1 New mamer manager help file
3 This file contains portions of server help files(written by Friar) and mamer
4 help files(written by mlong) relevant to new mamer managers. toddmf merged
5 these files, updated out of date information, added some new things, and
6 removed some contradictions, hopefully resulting in a file useful for new mamer
7 managers. With the release of mamer 2.0, much of this document has been
8 rewritten by toddmf. Send questions, comments, suggestions, etc. to toddmf.
10 Introduction and general server considerations
11 ----------------------------------------------
13 Congratulations on becoming a mamer manager! You have earned this position
14 through your high level of maturity and interest in FICS chess(tournaments in
15 particular). Less than 1% of FICS users have been given the honor of being a
16 TM. That being said, being a TM is also a responsibility. It is essential that
17 you continue to maintain a higher standard of maturity than most users for
18 several reasons. The most obvious situations are problems in tourneys. Users
19 often get angry or impatient for several reasons during a tourney. For example:
20 User has just been given chaos points, user is angry because he was flagged in
21 a drawn game, user strongly disagrees with mamer policy, etc. In these
22 situations, it is necessary for you to stay calm, be competent, and keep
23 channel 49 and/or the tourney under control without reacting too harshly.
24 Another reason is that TMs are often mistaken for admins, especially by
25 new/intermediate users. Please kindly help them if possible, but refer them to
26 an admin if one really is necessary.
31 Apart from staying out of trouble on FICS, the only requirement that you must
32 meet in order to remain a mamer manager is to meet a monthly quota for tourneys
33 managed. Currently, it is 5 tourneys per month. This is only a minimum,
34 though. Feel free to manage as many as you like. This is fun, remember? :)
35 This quota does not apply to admins, several of whom only manage when there is
36 a need for a tourney and no other TMs are online. The quota is in place in
37 order to keep the manager staff active. If you are unable to remain active as
38 a manager temporarily, message the COO(currently toddmf) and explain why. If
39 you plan on being inactive for a long period of time(at least 3 months, or
40 longer than summer break for students), it is probably best if you step down as
41 TM(if you've done well as a TM you would probably be able to return as TM when
47 Before you get to the the details of manager commands and how to manage a
48 tourney, you should first make sure you are well equipped to deal with users'
49 questions about how to use mamer. If you are unfamiliar with any of these
50 commands, you should try them.
52 Command Abbrev Level Basic info
53 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
54 finger | fi | 0 | Displays the stats for a user.
55 help | h | 0 | List commands and descripts.
56 join | j | 0 | Request to enter a tourney.
57 listmanagers | lm | 0 | Displays the Managers list.
58 listtourneys | lt | 0 | Displays the tournament list.
59 listtourneyvars | vars | 0 | Displays the tournament variables.
60 listtourneygames | games | 0 | Displays the tournament games.
61 listplayers | lp | 0 | Displays the players in the tourney.
62 showcommands | sc | 0 | List commands and descripts.
63 showhelpfile | shf | 0 | Shows a help file.
64 who | who | 0 | Displays the tournament games.
65 withdraw | with | 0 | Remove yourself from a tourney.
68 The "finger" command shows your statistics by default. You can see other
69 players' stats by "mam finger name".
71 "help" is the same as "showcommands". To see help files, use "showhelpfile".
73 The old commands "grid" and "standings" are now all neatly packaged in the
74 "who" command. The players are listed in rank order.
76 The "upset points" in the "who" listing are temporary points(they are deleted
77 when the tourney is deleted). They are calculated like this: If you beat a
78 higher rated player, you get the difference in rating in upset points. If you
79 draw a higher rated player, you get half the difference in rating points,
80 rounded down. For example, a 2000 who beats a 2101 gets 101 upset points. If
81 he had drawn, the 2000 would have gained 50 upset points. Ratings from when
82 the players join the tourney are used.
