<Benzol> Those games went in without trouble, thanks.

<DrNyet: As I understand it, the Kenneth Rogoff forum is designated by Chessgames for those who like political discussion.> It would be more accurate to say it is designated by Chessgames members for political discussion. We never intended it to be anything more than a discussion page for GM Rogoff. <Are there other pages that one should be aware of to help one stay abreast of events?> You just have to ask around ;-)

<Penguincw:...I am on Team White,but it says that I'm not on Team White.> Thanks for pointing that out; the software had an output error. It should say "You are not on Team Black" and I believe we have it fixed. Note that the Chessgames Challenge Bot posts to both threads, so even though you can read the nearly identical post on the White thread, the page links to the most recent post on the Black thread which you can't read.

<I'm sorry>

Really? You have me angry for the first time.

Just as the kibitzers in this place have to abide by your 4 guidelines, so there is one guideline you guys need to remember first and foremost, namely that <bona fide kibitzers are the lifeblood of your business>.

Treat them carelessly and recklessly at your risk, because if you do they might simply go elsewhere.

We do in fact have a backup of the kibitzing, but to use it would require a fairly large impromptu project. You see the game numbers for these games have changed, so to restore the kibitzing it would be necessary to reconcile the old game #'s with the new ones. This is not an impossibly difficult task but it's unclear how much work will be required or when we'd be able to accomplish it.

We certainly want to repair things to be mostly like they were before, but as it's unclear right now if we will be able to do this, or how long it will take, we can't make any promises.

Sometimes people remove a foot from their mouth only to shove the other down their throat. First you essentially declare you can't reinstate the kibitzes - not once but twice - and then you come back and say you can reinstate them but it may not be worth the effort.

I'm underwhelmed by this attitude, not to mention the contradiction between the two positions. Also underwhelming is the lack of care exercised in your games purge-and-replace exercise. The loss of kibitzes from these games sites was not a technical problem, it was basic carelessness which you still haven't acknowledged.

The fact is that the game pages from the Chinese Championship had relatively few kibitzes and wouldn't have taken more than a few minutes to safeguard. Heck, I - or quite a few others around here that would love to help out - could have done that for you if you'd given me/them administrative access to do so, and done so free of charge; having read all the comments in those pages, I know how many there were and that it would have been a minor project.

It's not the loss of the kibitizes per se that irks the most, as I for one certainly have no illusions about how precious my offerings may be, regardless of how much effort I spend on them. It's your carelessness in losing them, and the seemingly cavalier attitude that feeds that carelessness, that rankles.

".. Oh, oh baby don't you know I'm human .."

And I really hope that LennonFan isn't a Chinese plant. If they're that far ahead of us in the art of nuisance bots, we're doomed.

You mean not safeguarding the kibitzes? I'd noticed.

Anyone could have copied all the posts even without admin access and then resupplied them to you, tagged with the games - complete with original game numbers. A trivial job. So I don't believe that the database corruption you speak of made the conservation of kibitzes impossible.

You're still dodging and weaving, not to mention obfuscating, and that's starting to irk more than what's gone before.