Board Game Arena

Just now, on a turn based game, https://boardgamearena.com/10/forestshu ... =841133630 - here's the screenshot:

https://imgur.com/jrQ7hLT

It's really really frustrating that the game log only shows the date when the date changes - I don't know why they did it that way, when it would be so much more useful if it showed the full date & time at each step. But, if you were to scroll further down that game log, you'd see that all the entries below 5/6/2026 04:27 AM (early today) are from April 28.

The yellow player has been expelled, and their timer shows -7d. From reading the game log, you'd think I expelled them at 10:07pm on April 28th. I really don't remember doing that, but it's long enough ago that maybe I did and I forgot. However, I am **sure** that if someone actually reached -7 days, I would have noted that in my personal notes on that player. Instead, I actually did make a personal note on this yellow player in late April but I noted that they were down by several hours, not days.

Also, if what the log says is true, and I expelled that player on April 28th, how is it that no other player moved until today? Neither of us are out of time, we both have more than a full day remaining on our clocks.

I, in fact, have 27hrs 19min remaining on my clock, and it's been a bit more than 8 and a half hours since the red player moved, which indicates I had a full 36h clock when they moved early this morning. Their clock currently shows 35h36m, which means they only took 24 minutes to make their move since it last became their turn. So it's not possible that the yellow player was expelled on April 28 and then neither of us moved since then.

-7 days suggests the yellow player was actually expelled today, very early this morning - that would be 7 days and a few hours past April 28th, the last time I moved and it became their turn. It would make sense if the red player expelled the yellow player at about 4:03am on May 6, making it their turn, and then made their own move 24 minutes later.

But if that's what happened, where did that April 28 10:07pm game log entry come from, claiming I expelled the yellow player? And why no game log entry from this morning showing that red did it?

I can't tell if I'm misreading or misinterpreting how this works on BGA, or if this is a bug in BGA, or a bug in the game. Can anyone with more solid knowledge of BGA, game logs, and expulsions, explain what happened? And if there's a bug, whether it's in Forest Shuffle or in BGA?

I'm still confused by this, and still hoping there's anyone here who can either explain what might have happened, to know how to tag someone from BGA.

You're not sure whether it was you or the third player who expelled the player out of time?

Cos- wrote: ↑05 June 2026, 23:35 I'm still confused by this, and still hoping there's anyone here who can either explain what might have happened, to know how to tag someone from BGA.

This question will be easy to answer once the game actually finishes, because there is a graph showing how much time was on each clock. There is no such running log of how much time was on the clocks during the game. So as long as you and bingrenqilianwu keep this game alive, you have to live with the uncertainty.

Are you sure bingrenqilianwu didn't use a holiday joker?

FrankJones wrote: ↑06 June 2026, 00:48 You're not sure whether it was you or the third player who expelled the player out of time?

I can't be sure. I definitely did not remember expelling them, and I think if I had I would've noted in in my notes on that user, since that's what I usually do. So, I don't believe I expelled them ... but the game log says I did. Maybe I'm wrong and somehow I expelled them without remembering it and without writing it down. It just seems very unlikely to me, and I suspect the game log is wrong. Either way, though, I can't explain what I observed. If there's an explanation that fits _either_ hypothesis (I expelled them, or the other player did), I'm interested to know what it is.

Meeplelowda wrote: ↑06 June 2026, 01:28

This question will be easy to answer once the game actually finishes, because there is a graph showing how much time was on each clock. There is no such running log of how much time was on the clocks during the game. So as long as you and bingrenqilianwu keep this game alive, you have to live with the uncertainty.

Are you sure bingrenqilianwu didn't use a holiday joker?
[/quote]

I don't know how to be sure, but I don't remember ever seeing them have more than 35 hours of playing time. If they'd used a joker they'd have shown a few days playing time remaining. Regardless, how would that explain what the game showed here? How would them using a time joker cause this to make sense?

