Yes, i hear what you're saying.. and i think that even tho the ppl in question meant no harm by what they posted in your fellowship, it was interpreted differently by Fencer. I find that understandable, but feel that he also needs to realize the way that our various cultures react to different issues.

I can state another example.. in Thailand, they really frown upon public displays of affection. I was talking to my husband about it as we were driving with his sister and brother-in-law, and they about had an accident when my husband reached over and publically showed his affection for me. He and i can laugh off the differences in culture.. and perhaps that needs to be done with the comments made in your fellowship. I'm well aware that something one culture might find humorous, isn't felt the same by all of the rest.

Know that i've also been on the other end of sexual harassment.. i'm not saying that's what occured in your fellowship, as i don't know what exactly was posted.. but those of us who have dealt with it, tend to put up our defenses rather quickly.

Erika,I personally dont think theres a racist bone in Fencers body...but I'm sure you can now see how things that are said,can quickly be taken out of context.Fencer has been subjected to bad...no..vindictive advice,and hey...we all make mistakes.

Thanks Pedro.. and Fencer, i apologize if it seemed i over-reacted to your statement. I get a bit defensive when cultural issues come into the picture, simply because of the situation that i have here at home. It irritates me when ppl are singled out and categorized by their nationality, rather than the person that they are. And sometimes that comes across too strongly on my part, i'm simply used to defending my kids.. and the estrogen flows strongly. ;)

Thanks again Pedro.

I agree with that, my friend. And I'm sure so does Filip.

I very much respect your opinion. What i am saying is that different cultures handle issues as the one in question, in different fasions. I noticed that when we went to Bangkok, even tho the traffic was as bad as NYC, nobody honked their horn. Perhaps we're more impatient here.. but what i am saying is that no culture should be considered better or worse in the way that we handle things. It's a matter of accepting the various cultures.. not singling any out.

Erika, I have to defend Fencer here. I think he didn't mean to say that Czechs are better than the rest of the world (actually, I think we're much worse...lol), he just said it as a fact. It really is truth that nobody offends anybody at Czech boards. The reason of this is simple though...these boards are WAY less frequented than the English ones and people usually write jokes and similar stuff there. ;-)

You wrote: "8) One more thing - it's interesting that there was never such a problem with Czech users. Czech fellowships and discussion boards are full of normals posts, nobody offends anybody. So I could say "okay, let's make BrainKing Czech only, it will solve everything at once!" because number of Czech paying members increases each day.
Of course I won't do it. I like you all. And BrainKing is an international site. But it won't be better with your current attitude."

From a personal point of view, i will explain why i believe this statement is Wrong. I married a man from another country, as you know i'm from the USA. We have dealt with prejudice since we've been together, and our children now deal with it, being that they're Asian-American. It honestly makes me sick when i see anyone make such a blanket statement about any culture. If you're going to have a multi-culturual site, don't cut down or single out any one culture as being worse than others.

I've traveled quite extensively.. i know the feeling that many have towards American's. Ppl think we're rude.. i prefer to call it straight-forward and non-sugar coating.

I have not read the posts from the Cave that are in question, therefore don't wish to make any presumptions. I am simply commenting on the unwarrented prejudicy that i read in your post. I have good relationships with Harley, Rose, MM, and SteveR.. i realize that there were differences in interpretations, which is to be expected, since we're dealing with at least 4 different countries. Heck, my husband and i still sometimes have translation difficulties.. but we take the time to explain what we mean to each other.

Please listen to all sides Fencer. This site has the potential of being the best game/DB site on the net.. don't close doors due to prejudicy.

Thanks for all of the hard work that you put into the site. This is just my 2 cents worth.

Fencer - thanks for posting yourself. It is nice to hear things from you then to hear them second-hand from someone else.

My Question (which may help many others with their questions): Is it my understanding that the 2 in questions will stay banned until the release of BK2.0? And then once BK2.0 is out, they will be allowed to come back.

