History of my involvement with FIBS

alef · April 15, 2004, 12:01:30 AM

The past few months has seen a wonderful revival in FIBS developments. I see this as part of an era of FIBS history that began in late 2001 with Tomawaky's leagues and burper's creation of RepBot. Recently I asked MadMatt if he'd realised beforehand how much of an impact creating TourneyBot would have on the FIBS community. This lead to discussions about how and why we've got so involved in FIBS, and have thought this would be good to publish here for others to read.

I started on FIBS in 1996 playing from work, but then my account expired and I only got seriously hooked a few years later when I got a flat rate connection at home. In 2002 I read this rec.games.backgammon post by burper: RepBot RIP. It gave me a sense of RepBot as a small lone fight against a huge gang and became curious about what could be done.

(In my non-Internet life I've put a lot of time and energy into local housing co-operatives and tenant organizations in rough inner-city neighbourhoods. One of our main problems has been unpleasant disaffected youths who pretty much just hang around and harass people. Trying to channel the local anger and frustration about them into working management committees with real power has been a slow and difficult though also successful process.)

I then set up improveFIBS, a closed yahoo group and invited anyone with positive interest in FIBS to join. I'd have ideally liked it to have been an open forum like this one, but felt that the attacks on RepBot, myself and others made that unfeasible. Fergy (MacFIBS) came on board early and gave us access to the website and an instantly credible voice. I briefly met Andreas (marvin) at a London gathering and was optimistically fuelled by his saying he'd given the server to Patti "because she was the only person offering to host it at the time." My hope was that he was open to the idea of someone with more passion for further developing FIBS to become involved. However, when he acknowledged receipt of our letter and then replied with silence I just felt gutted.

What's nice about the current momentum is that so many more people are involved and there's renewed energy and ideas about what can be done. Huge thanks to webrunner for creating this Board. Long live FIBS!

diane · April 15, 2004, 01:27:21 AM

I second that that with regards to the efforts of all those people currently driving fibs forward with not much to work with!!

I wish i were some whizz programmer and could be more help - or knew someone that was. I admire what FIBS has been, is and hope it will continue to be - and will do all i can to help that (limited though it may be).

And look - i have mumbled my way to a casual player!!

Tomawaky · April 15, 2004, 08:19:49 PM

Long live FIBS!

klic · April 15, 2004, 08:22:54 PM

Well, right now, with the help of alef, I'm trying to be useful in "resurrecting" the/a FAQ for FIBS and everything (more or less) around it, but then, if there's a programmer needed, I sure could help a bit. But beware, I'm a Unix guy! :-> So, if there's still some need left, just contact me...

Klaus

socksey · April 17, 2004, 01:53:26 AM

I was chatting with souptree and discovered that he is a programmer!

)) He also said that he had volunteered to host and help with Fibsleagammon and was turned down. I think we should enlist his help with whatever he is capable of helping with. Any takers?

socksey

"If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the military, nothing is safe." - Lord Salisbury

diane · April 17, 2004, 02:00:59 AM

Please -someone find a way to use this guy and his talents - he is a better friend and all....

burper · April 19, 2004, 03:25:06 PM

I discovered FIBS in the Fall of '92 when it was only a couple months old, and still somewhat unstable. My earliest friends I can remember were michra (most often voted FIBS-babe-O-the-week back then), zombie (account still exists), texan (came back a couple years ago for a bit, went on to bot-writing), hacksaw and EmSea. michra I really miss. She used to call me up, belch loudly and then hang up.

I was one of the first to get my account banned, by marvin himself. Yes, back then, marvin was still running things and around FIBS on a daily basis. Anyway, there was this group of Brazilian CS majors (I can picture them all logging in from the CS lab) who used cowboy names: ButchCassidy, DocHolliday etc... they discovered a flaw in the FIBS protocol that allowed them to fake a message from burper to marvin saying F%^& You, or similar. Luckily, my friends stood up for me, and marvin was convinced to take another look at the access logs and discovered what really happened. The flaw was quickly fixed, and burper was restored.

