Automatically Booting Players

[MyronMBA]

In my opinion, BBO allows far too much time when a player remains "inactive" (waiting to bid or stalling to play a card).

 

I feel the current amount of time allocated should be reduced by at least 50%.

 

I'm sure the vast majority of BBO players would be pleased with this change.

[sfi]

As I said before when this came up, I primarily play set games with people I know. Any time limit is annoying, for a number of reasons. Reducing the time limit would make it much more annoying.

 

People play on this site for many reasons. So I question the validity of your attempt to speak for the vast majority of BBO players.

[Bbradley62]

In my opinion, BBO allows far too much time when a player remains "inactive" (waiting to bid or stalling to play a card).

 

I feel the current amount of time allocated should be reduced by at least 50%.

 

I'm sure the vast majority of BBO players would be pleased with this change.

Are you talking about in the main bridge club, or in tournaments, or what? If in the MBC, are you talking about booting inactive hosts? (The host can boot anyone else.)

[wank]

i hate the time limit. i think it's the worst thing BBO ever did. bridge is supposed to be a cerebral game. perhaps the OP should take up snap.

[smerriman]

i hate the time limit. i think it's the worst thing BBO ever did. bridge is supposed to be a cerebral game. perhaps the OP should take up snap.

 

Players who simply disappear midhand and don't come back are very common in random tables in BBO. Doesn't prevent people from thinking for as long as they want; a slightest movement of the mouse and the time limit resets.

[barmar]

As I said before when this came up, I primarily play set games with people I know. Any time limit is annoying, for a number of reasons. Reducing the time limit would make it much more annoying.

Set games should not be affected. The automatic boot is disabled if there are any reserved seats or you require permission to play or kibitz.

 

Other tables can triple the time limit by putting +slow+ in the table description.

 

There's currently no way to customize the time limit. It's intended to allow thinking, and only detect when a player seems to have disappeared. The table host can always boot a player if they're habitually slow.

[The_Badger]

i hate the time limit. i think it's the worst thing BBO ever did. bridge is supposed to be a cerebral game. perhaps the OP should take up snap.

 

Or maybe we should take up the card game 'Patience' :)

 

Yes, it is very annoying, but (and I am just surmising on this) I believe that where a player does not play or bid promptly is more often than not down to the BBO site - sorry I said that but I believe it to be the case, just my opinion - than the player.

 

It happens far too frequently on here, especially where you're having a pleasant game with three other dedicated, quick players, and then one of them suddenly goes 'cold'.

 

As I said in a previous post, I believe the site works well if you are on a regular PC, but I keep on hearing problems from players who use tablets and iPads, and maybe using WiFi doesn't help either (?) Don't ask me why.

 

Or is it the download version of BBO that causes problems? (I'm still on the Windows version)

 

The jury's out.

[sfi]

Set games should not be affected. The automatic boot is disabled if there are any reserved seats or you require permission to play or kibitz.

 

Other tables can triple the time limit by putting +slow+ in the table description.

 

There's currently no way to customize the time limit. It's intended to allow thinking, and only detect when a player seems to have disappeared. The table host can always boot a player if they're habitually slow.

 

That makes sense - I realised after I posted that nobody has gotten kicked out of our tables for a while now. As long as there are easy ways to turn off the time limit, I care much less how long it is.

[barmar]

The boot time is 80 seconds, with a warning at 50 seconds. That's a really long time to be thinking. And all they have to do is type in chat (e.g. "thinking") to restart the timer.

[tissegg]

I play casual and when I am host I cannot boot anyone ... 'not enough permission'.

[barmar]

I play casual and when I am host I cannot boot anyone ... 'not enough permission'.

New members are not allowed to boot. You just reached the number of logins a few days ago. You should be able to boot players now.

[wmb1956]

It may be just bad luck, but I have had a ton of dead hosts over the recent past. I agree with the original post. Extreme slowness can ruin the game for everyone. Consider at the 30 second mark adding a popup for the nonresponding player asking if he needs more time. If he responds in 20 seconds, give him another 30 seconds. If not, boot him so that the other players can continue. Some improvement needs to be made.