The user agreement says..

"It is expected that all users who want to post on these discussion boards will do so without making rude comments or issuing personal insults."

It does not say we are bound to, or that people are not allowed to, yet I get the idea that this is about general open boards.

It also says..

"Users acknowledge that designated moderators are in charge of their respective boards.
Moderators have the rites to modify posts with inappropriate material. This includes posts with implicit attacks that might lead to verbal sparring as well as bad language."

It's upto the moderator of the board, which in a club I thought would have been the manager/big boss.

"Moderators will abide by the stipulations of Guildeline #2 before taking additional actions."

"Consequence:

Upon a first infraction, a written warning is given to the user.
Upon a second infraction, the user will be banned from any board or boards in which the violations took place.
Upon a third infraction, the user will be "muted", and unable to post on any board.
Upon a fourth infraction, if the user continues to make overtures through another member posting for him or her, or if links to other websites or other media are provided to give the muted party a "voice", all participating users will be banned from the site."

"Amendment of Guidelines

The BrainKing staff reserves the rite to revise these rules if and when it is deemed necessary.
All such modifications take full force and effect immediately thereafter."

If the rules have been modified then make such ammendments openly known.

I see no rules were broken except that by BK and the person taking the posts out of context.

Looks like someone was using the posts as an opportunity to get a bit of vengence in light of some old grudge!!

But that is my opinion :)

My home address is in your message box,Fencer.I'm sure others will follow shortly.

I would like a refund,if this is your decision.I paid for a membership under false pretenses. ALL the people you banned deserve their money back as well.
This is a sad day for Brainking.

Well..my question was if "the other things" cant be solved if Steve and Ian is back where they have paid for, but i suppose i wont get an answer.

It makes no change to my decision.

Im sure your intention is to let Steve and Ian come back, right?
The "other things" you mention (note i dont ask what they are), cant they be solved if Steve and Ian have their paid status back?

a message steve asked me to put here ;)

Thank you Fencer,
For carrying out my request to set vacation days for myself and Monkey to stop timeouts for now.
Its a positive step, so maybe other players can now concentrate on their games and enjoy them knowing that solutions are being saught.

Enjoy your games,

Steve R

As has been already asked but not answered, is there any chance that the 2 recently banned members (who now we can not even name on the Main BK Board) will be allowed back and when ?
Their games are going to start timing out very soon (today), and it would be a shame if they were allowed back when there ratings & tournaments they are in have been ruined.
As it is they have lost a lot friends over this, BUT found a lot more new ones. As a close friend of their's (so I will probably get attacked like their other friends have been) I dont think they will come back if they lose everything they have worked hard to build for themselves, and in many cases helped their friends many times here.

Why can you not change their status so they can play their games BUT not post on boards ??

Please give them a break Filip, they are not all bad (as you DO know), in fact I could name worse that have done more against YOU & BK in the past but are still active members here, they can do you no harm. You said in your post you looked for the best solution for this complicated situation, DO YOU really think this was the best one ??

And one last point, you state at the end of your post 'Your attitude', that can only be either aimed at all BK users, or the people who took posts from a private fellowship (breaking your OWN rules, but not banned) and used them for their own devices to create the mayhem you have now.

Can we please have those banned back and try to put this behind us ?!

Yeah, I read it all.. Still didn't see the answer to my question. Are you going to bring MadMonkey back or not?

I did post this at another board because Harley said it wasnt to be spoken of here...But seeing you have bought it here Fencer i would ask this question???

I would like an answer please and so would a lot of other players who have games just sitting....
Please can anyone answer my question? **EDIT** these figures for timeouts were of 5 hours ago

Steve R is going to start timing out in 28hrs, is there any idea how long it will be till Steve R is reinstated, if he is going to be????

