Beta testers needed for checkers site

[matthewkooshad]

I need some people to visit http://draughts.info/problems.php?id=1
Try: viewing problems, inserting new problems, and whatever else that you can find possible to do.
Try the above alternating colors and such to try to have it to display incorrectly.
Let me know the results of your experiments as well as your comments on the interface and capabilities.

Some notes about the interface:
I have put in validation check for the flash player your browser is using. From tests already, I believe flash player 8 (the latest) is the one your browser will need for you to experience the interface as intended. I need to know if the validation check was done correctly for you. Also, if it was not successful, what features you were limited to doing with the interface.
I want to work out any bugs that currently may exist before proceeding with more work. As I do intend on providing an area for solutions for each problem -- solutions to be provided if they do not exist in the db, multiple solutions, etc.
Flash player 8 for your browser: http://macromedia.com/shockwave/downloa ... omoid=BIOX

Initial state of problem 1 with flash player 8:


Thank you in advance for your help

[Dennis Pawlek]

It did work proper with my Netscape (8.0.3.3) , Moxilla (1.0.7) and IE (6.0.29). Trust the white win in the last problem is not a problem as there are just white pieces lol. Please dont forget to set a link for the German Draughts Association at your page the link is gda.h4ns.net.

[matthewkooshad]

The following files will assist anyone who has problems with current flash player version installed for the browser. A reboot of the system may be necessary after an uninstall/install of flash player has been done.

IE
http://www.draughts.info/tmp/uninstall_flash_player.exe
http://www.draughts.info/tmp/install_fl ... plugin.msi

Netscape, Mozilla, Firefox, Opera,etc.
http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/fl ... player.exe

[matthewkooshad]

Sadly, no one other than Dennis and Alex have said words of advice to me as far as my checkers website. Is there anyone here who has instant message program that I may contact in real time to get advice or thoughts on a part of my website? I have good plans, but I need critique of thoughts from a checkers player than myself. Any age is accepted. PM or post here with your instant messenger info.

[hans]

Hi Matthew, sorry I don't have the flashplayer installed.

[Jason Solan]

Matthew,
I like the look and feel of the flash board.
Its smooth and quick.

Does this not work with just the flash browser plugin? Do i really need to download the entire flash player?

I've installed the flash plugin for firefox on my fedora 3 machine and i still get that i need to download flash player.

[matthewkooshad]

phrase "flash browser plugin" is equivalent to "flash player". Flash player is the coined phrase from macromedia. I will rephrase it in the error output. Thanks for this note.

If you right click the checkers board, you will see most likely flash player 7 or flash player 8. Flash player (plugin) 8 is needed for the interface to act as I intended. It is functional with flash player 7, I believe, but I ran into a couple issues that I did not want to downgrade my code on.

I am working on a user signup form right now. Users will be able to login and create problems; thus, problems can be sorted by the users that submitted them. The users will be able to remove and edit his/her own problems. Users would be able to submit solutions to other problems and such. A matter I am thinking about at the moment is combining this userlist with the tournament players section. It would be nice to remove the responsibility from myself as far as updating the tourney players' information by grabbing this information from each player that signed up and specified whether he/she has played in an official tournament before. There are so many things that I plan to do. I have many friends who are webdesigners, but none of them are checkers players; it is still open for someone to assist me with critiques on my work. Please PM or post here if you would like to help with critiquing my work via a messenger in realtime. Thanks everyone

[Jason Solan]

ok.
well in that case, it did not work on my fedora core 3 running firefox 1.0.4 with the default firefox flash plugin.

I have not tried the installer that you have given, but the default plugin works on other flash items that i've tried.

[matthewkooshad]

Are there any people who have played in official tournaments (8x8 american checkers) that play at zone kings' lobby or IYT from any countries other than the follow: USA, Canada, Ireland, New England, New Zealand
If there are any other countries with tournament players that play at zone king's lobby or IYT, please let me know. Thanks

P.S. Links incase you do not know of these places to play checkers:
http://zone.msn.com/en/checkers/rooms_compete.htm
http://www.itsyourturn.com

[hans]

What do you mean by "tournament player"? RL or tournaments at the sites in question?
I have participated in IYT tournaments but these days I'm only in the ladders and I'm not in the countries you mention

[Ingo_Zachos]

Four suggestions:

1. Yahoo and Kurnik should be on the list of "Online Gaming"

2. The Nicks should be referred to as the nick in the given site, maybe a "record" could be made.

Example:

Zachos, Ingo [WCDF rating], [ACF rating]

Hellibore (IYT)
tim_rodarte or schusterlehrling (yahoo)
no entry (zone)
ingo_zachos(kurnik)

3. Only "real life" tournament players should be entered, for others there should be a "only online player" list.

4. There could be a search engine for the nicks on the servers

This way it serves multiple purposes:
1. Who did I really play on Yahoo/Kurnik/Zone/IYT ? (Identification)
2. Does a certain player play on a certain site ? (Availability)
3. Under which name do I find her/him there ? (Searching)
4. How likely is a player I played a fake/cheater ? (Information)

All this requires hard work, but a reference like that would be very useful indeed.

BTW:
You can add my data above (example) and "Germany" .

Greetinx from winter-cold Dortmund, Germany

P.S: All looked and worked fine... so far

[matthewkooshad]

Thank you very much Ingo. As you say for Hans, this is only for real life tournament players. I like the idea of having relative notes for online players too. Thanks for the example queries. It is a lot of work; I want to make sure to have most complete design possible in mind -- Thank you for your appreciation in this.

The signup form is in hopes of me eliminating the idea of me entering your data into the players database. I see you pointed out Dortmund, Germany. This is one of the issues on the form with storing this information. If USA is chosen, I've forced the selection of a state. For the other countries, I did not allow a more accurate choice; how do you feel on this? My idea was to list only countries to contain real life ty players too; this will conflict with the internet players, but it helps with keeping the data more accurate -- your thoughts? Ingo, do you have msn messenger? Thank you

[Alex_Moiseyev]

New England

Matthew, I studied geography in Soviet Union in 60's - 70's Can you help me and update - where this country is located ? I heard a little bit about USA, Canada, New Zealand, etc, but don't know anything about New England.

Even if you tell me continent only - this would greatly improve my knoweledges

[matthewkooshad]

New England

Matthew, I studied geography in Soviet Union in 60's - 70's Can you help me and update - where this country is located ? I heard a little bit about USA, Canada, New Zealand, etc, but don't know anything about New England.

Even if you tell me continent only - this would greatly improve my knoweledges

This question should probably be in folded boards section.

New England
Kelly, Steve - _cueball_2

This player calls the country where he lives New England.
I believe it is most popularly related to the region in the usa though. I used google to find this for you: http://www.answers.com/topic/new-england

[Alex_Moiseyev]

This question should probably be in folded boards section.

Sorry for off-topic, Matthew But I read Hans remark, that he doesn't live in any country on your list, then I looked at your list and ... get smiled The subject you discuss is very serious and a bit tough for me. I am dummy here.

Alex