[fred]

Elianna, on Oct 19 2006, 01:15 AM, said:

Is it possible to have different settings for the main lobby and for the sub-lobbies for teamgames, MBC, etc? I like creating more column space for names in the main lobby, but would like more space to see full names at tables with just a glance.

This isn't a high priority thing, as it's still possible to see names, it's just a little harsh looking. I also imagine that it might be annoying to code, and I love coming up with those types of suggestions.

Someone else suggested something similar. It is possible and the more people who ask for the this, the better the chances I will implement it (though it may not happen right away as I am concentrating on bug fixes now).

The other poster suggested separate settings for number of lobby columns in each area of BBO. Might be better to have only 2 settings - 1 for the lobby (the name I am still using for what you see just after you log in) and 1 for everywhere(*) else.

* So I am not accused of lying again, "everywhere" is meant to refer only to places in which a mini-lobby-list is displayed.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[sceptic]

when I went to options and prefences I found that they gave me a solution to the layout issues I never liked, smart move there

[sfbp]

Looks great!

I would like the option to show "players seeking a game" regardless of whether they are friends, enemies, worldclass, hosts etc. This might have some very positive social effects. Not "only seeking a game".

Stephen

[1eyedjack]

Substantial improvement.

Just one prediction from 1eyed "nostrodamus" jack:

When this version goes live, nearly all the players who choose between the friendly, main and masters rooms will either choose between friendly or masters, and in the middle room we shall hear the howling of the wind, with bales of tumbleweed blowing down the deserted street.

Ah well, we shall see in the fullness of time.

I think that if I had designed that aspect I would have stuck to just the one room, given the table host the option to defining the table as "friendly", "expert" or "in between" (default in between to start with, but default could be changed in user settings), and then allowed players to filter out (or in) tables of particular category.

All in all a job well done and much appreciated, Fred and team.

One tiny request. Think I may have said it before. If you decide to filter out full tables, can we have the sorting of the remaining tables with the fewest vacant seats at the top?

[badderzboy]

I often play in the Acol club or BIL would it be possible to list 'favourite' clubs alongside the three main rooms?


Steve

[1eyedjack]

badderzboy, on Oct 19 2006, 04:30 PM, said:

I often play in the Acol club or BIL would it be possible to list 'favourite' clubs alongside the three main rooms?


Steve

Seconded. Not much keen on the multiple drill-down to get there.

Another thought:

Can you show on the screen the number of tables that have been filtered out by your filter settings, and number of tables hidden by table host, when you are in a specified room? The reason is, sometimes a table may be hidden because I have inadvertently, some days past, filtered out all but the IMP tables, and forgotten about it. If I know to expect the table to be there then I may guess to check my filter settings. If I forget all about that and am not especially expecting a particular table to be there then I might be prompted to check if in the corner of my screen, out of the way somewhere, it advises me that (say) 15 tables are not being displayed, of which 14 are filtered out and 1 hidden by host.

[fred]

1eyedjack, on Oct 19 2006, 03:20 PM, said:

One tiny request. Think I may have said it before. If you decide to filter out full tables, can we have the sorting of the remaining tables with the fewest vacant seats at the top?

OK. I will do that in the next version (most likely to be announced later today or tomorrow), but if people complain that they liked it the old way better I might go back.

This turned out to be as easy as changing a > to a < in the source code

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[hrothgar]

I'm not sure that the names for the new Bridge Clubs are quite right. In particualr, I think that the expression "Friendly" needs some thought. I'd like to think that it would be possible to find a friendly game regardless of my skill level...

"Social" might be a bit closer to what you're aiming for. Alternatively, the British have "No Fear" events.

[fred]

hrothgar, on Oct 19 2006, 03:44 PM, said:

I'm not sure that the names for the new Bridge Clubs are quite right. In particualr, I think that the expression "Friendly" needs some thought. I'd like to think that it would be possible to find a friendly game regardless of my skill level...

"Social" might be a bit closer to what you're aiming for. Alternatively, the British have "No Fear" events.