OOPS....my Q also applies to Mad Monkey but I dont know what his timeout situation is :)
I have since read on another site that the timeout for madmonkey is 30 hours

Thanks Fencer....it doesnt answer all questions but it does answer a few :)
Please bring back SteveR and MadMonkey :)

Okay, let me SHORTLY answer some questions:

1) About allowing pawns to post on boards - NO. Not before BK 2.0 with new anti-spam functionality developed by myself is ready to be launched. Otherwise it would be too risky. You know why.

2) About banned users - yes, I did it. The reason is partially The Cave, partially other things that would be too difficult to explain to everyone. Yes, I can hear protests like "what other things?" and "explain everything!" but the things are far more complicated than they seem to be, especially during several past days. It's not just about two or three users, it's about the whole BrainKing itself. And BrainKing as a site for everyone [EVERYONE!] is always my top priority. And everybody knows that it doesn't mean just pressing the BAN button and forgeting, I always look for the best solution. Even for certain former user who is successfully trying all possible ways to forget about him forever.

3) About Harley and speculations about her - yes, I've asked her to help me. Why? It's dead simple - I cannot do everything at once. However, nobody [NOBODY!] has an access to my message box or any other message box, such speculations are ridiculous [and not for the first time, remember?]. You can imagine that my message box is really full or questions of all kinds, it's impossible to answer everything and have some time for work. Moreover, Harley is better in English than me [obviously] and when I ask her to reply to several questions instead of me [with no private information released, of course], it can be only helpful, especially when my misunderstanding of one of Steve's questions was an unwanted source of the mentioned speculations.

4) About The Cave - yes, I've deleted it. I admit that mistakes happened on all sides but after posting several warnings and expressing my displeasure with its content, I've been expecting that the fellowship creator will ask me to "clean up" its membership and leave only "hard boys" there. Unfortunatelly it never happened, the hints were probably not clear enough. However, lots of frequent boards are to be kind of cleared as well due to technical reasons [BrainKing database is growing too fast and we don't have unlimited resources].

5) About me playing games - is it a crime to play games on my own site? That's one of the main reasons why I had created it :-) And I am used to work and play at once, fast playing without complicated thinking is the best way for me to work more effeciently, whether you believe it or not. Furthermore, I've read that some users think that it's the reason of me not answering some messages. Wrong. I've answered so many questions and messages inside and outside BrainKing that I would deserve a month vacation. And not everything can be answered immediately.

6) About relationships among men and women - yes, it's very complicated, especially here where a number of different cultures meet at the same place. I've been always giving my best efforts to make it easier for everyone and that's what I am doing now although for some users it doesn't look like it. Everybody knows that everyhing I do here is what I think is the best for BrainKing, not for any particular user. From a long term point of view. That's what is called "responsibility". It's sad that certains users never tried to look at it from my point of view.

7) About outcries of type "majority of users wants this!", they are kind of pointless. The real majority of BK users never [or very rarely] posts on any discussion boards, they are happy to play games and that's exactly what this site is for. It's not a public and unmoderated chat room where everything is allowed.

8) One more thing - it's interesting that there was never such a problem with Czech users. Czech fellowships and discussion boards are full of normals posts, nobody offends anybody. So I could say "okay, let's make BrainKing Czech only, it will solve everything at once!" because number of Czech paying members increases each day.
Of course I won't do it. I like you all. And BrainKing is an international site. But it won't be better with your current attitude.

Phew, it's much longer than I expected. Thanks everybody who was so patient to read it all :-)

u said that u was removing the post with the 2 names in it. I just want to know why was mine removed. All I did was as a question. It did not have a thing to do with those 2 people. I did not want to think that lots of people where right. You must have a big power trip.

I know Kevin :( but....do you feel I should just let it go on??? for another6-7 months LOLOL or even longer...if the ONE game took this long how long would 3 take LOLOLOL

It only affects the two players, and both are rooks so it really shouldn't be a problem - if one of them does move really slow again these two players will just have one more game to play for a while :-)

I deleted this way down and brought it to the top because i didnt want it to get lost

Query???

