pgt: Better payments to the dice guy should take care of that problem. Try a tenner next time.

Walter Montego: Do you have his bank account number? (Post it here)

pgt: Cash only, you know how mob guys operate.

Walter Montego: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcQfKWI6d4lHmGJRNhMXSs0qhttDydpYiko3Jw&usqp=CAU

Aganju: Yeah, like that. :) Nice stacks

Anyone ever see something like is?

Clandestine 1: Since this is a "private" game. what exactly are we meant to be able to see?

pgt:I didn’t realize it was marked private. 

Clandestine 1: There's something very fishy about that player's luck.

Clandestine 1:

I just lost a game and match to five doubles in a row today.
Backgammon (Walter Montego vs. DavieBoy)
It happens. I have played my opponent over 1300 matches. This match hurt since he had won eight in a row prior, and I thought I had the game for the match when it was 75 to 45.
Sure it's bad luck, as is your case, but that doesn't mean something fishy has gone on to make it happen. Supposing the roles were reversed. Would you understand how lucky you had gotten?

I was talked into playing a match of Plakoto. I cannot see the points on the table that have two pieces on them of both colors. My opponent (Vinkel) says the table looks good from his side. I was going to resign, but he suggested to ask Fencer. So I am posting here as I do not know where bug reports go.

I also had this problem when I was trying to review older games Vinkel had played so I could get an idea of how the game is played.

Game ID number 8679109
Plakoto (Vinkel vs. Walter Montego)

Walter Montego:
This sounded familiar to me, so I did a little searching,

I found this discussion from a few years back, It could have something to do with your settings.

https://brainking.com/en/Board?bc=1&plla=1143797

I hope it helps.

rod03801: Switching the Backgammon settings to the small board setting did make the Plakoto board show the pieces. I do not like the small board. I will finish this match, and then never play this game again unless this bug is fixed.

You found this message from 2012, rod03801? A long memory you have. Thank you.

Walter Montego: You're welcome. I just remembered that I thought something similar had been brought up before. Used "Search in posts" and searched for Plakato here. It didn't turn up exactly what I thought. So I tried on the Brainking.com discussion board, too, as that seemed like another place it might have been. Sure enough, it was. My memory really wasn't THAT impressive.

I'm glad it helped solve the mystery.

rod03801: my guess is that a specific image is missing. If you look at the board where there is a blank, right click it, and it will give you the name of the (missing) image. This would make it a twenty-second fix for Fencer.

Aganju: Yes, the twenty second fix for Fencer. Rod's found post is nine years old. Perhaps this fix is not easy? Or maybe it has not received any attention?

Aganju: I cant speak to the fix. I was simply trying to provide a solution for the piece to be seen under current circumstances.

rod03801: Though I can see the game with the setting set to the small board, I do like this view and I am going to resign when the first game of the match is over unless it is fix before that happens.

I have the settings back to the large board. Four or so points have disappeared from my view as my opponent has covered the blots.

Walter Montego: I just looked at the game that was listed - I do not see them either. this is worse than I thought; I agree it is unplayable. I have never seen that in any of my games, which is strange - I played hundreds f Plakotos, with the same size setting. Could it be the *color* choice?

Backgammon (pgt vs. Vinkel)

Can this be fixed?

The AUTOPASS feature for Backgammon is NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE! The implementation on this site is RIDICULOUS! After passing the first time of being unable to move, then it should be assumed that passing will continue until the player can actually move, Maybe the programmers are not up to making such a simple change.

pgt: It would seem obvious, doesn't it? Check out dailygammon dot com ...

pgt: It has been programmed that way in case the losing player would want to use the cube to double, even though they are stuck on the bar... I guess it could possibly happen but only extremely rarely, as in nearly never. A bit of a programming cop-out, I guess.

moistfinger: Your idea is correct. I HAVE doubled from the bar before, not often, but not never either. It is a good play in some situations.
I wouldn't want this option to be taken away...

Note that if you CANNOT double (because the opponent has the cube, or it's post-crawford), it DOES Autopass.
So it is not an be-lazy-and-save-some-code-problem, in the contrary, it is doing it even more detailed and correct.

Aganju: I agree. And I’ve doubled from the bar many a time. I’ve also had doubles at the bar many a time, but that’s a different story ;)

There are a lot of tournaments offered right now, but I prefer to play *with the doubling cube*.
If you do too, and you like a fast game, please join here!

Why is the autopass system on this site so ridiculous? when I am blocked why do I have to roll the dice and then pass. How stupid!

pgt: Though there's other things I can find fault with in the implementation of the autopass, I have heard a justification for this. It is rare, but someone might want to offer a double from that position. I have had people do this against me. Apparently, when it has happened to me, the person didn't offer the double earlier as they were going for a gammon and I messed that up by hitting them. And there's other situations for it too, such as they forgot to double earlier. :)

Maybe you would never offer a double with a piece on the bar, but some people do it.

Walter Montego: I am aware of the possibility, but I am pretty sure that if you do not offer a double on the first move after you are blocked, then you will not offer a double on any subsequent move while you remain blocked. This logic is not too difficult for a competent computer programmer, and we can all attest to the fact that a competent programmer has implemented BrainKing. When you pass on the first move that you are blocked, it would be quite possible to ask "Are you sure? If so, autopass will continue until you are unblocked" or something to that effect, But I'm not here to design the algorithm, just saying that the existing implementation is unnecessarily frustrating and annoying, and with relatively little effort could be improved dramatically. (SIGH!)

pgt: I like your idea of having an option on your turn, though I'd let the option be available for a later roll in addition to the first time.

