Say something, BBO. Do you plan to keep using GIB? Please tell us what your plans are.

[virgosrock]

[/size][/font][/color]

[/left]

The fixes made are mostly to bugs that have been found. There also have been some improvements to bidding database and even some new conventions.

There are however many flaws in Gibs bidding. Without interference the problems are livable. and the real problems people complain about can't be fixed without a huge amount of work. In interference Gibs bidding and the choices offer to the humans is often just not even close to playable. Again these errors are too numerous to list. Almost all of these competitive bidding problems I don't believe can ever be fixed by the current methods. The entire bidding part of the program would have to rewritten to fix competition problems.

For some of this errors it is irrelevant how many people mention a bug it should be fixed it is so fundamental

For example a while back If Gib was in 7NTX with an Ace and on lead. Gib would never cash it and would allow contract to make. Even now there are cash-out situations where Gib can set contract and doesn't. I do understand that Gib may be trying to get -2 by not cashing but in the 7NTX case it clear there was something wrong with the part of the Gib program which chooses a card to play on defense.

This fundamental problem was never fixed. Instead Gib was made to lead an Ace if this happened. But whatever was causing this is still there.

Sure, didn't happen often but when it did it was repeatable and everyone in 7NX made but those in 7 suit went down.

Can you imagine if you went to Starbuck and the coffee machine dispensed tea once in a while. They would fix it or replace it. No I do not expect perfection from Gib, but I would tell you some of the things Gib does if a human partner did this I would not be playing with them again unless they were my wife <sarcasm>. or best friend.

People using the commercial Gib program have found cases where BBO Gib makes a play even a beginner wouldn't but commercial Gib makes the correct play. I believe a fundamental bug has been introduced into at least the defensive play of Gib.

 

That's good. And your right Gib is better than the majority of users. Even good players may not be used to playing with Gib or playing with an unfamiliar partner.

But BBO is trying to increase it's presence with ACBL and some other NBO's which i want too. Those players will be better players on average. All the mistakes Gib makes that a beginner would not make are giving bad press for BBO and won't help increase attendance in this area or increasing number of special tournaments being held on BBO. Even before anyone played in the NABC robot championship there were people who wanted to stop this sort of tournament as it wasn't real bridge.

Steve 2005 its quite simple. Till it hits the pocketbook no major changes are likely to be made. This does not imply Sir Donn not performing his knightly duties. Changes needed are major and need human/compute resources. So, you keep MB players quiet by having a fairly low table fee. Sheeple are so sh*t scared and overawed by the game they won't or may not even notice the finer points or don't have the time. So that leaves the cognoscenti who are few in number. Thus I am not seeing any major motivation to make any major changes.

 

vrock