WhiteTower: Here is something I don't think you will hear me say often, but I believe Fencer's second answer is wrong. (not really wrong, but not the correct answer.)

The first question/request was about putting a green dot on the game page themselves to see if a user is online.

The answer to this is that if the user's "doing" is under their name, they are on-line. If nothing is there, then they are not on-line. No need for a greed dot also.

The second question/comment was that it did not work if someone was cloaked.

The answer to this should be that it does work when someone is cloaked. If a cloaked user is on-line, you will see the "user is cloaked" message instead of they are doing. If they are not online, then you will see nothing.
... and if you are the cloaked user, you will see a message saying "- disabled when you are cloaked -" if someone else is on-line. Again, blank if they are not online.

WhiteTower: nicely put.

BIG BAD WOLF: Then, based on Fencer's earlier reply, we can safely assume that being cloaked is considered a tradeoff for lack of related information on fellow users - if you want to have full access to that information, you gotta give full access to yours, sir.

That is how it is set up now. I'm cloacked, and what I see instead of what someone is doing is " - disabled when you are cloacked - "

alanback: I do agree with ya there Alan.. if you don't want others to see what you are doing.. then you shouldn't be able to see them..

plaintiger: Like Vikings said, being cloaked should not matter.

If a person who is cloaked is on-line, it will say *cloaked* or something like that (telling you that they are on-line)

If a person is not on-line, nothing will be there.

So if you see the doing line under their name, it is the same as if there is a green dot.

plaintiger: The whole idea of cloaking is a bit silly anyway, but IMHO you have no right to information about others if you're not willing to share that same information about yourself.

plaintiger: if you are cloaked, it will say disabled when you are cloaked when they are on-line, if they are not it will be blank

I would like to have the ability to give the opponent more time when (s)he's in danger running out of it.

Fencer: how did i know you were going to say that?

"don't be cloaked" is not a solution. please try again. :P

When you are totally blocked from getting back onto the board, it is a bit of a pain having to roll the dice.
Could you fix it so that we just press 'Submit' instead, please?

Yes.. we wanna see what you are up to.. *giggle*

plaintiger: Don't be cloaked.

Fencer: doesn't work when you're cloaked.

plaintiger: Instead of a green dot, you can see your opponent's current action on the game page. If there is no action or the action is "logging out", the opponent is not online.

alanback: Yep there is an autorefresh.

plaintiger: To get what you want you would also have to have autorefresh on game screens -- do we have that?

i'd like the little green "this person is online" dots that appear next to players' names in my games list to appear next to their names on the gameboard screen. that way, if one of my opponents and i are both online and moving regularly on a game - almost-real-time play - i can leave that game on my screen as if i was sitting at a physical board, and if my opponent goes offline i'll know it and stop waiting for Her to move without having to check my main page every so often to ascertain Her online/offline status.

this would make the fact of the gameboard pages refreshing just like the main page more useful. thanks, Filip. :)

and of course you're right, BBW.

It would be nice to have graphs that tracked our position in the rankings as well as the ones that track our ratings!

I asked Fencer about this in a game recently, and he said it is planned.

plaintiger: And something I mentioned before, but it would be nice if fellowships which have stairs - if the big bosses could add/remove games from stairs also. That way if a new game is added to the site, they do not have to create a totaly different set of stairs for just the 1 game, but be able to add the 1 game to the stairs which have already been on there way.

oh, and i think *all* messages we write outside of games and message boards should appear in our outboxes. there shouldn't be any "lost" messages, IMO.

can the games that have been added to the site since the Stairs were created be added to the Stairs? i'm thinking of sphere froglet, but there are probably others.

alanback: Alternatively, if I'm a devious liar then I'll probably say the same thing now that I said last time.

On the other hand, if I'm the person that I am then I'd want to continue the theme rather than repeat it - refering to old information and adding anything new.

