[lindaroman]

IT WOULD BE VERY HELPFUL IF YOUR PROGRAM COULD BE ADJUSTED TO DISPLAY OPPONENTS DISCARD AGREEMENT BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF EACH ROUND.
IT'S RIDICULOUS NOT TO KNOW & THERE IS NOT SUFFICIENT TIME TO PULL UP THEIR CONVENTION CARD (SUPPOSING IT IS FILED OUT) & SCROLL OVER TO SEE WHAT THEY'VE ENTERED (IF THEY HAVE).

[pilowsky]

I don't have anything to do with running BBO but I can tell you that they will not be able to implement your idea. Here are some of the reasons why:
Most opponents do not know each other so they don't have agreements
Even opponents that have agreements don't follow them half the time!
For your idea to work the opponents (and you) would need to enter your discard data into the computer before each hand was played. If a connection is broken or there is a reset and a substitute comes in or all sorts of other things happen the system fails.
So, even though it would be great if everyone did follow the letter of the law and there was no crime and the world was a perfect place, it isn't. This is sad, but there is nothing that can be done about it.
You can ask your opponents politely before the round. They might give you accurate information. It will be as useful as if you were playing at the Club.
It is wise to remember that sometimes your opponent speaks a different language or is infirm and cannot type quickly, or has a very slow internet connection. All of these challenges make Bridge on BBO a different and interesting format.
GLP

[RMB1]

Quote

Here are some of the reasons why:
...

Last reason: BBO is unlikely to respond to requests written all in capitals.

[pilowsky]

The irony of RMB1 talking about BBO and capitals is rather funny, but what he means is that on the internet if you say it in capitals it means that you are shouting. This is very useful if your partner is deaf, or if you really want to make a point. LIKE when I ASK nige1 TO SPELL PILOWSKY WITH A Y not an i.

[Vampyr]

If you want to know the opponents’ agreements about discards or anything else, just ask them.

[glen]

I suggest that for tourneys that entering a partnership welcome message be a mandatory part of registering the partnership for the event

This welcome message would be automatically displayed at the start of the round

A typical message might be "Welcome, we play 2/1 with standard carding"

The welcome message would default to whatever was last used by the partnership.

For a new partnership, there could be a default welcome message, such as "Welcome, we are a new partnership", or "Welcome, see our misleading profiles" or "Welcome, we don't know WTF we are doing"

[mycroft]

One thought - you want to know what their discards are, but don't care about their non-discard carding, or leads, or ... ?

And yes, everything said here - many opponents are pickups, and don't have a signal; many opponents don't play what they play (or don't have an answer to 'what are your discards?"); it would be nice if there was a way to tie a sentence to a CC, such that beginning-of-round it's fired off automatically; but as in real life, the answer is to ask.

Unfortunately, as I am learning, and definitely as I learned in the RAH, many people are playing on mobile, and because it's so small, they close up chat completely, so they don't even see the ask, never mind know how to respond.

And yes, please don't shout.

As for Glen's last, from my .sigfile (lost forever ago):

"You're told your opponents play SAYC, but all that means is that they can find the letters 'S', 'A', 'Y', and 'C' on their keyboard."
- Adam Beneschan, on r.g.b.

[mycroft]

And also, I'm thinking:

"K/S w/Keri, 1NT O/C for T/O, FJS always. UDCA+SP, TrumpSP, Rev Smith/NT. A/Att K/Kount, otherwise standard leads"

"EHAA. 2 bids *very undisciplined*, 1 bids sound. [Carding as above]"

"Toronto 2/1, 14+-17, sound preempts. 2nd from garbage, A/AK, 4th best otherwise. UDCA"

may not help as much as it would if I played OTBS. I guess it's better than:

"We play Phantom Club. We'll explain."

Oh, I don't play any funny discards. "I can't play them in tempo, sorry." (and am not interested in learning. I so enjoy playing *against* them, bad tempo and all.)

[pilowsky]

And here we run back into the same old problem. What is the point of arriving at a table and saying "we speak ancient Aramaic"? Then it turns out that you don't. A woman sat down to play as my pick-up partner and said "I play EHAA". I was delighted, but it turned out that she had no idea who Eric Landau was. And when I opened 2♣ with a weak hand and 6♣, there was a Director call. How many forms of Acol are there? to say nothing of the curious spellings?

[Vampyr]

What is OTBS?

[mycroft]

The One True Bidding System (a parody of the One True Brace Style (which itself is a "ha ha only serious" joke)) - 2/1, shape over strength, strong NT, the usual gadgets, what 95% of players would expect. For "players" consisting of "the unlabelled" - i.e. ACBL players. OTBS is the result of taking ACBL ("ACBL's Correct Bidding Lessons", to misquote hrothgar, and create a recursive acronym, yet another computer in-joke).

Apologies for being unclear.

[johnu]

pilowsky, on 2020-July-14, 05:07, said:

LIKE when I ASK nige1 TO SPELL PILOWSKY WITH A Y not an i.

PYLOWSKI, ok, got it.

[pilowsky]

at last, someone on BBO can spell yroni

[Panetteski]

It would be nice if the software could be adjusted to allow dummy to continue the play of hand if declarer is thrown out of the system. Several times I’ve watched as a sub has joined the game and thrown away tricks partner had established. You can’t blame the sub for not knowing when they’ve just joined the game at trick 7.

[pilowsky]

That's a great idea Pannetski
I started a thread under "suggestions for the software" https://www.bridgeba..._1#entry1001704
You may want to add your idea there - along with any other thoughts.