Thad: Thad, you can do about that by setting the time for example to 6 days +1 day per move, no vacation, max 6 days.
That means everyone starts with 5 days 'vacation' plus 1 day for the first move, and plus 1 day for each further move.

The problem with all these settings is that you often hurt the wrong person: For example, if I start a tournament three months before a longer travel, and my opponent drags alone his full time for every move, I will lose on time during my travel, even though I used only 6 hours in the whole three month.

It would be a *major* improvement to this site if games, or at least tournament games, could be limited to allow only a certain amount of vacation days. Even if I sign up for a fast paced tournament, I can still get stuck by players with lots of vacation time. I understand the desire for it, but how about a way to make a tournament with, for example, a maximum of five vacation days per player (per round?). That way, someone can go on a weeklong vacation without forfeiting. Seems reasonable to me!

Aganju: Thanks to you and everyone for the responses - all were helpful, but yours gave the exact answer I was seeking. I wasn't sure, because each game taking up an hour seemed unreasonable, but so does being allowed to hold up all games for 35 days, to some extent. I guess with this being a turn-based site where people shouldn't expect blazing fast games, and the fact that one can set up a game or tourney that doesn't allow vacation days, it does make sense. 

Aganju: You are correct about vacation time. However you omitted one thing, namely that vacation time doesn't work for green dot games either in addition to red dot games not getting vacation.

rod03801: I'm wondering why all the games on a 3 day per move time limit all showed the exact same time... 5 days and 23 hours. beach said the same about hers, that it showed 5 days and 23 hours. What are the odds of ALL 3 day limit games showing the exact same time? I made moves in those games this morning, and now that my opponents have responded I'm seeing 5 days but different hours for those games... which makes sense, because no one expects everyone they are playing will move at the exact same time. So I'm wondering, if I could have seen the minutes as well as the hours this morning, would those numbers have been different or exactly the same?

You see where I'm going with this? I can't be sure, but from where I'm sitting there appears to have been a glitch of some sort.

Carpe Diem: i think the core point of the question was if each game draws by itself from the vacation; and the answer is NO.
If your first game times out, it will draw 1 hour of your vacation, and all your games will get an extra hour (except the ones with the red dot, which say "no vacation" - those do time out). So every vacation hour is good to move out all your games for an hour, etc.
And yes, as stated below, you get new vacation on Jan/1.
And! you have your weekends free in addition.
So - again, except the games with red dots - your first game will time out earliest 35 non-weekend days after Jan/1, which is about Feb/18.
Have a good vacation!

Carpe Diem: Without looking, I'm not even sure the help area has the correct answer. Fencer changed the vacation system, um, a year ago maybe? Or maybe longer. Time flies. Vacation time is now used hourly. So when your games get to the "time out" time, you aren't using a whole day. You could come online an hour after one of your games would have timed out, and see you have 34 days 23 hours of vacation left.

Now, as far the more technical aspects, I'm not positive of the smaller details of it. But yes, right now you actually have more than enough vacation time, because on Jan 1st, everyone's vacation time refills to whatever their membership entitles them to.

I found the small blurb about automatic vacation, and want to make sure I understand it properly. My profile shows me:

beach: Most of my games are showing the same as yours, 5 days and 23 hours (for the 3 day per move games). I've been getting online less because of the holiday, so for whatever the reason the extra time works well for me.

Aganju:  all games on my page have 1 extra day added i only play mostly 3 day games looks like the site is considering new years day as a holiday since it only started changing them from 4 days 23 hrs to 5 days 23 hrs today so looks like tuesday is consider a holiday which is kind of strange since I thought this site decided not to consider holidays at all 

beach: maybe Christmas was considered an extra weekend day?
Can you show an example?

why are 3 days games going to 5 days 23 hours to cover weekend time instead of the usual 4 days 23 hours

Right, I didn't want to come off like I was bitching or anything - 7/10 is indeed a fraction. And yeah, it makes sense that some people would've used some codes in the past and would need less than 7 now - I actually didn't realize you could accumulate them over time. Wish I had signed up with one, but I still feel like I'm getting very good value for my money; I just know now to watch for one next year. :)

Carpe Diem: 7/10 is still a fraction. We are not a charity. This opportunity had been originally created for people who received some bonus codes in the past, so they don't need to make 7 different orders but only 5 or 4 (for instance).

Anyway, I know of several players who really placed 7 orders and got their Black Rook for 252 Euro.

Yeah, I hadn't figured a month of bishop would work, but I would hope 6 months rook would, or the savings is only 30%.

Carpe Diem: and probably a year of rook of each. Not just a month of bishop or so.