I know the frustration of having pieces on the bar and the whole of the opponent's home base is covered with a most beautiful prime and you have to roll the dice.

A pass button would be nice. Why roll the dice? Just have a pass button, and then it could skip until the next turn or also have an option for until a point opens for a chance to roll out.

Perhaps a "Pass this Turn" button, and also a "Pass all Turns until a Point Opens, and No Double Offer Made by Me in the Meantime" button?

Walter Montego: I am one of those who has doubled the cube from the bar, however, I like where your going with that option. It certainly would be less painstaking. 

Walter Montego: I think that however we define the requirements, they will be completely ignored, and no changes will EVER be made, so we may as well stop wasting our time.

pgt: try playing on dailygammon, it’s brilliant when it comes to auto passing etc. Unfortunately there are no hyper backgammon games there :(

pgt: Well, Mr. Negativity, if you feel that way why'd you even bring it up?

Perhaps you can try paying Fencer to do it for you? I have thought of doing this just to get some changes and also add the game Jump Checkers, but my heart is not into it. I'll just play here until it ceases to exist, or I find something better to do with my time. Hopefully I'll be able to escape the confines of my house if COVID ever stops being such a large part of my daily routine.

Walter Montego: Check "Feature Requests" 8 July 2011. This is not a new gripe, but from time to time I bring it up for old time's sake

moistfinger: I second that.

pgt: Hear, hear!

AlliumCepa: It's over a year since we vented our spleens about this, and it is still as unsatisfactory as it was last year. (sigh) but we should probably continue to complain just to let everybody know that it is STILL far from ideal!

pgt: you are absolutely correct sir. AFIK Fencer decrared back in the day that he will no longer adjust gameplay especially in Backgammon, a game he does not respect much. My hope is that one day a new owner of this site will notice and fix this bug. As long as we generate clicks and traffic, they are fine. All we can do is vote with our cash and stop buying membership. Re: Walter M - we did try and exhausted all known methods, such as Bug Report, Discussion, Direct Messages...

Walter Montego: Re: "I know the frustration of having pieces on the bar and the whole of the opponent's home base is covered with a most beautiful prime and you have to roll the dice."
OR we could keep pasting the same message "This site does not support proper Autopass. If you are as annoyed as I am, please contact the owner, or submit a Feature request/Bug report. Until then, I am "rising awareness". My apologies for hurting your feelings."

I often wonder where people get their entitlements from - is it the assumption that because Facebook and Twitter are free, everything has to be?
So fine, Autopass is not perfectly functioning. Ask for your money back!
Try to tell Facebook that you don't like the way their algorithm shows you stuff. Or how they sell your data. What do think will happen? Or tell Microsoft about a twenty-year old bug in Excel, and you are even paying for it!
I recommend you start your own gaming site (where of course there will be no bugs), and see how it feels after twenty years of work. Go ahead! I would even try it (if it is free, only, of course).

Aganju: Very true, I'm sure. But ten years ago I offered to pay a brain rook membership for life to fix this "bug" and it made absolutely no difference. But I'm not going to pay "for ever" until it's fixed - and it never will be. I still play because I enjoy the site. I'm getting old and have a lot of time on my hands, but I'm still young enough to play competitive bridge face to face with real people, and Brainking when I can't be bothered going to the bridge club (which is VERY rare!). Pity it's not a perfect world, (sigh) but it's not REALLY bad!

Aganju: Aganju, what you call "entitlement" is in fact an honest and as you admitted impactful. Why would you bother to reply then? Is it because of your assumption that you completely understand what am I saying or is it your own prejudices?
Thank you for your recommendations, not that anyone asked for it. If you bothered to understand the entirety of this discussion, but read only the last post and wrongfully backward extrapolated - you are wrong. Here is My advice to you - leave this forum or shut up with your unhelpful posts.

AlliumCepa: thanks for friendly words, it shows me that I hit a nerve. If you scroll down a bit further, you will see that I discussed this topics years before already with others.
I cannot understand your sentence though, seriously. There must be some translation issue or a word is missing.

There is another well run game site that has a large variety of Backgammon variants and is very well run.
www.goldtoken.com

Aganju: what I reduced your rant down to, was: "I've tried this before. It didn't work for me. Therefore, you should give up too." My feeling is that you are afraid that someone might succeed where you failed, thus making you look stupid for not persisting enough. Hence your effort to stop this discussion altogether. The nerve you hit is my alertness toward hypocrites and cowards. My words are measured to be impactful for the point I am currently making. My vocabulary allows me to use whichever works best in specific conversation. Got that, honey? Do you still need interpreter? Mwah!

AlliumCepa: oh so aggressive. And I never was.

You wrote "Aganju, what you call "entitlement" is in fact an honest and as you admitted impactful"
I still don't understand what this sentence is saying.

And I have no problem if you try and are successful, that is an incorrect assumption from you (projection maybe?). What I wanted to stop is solely the complaining about the owner's supposed 'duties' of improving the site - I think there are no such duties. If he is not willing to do it after being asked nicely, the topic should be over; he doesn't owe any of us anything.

You started immediately throwing mud at me about my supposedly drive-by comments. I pointed out that I was a part of discussion a long time ago, and my post wasn't drive-by-bullshit. Proven incorrect, you immediately moved on trashing me about something else, which I also pointed out is incorrect.

My guess is your next answer will be - as you are running out of believable accusations - simple swearing and childish name calling... Let's see.

Aganju: i've been following this forum with interest for a while.

At the moment, I score Agabju 4, AlliumCepa 2.

Let's see how it unfolds. I love blood sports!

pgt: ' i've been following this forum with interest for a while.'
:-) Me too! I love storms in a teacup :-)