Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

I'm thinking of removing CKEditor from the site. In source mode, it has been reformatting text, which is annoying. I rewrote trim_lines to better handle ASCII diagrams, and it did a great job at that. In the test I ran, an ASCII diagram for Hexagonal Chess looked like this:

        a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h   i   j   k
                        ___
                    ___/ b \___                  8
                ___/:q:\___/:k:\___
            ___/!n!\___/!b!\___/!n!\___          7
        ___/ r \___/   \___/   \___/ r \___
    ___/:p:\___/:::\___/:b:\___/:::\___/:p:\___  6
   /!!!\___/!p!\___/!!!\___/!!!\___/!p!\___/!!!\
11 \___/   \___/ p \___/   \___/ p \___/   \___/ 5
   /:::\___/:::\___/:p:\___/:p:\___/:::\___/:::\
10 \___/!!!\___/!!!\___/!p!\___/!!!\___/!!!\___/ 4
   /   \___/   \___/   \___/   \___/   \___/   \
 9 \___/:::\___/:::\___/:::\___/:::\___/:::\___/ 3
   /!!!\___/!!!\___/!!!\___/!!!\___/!!!\___/!!!\
 8 \___/   \___/   \___/ P \___/   \___/   \___/ 2
   /:::\___/:::\___/:P:\___/:P:\___/:::\___/:::\
 7 \___/!!!\___/!P!\___/!!!\___/!P!\___/!!!\___/ 1
   /   \___/ P \___/   \___/   \___/ P \___/   \
 6 \___/:P:\___/:::\___/:B:\___/:::\___/:P:\___/
       \___/!R!\___/!!!\___/!!!\___/!R!\___/
 5         \___/ N \___/ B \___/ N \___/
               \___/:Q:\___/:K:\___/
 4                 \___/!B!\___/
                       \___/
     a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h   i   j   k

But when I load the content of the page in CKEditor, it looks like this:

<DIV>
  <PRE>
    a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h   i   j   k
    ___
    ___/ b \___                  8
    ___/:q:\___/:k:\___
    ___/!n!\___/!b!\___/!n!\___          7
    ___/ r \___/   \___/   \___/ r \___
    ___/:p:\___/:::\___/:b:\___/:::\___/:p:\___  6
    /!!!\___/!p!\___/!!!\___/!!!\___/!p!\___/!!!\
    11 \___/   \___/ p \___/   \___/ p \___/   \___/ 5
    /:::\___/:::\___/:p:\___/:p:\___/:::\___/:::\
    10 \___/!!!\___/!!!\___/!p!\___/!!!\___/!!!\___/ 4
    /   \___/   \___/   \___/   \___/   \___/   \
    9 \___/:::\___/:::\___/:::\___/:::\___/:::\___/ 3
    /!!!\___/!!!\___/!!!\___/!!!\___/!!!\___/!!!\
    8 \___/   \___/   \___/ P \___/   \___/   \___/ 2
    /:::\___/:::\___/:P:\___/:P:\___/:::\___/:::\
    7 \___/!!!\___/!P!\___/!!!\___/!P!\___/!!!\___/ 1
    /   \___/ P \___/   \___/   \___/ P \___/   \
    6 \___/:P:\___/:::\___/:B:\___/:::\___/:P:\___/
    \___/!R!\___/!!!\___/!!!\___/!R!\___/
    5         \___/ N \___/ B \___/ N \___/
    \___/:Q:\___/:K:\___/
    4                 \___/!B!\___/
    \___/
    a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h   i   j   k
  </PRE>
</DIV>

I can get it looking correct by turning CKEditor off, but it's still annoying.

Also, it has been treating unpaired tags as unclosed unless they end with /. Since it indents each unclosed tag further than the last one, things can easily get out of hand with lots of IMG or INPUT tags that do not have closing tags.

The WYSIWYG editor has filled a gap for people who don't know HTML, and it's a better option than writing everything in plain text. However, the option of using Markdown fills the same gap. Markdown is an intuitive markup language that borrows conventions common to plain text documents and replaces them with appropriate HTML. It is already the default format for entering comments, and you can see a Quick Markdown Guide if you look down while entering a comment in the Markdown format. Markdown combines the ease of writing a plain text document with the power of HTML.

And it also allows those who know HTML to mix in HTML with the Markdown.

