kenfree

That's understandable, but why trash years of accumulated categorization of players? This makes no sense. You should preserve what was good in the old system, including this accumulated personal data. Just lazy software design, IMHO, probably by someone who doesn't play bridge online.

no one (with any authority) has responded to this concern, which i share: does it mean that our tons of categorigazation of other players is going to be lost? Is it really impossible to transfer this feature to the html version? Why? This will seriously impact my game...I cannot possibly remember all these players and their faults or virtues

Some tourneys, including the recurrent BBO-sponsored "express fun" tourneys, require all participants to bid 2/1. This is a great idea, except that there is no qualification of players as to whether they actually know how to bid 2/1, and many, if not most, don't. There should be some kind of qualifying quiz that players need to pass, to demonstrate at least minimum proficiency in bidding 2/1, before they are allowed to participate in these tourneys. Anyone else agree?

Why would that forum be more appropriate? I am making a constructive suggestion for changing the software, one that is badly needed. I hope I can at least get a reply from Fred on this one.....

/**In bridge, the most important criterion in partner selection, in my humble opinion, is bidding system. If i am committed to bidding 2/1, I don't want a SAYC or (God forbid) a Precision bidder, but in order to figure out what they bid I have to go their profile, and then I STILL may not know. But even so, there is not time enough for all this navigation when trying to join a table in main bridge, where you only have a few milliseconds to request a seat at an open table. If the player logo (meaning the name as it shows up at a table, or on list of players seeking partners at a tourney) has some kind of visible identification that would allow other players to know on sight whether they bid a particular system or not it would be SO MUCH EASIER, AND FACILITATE MORE SUCCESSFUL PAIRINGS. In part, I think this problem is related to another problem that I am quite surprised no one else mentions in this forum, but the amount of space allotted to explain one's various bidding preferences and conventions, etc. I strongly suggest that the current approach be scrapped in favor of a much larger profile area, perhaps as a popup, that would have checklists for more common conventions, and a large space for players to write in the more obscure stuff. Really, as great as bbo is, the problem of finding a suitable partner remains a real challenge, and it is a purely technical problem, which could be solved by redesigning the way in which players are able to communicate on their profile more (and more uniform) information about their bidding and carding predilections. Thanks for listening. Ken

Hi Fred et al., One annoyance I cannot get past on the web version, despite its many advantages, is that chat defaults to last person chatted to. This is NOT the same as in the download version, unless memory fails. There if you are at a table, chat defaults to table. That is how it should be, in my humble opinion. I constantly find myself chatting inadvertently to people I don't mean to chat to because they were the most recent person I chatted to, despite the fact that I am at a table playing bridge, and trying to communicate to the table. I shouldn't have to manually change the target (who remembers whom they were chatting to five minutes ago_)? I hope this can be tweaked at some point. Ken