BBO Story Thread

[inquiry]

Mike (Trpltrbl) and I seldom agree on things bridge-related. But his latest post in the BBO Story thread, he says something I think that has a lot of merit. He said, "completely irrelavant. This really su***".

 

I have my own opinions about the thread (you can imagine, given I have not posted in it)...but in the beginning it seemed like fun. Perhaps it has drifted away from that. Let me share some statics about this thread with the community. Up to now, it contains 252 post, each around 6 words each. A couple of people have complained to me about this thread, and with Mike's public comments, I thought I would poll the community on what they think of it.

[csdenmark]

5 words exactly. - That's the rule for the story.

[aisha759]

As one of the "players" and avid participants in this thread, I am glad you decided to take this poll Ben, and i voted for #2...

This thread started out in good fun, and there were a few rules: it had to follow, (it didnt necessarily have to make sense) but most important, we wanted to bring in nicks of BBO players, bridge terminology which would be shown in red for readers to notice..... As I recall, Fred was reading the posts once, and he had a positive attitude about it... he actually said it was nice and that he liked it.

It went haywire though, and i dont want to get into why, and it is not about it not making sense, it is about it not following the previous sentence, and not using correct BBO nicks and bridge terms.... anyway, I'm glad its over, and YESSSSSS it was a lot of fun, except for a few who tried to ruin it on purpose.... but to each his own i say!

 

Have a nice day

 

Aisha

[slothy]

i agree with Aisha, which is ironic as we seldom agree on anything, bridge-related or otherwise B)

 

I actually voted for 3.

 

I introduced the thread as i was curious. I am no longer curious :)

[spwdo]

hi,

 

i guess u can close /delete it or whateever, i only dont understand ppl complaining bout it??????

 

Why read it, its diffrent in other topics where im almost obligated to read some members replies who to say the least are not on my my favourites writers , so no why to filter them out

 

Others parts of the forum not suitable for me( italian forum /expert forum) i do not read.

 

Maybe a suggestion for the "complainers", do not go to story thread, do not read upon it, DO NOT GO THERE TO WRITE B) :) :)

 

Was fun for those who liked it, unfortunaly we saw some sabotaging :P attempts :D .

 

 

 

Maybe its time to start something completely new and unseen before, lets say a six word story thread :D

 

We happy to make inquirys

regulary storythread number of posts

count to know whats populair

Sorry Partner Well Done Opss

[csdenmark]

NO Ben - now you seems on your way down the line again.

 

- I dont ask for silly questions to be deleted!

 

- I dont ask for wrong or silly answers to be deleted!

 

- I dont ask for topics only of interest for a few to be deleted!

 

- I dont ask for postings in languages I dont understand to be deleted!

 

If I did so I would be very happy to receive the decline: NO - freedom of speech!

 

You may imagine how much left of the BBO Forum Database if my guidelines for stuff of relevance was to apply to. - Thank Heaven they are not to apply to. Nobody's guidelines to apply to. That's the basic of free societies.

 

The only problem here is to set up a poll to query whether human rights are to be applied.

[Erkson]

...freedom of speech!

 

...human rights...

Again with that !

 

I am totally fed up.

 

freedom of speech... human rights... unisex marriages... are no more than mind constructions imagined in Europe or USA at a moment of History. Maybe one day they will be considered like other deliriums which passed away.

 

Many cultures live very well without them.

 

Freedom of speech is for me like a pouring faucet that somebody forgot to close.

 

Erkson.

[spwdo]

...freedom of speech!

 

...human rights...

Again with that !

 

I am totally fed up.

 

freedom of speech... human rights... are no more than mind constructions imagined in Europe at a moment of History. Maybe one day they will be considered like other deliriums which passed away.

 

Many cultures live very well without them.

 

Freedom of speech is for me like a pouring faucet that somebody forgot to close.

 

Erkson.

hi

 

wondering why u are so expert in telling what is a "delirium", maybe u drunk to much , dont know :) .Maybe some day ppl that are "fed-up" will come to senses and stop fighting wars over freeedom of speech,oil,religion,bridgeplay&useless story threads B)

 

 

But we were talking here about an innocent "story thread" where nobody was harmed, and what was very easy to not read if u dont want too.

