Great ideas, Bask. When will you have the code changes complete?

Not trying to single you - or anyone else - out, but one thing many people who dislike the status quo seem to forget is that code changes are a volunteer effort - so if there is feature that people wish to see implemented, they should probably figure out how to write it instead of waiting for someone else to have the free cycles.

If people lack the requisite skills, it would seem that two options are available:
1- crack a textbook
2- bribe a coder

If the individuals in question simply lack the time, then they should have a keen understanding of the dilemmas faced by the handful of people on the site who are capable of writing the code - and *also* lack the time....

This is not to say there are not enhancements that would improve the site - but (IMO) there is a significant difference between 'this would be keen' and 'this would be keen, and I'm disappointed you haven't done it for me yet'

Stratagos, you are totally right, of course. However, before I actually code it (and I might - maybe I will start a PHP job that will help me with my skills on this area), there should be a consensus about the right way to do it.

So, I will be happy if you would reply on my proposals...

Keeping in mind the actual direction of the site is dictated by Kestas, and is laid out in the Dev forum, my thoughts on your specific proposals:

1 - there are plenty of leagues running or on the schedule right now, and they seem to work pretty well without intervention. If it ain't broke, don't fix it - if people want to list their accomplishments they can already do so on their profile pages

2 - If GR is implemented on the site, that's fine, and I'm sure it could fairly easily be written into the other relevant code changes. If Ghost has to continue to run things via excel, it seems like an awfully big chunk of development work for both the site and his tool for minimal gain - if people are that worked up about their rating, they're also probably going to dislike the affect on their win/lose percentage, etc.

3 - There is no compelling reason to move points from the position they currently hold. You still will need x amount of points to join certain games, so the 'points' calculations will have to continue. If you want to add GR to the name alongside points that's something that could be argued, but I see no real reason to move them unless the decision is to dispense with them entirely

4 - Two problems with this: gunboats that were run before the 'official' gunboat code was added will still show as standard games, and while the tweak eliminating gunboats would be fairly simple, where does it end? People can make a compelling case that live games shouldn't count, or games where someone NMRed, or or or.... attempting to tweak the GR formula is just going to get people asking for further tweaks, and is going to turn into a never ending nightmare

5 - Re: eliminating points - a Reliability Index still does not offer the filtering capability that points do. As stated above, there is no compelling reason to eliminate points. Your RI can easily be added to the stats page, but (IMO) just the fact that you showed up doesn't make you a good player.

3 -

There is a Chinese poem about silence. Roughly translated, it says something like:

'The wind returns
but doesn't call out to the sky anymore
it just tries to forget that it once made a noise'

Thanks for putting it into terms I can understand, flash : )