SilentSong

I find the heading on the poll extremely disappointing, "how desperate are you to win?" because that shames the defenders for doing what they should do, call the director, get the ruling, and move on. It also seems to justify declarer arguing with the director. The director should have shut down any arguing. This is a simple decision. The poll should be titled more along the lines of, "do you have the class to accept the consequences of your own error?"

I agree wholeheartedly with rusty007's comments. I think one of BBO's biggest problems is when somebody gets upset at another player and continues to stalk them looking for trouble. I have reported people to BBO for really bad behavior, only to have them afterwards come to my tables repeatedly to watch, often looking for some sort of retaliation. Suddenly instead of a relaxing, fun game with friends, I have to watch every word I speak, etc, etc. One alternative is that BBO make it so that blacklisting people not only makes us not see their chat, but also make it so they can't see our chat. Sure, I can ban watchers, but I have many BBO friends who like to watch and pop in to say hi, tell me they want in the next team game, etc. I don't think I should have to ban them or have stressful games just because folks come looking for trouble. BBO is ultimately a bridge site, and that is my main goal in logging on, to play bridge, but to many of us it is so much more. It is an amazingly wonderful social gathering. I work at a stressful job, and many times BBO is my form of stress relief and escape. And although we may blacklist them and thus not see their chat, that doesn't prevent them from saying nasty things to the table that we don't see but everyone else does. Of course many of these players learn who your friends are and put them on their list and follow them if they can't find you on their own. So I would suggest we have an option to prevent/block certain players from being watchers at our tables/team games. It seems really unfair to have to remove all our friends to get rid of folks just coming looking for trouble. I have politely requested certain players not come to my tables as watchers, but they still do it. I personally cannot imagine ever wanting to go to a table I know I am not welcome at. Got far better things to do with my time ... and sure wish they did too! All that said, I absolutely love BBO and thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity to play this game and make friends around the world, so a big thank you to BBO owners, all the people that work there, and all the amazing people I have met! Looking forward to 2014 :)