Why edit or stop something that as all things in life reaches his end naturally,

this asking opnion for doing a supported by others "euthanasia" is i believe not needed and inpropiate .

 

I even dont like the halfediting on trpltrbls replie, thats showing dislike for something and therefore doing a not-professionel job, maybe warn yourself for it Ben since nobody else can(u proven to do much better then that in the past, nothing personnal Ben but just the way i see it , sorry no offence ment by it)

 

 

Marc

 

p.S Claus , u see miracles do happen, we finaly at least not disagree on a issue.Not getting in the huma right movement but u make as far as im concerned a couple of good points

[Erkson]

wondering why u are so expert in telling what is a "delirium", maybe u drunk to much , dont know B)

(localized?) form of humour totally unintelligible here.

 

Erkson

[csdenmark]

YES it is Erkson. A lot of people don't know and don't understand the basic of our societies. Atrocities of all kinds you therefore see everywhere.

 

In matters of principles - please be serious and serious only!

[Erkson]

YES it is Erkson. A lot of people don't know and don't understand the basic of our societies. Atrocities of all kinds you therefore see everywhere.

 

In matters of principles - please be serious and serious only!

I try hard, Claus, but I can't look at "our societies" as a model for the World.

 

Erkson

[spwdo]

YES it is Erkson. A lot of people don't know and don't understand the basic of our societies. Atrocities of all kinds you therefore see everywhere.

 

In matters of principles - please be serious and serious only!

I try hard, Claus, but I can't look at "our societies" as a model for the World.

 

Erkson

hi,

 

 

didnt see any suggesting about "our societies" beeing model for the world , this started as a thread/poll wether or not stop a thing not liked by others , so its all about allowance and tolerating other things that are not hurting others in any way. A demand for support for deleting something that some dont like.

 

 

So after every post in whatever area we shoud ask in a poll wheter or not something has to be deleted when its stupid/non bridgerelated/opinion not chared by majority ??????

 

 

Im not suggesting free speech, i think smarter then me man or woman shoud decide what is harmfull,rasist and some other criteraes as well but i think when nobody is harmed just let it be, thats all

 

 

Marc

[inquiry]

The thread will stay. Thanks for the votes. But just a few notes on the comments made here.

 

First, I agree with Aisha that the purpose of the thread was taken over by others, for reason unknown. Perhpas to change themselves from novice to beginner posters by getting cheap post. Who knows? One poster who has joined recently has now gotten themsevles in the top 75 of all posters on the BBO and has only one post (so far) not in that thread. And I think this person was one of those hijacking the purpose of the thread. It is interesting that slothy, the starter of the thread, voted to delete it.

 

Second, censorship. Well, all I did in this poll was to raise a question here. A question dealing with more than that one thread. I think we can all agree that the post had nothing to do with "GENERAL BRIDGE DISCUSSION". That forum is specifically for "talk about bridge, systems, conventions, upcoming events, and more". Whatever you want to say about that thread, it wasn't a bridge discussion. As you know, the rules of this site clearly state post in each forum should be appropriate. I suspect that thread (and this one) should have been under "General BBO discussion".

 

So on two grounds, according the rules of this site, I could have deleted that thread at anytime. I repeat the rule here for you...

 

Keep posts on-topic and in the correct boards. We will move/delete threads that are in an improper place. and as I noted, it is in the wrong place, and it has drifted far off topic.

 

And to Claus and Marc. I will address your "censorship" concerns here. In the US, our first constitutionan Amendment deals with free speech. It says, "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." The purpose of this amendment is to protect even the most offensive and controversial speech from government suppression. But, try to use the F-word on public airways, or try to exercise your "freedoom of speech" by exposing your breast during the halftime of the superbowl, as Janet Jackson did, and you will find that freedom of speech isn't quite as free as it seems. In society there are some rules we all have to follow. In the global society that makes up the bridge base forum, those rules are stated in the "rules of this site".

 

Censorship that is regulated is that by the goverment, and at least in the US, censorship by the goverment is illegal (with some notable exception.. like child pornography). Non-goverment entities can exercise "censorship" For instance, IF you want to start a right-wing newspaper, you don't have to allow people from the left to express their veiws in you paper. Rather than calling this censorship of course, they will refer to it as "editorial decisions". If I had deleted the thread (with an appropriate vote here), it would have been an editorial decision because the thread is outside the stated content for the forum it is in.

