BrainKing Knowledge Base

Yes, we have this feature since the very first non-English and non-Czech localization of BrainKing had been released, but it was always visible to the translators only. However, we think it is a valuable information for everyone because the list contains all started translations, not just the 15 finished ones. It means that if you wish to have the site translated to a language which is not supported yet and want to contribute, the first thing to do should be a quick look at the Translators page to find out if the work is already started. Then you can contact the users who are doing the translations and ask if they need any help - or report bugs, typos, etc.

The link can be found at the top of the more about languages page and I will probably add it to some other pages, in order to make it better visible.

By the way, BrainKing is capable to maintain any number of localizations - don't hesitate to offer a cooperation to translate the site to your native language if you really want to.

The BrainRook.com site seems to be popular, the number of visitors is growing every day. I like it because I always wanted to provide a good resource of game related information and it is even better when the information is submitted by game enthusiasts themselves. Just a side note, one of the most frequent phrase which returns BrainRook as a result in search engines is reversi strategies. Would you expect that?

But the purpose of this entry is not to analyze search engine optimization, although it could be a good there of some future ones. There is a small problem with publishing of the submitted articles because they are usually sent to me in a format which cannot be used directly. It leads to delays, long intervals between receiving an article and releasing it on the site, etc. That's why I would recommend to follow these instructions, if you want to have your article published as soon as possible:

• Instead of sending a Microsoft Word file, try to create a simple HTML page (with or without images). It will save many minutes of copy and paste work.


• Create an author account on BrainRook.com (if you already don't have one) and submit a draft of your article directly. You can upload all images you need and insert them to the article body. When you are finished and click Save, the article will be stored but not published yet. Then I will log in and publish the submitted draft.


• Make sure your article is understandable, easy to read, without typos and descriptive enough for an average visitor. Submissions which don't fulfil these conditions are usually rejected.

Of course, it is still possible to send an article in other ways (e-mail, message on BrainKing.com, ...) but it would always take more time and my response to the question "why isn't my article published yet?" will be obvious.

It is interesting to observe different reactions from people, regarding this blog site. Although nobody is obliged to read it and all posted information is to provide a knowledge base about the BrainKing site, I occasionally received questions or messages which are kind of repetitive, so it might be a good idea to write the most common anwsers here:

• Why do you write 1-2 entries every day? Are you bored with your life and have nothing better to do instead? Well, I like it. That's all. I don't think that I would be too bored anytime. Information is the most valuable commodity and we want to provide as many good articles as possible. Who doesn't like it, it is only his problem.
• Why do I have to see a new entry excerpt on BrainKing's Main Page? There is no way to remove it once and forever. Yes, that's true. I think it's the easiest way to keep people posted about the new entries which can be very important (sometimes) and not everyone knows how to use RSS feeds. Moreover, the blog notification on the Main Page does not occupy more than 3 lines and a simple click on the close link would remove it until a new one is posted here. It is really not a problem and it will stay as it is.
• Why are the blog entries only in English? Because I and other translators are already too busy localizing the BrainKing site (new texts to translate are added very frequently and so are the new features) and the blog system is not written by me, so it would be too much work to make it behave (speaking of multilinguality) as I wish to. I don't say it will never change.

And I like eBay

As you probably know, BrainKing handles many things in background, without any user interaction. It must check running games for possible timeouts, tournaments for their status, expired memberships etc., and must do it regularry. Since people occasionally ask about things which are related to this topic, like "why my game shows -4 minutes as time left" or "when will my tournament be started", I would like to describe what BrainKing does and when and why:

• Timeout task - called every 10 minutes, its purpose is obvious. If a game timeouted between two calls, its time left value would be shown as a negative number. It is not a bug.
• Tournament task - called once an hour, 5 minutes after (e.g. 5:05, 6:05, 7:05, ...). It starts tournaments after their deadlines, generates next rounds and finishes those with all games completed. It also handles team tournaments, team matches and ponds.
• Position task - called once an hour, 5 minutes after a half (e.g. 5:35, 6:35, 7:35, ...). It recalculates player positions of all game types, based on current BKR values. This is the reason why your position is not changed immediately after your game is finished.
• Membership task - called once a day, 5 minutes after a midnight. It checks memberships of all paying members and marks the expired ones. In a near future it will also turn the expired members back to pawns automatically.

