[doofik]

Tonight we played in a few tournaments and I am prepared to quit playing online. The level of rudeness has hit an unacceptable level.

-When we arrive at the table we greet opponents. Very seldom does anyone bother to even say "hi". How terribly sad.

-We play the Polish Club. It is always announced and we have a posted cc (I don't know how to get rid of it). Invariably we hear, "Is Polish Club allowed here?" "Please alert every bid". When we say that not alerted bids are the same as sayc, it goes somewhere over opps' heads. Seldom do our opps announce their system and we presume, at directors' insistence, that when there is no announcement, the system is sayc. That's what we presume. Great.

-We play udca, we lead 2/4. Again, announcement made without any reciprocity. So, at directors' insistence, we assume opps play standard carding.

-Announcement is made by the organizers "English only during bidding and play". I don't think anyone reads those announcements. My partner(s) and I are also bi-lingual and we will be more than glad to reciprocate in Polish. We are really good at it

Tonight we played against a pair who violated every rule posted. They spoke their language during bidding, during play, they definitely made no announcement regarding the system or carding and they definitely weren't playing standard carding. No idea what system they played as director booted them for not responding. I asked if the director would adjust the score and for the answer I got "I booted them, no adjustment". The very next table, we went through something similar; I just stopped complaining. Then a great table and then mutes again. The worst part of all this is that these players have blank profiles. I wonder if there is a way to disallow any tournament registration to blank profiles.

Since in these tournaments we play for the pleasure of the game, I will stop playing. The lack of ethics really bothers me. I have a feeling that bridge on the whole has lost a huge number of players this way. I might try a few live tournaments and we'll see where it goes. In the meantime, I will come online to kib or to play in a game where I know players. No more tournaments.

[aguahombre]

The Vugraph is good. The fora are interesting/educational. Set games are usually a good thing. The rest is something other than Bridge.

This site is the best, IMO, but there is only so much they can do. On-line play should never replace IRL, nor should it try to.

[barmar]

Were these free or pay tourneys? The standard of conduct is generally better in pay tourneys. The ACBL tourneys are pretty well run. And in my experience, opponents respond to greetings at the table at least 80% of the time.

However, I've always wondered about the "Player of the Month" thing. Although most players in the ACBL tourneys are cordial, there's not usually too much conversation. So what is it that these players do that gets them noticed and nominated for POTM? To me, all the opponents are just random screen names, I never remember them from one game to the next.

[mgoetze]

Ah but you're probably not allowed to play Polish Club in ACBL pay tournaments, LOL.

I agree that playing in the free tournaments is pretty pointless. I recommend getting to know people and just playing set games in the Main Bridge Club, or, once you know enough people, eventually team matches. Of course if you really like tournaments you can come play in the BBF Matchpoint Pairs next Sunday. http://www.bridgebas...tchpoint-pairs/

[A2003]

Just like auto play singleton, there should be auto greetings.
The message can be custom or standard text.

[Antrax]

Yeah, for sure that's polite. Nothing would warm my heart more than having a script tell me "hi, op".

[aguahombre]

Yes, GIB should greet people, as well. They could probably program in a tone of sincerity to the macro.

[doofik]

aguahombre, on 2012-February-18, 23:02, said:

The Vugraph is good. The fora are interesting/educational. Set games are usually a good thing. The rest is something other than Bridge.

This site is the best, IMO, but there is only so much they can do. On-line play should never replace IRL, nor should it try to.

My post was not meant as an indictment of BBO, which is a bridge player's dream come true. It was more of a frustration that our game is suffering.

[Cascade]

mgoetze, on 2012-February-19, 07:30, said:

Ah but you're probably not allowed to play Polish Club in ACBL pay tournaments, LOL.

I agree that playing in the free tournaments is pretty pointless. I recommend getting to know people and just playing set games in the Main Bridge Club, or, once you know enough people, eventually team matches. Of course if you really like tournaments you can come play in the BBF Matchpoint Pairs next Sunday. http://www.bridgebas...tchpoint-pairs/

Polish club is gcc legal.

[doofik]

barmar, on 2012-February-18, 23:38, said:

Were these free or pay tourneys? The standard of conduct is generally better in pay tourneys. The ACBL tourneys are pretty well run. And in my experience, opponents respond to greetings at the table at least 80% of the time.

However, I've always wondered about the "Player of the Month" thing. Although most players in the ACBL tourneys are cordial, there's not usually too much conversation. So what is it that these players do that gets them noticed and nominated for POTM? To me, all the opponents are just random screen names, I never remember them from one game to the next.

These were free tourneys, very well frequented that offer a lot of a variety of systems and players. We don't play ACBL because our cc is for WJ2005 and we play the 2000 version and I have a devil of a time to delete this cc or to edit it. I'm not very computer savvy, to say the least. Playing ACBL would be great except we like the speedball and explaining our bids and system takes too long. It is only out of consideration for others that we avoid it. The regular ACBL tourneys are just too slow.

[doofik]

mgoetze, on 2012-February-19, 07:30, said:

Ah but you're probably not allowed to play Polish Club in ACBL pay tournaments, LOL.

I agree that playing in the free tournaments is pretty pointless. I recommend getting to know people and just playing set games in the Main Bridge Club, or, once you know enough people, eventually team matches. Of course if you really like tournaments you can come play in the BBF Matchpoint Pairs next Sunday. http://www.bridgebas...tchpoint-pairs/

ACBL does allow the Polish Club system as long as we don't play the Wilkosz convention. Interestingly enough I believe that this ban has led to the Multi convention.

Thank you for the invite will check it out.

[doofik]

A2003, on 2012-February-19, 11:22, said:

Just like auto play singleton, there should be auto greetings.
The message can be custom or standard text.

Ha ha ha, this would really add to the overall ambiance of the game.

[barmar]

Should we also have auto-glp, auto-wdp, etc.?

Is it really courtesy if you're not actually doing it? Do you thank someone when an automatic door opens for you?

[aguahombre]

barmar, on 2012-February-19, 23:28, said:

Is it really courtesy if you're not actually doing it? Do you thank someone when an automatic door opens for you?

Not when it opens too slow and I hurt my nose.

[barmar]

Apparently that problem will still be with us for several centuries:

[blackshoe]

aguahombre, on 2012-February-19, 12:23, said:

Yes, GIB should greet people, as well. They could probably program in a tone of sincerity to the macro.

"Hello. Would you like to play a game?" - "Joshua", in "War Games" (1983).

[Bad_Wolf]

Harden up, we are not children.

[BunnyGo]

blackshoe, on 2012-February-20, 00:49, said:

"Hello. Would you like to play a game?" - "Joshua", in "War Games" (1983).

"How about a nice game of chess?"

[Gerardo]

doofik, on 2012-February-19, 13:29, said:

ACBL does allow the Polish Club system as long as we don't play the Wilkosz convention. Interestingly enough I believe that this ban has led to the Multi convention.

Thank you for the invite will check it out.

Polish Club 1-level (and 2NT) openings are GCC legal.

Wilkosz is certainly not, but neither are Multi nor the Polish Twos.