[euclidz]

Tell me about BBO . . . .searching online I can't find anything later than 2007.

I can see from google that it was founded in 1990 by Fred Gitelman and Sheri Winestock initially as analytical tools designed for serious students of bridge and progressed into delivering free online contract bridge through the Bridge Base Online (BBO) website. And I can see that in October 2007, it was owned by Fred Gitelman, Uday Ivatury, Bill Gates, Sharon Osberg, and David Smith.

I have to shamefully admit that I have enjoyed free Bridge and much free learning from playing Bridge on BBO without giving anything back (other than my presence). I am aware that BBO is a business, someone is paying for the servers and people staffing those servers and I believe (?) that there is more to BBO than people playing Bridge for free although I don't know what that is. And, I believe (?) that those people (some of those people) who pop up in the 'chat' to Club/Lobby now and again are unpaid volunteer helpers. From what I can see as a ‘free user’ it looks like the existing structure is something that evolved rather than was planned.

So, tell me about all those aspects of BBO I know nothing about, how it got to where it is and how it/they all work together?

[hrothgar]

All reasonable questions, however, I suspect that the folks who you'd want to answer them are a wee bit distracted right now

[euclidz]

I didn't expect Fred Gitelman or any of the much overworked and under pressure BBO staff to respond but I thought that some of the thousands in CV19 isolation would be able to fill in the gaps?

[hrothgar]

euclidz, on 2020-April-08, 02:46, said:

I didn't expect Fred Gitelman or any of the much overworked and under pressure BBO staff to respond but I thought that some of the thousands in CV19 isolation would be able to fill in the gaps?

It's far from clear how many of them have the necessary perspective to provide much in the way of useful feedback.

Note: there is some discussion on Bridgewinners that suggests that there have been some major changes in BBO's management structure over the last year or so.
I was completely oblivious to any of this.

[barmar]

euclidz, on 2020-April-08, 02:46, said:

I didn't expect Fred Gitelman or any of the much overworked and under pressure BBO staff to respond but I thought that some of the thousands in CV19 isolation would be able to fill in the gaps?

FYI, Fred retired from BBO, and most professional bridge playing, last year. He's a billiards player now, although he may be having trouble switching to online play.

[euclidz]

OK let's try this . . .

Clearly I don’t know how BBO got to where it is (and from the lack of replies to this thread nobody else does). As a ‘user’ it looks like the existing BBO structure of 'Clubs' is something that has evolved rather than something that was planned? I play in the Acol Club and from what I can see it looks like that Club was created by someone called Lawrence (username aacol) but I've never seen him in there and looking up games he's played I can't see that he's played any games in many years. If Lawrence has 'gone' who 'owns' the Acol Club?

[paulg]

euclidz, on 2020-April-09, 06:17, said:

OK let's try this . . .

Clearly I don't know how BBO got to where it is (and from the lack of replies to this thread nobody else does). As a 'user' it looks like the existing BBO structure of 'Clubs' is something that has evolved rather than something that was planned? I play in the Acol Club and from what I can see it looks like that Club was created by someone called Lawrence (username aacol) but I've never seen him in there and looking up games he's played I can't see that he's played any games in many years. If Lawrence has 'gone' who 'owns' the Acol Club?

Lawrence is still involved in the Acol Players Club, logs in regularly and will answer mail sent to his username.

There is also information on their website: http://www.acolatbbo.org.uk/

[euclidz]

Thanks I have looked at the link in the above post.

I can see reflected on that page great delight in the recent influx of members. I have to say that I do not understand why table numbers rising from 25 to 150 overnight brings us (members of the Acol Club) so much delight? Apart from the general pandemonium this has brought we now have Clubs within the Club. Notwithstanding that BBO no longer supports Private Clubs we (in the Acol Club) have external Clubs setting up their own private Club within the Club. Those 'Private' Clubs then spend the evening imposing their 'chat' to everybody else in the Club - why does this bring us (ordinary playing members) so much delight?

For me is raises the questions:
1. What are the objectives of BBO in structuring its 'play' into Clubs?
2. What is a Club?

[hrothgar]

Private Clubs are a feature that date back to the early days of BBO.

BBO's business model was long based on concept that BBO would provide a platform that third parties could use to provide services.

The hope / belief was that individuals could create private clubs akin to the Griffins or the Hyppogriffs. The club management would take responsibility for things like system regulations, directing tournaments, maintaining social norms, dealing with issues surrounding cheating and the like.

By decentralizing these sorts of issues, it might help BBO be more scalable.
It also helped shield Fred (and more generally BBO management) from a whole bunch off issues that they didn't necessarily want to deal with.

[bbutcher85]

I am not sure if this helps answer the question but recently our local bridge club has begun organizing a Virtual Club game that is restricted to players from our club. I believe the club director organizes the game and entered a list of usernames of all players allowed to play. The price is higher than BBO ACBL tournaments with profits going to support the local club. I am not sure what is required to set this up, but if others want to do something similar, I could ask our director what he had to do.

[euclidz]

bbutcher85, on 2020-May-03, 11:45, said:

I am not sure if this helps answer the question but recently our local bridge club has begun organizing a Virtual Club game that is restricted to players from our club. I believe the club director organizes the game and entered a list of usernames of all players allowed to play. The price is higher than BBO ACBL tournaments with profits going to support the local club. I am not sure what is required to set this up, but if others want to do something similar, I could ask our director what he had to do.

I'd would like to know - Is he setting this 'virtual club' up within BBO or on some other platform?

[gordontd]

euclidz, on 2020-May-07, 11:09, said:

I'd would like to know - Is he setting this 'virtual club' up within BBO or on some other platform?

The EBU has Virtual Clubs on BBO too.