There are several sub-tasks which do something with Action Points but I cannot recall any details at the moment, being too tired after a hard working day. Anyway, they are not important.

It does not happen too often and, from my point of view, it's a trivial issue which is not worth mentioning as a standalone entry, but since I have received an e-mail of this kind today and I receive similar e-mails at least once a month, I guess the obvious facts could be put together at once and for all possible future questions (although there are still many people who don't read this blog).

The entry is about currencies. As you know, BrainKing's official currency is Euro and all prices are defined and calculated in Euro. However, Euro is not a usual currency in all countries, especially in those at the west side of Atlantic Ocean, and the mentioned e-mails usually contain a question: "How much is the membership in USD?" I don't want to talk about more bizarre questions like "What the hell is Euro?" (yes, I've really received such e-mails!) but, in order to address the first one, there is a descriptive link How much is it in my currency? at the Paid Membership page and this link points to a nice site XE.com, which provides an universal currency converter. I've just made the mentioned link in a larger font, so it should be better recognized and not to be missed anymore.

The conclusion - if you want to get the prices of BrainKing's memberships in USD or any other currency, go to the Paid Membership page, click the "How much is it in my currency?" link, write the target amount to the converter form, select the target currency and submit the form. Easy, straightforward, understandable.

Although BrainKing's membership fees are low (the cheapest level is only 0.05 Euro a day), there are people who either think different or cannot send a payment due to other reasons. It's nothing I would want to complain about, it's really up to every single person to choose the level of membership to use. The purpose of this article is to make a list of other options to get a paid membership.

I think we were already discussing them on BrainKing's discussion boards but it won't hurt to do it again here:

• Brains - the page of Brains contains all details about earning Brains and using them to buy a membership:
  • Refer new paying members - if someone decides to purchase a membership and marks you as the one who referred him, you get the corresponding amount of Brains, depending on the purchased membership level and subscribed period.
  • Sign up for Brains tournaments - some tournaments require an entry fee in Brains to sign up and the winner receives Brains as a prize (at least a double of the entry fee, usually more).
  • Suggest interesting Tips of the Day - if you send me a good and interesting tip which is not already listed on the Tips of the Day page and your tip is approved, you get 5-20 Brains as a reward.
  • Write original articles for BrainRook.com site - BrainRook.com is another project of ours and its purpose is to provide quality articles about board games and related topics. An approved article is awarded with 50-200 Brains.
• Translations - BrainKing is currently localized to 15 languages and more then 10 another translations are already in progress. If you are a native speaker of a language which is not supported yet and your English is very good, you can send me an offer of translating BrainKing to your language. A quality translation can be honoured with a membership for free. But beware - it is a long and hard process, BrainKing contains really many pages and entries to translate. However, there are people who already made the full localization alone, with no help of anybody else, and still continue to do so.
• Become a business partner - if you know a company which looks for a good advertising space with a huge worldwide traffic, convince them to make a contract with us and get a share of the revenues. "Real" companies are preferred, not any advertising or link exchange networks. More details about this subject will be posted later (but you can start your search now ).

Is that all? If I forgot to mention something, please let me know.
Shortly said, a membership on BrainKing is accessible for everyone. If someone cannot afford to pay, there are many other options to get it. And I am sure this list will be extended by new ones in the future.

If you are a paying member of the Brain Rook level and like to play many game types, you might have faced a situation when you wanted to sign up for all games of one tournament, but the only way to do it was to visit each game type separately and click on the "sign up" link. I guess it must have been a pain, especially when the number of supported games reached the number 90.

Cheer up, a solution has emerged just a while ago! All users with the Brain Rook or higher level of membership should see a new button Sign up for all tournaments of this group at the selected tournament page, just below the list of game types. If you check the checkbox next to the button (in order to avoid misclicks) and click the button, BrainKing will go through all tournaments of this group and check if you can sign up for them. If the check is successfull, the sign up process is applied and the system proceeds to the next game type, until all of them are processed.

I just hope no funny bugs will appear there.