These changes affect pages, not presets. This has nothing to do with Game Courier presets except that there are pages referring people to them.

Hope I'm not concerned. I don't understand anything, this is for experts. Are these changes affecting the Game Courier presets made so far?

I modified the scripts for submitting or editing member-submitted pages to use the format attribute instead of the useshtml attribute. While the latter was binary, the former has four values. The format may now be set to HTML, Markdown, Text, or WYSIWYG. HTML and WYSIWYG both get saved to the database as HTML, though they differ in which mode CkEditor is used with them. Markdown and Text are both saved as plain text in the database, and neither uses CkEditor. They differ in how they are displayed. Markdown is a simpler markup language than HTML, and it gets converted to HTML before being displayed. Text just gets surrounded by PRE tags with no additional conversion.

So far, I have added Format to the database without removing UsesHTML. I will remove it later. In the meantime, please check how well the scripts are working and leave any comments on them here.

Patented 8x8 Arimaa was heavily licensed, though it is arguably not a true CV (no king-like pieces). The one who licensed it in my opinion slowed the spread of what could have been an explosively popular board game, e.g. countless books, over-the-board clubs, by requiring permission to write/start such, instead restricting (online) play to one official website (when I looked there many years ago I saw number of logins [at least some being players] that were listed [low 100's, about what it is now?!]). Elsewhere there's approved equipment, and there are also apps sold, at least.

Ironically, the game was promoted as computer-resistant (compared to chess), but that claim did not last for two decades, even, and so maybe now the game is less played globally(??). I recall one Google search I did many years ago had the result 'They've fixed chess' (probably in reference to computers and/or that an Arimaa game cannot ever end in a draw). One other 'defect' uncovered is that in setting up a start position (done by each side), only a small few strategies are now thought clearly best, I've read somewhere.

The inventor restricted the power of any hardware that could be used to challenge humans in the contests on his website, but still a machine (program) eventually triumphed over the best humans in matches. Currently it seems clear no board game can ever be computer-resistant for long, especially with self-teaching programs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arimaa

http://arimaa.com/arimaa/

P.S.: I don't know much about patents around the world, but once any game is out in the public domain (and does become quite popular - usually requiring promotion by inventor anyway?!), I would guess the horse has left the barn; if so, no risk-free way to make a big profit, as is normal.

edit: Public domain rules, at least in US, may be more complex nowadays than I guessed - here's a sub-wiki that may be only just a taste:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain#Dedicating_works_to_the_public_domain

I fully agree.

Chances that people want to play a variant are very small. Chances they would want to pay for it next to zero.

There are two variants I know of that were patented. In the U.S.. (Patents do not automatically apply world wide.) In the U.S. you can pretty much patent anything; whether the patent is valid is to be determined in the court cases that challenge it. That makes them cheap; there only is a (yearly?) registration fee. In Europe it can take tens of thousands euros to do the due diligence get a patent approved. (And the result of this in case of a chess variant would most likely be that it gets rejected, for lack of novelty.) As far as I know both U.S. patents expired before anyone challenged them, because the inventors got tired of paying the fees.

To make sure there would be no legal issues for this website, there was a ban on using words that reminded of the variant in any posting here.

I am not sure how you could make money out of a chess variant. Unless it requires special equipment, which you sell. Patents are more suitable for protecting equipment than ideas. Chess variants typically only require a board and pieces, though. Boards can be made from cardboard and paper, and pretty much anything could be used as pieces. (A wide selection of high-quality unorthodox pieces is already commercially available, both in wood and plastic.) There is no way you could prevent people using these at home.

Of course you could set up an internet server where the variant could be played on-line. And ask a fee for regestering there. It seems a good way to make absolutely sure no one would ever want to play it, even in the extremely unlikely case that the variant would have the potential to become popular on its own merits.

I have a new chess variant idea. 
Before I send it across to you , I have a few questions:

1) If my variant idea becomes popular, is there any way I can get paid for it ?

2) Can chess variant idea be patented ? Can I apply for a patent before sending it to you ? How many chess variants in your site are patented ?

very well you guys are the proffesionals and if it makes the game easier then yes in the first two ranks can make the pawns move forward two

I dont quiet understand the second question though what do you mean by first rank? Sorry for my lack of knowladge.