 

So unless you have proof material removed from this BBO is at the direction of the goverment, the extremely few changes that happen here are editorial decisions consistent with the "rules of this site" and has nothing to do with censorship.

[mishovnbg]

Hi all!

My vote was to ignore and leave people to enjoy their game. It is true that this forum is for bridge discussions, but great game Bridge have also social aspect of communication between people and their understanding. I like to play and communicate with members of this forum, because reading their posts I learn much about them, like about any of my friends and I feel them similar. If that non-bridge post help to improve palyer's relationship, it becomes bridge oriented, no matter how strange it looks like...

Have a fun and nice Bridge all friends♥♥♥!

 

P.S. Ben, eccentric and clever men like Slothy are very useful for BBO community, because like king's jester in the past they show without fear weakness and nonsense. In BBO forum his post showed wrong way of determining skill of any poster by number of posts, despite what kind they are. Need to notice that unlike one expert poster, who reach his statust by posting lot of nonsense, Sloth's post had excellent social role as well as mind gymnastics helpful for bridge players.

 

Please don't bother unnecessary nice Ben, who have lot of important for BBO work to do without your jokes...

 

Misho

[csdenmark]

Yes Ben - censorship is nothing about abolishing editorial rights and duties. It is the right not to be handicapped by arbitrarial solutions.

 

This means you have the rights to set up the policy and the duty to see to that the policy is the guideline for rulings.

 

it would have been an editorial decision because the thread is outside the stated content for the forum it is in.

Lets take this as an example. You have the rights to delete all threads and postings in a wrong section but you have no right deleting only those you dont like yourself. I have the impression you try to be helpful and switch threads into the right section. So would be your duty here too. You cannot claim rights to delete only this thread according to posted in a wrong section. You certainly need to rule quick as possible and not after 250 postings.

 

I think I have heard something about some people who have tried to intermidate the thread. Here you have special duties guarding the rights of people lawfully to pursue their objectives. Your duty is in such cases to intervene for penalizing those people undermining others rights. Your personal preferences are of no relevance but if you have to guard rights you distaste yourself it will be wise to guard those rights very carefully to avoid misunderstandings.

[spwdo]

Keep posts on-topic and in the correct boards. We will move/delete threads that are in an improper place. and as I noted, it is in the wrong place, and it has drifted far off topic.

Hi Ben , this makes sense and i agreed with this reason but the way you edited or came with this asking support for deleting something that is not your favourite thread to say the least made me replie in the way i did.

 

Im not in the cival right movement for free speech , just letting know the above motivation for this poll is not the right one imo.

 

To misho , nice you stick up for a friend and good that u noticed the hard work Ben does for BBO but i want to let you know that sounding the "well done Ben" &"dont bother Ben"horn too much isnt good + doing that seems that u are forgetting others(lots do this i m afraid)

A. he might start getting the idea he is flawless

B.Others might think he is the only one donating to BBO

C. Some might even think for example a td never gets to deal with stupid jokes/stupid questions/rude comments and other less amusing things

D.when i ask my td friends to be more actif on the forum they say to me "sorry marc, we cant , we work, then host 4/5 hours a day and like to play a baord or 10 too"

 

 

 

So the next time you are playing in one or the other tourney or in one of your long sessions in main, remeber those tds donating a lot of their time to others and know they will never reach worldclassposter or worldclassplayer status but are apprecaited at least from some.

 

Ps. dont want to sound hars, had a terrible day (pc format), and beeing hearing to much tds feeling unappreaciated while seeing others getting the compliments they deserved.

 

 

note that i m not signing this thread as BBO TD FRIENDS( when i do this is shared opnion)now i m trying to support and show my apprecaition for all the work td do without getting their day in the sun(not talking about me, i feel lucky knowing them in person and having them as friends=is more then enough for me

 

 

spwdo

[Shrike]

You have the rights to delete all threads and postings in a wrong section but you have no right deleting only those you dont like yourself.

Yes he does. Yes, BBO as an entity does. You don't like this policy (which there is no evidence is what is being enforced. . .). You think it's unfair. Great; say so. But don't claim that they don't have the "right" to do it, when it is clear that, legally and morally, they do.

