What's happened on Fibs?

[claudio_first]

Hi all.
I'm claudio_first, registred user of MacFIBS 4.5.3 (I paied for my MacFibs) and on Fibs from the end of December 2002, last monday (7. June. 2004) in the afternoon, trying a connection, I got this massage in my terminal: I'm sorry, but due to abusive behavior and personal threats by someone in Italy, I'm disabling all logins from there until further notice.

What's happened?

I don't play very often in this period on FIBS 'cause I'm in the EU_IT_Team (www.euitteam.it) is an European backgammon team in the Eurogammon Teams (www.eurogammon.org) but sometimes I connect my self on FIBS to play or talk with players I know.
I don't know anything about that, if somebody did something wrong why lay a fault to all.

I have sand this mail to marvin@fibs.com, but till now.. no reply!
Now I'll try to send this mail to Patti if I'll found the address
Thanks in advance for some explanation.


Claudio  Orlandi
claudio_first

[zakasax]

LET'S JOIN THIS THREAD PLEASE

!!!!!WHAT A SHAME!!!!!

So, a place reknown for his democracy, a place where people from all over the world can meet, now BANS italians.

Unbelievable but true.

Do fibbers care about it?

I do - but I'm italian - and all I can do is shouting like it.

LET'S JOIN THIS THREAD PLEASE

[klic]

Well, I know this feeling, as people from t-online where banned for two days because of virii... (then. many of the t-online-fibsters are on Linux or Mac and don't send those nasty things) Patti does not run the site in a democratic spirit, even if you see it as an american site... But then, she runs it, and it runs on her time and patience (which sometimes - obviously - runs short)
It *is* harsh, to ban people just because of a threat from *one*. It is also a shame that people go all the way to threat Patti. I mean, come on, dice problems? It's a crazy and sometimes really sad world. I hope she soon decides to lift that ban again

Here's Patti's email address:   pattib at gammon dot com

Klaus

[webrunner]

I found this rather abusive!
I am willing to bet my house on the fact that she would never do that with someone from the US, in other words.. she would never ban all Americans.

This is pure discrimination and racist behaviour in my opinion....

ehh.. what did it say in the login message about behaviour like that??? :stupid2:    

[burper]

It's frustrating that FIBS is a dictatorship, but those are the facts.
Don't complain too loudly or you may be next!!!
Is this wrong? Absolutely. But...

Patti effectively owns fibs, since, as far as I know, she is the only one who has fibs other than marvin. marvin clearly does not care about fibs even the tiniest bit. If Patti decides that its' too much hassle, she can always pull the plug and noone would hear you scream. There is near zero motivation for her to keep fibs alive. If there was a phone call from a lawyer, or hte ACLU or whatever, that would be that.

So be happy with whatever time you have spent on fibs in the past, and enjoy each day that you still can. Remember, there are always other bg servers should the worst happen, and there are even open source efforts to build bg servers, even one that is compatible with fibs!

[klic]

Right. While I more than understand webrunner, I have to agree with burper. Looks like this is it. Probably we really shoudl start to think about a new fibs server.. One like fibsboard, run by a broader community. Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with FIBS itself, except probably that the way it's run at the moment just is too much for one person, however strong she may be. It's just that the community is getting stronger, wants more/new features and we're back in a time where bg is getting stronger and is developing again...
So. How much traffic (this is what has to be paid) does FIBS really have?

[souptree]

The ACLU?  Are you serious?

Get a refund.  That's all you guys are due.

See you on GamesGrid.  Not.

[Tomawaky]

Unbelievable

 :furios:  :hang:  

There is certainly some other ways to ban......

Imagine that I will connect as I was from the US and act with abusive behavior, do you really think that patti will ban all of the US ?

Patti I just can put here one more smilie    

[diane]

Well, this adds yet another layer of 'fairness' to the BG olympics!!

This seems way out of any proportion to me - and as with the others i dont see this happening to all americans!!

Claudio - although we havent played for some time - i hope you are back with us very soon.