84 The "Perfrm" (performance rating) in the "who" listing is a measure of what
85 the player's USCF(and several other similar systems) rating would be if this
86 was the only tourney he played in. Again, the ratings from when the players
87 join the tourney are used. Here is the formula:
89 Perf. Rating = Avg. opp. rating + 400 * ((wins-losses)/rounds)
91 Most commands now require you to specify the tourney number! Remember this
94 Players very often ask about how to find out who is in a tourney, how to see
95 the standings, how to see a grid, how to see which games are in progress, and
96 how to see tourney variables. It is useful to have an alias for telling 49
97 something along the lines of "Please use the commands 'mam games #',
98 'mam vars #', and 'mam who #' for information about the tourney."
100 Introduction to managing tourneys
101 ---------------------------------
103 The first thing you should do after becoming a manager is to join channel
104 48. You can ask for the advice of more experienced TMs in the channel if you
105 run in to any problems while managing. Channel 48 is also used to discuss
106 other mamer issues, and it is just as often used for friendly chat among TMs.
107 Here is a tutorial on how to manage a typical tourney.
109 The first thing you need to know is that you will be sending a lot of tells to
110 mamer while managing. To save yourself some typing, you should either use the
111 server alias "mam"(short for xtell mamer) or create an even shorter alias like
112 m. In this tutorial, I will use "mam".
114 Step 1: Create a tourney
115 ------------------------
117 To create a new tourney, type "mam create". You should get the following
120 mamer(TD) tells you: Created tourney number: 6
122 Contact the COO if mamer tells you that "you do not have permission". If you
123 did create the tourney successfully, all you need to remember is the tourney
124 number. In this tutorial, we'll continue managing tourney number 6.
126 Step 2: Select the tournament variable settings
127 -----------------------------------------------
129 Assuming you are now the manager for tourney 6, type "mam vars 6".
130 You get back a listing of the current tournament variable settings:
137 : (M)ode: r (r)ated or (u)nrated
138 : (S)tyle: s (s)wiss or (r)oundrobin
139 : (V)ariant: w (w)ild, (r)egular, (b)ug, or (s)uicide
140 : (W)ild Type: 10 (0), (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (8), (9)8a, (10)fr
142 : Rating (H)igh: 9999
146 The letters in () refer to the variable shortcut to be used when changing a
147 value for a variable. Here is what the variables mean:
149 Time -- Same as always: minutes to start the game with
150 Increment -- Same as always: additional seconds per move
151 Rounds -- Number of rounds in the tourney. If you leave this at 0,
152 mamer will choose an optimal number of rounds.
153 Max Players -- The tourney will automatically close and start when this
154 many players have joined.
155 Mode -- Will the tourney games be rated or unrated?
156 Style -- Round Robin(everyone plays everyone) or Swiss System(system
157 where, generally speaking, players play opponents with the
158 same score in the tourney each round).
159 Variant -- What type of game is being played? Regular is used for
160 blitz, standard, and lightning.
161 Wild Type -- This only appears when Variant is set to Wild. Use this to
162 set which wild type will be played.
163 Rating Low -- Players with a rating lower than this cannot join.
164 Rating High -- Players with a rating higher than this cannot join.
166 You can change these variables before the tourney starts by using "mam stv #
167 var value". For example, "mam stv 6 t 1" would change the time variable to 1.
168 Once the tourney has opened, you can only change the Max Players and Style
169 variants, and once it has closed and started, you cannot change any variables!
171 Step 3: Beginning the tournament
172 --------------------------------
174 After you have set the variables, you need to open the tournament so that
175 players may join. To do so, type "mam open #" ("mam open 6" in our case).
177 At this point, mamer will announce the tourney in channel 49 and with a
178 cshout. You can duplicate the announcements by using the "mam announce #"
179 command to announce tourney number #. At the moment, there is no limit on how
180 often you can announce. I hope not to hear many complaints about mamer making
181 too many cshouts, so please use announce reasonably(somewhere around once per
182 30-60 seconds is reasonable).
