julie5607

Well, I know you don't want to be convinced, but count me in on the group that thinks a pop-up private chat window option would be a good feature. I am not saying all private chat should be presented in separate windows, but the capability to initiate a chat that way would be very beneficial. The same user group that has issues with downloading and installing the current BBO client are very unlikely to have any sort of IM function they are capable of using. They also (this is from experience trying to help 80 year old ladies who I have turned on to BBO) find the current chat system almost impossible to use. Telling a LOL who has responded to my private "hi" to click on my blue name to respond is a losing battle. Getting them to a chat room is even more difficult. They would hopefully have less difficulty with a pop-up box that ONLY has a conversation with the person who is trying to help them. Another base of users who would make good use of private pop-up chat boxes are the people on public computers who cannot download and install their own IM systems. Additionally, we have all seen a "sorry private" message at the table after someone has made an obvious error in targetting a reply to someone. Some of those obvious errors are quite . . .ahem . . .telling. Private pop-up chat boxes would lesson that . . . er . . risk. I know you have no desire for the BBO client to be primarally a chat vehicle, and I can second that. But since there are many legitimate reasons two bridge players might want to have a long private conversation, why not included functionality that will make it as easy as possible? Julie

Well I for one like it - it allows me to make the BBO screen much smaller on my high resolution monitor so that i can keep an eye on BBO vugraph while multi-tasking, one of my favorite occupations. Additionally, running this along with the regular BBO client allows me to watch both tables of a vugaph simultaneously - which begs the question, is this always going to be the case? And if so, how will you handle the inevitable players who will want to kib their own tables? Julie

I have had another thought about this, and yes, I do understand that there is little interest right now in adding to the existing software, and probably even less in adding to the area I am suggesting about, but it seems a fairly simple solution to implement. I know that Fred has put a ton of effort into Full Disclosure, but it seems to me that FD is more a tool used by very advanced players and partnerships, and the bulk of BBO users continue to use the "old convention card" if they use a cc at all. The old convention card opens up and is pinned. Since a very good use of clickable links would be to direct people to more information about a player's system or style, etc, why not allow a clickable link to be placed in the "other" section of that old convention card? Julie

Had identical problem since about 11 Eastern time last night. Edited my bbover.ini port line back from 80 (had changed it due to system hangs and lags) to 9999, problem solved. Now the question is what caused it, and should I edit back to 80 once whatever happened is fixed? Julie sorry - looks like I posted this at exact time as Uday posted his fix. Since this fixed it for me will wait to hear about editing port back to 80.

Or even more simply, add a "lock Playerx's profile" to the player's right click menu, which would keep the profile up until the player's name is right clicked again and "unlock Playerx's profile" toggles it down. I know it would add an extra step for people to learn, but the type of people who want to follow links should be able to figure it out pretty quickly. I do like that the profiles come up so quickly, however I think being able to lock a profile in place would have benefits beyond the clickable links, as there have been times I have "lost" a player profile I was looking at. Thanks, Julie

Well, I know there is little push to make improvements to the existing software right now, but I wanted to get this suggestion in anyway since I don't recall having seen it before and I did a quick search and was unable to find it. A lot of people have personal web pages, either advertising services, detailing systems, or simply expressing themselves. People sometimes put their web addresses into their profiles, but currently they must be manually retyped into a browser. It would be really nice if there were a way to put a "clickable" link into a profile. Thanks, Julie

Sorry Melvy, this has been brought up many times as a potential solution, but Fred has said that reprogramming BBO to allow this is very difficult and not high on the list of priorities. Too bad, because it would solve many issues in the MBC. Julie

Well, that is exactly my point. The system is automated and opaque to most users, nobody seems to know exactly how many boots, or unfinished hands, or internet disconnects will trigger a ban, and there is no published BBO policy regarding autobans and how to appeal them. The general assumption is that they are short, and deserved, and so be it. In my case, abuse told me that the computer knows all, and if it records that I didn't finish enough hands to warrant a ban, that's that, no appeals. It was only my persistence and sense of unfairness that led me to recall the teaching tables and ask if they would have been included in my play records. Abuse was right, the computer was right, I had abandoned too many hands - but I had no idea that my zeal as a beta tester was endangering my status as a player in the MBC. It wouldn't take much to add a help topic regarding autobans and what will trigger them, along with some of the "non-abusive" potential pitfalls. Then if someone appeals to a yellow they can be directed to that page. I have no doubt that the bulk of the bans are warranted, and the bulk of appeals will begin with "I only booted those "experts" who made "novice" plays", etc. But there should be some process in place to assist the true innocents like me. Julie

