Indiana State Tournament Update

[Alex_Moiseyev]

Well, to prevent these variation couldn't we assign ACF-ID numbers?

We already have them. Every time when you renew an annual ACF membership, you get a new ACF card with number assigned on it. I think we can use this number if we store it automatically on computer.

But ... what you are going to do with State tournaments which don't require ACF membership ??? For instance - TN, the biggest and perhaps the strongest State ty which some people call "Mini-NationaL".

[Palomino]

Michael,

To the best of my knowledge, before the board was given over to you the last name on it was Ron Bailey (1990 and 1991 State Champion) and there was only one unused square remaining. You may know better than me but I'm thinking that the board was in Ron Bailey's possession up until it was handed over to you in 1999. My understanding is that Indiana did not have a tourney in 1992,1993 and 1994.

Roger told me this weekend that his first tourney was the 1995 tourney and that it was a small tourney of about 6 players and I believe that maybe only 4 were from Indiana. Roger went on to say that Ron Bailey and Richard Beckwith tied for first place and it being round robin style they both had the same number of honor points so they declared them co-champions.

For some reason their names were not added to the board. I was told that Indiana did not have a tournament in the years of 1996, 1997, and 1998 then in 1999 Roger took it upon himself to organize another tournament which was the first of the two that you won. Again there were no tourneys in 2001, 2002 and 2003 then in 2004 Roger organized the first of 5 that have been held in Plainfield, IN.

The 2004 tournament was my first Indiana State Tournament and the first time for me to meet you and your son Alex. That year, Ron Bailey again won the Indiana title and you may remember he told Roger to take the boards home with him because he didn't want to be responsible for returning them for the next tournament (I believe for health reasons, not sure).

Anyway, Roger has been in possession of the boards until last year when I won the title. During that time Roger could not find anyone willing to add new champions names and then sometime before last year's tournament took it upon himself to paint the names of the 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 champions onto the new board. It was at that time he corrected the old board to show the 1995 co-champions names (Bailey and Beckwith) and made a change to the new board so that it now shows both of your wins on the first (top) square.

I'll give you a call sometime..."Pal"

Looks like Alex has his eye on one of those squares for himself and I told him that at the rate he is improving it won't be long until he's the State Champion. I think it will be neat to see his name on the board along with yours.

[Dennis Cayton]

Right now, I don't really see any site with a in-depth history of checkers. History will show people checkers' historic past. A game with a history is more prestigious and receives more respect.

This reminds me of an old saying:

“Those living nearest to the Church are often the farthest away from God”

Quite amazing that no-one would have bothered to consult checkers historian Jay H living on their own doorstep, with his mass of historical information as well as the records compiled by Earl Hangen over many years.

If the face don’t fit ----------

See:
http://www.online-museum-of-checkers-history.com/

Hello Liam,

Thank you very much for bringing this to our attention.

You are so right about the above.

Jay has compiled and consructed a wonderful site, one which is a virtual treasure chest of historical information and memorabilia about our game.

Speaking for myself, I have visited this museum on a number of occasions, and each trip has left me in a state of awe and admiration for the richness of its history and the players who made it happen.

Just like with most real life museums I have visited, it is just about impossible to see everything during one visit. After taking several visits to Jay's online museum, I have yet to feast my eyes on all of the pleasurable memories it provides.

In fact, I took a visit to this online museum yesterday and found a YouYube video of Tom Wiswell. This is, truly indeed, a remarkable find.

Jay deserves all the credit in the world for designing and constructing this remarkable site, one which is a grand and fitting tribute to the game we love.

This site clearly deserves the positive recognition and support from each member of our checker fraternity.

Incidentally, Jay is not allowed to post on the Forum any longer for some unknown reason.

I am very shocked and saddened to learn of this very unfortunate news.

Very Sincerely,

Dennis Cayton

[Alex_Moiseyev]

and we could even use a wiki (either on Wikipedia itself or elsewhere) to organize more extensive info.

It would be a great idea if some common historical articles and reviews from checkers online musem migrate (copied/past) to Wlkipedia.

[Alex_Moiseyev]

Incidentally, Jay is not allowed to post on the Forum any longer for some unknown reason.

I think this is a question for Jason. I had similar problem one time and needed to reset a password or whatever it takes. I also was disappointly surprised why Jay didn't show up on this forum for long time.

Alex

[liam stephens]

Yes, a case of RSI maybe, as others have also had the same problem, notably John Guetta from New Zealand, in getting the "Log On" facility reinstated.

[liam stephens]

I received the following message from Jay H today, and as he is not able to post here I am taking the liberty of doing so on his behalf.

STATEMENT FROM JAY H

And, for the record, I have NEVER been contacted by John Acker...

