BIC Survey

[Jyrki_63]

Hi,

 

Today I was prompted to take part in a survey as to why I did not participate in BIC2. I thought why not. But, apparently my answer to the second question disqualified me somehow. No matter what I answered (and clicked OK), the survey will not advance to the third question.

 

Is something wrong at my end? Is this yet another instance of "if you block google analytics and ads, your opinion doesn't count"?

 

Anybody else got stuck at this point, too?

 

Cheers,

 

Jyrki

[idahodon]

The same thing happened to me. Why do they bother if they don't want the answer?

[pescetom]

Logging into BBO just now I found a questionnaire in mail asking why I had not played BIC2.

It offered a few possible reasons and then an "other" box where I gave the reason, but it then insisted that I had not supplied a reason.

Unless I somehow failed to understand, please fix (and maybe imagine that "I do not want to play with robots" is a likely reason to start with).

[pilowsky]

I receive dozens of marketing requests every week.

The "survey" from BBO is of the poorest quality.

 

Most interactions between organisations (businesses of any kind) and individuals (typically but not always consumers) are of the form - "What can we do to make you happier?" - so that we can entice you to give us more money.

Why does it want to make you happy? So that it can acquire advertisers with its large subscriber base.

This is marketing 101 - watch twitch.TV, youtube, and this new thing that I'm still trying to see the value of - the "social influencer".

 

BBO is slightly different. I suspect that one reason for this is that BBO has two conflicting roles.

First of all, it wants to supply goods and services for a price BUT, on the other hand, Bridge is a social (as in people are involved) game that needs to be regulated.

And boy, what a set of regulations. When applied to people, bridge laws and rulings represent a hybrid of Gormenghast, Kafka and Edwardian English whimsy.

Still, people seem to enjoy it.

 

It is said that Australians are such devoted gamblers that they will bet on two flies walking up a wall.

The English and the Americans are probably the same. Still, in America and England, it is necessary to devise a set of rules and handicaps so arcane and strenuous that the two flies would have to be held in separate rooms and drug tested before the race started.

They would also need to be advised of their rights before the start and told that it would be illegal (in some jurisdictions - but not others) to put the right front leg forward first.

Unruly behaviour towards the other fly or acceptance of food or beverage from any other insect during the race would be strictly forbidden. If their opponent gives them a "spray", there is no right of appeal.

 

This puts BBO in a tough spot. The same people that BBO makes money from must also be ruled over with an "iron fist".

 

Enter the robots. Robot bridge does not need authoritarianism. You can scream and shout. Muse and congratulate. Do whatever you want. Nobody cares.

Worse, since you are playing against robots, there is nobody to gloat with when you have a success.

Nobody cares if you make a great play or if you "outwit" the robots.

This is a bit sad because, as a video game robot Bridge is quite good fun.

 

BIC fails (in my opinion) because it conflates two platforms (different computers) with a different group of players on two platforms.

I get the argument that everyone is competing with the same conditions when applied to Daylongs (even there, it is only true if there are lots of competitors so that the central limit theorem applies).

But in the BIC, there are so few competitors that the results tend to be somewhat stochastic.

And the BIC is relatively expensive.

 

Most people don't play Bridge for masterpoints. The Zenith Daylong became wildly popular immediately because it is possible to get your money back.

With the BIC, you get nothing back - and you lose a lot of time.

With no monetary reward and no opportunity to chat about the game with friends, an unauthorised competition against unknown opponents that charges a lot of money stands little chance of success.

 

The real problem with BBO is its total lack of interest in communicating with its customer base. This is true of Bridge in general.

Instead, there is scolding. "You should do this", "We are too busy to answer your questions", "I'll pass on your comments to the 'tech' people", etc. etc.

 

So, no, I didn't bother with the BIC.

Unlike the biro, it costs too much; it isn't fun, it takes too long, it isn't clear what the competition is, and it has no point.

[pilowsky]

The same thing happened to me. Why do they bother if they don't want the answer?

 

To be fair, they didn't ask what you thought before they implemented it either.

Why would they care now?

[pescetom]

Hi,

 

Today I was prompted to take part in a survey as to why I did not participate in BIC2. I thought why not. But, apparently my answer to the second question disqualified me somehow. No matter what I answered (and clicked OK), the survey will not advance to the third question.

 

Is something wrong at my end? Is this yet another instance of "if you block google analytics and ads, your opinion doesn't count"?

 

Anybody else got stuck at this point, too?

 

 

Yes, I opened an identical thread - can be closed or united, if anyone cares :)

[pilowsky]

Yes, I opened an identical thread - can be closed or united, if anyone cares :)

 

Some sort of survey required?

[diana_eva]

We fixed the survey, sorry about that.

 

Here it is again, in case you want to submit an answer:

 

https://tinyurl.com/bic2survey

 

Thank you for letting us know.

[diana_eva]

Yes, I opened an identical thread - can be closed or united, if anyone cares :)

 

Merged the two posts.

[pescetom]

Merged the two posts.

 

Thanks. I replied with success.