Let's try to keep in mind that we are all after the same thing for the same reasons (quality vugraph coverage because it is enjoyable to watch and good for bridge). We may not all agree on how best to accomplish this and we may not all like each other personally, but insulting each other will only make it harder for us to work together to achieve the goals we all want. In this thread some of us (including me) have used words we later regretted and subsequently apologized. For a while it seemed like everyone had returned to civil discussion of the issues that matter, but unfortuntely the personal attacks have started again. Roland in particular does not deserve this sort of abuse given the massive effort he has put into vugraph during the past 5 years. If you don't like Roland personally or don't like some of his actions, that is your business. But please try to keep in mind the staggering number of people-hours of enjoyment that Roland's work has resulted in. Also keep in mind that Roland has never asked for or received anything in return and that he frequently has to overcome plenty of adversity (bad Internet connections, people complaining about commentators, poorly trained operators, disorganized tournament organizers...) in order to get his job done. Please give the guy a break - he is one of the few people in the world who has really made a positive difference to the lives of many many bridge players. On another matter, while I agree with Dave that an onsite BBO server should not be necessary (because it should be possible to arrange for reliable Internet access from anywhere), the fact that we used such a server in Istanbul was not the reason for the serious connection problems during the vugraph coverage of this tournament. We would have had the same problems regardless of whether or not a dedicated server was used (because both local and Internet access were messed up as a result of construction work being done at the playing site). The WBF takes their onsite vugraph very seriously and I think it is a reasonable safety play for them to use a local BBO server for the purposes of vugraph (presuming that they can ensure that the local network is at least as reliable as the Internet). Dave correctly points out that using a local BBO server does result in some logistic problems (both for the tournament organizers and for the owners of BBO). If I was in charge I would probably choose to take my chances with the Internet (and of course make certain that a reliable Internet connection is available), but I don't think the WBF's decision to go the other way during their biggest tournaments (where audience vugraph typically has a lot more than a few people watching) is not at all unreasonable. Anyways, let's all try to be friends again :D Fred Gitelman Bridge Base Inc. www.bridgebase.com
