[kaltstart]

Hello,

today I discovered a new feature on BBO by chance: If a player doesn´t act for 60 seconds there is an automatic message sent to the table that it´s his/her turn and that he should play. After 80 seconds he is removed automatically from table. It is seemingly meant to address stuck players, but on my table an opponent, who is also a friend of mine, was thinking after a lead over a difficult contract.

IMHO, there is no need for such a feature, especially if there is no possibility to opt out as table host. If a player is stuck, the table host can remove him. If it´s the table host, players can simply leave the table. Besides, thinking players often don´t notice those warning messages.

It would be great if this feature could be removed or at least made optional for the table host. Furthermore, I find the pls play faster message annoying.

Thank you in advance for considering.

[Huschi46]

Today I got the experience of the new BBO feature too and it is bothering me.

I always hate those players that say "faster please". Now all of a sudden BBO created a feature that say exactly this, when I am thinking or anybody else at my table. And not only that, the player is even removed, if he doesn't do anything for a certain time.

I were very happy, if this feature would be removed soon.

To make it a table option were the second best possibility, but then it would still bother me, when I am just a player and not the host.

[Antrax]

kaltstart, on 2012-November-06, 16:29, said:

If a player is stuck, the table host can remove him. If it´s the table host, players can simply leave the table.

And immediately get sucked back in if they're using "help me find a game". Inactive tables are a real annoyance.
Of course, it would be nice if there was a "thinking" button to prevent this warning.

[paulg]

I'm not a fan of this feature after one evening of playing unless it becomes an option. It was quite a surprise to see one of my friends threatened a few times and then removed from the table while he was thinking.

If you are thinking, the first reminder is fine but then they are too frequent. Removal just seems too drastic and is poor for those who are trying to play seriously.

So a negative vote from me.

[nickf]

I think you are not removed if you make a comment in the chat bar.

nickf
sydney

[Huschi46]

nickf, on 2012-November-07, 03:37, said:

I think you are not removed if you make a comment in the chat bar.

nickf
sydney

This is true. You can move your mouse too. You have always to act in some way to not be removed. This is annoying!

[Codo]

It is annoying to move the mouse once every 70 seconds?

It looks like you are getting annoyed quite easy.

[paulg]

Codo, on 2012-November-07, 04:15, said:

It is annoying to move the mouse once every 70 seconds?

It looks like you are getting annoyed quite easy.

I get annoyed when a friend is removed just because he is actually trying to think about a hand for a change. I want people to be able to think about bridge and not chatting/moving the mouse. The warning does not say move the mouse, it says PLAY and PLAY NOW. It means FASTER without the "please" and I found it irritating and annoying even though I was not the target of the system's concern.

When you are working with people and trying to get them to spend more time playing the hands, it is frustrating to find that BBO is behaving like some of people I do not care to play against.

I would like to see it as an option.

Perhaps my annoyance will abate over time, but this is the initial reaction of someone who cares a lot about BBO, promotes it extensively, plays a fair amount and uses it for national team training.

[Zelandakh]

I assume I am safe from this feature using the download version? Seems like yet another reason to stick with it!

[diana_eva]

Zelandakh, on 2012-November-07, 04:59, said:

I assume I am safe from this feature using the download version? Seems like yet another reason to stick with it!

No you are not. On the older version software cannot detect mouse movements so you'll have to either type something to the table or turn on "Be right back"

There is a hack available though. If you write +slow+ in the table description the scan will run less frequently.

[paulg]

diana_eva, on 2012-November-07, 05:53, said:

There is a hack available though. If you write +slow+ in the table description the scan will run less frequently.

Where is this feature enabled?

Team matches? Main and Relaxed Bridge Clubs? Other clubs such as the Acol and BIL? Bidding and teaching tables?

[Zelandakh]

Hmmmm, you refuse to make any upgrades to the download version but make this downgrade instead? I will try it but if it is too annoying I will just have to vote with my feet and stop using BBO until it gets taken out. Bridge is a thinking game - the rules allow me to do this without being distracted by some pop-up!

[diana_eva]

paulg, on 2012-November-07, 06:26, said:

Where is this feature enabled?

Team matches? Main and Relaxed Bridge Clubs? Other clubs such as the Acol and BIL? Bidding and teaching tables?