My experience with the autoban system is that yellows will absolutely defer unbanning to abuse and abuse is in no rush to unban. In my case, I thought that a quck series of internet disconnects (6 in a row, in which I managed to complete 2 games and abandoned one) had triggered a 3 day autoban, and abuse was not only unwilling to lift it but unwilling to discuss it in any way, shape or form. It wasn't until later that I realized that the same day I had set up multiple invisible teaching tables, sat myself in all four seats, changed a setting, and left BBO only to repeat the process - all in order to test a volume setting in the current Beta software which wasn't working for me. That activity, in conjunction with the disconnects, had been enough to trigger the autoban. When I managed to track down abuse again and explained about the testing, the ban was lifted immediately. So - a few suggestions. First of all I think it's important to post somewhere ALL activities which might trigger an autoban. I certainly didn't think that setting myself in all four seats of a teaching table, leaving BBO, returning, and repeating a few times was in any way abusive to anybody, or even that it would be tracked and merged with my playing records, but it was an activity that triggered a high unfinished hand ratio. I would guess the same would happen if one set up a rubber bridge table with GIB and bailed/created a new table each time GIB made an idiotic bid. Secondly, although I understand that the autoban system is often warranted and takes a lot of stress off of abuse, there should be some sort of instant appeal system in place - perhaps abuse can delegate a "lesser yellow" or the person who sits as "bbo help" can listen to autoban cases, ask a few questions, and decide quickly if there is reason for further review. In my case, if abuse had said "those 6 disconnects don't sound like enough, is there anything else you did yesterday that was unusual" it might not have taken me most of the day to remember the teaching table testing, and saved a lot of aggravation. It is easy for you yellows to say that the autoban is minimal and self limiting, but I have to tell you that as someone who ONLY plays in the main bridge club, and who has no history of misbehavior in any regard, I found the autoban to be humiliating, perplexing, and very heavy handed. The general concept that it is over fast doesn't lesson the sting of unfair punishment or lack of appeal process. Julie p.s. I also agree that there should definitely be a way to reserve a seat for a future player while that seat is still occupied, and although that's not specifically about autobanning, I think it would lower "innocent" player booting ratios significantly.

"But Why? What's the problem with banned?" The problem with banned is that a large portion of the ACBL playing population are regulars, people who play multiple ACBLs each week or day, with a set of usual partners chosen from the same pool of ACBL junkies. For those people the ACBL tourneys at BridgeBase ARE BridgeBase, the draw that brings them in regularly. Not only that, but they pay a lot of the bills at our "free" site. When they miss the start for a tourney, for whatever reason, they want to kib their friends, regular partners, closest rivals, potential partners - whoever - in the current ACBL while waiting for the next one to start. Banning kibs from the ACBLs lowers their enjoyment drastically. I don't happen to play ACBLs myself, but I have many friends who do and I prefer to watch them play the tourneys if I can. However, since I don't actually ever pay to play ACBLs I have no leg to stand on in the protest over whether kibs can watch or not. The regular players who are spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year on BBO points have a very legitimate case that banning them from kibbing reduces the experience for them. My suggestion would be instituting some sort of kib application process for the ACBL, allowing kib access one ID at a time based on the personal experience of the ACBL director. Julie

I'm wondering how difficult it would be to change the program so that resting the mouse on the number of kibitzers at a table in any bridge club would bring up a list of who is watching at that table. Sometimes I want to kib with a friend or two and it would be nice to have an easy way to scan the available tables and see where my friends are, as opposed to finding them individually. Thanks, Julie

Hi Geller, It's not perfect but this a good place to start - here is a link to an online hijackthis analyzer that I have used with good results. Simply run HJT, creating a log, and copy and paste the log into the textbox. http://www.hijackthis.de/ Julie

Why not simply disable the "enemy" option for hosts? Even tho they are people too there is really no need to set them as enemies, as they stand out and are not easily forgotten. That way people would have no excuse as to why they missed an important communication. Julie

OK, now I have been autobanned. I was playing on my "old" computer yesterday morning and for some reason my BBO connection was not stable - all other internet functions worked fine but I was booted from BBO several times in a row. I can GUARANTEE that I came back and finished each hand I started, so the "you won't get autobanned if you both start and finish a hand" statement is totally incorrect. I returned immediately after each boot (less than 30 seconds between booting and playing again) and continued with the hand. After the fifth or so boot from BBO I switched computers and played quite a few more hands - I played about 35 hands yesterday, and after the first five was completely stable at the table. My message says that my bail ratio is 50% - finished 5, abandoned 5. And I have been autobanned from playing in the MBC (which is the only place I play) until the 17th. I totally understand your desire to have an easy way to impose penalties on people who misbehave at BBO, but something is very wrong with this system and it really should be examined and addressed. Julie

Fred, OK, I did some testing. First of all I am definitely using the latest version. Secondly the setting doesn't change on the slider bar, it is just the effect that changes. I tested this on two computers, my old and my new one, and it seems that I only have the problem when I restart the computer. Logging in and out of BBO has no effect, moving tables, kibbing, playing, changing id's, etc, doesn't change the setting. But when I restart my computer, even tho the slider bar is where it has always been, the animation is distractingly slow, and I have to futz to get it to the point I prefer. Hope this helps, Julie