Droppers: Another Solution
Patti Beadles
I used to worry about them... moral righteousness and all... "it's not
fair!" "I deserve those points!" "People should be warned!" "Keep a
list of all the cheaters!"
But you know what? It really is a trivial problem. It really doesn't
happen all that often-- I haven't had anyone drop a game on me in many
many months. The people who do it don't stick around the server very
long anyway, so nothing you do is going to keep it from happening. The
fix just doesn't exist.
Why get your blood pressure up? Why concoct elaborate solutions that
just shift the problem elsewhere, or make things more complex without
making them more fun? If it happens, just shrug it off and go to the
next match.
And worry about more important things... like whether you should have
split or hit loose with that ace, or whether you took an impossible
cube.
-Patti
--
Patti Beadles | 2.7% may be huge, but I'll put
pat...@netcom.com/pat...@gammon.com | my money on the 97.2% side.
http://www.gammon.com/ |
or just yell, "Hey, Patti!" | Now also pa...@velo.com
Kit Woolsey
: Ignore them.
: I used to worry about them... moral righteousness and all... "it's not
: fair!" "I deserve those points!" "People should be warned!" "Keep a
: list of all the cheaters!"
: But you know what? It really is a trivial problem. It really doesn't
: happen all that often-- I haven't had anyone drop a game on me in many
: many months. The people who do it don't stick around the server very
: long anyway, so nothing you do is going to keep it from happening. The
: fix just doesn't exist.
: Why get your blood pressure up? Why concoct elaborate solutions that
: just shift the problem elsewhere, or make things more complex without
: making them more fun? If it happens, just shrug it off and go to the
: next match.
: And worry about more important things... like whether you should have
: split or hit loose with that ace, or whether you took an impossible
: cube.
: -Patti
Right on, Patti. I, too, have experienced almost no problem with game
droppers. The points I have lost due to an opponent rolling doubles on
the last roll of the match far exceeds anything lost from dropped matches
which were never resumed.
It should be remembered, however, that you and I are among the most
experienced players on FIBS. We know a lot of our opponents, and players
we don't know are less likely to drop a lost match to us than to newer
players.
We are unlikely to see any software improvements which will solve the
problem. As we have seen from the discussions on r.g.b. any solution is
likely to have some element of unfairness. Also, Marvin isn't going to
put in the time for this -- he has better things to do.
Posting the names of droppers on r.g.b. isn't likely to be effective
either. Newer players (those most likely to be victims) probably won't
be reading r.g.b., and who wants to go to the trouble of keeping such a
list anyway.
There is, however, one very effective way to deal with the problem. If
you run across a player who has dropped a game on you playing someone
else, simply tell the dropper's opponent what happened. Players will
listen when you do this, since you would hardly go out of your way to do
this if there wasn't a good reason.
This does work. A while ago I was dropped by a player who was about to
lose (with some abusive language from him before he dropped connection).
For the next couple of weeks, whenever I was on and saw this player start
a match, I would immediately tell his opponent what had happened. After
this happened a few times, the player accepted my invite to resume the
match with no fuss.
Kit
Burt Paulson
: Ignore them.
What?? A voice of reason???
: Why get your blood pressure up? Why concoct elaborate solutions that
: just shift the problem elsewhere, or make things more complex without
: making them more fun? If it happens, just shrug it off and go to the
: next match.
Really!!! Who's life revolves around their FIBS ratings anyway??
: And worry about more important things... like whether you should have
: split or hit loose with that ace, or whether you took an impossible
: cube.
Or what kinda bugs keep eatin me danged taters!!!
Em_Sea (you kin cawl me Emmy)
Ken Tarver
James Eibisch
>Ignore them.
Easier said than done in some cases:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
+------------------------------------------+ O: - score: 9
| X X X X X | | X |
| X X X X | | X |
| X | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| |BAR| |v 11-point match
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | X |
| O | | X X |
+------------------------------------------+ X: - score: 10
24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13
Cube: 1
X rolls 6 4.
X logs out. The game was saved.
You say to yourself: neeaaaarrrrgggggghhhhhhh!!!!
>I used to worry about them... moral righteousness and all... "it's not
>fair!" "I deserve those points!" "People should be warned!" "Keep a
>list of all the cheaters!"
>
>But you know what? It really is a trivial problem. It really doesn't
>happen all that often-- I haven't had anyone drop a game on me in many
>many months. The people who do it don't stick around the server very
>long anyway, so nothing you do is going to keep it from happening. The
>fix just doesn't exist.
Patti, you're a highly experienced fibster. Most highly-experienced
fibsters (assumption) have been through the pain of being denied ratings
points through the actions of cheaters. But a lot of people, perhaps
most, who post to r.g.b. about cheaters are relatively new to FIBS. I
didn't begin to experience cheaters until I'd amassed around 1500
experience points (perhaps I simply didn't recognise cheaters until that
point, who knows?), so I was lucky. Being robbed of points in your eigth
game on FIBS must suck, to borrow another Americanism. Recently I've
been plagued, in a very minor sense, by people who I might describe, if
in vindictive mood, as cheaters. Like you, I shrug these people off and
accept a loss of ratings. I would not be so passive if I were new to
FIBS.
--
_
James Eibisch ('v') N : E : T : A : D : E : L : I : C : A
Reading, U.K. (,_,) http://www.i-way.co.uk/~jeibisch/
=======
Lou Poppler
>But you know what? It really is a trivial problem. It really doesn't
>happen all that often-- I haven't had anyone drop a game on me in many
>many months. The people who do it don't stick around the server very
>long anyway, so nothing you do is going to keep it from happening. The
>fix just doesn't exist.
But, perhaps one reason they don't stick around the server very long
is because they are publicly branded as outcasts. It would seem hard
to get much satisfaction from their high rating, with a persistent
chorus of accusations and people refusing to play them.
-- Spider
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:: Lou Poppler <l...@mail.msen.com> | Noon. Tacit Amos saw ::
:: http://www.msen.com/~lwp/ | I was somatic at noon. ::
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