Re: [pbmserv-dev] Re: Backgammon Standings

[Ragnar Wikman IB <rwikman@ra.abo.fi>]

On Thu, 11 Mar 2004, Lyman Hurd wrote:

> Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 10:31:48 -0800 (PST)
> From: Lyman Hurd <lhurd@yahoo.com>
> Reply-To: pbmserv-dev@gamerz.net
> To: Richard's PBeM Server <pbmserv-dev@gamerz.net>
> Subject: Re: [pbmserv-dev] Re: Backgammon Standings
>
> Sounds as if we have some different goals expressed.
>
> 1) As far as "bragging rights" goes, people don't want
> to see players in the display who cannot be
> challenged.  A similar argument says that one needs to
> mentally discount people in the combined list with a
> 1-0 record (leading to an enormous score). For that
> matter it might be cool to be able to add honorifics
> such as "Winner of 2004 Email Tournament" into the
> rankings.  I for one don't care about this aspect at
> all which brings me to...
>
> 2) The rankings are useful for finding opponents.  For
> one thing does anyone use "Seeking" for anything
> meaningful.  I have seen examples where people have
> the "Limit" set below their "Seeking" number.  How can
> you be seeking more games than you are willing to
> accept?  The last date a game was started (completed?)
>  would be a big help in interpreting the results (for
> example, I recently ran a query to see who the active
> hexade players are).  Also perhaps instead of
> "seeking" we could indicate a scale of willingness
> something like:
>
> 1 - Willing to accept unsolicited challenges.
>
> 2 - Generally willing to play but inquire first.
>
> 3 - Play only with prearranged opponents (don't call
> me, I'll call you).
>
> 4 - Reject (i.e., not willing to play).
>
> Just a thought!
>
> Lyman

Hear, hear!

Especially in the less popular games finding opponents can be
very difficult, so something like the above would be great!
And while I am at it - some of the games are so seldom frequented
that you can't even indicate you are 'seeking' them, since you need
to have finished at least one game first, to show up on the ratings!
So, if possible, could the 'ratings' (would be in quotation marks then :-) )
somehow be made to also indicate people wanting to 'try out' a particular
game ? (While still having finished none)

Cheers, Ragnar

* Ragnar Wikman, Abo Akademi University  * "Every soul is  *
* Lecturer in Computer Science           *  worth a song." *
* mailto:rwikman@abo.fi                  *  -- Veikko Lavi *