pirate22 Posted December 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2012 I agree with Barmar--Privates are a NO NO for starters,I then create my own list of friends:)and black out Duffers... but these points are an indication in theright direction.but one has to be an ACBL member to obtain them.somewhat anti social Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jillybean Posted December 7, 2012 Report Share Posted December 7, 2012 Guess what Harmon Edgar & Jimmy Cayne list as their skill level? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VMars Posted December 7, 2012 Report Share Posted December 7, 2012 I hope you were polite and wished him a speedy recovery from his upcoming surgery. It's a very sad state of affairs when players feel unpopular when they call the director about these or any infractions but it is the reality. I just say "hello" and ask them which one of them is "Sarah"? I actually don't know if I'm unpopular because of calling the director. It's more that at nationals, many people that I knew and am friends with would walk right by me when I said "hello" to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barmar Posted December 7, 2012 Report Share Posted December 7, 2012 Guess what Harmon Edgar & Jimmy Cayne list as their skill level?What difference does it make? They don't play with randoms. And even if they did, they're well known so no one needs to look at their profile. Profiles are for randoms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bbradley62 Posted December 7, 2012 Report Share Posted December 7, 2012 What difference does it make? They don't play with randoms. And even if they did, they're well known so no one needs to look at their profile. Profiles are for randoms.You may know who they are, but people who aren't part of the "cool kids" club very well may not recognize their screennames. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwar0123 Posted December 7, 2012 Report Share Posted December 7, 2012 You may know who they are, but people who aren't part of the "cool kids" club very well may not recognize their screennames.They still don't play with randoms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quiddity Posted December 7, 2012 Report Share Posted December 7, 2012 Of course. But if you don't want a total crapshoot, you need something to go on. BBO management has explained many times why we don't want to display objective ratings, like OKbridge does with Lehmans. So all we have to go on is self-ratings. Displaying them is one thing, but compiling them and using them behind the scenes should be another thing altogether... edit: I went on a minor rant here but then thought better of it. I'm sure that it is not easy to create a good pickup-pair compatibility system and I know that BBO is probably understaffed as it is. Still, I wish someone could think about it because pick-up games on the site have been such a dreadful experience (for me, at least). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RunemPard Posted December 10, 2012 Report Share Posted December 10, 2012 In regards to MP...I dunno about other countries...but we use a handicap system and masterpoints in Sweden. I have been playing bridge at our club for about 16 months and now my handicap is rather low(good) with not even 10MP yet... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barmar Posted December 10, 2012 Report Share Posted December 10, 2012 You may know who they are, but people who aren't part of the "cool kids" club very well may not recognize their screennames.Most of them have a star, too. The few who would be eligible for a star, but have chosen not to have one (e.g. Dano) definitely don't play with randoms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1eyedjack Posted December 10, 2012 Report Share Posted December 10, 2012 I list myself as "Private" for no reason other than that I have no desire to sit at a table of players who object to that designation, and so listing myself is an effective way of avoiding them. Not quite the same thing, but it reminds me of pickup partners who have "Do not lead opponents' trumps" in their profile. Red rag to a bull. Probably counter-productive. I would bet that they get more trump leads than without that comment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antrax Posted December 10, 2012 Report Share Posted December 10, 2012 That comment is useful when choosing which partners to avoid, TBH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onoway Posted December 11, 2012 Report Share Posted December 11, 2012 I use private for skill level because sometimes I play fairly decently at what I've been told is advanced level and other times I might make stupid silly mistakes that would embarrass any intermediate. Also, I don't play as many conventions that most people seem to play, but stick to a bunch that seem to come up enough to be regularly useful. It seems pretentious to sit opposite a player with multi and Walsh and all sorts of other things on their profile and claim to be advanced when I don't know half of the conventions on their profile. The most useful thing I have found is to look for partners who claim to play 2/1 rather than sayc and to look at what conventions they play. I have seen NO TRANSFERS in big black letters on a number of sayc profiles claiming to be advanced players, and feel doubtful. OTOH I do use my real name and country and like to have an idea where people are from.For example, if someone is from Malasia or Bulgaria or Turkey (or even Quebec!:() etc.,they may not understand English as well as most Americans, so knowing that might help avoid misunderstandings. I dislike playing with people who refuse to admit to having a name or anything on their profile at all, it feels like a sort of oneupsmanship tactic."Guess what I play, ha ha you got it wrong." With the number of people on BBO it's hard to imagine that anyone could be readilly identified by a first name and a country unless the name was exceptionally unusual, in which case they could simply choose a different one to play under. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helene_t Posted December 11, 2012 Report Share Posted December 11, 2012 Also, I don't play as many conventions that most people seem to play, but stick to a bunch that seem to come up enough to be regularly useful. It seems pretentious to sit opposite a player with multi and Walsh and all sorts of other things on their profile and claim to be advanced when I don't know half of the conventions on their profile. The most useful thing I have found is to look for partners who claim to play 2/1 rather than sayc and to look at what conventions they play. I have seen NO TRANSFERS in big black letters on a number of sayc profiles claiming to be advanced players, and feel doubtful.I think it is reasonable not to play transfers in a pick-up partnership. You don't have to discuss whether they apply after interference and in response to NT overcalls or not. I agree that someone who is not familiar with transfers at all is unlikely to be advanced (although it could be the case). But someone who puts "no transfers" on his profile could easily be a good player. