EddyHaskel

Thanks, barmar! I was hoping it was something benign like that.

I recently added a new BBO user's name to my friend list. Today I notice that his BBO name shows up in two different locations on the list that appears when I click "People" then choose "Friends." He shows up in the usual place: i.e., near the top of the list in alphabetical order with the other users who also include me on their friends list. But this same new friend's name also shows up further down my list among users whom I follow, but have not added me to their own friends list. All the others in this latter "Follow-only" group appear with a gray background. But this new person shows up with a blue background in both places and when clicked appear to be the same profile. I have been a BBO user for 13 years and have not seen this happen before. Is this new friend logging in from two different devices or IP addresses and somehow showing up more than once? Or is there some other more innocent explanation? I'm using a typical desktop PC, Windows, BBO V3. Thanks. Dave/Eddy

Agree. Why was it removed? At the very least have a BRB button that explains that it no longer works so we don't spend 15 minutes looking for the darn thing!

Join the BIL (Beginner/Intermediate Lounge) -- one of the oldest clubs right here on BBO. Sign up for a mentor. Nicest people on BBO. If you are already more advanced players, join the IAC (Intermediate/Advanced Club), too. You won't regret either choice, guaranteed. Great folks, access to many wonderful teachers, lots of great, safe, and always friendly competition.

Zebraburger?

It does seem like there must be two separate access tags (or priv lists or however club members are identified by the software) for the two different servers, essentially creating two separate groups. Members who had access to the club prior to the server split can see both. Clearly the club membership tags for them got copied to the new server. New members, (those joining since the server split) can only access club functions on the tourney/competitive server but not on the casual side. If that's the case the problem will be how to merge them without causing more headaches?

The Beginner Intermediate Lounge (BIL) has been an important club, participating on BBO and nurturing new and intermediate bridge players since almost the very beginning of the site. The BIL has managed standing free individual 8 board tourneys every morning at 10am ET for years. The limit is 60 players and the tourneys often fill up 10 or 15 minutes before the 10am ET start time. Now that BBO is so busy, The BIL morning tourney often gets killed off right at the start time -- which is a full hour before the newly restricted times for free tourneys. The message the players get just at tournament starting time is (something like): "Tournament Error: Too Many Tables," and poof! the whole thing is instantly cancelled! Questions: Why does this happen even though the start time is an hour before the restricted time period? Is there a new rule we don't know about? Why does this happen with no warning? Neither the players who signed up nor the TD gets a message ahead of time. Seems to me if there are "too many tables" then this could be forewarned ahead of time, instead of waiting until the last second when dozens of people are standing by waiting for the event to start. Is there some lower number of players that would allow a tourney to run without being cancelled? 50? 40? Is there a new start time restriction which has not yet been published? Is there some time other than the top of the hour which would make cancellation less likely? Can any new restrictions be communicated to the clubs so they can let us know ahead of time if a tourney is going to happen or not? We all love BBO and will do whatever we can to help us all get through these trying times. But ya' gotta' let us -- and your clubs -- know how to help! Note: I do not speak for the management of the BIL. I am not an official with the BIL. I'm just a long time member and supporter of the club and of BBO. Thanks for all you do to help make bridge a better and more accessible game for all of us.

This is the HTML5 (the newest) version: BBO V3 This the older Flash version: BBO V2 Either version works with Chrome. I don't know about Edge. Anyway, friends don't let friends use Edge. :rolleyes:

barmar, Appreciate all the capacity issues and realize Voice is not a high priority at this time. Here's some anecdotal evidence that may (or may not) help when techs get time to diagnosing voice problems... (At a Teaching table today, all on BBO V3 of course) seems to be browser related: Firefox, (v 71 through 74) Windows 7 or 10 -- voice does NOT work! Apparently, (some?) FF users can speak, and users on other browsers can listen/hear them; but Firefox users cannot listen/hear. Chrome browser -- Windows 7 and 10 -- Voice seems to work OK both for listening and speaking. Scattered reports of Firefox working as recently as last Friday. Also scattered reports that voice on FF worked on Windows XP recently, but zero FF users had voice working today (at a teaching table with several dozen users). At first I thought it was a Mozilla/Firefox issue with their latest update (V 74.0), but it appears that older FF versions also have the problem now, regardless of windows OS version.. At least one report that voice using Opera browser worked as recently as last Friday, but does not work now. Good luck with all the fixes you are all working on.

