To attack the personal standards of the two people who created and
run this site is, to my mind, completely unfair. To suggest that
Chrismo and Russ are condoning the behaviour of cheaters is
outrageous.
Chrismo and Russ can speak for themselves I'm sure but like John, I
felt this was way below the belt and lacking in much of the insight,
wisdom and thought that Mustangace puts into his other posts.
The intention of the creators of this site was never to make money or
to see a site with thousands of people playing here as part of a
community. It was, as I understand, more the pursuit of an interest, a
challenge as to see if they could make a website at where people
could play chess. To this day, it remains their hobby, not their job. To
have succeded so spectacularly is stunning.
Did it not occur that perhaps Chrismo and Russ do not have the time
to actively pursue, root out, and ban multiple account users? What
right does anyone have to question the personal standards of
Chrismo and Russ or anyone for that matter?
My blood was boiled somewhat by the seeming attack by Mustangace
against Chrismo and Russ (questioning the personal standards of
Chrismo and Russ and accusing them of condoning wrongdoing, I'm
sorry but grrrrr), without whom we wouldn't even be here. I normally
greatly enjoy reading Mustangace's posts; this was one I didn't.
Mark
The Squirrel Lover
Mustangace did not attack the personal standards of Chrismo and
Russ, he said that If one does nothing to combat misuse then one
has thereby shown a lack of personal standards. But, of course,
Chrisma and Russ have combatted misuse [e.g., they reset rjbm's
rating back to 1200 when I told them that rjbm1 through rjbm20 were
playing each other (as three figs had done) to artifically boost
ratings]. So the antecedent of Mustangace's conditional statement is
not true and thus the inference to the consequent is invalid.
They have done something, yes.
But, I would agree with Mustangace that cheating is basically treated
as no big deal. I mean, resetting your rating to 1200 is hardly a
punishment that will deter anyone. And Xenophobe's name, for
example, can sit way up in the ratings list with no indication that he
was documented to have cheating by against himself. I mentioned
this at one point and one of the site administrators responded by
saying "It happened, it's over, let's forget it and move on." That's not
exactly an attitude that will deter future cheaters.
This is a great site, and maybe part of that is because the creators
have directed their energies down more fruitful paths than trying to
flush out the inevitable cheaters. However, for me it is undeniable
that, for better or for worse, the RHP folks go easy on cheating.
Well, I'm sorry you felt so angered by my comments. Chris and Russ
have the means to correct some problems here. Anytime persons
stand by passively doing nothing to fix a problem that can be
corrected, they, by omission of action, are indirectly condoning the
behavior. One cannot stand on the fence on some issues. One is
either part of the problem or part of the solution.
I'm sorry this logic angers you. I'm not being emotional here, and
am not judging Chris and Russ, per se. As I said before, they can run
their site, RHP, as they wish. And they will.
multiple e-mail addresses is easy, but this site requires java script to
be enabled, which in turn can be used to reviel the users IP address -
not impossible to get around, but a pain to switch IP addresses all the
time and prone to error. Plus it's usually possible to detect when
someone is using a proxy, and this practice could be banned.
Just an idea. I've been trying to keep out of this debate,
Freak
I did not know this. Actively pursuing that kind of approach would probably weed out many
cheaters, however if used too indiscriminately it could bar some legitimate users. For
example, I am writing this on my dad's machine, because mine has been sent away for
repairs, and I don't know exactly what a proxy is, so I may well be using one, because all of
the computers in my house get their internet connection through a single server, so that all of
them have broadband access. Neither indicates that I am a cheat.
all ISP's connect you using an IP address, which is just a numerical
sequence - unless hidden this number is visable to the sites you visit,
and if Javascript is used (which it has to be for this site) you can't hide
it. It is possible to use a proxy, where your signal is sent via another
server (therefore RHP gets the porxy's IP not the origional senders),
but the fact that you are doing this is usually detectable also.
One person using several computers for 1 username wouldn't cause a
problem (I do it - 1 at home, 1 at work, and any I can get my hands
on whilst I'm away), as that user would just have several IP's to their
name. The usefullness against figs would be when 1 person has
several names coming from the same IP. Yes, a whole family might
be using the same computer for different names, but it would make
figs easier to spot.
Again, just a suggestion
Freak