Carpe Diem: Yes

For the life of me, I can't figure out how this is supposed to work:

likewowman2cool: That's a good idea - thanks to you, Rod, and others for the help.

Chimera: I sent you a message. Your code wasn't quite right. Try pasting the code from my message into your profile.

Fencer: thank you :)

Chimera: Open video, click Share / Embed and copy/paste the code.

How do you put something from youtube on your profile?

The spelling in English is Google's fault, but I'm sure the Estonian I got is perfect :)

HELLO
Kuidas teile täna, Minu nimi on kasuks, ma leidsin oma profiili ja sain huvitatud, ma tahaks rohkem teada teile. võite saata läbi minu era e nii et ma saaks saata teile minu pilte ja ütlen teile rohkem minust (tambafavor@yahoo.com) palun dont minuga kohapeal sinu sõbralik,
soodustada

HELLO
How are you today ,My Name is favor, I came across your profile and got interested, i will like to know more about you. you can mail through my private email so that i will be able to send you my pictures and tell you more about me(tambafavor@yahoo.com)please dont contact me on site yours friendly,
favor

coan.net: Thank you for taking care of this so quickly.

Bernice: lol the spelling was a bit attrocious.

The Col: This girl sure don't want that kind of luck....lol

Doris: Sometimes spammers slip in. Even though they probable won't be back on with that account to spam more, they have been banned from sending new messages.

Doris: wouldn't be so bad if she could spell ROFLMBO.......

Doris: Some girls have all the luck

How many of you got this same message in your message box? From: zuuuuuuuu (show this user's messages)
Date and time: 6. December 2012, 09:47:41
Subject: HELLO
Archive


Greetings dear,
My name is Helen i will like to have a good love
relationship with you please write me back through my private
e mail address bellow let me send you my pictures and also tell
you more about me ok, here is my privet email
address (helenharuni@yahoo.co.uk )
and I am waiting for your reply.
Yours Miss Helen

(helenharuni@yahoo.co.uk

bajvik: here is an *automatic* translation (for those that do not speak Russian) [Здесь автоматический перевод (для тех, кто не *говорит* на русском языке)]:

I do not know, I write about the creators of this site is that the rules of Thai sticks at them, apparently, are not true. Unfortunately, I do not know any English or Czech language, and write in Russian, apparently useless. Those who are here longer than I have, perhaps, prompt what to do. The essence of the problem is:
In my party with lasto, which is now played, after the moves 1. b2-c3 c7-d6 2. c3-d4 g7-f6 3. a1-b2 h8-g7 4. h2-g3 d6-c5 5. d4xb6 a7xc5 6. f2-e3 e7-d6 7. b2-c3 g7-h6 8. e1-f2 f8-e7 9. g3-h4 b8-a7 10. e3-f4 f6-e5 11. f2-g3 c5-d4 12. c3-b4 d4-c3 13. b4-c5 c3xe1 14. g1-h2 d6xb4 White hit 15. f4xd6xf8, what might follow 15...a7-b6 16. f8xa3 black with a win (opponent has not responded yet).
Of course, I could have played differently, but went to the version with the undermining of 13. b4-c5, to check the rules.
The fact is that in reality in Thai Checkers was to follow 13 ... c3xe1 14. g1-h2 d6xb4 and then after 15. f4xd6xf8 black immediately have to beat on the a3.
I do not remember the name of this rule, but I know him by Thai sources. In Thai with fighting, there are many published combinations. A similar rule is, it seems to Yuzhnonemetskih drafts, unless the rules of the game are described correctly, which I'm not sure. I used to think that only the Russian sites are given erroneous descriptions of foreign drafts games, but now convinced, that in the West there are often errors. I'm familiar with, for example, the description of the rules of Kenova (Ossetian pieces), and so in Russia game is described differently in the English language \"Wikipedia.\ Therefore, it is a world problem, which is caused due to lack of coordination among those involved in the Games (Or at least drafts - on other difficult for me to say). If we take, for example, the rules of Tama (Armenian checkers), I sign with 4 (!) different versions of the rules of the game systems and which ones are real, likely, only God knows.

Regards Victor Bayguzhakov.


[do not assume that I understand a word russian. I was just curious what it means and translated it, so I thought I could as well post it for others to read.]