It's interesting to hear the complaints about the waving that goes on. I remember clearly the day that marvin added this feature due to overwhelming demand for it. marvin used to wave back then, and was the only one who could do it. He could do anything. People started asking for it, and he eventually added it.

For the first 4 years, when I logged in from home, i was using an early PC (pre-CGA graphics, 10Mb HD with venix installed, 256K memory) and connected with a 1200bps Hayes SmartModem. Todays dial-up modems are about 50 times faster, but using telnet, it really makes no difference at all.

I have explored FIBS over the years in many ways. I once set out, during a bad losing streak, to just keep going and see how far I could go. I set a then-record by getting down to 925 by throwing 3 pointers away as fast as I could. It was interesting to hear the shouting complaints about how I was abusing the rating system, usually from the SAME people who took my points the most! Since then, several people, Wes most famously, put my record to shame. Someone wrote a bot to throw points and thing actually acheived a negative rating! Anyway, 1700-ish burper account you see today, is the same one that has seen 925 (and 1780).

Another thing I explored was high-stakes 1 pointers, or the now infamous 99-1 match. In fact, I invented it. I gave up on doing it eventually, and it has fallen out of favor, but it was interesting for awhile.

There is a lot of FIBS history that can be found my searching through the r.g.b archives on google. Use the advanced search to narrow the group to rec.games.backgammon and specify the time period and post your favorite stuff in this thread. http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_se...ames.backgammon
I remember when 'the experiment' message was posted. What a day that was on FIBS. There are people today who discover it still and ask. Even I wonder sometimes...

I remember the day that I dreamed up RepBot. I was full of energy and had to go walk around the campus a couple times in the sun. By the time I came back in, I knew exacty everything I was going to do. I wasn't sure it would "work", but I was positive it would be a worthy followup experiment. I would like to personally thanks all the more-than-willing subjects who have provided such wonderful data for my research. I am still thinking about the electric-shock feature request many of you have made, and perhaps in a future version it can be implemented.

Antoher moment I remember clearly, is the day I chatted for a long time with alef, who then decided to create the improveFIBS group. The idea was to draw the quiet, positive people from the woodwork and nurture a community. He is succeeding. I didn't think he could.

webrunner · April 19, 2004, 07:33:24 PM

My Friend Sake (he still sometimes logs in) showed me FIBS as he was installing internet on my computer back in 1994. It was the second thing i ever did on the internet.
Back then i was known as Ericn and was mostly a quiet player and lurker.
I have been on and off for many years now. All that time FIBS had a special place in my life, sometimes big, sometimes small. I have entered and participated in numerous communities but left them all..... except for FIBS.

Then i left for about a year, and when i came back my account was gone.
Over 8000 experience down the drain. So i created a new account.

In 2002 zdoc and Dutchie organized a dutch FIBS party. I noticed there was demand for a place where people could leave messages and talk to one another, other then the messaging system of fibs, that lacks functionality. So i started a forum for Dutch fibs players (first located under www.sprint.nl/fibs).

I saw that more and more people started to register, although there weren't a lot of posts. In that time i got to know Alef, who had started the improve fibs group.
He had put a link to the fibsboard on the fibs website.. but still it didn't really kick off.

TucsonAZ monitored the 3DFibs part of the forum (and still does) which he used as a FAQ and support forum for his excellent fibs client software. There are now two more people doing that. This created the first incline in visitors and posts.

After a year of slow growth i registered the fibsboard.com domain and restyled the site, with the help of Alef, who in the mean while was getting more and nore interested by the way this forum works and the fact that it dodn't have all that spam and advertisement crap that yahoo groups have.

So.. fibsboard was reborn and it is like it was destined to be this way.
Because in the same Time Tomowaky started his fibsleagammon and MadMatt started his TourneyBot stuff.

It was like everything came together and all my hard work finally payed off.
Now the board is a big success (in my view) and a lot of people are telling me that they really like the site. I think it adds a little extra to the community site and has become a great place!

I would like to thank everyone who actively helped creating (and filling) this site.

adrian · April 19, 2004, 07:49:02 PM

:inlove: With such people and friends around here I will always feel ^_^ . Keep FIBS moveing!

burper · April 19, 2004, 10:27:32 PM

I neglected to mention that Biggles was the very first complaint registered on RepBot, by me, on day 1. Of course I was only testing it out. I get along with Biggles just fine.

