[bambi1]

Last night (Tuesday) I was asked by a fellow TD to run his tournament as he was unable to do so. I was not sure if it was possible, as this is a very busy time for me at work, and I need my computer at home. Well out of the goodness of my heart I decided to run a quick 8 board Tournament, posted it , and listed the rules. As tournament time came close I announced several times in the lobby to please read the tournament rules before playing. The tournament began, and after my first announcement of "Welcome to IMP Tonight. This is an UNCLOCKED tournament, 8 boards" I was messaged by one saying "ugh, my partner and I do not play in unclocked tournaments" I responded by saying I would sub her out as there were many who wanted to play that could not get in. She responded "no, I stay." I told her it was ok as there were plenty of subs, and again she responded she would stay. A couple of other players remarked they do not like UNclocked events either. I wrote a message in the Tourament chat stating that it was written as UNclocked in the tournament rules, and if they didnt want to play, they should not have registered. The tournament continued. I was called to tables asking for more time, and I announced again in the chat area it was UNclocked, not to worry about the time. The tournament was almost over , there were 2 tables playing, and I was kibitzing one table. I got private messages, "this was a waste of time", "I will never play in unclocked events again", "you should know better bambi". I wrote back, that it would make their life a lot easier if they read the tournament rules first" The player at the table was not playing, and the declarer said, "he must be bored like the rest of us". Well, at that moment I was just so fed up with the abuse I cancelled the tournament. (it was one hour after it started). Then back in the lobby I was being messaged, and I went to answer when coffee spilled all over my keyboard, I unplugged it immediately, so I could not respond......but I did see in the chat area "Bambi has some explaining to do", "I have reported her to uday","She better not have cancelled.". I was messaged privately, "who do you think you are", what the F___did you do?".

Now........

I volunteered to do this tournament for a fellow TD. I am not paid, and I do it because I enjoy directing. I have run touraments on BBO for some time, and yes I make mistakes. I was appalled at the abuse from the players (and staff) of BBO. I did NOT ask anyone to register for this tournament, they chose to do so. Who's responsibility is it to read the Tournament Rules? They complained about a waste of time - who's time - mine or theirs? Don't you think they should be grateful there was a tourament at all? What happened to ty Bambi, we appreciate you running this for bb116. (btw , there were a few accolades from players, especially those who know me).

I have no idea whether I will be banned from BBO, or from directing. I do know that this is reputed to be a Zero Tolerance site. Well, my tournaments are Zero Tolerance. This rude and ungrateful behavior is unacceptable by me. I know SOME online bridge players, because they are annonymous, speak and act inappropriately, I will not be a part of this, as my rules and ethics do not allow it.

This explanation if for all of you. Fellow TDs, players who were worried about me, players who threatened me, and players who abused me. Thank you

[csdenmark]

your awful experience with rude people in tournaments - I have never met. If somebody would attempt such they are informed they will be dismissed immediately. I will not tolerate such - and I am glad to say - such has never accured to me. I have only run unclocked tourney's. To me it looks like they only fair set-up. No complaints - but a few questions. Bridgeplayers are like people are mostly - following the heels of each other until they jump into the water at the edge.

Just report the rude persons - you have them in your chat-log.

Come on again - who are going to win this battle? The rude ones or the nice ones?

[uday]

I did receive some comments about the canceled tourney (mostly asking where the results were, only a couple of complaints). All were polite.

In order of importance to me:

- No one - customer or staffer - has the right to be abusive to another player, let alone a TD who has just donated time so that others can play a T. No such behaviour will be tolerated here.

Pls email me - uday@ you know where - and tell me which customers used abusive language. I most definitely take issue with this. Also, pls let me know what kind of grief you received from yellow names. As far as I am concerned there should have been none, and I will discuss this w/the yellow names.

- It is not a big deal to cancel an occasional tourney in progress. Unless you make a habit of routinely canceling Tourneys for no reason, there is no harm done. After all, a player who doesnt like it has the option of steering clear of your tourneys in the future

[uday]

Just a technical note. A TD can adjust a board-in-play as easily as a board-already-played. If you were sick of waiting, adjusting to A== would move the table along.

[inquiry]

Hi Bambi dear,

No one as the right to be abusive to you. Send your chat logs right away to uday. Too many people fail to pay any attention to the condition of contest, and you always hear complaints about something that is spelled out in black and white.

I don't think you should have cancelled the tournment, because I am sure that what you were hearing from was a small but vocal minority of malcontents. Much better to to mark all those losers as "enemies" and turn your ignore chat from enemy button on... then you will not hear what they say anymore.... Really, cancelling a tournment probably should be weapon of last resort (who knows, they may have pushed you to needing to us it, however).

