[661_Pete]

As mentioned in another thread, this epidemic has played havoc with live bridge clubs. Many of them, including the one I go to, have suspended play until the crisis is over.

BBO could provide hosting for such clubs to continue playing online. Will this be possible?

[alan_a1945]

661_Pete, on 2020-March-15, 06:09, said:

As mentioned in another thread, this epidemic has played havoc with live bridge clubs. Many of them, including the one I go to, have suspended play until the crisis is over.

BBO could provide hosting for such clubs to continue playing online. Will this be possible?

Our club was asking the same question

[DozyDom]

BBO allows anyone to create their own tournaments, whose entries can then be restricted so that only the usernames of members of your club can enter (or you can leave it open if you want).

First, you need to be approved to create tournaments and act as director - for that, you need to email support@bridgebase.com and give your username and real name, at which point they'll register you, though I don't know how long that will take.

Once registered, follow the instructions at https://www.bridgeba...tournament.html to create a tournament, and then the other pages at http://www.bridgebas...m/tourney/help/ to manage it while it happens. Note that unlike real life, acting as a playing director will probably not be possible; a lot of the functionality is not available for you.

[661_Pete]

I can see BBO being overwhelmed if just about every club in the UK (and indeed, elsewhere in the world) starts setting up weekly or bi-weekly tournaments on BBO. I've looked at the websites of other clubs in my surrounding area, and several of them have likewise closed their doors for the duration. Would BBO be able to cope?

[barmar]

We spent most of the afternoon on Sunday trying to keep it from being overwhelmed. The 1pm speedball failed because there were too many users online.

We'll be increasing the capacity in the next couple of days.

Unfortunately we weren't prepared for this, and we're being pulled in all direcctions by clubs and NBOs looking to use our platform as a replacement. We're working on it, but it's not immediately ready yet.

[gordontd]

661_Pete, on 2020-March-15, 15:48, said:

I can see BBO being overwhelmed if just about every club in the UK (and indeed, elsewhere in the world) starts setting up weekly or bi-weekly tournaments on BBO. I've looked at the websites of other clubs in my surrounding area, and several of them have likewise closed their doors for the duration. Would BBO be able to cope?

For those of you in England, we are expecting to start running our own games on BBO soon, with EBU master points. This may well be better than clubs trying to run their own, as we are more likely to get a large enough entry to make it work. We'll make announcements once it is ready.

[pescetom]

gordontd, on 2020-March-16, 07:11, said:

For those of you in England, we are expecting to start running our own games on BBO soon, with EBU master points. This may well be better than clubs trying to run their own, as we are more likely to get a large enough entry to make it work. We'll make announcements once it is ready.

Are you thinking about running pairs tournaments rather than individual slogs against robots?
And if so, will the pairs still meet at local club level?

FIGB has plans to run games on BBO/Funbridge too, but nothing much is happening yet.
It would be nice to be able to point them in a workable direction and leverage work that is already taking place.

[661_Pete]

pescetom, on 2020-March-16, 07:58, said:

Are you thinking about running pairs tournaments rather than individual slogs against robots?
And if so, will the pairs still meet at local club level?

May I second that request? No way do I want to play with robots!

[leao]

as we understand it, BBO does not allow only members from a list. we tried that, and a lot of other people jumped in. it´s ok for eandom games, but if we want to continue a game that was going on at our club it´s annoying.
unless we grossly misunderstood it, in the help section there´s this statement:
"12) Next make your selections for Restrictions. The option for Include players by player level pops up a window where you can decide what level of player can participate. Unchecked boxes mean that level of player cannot participate, and the level is determined by the player profiles. The default is all levels of players are permitted. You can create and manage a custom player list by clicking the box and then clicking the Manage custom list"
when we tried that the manage custom list does not allow players ONLY from a given list. all of the options state "include", and there´s some "exclude" options as well, but there´s no "accept only" list as an option

[gordontd]

pescetom, on 2020-March-16, 07:58, said:

Are you thinking about running pairs tournaments rather than individual slogs against robots?
And if so, will the pairs still meet at local club level?

FIGB has plans to run games on BBO/Funbridge too, but nothing much is happening yet.
It would be nice to be able to point them in a workable direction and leverage work that is already taking place.

We expect to start the games this evening at 7.30 pm and 9pm GMT. They will be pairs games, not robots. I do not think there is a realistic way of running them at local level and I suspect most local clubs would not have enough members who were comfortable with playing online to make this viable. However, I do think that having an EBU game with master points will make people feel more at home than playing in a larger international game. Time will tell and we are prepared to make adjustments as necessary.