Rank means row.  Squares a1, b1, c1, ... f1 are the first rank.  A pawn moves backwards on its first move - pawn on e2 moves to e1.  It is now on the first rank.  Can it move two spaces?  Personally, I would make the rule like this: "any pawn on the first or second rank can move two spaces."  Otherwise, players must remember which pawns have moved and which have not.

Well, it is not "just like in original Chess", as in original Chess you can never go back. So there is ambiguity whether to interpret the FIDE rule for Pawn moves as a location-dependent move or as a one-time initial move. In many Chess variants where you can go back (e.g. Crazyhouse, where captured Pawns can be dropped back on 2nd rank) a Pawn that returns there will again be able to move two squares forward. The advantage of that is that you do not need any 'hidden game state', to remember which Pawns have already moved and which not; just looking at the position will tell you everything you have to know. (About the Pawns. Castling rights are of course an example of hidden game state that even occurs in orthodox Chess.)

oh i see im a moron no if you go back to your original post where your pawn started you cannot move two tiles forward only if its the pawn first move in the match just like in original chess

I dont quiet understand the second question though what do you mean by first rank? Sorry for my lack of knowladge.

The question is this: if you start moving a Pawn 1 square forward, and on a later move let it step 1 square backward, so that it is again on the square where it started... Can it move forward 2 squares then? Or only 1?

And what if it moves to the first rank? How many steps forward can it then make?

well you can never make two spaces backwards only one as i said, even if there is two space you can only do one

You miss the part where you can make the aggrements if both sides feel if they can make the other side do something that would make them more advateges then before you can betray the other one also this action tooks one turn and the other need to execute the action in their turn and then you do the same what he wants to also you can betray him this up to you if you feel that you can trust him next time.

This could be placed in the notes, but this is not really a rule.  All you are really saying is that players can talk.  They could do this in Chess too.  But they do not have to do what they say they will do.

nyway yes this how i would have been able to do it more sorted out about the question, you cannot make a space backwards 2 tiles only one though im not so sure if its such a bug diffrents on the field though if you feel like that playing the game it can make a diffrance then im sure we can change it though i never played my self with that rule included

My question was not about moving two spaces backwards.  My question is when can you move two spaces forwards?  In chess, any pawn on the second rank can move two spaces.  But in this game, since they can go backwards, they can leave the second rank and still come back.

You miss the part where you can make the aggrements if both sides feel if they can make the other side do something that would make them more advateges then before you can betray the other one also this action tooks one turn and the other need to execute the action in their turn and then you do the same what he wants to also you can betray him this up to you if you feel that you can trust him next time. Anyway yes this how i would have been able to do it more sorted out about the question, you cannot make a space backwards 2 tiles only one though im not so sure if its such a bug diffrents on the field though if you feel like that playing the game it can make a diffrance then im sure we can change it though i never played my self with that rule included

It is being reviewed. Thank you for your patience.

I will need to make significant changes to the text for clarity. First, let me make sure I understand the rules exactly. I think the game is the same as orthodox chess except for the following:

1. There is no check, checkmate, or stalemate.
2. If you capture the opponent’s king, you win immediately
3. If you move your king to the last rank, you win immediately
4. Pieces cannot capture, except: (a) a King can capture anything, and (b) anything can capture a King.
5. Pawns can also move a single space backwards, but cannot capture anything backwards.

Does this look right?

Also, another question about the pawn. When can a pawn make a 2-space move? Any time it is on the second rank? (For example, it moves a space backward to the first rank, then a space forward to the second rank. Can it then make a 2-space move?)

so how should i know if its getting rewied?

also thank you for the fast checking i was not expecting such hospitality

straight back my friend they cant kill if they go back and only if there is space

The pawns are also can move backwards

How do they move backwards? One space backwards? Can they capture a king when moving backwards? Straight back or diagonally?

Sorry, I had trouble finding your submission. It is not showing on the editor page for some reason, but I was able to find it in the SQL database. I will take a look.

Fergus, any idea why this page does not show on the unreviewed submissions page? https://www.chessvariants.com/rules/cold-war-chess

i have an unpublished subbmission and im asking if this is where i need to alert the staff or if that date is the one when it will be rewied

Posting here is fine, but I do not see any submissions from you

where am i supposed the alert that my chess varaint is ready in here, or where, cuz it said that im supposed to alert you guys

Okay, I did that.