If you want to play in the meantime - playmaker is a good site, the software is free and you can play without paying for an account - you just dont get to play with the training programs. You can also play in tournaments run by the IBA - and if you win - the prizes are often a free account. And I might have a look at the sites you mention  

Meanwhile - back at fibs - if the personal threats are that bad - Patti should consider passing FIBS on to someone with thicker skin......as we are constantly told we all should have!

I will third that  

[alef]

...If Patti decides that its' too much hassle, she can always pull the plug and noone would hear you scream. There is near zero motivation for her to keep fibs alive. If there was a phone call from a lawyer, or hte ACLU or whatever, that would be that...

I disagree with this view of Patti. It seems to me that although she isn't interested in seeing FIBS develop at the server level, she does respond quite quickly when FIBS goes down. The theory that she'll pull the plug because of hassles is propagated by the FIBS bullies to try to frightened people like us who've been pushing for change. I've seen no evidence at all of such a danger.

But you are right in that FIBS is at heart a dictorship, and at times she breaks peanuts with sledgehammers -- blocking most Italians because of some single idiot is quite absurd. I suggest writing to her about it, either by posting at rec.games.backgammon or email using the address klic has given or:

pattib at fibs dot com

..Probably we really shoudl start to think about a new fibs server...

If someone starts putting one together I'll try to help...

[claudio_first]

Hi all.
Thanks!

@ click : got the address and sand a mail.

@ diane and all the other : Thanks for the tips Diane. I have Playmaker, GG, TMG ... hoping to see you somewhere.
My nick outside here is: EU_IT_Claudio1 and I use to play (of course depends the time I have) in EU_IT_Team (www.euitteam.it) it's a part of EU_Teams (www.eurogammon.org) on Zone (naturally it's all free). We make single world-wide, european and national touraments; team european and national tournaments; the world-wide team tournaments we made on games4fun. One for all: Medallion or Gold Medallion on Gammonzone, sure some of you know it
But nowhere a thing like that!
Certainly the wrong people are everywhere and on line we can find a lot of them (may be more than a lot ).
I considered Fibs just like ''home'' a place where play and talk with friends and have fun.
For sure I have to thank every one who let me be here and except pay (as I did) for my MacFibs, considering and speaking about Fibs like "home" it's a way to thank.
Now, I'm very sorry, this ''home'' is... no more a home and really sad.
Good dices to every one
Claudio

[cthulhu]

Maybe you should find out the facts before you attack Patti. You don't know the circumstances why she did what she did (and neither do I). I'm sure she has tried to eliminate the trouble with other means before she shut down (the whole?) Italy. At least that's what she has done in the past. I must say that Patti is the toughest person I have come across on the net and if she acts this way she has a reason.

I would have done the same with a free server to keep the scum away, if it couldn't be done in any other way. It's better to have the moron ruining it for people from one place than let the moron ruining the whole server.

It is unfortunate that innocent people get caught in the crossfire though.

[EddieVedd]

Patience People !!  

It's been a couple of short days. One of the few facts reported suggest Italy is offline until further notice , not for-ever !  There's no suggestion it was anti Italian and perhaps she would  have banned all Americans if one of them threatened her life, her dog or to blow a hole in the fibs server permanently !!  If it was Australia that was banned i would rather be off line for a few weeks while the rest of fibs played on merrily rather than any of the above occurring.  Consider the possibility she had no other option ? Or, this was the best of several bad ones ?

Write her, ask her, ponder, but don't explode ! Lets find out what's going on before you pack your bags and leave. Here's my bet, soon to be posted.......Oh it seems Italy is back on line   ...........  and here's to that !! :jump2:

Patience.

[claudio_first]

Hi all.

I explain again, may be someone.. understyand not.

@ cthulhu and EddieVedd:

I don't attalk anybody.
I don't say that somebody is anti.. another Country.
Simply I tried to connect myself but was and is impossible (and I have paid for that), I asked what's happened 'cause I didn't kow (except the few phrases I got).