Well, if you ask him, it's more of a love-hate relationship...

burper · April 19, 2004, 10:44:47 PM

Mookie · April 21, 2004, 07:33:44 PM

I've been here almost as long as burper although with a number of different names (e.g., smith, frizzle, telesam, fritz, sam, and a few others i can't recall). At times, I never shouted and at other times, I've been a bit too loud, even for my own tastes. At any rate, while there are lots of stories to be told, I'm more interested in knowing if anyone actually knew that "Mighty Beam" and whatever happened to him? That was by far one of my favorit schticks.

mookie, who is still accepting vouches.

burper · April 21, 2004, 07:53:12 PM

mookie, you must contribute your stories or I am removing my vouch for you. You have 24 hours.

diane · April 21, 2004, 08:08:12 PM

Me too - spill!

Mookie · April 21, 2004, 08:54:59 PM

I plea that I be given extra time, as I am busy all afternoon with teaching and leave on holiday tomorrow (going to the beach with my gf's family, at which time said girlfriend will receive a beautiful and too expensive diamond ring--NOT an engagement ring by the way). However, I am willing to offer a topic to see if others have stories about it: TOPIC: Marriages/relationships ended or badly damaged by reasons ancillary to FIBS. If you choose to write about such topic, please do not use anyone's real names or nicks. Change enough details to keep everything masked! I'm just curious.

mookie

burper · April 21, 2004, 08:59:09 PM

Well, ok, since you asked nicely.

lewscannon · April 23, 2004, 08:17:26 PM

Well, I certainly remember the first time that I met Mookie. I was doing a short sentence in an upstate prison, and was tired and sweaty from a workout in the yard when I decided to take shower. Wait, you wanted me to change names? Oops! Please disregard this post.

jinnate · April 24, 2004, 10:06:20 PM

there i was, at yahoo, just joined a league so i could get some bg time in -- i had the hardest time getting matches on yahoo! everybody was ratings happy, going for the 101-in-1 gold...) and i was playing paulpuk (not a fibster), who was complaining about the yahoo dice...

and i thought, what other options are out there?

so i went hunting on the web where someone mentioned fibs and another site i've since forgotten the name of (they didn't have mac, i remember that much), saying both of these sites were very very good, and definitely the place to go if you wanted to improve your game.

i signed up for fibs through parlorplay and entered the arena.... i remember inviting ... i think it was flinx or something like that. and amazingly, the player accepted the invite! yahoo was never this easy! unfortunately i got stuck because i didn't know how to undo a move. but it all turned out well...

it was so nice! saved games and easy matches! and really great public chats! (i was new then...)

i started reading more about fibs, getting used to the commands, exploring the website. i remember coming across the marvin letter, wondering what all the fuss was about, but thinking it was pretty sad marvin hadn't vven answered.

i was a dilettante at first, only logging in for a little bit here and there, and occasionally joining in the inanity of shouts. i went back to yahoo a couple of times, but only to shout the glories of fibsters periodically in the public chat and to every player who invited me to a match. that was fun. eventually i stopped going altogether. i'm pretty sure the league wiped my account.

people keep asking me how long i've been here and i can't for the life of me remember when i first logged in...

slick · April 25, 2004, 04:30:53 AM

this is just to let you know that there is more than...err.... than....mmm...ahhhh, mmm , lemme thinkboutit.....oh whateverrrr!!

souptree · April 28, 2004, 09:45:57 PM

QuoteI was chatting with souptree and discovered that he is a programmer! )) He also said that he had volunteered to host and help with Fibsleagammon and was turned down. I think we should enlist his help with whatever he is capable of helping with. Any takers?

socksey

What kind of person would accept help from a loudmouth like that?

FIBS Board backgammon forum

News:

History of my involvement with FIBS

alef

diane

Tomawaky

klic

socksey

diane

burper

webrunner

adrian

burper

burper

Mookie

burper

diane

Mookie

burper

lewscannon

jinnate

slick

souptree