OK, too bad. But you are right, the large Shogi variants are a bit extreme in every way, and we probably won't encounter many other cases. It would indeed help me a lot if you could unpack the archive in MSmakadaidaishogi, even with 20 at the time it would be a lot of work to get them all there.

The archive is at http://hgm.nubati.net/2kanji.tar.gz .

Thanks!

H.G., Since you're probably the only one who needs to upload huge numbers of graphics, it may be easier for me to manually unpack an archive for you after you upload it. Just let me know where it is and what it's called.

PHP has max_file_uploads set to 20, and even though I've tried changing this in php.ini, it hasn't made a difference. I made sure it was the correct php.ini file. I stopped and restarted apache. And I even set a value for suhosin.upload.max_uploads, which I found a recommendation to do. But when I run phpinfo(), it still reports that max_file_uploads is 20, and that's all it lets me upload at one time.

Ummm... It did not work as well as I thought. Now that I pointed the Interactive Diagram for Maka Dai Dai Shogi to its own graphics directory, rather than to my own website, only 20 piece types show up. Turns out the MSmakadaidaishogi directory indeed only contains 20 PNG files. The remaining tile images (of 312) were not uploaded.

Perhaps I am using it wrong? What I did was click 'Browse' in the upload manager, sype Ctrl-A in the file-browse dialog's main window to select all files, press "Open" in that dialog (so it closes), and finally press "Upload" in the upload manager. (Using FireFox on a Windows PC.)

The code for allowing the use of alternate pre-existing directory names was removing hyphens from the names of new directories. I corrected it to not do that any longer.

ItemIDs used to be limited to 16 characters. After changing that, I created a table with old ItemIDs and the new ones they correspond to. According to that table, MSmakadaidaishog is the old ItemID for MSmaka-dai-dai-shogi, but for some reason, it is using MSmakadaidaishogi for the directory name.

This worked like a charm, thanks! Indeed no need for archives. I uploaded the entire set of 2-kanji tiles for the large Shogi variants to the Maka Dai Dai Shogi graphics directory in a flash.

I did detect an irregularity, though: the directory to which I now uploaded (/membergraphics/MSmakadaidaishogi) was initially empty. Which surprised me, because I did have two images in the article. On closer inspection, it turned out that these images are in /membergraphics/MSmakadaidaishog , i.e. without the final 'i'. Apparently the old upload script had clipped the filename. So these old image files are now outside my grasp to manage. (Not that there is any need for that now, but I still wanted to report it.)

I have added the ability to upload multiple files at once. You can now use the file requester to select multiple files instead of just one. For each file, it will check the extension, and it will check its filesize against the remaining available space. If it is an allowed file type, and uploading it will not exceed the 2MB quota, it will attempt to upload it.

I probably won't implement the unpacking of archives, because uploading multiple files at once makes uploading easier enough without it, and unpacking archives runs the risk of letting people upload more than 2MB.

... I can't let archives unpack indiscriminately, because that would allow hackers to upload server-side scripts.

Indeed, that is a worry. Is the server configured to execute scripts anywhere, or just in some designated directories? It should still be made impossible to unpack anywhere outside the directory intended for the article. But I suppose that archiving commands to extract files can be called in a way that they ignore directory structure, and save everything in the current directory.

Savest would probaby be to extract everything to a temporary directory not accessible through the net, and then only copy files with some allowed extensions to the target directory, and delete what is left over.

I'll see what can be done, but I can't let archives unpack indiscriminately, because that would allow hackers to upload server-side scripts.

@Fergus: Would it be easy for you to have the upload manager also accept archives (e.g. .zip or .tar.gz), and unpack those in the upload directory for the article? It is really very tedious now to upload a large set of piece images one by one.

The cache lasts for three days before it is automatically cleared.

It keeps displaying the old image. As a consequence it now displays a Go Between for the black Golden Bird, and and White Elephants for the Western Barbarians, in the 1-kanji tile set for Dai Dai Shogi.

Fergus, do the images get refreshed eventually or will it stay this way unless you manually clear the caching?

The new version of the new file manager is now up. Instead of reusing the original filename for reduced files, it saves each reduced file under its own name. This lets you see it correctly instead of seeing a cached version of the original image. Instead of restoring backups, you may choose to delete the new files. Instead of choosing to delete backups, you can choose to keep the new files. This will replace the original files with the new files and delete any other reduced versions of the same image. Since I don't know how to automatically purge a file from Cloudflare's cache, it will look like the original file for a while. For reduced files, this is not a big deal. If you redraw an image and use the same name as an old one, that's a bigger problem, but it goes beyond what the file manager let's you do on its own.

