[peterpr]

I am writing to draw attention to the fact that abuse, bad manners and intolerance are becoming endemic on BBO or maybe I should say it is a pandemic.

You need to encourage more feedback from BBO players on how to report abuse and bad manners and take SERIOUS action even on a ZERO TOLERANCE basis.

I would recommend harsher penalties than you currently have. These must be advertised on a regular basis. IT IS TIME TO CLEAN UP THIS SITE before a competitor recognizes your weakness....think about that !!

REMEMBER for every formal notification you get there are approx 100. YES 100 similar episodes. Evidence of the way customers behave has been published based on large population studies. Most people most of the time are submissive, besides one can just increase ones enemy list. MINE now contains 500+ names !!!!!!!!!

Not just abuse BTW but also manners like not allowing a host to boot for no reason OR they face consequences if reported. And leaving a table in the middle of a hand which requires better recognition s/w for those occasions when it is due to communication failure. I could go on and on about what is needed but better to stimulate broad discussion.

Bridge is a social experience as much as a mind game. BBO need to focus more on making the site a pleasant social experience and it can be done with LEADERSHIP

cheers
peter

[el mister]

You should ask for your membership fee back peterpr.

Seriously, the main bridge club is a zoo - you can't just parachute in there and expect to play some good bridge. People adapt by making friends and playing with those they know. The site has good tools to enable you to do this. If you've got 500 enemies (!) then you've been playing on BBO for a while - have you not managed to sort the wheat from the chaff in all that time?

[zasanya]

I started playing on BBO about 10 years ago. The OP prompted me to check the number of persons on my friends list . I counted 105 and I was still in the middle of C. I didnt go futher but considering that there are 23 more alphabets I will not be surprised if the number of friends is around 700. I must admit the friends list includes some stars and some forum posters with whom i have never interacted. I have not even taken their permission for doing so but like to kib their tables and friend list is convenient to locate them.
Then I checked my enemy list . There are 24 names. Today I cannot remember why i put them in enemy list so i have deleted their names.
For me bbo is a nice place.

[glen]

I am writing to draw attention to the fact that abuse, bad manners and intolerance are becoming endemic in the World.

I would recommend harsher penalties than you currently have. These must be advertised on a regular basis. IT IS TIME TO CLEAN UP THIS WORLD before a competitor recognizes your weakness....think about that !!

Sorry for the post with lots of CAPS and exclamation marks !!!!!!!!!

cheers

[helene_t]

Dear Peter,

Welcome to the forum. I hope you will find it a friendly place despite the somewhat sarcastic tone of the first responses.

When I joined BBO some 12 years ago I was close to giving it up because of the behaviour of many players in the main room. Not so much because of rudeness (I am fairly think-skinned in that respect), but more because of people leaving the table midhand.

But el mister is right - it is quite possible to play enjoyable bridge on bbo while avoiding rudeness and table hopping. Mark pleasant partners and opponents as friends - soon you will have enough friends to play exclusively with them. If you can't find three friends to form a table, play a tournament with one friend. If you don't have an available friend online or if you can't find a tourney, try to play as a sub in a tournament - partners are generally thankful to subs so subbing is usualy a good experience.

[microcap]

zasanya, on 2013-January-30, 03:27, said:

I started playing on BBO about 10 years ago. The OP prompted me to check the number of persons on my friends list . I counted 105 and I was still in the middle of C. I didnt go futher but considering that there are 23 more alphabets I will not be surprised if the number of friends is around 700. I must admit the friends list includes some stars and some forum posters with whom i have never interacted. I have not even taken their permission for doing so but like to kib their tables and friend list is convenient to locate them.
Then I checked my enemy list . There are 24 names. Today I cannot remember why i put them in enemy list so i have deleted their names.
For me bbo is a nice place.

I assure anyone reading this forum that Zasanya is by far and away the nicest player on BBO )

[pigpenz]

by accident today I signed into ACBL indy game, I thought it was robot game
the opps were real assholes with their comments, sorry for the language but they were.

[Bbradley62]

pigpenz, on 2013-January-30, 20:17, said:

by accident today I signed into ACBL indy game, I thought it was robot game the opps were real assholes with their comments, sorry for the language but they were.

Hopefully, you reported the offenders to abuse@bridgebase.com so that something can be done about/to the individuals, rather than just whining about it here.

[pigpenz]

Bbradley62, on 2013-January-30, 21:46, said:

Hopefully, you reported the offenders to abuse@bridgebase.com so that something can be done about/to the individuals, rather than just whining about it here.

see thats the problem, no one is whining here just posting to the thread that there are alot of jerks out there.

[hrothgar]

Bbradley62, on 2013-January-30, 21:46, said:

Hopefully, you reported the offenders to abuse@bridgebase.com so that something can be done about/to the individuals, rather than just whining about it here.

Personally, I think that this is something that should be handled by the ACBL Tournament Director rather than BBO.

When you punish a dog, you need to do so immediately after it did something wrong.
Otherwise the dog, just gets confused.

ACBL games cost a dollar for 12 boards.
If you want to get someone's attention, expel them from the game with no refund and ban them for a week.
And do so right when the incident took place.

[barmar]

hrothgar, on 2013-January-31, 09:40, said:

Personally, I think that this is something that should be handled by the ACBL Tournament Director rather than BBO.

While pigpenz's incident took place in an ACBL tourney, I suspect most of the abuse occurs in the MBC.

[OldPlayr]

I am not a fan of playing with robots, however they do have one thing going for them. I have never seen one make an unfriendly comment.

On a serious note...Whenever I play in the main club or in tournaments, I do so with the chat window hidden. While I'm sure I miss an occasional worthwhile comment, the ratio of those to garbage comments is too low to make chat useful.

Being relatively new here, I do wish that the software made it easier to find games with players marked as friends. Perhaps a way to set a "looking for a game" flag. I think I saw that, or something similar, on another bridge site. Sort of trolling for an invitation.

[jillybean]

OldPlayr, on 2013-February-01, 13:56, said:

I am not a fan of playing with robots, however they do have one thing going for them. I have never seen one make an unfriendly comment.

On a serious note...Whenever I play in the main club or in tournaments, I do so with the chat window hidden. While I'm sure I miss an occasional worthwhile comment, the ratio of those to garbage comments is too low to make chat useful.

Being relatively new here, I do wish that the software made it easier to find games with players marked as friends. Perhaps a way to set a "looking for a game" flag. I think I saw that, or something similar, on another bridge site. Sort of trolling for an invitation.

With your chat window closed you will never see anyone make a comment.

Friends expect friends to chat so try opening your chat window and talking to people. Good heavens, you may even find people are trying to chat with you to arrange a game. I tried a few times last time you posted here complaining of "noone to play with on BBO", only to be told you don't have your chat window open.

[OldPlayr]

jillybean, on 2013-February-01, 22:12, said:

With your chat window closed you will never see anyone make a comment.

Friends expect friends to chat so try opening your chat window and talking to people. Good heavens, you may even find people are trying to chat with you to arrange a game. I tried a few times last time you posted here complaining of "noone to play with on BBO", only to be told you don't have your chat window open.

I understand what you are saying. However, I feel that the trade off between missing the relatively few friend invitations and worthwhile comments is outweighed by the large number of disappointing and worthless chat comments. I'd rather see none that all.

Being an Internet site, anonymous and freely open to anyone, such is the state of comments. Probably a fair sample of society in general.

Frankly, I'm surprised that the professional spammers haven't arrived. Perhaps the audience is too small.

[barmar]

When you use "Help me find a game", tables with friends are preferred. You can also click on a friend's name in the Who's Online list and join their table.