http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches...

already preloaded and just having the voter fill in the name would preclude a lot of problems.

First, the fact that it requires some savvy to form the URL properly is a <feature> and not a problem. If every Tom Dick and Harry could add new selections we'd probably be scrolling past 1000 avatars by now.

Next: If you can't figure out how to put a URL in for a candidate you think should be on the list, come here and just say "I think so-and-so should be on the list." Somebody else will surely either vote for them or at least give you the proper URL so you can.

Also: I know that if you vote for a bad URL it doesn't let you just "white it out" — you have to replace it with one that works. So do that, replace it. In the meantime it's not hurting anything (except your eyes when it scolds you in red monitor-ink.)

Finally, I know that there is a dearth of error-trapping in this software. It only took a day to write the software and another day to code in rudimentary error-trapping. It would take another week to make truly robust error checking. It would take another month to make it so bulletproof that the sharpest members here couldn't find an error after trying their hardest.

I'm sure nobody is trying to intentionally sabotage anything, but if it came to that, it's easier for me to block a member than it is to write another 1000 lines of error-checking code.

Not unless CG.com converts it from URL to user-friendly reading format. Example, if I want to nominate/vote for Best Avatar: User: offramp

That really isn't any more helpful than try to explain how to copy/paste it into the TextBox input/entry. =))

But if I use Unicode for the first 'h' of http, I get: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessuser?unam- e=offramp

Yup; but if you use Unicode for any letter in that URL <other> than the first 'h' of http (or the last 'p' of offramp), the link will display correctly; as long as you manage to prevent <cg>'s software from recognizing it as a URL, that is.

That's because any string with Unicode in the middle of it is exempt from the 47-character limit! There's actually a good reason why: it's so Cyrillic text can be displayed reasonably on Chessgames. Every Cyrillic letter - for example &#1092; - needs a seven-character code, which means that normal seven-letter Cyrillic words would hit the 47-character limit without this exemption; worse yet, they'd do so in the middle of a character code.

Of course, that problem could have been solved in other ways (CG could have written a bit of code to count how many actual letters a string had); but they chose a very simple and effective solution that, as a side effect, offers us this workaround.

I would have put a notice about the change on this page,

Caissars Voting Page,

myself.

Seems a pain to have to read about changes to what was a familiar process. I guess (again w/o reading, but intuiting) that we can only get one vote.

I miss the idea that people could nominate more than one person, even though they perhaps know who they will vote for. This seemed like a good way to acknowledge more than just one person.