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I didn't expect Fred Gitelman or any of the much overworked and under pressure BBO staff to respond but I thought that some of the thousands in CV19 isolation would be able to fill in the gaps?

Tell me about BBO . . . .searching online I can't find anything later than 2007. I can see from google that it was founded in 1990 by Fred Gitelman and Sheri Winestock initially as analytical tools designed for serious students of bridge and progressed into delivering free online contract bridge through the Bridge Base Online (BBO) website. And I can see that in October 2007, it was owned by Fred Gitelman, Uday Ivatury, Bill Gates, Sharon Osberg, and David Smith. I have to shamefully admit that I have enjoyed free Bridge and much free learning from playing Bridge on BBO without giving anything back (other than my presence). I am aware that BBO is a business, someone is paying for the servers and people staffing those servers and I believe (?) that there is more to BBO than people playing Bridge for free although I don't know what that is. And, I believe (?) that those people (some of those people) who pop up in the 'chat' to Club/Lobby now and again are unpaid volunteer helpers. From what I can see as a free user it looks like the existing structure is something that evolved rather than was planned. So, tell me about all those aspects of BBO I know nothing about, how it got to where it is and how it/they all work together?

When I said earlier above that amongst the massive influx of new 'members' were external Bridge Clubs who were setting up their own groups within existing BBO Clubs I didn't think for one minute they were raising revenue from it for themselves! The last few days have caused me to wonder what are BBO's strategic objectives, who is setting them and who is driving them. Taking aside the fantastic and much appreciated hard work of all the unpaid volunteers holding it all together - I wonder if there is a plan and what that is? (I know that it none of my business and I have no rights to know but I can wonder).

Prime . . . . call me odd but personally I want a partner who plays the system I play (Acol) and I want to play against ops who play the same system and the majority in Prime play 2/1 or SAYC. I accept that there are some Bridge 'junkies' who might enjoy studying every system and every convention in every system but not me. And, I recognize that BBO is free to us (and I am grateful) and I recognise that BBO is a business and our relationship (BBO / member) is a symbiotic relationship in that NNO needs us (members) for ad revenue and we, in return, get free play. I have several ideas which I believe would make the online play experience better and would (IMO) improve the model but nobody is asking me and knowing the nature of man I suspect any suggestions I made would be viewed as 'complaints'. Last might there was complete pandemonium in Acol Club and I am sure if they had been f2f it would have ended up in a brawl. That bedlam last night was entertaining but arguably not the sort of entertainment that a Bridge Club aspires to!

Andrew, I know you and Suzie have been under immense pressure and are working very hard and we are all truly grateful. I registered with BBO 5 years back to observe and play to improve my card play and I am know that objective has been achieved. I continue to play for the same reason and because I enjoy the game and because, in some quite moments, I am entertained. BBO is a great resource/service, I have independently emailed support@bbo several times to thank them for providing this service because I am truly grateful; I personally would be willing to pay money for what I get. All that said . . . I wonder whether allowing the system to be swamped with uncontrolled numbers of new members, some of whom are whole Clubs setting up their members inside existing BBO 'Club's best serves the interests of existing loyal members?

And my prediction comes to pass. And fromageGB . .. you are the 'problem'. . . the problem being you and others who 'glibly' pass this off as some small thing passing us by.

50% of all UK Bridge Clubs will be closed within the next 10 days and 100% will be closed in the next 20 days - my prediction.

. . . 460 . . . three days later it is 1140. At that rate of growth it will be two weeks before someone in your Bridge Club with the virus is sat next to you?

460 . . . . That was two days ago, two days earlier it was 300 and two days later it is 798. At that rate of growth calculate how many days before someone in your Bridge Club with the virus is sat next to you?

The Olymic committee are looking at how to manage the relay race and that's just one baton. I wonder that they would do if EBU had won its claim to have Bridge as an Olympic sport?