I have a tournament that has been running since last August to my knowledge:( ...it is called Bernice's Best BattleBoats Bruhaha (Battleboats)

Now the first round has just finished, there were only 14 players and it was a 5 day mover.

Im reluctant to start the 2nd round owing to the fact that ONE player has taken since forever to make their moves. This will be a 3 game match...Can someone change it to a sudden death playoff, and I will start it. other wise how can it be deleted with 1/2 tournament win give to the 2 people concerned.

thats funny,

lol
my pm will make you laugh harder :)

I went half the day that way thinking the feature was shut off to calm down some of the conversations, even though the db's were working fine. silly me

I only knew because that same thing had me stumped a while ago :)
Glad I could help

that was it, thx. I must have hid it by accident

I'll look, thx

I just checked mine and it is fine.
I did that once where I clicked "hide message archive"
See if there is an option to "show message archive" that might help.

Is it just me or has everyone lost all messages in there games?

Backoff....I agree, but as in many other places, it is asked to please stop talking of it, as it is not for this board...

Remember the "I hate so-and-so" board....MY GOD...didnt the poo hit the fan because of that....many were abused for joining, so we need a board of that type for everyone INCLUDING pawns.

Oh !and one with 2-4 Moderators, and a suggestion you keep a copy of your post incase it gets deleted ;)

I think general chat would be the best place, but this topic covers so many different angles. Fellowships, etc. It's hard to label it as just one problem. But I would still say general chat is most likley the best place.

Im dissapointed to see my post removed from here as I thought it was a BrainKing issue. I have noticed that it has been referred to as a fellowship issue but no-one knows just where to post about this delicate subject.
Please ask Fencer to open up another PUBLIC board where EVERYONE including pawns can post about THINGS in dispute that have no other board to go to.

Once again, Can I have an answer please? If the subjects in question are not returned to there former status, this site WILL lose paying members, then what?

BBW, I wish one single board WOULD be decided on because every board I've been to today has had posts about this and I'm sure I'm not the only one fed up with it. Thats why I asked this board be kept clear.

BrainKing.com Moderator: harley
Board for everybody who is interested in BrainKing.com itself, its structure, features and future.


I have a question about the future of this site. How many people will continue to pay money to this site just to see BS like this happen???

Where would the best place be to discuss this issue. Instead of just saying go elsewhere, maybe we should decide on a board to talk about this issue which means a lot to many users here.

I think it should be a public board so everyone has a chance to read it, and now I believe the Moderators of both Fellowships & this board does not want it here.

Andersp - I think the decision from Fencer to not punish the person who removed the post from the cave is proof enough that you can copy and paste anything you want anywhere!

Can I ask somebody to PM me and explain to me why those two whose names cannot be said on this board were banned? I went through the General Chat and did find something about some "leak" or what, so please, if it doesn't bother you too much. I would really like to know what's going on. Thanks in advance.

I said you're being ridiculous if you seriously think that I, alone, requested that Steve and MM be banned, and Fencer did it. Or words to that effect :o)

Now I won't ask again, please no more on the subject here, it will be deleted.

The crux of the matter is not if it is one person but who that person is, or so it would seem.

well,far be it from me...to spoil your agenda.

bwild I will hide your posts if you continue to post about those two. Its covered on every other board, I ask you to at least leave one free for other discussions.

Last I checked....197 brainking members want Steve and MM back!
that seems like a brainking.com issue to me!!

I never removed my post about your discesion to do this...Is that because Fencer finally answered my message?

Nope, just posts about Steve and MM have gone.

Looks like you have removed more than Steve and MM ... ahhhhhh ... feel that power of the Moderator!

I'm removing every post to do with Steve and MM on this board. It has been covered extensively on all other boards.

Positions on your profile shall be available in BK 2.0 :-)