184 When you have enough players, you can close and start the tournament. To do
185 so, "mam close #". If you are unable to find enough players(a minimum of 4 is
186 needed for mamer to run a tourney) in a reasonable amount of time, you should
187 delete the tourney by using "mam delete #" where # is the tourney number.
189 Step 4: Running the tournament itself
190 -------------------------------------
192 If nobody leaves the tournament, there should be no problems. Mamer should
193 take care of itself. If someone leaves the tourney or logs off of FICS, you
194 may have some work to do. After managing several tourneys, you will have a
195 good sense of how long to wait for someone to return before taking action.
196 The commands you're going to need are "forfeit" and "setres". "mam forfeit
197 handle #" forfeits a player from tourney number #. Use the forfeit command if
198 a player has left, you don't expect him back, and there is at least another
199 round left in the tourney. "mam setres # white black 1/=/0" sets the result
200 of white vs black in tourney # to a win for white/draw/win for black. Use
201 this if you are late in the tourney so that the player doesn't have to forfeit
202 his previous points. Also use setres if you simply want to keep the tourney
203 moving but expect the player to be back(this is useful for tourneys at very
206 Step 5: The tournament ends
207 ---------------------------
209 Mamer will usually end the tournament automatically and post the final
210 results. If it does not, type "mam games #" to see any uncompleted games.
211 Check if those players are logged in(a fast way to do this is "in handle"),
212 and use forfeit/setres accordingly.
214 If there are any problems with the data of the tourney then "message mlong"
215 the correct values and let the players know that the results will be
216 corrected. Points in the tourneys are not recorded; what is important is
217 wins, losses, and placement in the final tourney standings.
219 If you have just managed a scheduled tourney(see "help motd" for a list of
220 them), please message the COO the names of the winner(s) and anyone else who
221 may have managed the tourney, so that he can create a news item each week.
222 Also, please "mam keep # 1" to set tourney #'s keep variable to 1. This
223 allows people to view the scheduled tourney's standings days after the
229 As a TM, you will soon have the power to penalize tourney abuse by giving
230 someone chaos points. This is done by typing "mam addchaos handle #", where #
231 is the number of chaos points(use a negative number to remove chaos points).
232 When someone has 100 chaos points, mamer will censor him, thus preventing him
233 from playing in tourneys. Firstly, let's talk about when you should not give
234 someone chaos points. If you forfeit someone or they withdraw before the
235 tourney ends, mamer will automatically give that person 10 chaos points per
236 round missed. Chaos points should be given out for non tourney games,
237 profanity, and other distractions(such as telling 49 "hi mamer" repeatedly
238 after being warned about overuse of it). Use good judgement. If a player is
239 playing a non tourney game that will end in 30 seconds, maybe you should not
240 act. However, if he is in a standard game and ignores your request to end it
241 and start the tourney, chaos points are warranted. You should probably give
242 somewhere between 10 and 20 chaos points per disruption. If you find yourself
243 wanting to give out less than 10, you should consider giving a warning instead.
244 If you find yourself wanting to give more than 20, you should probably contact
245 an admin about the abuse. In any case, whenever you add chaos points, please
246 send them a message explaining how many points were given, why you did so,
247 and note that decisions can be appealed to the COO. If you don't send a
248 message, the player may never knew he did anything wrong, repeat his actions,
249 and soon find himself censored by mamer. By sending a message, the player has
250 a better chance of not repeating his actions, and it also necessitates having a
251 good reason for adding the points.
256 Here is a summary of all the manager commands.
258 : addchaos | ac | 25 | Adds (or subs) chaos points.
259 : announce | ann | 10 | Announce the tournament to the working
261 : addtotourney | att | 25 | Add a user to a tourney.
262 : create | cr | 10 | Creates a new tournament.
263 : close | cl | 10 | Closes and starts a tournament.
264 : delete | del | 10 | Deletes a tournament.