... caching of the original images can cause you to see the wrong image ...

Indeed, I also have this problem after uploading an image to replace one that was accidentally uploaded under a wrong name. It keeps displaying the old image. As a consequence it now displays a Go Between for the black Golden Bird, and and White Elephants for the Western Barbarians, in the 1-kanji tile set for Dai Dai Shogi.

I am reworking how image reduction works, because the way it presently works, caching of the original images can cause you to see the wrong image and think that the reduction looks better than it actually does. The way it will work after I finish debugging the new version is that each reduced image will get a different name reflecting how it was reduced in size. This will allow you to see the image accurately. I'm stopping for tonight, because it's late, but I'll continue working on it tomorrow.

The new file manager for members is now available. It will let you

• Upload files
• Delete files
• Reduce the size of graphic images
• Restore backups after reducing graphic image sizes
• Sort alphabetically, newest first, oldest first, largest first, and smallest first
• Let you filter the files displayed with a wildcard pattern

Because this file manager is for members in general and not for the editors in particular, it lacks some features that a regular file manager would have. It will not allow the uploading of server-side scripts, the creation of new files, the free renaming of files, or access to directories not reserved for your submission.

I am replacing the notion of a contributor account with direct counts of someone's published and unpublished submissions. These will be used to limit how many new submissions someone can submit before the editors review and publish them. Those with no published submissions will be limited to 3 unpublished submissions. Those with one published submission will be limited to 4. Those with 2 to 8 published submissions will be limited to 6. And those with 9 or more published submissions will be limited to 9 unpublished submissions at a time.

One reason for this limitation is to replace the 1MB limitation on daily uploads. I am replacing the upload scripts with a new file manager. An early version is already in the editing links. It isn't complete yet, but it already allows both uploading and deletion of files, and it displays images with data about the images. The current version should be stable, and I will continue working on it under a different file name, so that I don't disrupt anything for users. Anyway, the new file manager works by allowing you to upload no more than 2MB of files for a given submission. Without the 1MB daily restriction, someone could upload a lot by creating multiple submissions, but limiting the number of unprocessed submissions puts a stop to this.

If it turns out that contributors really need more than 2MB per submission, adjustments can be made later.

The title is Zanzibar-XL:

https://www.chessvariants.com/rules/zanzibar-xl

It appears in my "unreviewed submissions".
Since I posted it, I have re-drawn the graphics with the Chess Board Painting Tool of Musketeer Chess. I didn't know if I could update my page, I was afraid to add more delay if I do it.

I also tried to make :

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/zanzibar-xl

This one too is in my "unreviewed submissions". But I stopped writing this one because I was not sure to understand if I need to do both.

Sorry if I did something wrong, probably I missed a point somewhere. Thank you for your help

I'm not seeing it. I'm not sure if you did anything wrong or if the script for displaying submissions needs updating. What is the title or URL of your submission?

Hello, I would like to know how long can take the review process. I've made a submission one week ago and I see nothing happening. Maybe it's the normal delay, or maybe I did something wrong. Having no feedback at all, it is difficult to know. Thanks to all reviewers.

I also meant to mention that I disabled the code for adding the vertical box that displays the table of contents and other info. When the early sections are short, this makes the page look bad by pushing down the start of the next section. It can also get in the way, and the information it displays is either elsewhere or not that critical. Most of the time, it is easy enough to page down to see what's on the page, and most pages aren't so long that relative links to page sections are of much help.

I want to note some changes in how user-submitted pages are displayed. Instead of relying on the value of the UsesHTML column, it will check whether the text to display contains any HTML tags. It does this by stripping the HTML tags from a string and comparing the result with the original string. If they are the same, it doesn't contain any HTML.

The absence of HTML was previously handled by wordwrapping the text and putting PRE tags around it. But it is now handled by placing each separate line inside of a P tag. If you mean to use ASCII art on a page, you should add the PRE tags yourself.

If you use CKEditor's WYSIWYG mode, it will automatically add HTML code to your text. If you use Source mode, you will need to enter any HTML yourself. If you do not enter any HTML, then write each paragraph as a single unbroken line, and put an empty line between each paragraph.