HedyG

the new feature that sends invitations to all players whose names are entered as participants when a table is set up is really cool. however frequently when they accept the invitation they are disconnected from BBO. a bug?

you can find all registered teams here: http://www.eurobridge.org/competitions/10O...articipants.asp as for Fantoni/Nunes not playing for Italy, Mrs Lavazza decides who plays on the team. there are no selections in Italy. Fantoni/Nunes play for Zimmermann on the Transnational Team when available only. priority has always been playing on the national team.

on the win BBO when at the partnership bidding table, whether practicing myself or as kib, when i open movie i can only see the last hand. i can click on clear, open, save and help but send, next and prev are greyed out. i understand other players can see previous hands as well. is there any way i can fix this?

at a table where i was kib the other day the host left and was replaced with another player who requested that the score be cleared. in the mean time a dormant kib had become host so that this was not possible. he never did wake up till they all left

i got back from vacation last friday to find 2 broadcasts on BBO, both basically unmanned commentary-wise. together with a few regular commentators who happened to be online we did our best to provide commentary for the numerous viewers, but we were by far not enough and not for long enough either, not having planned to be free for non-assigned broadcasts. BFAME and Serbian championships may not be of world importance, but certainly are important to the countries involved and IMO deserve as much respect and attention as any other broadcast. it seems a great shame that when Roland takes a much deserved vacation the Vugraph world seems to come to a stop. in 2 days the European Youth Championships start. as far as i know there have been no assignments made for that event.....they need ca 3-4 commentators / table, 4 tables at a time! where should they come from without planning? something tells me that the USA Senior Championships will be well commented on. but lets wait and see...

i agree with you that incorrect analysis needs to be corrected(we all make mistakes) and believe me the specs don't let us get away with it :)nothing wrong with admitting you made a mistake. as for making fun of the players, that is certainly against the guidelines for commentators and a number of them have not been asked back by Roland because of their comments.however he cannot be everywhere and see everything and i suggest that you inform him , preferably via email, when you think there is reason to complain. spam on the other hand is sometimes practically a necessity when there are long periods of waiting. you try commentating a pairs event where every 2 or 3 boards there is a long pause while the others tables finish play and we wait for new players! anyhow the point i am really trying to make is that criticism is fine and welcome IMO as long as it is positive.

Stefan, nice to see that you apologized about the tone of your first post. i am sure i was not the only commentator who took it badly. you say you have commentated.........a lot? for a long time? for broadcasts nobody else wants to commentate and Roland is desperate to find commentators for?? do you know what it's like to commentate for 8-10 hours?sometimes for 2 weeks running? to commentate play in systems we have no explanations or CCs for? to commentate for hours for 25-50 viewers because the broadcast is from a small country not many are interested in? personally i try hard to find CCs for the players(ecatsbridge document store is often a good source) and send them to the table so my fellow commentators and the specs can get them too; however that is not always possible! or when the posted CC is in some strange language........ we try hard. sure most of us are not "the best" like Peter Gill and some others come to mind. but we try hard to do our bit because we realise that somebody has to do it and it is a way to pay back to bridge all the joy it gives us. we certainly do not do it for the pay we get! btw i think we "minor" commentators have our place too with maybe a vast majority of the spectators who often understand our simple way of thinking better. at least that is what the messages i get let me suppose. i am afraid that your post will put other potential commentators off joining us and that would be a great shame. i sincerely think you are too critical of people who do their best and deserve better then you give. how about thanking the commentators at your broadcast who gave hours of their time and energy ? it would make a nice change since that hardly ever happens....

online the break in tempo was long enough for David ( and i would assume most of the spectators) to notice and David to type a remark about it. after that it still took a while for the pass to come. i doubt very much that David would hesitate in entering that. he had entered all bids in tempo all day in his usual efficient manner.

