Abolish the Blitz feature

Abolish the Blitz feature

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chemist

Linkenheim

Joined
22 Apr 05
Moves
655965
20 Jun 18

Thread 176449

It has been such an (embarrasingly) low priority for the site developers, that it would show far more self-respect on the part of the same, if it were removed entirely.

I was in favour than I am in favour now.

Yours Sincerely,

BigDoggProblem

RHP Member No.16

Joined
25 Feb 01
Moves
101580
20 Jun 18

I think if it were made reliably functional it could become popular, but I agree that if it gets no support and remains as is, it should just be taken away.

But here's another observation or two:
Both players must remain online in order to play blitz, so they can just both stay online in a RHP correspondence game and play almost as quickly as on the blitz site when it is working.
It just requires a little more effort and a few more mouse clicks to stay updated with the game.
Of coarse the time controls are not set for a few minutes like in blitz, but you can still play quickly.
Plus it will be a rated game, which the blitz games are not.

And as a final thought, I wonder how much coding it would take to modify the current program for our correspondence games and just add some options for blitz-like time controls.

I am suggesting that our correspondence game software seems to be pretty reliable and functional, so it might be sensible to just start from that and tweak the time controls to allow selecting minutes instead of days. Maybe the 'time out' and 'time bank' choices could be just changed to minutes instead of days.

It might be something to think about anyway! 🙂

Joined
10 Jan 08
Moves
16951
20 Jun 18

How about just fixing or giving subs a discount and advertisers a part refund for not supplying a service previously on the site?

Dave

S.Yorks.England

Joined
18 Apr 10
Moves
83813
22 Jun 18

The siege feature was removed because no one was using it but the blitz feature is slightly different in that it doesn't stagnate in the same way.
Apart from taking up server space the blitz feature will not use any memory if no one is using it and so will not slow the site down or anything. Therefor,I don't see the need to remove it, even though I rarely use it myself.

Secret RHP coder

on the payroll

Joined
26 Nov 04
Moves
155080
22 Jun 18

Originally posted by @venda
The siege feature was removed because no one was using it but the blitz feature is slightly different in that it doesn't stagnate in the same way.
Apart from taking up server space the blitz feature will not use any memory if no one is using it and so will not slow the site down or anything. Therefor,I don't see the need to remove it, even though I rarely use it myself.
It looks bad for the site when it appears to offer features that turn out not to work very well. The forums get questions about the blitz site and when it might be improved, and "never" is a bad answer.

chemist

Linkenheim

Joined
22 Apr 05
Moves
655965
26 Jun 18

Originally posted by @bigdoggproblem
It looks bad for the site when it appears to offer features that turn out not to work very well. The forums get questions about the blitz site and when it might be improved, and "never" is a bad answer.
Well put!

Joined
06 Nov 15
Moves
41301
28 Jun 18

Originally posted by @bigdoggproblem
It looks bad for the site when it appears to offer features that turn out not to work very well. The forums get questions about the blitz site and when it might be improved, and "never" is a bad answer.
I agree that it looks bad. But, I've always assumed it was just a transitional defect. Soon to be remedied.

Anyway, RHP's correspondence chess interface is the best that I've used. I just go to another site to play live games...but just until it's fixed here.

Secret RHP coder

on the payroll

Joined
26 Nov 04
Moves
155080
28 Jun 18
1 edit

Originally posted by @wolfe63
I agree that it looks bad. But, I've always assumed it was just a transitional defect. Soon to be remedied.

Anyway, RHP's correspondence chess interface is the best that I've used. I just go to another site to play live games...but just until it's fixed here.
That assumption is likely false. You've got one developer writing code for 3 different platforms. It is all he can do to keep the core of RHP going. The blitz site has been this way for months upon months.

Edit: just to be clear, I believe Russ does a good job keeping the core of RHP going. He's also responsive to requests for new features within the core. I am a programmer also and I empathize with how much work coding a site like this can be.

Joined
06 Nov 15
Moves
41301
29 Jun 18

Originally posted by @bigdoggproblem
That assumption is likely false. You've got one developer writing code for 3 different platforms. It is all he can do to keep the core of RHP going. The blitz site has been this way for months upon months.

Edit: just to be clear, I believe Russ does a good job keeping the core of RHP going. He's also responsive to requests for new features within ...[text shortened]... core. I am a programmer also and I empathize with how much work coding a site like this can be.
I appreciate that very much. It's all that I can do just to keep up as a (most basic) user.
Back in the early 1980's, I attempted to learn "machine language" but was interrupted by military service.
Afterward, I watched with amazement as the code-writing became ever-the-more complex to suit the exponential advances of the contemporary hardware.
Thank you for keeping this site running. It's a pleasurable indulgence indeed.

Secret RHP coder

on the payroll

Joined
26 Nov 04
Moves
155080
29 Jun 18

Originally posted by @wolfe63
I appreciate that very much. It's all that I can do just to keep up as a (most basic) user.
Back in the early 1980's, I attempted to learn "machine language" but was interrupted by military service.
Afterward, I watched with amazement as the code-writing became ever-the-more complex to suit the exponential advances of the contemporary hardware.
Thank you for keeping this site running. It's a pleasurable indulgence indeed.
To be clear, I don't program for the site. The credit for this site goes to Russ.

chemist

Linkenheim

Joined
22 Apr 05
Moves
655965
28 Aug 18

Originally posted by @wolfe63
I agree that it looks bad. But, I've always assumed it was just a transitional defect. Soon to be remedied.

Anyway, RHP's correspondence chess interface is the best that I've used. I just go to another site to play live games...but just until it's fixed here.
Not much is "soon to be remedied" and most of that is of course what seems to be important to Keep the site Floating.
A Feature not much used and actually quite apart from the Focus of the site is not on the Backlist even.

So why not abolish it altogether?

Joined
10 Jan 08
Moves
16951
08 Sep 18

Originally posted by @ponderable
Not much is "soon to be remedied" and most of that is of course what seems to be important to Keep the site Floating.
A Feature not much used and actually quite apart from the Focus of the site is not on the Backlist even.

So why not abolish it altogether?
I used to use it and there was always enough people around to get a game going, now you click into it and it doesn't even say that it's down, just doesn't work. Obviously not a priority for a correspondence site but would be nice to have it back.

RHP Code Monkey

RHP HQ

Joined
21 Feb 01
Moves
2418
11 Sep 18

Regarding blitz, if you access from the RHP brand, it should be working fine.

https://www.redhotpawn.com/blitz/play-blitz-chess.php

The backend for the blitz has always caused problems - the earlier Flash based one was fairly solid though.

I have my eye on a few more modern cloudy possibilities right now to help fix this, so hopefully it doesn't need to be removed altogether and can even be promoted a little more.

chemist

Linkenheim

Joined
22 Apr 05
Moves
655965
11 Sep 18

That would be good News indeed.
I will try to establish a date with some Player to do a test 😉

Joined
10 Jan 08
Moves
16951
13 Sep 18

Originally posted by @ponderable
That would be good News indeed.
I will try to establish a date with some Player to do a test 😉
Tried it yesterday, a couple of people were on it probably playing each other. Couldn't get a game going in 5 minutes or so so left it. Any evening you want to give it a try im in