I had a similar problem today. What worked for me: Browser setting: - Delete cookies and site data for bridgebase.com - reload browser tab (or simply refresh browser) - you will need to re-enter your username and password if you had these automatically saved using the "remember me" function. Hope this helps for your problem.

barmar, Thanks for quick reply! It's back up and running; and you are right -- allowing only bridgebase.com is the only javascript needed for the site to function. In the intervening minutes I tried a couple experiments.... Here is what worked: - deleted all BBO related cookies and browser site data; - turned enhanced tracking ON (previously I had an exception for bridgebase.com); - closed and reopened the BBO tab with new settings, and voila! Maybe I had some old cookie that stopped working properly or something. Or, maybe because I was not allowing any of the tracking sites to use javascript while "allowing" bridgebase.com to track caused a problem. In any case, all settled now. Many thanks, Dave/Eddy

I am careful about which domains are allowed to process javascript via my browser. Of course I whitelist bridgebase.com as always trusted. But starting on March 14, I can no longer log in on "V3," the html browswer "newest" version. It times out and thinks I am not connected to the internet. This is a classic sign that one or more domains requesting javascript access are not getting it. I look at the domains that would automatically have javascript privs on login if I allowed all, and that list is extensive -- at least 19 domains other than bridgebase.com are trying to write javascript when I attempt to log in. I need to know which of them are required in order to log using BBO v3 in via my browser (Firefox 74.0 16bit) so I can allow them without allowing all. Interestingly, I CAN still log in using the old windows client. I have been trying hard to adapt to the new "V3" (it hasn't been easy), forcing myself to keep using it even though many of the things we all loved about the old Windows client have disappeared. But that's fodder for a different forum entry. Please tell me which domains now require javascript access so I can allow them by choice. Thanks!

Seems like a reasonable idea. Possible abuse of this change could be a player who simply doesn't like another person could blacklist them and prevent kibitzing arbitrarily and without actual cause. Perhaps a compromise would be to have the host/TD of the tourney able to prevent certain kibitzers while allowing everyone else. If some malevolent kibitzer showed up and bothered one of the other players, they could simply ask the host/TD to bounce that individual kibitzer.

K and R says south is worth 13.8. 10% may not have opened it, but they should have.

Thank you for the reply. I understand that BAM events are challenging to present on vugraph (and almost dizzying to try to watch! LOL). I wonder if there's a way to assign commenters to follow a particular pair during a session, and maybe post that list somewhere we can find it. That way, we viewers could follow that commenter, and perhaps get a clearer picture of what's going on as it's happening. We all have our favorite teams to follow and some of us have favorite commenters to follow, as well, and this would help a little bit in guiding viewers which tables to watch. At any rate, it would be better than bouncing almost randomly among the various tables as they open and close throughout a session. Also, it would be helpful if the commenters could discuss (what they know of) the leaderboard as it changes throughout a session. This is probably an ACBL issue, but it sure would be nice if they could post results in a more timely fashion. Again, thanks for your timely reply -- and to your prompt replies to almost all the BBF queries I have seen. It's good to know you are watching and answering stuff, even in the out of the way infrequently parts of the forum like this one. Cheers. Eddy

Is there a reasonable way to follow the Reisinger Board-A-Match competition on BBO? It is really hard for me to tell what's going on, at least compared with other types of matches, what with new "rooms" popping up then closing after every board and no way to follow the overall scoring (that I could figure out). Does the same vugraph operator follow a particular pair throughout a given session? If that's the case, and if the operators were not "invisible" we could follow that operator from board to board. That way, at least, we could more easily follow the progress of one pair through a whole session. At any rate, I am open to suggestions from more seasoned BAM followers about how to make more sense of the tournament as it is being played. Many thanks for your ideas, Eddy

