From: "Ignacio Fco. Suárez Boville" <ignacio <at> informaticosmix <dot> com>
Date: 6 mar 2001
Subject: Why I'm not in the ladder

Just take a look at

http://www.shogi.net/ladder/laddergames.ht
ml

The number of cancelled/no
response/declined games is just too high.
This hurt the ladder very much. I just don't
want to keep complaining and mailing the
coordinator. This ain't just the way I want to
play correspondence games.

How can be #5 playing against #20? Isn't
this against the ladder rules?. #5 can't
decline games, but from #6 to #10 (?).

The years old matches should be controlled.
Those long matches usually end cancelled or
not responsed. I would regulate to send at
least a mail each 2 months commenting the
state of the game (moves done). I guess the
5 day limit should be amplied if both players
agree, but not further than, say, 10 days.

The years old #1 - #2 match discourages
some of the players since the won't have any
opportunity to reach the top (I don't think I'm
able to get that high, but some dan players
might be discouraged).

If a player doesn't start a single game in a
year without any sort of justification, he or
she should fall in the list. I don't know how
there are players near the top without a
single played game.

I agree Dr.Eduard Werner in freezing the
actual ladder as the 1st historical one and
take over all the players to a new one. I
don't agree with the time limit he proposes
(45 days-15 moves). Some players couldn't
have enough time. A mail indicating the
current status of the game every couple of
months would do.

About handicap games, I think we don't need
them in the ladder. Let's try with not so
radical changes and leave this for a possible
future. If we want to estimate player's
strength, we don't need to balance games
between players of different categories.

I think that we can extend to 10 the number
of positions above a player can challenge.
There are 115 players right now, and as this
number increases, 5 positions becomes
obsolete. I would join the list if the rules
changed for good.

I would make the following changes too:
- allow the user to show multiple mail
addresses to prevent server failures. The
coordinator should know different addresses
of the same user to send urgent messages.
- add a field with the number of simultaneous
games an user may accept.
- a player can't decline a challenge if he or
she is not playing and has not informed the
coordinator about an absence. Of course, a
player can always decline a game against a
player rated more than 10 positions under
him or her.
- don't take into consideration other rankings
because they are no way verifiable.

I think I'm going to join and expect for
changes;)

See you all, and thank you very much for
your remarks about the possibility of not
promoting pieces in some situations. I got it.

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