because of the holiday season is upon us ,i think alot of people may have stopped for this reason

rabbitoid: I played for a while but I just got bored with it. Sorry you are having trouble enjoying your game.
You could always switch to Ludo. That is good for a day or two. (no more ;))

Or antibackgammon...

rabbitoid:
I'm not bored with them yet but do need 3 days or more to play. The 1 and 2 day ponds are just to much.
I see most the ponds waiting to start are just that, 1 and 2 days.

Jason:
Just out of curiosity, what Holiday season? Only thing coming up is Mothers day and its only 1 day

No holidays in the near future around here.

Baked Alaskan: He means summer holidays, vacation time

Rose:

Oh just a summer thing?
Cause a holiday to me is Christmas, Thanxgiving, Mothers Day, Independence day etc etc

So why is a holiday (summer vaction to others?)
I dont get it LOL

Baked Alaskan: different cultures, differnt terminology I spose. I call it the same thing, on holidays when it's vacation time

Rose:
Guess its just an American thing huh?
Kind of like we dont use the metric system either LOL


Well, SUMMER VACATION is here LOL

Baked Alaskan: Memorial day maybe, that is a 3-day weekend for most

Vikings: I think another factor in pond games is the creation of stairs, I have noticed thatsince its creation, there are many other tournys that haven't started up.

I have 93 members in a ponds fellowship (minus a few stray pawns) and cant even get more than 7 or 8 people to sign up for a fellowship only pond!!!

Maybe fencer will lower the minimum amount of players for us????? I would also like to be able to play "live" pond games, maybe 1 or 5 minute moves?????

Czuch Chuckers: Having a 5 minute per turn pond would be cool. Sorry that I can't help you fill up the fellowship ponds anymore.

POND SUGGESTIONS:

Lower time limits - like 5 minutes. This may be hard since I think a process runs every hour that processes the ponds. So this might not be possible.

Lower minimum amount of players: A low limit of 10? Would that work? Too much lower then that might not work too well.

Different starting amounts: 100, 1000, 5000, 10000, 20000

Different bonuses: none, 25, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000

Any other ideas?

Those all sound like good ideas BBW. Lower than 10 people would not be good in my opinion...

I still love the ponds! (Even if my rating is falling lately! lol) and I personally prefer the 1 and 2 day ponds. I would help by joining your fellowship ponds, Czuch, if I were in your fellowship. :-)

I would like the ability to after a certain amount of time, to make our fellowship ponds public. For example, if the minimum don't sign up by the time the deadline comes, the pond then goes to the public pond list. (If the creator wants that, that is)

rod03801: thats not a bad fellowship to belong to, there is sometimes info there that doesn't make it here

Vikings: It was a good fellowship, but he kicked a few out awhile back.

BIG BAD WOLF: I wasn't aware of that

Vikings: Just a couple of globs that I was upset with...

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. ;-)

BIG BAD WOLF: I have proposed another idea to Fencer: allow a limited participation of pawns, say a pond or three at a time. He said he'd think about it.

rabbitoid: That might be good too. Being a game that NEEDS so many people to start, a bigger pool of potential players would be awesome.

Yes i can see that letting pawns play a limited number of ponds would be a good idea to start more of them off.

Then we can watch the first person who sees a pawn, thinks they will auto-bid, and lose because of it....

Oh, I like that idea also - maybe a limit of 1 of each type at a time.

BIG BAD WOLF: But then fencer wil be inundated with requests to remove them from a game as soon as they fall into the pond! We dont need to make fencer grumpy ;)

Czuch Chuckers: LOL.. you have a very good point there. Unless part of the new feature is that it is made clear that pawns will NOT be taken out of ponds early. That they will have to wait until the ponds end. No exceptions.

rod03801: maybe if ponds were considered as part of their 20 game limit

Vikings: ponds are part of the games allowed due to the game limit for knights already, so that wouldn't be any different for pawns.

Mr. Shumway: 20 games vs. 50 games. I would think that a pawn wouldn't burn more than 3 or 4 on ponds, just curious, how many do you play as a knight with that limit?