[inquiry]

In another post, Fred said...

Fred said:

will have an easy and obvious place to go. I am not thrilled with "Friendly bridge club" either, but it does get the message across.

I think we should all help and try to come up with other names... I will throw a few out to get started... (not social is out)

"Relaxed-Duplicate room"
"Fun Duplicate" or fun-loving
"Friendly Duplicate"
congenial duplicate club
"easy-going" (note, didn't say easy)
"welcoming"
Gracious
good-hearted...

and my favorite so far, which surprizingly is in the popup description of the "friendly bridge club"....

"relaxed bridge club" - where friendly players can play a sociable game of duplicate

But surely we can do better.... :-)

[Al_U_Card]

Kitchen Bridge Club

Kaffee-Klatch Klub

e-Gabfest Bridge

Beginners Benign

[Al_U_Card]

Seems I recall from my days on the zone that the Social club had reasonable attendance, the Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced were always empty and the Expert rooms were full to the brim.....

[Al_U_Card]

Cheater's always prosper Club

Foul mouth follies Club

Disagreable Disposition Club

[inquiry]

I don't think the implication is the club is just for beginners... or then, of course it would be easy to name. I think it is for a style of play, and a hospitable table atmosphere. Most of try to arrange that at our main room games, but it seems a room where you are explicitly reminded to be friendly and play in a "low-stress" manner (no sending ?????? to partnter, no repeat faster commands, nothing in all caps), seems the goal Perhaps I am wrong.

[Al_U_Card]

How about the "Mouse only" Bridge Club where there are 2 icons for GLP and WDP and you can click on them. Would definitely reduce the rudeness potential....

[Gerben42]

The problem is that what people understand under "friendly bridge" can be completely different. I'm always out for friendly bridge but you always try to play as well as possible. When I was still playing on the Internet Gaming Zone (last century) only once I checked out the "social" club. Here is what happened:

Auction went 1♥ p 4♥ (no doubt in my mind this showed an opening hand with support) and at this point I decided that I had a good save and bid 4♠. Now what happened was interesting: I was told off that in the social room we don't do things like this - I should leave them alone in their happily bid game and not try to take away the joy of declaring from them.

For me, this is not friendly bridge AT ALL! This was my one board experience of the social club, which I never dared to enter again.

[fred]

inquiry, on Oct 19 2006, 07:31 PM, said:

I don't think the implication is the club is just for beginners... or then, of course it would be easy to name. I think it is for a style of play, and a hospitable table atmosphere. Most of try to arrange that at our main room games, but it seems a room where you are explicitly reminded to be friendly and play in a "low-stress" manner (no sending ?????? to partnter, no repeat faster commands, nothing in all caps), seems the goal Perhaps I am wrong.

You are right.

And also don't be surprised if our abuse department shows little leniency toward people who are rude in the Friendly Bridge Club.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[jillybean]

fred, on Oct 19 2006, 01:14 PM, said:

And also don't be surprised if our abuse department shows little leniency toward people who are rude in the Friendly Bridge Club.

Is the converse true for the "masters" bridge room?

I think 'advanced, expert' should be removed from the masters bridge club and replaced with something along the lines of serious, competitive play.

jb

[keylime]

Beaner's onto something here.

Here's what I was thinking:

Level 1 - The "BBO Social" Club
Level 2 - The "BBO Launching Pad" Club
Level 3 - The "BBO Serious Competition" Club

[Rain]

I think my suggestions will result in potentially lots of beautiful graphics and animation, the warcraft kind. :>

I think we should use animals.

Doggy bridge club for "friendly"
fox/dingo/coyote for in between
Wolverine bridge club for "advanced"

chihuahua
dalmation
labrador
german shepherd

Lots of other animals out there, but i like dogs best.

Or use the whole spectrum of animals:

Rabbits<-friendly and cute and beginner
Dogs <-friendly and cute and int
Dolphins <-friendly and cute and adv

Or with themes:

grass (lowest on food chain!)
sheep (not holy to any religion I know of)
Wolves (preying on sheep of cos)
and then something else that eats wolves. I don't know what.

====

or enter the fantasy realm.

Humans
Orcs
Elves
Trolls

=====

Or don't use any words, use symbols. like stars.

*

**

***

****

*****

=====

I can think of a lot more, but...

What about: having themes, so everyone can choose whatever 3 kinds of names they want to name their rooms? =D

I see dog names, you see cat names, fred sees orcs/elves names. Each room is still represented by a standard, like the stars mentioned earlier. So I can tell you "lets play in 3 star room" but I'd be seeing wolves and you'd be seeing lions.

And graphics inside are themed the way we want. You'd look like a dog to me and I'll look like a cat to you.

[keylime]

I see cars...

The entry level would be the Corolla; venerable, reliable, stable.
The mid-level would be something like the Camry or Lucerne; roomy, expansive, polished.
The top end would be like the M5 or the S500 series; sleek, fast, explosive.

[matmat]

clubs named after bridge plays that you know how to make

finesse club
squeeze club
endplay club
strip club

[paulg]

matmat, on Oct 20 2006, 04:12 AM, said:

clubs named after bridge plays that you know how to make

finesse club
squeeze club
endplay club
strip club

Of course some of these would need a NSFW warning label

[brianshark]

I like the term "Serious and Competitive club' as it suggests that people are there to play seriously... that they are going to take their time, declare/defend properly, tank if necessary, etc. Maybe be descriptive and explain that you're expected to play properly, take your time, etc. That people go there for good practice. Not meant to exclude people who aren't experts, but people who won't take things seriously. (Skill classifications can be done within the section... set table for "Beginner or Intermediate only", or "Adv+", or whatnot).

And I really don't think there should be further classifications. I think the "Main Bridge Club" should stay for everything else. It can be renamed "General Bridge" or "Relaxed/friendly" or whatever. (My favourite is "Relaxed bridge club")

Further distinguishments such as "Fast Bridge", "Precision only", etc, should probably be made with the table description field instead of a different club.

The problem is if you try and fragment the bridge populace into categories, such as Beginner's club - Intermediate club - advanced club - expert's club - friendly club - fast club - serious club, etc, then you get a mess. No one knows where the line is drawn and people will move to the extremes. There should be a main club for everything, and different clubs to cater for 'outliers', rather than to try and 'categorise' the bridge playing populace.

Or we can leave it the way it is, because it's fine!

[hrothgar]

"Serious and Competitive" is the best description that I've heard for one extreme...

Maybe we could lbel the opposite extreme "Relaxed" or "Low Stress"