From: "Stouten, Pieter [R&D/0467]" PHARMACIA COM> Date: 13 dec 2002 Subject: My last comment on the grades issue Hello Shogi fans, Matt Casters ADVALVAS BE> made some very good points and reduced the issue to the bare essentials. I agree with everything he wrote. I especially liked the following suggestions: >Specify which organisations can hand out grades: > FESA & US with Transatlantic system (obvious) > NSR (obvious) > Other national shogi associations not included > in above? (not allways so obvious) > I had mentioned earlier that we could accept any grade and just list on the Elo list both a player's FESA/USSF grades and his NSR grade (in case he has one). Both are titles, but they may mean different things, so why not list both? In that case we don't need to speculate or make judgement calls about NSR grades. On Thu 12 Dec 2002 19:13 +0100, > Personally I feel very strong about 3). Perhaps it would > give some people in Europe, but in other area's of the > world too, the strength to go on if they would receive an > occasional Thank You in the form of a special grade. > Why, I can already think of several candidates in Europe! > (Including you Pieter!!) > Thanks for the kind words, Matt. I do appreciate expressions of gratitude, but to me unbiased measurables mean most. I can't help it, but I am a numbers freak. Weekends aside, Shogi.Net consistently gets over 3,000 unique hits per day (admittedly this includes gif/jpg files). In fact, two days ago Shogi.Net received 12,088 unique hits (again including pictures). That probably pales in comparison with the number of hits Sam Sloan's pages get, but to me it is evidence that what I do is appreciated. Ciao, Pieter