shoeless

You don't have to bail from the table - just hit redeal before hand is finished and no result is logged. The real issue is that many people play against/with the bots and dont consider the implications for field so allow bizarre results to come to fruition. My concern with this concern is that having played several hundreds hands with bots only - can safely say I don't think on average those hands skew the comparisons very much more than a weak pair might in the field or a psycho bidder (and we all know they are out there). I think this is getting overcooked. However, just in case,I select total points scoring anyway - as requested by the powers that be - 'go along to get along' - like holy cow - I really care about getting IMPs or MP results when playing with bots? NOT!!

Well you are all over this one PB - please leave something for the rest of us to say occassionally B)))

Remarkable innovation!!! Call it Ashtray - Birdbath - Bidding Matrix - Bidding Tree or Box of Chocolates and in the end people won't care much as the value is not in the name but in the content. When I first saw the initials BBO I thought of Bobo the Clown. 'Full disclosure' works for me, but inherent in that name, are the rantings that will arise when someone fails to completely flesh out their system Director!!! They say full disclosure but look at this 3D bid!!!! We were damaged!!!! How about AAAFD - An Attempt At Full Disclosure for the semantics freaks? I do have one strong recommendation. Get someone working on a user' manual or the FD 'help' file right away - or even a team from these forums. Those that understand their systems well and understand software interfaces will have great joy in playing with this tool. Those of us however who are mentally challenged in one or both of these areas need help. I would go so far as to say that down the road, there should be a regular training session in the lecture theatre on the use of this tool. (mind you, I also think that a twice weekly seminar on the features and tricks of BBO would be valuable). I think there is a vocabulary that high level bridge players and software buffs understand in this program that is somewhat unique and not easily understood by us lesser mortals - 'heh? what is it asking me to do?' I suppose with all great innovations - it is the highest level that gets it and enjoys it first and proves it and creates a standard of usage and creates an attraction to it for the masses. Hats off to you BBO.

I was unaware of this constraint, but I will pitch my support behind BBO management to know and understand, better than any of us, what is good for BBO. We are here, we're playing and having a wonderful time - so they must be doing something right. Having said that, I will also heap great praise on Foxwhiz for the contribution he has made to the BBO environment. From the days when he organized a daily series of Foxes and Wolves team matches to his involvement in BBO Fans events and his Foxwhiz tourneys, he has certainly provided IMHO a high quality and entertaining environment in which to play the game we all love. If Foxie has gone out of bounds a little - I vote for cutting him some slack - still think in the +/- column this boy is way ahead. Thanks Donnie - keep truckin'

I think there should be a number #3 on the list - Public floggings of directors who make bad rulings, have ridiculous rules for their tourneys, etc. - oops scratch that - it already exists.

Two things I appreciated on another site I played on were a "horn" and the ability to check 'pings' of the the players at the table. There are times when someone gets distracted and isn't aware it's their turn to bid or play so the 'horn' can be used to alert them. Unfortunately, I have also seen the horn used very inappropriately - so in this case there is bad with the good. Checking ping is nice because you can see if person is having connectioin difficulties and you sometimes avoid problems knowing that. More info on the profile is great for pickup pards I think. Good ideas.

Sigh! What part of 'you guys are too good for me' did you miss? As I don't play sayc or acol, I really shouldn't have bothered offering a response. I agree with the group with the largest number of agreed responses.

I think you have a homing device for inadequate directors Candybar - my recommendation - turn it off - find and play in the tournaments directed by people who don't do those things that annoy you so much. To my mind trashing people who are trying (likely learning in the process), maybe don't know as much as you, and giving their time to organize something for others, isn't exactly saintly behaviour. I do not believe for one minute that this situation is as poisonous as you make it out to be. Thousands of people play here everyday and we have a handful of forum users sniping at bad directors. Are they bad? Likely in some situations - yup. Are they destroying BBO? Not even close. Are they destroying your bridge life? Nope, think this is a blast for you. I remember some dark days when I was terminally cranky and a friend of mine saying, "Shoeless, your garbage is starting to stink - you should take it out."

You guys are way to good for me. 1s-1nt-3s-4s - swish

Thanks for the topic Matelda - I really need to think about what I want to say in these situations both with regular pards and pick-ups. I think I will make some changes and with my regular pards I will chat with them before our next game about those changes. I certainly think silence on an opps misplay is a thing I will adopt.