 

They asked what we thought. We responded to the poll. The decision was made. Now relax, and go play bridge.

[Free]

I just don't get the point of all this... people are having fun, in a way it has 'something' to do with bridge (BBO nicks as a matter of fact), and because it's sooo popular it should be deleted?? :) :)

I don't know where all these topic-killers come from, but I have only 1 advise for them: GET OUT YOUR BASEMENT, SEE SOMETHING FROM THE WORLD AND LET SOMEONE ELSE HAVE FUN! Djeez, I find it really SILLY that people are complaining about this. ;)

 

Perhaps there's a chance that some people want to get their post-total up, but who cares anyway?? I never look at the ammount of posts someone has. I just know if a post comes from certain people that it's worth reading for sure. And reaching the top-75? Woohoo, heavy danger! I know others which came here and the first time I read any post of them they had already 50+ posts, some relevant, some not. The entire forum was modified by posts on even very old topics, but nobody complained then... :)

 

Anyway, this thread would've stopped (happens with all extremely-fast extremely-popular things), so just have some patience - too late now.

In the meantime, this thread itself has as much to do with bridge as the topic some people want to get deleted...

[inquiry]

Perhaps there's a chance that some people want to get their post-total up, but who cares anyway??

I don't think more than a very small handful of people care about this. I do get complaints from time to time about certain posters who post nonsense in an apparent effort to run up their total (no other explaination seems possible for 35 post on one day and none of them add anything to any discussion). So a few people get irrate at that. As a moderator, I can understand why, because I try to read every post (as do some o those complaining) and there is only so much time in a day, so such dribble if nothing else slow me down. However, I have never deleted such a post.

 

I will say, at least when such activity is "restricted" to a "fun" post, the great majority of users can just choose to ignore the entire thread.

 

Ben

[enormouschicken]

First, I agree with Aisha that the purpose of the thread was taken over by others, for reason unknown. Perhpas to change themselves from novice to beginner posters by getting cheap post. Who knows? One poster who has joined recently has now gotten themsevles in the top 75 of all posters on the BBO and has only one post (so far) not in that thread. And I think this person was one of those hijacking the purpose of the thread. It is interesting that slothy, the starter of the thread, voted to delete it.

I suspect that I am 'that' poster. As it happens, I am a friend and colleague of slothy who, on joining the forum knew nothing about bridge whatsoever. (Apart from it being a card game.)

 

Having participated in the story thread and asked questions of slothy about bridge, I have learned a few things about bridge and the people on this forum. Can any of you say that this is not a good thing?

 

I would have thought that encouraging new players/forum members to join in in any way they feel they can is an important function of this forum. If slothy had said to me before my posting here "do you fancy learning to play bridge?" I would have told him that it wasn't for me. Bridge seemed a little impenetrable as a hobby, but maybe as I participate more and more in this forum I will feel more able to contribute to discussions that ARE about bridge.

 

As for 'upping my post count', I couldn't care less about a number/rank next to my name. Many of the other forums I am a member of don't have this facility and I still post there just as much.

 

As slothy and a few others have mentioned, one of the points of the thread was for people to have fun. I was, and I do agree with other people that it has run its course and was getting boring. It would probably have burned itself out anyway if slothy hadn't closed it.

 

Finally, it seems to me that some of you on here want to keep the discussions on this forum solely about bridge. Surely a vital part of any online community is that there is a facility for talking about other things. Unless you WANT to keep bridge impenetrable and alienate newbies. You don't, do you?

[inquiry]

First, I agree with Aisha that the purpose of the thread was taken over by others, for reason unknown. Perhpas to change themselves from novice to beginner posters by getting cheap post. Who knows? One poster who has joined recently has now gotten themsevles in the top 75 of all posters on the BBO and has only one post (so far) not in that thread. And I think this person was one of those hijacking the purpose of the thread. It is interesting that slothy, the starter of the thread, voted to delete it.

I suspect that I am 'that' poster. As it happens, I am a friend and colleague of slothy who, on joining the forum knew nothing about bridge whatsoever. (Apart from it being a card game.)

Indeed. since you pointed it out, yes, you were that poster.