In Italy seats in restaurants must be 1 metre apart France has banned group gathering of more than 1000 (not sure what that's going to do)! Sporting events have banned handshakes. What advice would these Governments give to a group of people 20, 30, 40 people who regularly gather together, sitting next to each other almost shoulder to shoulder, coughing into their hands or scratching their nose, then touching playing cards and then passing those cards around each other and then going on the next day to another group of 20,30, 40 people and doing the same thing?

Many Bridge players play several times a week at different Bridge Clubs. News report suggest that this virus can live on dry surfaces for up to 4 days. The majority of Bridge players are ‘older’. It is inevitable that someone at one of those Clubs is going to have Coronavirus and leave it on the cards and those cards then pass round the room for others to pick up the virus. I have suggested to our Club committee that we close down until after it's over. The question I posed is - do we close now or wait until 'the horse has bolted'? What is your Club doing? Clearly this virus is going to spread at different rates in different countries for all manner of reasons.

Anyone know of any free scoring software? A member of my club has a small (at home) social group asked me if anything exists? I have told her it's simple to do it manually but . . . is there anything?

Do the Robots play a particular system - what system? Is it possible to require the Robots to play a particular system? When playing with Robots, is it possible to stop those irritating pop ups suggesting what to play?

Thanks

How do I look up the hands played by someone else? I know from posts on here that others have found hands I played - how do you do that?

Thanks . . . I know the standard revoke penalties, my question here relates specifically to the advantage gained by West. If West had not revoked and had played her single ♥ then she would not have had a ♥ to lead to dummy i.e. surely it can't be right that 'revoker' can gain a benefit/advantage from her revoke

West is declarer playing 4♠. Dummy's had K Q x x x ♥. South plays a low ♥ West discards a low ♣ and North wins the trick with A♥. Two tricks later West finds a low ♥in her hand (revoke). West then plays the ♥ to dummy's K and Q♥ i.e. the revoke ♥ left her with a ♥ to lead to dummy's winning ♥'s. What should the ruling have been?

I've now found where most things are, three things I can't find are: 1. Bidding history. (After bidding has finished and play has started I want to refresh my memory on how the bidding went and I can't see where that is) 2. Delete chat. (can't find how I clear the chat screen). 3. Chat manager. (In the old version I had a list of pre-written lines which I could 'send' so as to save time and effort typing in text regularly used, I can't now see that feature/option

I found the won and lost tricks!

I loaded Chrome. Chrome defaults to the new version IE defaults to the old version. (Taking aside Flash issues) The format and structure of the old version was perfect so why change it? Why would you do that? Bye the by I've looked at the new version and clicked on this and that and I can make it work half as well as the old version. What I can't get is to see the tricks taken i.e. I can't see, during the game, how many tricks and which tricks were taken by declarer and opps. I presume that must be possible - how? I can't understand why it does not default to that view, during play we all want to see, at any point during play where we're up to in making or defeating a contract.

When I log in I get V1.48x is that the 'new' version?

OK, I give up, the old (flash) version is simply too difficult. So I thought I'd try the new version. I can't find the new version, I can't see where I log into it? Searching google I did find many references to 'problems' with BBO software, I saw there was a merger with Fun Bridge (never heard of it). BBO 'was' (using the past tense as it looks like it's gone or going) was free so I can't complain. In fact, a couple of times, I emailed BBO to thank them for a great resource that was free. I also found a response from someone talking about change and people like me not accepting change. I am happy with change particularly change for the better. I understand that Flash is going /has gone, what I don't understand is why the 'new' BBO software wasn't written to give the same (excellent) appearance and functionality as the old version that's someone changing something just for the sake of making it different i.e. I did that I changed it! So . . . . how do I log into the 'new' version?

It's on the Flash version. I am happy to use any version but my brief encounter with the new version was not simply difficult it was impossible, for example every seat at every table (Acol Club) had a no entry sign on it and every page selected could not be closed as half of it (the red x) was off the screen.

It's back! It's near impossible to play. Place mouse over a card and cards either side hover, carefully make sure to get the right card and it moves a bit then a blue square appears above it, then the card moves into the blue square then it moves into play. This phenomena has started quite recently. Is this happening to others or just me?