265 : forfeit | fo | 10 | Remove a user from a tourney.
266 : keep | k | 25 | Keep a tourney in memory.
267 : loadedusers | lu | 25 | Displays the loaded users.
268 : messman | mm | 50 | Message all of the Managers.
269 : open | ot | 10 | Opens the tournament to players.
270 : setinfo | si | 100 | Set a user's finger info.
271 : setmanagerlevel | sml | 50 | Sets manager's level.
272 : setres | sr | 10 | Sets the result of a game.
273 : setstat | ss | 50 | Sets a specific finger stat.
274 : settourneyvar | stv | 10 | Sets a Tourney's Variables.
275 : shutdown | sd | 50 | Shuts down Mamer.
277 All of the level 10 and 25 commands have been covered except for
278 "addtotourney" and "loadedusers". "addtotourney player #" forces player to join
279 tourney number #. This is useful for players who want to play in a tourney
280 that is about to close but can't figure out how to join the first time. If you
281 need to use this, please try to tell the person how to join future tournaments
282 so that he doesn't rely on the manager to use addtotourney. It is also useful
283 to create test tournaments, but aside from mlong testing code, there is rarely
284 a need for that. "loadedusers" is simply a list of players in mamer's
285 "memory"; players who have told mamer something recently. The only practical
286 application for most managers that I can think of is trying to check if a new
287 mamer player having trouble is even getting as far as telling mamer something.
288 A note on "delete": Tourneys that aren't "kept"(using keep) are automatically
289 deleted after two hours. Please don't delete them before this unless you
290 either want to abort a tourney in progress or open or the tourney list is
291 getting very cluttered with many fast(ie 1 0, 0 1 suicide) tourneys. Keeping
292 tourney standings available for some time after the tourney ends was a feature
293 requested by many users, so please don't negate it by deleting the tourneys
298 Historical information about mamer
299 ----------------------------------
301 Users sometimes ask about this information. You may also find it
302 interesting. The following is a cleaned up and up-to-date version of mamer
303 1.x's "mam help about".
305 "Mamer is an automated tournament director for use on FICS only.
306 Fred Baumgarten originally wrote this code because there was a need and
307 Chevrier Joel, the creator of Tomato(another TD program), would not
308 share the code. Fred gave me(mlong) the code in mid 1995 with the
309 stipulation I not release it to anyone. I have modified and (I hope)
310 improved mame (now mamer).
312 Mamer stands for "manage me". Plus the -r- for the
313 differentiation between mame (Fred's) code and mamer (mlong's) code.
315 Fred's words follow: The intention to write this tournament director
316 program came out of the need to have such a program. Tomato - used at
317 FICS and written by darkside was not released to the public. Darkside
318 even did not want to accept a non disclosure agreement - so I decided
319 to write such a program myself. (Tomato was sold to ICC shortly after
320 and has been used there ever since - toddmf).
321 The program is written in C and will support a bunch of new features soon.
322 It is beta state since Version 0.5 but there _are_ bugs.
323 Fred Baumgarten <dc6iq@insl1.etec.uni-karlsruhe.de>. Have fun !!!
325 Mamer is maintained and coded here on FICS by mlong. PLEASE! FOR BUGS
326 PERTAINING TO MAMER TALK TO mlong."
328 mlong has always maintained the mamer code. He also was in control of
329 mamer's day to day operations at first. GBPacker soon took over this position,
330 and fpawn followed. toddmf currently holds this position.
332 Mamer's largest(in terms of number of players) tourneys occurred shortly
333 after games in the 1997 Deep Blue-Kasparov rematch. Some of these tourneys
334 drew 50-60+ players(if anyone knows the exact numbers, please tell me). The
335 longest tourney(in terms of number of rounds) was probably a 15 round, 16
336 player 1 0 RR tourney held in early 1998(again, please tell me if this is not
339 See also: every other help file
341 [Last modified: September 1, 1998 -- toddmf]
projects / capablanca.git / blob