Another issue: In the original version and (I think) in BBOv2/Flash version, when you kibitzed a player in a tournament, then hit the "back" button you would be taken to the list of tables still playing in the tournament. The newest BBO version does not do that. Instead it returns you to wherever you were before you started kibitzing. This is not a helpful feature. Now we have to figure out the number of tournament, go look it up and finally get a list of the tables still playing. The old way makes more sense and made it easier to see what else was happening elsewhere in the tournament you were just watching. Is it possible to revert to the old method? Failing that, is it possible to add a button that accomplishes the same thing? Thanks for listening.

Is there a way to make north always be positioned at the top of the display? E.g when kibitzing all 4 hands the configuration is "normal," I.e., N W E S But when kibitzing north only (or playing as north), it reverses the layout and places N to the bottom of the screen, i.e., S E W N It feels even more discombulating when sitting east or west and having it move me to the bottom -- what is normally the south position. Did I miss something in the settings that sets north always at the top instead of moving it to the bottom when playing? <edited for clarity...should always preview before posting :)>

I doubt that the intent of the initial question, "Props and Ideas for the New Software," was so we could all jump on one idea and hammer away at why we may or may not think it's a good idea. I'm pretty sure the BBO designers can figure out which ones make sense without all of the piling on and yammering about one we may think isn't helpful. So onward, in hopes of changing the subject and perhaps the tone of the discussion... I think BBO-v3 is great leap forward. I couldn't stand BBO-v2, the "Browser/Flash version." Lucky for me, as some sort of "legacy" user, I was allowed to continue using the old original Windows client version for some unspecified period of time. There are still a few things about that original version that I miss, but the more I use the newest software the more I like it. One small complaint is how the bid box disappears once the contract is set. You can recall it, but it appears smack in the middle of the table, covering up the cards being played. If there were some other bit of display real estate to display the bidding after the contract is set, it would be a big improvement. I'm pretty sure the BBO staff has already heard about this from most if not all the vugraph commentators. I do miss the realtime updating of the original software as people sit or stand from kibitzing or enter or leave BBO, etc. I understand that since it is not client-side software, a server based system can't update every single coming or going all at once in real time. Perhaps a refresh-all-users button could get close to this? Finally, there is nothing even close to the ability to load and run the old Bridgemaster series. I know for all of you experts this may not be a big deal. But for newer players that feature was a thing of beauty. I know that ACBL has made an attempt at making those deals available for browser use, but the implementation is feeble, at best. If we want to attract younger new users and bridge players, we need to make those tools work well here on BBO v-3. The new voice commentary function is about a hundred times better than BBO-v2's Flash Player implementation. If you ever watch vugraph matches with voice commentators, or attend a lesson at a teaching table where voice is enabled, I urge you to try it out. The audio is clear and crisp and easier to use for both commentators and listeners. Now anyone can open a teaching table and enable the voice functions for themselves or for anyone else at the table, freed from the tyranny of Skype or other third party audio software.