 

For the record, uour current post total place you among the most prolific posters here, acheived in a week or so, while the others took a year to get their totals

 

cnszsun Members since 6-January 04 with 48

EarlPurple Members since 30-December 03 with 47

enormouschicken Members since 22-April 04 with 46

dogsbreath Members since 28-March 03 with 46

irdoz Members 3-August 03 45

 

The interesting thing about your post, other than a mention of Omar Sharif in your first or second one, your post did not come close to followng the rules of the story thread. They were not about bridge, and they never mentioned in red the players on the BBO. The reason for this is now clearer. The assumption of course if you were going to post in a story about bridge and BBO bridge players is that you were familiar with both, but couldn't be bothered to followed the "rules" of the thread. The reality, is quite different, you simply don't play bridge so don't know the people on the site or about bridge. I hope you can see why someone might draw the wrong conclusion about your reason for posting...... after all, I think a reasonable assumption given the rules layed out by your friend slothy would lead us to believe all posters would be familiar with either the people on the BBO or bridge or both.

 

Having participated in the story thread and asked questions of slothy about bridge, I have learned a few things about bridge and the people on this forum. Can any of you say that this is not a good thing?

 

I seriously doubt you learned much about bridge from the thread, but slothy could certainly help you out with that. Also the Bridgebase has a great software program fred wrote the ACBL to teach people about bridge. If you have any curiosity at all, I would recommend you download it and work through it. You can get this on line at the BBO gaming site, or you can download it directly from the ACBL at:

http://web3.acbl.org/internet/websiteForms.../LTPB2?OpenPage

 

I would have thought that encouraging new players/forum members to join in in any way they feel they can is an important function of this forum. If slothy had said to me before my posting here "do you fancy learning to play bridge?" I would have told him that it wasn't for me. Bridge seemed a little impenetrable as a hobby, but maybe as I participate more and more in this forum I will feel more able to contribute to discussions that ARE about bridge.

 

As for 'upping my post count', I couldn't care less about a number/rank next to my name. Many of the other forums I am a member of don't have this facility and I still post there just as much.

 

We try to encourage all new players to join. But there was simply no way of knowing anything about your experience. We do have an introductory thread where people can join this forum can introduce themselves. It hasn't been used much lately, but people who post there usually get some welcome Private messages and often helpful advice based upon their stated level. There is no way you or other new members should have known about this thread. The introduction thread can be found here, and I have now pinned it so it will be easier to find and use by new member...

 

Introductions and the Like

 

 

As slothy and a few others have mentioned, one of the points of the thread was for people to have fun. I was, and I do agree with other people that it has run its course and was getting boring. It would probably have burned itself out anyway if slothy hadn't closed it.

 

Finally, it seems to me that some of you on here want to keep the discussions on this forum solely about bridge. Surely a vital part of any online community is that there is a facility for talking about other things. Unless you WANT to keep bridge impenetrable and alienate newbies. You don't, do you?

 

In fact, keeping the discussion on BRIDGE is exactly what this forum is all about. In fact rule number one of the "icky" stuff cleary states.. .

 

1. Keep posts on-topic and in the correct boards.

 

With that rule firmly entrenched in your mind, what would you think the topics in the seven forums under the general heading "Bridge-Related Discussion should be? How about the eight under Bridge Base Online Discussion be about?

 

If you check these two large divisions of this forum, you will find that ther is room for building the community atmosphere even outside of bridge under the subforum General BBO Discussion. In fact, this is where the "off topic" thread wanting to start a "fun" topic forum (I assume non-bridge, but then, I consider the bridge topics fun) is posted. In fact, my understanding of the General BBO sub forum, is that is the miscellanous one where such musing are allowed, as it is the forum that is not well definied as to what goes in it.

 

As for newbies and the impenetrable of bridge, I will be willing to suggest that the BBO (the gamig site) does more to help them understand bridge than anyother site on the web. The teaching tables, the lectures, the bridge library, the learn how to play bridge material, the ability to kibitz and ask questions, the gold stars, the Beginner intermeidate lounge, etc. Not to mention here, on this forum, the Beginner/intermediate discussion group. I am not sure how "newbies" will learn about bridge here if they come and have to wade through post like the bbo story thread, just like I don't think they will learn much coming here and reading the advanced/expert thread. But they can learn by posting their questions. A dozen regulars will post answers to their questions quite quickly. It is true theat you may get 12 different answers, and each of the regulars will be sure theirs is "the correct" answer, but the fact is, often (especially in bidding), there are huge difference of opinion on what is right and what is wrong. That is what makes bridge fun.