Auto-removal of stuck players only happens for Main Bridge Club and Relaxed, for tables with IMP, MP or TP scoring. Setting your profile to BRB, typing to the table, or writing +slow+ in table description works for these tables that are automatically scanned for stuck players.

Auto-removal (and corresponding ways to disable it) will not apply for bidding table, teaching tables, tables with 1 human+3 bots or tables with seats reserved. Team matches, tourneys or other clubs are not included.

This post has been edited by diana_eva: 2012-November-07, 07:39

[uday]

This entire thing is a bit of an experiment.

We suffer from 'stuck players' . How much? Hard to quantify. But as yellows we're seemingly constantly requested to boot a stuck host.

HMFAG ( help me find a game, jump to any table that needs a player ) is very popular, and is clicked hundreds of thousands of times a day by tens of thousands of players

In my experience, when a player is stuck, two things tend to happen

1. Host knows what to do and boots the stuck player. Not all players know to click the TABLE button, or even that they are the 'host' or what that means

2. Host is stuck, or isn't stuck but doesn't know what to do

Meanwhile, the other players at the table jump away and new players jump in and away . Everyone gets annoyed.

We've always had a background thing running that tries to guess if a host is stuck, removing the host if it guesses there is a problem. This guesswork was extremely primitive and based on something sucky, like N players bailing from the table in M minutes.

This new approach started as 'only warn if the host is seemingly stuck' and while developing it, I morphed it into '..any player '

The idea to me was that a player who is in a trance usually has an obligation to let the table know he is thinking, and that most players don't want to play (esp via HMFAG) against players who take 60 seconds to play/bid, esp w/o saying a word during those 60 secs.

Right now we're gathering data. I'm willing to add an option to tables to say 'don't force timed plays' or something if people want this, and find another solution for these tables if the host seems to be stuck. Or tweak it so that it only applies to tables that are destinations for HMFAG ( the high volume case ).

Nothing's in stone, feedback welcome

[myfish]

Hi,

I used BBO for around 8 years. From a novice to be an advanced players.
This new feature is my first time ever to dislike some function in BBO.

In fact, I won't play with any unknown people in BBO now, because the standard varies too much anyway, the odds is pretty low to find suitable table but instead I will play with those people that I know in real life. Some maybe youth that I teach or my regular partner, I want to play some not so casual bridge in BBO.

But.. here is what repeatedly happened.

When everyone in the table know that is a tough decision,

BBO : It's your turn, XXX. Please play

and eventually the player get knocked out once in ten times , in other 9 times, everyone in table were laughing at the comment by BBO. There is different between online and real bridge, but bridge is a thinking game and think about 2 mins is not abnormal in real life - now you will get kicked.

It would be better if this message will become the optional one controlled by table host, I dislike it, but it may help the others. But no at my table please.

[paulg]

I'm sure only a tiny percentage of BBO users will notice this feature, but a high percentage of them will be forum posters As you rightly say, few people think for so long without saying something and this will normally happen in games with friends rather than random opponents.

My preference would be for an option. If set then perhaps you could only monitor for the host at half the normal rate?

Many thanks for the explanation.

[barmar]

Currently, the parameters for this are that we pop up the warning after 50 seconds, and boot the player after 80. That's a pretty long time, even when you have something to think about -- I'll bet most players start typing "Pls play" before this. But we can always adjust these times if they're too short.

Probably 90% of calls to yellows are to request help when the table host is not responding.

[psyck]

I agree with the majority of opinions disliking this 'feature', it is more like a bug, it certainly bugged me no end. It is bad enough having distractions while thinking that you don't need any more stuff like this to add to it.

Another problem I faced due to this was that when a player at the table left & we were waiting for the host to find a 4th, I got automatically booted from the table as I did not bother to make a bid until we found a 4th player.

[Bbradley62]

barmar, on 2012-November-07, 12:09, said:

Probably 90% of calls to yellows are to request help when the table host is not responding.

Then maybe this new feature should apply only to table hosts. The table hosts can police the other three players.

[jlco]

I would like to see a refinement to this feature. If one is playing at a table with 3 Robots, there is no need to have this feature in place. I'm not affecting anyone with however long it takes me to play my cards, whether as declarer or on defense.