BrainKing Knowledge Base

The recent article about different browsers usage on BrainKing game site has invoked a couple of questions whether the numbers are accurate enough or not, regarding real BrainKing users (just registered users, not visitors). Of course, the server log analyzer cannot distinguish between entries created by logged users and accidental passers-by, which means that if we want better and more detailed statistics of this kind, we need a help of BrainKing itself.

As of 1st May 2008 (it should happen after 2 days), BrainKing will start to store accurate and users-only information about web browsers, operating systems and similar non-private data which are important to calculate a real ratio of, for instance, Firefox 3.0 usage on Windows Vista etc., which will give us much better overview and should help us to make any further optimizations which are really necessary (because if this feature shows that some browser is used by less than 1% of all users, any optimizations for it would not have the top priority). In order to provide some meaningful information, no results will be shown for at least 1 month, although the data itself will be processed on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, there is a small update on the Ponds system - since today, it is possible to add personal notes to any pond you are currently playing, and the notes are visible to you only, of course (something like that already works for normal games). This feature might be helpful for people who like to keep track of previous moves of opponents, in order to plan their strategy.

I have been thinking about BrainKing optional features which require client-side scripting (JavaScript) to make them work, because it might be a little tricky for some users, especially when something suddenly stops working - for example, the smiley popup window. This article contains instructions what to do, instead of posting "it doesn't work for me" without any further information:

1. First of all - if something works for the majority of BrainKing users and does not work for only you or a few other ones, in 99% cases it is not BrainKing's fault (troublemakers are welcome to comment this note, as they usually do it anyway ). It means that the most straightforward way to solve the problem is to check own computer and web browser for anything unusual.
2. There are several possible sources of this kind of issues:
   • The feature is blocked by a popup ad blocker extension. Actually, it is very unlikely in case of the smiley window because it does not work like a typical popup, but if nothing else helps, it might be worth trying to change the particular browser extension settings or temporarily uninstall it at all.
   • The feature is blocked by a security application, similar to Norton Internet Security etc., which does not allow the browser to change already loaded page dynamically. Try to disable the blocking program for a while and see if anything changes.
   • There might be a hidden bug in the browser which did not appear before due to some circumstances. Try to open BrainKing with another web browser to see differences.
   • From time to time, a problem occurs when the system firewall settings are changes, at least I remember that some users had problems to load BrainKing picture until they fixed their firewall configuration.
3. If nothing helps, it is necessary to provide some information to analyze. I am not sure about other web browsers, but Firefox contains a neat error console which can be found at Tools / Error Console menu. It can be very helpful to copy and paste its content and send it to me, many anomalies can be detected in this way.

These instructions definitely do not cover all possible scenarios, but can work as a start point for any possible progress. A good cooperation never makes it worse.

I don't spend my time testing products in beta status too often (frankly, I don't remember when I did it for the last time) but since Firefox web browser is something what I use every day and I belong to the group of its supporters, I have decided to try out the most recent public beta version - Firefox 3 Beta 5 - at least to check if BrainKing needs some style modifications because of possible Firefox 3 specific behavior.

Well, after a few hours of active using and trying everything possible, I am impressed. Positively.

As far as I can say, it is definitely the fastest Firefox so far, most likely thanks to its new rendering engine. BrainKing contains many optional JavaScript features which look nice but can make a browser "a little" slower when all of them are activated at the same time, so it was one of details I wanted to test as soon as possible. And since all my attempts to make Firefox 3 jammed or at least overloaded by all possible popups, pulldowns, fade-ins or flying dragons absolutely failed, I can only say "wow!" to the programmers - this is definitely a big step forward.

This article is not meant to publish a full featured review, I just wanted to express my experiences and personal opinion. Which is exactly what blogs are designed to.

A very short overview of pros:

• It is faster. In some cases, much faster.
• It looks "nicer". It is hard to describe but I have a much better feeling when I work with Firefox 3, compared to previous versions.
• Smart bookmarks - the most visited pages are automatically bookmarked to a special folder. Right now, I know that my most frequent activity on BrainKing during last hour was to submit new entries to the BrainKing Translator database.
• BrainKing Bookmarks add-on work with it.

Cons:

• Many add-ons don't work with it because they are not upgraded to Firefox 3 yet.
• It is still a beta version, so it can be unstable on some platforms or computers.
• Regarding the previous point, some web pages can behave "strangely", as I heard from a few people. However, although I tried to display as many different pages as possible and did the worst possible things with them, I could not reproduce anything unusual. Strange. But good for me.

And a quick look to BrainKing statistics page says that 1.2% visitors of our site are already browsing the web with Firefox 3. That's a very good start.

Get it here if you want to give it a try.

I have received an inquiry about the recently updated list of paid membership advantages, more precisely about the point 3.2. This is what the mentioned section says:

"Paying members can upload a small 40x50 picture (which is called icon) to their profiles. Icons are shown next to the player's name on many important pages - game pages, discussion boards, private messages etc."

The problem is that the section deals with icons only, so what happened to user photos? (bigger 200x300 images)
Actually, the Paid Membership page is correct and only the small image, which is displayed on game pages, discussion boards etc., is going to remain as a privilege for paying members. User photos will be replaced by user photo albums, which will allow any registered user to upload more images, organize them in folders (albums), share them with other users etc. It is a logical decision, making this feature more flexible and, as a side effect, solving another long term problem.

I've been too optimistic again, so this feature is not released yet because it's not fully finished yet. However, if nothing unexpected happens, it should go live very soon.