I will agree with you Roland that other than the culture issues that present obsacles - women are quite capable of competing with men in bridge. Take a look at the last couple of NEC results as an example. It may well be that the old boys club in bridge supports and sustains women's events to protect their club from further invasion. Or it might just simply be as you suggest that men believe that women can't compete equally with men in bridge. On the other hand one might argue that providing women's events is a recognition of the inequity in cultural opportunity for a large percentage of women to compete at a high level and the maintenance of these events is an attmept not to lose a showcase for talented women players and to continue to encourage women to be involved in high level bridge against some pretty strong odds given the world we live in. Aree these events degrading to women? Well guess that depends on the motive for them - could be. But I would ask the women that populate these events if they feel degraded. Clearly if the bridge poiticians dissolved women's events, it would be a powerful recognition of the potential equality of the genders in the world of bridge. I would be interested to hear someone from the WBF's Women in Bridge Committee on this topic. I personally waffle on the issue - think I need more information. Where I do take exception is when you say that "only by dumping women's events, will women get the chance to improve their bridge." Balderdash. Only when men can have babies and nurture their families with the same genetic imprint as women, and society changes its mores to reflect that, will we have a level playing field. But in the meantime - women can improve their game regardless of the bridge playing structure that is out there. Dumping these events isn't going to change the barriers they face. But can they do it as things are today? Damn right they can. It's a matter of choice - are the sacrifices that come with the choice worth it? Only the individual knows for sure.

Sorry guess some links would be helpful: http://www.wbfteaching.org/ http://www.bridgeiscool.com/ and you might go into BBO>Explore Bridge>Learn to PLay Bridge

Wayne - the WBF and ACBL sites have good teaching resources available.

Q: How many Contract Bridge players does it take to change a Light Bulb? A: Five. One to change it; their partner to stare at them in complete confusion; one opposing player to ask the partner what they think the changer means by this; the other opponent to complain to the tournament director that there was a deliberate hesitation before the light bulb was changed; and the tournament director to agree and have the old bulb put back in.

In the present BBO environment and maybe a long time to come - we are left with the responibility of finding a suitable game. with a little information that might be easier to do - I suggest that stats on hands played and unfiinished hands that come up automatically on our profile will be useful in avoiding players who are runners. Over time - we all disconnect but not significantly in terms of hands played so think the numbers will quickly tell the story. Programmable? Don't know.

When dummy speaks in such ways about the play of the hand - I simply but directly advise them that it is unethical to do so and ask them not to do it again. i am not likely to change these entrenched behaviours on BBO but i believe I am responsibler to encourage better ethics when and where I can. Most times the player who does this has no idea what they in effect may be telling their pard. when they don't they usually ask "What's the matter with that and I tell them politely"

Actually if players had to enter the table area first then sit at a vacant seat the problem would be controllable - people then would ask "need 1?" before sitting and the seat could be protected that way. alternatively if the table host had a quick button that said reserve seat for last player sitting there - it might also help solve the problem.

I had the very same question last night. I have no idea about programming this function into the software but to be able to simply register for a tourney from your table would be a nice to have. It is difficult to reserve one's seat although doable if the table host is quick and amenable to doing it. Failing getting a function to register from the table - a stand and reserve seat function would be nice to facilitate this.

I know what you mean and I wonder if the answer is that the pop-up simply dissolves after 30 seconds or so. It is easy to see when friends are on-line in the lobby view.

Heh? Did you really put forward this poll? When the tough Chinese teams are in Estoril there will be 45 million people back home who are bridge players who might enjoy watching a broadcast in their language. Having experienced operating a 4 table broadcast in 4 languages in Seoul the question that I think is salient is not "Should we offer broadcasts in other than English?", that question is "When will viewers be able to click on the language of their choice, at the table of their choice?" Clearly the challenge of finding adequate commentators will be increased, and I think now is the time to start thinking about how that challenge is going to be met, Roland. Regional or zone and/or country co-ordinators who support your work in this area might be the way to go.

Right - it is crucial, no question. One thing that would be nice to have in the manual is a one page table for at-a-glance trouble shooting - "if this happens - here is how to correct it" or "if this happens - check this". I had the rare pleasure of handing over a broadcast to a young Hong Kong player who is the keyboarding champion there. To watch him enter by keystrokes was incredible - his eyes never left the table during the auction or play. If an operator has that skill - that is definitely the preferred method. Alas, I don't.

As a rookie to vugraph operation, I managed the broadcast from Seoul - progressing from single table to two table to four table coverage for the finals - 30 sessions in all with more than 60 tables broadcast - with no small amount of help from David Thompson and Nick Fahrer of Australia (Thanks and thanks and thanks guys). Throughout the problems that arose were either hardware or operator related. The software was flawless. Hats off to BBO for making it so easy for bridge events to take their game to the world - I am in awe. What's amazing is that I had a few small suggestions to improve the software utility and already at least one of them has been implemented - does Fred never sleep?

LOL Slothy - you are so far ahead on this one you are about to lap the field.

Amazing facility - i have programmed it to practice lebensohl over interference and weak 2's, ogust, bergen among other things. Takes a little tinkering but most anything is doable.

Any chance your pard would pre-empt with 2 bullets?