[eagles123]

I have just been playing an ACBL tourny on BBO, I had a difficult hand and thought for no more than a minute when one of my opponents called director. I said something along the lines of, "Ffs i'm thinking". I was then given a reprimand and told not to use offensive language by one of the directors. I mean for christ sake, isn't there any common sense? CAn't the directors actually look at the hand, see that I have a genuine difficult problem? FFS is just a part of colloquial speak nowadays. Sorry but this whole situation really wound me up with the director speaking to me like I was a naughty school kid.

[johnu]

eagles123, on 2022-February-18, 18:10, said:

I have just been playing an ACBL tourny on BBO, I had a difficult hand and thought for no more than a minute when one of my opponents called director. I said something along the lines of, "Ffs i'm thinking". I was then given a reprimand and told not to use offensive language by one of the directors. I mean for christ sake, isn't there any common sense? CAn't the directors actually look at the hand, see that I have a genuine difficult problem? FFS is just a part of colloquial speak nowadays. Sorry but this whole situation really wound me up with the director speaking to me like I was a naughty school kid.

I'm with the director on this one. Sounds like you lost your cool.

[pilowsky]

Someone once alerted a 2♣ opening as "GF" and I was a little offended.

[johnu]

pilowsky, on 2022-February-18, 18:58, said:

Someone once alerted a 2♣ opening as "GF" and I was a little offended.

That was me and I'm glad you got my intent

[pilowsky]

Oh ffs - I knew it was you all along!

[paulg]

eagles123, on 2022-February-18, 18:10, said:

I have just been playing an ACBL tourny on BBO, I had a difficult hand and thought for no more than a minute when one of my opponents called director. I said something along the lines of, "Ffs i'm thinking". I was then given a reprimand and told not to use offensive language by one of the directors. I mean for christ sake, isn't there any common sense? CAn't the directors actually look at the hand, see that I have a genuine difficult problem? FFS is just a part of colloquial speak nowadays. Sorry but this whole situation really wound me up with the director speaking to me like I was a naughty school kid.

I agree with the director too.

Some of my club members would call the director if you took a minute to bid, even if just to check that you are still connected, but more would be offended by your language: it is not part of their language.

[jandrew]

eagles123, on 2022-February-18, 18:10, said:

I have just been playing an ACBL tourny on BBO, I had a difficult hand and thought for no more than a minute when one of my opponents called director. I said something along the lines of, "Ffs i'm thinking". I was then given a reprimand and told not to use offensive language by one of the directors. I mean for christ sake, isn't there any common sense? CAn't the directors actually look at the hand, see that I have a genuine difficult problem? FFS is just a part of colloquial speak nowadays. Sorry but this whole situation really wound me up with the director speaking to me like I was a naughty school kid.

I don't know which tourney you were playing in - but most allow 6 or 7 minutes to play a hand. You had taken one minute (over 16% of the total available time) for ONE bid --- FFS.
Your ptr and opps can't tell that you are thinking. After one minute it looks like you are stuck and a TD call is absolutely the right thing to do.
Nor can the TD tell that you are not stuck and your answer - "Ffs i'm thinking" - should have resulted in you being ejected from the game.

[LBengtsson]

eagles123, on 2022-February-18, 18:10, said:

I have just been playing an ACBL tourny on BBO, I had a difficult hand and thought for no more than a minute when one of my opponents called director. I said something along the lines of, "Ffs i'm thinking". I was then given a reprimand and told not to use offensive language by one of the directors. I mean for christ sake, isn't there any common sense? CAn't the directors actually look at the hand, see that I have a genuine difficult problem? FFS is just a part of colloquial speak nowadays. Sorry but this whole situation really wound me up with the director speaking to me like I was a naughty school kid.

I do not know how ACBL tournaments operate, and what you can or can not say during bidding or play, but I agree that 'thinking' about a decision is part of the game. And if you get disturbed during the thinking process, that makes it all the more difficult. Some opponents will use psychology of calling director so that you are made to think quickly into a decision: that is not fair as you then may make bad decision. As for using offensive language at the bridge table, I do not agree with that, however FFS is used so widely on the internet that I would have thought it would not offend too highly. You are not name calling anyone, just giving out your own frustration. And if you had a difficult decision at that time, you would have been frustrated that you had not found an answer.