Yes is the whole Italy not on line till now. 14,57 GMT +2 10.June.2004

What I wrote to Patti and what she replyed to me is ''private'' I'm not accostumed to put in a forum. Ask to her if you want it.

I have wrote down here for the considerations I made and, I think, everybody can read and understand them.

@ cthulhu, EddieVedd and all the other:

Thanks for the replies and good dices to all I'm gonna make a tourney on Zone !


Claudio  

[EddieVedd]

Claudio  

Hello

I Understood well    and you're right , I know you never attacked anybody and you never accused anyone of racism, this was others in the thread that my comments were directed at.  

I am very happy you communicated with Patti already !!  I'm very hopeful it goes well from there !!   I will definatley ask her next time i see her on fibs  

I was most worried about you  with,

Now, I'm very sorry, this ''home'' is... no more a home and really sad

That's the real shame here, but it will pass !! Good luck with the outcome and i hope to play you on fibs soon !  

[Anika]

Hi Fibsters!

I live in Italy and since monday have the same message on fibs:

I'm sorry, but due to abusive behavior and personal threats by someone in Italy, I'm disabling all logins from there until further notice.

*** You are disconnected.

That's  completely unfair for italian players!!!!

I dont understand, Why the managger have banned all here in italy instead of  just banned the offender?


What a deception, i thought that the things on fibs worked different.

Anika

[Tomawaky]

Those untimely bans can just make people leaving Fibs and this is too bad for our community.

I like to play Italians

[klic]

Oh yes, I know this feeling. IMHO, it's a plain and outrageous overreaction. It put a huge damper to my feelings for fibs. I'm playing on dailygammon now, as gamesgrid and the rest don't have linux clients. And it is something that pushes me into the direction to create another, new FIBS, run by the community... The only thing is, traffic has to be payed for. I don't know the monthly traffic FIBS has, so I don't know how expensive this might be... And I don't want to create some parallel world either... But then, with Patti creating one ban after another (grossly exaggerated), well, things might start rolling...

[burper]

Oh yes, I know this feeling. IMHO, it's a plain and outrageous overreaction. It put a huge damper to my feelings for fibs. I'm playing on dailygammon now, as gamesgrid and the rest don't have linux clients. And it is something that pushes me into the direction to create another, new FIBS, run by the community... The only thing is, traffic has to be payed for. I don't know the monthly traffic FIBS has, so I don't know how expensive this might be... And I don't want to create some parallel world either... But then, with Patti creating one ban after another (grossly exaggerated), well, things might start rolling...

For what it's worth: http://sourceforge.net/projects/fibs/
If a few of us coders wanted to make it happen, I am sure it wouldn't be that hard to finish.
There are very valid reasons not to, however, and thus the staleness of the project.

Now for traffic. Again, this doesn't tell you everything you need to know, but on fibs, there is a stat command:

> stat
The server is running since Wed May 12 03:18:00 UTC.
-763101010 bytes sent.
324476524 bytes received.
-763518953 bytes sent immediately, 417943 delayed, 544 discarded
1408575412 bytes would block
704287706 bytes failed. 6633096 selects failed
1445 accounts (829 with 0 experience) deleted by cron.(0s)
15463 registered users. Highest user number 16907.
722293(368893) saved games checked by cron.
(591640 running, 124739 over, 5870 too old, 44 corrupt) (0s)
old: 5870 oldest: 61
kept 591684 out of 722293.
currently checking 'games/O'
last full:19997 ; 1st empty:11370 ; entries:15448 ; last empty:19999
Messages to you:
1320 bytes sent immediately, 0 bytes delayed, 0 bytes discarded.
Password file saved 17135 times.(0s)
0 ratings saved. reset log 17135 times.

Every week it gets cheaper and easier to do web hosting and file hosting. It's probably harder to find telnet hosting, but perhaps someone who knows can shed some light?

[cthulhu]

I dont understand, Why the managger have banned all here in italy instead of  just banned the offender?

Probably because the offender has been switching IPs a lot, and she has become fed up with the goose chase. But it's just speculation. You have to email her to find out. The truth is out there.