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Customising MBC table listings

#1 User is offline   1eyedjack 

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Posted 2017-April-30, 07:44

This suggestion is going to go down like a lead balloon. But I think it has sufficient legs for an honourable mention.

Interface takes priority over functionality. This we have been told on numerous occasions. It is not my preference, nor my call, but I can see the reasons. Furthermore MBC tables take the lowest priority of all in terms of development (perhaps quite rightly). Combining these factors gives the following suggestion an uphill struggle to pass the committee stages, but here goes:

One factor that tends to be in common with a high proportion of suggestions is the proposal that the suggestion in question should be left up to the table host to set. Giving the host the powers of God seems to be the ideal to which to aspire, were it not for that pesky problem of the interface getting more complex with each implementation of the suggestion. So a lot of suggestions individually seem to have a lot going for them, with no downsides but for that override.

The problem with giving the host the power of God is that it is all very well if you are the host, or if you are part of a regular table where the host settings are likely to be already familiar to non-host players. But it is a real pain if you are not the host and are simply looking to join a pick-up table (or even with your own partner in tow). In such cases you effectively have zero time to review table settings before joining, because the seat will have been taken before you have assessed all that. The only solution is to sit first, then decide whether you like the settings, and then leave again if you dislike them. That is not an ideal solution. There may not be an ideal solution but the purpose of this post is to explore possible improvements that reduce that effect.

There are a few table settings that are visible when browsing the list, such as whether kibbers are allowed, whether permission is required to sit or kib, and type of scoring. If THESE are not to your liking then you can avoid sitting in the first place.

Anyhow, as a more general solution my proposal is that against each table setting, in your OWN preferences, you would be able to set your attitude to ANY of the settings which might disincline you to sit at a table with those settings activated. You could give them flags:

1) I like this setting so much that I would activate it if I am host
2) I like this setting, not so much that it would be my preference as host but I would be perfectly happy sitting there
3) I dislike this setting, but not so much that it would be sufficient for me not to sit there if push came to shove.
4) I dislike this setting so much that I do not want the table even to appear in the list of open tables, even if it has not already been hidden by the host.

In terms of presentation to the user there would be no distinction between options 1 and 2. The distinction would only signify if you set up a table as host, in which case those settings categorised as type 1 would be adopted by default, but not type 2. Type 3 could be identified by any number of ways; I would probably suggest a background colour change in the table list. Only downside is that it would not display which of several possible settings was the offending one in a particular case. Type 4 would, as the description suggests, be suppressed entirely from the list of tables. (At the risk of clutter you could have a single button on the list itself to "display/rehide hidden tables").

Just a random bank holiday thought, anyway.
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