Perhaps he PMed me on the ACF Forum...(??)
As I reported to the ACF Forum Administrator, my PM file was faulty. This was wayyyy before my account was deactivated.
As far as me not being able to post on the ACF Forum now...???...it is simple.....
They will not re-activate my account....plain and simple !!!
Why not...who knows ?
I wrote them 3 times.....then gave up.

[Alex_Moiseyev]

They will not re-activate my account....plain and simple !!!
Why not...who knows ? I wrote them 3 times.....then gave up.

Sounds like a good challenge for Jason

[Jason Solan]

I did go back and find an email from Jay dated Dec. 31st 2008 that he couldn't log in. So it's completely my fault. That is the only email I've seen though.
I have re-activated his account and sent him an email but have not received a response. If anyone talks to him, let him know that he can log in now and I apologize for missing his earlier e-mail.

[Alex_Moiseyev]

Dec. 31st 2008

Make sense - busy holiday season I am very glad to have Jay back to forum soon with all his valuable, interesting ideas & information and very positive attitude.

Thanks, Jason and thanks Liam for pointing attention.

[Palomino]

Yesterday I opened up my Missouri Checker Assoc. Newsletter and saw that it was our Shipshewana
checker friend Marvin Yoder and his wife Mary's anniversary. I think Marvin was happily surprised
to receive a call from me wishing them well. He told me that it was their 44th.

I know Ed Lucas also gave him a call.

Last Satruday morning Ed and Wade Holder and myself were having
breakfast at the Farmstead Inn where we were staying and in walks Marvin. Ed asked him to sit down and
have a cup of coffee with us, which he did. Marvin then said "I came to see if you would like to follow me
and I'll take you to see my home. We said "yes sir, that would be great". Ed then said "Marvin, why don't
you leave your bicycle here and we will all go in my car. (Turns out that if you live in town you can't have
a horse and buggy unless it's an older home which has an old barn that a horse has always been housed in.)

Well you won't believe the Yoders yard, the most perfect lawn and flower beds every where and one flower bed had tomatos growing in it along side the flowers. When we went around to the back of the house we saw a little table with a dozen tomatoes on it and Marvin said "I picked these tomatos this morning for you to take home with you."

Back to Ed's call; when I called Ed yesterday to tell him it was Marvin and Mary's anniversary he said "Great I need an excuse to call him, I'm all out of tomatos.

Marvin and Mary Yoder, Ed Lucas and Wade Holder

[tommyc]

Great photos Pal.....................nice story too. Looking at Wade i think he looks a little bit "failed" since i saw him in Vegas i hope hes ok.!!

[Jay H]

Liam, please pass this on to Jay-- I emailed it to him on 6/23/08. Perhaps my email address for him is out of date?
--
Hi Jay--

I only just got around to catching up at the ACF Forum and saw your history site, so wanted to thank you for your work in getting all the info online. As I'm sure you know, much of checkers history is scattered in out-of-print books and periodicals, so your site is definitely a step in the right direction! I also wanted to pass along some web design advice, since while content is still king, many visitors and potential contributors can get very frustrated if they can't find what they're looking for. I'm not a professional web designer by any means, so you can take my advice and four bucks and go to Starbucks.

1. Consider a more compact domain name-- I did some checking, and "checkershistory.org" as well as some variations is still available. I've been toying for some time with the idea of setting up my own domain to host PDN versions of checkers books (I'm almost done with Gould's Problems, and have some more in the works), so this is on my to-do list as well.
2. Make all your pages visually consistent, especially in terms of navigation, color schemes, and page length. You want your visitors to be able to isolate specific information without hunting all over for it.
3. Go easy on the caps and underlining-- this isn't a forum post, and it's considered unprofessional to have whole pages in ALL CAPS etc. It would also help to break up your longer pages into their discrete elements (see Checker Maven for a good example).
4. Most automatic site builders (i.e. Tripod, MS Word, Geocities) generate lots of bloated files and inefficient code, which can be really annoying when you want to change something across your site. Back when I was working on Kings Zone, I typically used Notepad/Textpad or Homesite for most of the editing, though these days there are more advanced options out there. HTML is not hard to learn.
5. Particularly if you plan to include lots of reader contributions, you'll find that a simple template for each major type of page (i.e. timeline, biography, photo album, etc) will save you lots of headaches and let you process material much more efficiently. And speaking of contributions, you should have an email link or a form on every page that mentions contributions-- I didn't have your email address in my files so had to hunt it down elsewhere on the site.

That's all for now-- I think I have some ICHOF pictures somewhere in my files, so I'll see if I can track them down for you.

John

Thanx for the tips John....
BTW, Feck Starbucks...!!! I'd take the four bux and get three Wawa's...."Gottahavawawa".....!!!!

[liam stephens]

Greetings Jay,

Great to see you back !!!!

[Jay H]

Greetings Jay,

Great to see you back !!!!

Thanx Liam,...
Good to be back........
Hope all is well with you and yours....


Regards

Jay H