None of the names are final or anything, but FYI we were using "Social bridge club" (or similar variations) in some of our early pre-beta testing.

The main reason that we changed this is because (in my view at least) many people think "Social bridge" necessarily implies non-duplicate bridge and we did not want to give people that (false) impession.

We want a name so that people who are nervous about playing with strangers for reasons like:

- they are new to bridge
- they are new to BBO
- they are shy
- they just want to have a good time without really caring about the results

will have an easy and obvious place to go. I am not thrilled with "Friendly bridge club" either, but it does get the message across.

Suggestions for names are certainly welcome, but we may not comment on all of the suggestions. Let me repeat that none of the names we have now are set in stone and that one of the benefits of the new BBO is that we can change things like this without forcing people to download a new version.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[fred]

badderzboy, on Oct 19 2006, 03:30 PM, said:

I often play in the Acol club or BIL would it be possible to list 'favourite' clubs alongside the three main rooms?


Steve

Possible but not likely to happen soon.

We are now in testing/bug-fix mode. If we add any new features during this time they rate to be minor (in terms of how much work is required). We will remain in this mode until we do a release for the general membership by automatic download. This may happen in as little as 2 weeks, but it would not surprise me if it took several weeks more than this.

Then we will decide what to work on for the next version.

Giving the user the ability to customize additional aspects of the menus he sees and creating a "favorites" facility were ideas we considered for this version, but we (me actually) decided that we had gone far enough already and that it was time to start preparing for a release.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[pclayton]

I was playing with the colors from the new options menu.

I couldn't exit from the menu, although it did accept the changes I made. Ultimately I had to restart BBO.

[fred]

Thanks. I will fix it in the next version.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[Gerardo]

Default is just friends, even for classic view, unless you remember preset filters.
All players there looks more sensible.

Also, new options screen looks nicer, can it be made the default in classic view?

[fred]

The new Options screen is now used in Classic View.

The reason the default filter setting is "only friends" is that we do not want new BBO players to see a big list that they don't understand when they log in.

Of course new BBO members won't have any friends yet, so their lobby list will be empty the first time they log in. We use the space to display instructions for how to view other members.

Not sure if we will change this or not. I am not completely satisfied with what we are doing here, but I have not thought of any alternatives that I like better.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[Patapon]

fred, on Oct 21 2006, 05:58 PM, said:

Of course new BBO members won't have any friends yet, so their lobby list will be empty the first time they log in. We use the space to display instructions for how to view other members.

I think this isn't right that new members have their lobby list empty.

What I especially liked when I logged into BBO for the first time was to be able to see immediately other members and read their profile just moving my mouse

I saw some people I knew or some notorious names.

This is useful and reassuring to see immediately other people and to be able to chat with them when you are lost on a new site.

I suggest the default filter setting could be "the yellow" and the stars or maybe people from your own country so that you can chat to anybody and be understood.

[Dwingo]

Empty list is not a good idea. The No. of people logged on to the site, has shifted to a new location and smaller in font size. Newbies will be lost and get the impression that there is no in sight.

[1eyedjack]

1eyedjack, on Oct 19 2006, 04:20 PM, said:

Just one prediction from 1eyed "nostrodamus" jack:

When this version goes live, nearly all the players who choose between the friendly, main and masters rooms will either choose between friendly or masters, and in the middle room we shall hear the howling of the wind, with bales of tumbleweed blowing down the deserted street.

Ah well, we shall see in the fullness of time.

Heh! It seems my powers of prediction were about on a par with my annual prediction of what will be announced in the Chancellor's Budget statement.

Several months down the road we have a main bridge club that is full to bursting with self-assessed world class or expert players who advertise that they are only interested in world class or expert partners/opponents, but who continue avoid the "Masters" club room like the plague.

I suppose on reflection that it is not so surprising. If everyone is in the main room anyway, including all the experts, where would you go for an expert game? A room with one or two players in it or one with thousands? No-brainer really.

In one respect my prediction was accurate. There is a howling of wind, with bales of tumbleweed blowing down the deserted street. I just got the wrong street.