If that seems legitimate, the following example may not be...
Have your program look at the user profiles of people you're playing with in an anonymous game, note when they are online, and cross-reference that data with when you get messages from those countries, to find out who is who.

Good points, MKE. Technology is not good or bad itself, but the uses could be. If one used tech to figure out anon players' i.d.'s, essentially outwitting the intent of anonymous games......then the site could/might counter that (auto-sign on players at random times)....but would that be a profitable use of site resources?

On the other hand, using technology to harvest a player's most typical moves when in each country...is done in chess.... I would think that "it depends", based on the particular use.

I would say that these things are bad and shouldn't be done.

Interesting opinion. What brings you to that conclusion?

Automating functions that could be done by hand and aren't illegal (I.e. no sniffing for passwords) is perfectly fine so long as you don't crash the server do to hi bandwidth. At least that's my view. If Kestas says otherwise, thoug, then i'd listen to what he says.

I see nothing wrong with the first scenario-- in FtF of course you'll be watching who's talking to whom, and sometimes you can get an idea of when people are writing or rewriting their orders. The second scenario strikes me as clever but problematic, just because it's against the spirit of anonymous games.

I'd love to see options for faking press, personally (not in every game, but maybe as a standard option or as a variant).

Faking press can be done here by cut & paste, with edits.

@MKECharlie, that's not forged (faked) press. That's just "forwarded press", which is anyways unreliable. In postal, one could go to the trouble of changing the return address, mimicking the handwriting, forging a signature, mailing from the spoof sender's postal area (to get the correct postmark), etc., to create a very convincing forged press.

Anon means anon, trying to figure out who's playing who is against that rule.

@MKECharlie: In this case, I mean if I'm Germany, I might want to send a message to England that looks completely like it's from France, even to the point where the new message would appear to be from France (i.e., appear in the France message tab).

I just think that trying to go round the system isn't on. Yes I know its allowed in face to face (and even then only if you're all that way inclined) but just doesn't feel right for here.

"The opinions expressed in this thread are those of me, Figlesquidge, and do not necessarily represent those of the mod/admin team"

For the record, I always thought my second example (figuring out who's who in an anonymous game) seemed beyond the pale. I don't see how it gives someone that much of an advantage anyway, but does seem to be against the spirit of anonymous games. If you want to know who's who, play a non-anon game.

@yebellz, @Katsarephat: Agreed re: forged vs. forwarded press. Good distinction.
@Figlesquidge, @Draugnar: Thanks for your input.

Also for the record, I didn't write these programs.
I might have stalked someone at the computer lab at school and changed his password, though.

Do you know how tempting it is to go change the password of the next person who says something like that :P

Do it! Then tell us all so we can laugh at the loser. :-)

Better yet, band and unban them so they lose all their points and have to revisit their games before the turn runs!

Just joking, figlesquidge. It was that other thread that got me thinking about these ideas, but I thought I'd start a new one instead of hijacking that thread.