Не знаю, как мне написать создателям этого сайта о том, что правила Тайских шашек у них, судя по всему, не соответствуют действительности. К сожалению, я не знаю ни Английского, ни Чешского языка, а писать по русски, видимо, бесполезно. Те, кто здесь находятся дольше меня, может быть, подскажут, что делать. Суть проблемы такова:
В моей партии с lasto, которая сейчас играется, после ходов 1. b2-c3 c7-d6 2. c3-d4 g7-f6 3. a1-b2 h8-g7 4. h2-g3 d6-c5 5. d4xb6 a7xc5 6. f2-e3 e7-d6 7. b2-c3 g7-h6 8. e1-f2 f8-e7 9. g3-h4 b8-a7 10. e3-f4 f6-e5 11. f2-g3 c5-d4 12. c3-b4 d4-c3 13. b4-c5 c3xe1 14. g1-h2 d6xb4 белые бьют 15. f4xd6xf8, на что может последовать 15...a7-b6 16. f8xa3 с выигрышем чёрных (соперник пока не ответил)..
Я, конечно, мог сыграть по другому, но пошёл на вариант с подрывом 13. b4-c5, чтобы проверить правила. Дело в том, что на самом деле в Тайских шашках должно было последовать 13...c3xe1 14. g1-h2 d6xb4 и тут после 15. f4xd6xf8 чёрные сразу же должны бить на поле а3.
Я не помню, как называется это правило, но я с ним знаком по Тайским источникам. У тайцев с таким боем существует немало опубликованных Комбинаций. Аналогичное правило есть, кажется, в Южнонемецких шашках, если, конечно, правила этой Игры описаны правильно, в чём я уже не уверен. Раньше я думал, что только на российских сайтах даются ошибочные описания иностранных Шашечных игр, но теперь убеждаюсь, что и на Западе ошибки встречаются нередко. Мне знакомо, например, описание правил Кенов (Осетинских шашек), так вот в России Игра описывается иначе, чем в англоязычной "Википедии". Стало быть, это мировая проблема, которая существует из-за отсутствия координации между теми, кто занимается Играми (хотя бы Шашечными - о других мне судить сложно). Если взять, допустим, правила Тамы (Армянских шашек), то я знаком с 4(!) разными вариантами правил этой Игровой Системы и какие из них настоящие, наверно, одному Богу известно.

С уважением Виктор Байгужаков.

nicnat: capture the pawn as if it would have moved only 1 space

In basic chess ?

Aganju: someone deleted my post....sorry. Of course you are right and Im sorry for the misleading post.....my bad.

ithat's what i got 27 mos. with that egg. it's a good deal..thx. Fencer.

Bernice: Actually, 125% is the additional *bonus*, so you get 225% in total which is 27 months for paying 12.
I did that last easter :-)

Anjil: when you pay for a 12 mth membership WHEN THE EGG IS FLASHING you actually get 15 months membership.

How do the Easter Eggs work? I see one for 125% - what does that mean in terms of a 12 month membership?

thanks!

great interview!!

She's a Steeler fan! Woo-hoo!!

I want to thank Hannelore for answering all those questions; I would *not* have done it!

On another note, I wonder if Fencer could stop Hannelore from spying on me?

Maybe when I start playing new games again (after the holidays perhaps?) I will learn how to play espionage...how hard can it be? (cough)

http://brainking.com/en/Interviews

Response to Justaminute: If you convince the guy that makes those tournaments, he could lock him easily out of all of them.

rabbitoid:
Having just "won" about 20 games via timeout against the same opponent, I looked through the tournaments for new ones to enter and find the same opponent entered in many of them. This takes the fun out of tournaments, particularly the 4 player ones.

El Cid: Finally, after the smoke settled at the end of the hour he "lost" some 200-300 points, so the damage was limited.

I continue to put "" around "lose" and "win" since all this BKR stuff is at best a rough estimate of the relative strength of 2 players.making a competition out of it is silly.

pedestrian: Wouldn't it be better to change the BKR formula, so that it would only change at the end of an hour (or something like that). With this change, it would calculate for all of those games at the same time and no one would be punished (I know it still isn't perfect...)

Hrqls: Yes, that would solve the problem rabbitoid pointed out - but not the problem with a strong player getting a ridiculously low BKR because he timed out in a bunch of games. His future opponents would still suffer from that.

Maybe the solution is to use the BKR from the start of the game AND delete someone's BKR if they time out in three games in a row? And (still) delete them from any tournament they have signed up for.

pedestrian: or maybe always use the bkr from the start of the game ?

rabbitoid: I think it was essentially the same with the old vacation system, the difference being that the BKR decline happened over the course of a day, not an hour.

In my view, the main problem is that if such a player decides to come back and play more games, his next many opponents will be punished BKR-wise for playing a strong opponent who now has a 700-ish rating.

Maybe it would be possible to suspend a player's BKR if he times out in a certain number of games? His opponents who win on time would all be rated according to the player's BKR at the time of the suspension. The player himself would have to start over and play 25 games to establish a new rating. And, perhaps most important: The player should automatically be deleted from all tournaments he has signed up for, to limit the number of time-outs.