TourneyBot is Free Software, you can make any kind of additions and modifications to it. I personally cannot at this time devote any more of my free time to the project, but the code is there for anyone to use. I make no guarantees to include any changes into the main branch of TourneyBot, though, but if you produce meaningful additions and quality code, it is likely that I will be willing to include them into the running copy of the bot and the main code branch.

Regarding your specific questions, I'm not sure they would be all that much of an improvement. As far as tourney advertising goes, TourneyBot deliberately limits its shouting to announcing the tourneys and round winners so as not to be too annoying. Automated shouting can be a problem and occasionally people still complain TB shouts too much as it is.

Regarding the other thing, I've always liked the idea of having some sort of tourney rating to determine the most successful tourney players. It would weigh the points given  for every tourney win by how difficult the tourney was (type, round length, average rating and participants) and such. If you code up something like that, definitely send it in.

Sure Don. It was written by me, but the quote is situated in your post! That's what i said

This is a conversation i had with Donzaemon at 16:00 utc today!!!

donzaemon: hi
You: hi:)
You: Nice programming of donzbot.u do nice work in this subjects...congrats:)
You: do u know anyone who knows ruby? except of madmatt?
donzaemon: thanks .. I like backgammon so I put some work into this stuff ... I have a pretty good database of cube positions for learning the game better too
donzaemon: ... don't know any ruby programmers .... I'm sure there are many programmers who could do it with some documentation in hand, though
You: ohhh u read the post....right?
donzaemon: not lately .. what's happening ?
You: http://www.fibsboard.com/index.php?showtopic=785 (We talked about this Post)
You: i wrote a good description but i got a negative answer from madmatt
donzaemon: doesn't sound 'negative' .. he just doesn't have time to do it .... my idea
would be to keep the current tourneybot the way it is but also have anotherupgraded
one with the features of having records etc. as a special tourneybot that can do the 'official' tournaments
donzaemon: .. and have them less often ... but with longer match lengths
You: wow good suggestion!!!! u are unbelievable!!!
You: but there is still a problem.... who is going to host it?
You: webrunner can't host another bot
donzaemon: .. inim was talking about getting a rental server .. virtual OS in a data center type thing when he gets his bots going ... if he does that it would be a great place to put something like that
donzaemon: apparently they have some really cheap ones in Germany or something
You: ohhh nice
You: so if the advancetourneybot....will be created...a lot can be changed for fibs community:)
donzaemon: but he hasn't yet ... he is working on a couple of interesting thing .. he is going to tweak the tourneybot interface and make it into a regular playing bot with GNU on the back end
You: but we need a ruby programmer and inim's server when he will buy it
You: hmmm so he already try to modified it...right?
donzaemon: have you talked to inim about it ? he is doing some neat stuff and has become very comfortable with fibs and interfacing to it ..
You: wow. I'll speak to him
donzaemon: I would take a look at it but I am starting to get REALLY busy with other
stuff recently
You: thx u very much donz:) Can u post your extension idea as a replay to my post?
You: it is a veryyyyyyyy good one:)
donzaemon: what extension ? the model for deploying and promoting it by making
it host the 'official' tournaments ? that's not a big deal and is subject to change .. the
person who deploys it should probably decide how all that works
You: and the new advancetourneybot can play in all official tourneys too:)
donzaemon: I don't know ... host playing in the tournament may or may not be a good idea ... BUT .. you could use it as a promotion .... winner get's an extra bonus by their name if they then beat the bot or something
You: the idea to create a new bot similar to this one but more advance for official tourneys...
You: hmmm or only the title owners can play this bot
You: so more people will try to win official Tourneys.Good idea:)
donzaemon: yeah .. or .. there is always a special match for the winner after the tournament ... and if you win it you get a different color trophy or something ... makes it just that much more special
donzaemon: but there will be enough work just getting the extra features set up WITHOUT making it a GNU bot
You: yes i know
donzaemon: so maybe that should be a 'second wave' idea .. after the other is already working
You: I understand...
You: but if we make it works with the first idea...it's a peace of cake for u to make it
a gnu bot...
You: so if we find a lot of people to work together we can create the ultimate bot here
You: if i find the guys to make the new bot and inim agree to host it...are u going to make it a gnu bot?
donzaemon: inim could do that much better than I could .. I'm not too familiar with GNU and he is working on interfacing tourneybot for it .... but i could look at it and maybe figure something out
You: ok. Can i post this conversation? I find very important all the topics
donzaemon: yeah if you want to
You: thx u very much donzaemon...
You: i will post it as a reply in my post
You: so do i have your permission right?
donzaemon: yeah .. I don't mind
You: ok thx again