Did the TD find what you said offensive? Or was the comment visible to all, and the opponents raised objection? There are always two sides to every story. It would have been interesting to know if all the players and TD were male, or was there a woman involved, as men use bad language so much more than females, and men do not get offended so easy.

[diana_eva]

ACBL games apply the "zero tolerance" policy which is higher standard than games in other areas of BBO. Sometimes even "faster please!!!!" or excessive gloating over a good board may cross the limit for some of the players.

Not everyone is accustomed to online slang. FFS may be day to day language to you, but not to them. I think the TD was fine to tell you to watch your language. You can always say "Sorry, thinking", or "I'm here, thinking".

[jandrew]

LBengtsson, on 2022-February-19, 06:29, said:

I do not know how ACBL tournaments operate, and what you can or can not say during bidding or play, but I agree that 'thinking' about a decision is part of the game. And if you get disturbed during the thinking process, that makes it all the more difficult. Some opponents will use psychology of calling director so that you are made to think quickly into a decision: that is not fair as you then may make bad decision. As for using offensive language at the bridge table, I do not agree with that, however FFS is used so widely on the internet that I would have thought it would not offend too highly. You are not name calling anyone, just giving out your own frustration. And if you had a difficult decision at that time, you would have been frustrated that you had not found an answer.

Did the TD find what you said offensive? Or was the comment visible to all, and the opponents raised objection? There are always two sides to every story. It would have been interesting to know if all the players and TD were male, or was there a woman involved, as men use bad language so much more than females, and men do not get offended so easy.

Well I find that phrase offensive and I do not use it widely, in fact today (above) is the first time that I can remember using it to underline a point.
In particular, when a TD is trying to move the game forward to the benefit of all players, such offensiveness is unacceptable and should result in immediate expulsion.

And, the heading to this post - "FAO Diana -Idiotic Directors" - shows a disrespect and disregard for the TDs which indicates a player who is automatically offensive.

[pescetom]

I can sympathise with somebody who is used to using certain phrases in a colloquial way and forgets that the context (and in particular, the interaction player-director) would make that inappropriate.
I find it more difficult to understand making the error public and seeming unrepentant.

[Lovera]

eagles123, on 2022-February-18, 18:10, said:

I have just been playing an ACBL tourny on BBO, I had a difficult hand and thought for no more than a minute when one of my opponents called director. I said something along the lines of, "Ffs i'm thinking". I was then given a reprimand and told not to use offensive language by one of the directors. I mean for christ sake, isn't there any common sense? CAn't the directors actually look at the hand, see that I have a genuine difficult problem? FFS is just a part of colloquial speak nowadays. Sorry but this whole situation really wound me up with the director speaking to me like I was a naughty school kid.

Hi. I believe that you could help to clarify for yourself what really happened for example when you say "I had a difficult hand" by showing where the difficulty you would have encountered lies. Usually in these cases the TD put a look at the cards to make the right decision at the table and did this happen? As for the words "along the line Ffs i'm thinking" what were the actual words spoken (en passant what does FFS mean)?

[pescetom]

Lovera, on 2022-February-20, 18:02, said:

en passant what does FFS mean?

I imagine it must be "for f**k's sake", roughly equivalent to "ma che ca**o".

[eagles123]

I can see I was in the wrong here, and I apologise both to the director and to Diana for unnessecarily bringing her into it. My only defence is that I fractured my ankle very badly with a dislocation in September and have just in the past week returned to work, so I'm in a reasonable amount of pain a lot of the time, and my stress levels are through the roof lol. Still, I should have judged the situation better and I apologise.

[Lovera]

pescetom, on 2022-February-21, 02:54, said:

I imagine it must be "for f**k's sake", roughly equivalent to "ma che ca**o".

It not so: FFS: acronym of the English For *****'s Sake ("for heaven's sake")[from Wikipedia].