Ben

[bambi1]

uday, on Mar 24 2004, 08:54 PM, said:

Just a technical note. A TD can adjust a board-in-play as easily as a board-already-played. If you were sick of waiting, adjusting to A== would move the table along.

[QUOTE] I wasn't sick of waiting uday, I was sick of the inappropriate comments.

[spwdo]

hi,

couple of things i wanna add, acoording to bambi she changed rules of the tourney proir to start, not more then a week ago a yellow made a braodcast that lobby chat can be turned off, so lots regulars of this tourney were under the impperssion this was clocked.

second to claus, really sorry but u have no clue what is going on tourneys, when i reported my first incident to abuse uday replied, i bann, hope that will improve manors but im afraid that this is really a small incident and lots wurse happen to be said(maybe not exact words but defantly amoung those line)

third everybody shouldbut almost nobody does read tournament rules so live with it instead of complaining they dont(im soory but reality call)

fourth. as uday told any baord can be adjusted either way even an A== if u think someone is to blaim

five.when directing take decissions(adjust, mark as eneimies, boot,blacklist whatever it takes to enforce your rules as it is your tourney and your time)

six. i strongly belive several complaints about running an uncloked event saying this is wasted time is no reason to cancell tourney, if not cancelled the f-word was nevr spoken about your actions , wasnt personal adreesed at the td if read correct, was about the cancell of the tourney.

seven. even if their is only one good nice pair in a tourney i see reason to continui just for their sake(forget the losers and think about the nice ones, who on earth can do good for all)

eight.uday/fred bbo do a good job in abuse, report and u`ll hear/see the results
z.t needs to be inforced and not telling abuse what went on is in fact the wurst thing u can do, some start thinking all is allowed

nine.nobody has the right to be rude against players and defanatly against tds and congrats bbo that u react accordinly to be on our side and support us when we encounter that, use the tools provided from bbo and u live hapily ever after



marc

[bambi1]

spwdo, on Mar 24 2004, 11:54 PM, said:

hi,

couple of things i wanna add, acoording to bambi she changed rules of the tourney proir to start, not more then a week ago a yellow made a braodcast that lobby chat can be turned off, so lots regulars of this tourney were under the impperssion this was clocked.

second to claus, really sorry but u have no clue what is going on tourneys, when i reported my first incident to abuse uday replied, i bann, hope that will improve manors but im afraid that this is really a small incident and lots wurse happen to be said(maybe not exact words but defantly amoung those line)

third everybody shouldbut almost nobody does read tournament rules so live with it instead of complaining they dont(im soory but reality call)

fourth. as uday told any baord can be adjusted either way even an A== if u think someone is to blaim

five.when directing take decissions(adjust, mark as eneimies, boot,blacklist whatever it takes to enforce your rules as it is your tourney and your time)

six. i strongly belive several complaints about running an uncloked event saying this is wasted time is no reason to cancell tourney, if not cancelled the f-word was nevr spoken about your actions , wasnt personal adreesed at the td if read correct, was about the cancell of the tourney.

seven. even if their is only one good nice pair in a tourney i see reason to continui just for their sake(forget the losers and think about the nice ones, who on earth can do good for all)

eight.uday/fred bbo do a good job in abuse, report and u`ll hear/see the results
z.t needs to be inforced and not telling abuse what went on is in fact the wurst thing u can do, some start thinking all is allowed

nine.nobody has the right to be rude against players and defanatly against tds and congrats bbo that u react accordinly to be on our side and support us when we encounter that, use the tools provided from bbo and u live hapily ever after



marc

According to your posting people turn off lobby chat. They don't read tournament rules. (so I should stop complaining!)

Last but not least, I don't care whether they swore AT me or about my actions. It is UNACCEPTABLE.

[keylime]

I'm about to vent here, so make sure the hatches are secured.

What the bloody HECK is wrong with some of you??!! It's a free service, one of the best that the Internet has to offer, and SOME of you decide to instead trying to even attempt to understand the changing situation called LIFE, decide that it's really in your selfish best interests to start publicly stating that this TD was being reported to Uday and FURTHERMORE deem acceptable to use language that is unbecoming? What is wrong with you people - to be so utterly compelled to win that you'll at all possible costs run over your opponents and when that doesn't work, let's blame the TD because we couldn't get it done at the table.

The ACBL I will say in some areas got it right. Appeals is one of them - they have appeal without merit warnings (AWMW) and penalty points (PP). Why? Frankly, the membership had gotten so litigious in trying to gain a matchpoint or an imp that was not entitled to them most of the time and would fork over the deposit fee knowing that they'd get the deposit back most of the time just to have the sickening pleasure of arguing that "explaination X" wasn't EXACTLY what hand Y had, even when it was clear that the general meaning was spot on for the bidding offered.