 

As a final point, I too wish there were no listing of the number of post. If for no reason that people now make fun of the number that I have. I could pretend my high number is because as moderator, I have to post more to reply to questions and the like. But that would be just an excuse. Before I was moderator I also posted way too much as well. In fact, the number of post is what got me recruited as a moderator. I try to be helpfu. I try to payback to the BBO for their great site by being as supportive as I can be. In the beginning, when few posters where here, tried to post interesiting (at least to me), questions and hands, to encourage people to come here and post. But as a moderator, the complaints I often get are similar to the ones I got about your post in the BBO Story thread... and about two other posters, whose post seem to have nothing to do with the thread and serve no purpose. People ask me to delete them or to talk with the poster. But as long as the post do not violate the rules of the site, such post, for whatever reason, are fine. If the count wasn't kept, at least people suspecious of the reason behind such post would not be emailing me. That will save my time. I get a lot of junk email on such topics (it is sooooo easy to click the "report to moderator" button. So trust me, no count of post would be just fine with me.

 

Ben

[enormouschicken]

For the record, uour current post total place you among the most prolific posters here, acheived in a week or so, while the others took a  year to get their totals.

 

The interesting thing about your post, other than a mention of Omar Sharif in your first or second one, your post did not come close to followng the rules of the story thread. They were not about bridge, and they never mentioned in red the players on the BBO. The reason for this is now clearer. The assumption of course if you were going to post in a story about bridge and BBO bridge players is that you were familiar with both, but couldn't be bothered to followed the "rules" of the thread. The reality, is quite different, you simply don't play bridge so don't know the people on the site or about bridge. I hope you can see why someone might draw the wrong conclusion about your reason for posting...... after all, I think a reasonable assumption given the rules layed out by your friend slothy would lead us to believe all posters would be familiar with either the people on the BBO or bridge or both.

 

Ben

For the most part, your reply was fair and accurate (thanks for the links.)

 

However, I must pick a couple of discrepancies out:

 

1. Yes, I am among the most 'prolific' posters here. Since neither I, you nor anyone else cares about this, why should it matter?

 

2. For the record, the bridge terms/nicks I used in the story thread were (in order of appearance) - pen, suit, partners, yellow, Omar Sharif and corn.

 

Yes, I 'broke the rules' of the thread, but there isn't a single person who posted on it that didn't. It all started getting confused on around the 5th/6th page when a few people, who didn't understand the rules, started posting without nicks/bridge terms and/or posting nonsensical/overlong messages.

 

After this, I wasn't sure whose turn it was to put a 'red word' in and neither did slothy, so we just put them in when we felt we could.

[inquiry]

1. Yes, I am among the most 'prolific' posters here. Since neither I, you nor anyone else cares about this, why should it matter?

 

Sadly, some people do very much care about it. Let me document just a little biit of the evidence for this, which I think will be sufficient to prove this point at least.

 

A good thread to review the topic on is the one started by bridge expert and overall great guy, John Goold (JRG), where he first recommended doing away with the POSTER LEVELS to reduce the noise (the noise here being people posting just to raise their level from novice to beginner, or some such). The thread can be found here….

 

reduce the noise

 

As you will see, I totally agreed with him, in what was for me, an attempt at humor. But actually, hrothgar had the best humorous reply to that thread, his reply is well worth the reading if you are an ACBL member. BTW, slothy's "ironic" reply of "right on" (all the message), generated one message to me that he was using the thread to pad his count... I will show similiar example. But I assure you, the reason that JRG started that thread was the general consensus that some posters where just typing utter nonsense to up their numbers.

 

That perception wasn't helped by people like your friend slothy, who for instances posted a reply to a thread about defensive bidding to 1NT, which said in its entiretly, “Adding this in my quest to become an intermediate poster - principal of 'fast arrival'”. Now I found that post particularly funny, given the context of a number of other post dealing with post that appear to be added just to pad posting numbers, and the very clever use of the term of “fast arrival” (some day, if you learn bridge chicken, that part will become clear to you, trust me it was funny). But I recieved numerous “email reports” about that post asking me to delete it. This reports of "please delete" a post make me have to stop and go look at what is being requested to be deleted and wasiting my time (I did not delete it, and you can still find it today if you like).