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldPlayr Posted December 11, 2012 Report Share Posted December 11, 2012 Sad that BBO has no functionality to aid in finding partners in pickup games. Reading through the random text that players put in their profiles is the best that one can do. This results in jumping into and out of a dozen or more tables before finding someone with whom you can partner with with even a minimum of understanding. Number of logins is possibly the only profile part worth anything. One must hope that someone with 4000 logins has picked up some skill along the way :D The self rating field is totally worthless. BBO might just as well assign the rating at random. It should simply be dropped. Being a new member, who always must resort to playing as a single, I find the opportunities to play with humans disappointing. I'm pretty much limited to the ACBL individual tournaments every hour or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jillybean Posted December 12, 2012 Report Share Posted December 12, 2012 As others have said many times before, the only way to find a quality game on BBO is to play with "friends" and an extended circle of friends.How do you get this list of friends? Befriend local players, bbf'ers, random players you are compatible with and partners of "friends". And expect to kiss a lot of frogs along the way :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barmar Posted December 12, 2012 Report Share Posted December 12, 2012 Being a new member, who always must resort to playing as a single, I find the opportunities to play with humans disappointing. I'm pretty much limited to the ACBL individual tournaments every hour or so.No matter what we do, it's probably not going to work well for new members. If we calculated ratings based on your past results, you wouldn't have any. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cthulhu D Posted December 14, 2012 Report Share Posted December 14, 2012 As others have said many times before, the only way to find a quality game on BBO is to play with "friends" and an extended circle of friends.How do you get this list of friends? Befriend local players, bbf'ers, random players you are compatible with and partners of "friends". And expect to kiss a lot of frogs along the way :) It doesn't have to be like this. I don't play on BBO much because it is like this. It's just dumb. No matter what we do, it's probably not going to work well for new members. If we calculated ratings based on your past results, you wouldn't have any. Of course it won't work brilliantly for their first first 5 games, but no reason why it shouldn't be functionally perfect after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mycroft Posted December 14, 2012 Report Share Posted December 14, 2012 I frankly can't remember the last time I've played with someone at my level (actually I do; to within a week). My regular partners are worse than I am (but of course, 90% of players are better than their partners, there was a survey on that). I occasionally get to play with one of the locals who are truly better, and I try very hard to learn and do well when I do so. I *don't care*. Yes, I don't want to play with someone who can't signal, or won't think, or can't see past her 13 cards no matter what you say; but I'll take the next level up over "????" or "faster plz" on speed-dial, or "WTH, pd?" even if they're as good, or better than I am. That's the key reason, I do realize, why I'll never be an Expert - I don't challenge myself enough. Oh well. "Find me a partner" by results won't help with that, will it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bbradley62 Posted December 14, 2012 Report Share Posted December 14, 2012 No matter what we do, it's probably not going to work well for new members. If we calculated ratings based on your past results, you wouldn't have any.Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldPlayr Posted December 14, 2012 Report Share Posted December 14, 2012 Some simple improvements could be made. Profiles could have checkboxes for the major bidding systems that a player can play, perhaps with one as a preferred. This could be used in the "find a game" feature. Given that BBO has a record of all hands played with results, a player could be put into one of four quartiles, based upon average ranking for all hands played. Not perfect, but it does convey some indication of ability. This also could be used in "find a game". In searching for a game, one could select "plays ACOL", ranked in quartiles 2,3, or 4. While not guaranteeing a good fit, it would at least eliminate many bad fits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jillybean Posted December 14, 2012 Report Share Posted December 14, 2012 Hey OldPlayr I've asked you twice if you would like a game now and each time got no response. If you really do prefer to play with robots that's fine just say so! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cthulhu D Posted December 15, 2012 Report Share Posted December 15, 2012 "Find me a partner" by results won't help with that, will it? Find you a partner should, in an ideal world, find you a partner and two opponents of roughly equal skills. Quality partners and opposition is a good situation in which to improve imho. It wouldn't cut out the angry asshole partners, but hey, nothings perfect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jillybean Posted December 15, 2012 Report Share Posted December 15, 2012 It's hard enough finding a good partner and opponents in real life, and here we are expecting BBO to do it for us with a bunch of nameless, unkown identities. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldPlayr Posted December 15, 2012 Report Share Posted December 15, 2012 Sorry Jillybean. I never saw the invitations - I always play with the chat window hidden. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lycier Posted December 17, 2012 Report Share Posted December 17, 2012 It's hard enough finding a good partner and opponents in real life, and here we are expecting BBO to do it for us with a bunch of nameless, unkown identities. I think so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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