IMHO David Stern is both an excellent operator as well as commentator. he did not overanalyse, got the atmosphere at the table across to us spectators and interacted with the commentators of which at times there was only one making his comments all the more precious. i think the director asking him whether he had noticed a huddle is very normal, surely any director would have done so and been happy that an unbiased person was present to ask.

here is the chat from the table as recorded on my computer showing that the hesitation was indeed long enough for the operator (David Stern) to make a remark about it: poohbear: Taking NO prisoners. Lev bids 3NT vugraphzpt: Not sure what Feldman is thinking about here poohbear: need a !h lead to beat it vugraphzpt: Maybe doubling for !H lead poohbear: If the spade honors were split then 2 rounds of spades and a !h play would work as well . Revert to spades after the King wins vugraphzpt: EW 42nd before this session poohbear: I like the lead poohbear: where are we beating this ? poohbear: I have 2 chances to lead. Better make the most of them poohbear: Everyone suggesting West hesitated. I didnt see that vugraphzpt: Director being summoned vugraphzpt: If I commented on it then you can assume so poohbear: ok. If this goes to committee and they indeed agree that West hesitated then the score will revert to 3NT making

reset to C and after restarting laptop news is back both on log-in and when i click on the icon. thank you very much Uday and Fred for your help!

it was already set to E did that to stop adverts a while ago...

hi Uday, yes windows and yes it does open the url in firefox( my default browser)

when i log on to BBO the news page does not open and when i try to click on the news icon in lobby nothing happens. can anybody help please?

i have been getting questions from juniors to whom i sent this site about registration. it asks for the wbf player codes of the players, what about juniors who are not members? or are they automatically members if they are members of their national federations? where can they find their wbf player codes?

in my experience not all operators are visible in lobby to common mortals. Roland as a yellow sees all who are logged on, even invisible. anyhow the solution i use is when the table where i will comment is announced (by the operator) is to immediately add the operator to my friends list.

5 ♦seems right. would a longish huddle by partner before the double change my bid?...

how come i don't see any posts by Italian spectators complaining that Versace/Lauria were playing at a table with English commentary?(just an example) it seems to me that Roland goes out of his way to provide English language commentary in all matches. even when for example Italy is playing against China.thus to the disadvantage of the Chinese viewers(just another example) those complaining about not having English commentary at all tables remind me of some spectators who , when watching a match in the main club on BBO complain about some of the specs comments in a language other than English........... come on folks, try to be more tolerant and generous!

at the Olympics in Istanbul there was a flu virus running around. on the last day of the round robin my partner, Miriam Varenne, was on antibiotics and running high fever. however since one of our teammates had travelled home for family reasons we were just two pairs. we did not concede. the idea never came to us. we sat down and played the matches.of course we never stood to win any and qualify under those conditions. so what? i remember Zia did the same............ i believe we did the right thing! and would do it again today. and yes, i would feel unwell too if i paid 1100, 1400 and 1400 as for you Michael, you are right to be proud to be a member of a team that for 10 days delighted us all.

2 minutes of folly? you have obviously not watched the match

a very happy birthday Roland :) good health and lots more great VG broadcasts

for players not using garbage stayman (there are many of those) 1NT-2cl-2d-2h can show a 7-8 HCP hand with an inconvenience to playing in NT, such a singleton somewhere in a hand not strong enough to bid 3cl/d over 2 h and unable to bid 2NT because of the distribution. it is for instance commonly played this way in France where btw 1NT-2d-2h-2sp shows a weak 5 5 hand is nf

assuming you do not play garbage stayman with a pickup partner what is the difference between the above bidding and 1NT-2cl -2d -2h?

i always leave the chat on when commentating, but at times it can be difficult to try to keep up with the private messages ( comments and/or questions). on the other hand it is rude not to reply. not everybody can multitask! also by switching it off you might avoid the rude remarks that sometimes come. example: player opens 1NT, he has 15 HCPs. i get his CC (did anybody open it when i sent the link to table?) and look up their 1NT opening. then i write to table 15-17 NT and get following comment from a spectator: "we can count to 15, don't need you to tell us. in other words you talk too much!" well, it's great that he can count to 15 but did he know whether they played 13-15, 14-16 or 15-17 NT? so sometimes i wish i didn't have the chat on.............

ok David, no more purple cows from me (great shame though)