I read in the log : " 04:07 SarahDG307 is out of time, so Cos- skips her turn"

menettm wrote: ↑06 June 2026, 05:46 I read in the log : " 04:07 SarahDG307 is out of time, so Cos- skips her turn"

Yes, but Cos doesn't trust that, hence half the content of this thread.

Cos- wrote: ↑06 June 2026, 03:39 I don't know how to be sure, but I don't remember ever seeing them have more than 35 hours of playing time. If they'd used a joker they'd have shown a few days playing time remaining. Regardless, how would that explain what the game showed here? How would them using a time joker cause this to make sense?

1) Your memory is doing a heavy lift in this thread. The simplest explanation for EVERYTHING is that you just aren't remembering what happened in this one particular game out of 36 games you have going.

2) The time joker applied when bingrenqilianwu was nearly out of time....or even over time, could explain how they ended up with their first move after you expelled SarahDG307 being over 7 days later, but you didn't notice anyone being out of time. After all, it was bingrenqilianwu's move next, so you had no reason to even look at that table until they moved. So there's no reason to expect you saw anything between the time you kicked SarahDG307 and the time you got a ping that it was your move after bingrenqilianwu moved.

I've never used a time joker when I've been out of time, but my understanding that it simply sets your clock at 4 days, no matter how much time is on your clock when you activate it. It doesn't add 4 days to the time on your clock. So even if they did go negative, but used a time joker, you'd be none the wiser. Again, this will all be clear in the clock graph.

Time Jokers are funny.

I played one at the end of March and I remember (I think!) that the log on an ongoing game said that I had done so. It also added 4 days, rather than set it to 4 days. Looking back at my games around that time, I can't find any mention of this at all though..

Meeplelowda wrote: ↑06 June 2026, 06:20

Cos- wrote: ↑06 June 2026, 03:39 I don't know how to be sure, but I don't remember ever seeing them have more than 35 hours of playing time. If they'd used a joker they'd have shown a few days playing time remaining. Regardless, how would that explain what the game showed here? How would them using a time joker cause this to make sense?

1) Your memory is doing a heavy lift in this thread. The simplest explanation for EVERYTHING is that you just aren't remembering what happened in this one particular game out of 36 games you have going.

2) The time joker applied when bingrenqilianwu was nearly out of time....or even over time, could explain how they ended up with their first move after you expelled SarahDG307 being over 7 days later,

No, that is absolutely 100% not a possibility. I think you missed some of what I wrote.

IF I did in fact completely forget that I expelled Sarah, and I also for some strange reason failed to follow my consistent standard practice of writing down in the notes on Sarah that I expelled them (which seems unlikely, but that's your hypothesis), THEN that explusion happened on April 28th, when that player was only over time by only several hours, not by 7 days. That is when the game log claims that expulsion happened. And the game log shows that this player moved earlier on April 28th and that both of the other players (including me) moved later that day.

One thing I am 100% absolutely certain of is that Sarah* was not multiple days over time on April 28th, a date on which I DID make a personal note about them being several hours over.

Another thing I am 100% absolutely certain of is that I did not expel that player on May 6th when I discovered this.

So, your hypothesis does _not_ explain what happened here. What happened in this game, and the game log, don't make sense in either cirumstance: Either the much more likely case that the log has a bug and I didn't actually expel them, or the less likely case that the log was right and I did so. In either case, it would make no sense for that player to show -7 days.

Also, the fact that Sarah* shows -7 days indicates that the clock was running on them, not on the red player, for the large majority of the time between April 28 to May 6 when I noticed this and posted about it. So a time joker doesn't explain it either, as far as I can see.

The simplest explanation would be that the red player expelled Sarah& on May 6th, took 24 minutes, then made a move. Then it became my turn. I know that the reason I visited this table again, and noticed this weirdness, is because it became my turn - that is, I did not visit the table on May 6th to see why it hadn't progressed and found it on someone else's turn, I visited this table on May 6th because the next game button took me to it because it was already my move, after the red player had recently moved. However, in that case the log is wrong both about who expelled them, and about which date they were expelled on. Before I conclude that's definitely what happened, I wanted to check if there are any other plausible possibilities.