[Rossoneri]

Yet another occasion where a TM organiser has threatened to bar all specs from watching a stars tm because of the brainlessness of a few specs who insist on digressing to food and politics.

Someone asked "Are there any Pakistanis around?" Seemingly innocent question but when you look at the person's participation later, it is clear that the intent was to talk about the recent tragedy. Sad event, but does it belong to the chatter for spectators watching a TM?

And the amazing response I got when I privately msged said perpetrator after Charlie Weed said he was close to banning specs:
->****: happy with the mess now?
****: pardon me?
->****: you started the whole pakistan discussion
****: I asked a question is all
->****: perhaps this is not the right place to ask?
****: perhaps you should keep your opinions to yourself
****: I did not express an opinion
->****: perhaps you should just apologise to everyone
****: I asked a question is all
->****: yes you did not but you started the discussion

Seriously amazing.

[matmat]

i don't think this has much to do with off-topic chatter.
As I recall discussing politics is considered taboo at the Cayne matches.

[BillHiggin]

The forbidden topics are politics and religion.
Silly talk of food is not the problem (it may be to some - but it is not what generates the threats). On good days someone will announce the "no politics or religion" immediately when it pops up.

Any ethnic based comments should be avoided - BBO has no borders.

[mike777]

I am shocked Weed even has any, any idea what the specs are saying let alone cares.
I suppose if someone tells him the comments are obscene or racist in the extreme he may want bbo to step in but baring some extreme comments?

Politics? Politics means everything that includes the art of compromise. Do you get out of bed at 6 or 7? ...Politics!

Shocking that a country in a civil war with nukes with people getting killed left and right is a topic of discussion during a Cayne match. Shocking that food is a topic in a Cayne match...come on folks.......not shocking or uncommon.

Can we discuss Cayne's not getting a bonus or firing the King of bridge or some guy in the UK just bought 10% of his company or that some muslim country owns another 10%? Politics!

btw ty JEC for your matches, they are truly wonderful.

[Rossoneri]

Weed was watching.

I believe he laid the house rules beforehand already, yet people were contravening them.

He laid down no food as well, fyi.

In any case, isn't it distracting to the people who are discussing bridge? In the first place, if people wanted to chatter, wouldn't a chat room be a better idea?

[mike777]

Rossoneri, on Dec 27 2007, 11:55 PM, said:

Weed was watching.

I believe he laid the house rules beforehand already, yet people were contravening them.

He laid down no food as well, fyi.

In any case, isn't it distracting to the people who are discussing bridge? In the first place, if people wanted to chatter, wouldn't a chat room be a better idea?

If he lays down a no food discussion, fair enough, but many if not most watchers may come in ten seconds too late and never know those rules. I never saw or heard of them over many years.

[pclayton]

Charlie's house - Charlie's rules. If he wants to shut down the political chat, its his choice.

The only beef I have is when one of the pros makes a play that looks patently wrong, the canned response is:

"They are right, you are stupid. Go away".

The ironic thing is that if you were to ask Alfredo (for instance) whether or not he did the right thing, you'd probably get something like, "maybe", or "no", or possibly, "yeah I'd do it again". He wouldn't be so dismissive of his own errors.

[bid_em_up]

Who died and made Weed the one who decides what topics are ok, and what topics are not?

(Not that I like all of the banter, I just wasnt aware he had any authority over such matters).

[mycroft]

My guess is nobody died, and his good friend JEC has devolved upon him the responsibility (Trust me, any "right" this also passes is totally worthless). And as other people say, his table, his rules.

Of course, none of the relevant people talk to *me*. So take the opinion for what it's worth.

[barmar]

bid_em_up, on Dec 28 2007, 11:49 AM, said:

Who died and made Weed the one who decides what topics are ok, and what topics are not?

(Not that I like all of the banter, I just wasnt aware he had any authority over such matters).

He organizes the daily "Cayne vs. X" team matches. I don't think anyone is suggesting that Weed has any authority over other tables, these are the ones that tend to get large numbers of kibitzers and the most potential and actual problems.

[keylime]

I tend to agree with Phil here, for the sakes of harmony and not for anything malicious.

[awm]

Perhaps it would be nice for a team game/table host to be able to ban inter-kibitzer chat (as well as chat to table) much the way things are for vugraph presentations?

[barmar]

Banning chat entirely has been discussed before. But I don't think anyone really wants to go that far in most cases. Shouldn't we be able to talk about the game, ask questions about what bids mean, why a player played a particular way, etc.? Vugraph has commentators to do this, there aren't any commentators for team games.

And many people consider this a communal activity. Not being able to chat with each other while watching together would make it much less fun.

All that's being suggested here is that the chat avoid subjects that are controversial, which are more likely to cause flames than fun conversation.