 

In addition, people openly worry/complain about the title “expert poster” or “novice poster” We have had a lot of post on this topic, an example being this one Poster levels,

 

Finally, if your really wanted to, you could search and find a lot of post were people specificallly mention trying to change themselves from novice to beginner or some such. Of course, all of these are meant (I think) to be funny, and nearly all of them within the context of a regular reply (added as an afterthought).

 

2. For the record, the bridge terms/nicks I used in the story thread were (in order of appearance) - pen, suit, partners, yellow, Omar Sharif and corn.

 

Ok, I stand corrected. Reading all the 258 post in a thread that made no attempt to be logical, I guess I overlooked you did hit on more that I remembered. I finally gave up reading that thread regularly in the sense that if when I checked it, a new page had been created since I lead read the thread, I didn't go back to read earlier pages. I just scanned what was on the page when I clicked the newest. The good news for me, at least, no one is reporting that thread to me anymore.

 

Ben

[enormouschicken]

That perception wasn't helped by people like your friend slothy, who for instances posted a reply to a thread about defensive bidding to 1NT, which said in its entiretly, “Adding this in my quest to become an intermediate poster - principal of 'fast arrival'”.  But I recieved numerous “email reports” about that post asking me to delete it. This  reports of "please delete" a post make me have to stop and go look at what is being requested to be deleted and wasiting my time.

 

In addition, people openly worry/complain about the title “expert poster” or “novice poster” We have had a lot of post on this topic, an example being this one Poster levels,

 

Ben

Well, I can assure you that slothy isn't bothered about his post count either. It seems to me that it's just a few people. 'Nitpickers', I call them, who are annoyed by everything that doesn't suit them. They try to make trouble by asking for harmless posts/threads to be deleted, which is unfair as it creates unnecessary work for you and undermines other forum members who are just trying to get a point across in a slightly humorous or otherwise engaging manner.

 

It seems to me that most of the people who actually DO care about post counts in any way (bar the odd rogue element,) are the very people who are complaining about them. I know that on every forum under the sun you get spammers, who just post incongruous rubbish to raise their post count. However, every spammer that I've ever seen JUST posts spam. They never post anything intelligible or useful. The best thing to do with spammers is just to ignore them and they go away, if you ban them, they only sign up again from a different email / IP address.

Besides, as long as none of them are insulting anyone, is it really too much for JRG and others like him to ignore posts that say 'right on!' etc. and only read the interesting stuff?

 

I could understand if people were insulting others, swearing profusely or talking about graphic sx, but as far as I can tell, none of that goes on here. You're very lucky in that sense. Sure, there's the odd disagreement, but by and large everyone gets on and although argument's can get heated, they are never rude and abrasive.

[inquiry]

Besides, as long as none of them are insulting anyone, is it really too much for JRG and others like him to ignore posts that say 'right on!' etc. and only read the interesting stuff?

 

I could understand if people were insulting others, swearing profusely or talking about graphic sx, but as far as I can tell, none of that goes on here. You're very lucky in that sense. Sure, there's the odd disagreement, but by and large everyone gets on and although argument's can get heated, they are never rude and abrasive.

Of course, any spam here that is clearly just spam gets deleted quickly by one of several moderator/administrators. So when it show up, it is removed quickly.

 

As far as "ignoring" post that say "right on", one doesn't know what a post says until you open it. If you were to decide not to read, for instance my post, because most are like that, you still have trouble ignoring post from me. If you click on new post and see three new ones from me, if you don't open them, you could miss one or more earlier post that you would like to have read. So ignoring the posters is not a workable solution either, not really.

 

As far as being lucky about swearing and insulting others, and it is not going on here. That is not luck. When John set up the rules, of this site, it was made clear something would not be allowed. Anything that insults someone is removed automatically by the staff. That was going on for a year before I came a moderator, and will not doubt continue for as long as this forum is active. Sometimes some comes on here and suggest a player is a cheater for instance when they get angry at someone in the BBO. Those post disappear completely, and the poster is banned or at the least warned as well as reminded of the rules of both the bbo and bbf in this regard.

 

bEn