We are very grateful to BBO for making this possible when they have so much pressure on them.

[nekthen]

I hope that these will be free
Will it be country restricted or do we have to prove ebu membership
Not sure that master points are necessary or even desirable

[fromageGB]

But if they are free, why would people choose to join an EBU game as opposed to a normal BBO one? Surely the incentive is that you wish to donate to EBU coffers, and buy its master points :-)

Perhaps the reason for an EBU game is that people can be expected to behave, obey proprieties, and we get a good game in the UK evenings with stable numbers. To replicate a club environment it would probably be better to - from specific start times - fill tables on arrival with no play starting until 12 tables are full, then close that tournament, start play, and put new arrivals into the next tournament. If anyone has to drop out it is on pain of being automatically banned from future EBU sessions until you have pleaded your case and been accepted for reinstatement. The EBU charge would cover the admin to do that. Meanwhile, if a pair does drop out, opponents get a sit out at average plus until a newly arriving pair accepts the offer if standing in (free of charge) rather than joining the next tournament about to start.

Of course, all of this needs new EBU software and integration to BBO, so I expect it could not be done quickly.

[gordontd]

gordontd, on 2020-March-17, 01:29, said:

We expect to start the games this evening at 7.30 pm and 9pm GMT. They will be pairs games, not robots. I do not think there is a realistic way of running them at local level and I suspect most local clubs would not have enough members who were comfortable with playing online to make this viable. However, I do think that having an EBU game with master points will make people feel more at home than playing in a larger international game. Time will tell and we are prepared to make adjustments as necessary.

We are very grateful to BBO for making this possible when they have so much pressure on them.

Updated information on the EBU website.

[BudH]

If I emailed support@bridgebase.com requesting permission to be a game director who would set up and conduct a "private tournament" with members of my local club(s), how many days does it usually take to obtain that permission? In my case, it's been at least four days since my request. I did receive an email that they had "opened a ticket" for my request.

[barmar]

BudH, on 2020-March-18, 05:25, said:

If I emailed support@bridgebase.com requesting permission to be a game director who would set up and conduct a "private tournament" with members of my local club(s), how many days does it usually take to obtain that permission? In my case, it's been at least four days since my request. I did receive an email that they had "opened a ticket" for my request.

We've been receiving lots of requests like this, but we're busy trying to keep the service from falling over and working with bridge federations like ACBL and EBU. Our resources are stretched to the limit and we're not able to accomodate most of these individual requests -- we may even have to revoke the rights we've already given to some people.

Sorry about that.

[BudH]

barmar, on 2020-March-18, 06:51, said:

We've been receiving lots of requests like this, but we're busy trying to keep the service from falling over and working with bridge federations like ACBL and EBU. Our resources are stretched to the limit and we're not able to accomodate most of these individual requests -- we may even have to revoke the rights we've already given to some people.

Sorry about that.

I just received an email that says my request #783036 from a few days ago was rejected due to too many requests.

BUT - my initial request was WAY BACK on March 13, SIX days ago, which was presumably accidentally ignored. Request #780774. And I am sure many requests AFTER my March 13 request were granted.

Yes, I am disappointed my March 13 request was (accidentally) ignored and I would hope BBO will have some compassion and PLEASE grant my request to run a private tournament since I requested it nearly a week ago. (I've taken the last week collecting usernames of two local clubs who I told I'd be able to run a game for them near the end of next week.)

Bud Hinckley
BBO username budh

[gordontd]

gordontd, on 2020-March-17, 07:58, said:

Updated information on the EBU website.

And further updated now that we are running afternoon games as well as evening ones.

BBO really have been great in helping us when they are under such pressure.

[lowspade]

Why does it cost 5 BB$ to invite most people, but 10 BB$ for others?

I'm looking now at the "Partnership Desk" for the "Support Your Club ACBL Black Point Game #7716".

Currently showing about ten people I could presumably invite for 5 BB$, and another four people whose "invite price" is 10 BB$.

What gives?

[barmar]

lowspade, on 2020-March-21, 13:20, said:

Why does it cost 5 BB$ to invite most people, but 10 BB$ for others?

When you go into the Partnership Desk, you can click on "Partner must pay for me". The players who cost double are bridge pros who have chosen that option.