skrshawk

Normal conditions to a final release apply to 4.1.7. The release will require restarting the program once it has downloaded automatically the next time you launch the software. If any errors occur during the download or installation get the latest version of the software manually by the main BBO download page on the website. If issues persist please contact support@bridgebase.com for further assistance. Take care, John

Hey, I'm back. It's come to my attention that version 2.0 of the forum software is about to be released as a stable build. Once it is released then I anticipate rolling this out over the forums, but there are some obstacles I'd like everyone to be aware of: 1) We are considering a server upgrade to handle the recent outages we've been experiencing. The hosting environment we are in will of course dictate the feasibility, but I don't see why anything we can put together won't work - it just may take a little extra flogging :). 2) We have some modifications to the board that I would have to ensure came over properly, such as the extended system notes fields in the profiles, the bridge hand tool for posting hands in messages, and most importantly, the languages. I would also appreciate if the upgrade doesn't mess with the user database in general :). I'd also like to take the time to rather belatedly welcome/announce Ben and Rain (inquiry and, well, Rain) as full forum administrators. Shoulda happened a while back, but it's called me getting married and being out of touch. And to all our members, thanks for making this forum everything that you do! Best regards, John

Maybe it's just me, but I might also think there are potential copyright issues involved in using someone else's hands in a tournament setting without permission. There are many advanced tools available for generating interesting bridge hands and even allow for a single winner style tournament (all hands N-S having the same number of points as E-W through the tournament or some such), and this I think would be a much better use of the ability to preselect hands. The thing about hands designed for practice and teaching skills is that from the opponents chairs the hands are often pathetically easy to defend while being tremendously challenging for the declarer (or vice versa if the lesson is on defense). The best hands I think give an even split of "can make if declarer finds best line of play" and "will fail if defenders find best defense" in a tournament situation. Take care, John

Mike, I'm not sure what you mean by a rating system on the back door. Is it the things like "Novice poster", "intermediate poster", etc.? If so, those have nothing to do with a person's bridge ability - they are simply titles that denote now many posts a person has contributed to the forums over the course of their history. The idea of ratings is one that will probably exist as long as BBO does, but I'm still content with no permanent public ratings on the service. They are available for anyone who really wants to know and that's good enough for me. Take care, John

Just my dos centavos... in the Rochester, NY area a live game of bridge costs $3-6 per session, mostly to pay the director and cover the cost of the facility, along with MP fees, with the occasional charity game. $1-2 for a session where I can drink beer and play loud heavy metal while playing bridge is very much my sort of thing :). The added factor of a cost to play will only encourge better behavior, especially if players can be ejected without refund for discourtesy. Take care, John

I'm not the driving force behind this, however I would feel safe in saying that check or money order would be accepted forms of payment. Once we've received and processed your payment you would be able to use the funds as you wish at any time, in any amount or combination. Remember, charges would only apply to special features, such as private instruction, private club membership or tournaments, tournaments with a sanctioning body such as the ACBL, or for physical products - the functions you know of today as free will remain such to my understanding. Take care, John

Hello, For those whom it would have benefits the ability to create forums for interest groups on the forums is now available. There are a few ways we can do this, depending on the nature of the community and the level of privacy desired. To request a forum is to be willing to moderate it and accept ultimate responsibility for the state of the forum. Abandoned forums or forums with excessively unacceptable behavior may be closed down at the discretion of the board administrators. Multiple moderators are always acceptable and encouraged for large groups, especially if individual posts or posters are being moderated. The process of requesting a forum is relatively simple, but details will help tremendously: leave a PM for me (skrshawk) with ALL relevant details for the setup of the forum. These include name of forum, a short description, a more detailed description, names of moderators other than yourself, and the kind of privacy you would require (and desired password/member lists, depending on preference). I will contact you confirming the details and if all is acceptable I will get thing set up. Just because this could come up, allow me to say that requesting a forum is no guarantee of its acceptance. The first type of board is a publicly available board that anyone may view, and as per BBF requirements only registered members may post. Communities interested in the greatest ability to expand should request this option assuming there is absolutely no need for privacy. For those requiring a moderate level of privacy and growth any forum can require the user to input a forum-specific password to gain access. This can be an effective means of having a forum for a private club on BBO, since only authorized members can enter the BBO club and read its news file, a logical place to put such a password and change as necessary. It also allows the presence of the forum to be displayed in public so others will know it exists. Changing the forum password is an administrator function, however, so changing it daily just isn?t going to work. For those whom privacy and security is paramount the option exists to set permission masks and tie forum accounts directly to access to private forums. This is the least encouraged option for communities where the members will be changing with much frequency, as it requires a board administrator to manually edit the user?s account to grant access (unfortunately, no lower level of access will suffice). The existence of the forum will not be revealed to the general public through the forum listings. As an example of this, the BBO Yellows maintain private forums (and have for quite some time) for discussing matters relevant to BBO?s security and development that see as much activity as many of the public forums despite much fewer users. There is some middle ground between all of these options and moderator permissions are very flexible ? if so desired it would be possible to make a community where a moderator must approve all posts, or just the starting of new topics (say, a question and answer forum). If a custom privacy solution would best meet you needs, I can answer questions regarding the software?s limitations (which are much greater than our old package!)