Just to clear something up. TourneyBot is in no way unsupported. I still regularly perform maintenance (removing old tourneys, resetting scores) as well as admin tasks (banning abusing TDs and such). Should you find any bugs, I will be more than happy to try and eliminate them when I have the time. The web page is updated occasionally and I participate regularly on this forum. I think, considering all this, you can hardly claim TourneyBot is being unsupported. There is a lot more to this project than you imagine.

At this time, I am simply in no position to devote time to implementing new features, especially when I don't believe that the suggested ones would be a significant improvement worthy of my time or that there is a significant demand for them. I have personal experience with situations like this - about one third of the development time that went towards producing TourneyBot was making the double elimination tourney, because a lot of people said they would like to see that. I complied and it was a ###### to make, but since then, what, maybe 5 double elimination tourneys have been held? Not worthy of my time at all.

You see, I maintain firmly that TourneyBot should be fun. For the people to play in tourneys, for TDs to hold them, but also for the coders involved in its production. Hence, I code on my own time because I feel I'm adding a significant feature to FIBS or because the technical challenge behind it appeals to me. I don't like what FIBS has become much, so I don't feel particularly inclined to add new features. It doesn't mean TB is unsupported though.

If you produce a meaningful addition, I will include your code into the TB's main branch, though this will be at my discretion, of course. Everyone is, of course, welcome to start their own fork and run their own copy of the bot, as the code is Public Domain, meaning you can do whatever you like with it without even giving me credit or giving anything back to the community. I can't do much more than that, can I? I certainly can't code your additions on request for you. Everyone has a thousand ideas after all and I have seen too many people promising awesome new additions and great features here on these very boards, but it turned out to be all just talk.

Looking forward to seeing your additions to the FIBS community very much,

Mat

[...]
I think, considering all this, you can hardly claim TourneyBot is being unsupported. There is a lot more to this project than you imagine.

I am more than happy to see MadMatt's reply. We have a well maintained project, a maintained production server, a commited lead and and even a generous invitation to interested third partys. What else could you ask? I'm very sorry for having used the wrong word "unmaintained", in no way I wanted to blame Matt of anything. I just did not knew any better.

[...]
Everyone has a thousand ideas after all and I have seen too many people promising awesome new additions and great features here on these very boards, but it turned out to be all just talk.

Too True. Realistic self assesment is an underetimated virtue -- there are too many  rotting project corpses in sourceforge already. As Master Yoda put it: "Do. Or Do Not. There Is No Try". For my part, I have decided to "Do Not" when asked. That's honest and much better than any "Maybe" or "Later". Beside that, I'm quite happy with tourneybot as it is.

Finally, even coders need a friendly word from time to time. So let me repeat the main message: thank you MadMatt for your continued work and your clear commitment, both is  appreciated a lot .

inim

P.S. I love double elimination and wished TDs would run more tourneys of that type )

Well, as Avik, who knows Ruby, answer negatively as he doesn't have time. It seems that it is the end for this improvement idea.

Opinions about this idea are welcome....  

One thing that could be done easily is to post each tourney result in a database.
the problem is to control results' veracity.

Then to organise database with information we want to add in.

Let me start by asking Matt some tech stuff.
If the results of the Tourneys could be stored in a MySql database in stead of the way it is stored now, i could participate a little more and connect some php code to it.
Is it very hard to accomplish this Matt?

How many hours of work would that take you (i am not asking you to do it, just your opinion)

I could host another bot but then i would have to let two of the gnubots go.
(mainly the wclass one, that is a CPU hungry bot )

I know for a fact that there is already a Ruby class that uses MySql databases:

http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/ruby.html

http://www.kitebird.com/articles/ruby-mysql.html

http://www.rubywizard.net/ruby-mysql.html

and one by your friend Jeremy Zawodny:

http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/000456.html
 

completly agree with you matt