Voice commentary on BBO V3 has been working nearly perfectly here all week (USA rural midwest on a substandard DSL internet connection) using Firefox Quantum on Windows 7. I have not tried other browsers, operating systems or mobile devices yet. As others have said, you can see the voice button at the bottom right of the display only when there are active voice commentators. Moreover, I have had no problems setting it up on teaching tables. Compared to the old Flash version, the audio is crystal clear -- almost too clear, as we can hear every Bic flick when Pelu lights up a cigarette and every puff on Walddk2's pipe, not to mention the occasional stomach gurgle or tea kettle whistling in the background from another room! Most of these sounds are not at all annoying, just amusing. One night I honestly thought I had left the tea kettle on the stove in my kitchen when what I actually heard came from somebody's kitchen in Scotland! Also, one night we started a little parlor game, trying to estimate how many times Peter lit up a smoke...click -- that's one.... click again -- that's two, etc. Hey, it was late at night during a string of predictable part-score boards and yes, sometimes I am too easily amused. The audio breaks up badly whenever two commentators try to speak at once, but by day 2 of the round robins most commentators had figured that out and did not try to talk over each other. Rarely, there will be funky audio -- actual feedback or echoes, or the weird swooshing sound that audio pros call "flanging," This is almost always cured by turning off the voice feature, waiting a few moments, then turning it on again. This seems to solve problems both for listeners as well as commentators. It is imperative that the commentators use headsets with a decent microphone, or a standalone microphone plus earphones. It sounds pretty bad if using a built-in laptop microphone and laptop speakers. There are improvements that can be made and I'm sure Roland and others have already suggested them. One oddity is that the little volume slider next to each commentator's name does nothing. I.e., there is no way for a listener to adjust the volume of one commentator as compared to the other(s). So, if one commentator's audio is quite loud and another's is quite soft, there is nothing the listener can do to even out their levels. I've also noticed times when I wished one or more commentators would use their mute buttons when their ambient environments get a little noisy. Unlike the previous BBO versions there is no longer a push to talk button; i.e., the commentator microphones are "always hot" unless they mute themselves. I haven't heard anything cringe worthy or embarrassing yet, but that is bound to happen eventually. The most important needed feature change has nothing to do with voice but BBO V3's visual display as it does not allow us to see the bid sequence of a contract once the bidding ends, without covering up the center part of the table. That is, we can see either the cards being played OR the bidding that occurred, but not both at the same time like we could with both older versions. It seems like there is plenty of visual real estate to show the bidding sequence somewhere on or around the table, without covering up the center portion where we see the cards being played. I hope all users will give the new voice system a try. In most ways, it is a vast improvement over the BBO-V2 (Flash) version. Plus, there is no need for the Flash player at all, which is in itself a huge improvement. Kudos to the software programmers! I also have a lot of admiration and respect for the commentators on the Bermuda Bowl sessions so far. They faced a steep learning curve as the setup and mechanics of using V3 voice are quite different from what they had become accustomed to with V2 and most of them are not audio or computer professionals, yet by day two or three everyone I heard sounded just great. Yes, there are still improvements to be made, but we should be patient Remember, Uday is in Wuhan concentrating on playing high level bridge right now, not here addressing all our little complaints! Good luck to Uday and all the players, and big thanks to the commenators -- both voice and typed chat -- for all you do to help make our vugraph experiences come to life. PS: Al Holland is da man.

When playing, how to tell it not to make us sit at "bottom" of table when we are not south? I prefer to sit at top when north, at bottom when south, at left when west and at right when east. Can't find that setting. In general, I think V3 is an excellent upgrade. It's faster, it's more compatible with more operating systems, it's https, Flash-free, and html-5 compatible. Great work! (edited for typos -- I need a new spacebar... heh)

I really like the new html5 version... many of the best features of the "old" (windows client) version and the flash version...without the flash, and with https, to boot! V3 is also quite fast! Some of the features moving around will take some getting used to. As soon as voice/audio commentary at vugraph and teaching tables is ready, I may abandon the old version for good. For network admins: are there any ports that if allowed through a firewall might speed things up (other than the default ports 80/http and 443/https)? I know when I allow port 1935 for the flash version, traffic flows much better and reduces hiccups for the voice commentary.

Most browsers support Ctrl + (hold control key and hit the + sign) to enlarge ("zoom") what you see on your display. Crtl - makes it smaller.

In second seat, you can't double first seat opener's weak two spade bid with less than an opener. You had 5 hearts and 11 points. If for some reason you feel you must bid there, just bid your hearts. Responder's redouble is NOT a rescue, it is showing a hand they expect to make at the two level. When advancer passes the xx (showing a weak hand without four hearts or a five card minor), you MUST bid. I realize your discomfort having to bid hearts now at the 3 level with your 11 points, but you made that bed and must lie in it. You passed, they had an easy game hand in spades and you went -2200. Good teaching moment.

Thanks... right... "nicest." I googled for "friendliest" on bridgebase.com and found several articles about friendly people (who I'm sure are probably nice, too :)) but not the article in question.