As much as this pains me, I am lacking in a complete Italian language set. The sooner I hope the forum developers fix this the happier I'll be. That's probably the biggest sacrifice I had to make. Take care, John

Hey there, I know it's about time this happened ;). There are going to be quite a few changes to this now that it's up, but we've crossed a major milestone. This is the second form of the Forums which thanks to all of you have been vastly successful over the last few months. The Invision package is far more powerful than the YaBB package we moved away from and is going to mean we can do many new things with the Forums that simply wouldn't have been possible, such as private forums and in support of the upcoming changes regarding fee-based services on Bridge Base (such as pay-for-private forums, etc.). All passwords with standard characters should continue to work, but if you use non-standard characters in your password you may need to reset it. Many language settings have also been lost in the move - it was a necessary sacrifice. Also most of the polls did not make it either due to database corruption (another reason for the move!). Feel free to play with the new functions we have to offer - I assure you the experience here will be better than on the old forums, and I will do my best on the limited time I have available to dedicate to BB to making them better. Take care, John

Gold stars rating themselves as beginners I believe is more of a show of humility and understanding just where they sit in the world - I'd honestly be quite scared of such a person because they will take no opponent for granted. Take care, John

Hello, BBF has grown to the point (possibly well past the point) where more active moderation is prudent for the forum. That said, I'm letting it be known that I am now accepting applications for said positions. These people would be responsible for everyday maintainence of the board, handling any abusive situations that may come up, and generally representing the good will of Bridge Base. Moderators once selected will also be integral to the development of the next version of the forums under IPB or the next generation of YaBB SE, known as SMB (Simple Machines Board). Anyone in excess of 250 posts on the forums is being automatically considered for a moderator's position by virtue of obvious interest and activity and should contact me to confirm interest. Those with fewer posts are welcome to submit letters of interest to me by email or private message on the forums. Of course, BBO Yellows may become moderators or administrators on the forum upon request. Take care, John

Alright, here's the deal: The forums in their current form weren't up overnight and fully functional. As a beta, the IPB package was put up to let you see just what the software is capable of doing on the surface. There is quite a bit more that would actually go into a production release but I needed to know if I was going in the right direction. The learning curve factor is very much on my mind and I certainly don't wish to alienate our userbase just because of moving to another package. My take on the reponses are that there's a lot of mixed feelings and concern about the exact implementation of such an upgrade. Right now, however, I need to hear cases for and against. Please privately message me on BBO, in the forums, or email me with such things as "this upgrade is a real must", "i would highly consider leaving the forums if we moved to this package", "i would base such a decision on x factor...", etc. The response I get from this point on is going to drive my decision to remain with the YaBBSE package or migrate over to IPB. I anticipate a couple weeks to a month's time from me (and the rest of the BBO staff) making a decision to migrate would be necessary to bring a live version with all the toys under the new package. Take care, John

We already in a way have tournaments specific to nationalities - language groups that have a minimum speaking base outside of their nation. Many nations do have different local conventions simply because the game developed with those conventions in their countries - now on the international stage they mix and ultimately evolve. My personal opinion is that we should not be restricting the type of tourneys volunteer TD's may hold as long as there isn't a factor of patent offensiveness involved (I would particulary frown upon tourneys for "jew-haters", for example). If there isn't fair representation, that's not our issue. Somebody who feels slighted should feel free to host tourneys in favor of those they deem slighted. We are the forum - we don't dictate its content (beyond general guidelines) or organize its events for the most part. It is up to the users (and always has been) to make BBO the community it is. Take care, John

Interoperability of languages is something I want to keep if it all possible so I will do more research on that. BTW, G, since it was a quick and dirty port, user permissions below admin didn't get copied over and I disabled the yellows forums on the beta to everyone but admins because I didn't want to sort that out yet :). They are there, however. Keep the comments coming :) Take care, John

I have set up a clone of the forums running under Invision Power Board v1.2. I welcome all existing users of the forums to take a look at the clone and leave their comments in this thread. It is a very rudimentary setup but will show what the software is capable of and with a conversion of our current forums on it. Most of the specific features that this package has to offer haven't been enabled yet (this is quick and dirty). Use your existing login information for this board to access the new board. It does however offer everything YaBBSE has and quite a bit more - such as the ability to create private boards for the many groups that have expressed interest in having a forum at Bridge Base. Feel free to email me your comments at skrshawk@bridgebase.com if you don't wish to post them publically. Be aware that I may not see any posts on the beta since I'm still playing with it :). The new address is http://bridgebase.lunarpages.com/ipb . Take care, John