Talking of old information, this topic's exhausted.

playBunny: If you're honest and straightforward, you will probably say the same thing now that you said before.

How about a default message, "thanks but no thanks." its short, polite and to the point.

rod03801: Aye, that's a good idea, I have the most frequent message templated in my notepad. What prompted the request was an invitation from someone who I may have had one from before. I can't remember, nor, if so, what my reply was.

Czuch: "Not declining any invitations .."

And that would be helped by a rating formula that doesn't award me nothing for a win and a loss of -15 points against an opponent who is going to win 25-30% of our matches simply because of handy dice!

playBunny: Not declining any invitations might be helpful as well
;)

playBunny: As far as copying & pasting, until something like your request happens, using notepad for what you describe is great. (You probably already realize that! :-D .. This is more for those who might not have thought of it) My notepad is mostly filled with messages/descriptions that I use frequently.

playBunny: good thinking

playBunny: I second this idea!

When I decline an invitation it would be handy if a copy of the message were added to my Outbox like other messages. I tend to explain why I've declined rather than just say a word or two or none. It would be nice to know what I've said to whom. Also to be able to cut and paste into the next invitation that I'm declining for a similar reason.

mctrivia: I like this idea, also. It would put a players true skills in better perspective.

alanback: I just would prefer that spider line 4 showed up higher as I am 69 out of 242

mctrivia: YOu don't like being a big frog in a small pond?

mctrivia: I like that idea as well....

I know others have requested it but it would be really nice if the ranking wasn't 30th place but 30 th out of 88. And sorted by the value 30/88=0.341. As right now spear froglet shows up as my best game not because I am really good at it but because not many have been rated yet.

on the game page after moving it would be nice to have an option "...and go to next game with friend".

and if i may veer ever so slightly for just one post: i'm happy to report that the person i thought was so horrible really wasn't at all responsible for the horrible act that was attributed to him. the act was more likely the doing of his accuser...who has a reputation around here anyways...

ugh. politics. i'll stop right now.

Right.

Bry: hmm. that's a good idea. like eBay's username history thingy.

the notes/description option and that would make it very easy to keep track of who's whom (and who used to be whom) and what they've done that led us to block them.

plaintiger: It is even more confusing when the user changes username and photo etc.

Perhaps something like the "Event History" that comes up whenever someone is hidden/banned by a moderator would help?

i'd like to enter - again - my plea for the ability to add notes to the names of the blocked users on our lists, like we can for our friends. it's a nuisance having to keep my notes telling me why someone's on my blocked list in a separate location like the notepad, and it's even more of a nuisance to look up the notes that way.

one of my blocked users is a dangerous, viciously hateful person - really. he should be locked up and the key thrown away - and i don't want to forget why he's on that list.

well, i do and i don't, if you know what i mean.

but when all you've seen of a person is a name and a photo, it's surprisingly easy to forget what else you know about them - that it's them you know it about, and all that. notes next to their name would help.

Back on topic please!
:-)

IYT sucks




No comparison

jolat: If there's one thing that Fencer would like us all to appreciate about his efforts, it's our patience and trust for his making sure that the website is stable and secure, while adding new games and features. Doing things the other way round wouldn't work out very efficiently.

As for IYT... who here has forgotten the mess that its creator had to go through when the system completely crashed, dumping all player data all the way to hell?...

jolat: Even so, I find it hard to believe you would abandon this site altogether for lack of one game. It seems to me more appropriate to play that single game elsewhere. Of course, you are free to do as you wish! Chacun à son goût ;-)

Me also, I gave up IYT at the profit of Brainking, in particular because I prefer to privilege a European site (I am french) and then, because I hoped that the game of "International Checkers" would be installed here.
Unfortunately it is not yet the case. International checkers is my preferred game and if I cannot exploit it on this site, it well will be necessary that I will see elsewhere.
It will be with regret because I like the features and the spirit of this site.

Fencer: Neither do I. I dropped IYT in favor of BrainKing.