It's gotten so bad the conduct of some that the ACBL has provided protection for sexual harassment, for outbursts, so on. DICs have more power now to get these offenders out of the game. Do we really need to make BBO more "draconian"? I hope not - I hope that the decency and decorum that this game offers would prevail instead of the pervertedly gross pursuit for the "win at all costs" mentality. All for the sake of fractions of masterpoints -

Folks it's really simple - the TDs are doing yeoman's duty for the sake of the game itself, because they love the game, they honor the game, they simple want to be part of the game. I for one am standing up and being heard - I'm not about to let some deviant who is so stuck in the forest of their self-serving narcisstic misery to see the sky above them rob my enjoyment of the game.

[spwdo]

According to your posting people turn off lobby chat. They don't read tournament rules. (so I should stop complaining!)

Last but not least, I don't care whether they swore AT me or about my actions. It is UNACCEPTABLE[QUOTE]

bambi,

think u misinterprete a lot here.Let me make it easier in best way i can.

1. I dont agree with the cancel of the tournament(may I)
because 1 a. critisisem will always be there
1.b the inintial comments where not more then that(i dont see rudiness prior to cancel, at best some misplaced comments )
1.c several were unaware of u changing the format(i dont approve or aplaud that nobody reads TR just pointing out the facts im afraid)
4. A lot of good folks maybe wanting to thank you for your efforts were denied their result(imho i dont think its good to hurt the good while trying to hurt the bad)
2. about the F-word after the cancell, i dont aprove of the worduse, just saw that in propestive of the cancell, report it to abuse, they ll know what to do

3.bbo let evry td free to use tools given , feel free like ben suggested mark whoever u want as enemies and prevent them from talking to you

4. im not defending anything that was out of line, just saying that i feel u overreacted with pulling the plug and that some of this was caused from changing an exsisting tourneys format prior to start

5. this all togheter still doesnt give anybody the right to be rude against a td donating his time and like uday sugested he will react accordingly once he recives your chatlog, i took that also in consideration knowing the mere fact that uday will take appropiate action when i made my first replie

6. wish u better times at your tourneys to come

p.s can someone send me a mail how to quote someone else, i seem to have a problem with that( not anymore)
edited this, massive response made me know how to quote , thanks for that friends
marc

[aisha759]

I feel, you are all missing Bambi's point here; she said she agreed to host, to be helpful, but because she was busy, had to change the format of the turney so she could get on with her work as soon as possible; there are a lot of very capricious players out there, and yes, unless you have a special character, the few per tourney can make one's life very difficult; and the few can also make it extremely enjoyable (to direct)..... Mark, you are also right about players being used to a certain tournament format, and probably didn't read the changes; but, as Bambi mentioned, she made addds in the tournament, and told those who didnt like it to leave, but they insisted on playing..... and if it was a waste of time for them to play, it is rude and ill mannered to say so publicly; I have joined a few tournaments which were a waste of time, but never thought the TD was to blame..and using foul language??????? It is unacceptable....and even if Bambi overreacted and canceled tourney, she is human afterall, she had had enough!!!
It was kind of her to help a fellow TD, and i am sure she now regrets doing it....
Keep your chin up Bambi, and put in your experiences in TD funnies i know it doesnt look that way now, but eventually it will!!
TD's are not robots, they are human beings, and have their moods too.....
I do admire Mark, as i have co-hosted with him a lot, and he discards the "bad apples" and just remembers the good ones.... after an hour of abuse though, its kind of hard to to, as it seems, by the way BAmbi describes it, the minority were being helpful and polite

I hope you'll feel better about all this soon Bambi

Have a nice day all

Aisha

[bearmum]

keylime, on Mar 25 2004, 03:00 PM, said:

What the bloody HECK is wrong with some of you??!! It's a free service, one of the best that the Internet has to offer, and SOME of you decide to instead trying to even attempt to understand the changing situation called LIFE, decide that it's really in your selfish best interests to start publicly stating that this TD was being reported to Uday and FURTHERMORE deem acceptable to use language that is unbecoming? What is wrong with you people - to be so utterly compelled to win that you'll at all possible costs run over your opponents and when that doesn't work, let's blame the TD because we couldn't get it done at the table.


Do we really need to make BBO more "draconian"? I hope not - I hope that the decency and decorum that this game offers would prevail instead of the pervertedly gross pursuit for the "win at all costs" mentality. All for the sake of fractions of masterpoints -

Folks it's really simple - the TDs are doing yeoman's duty for the sake of the game itself, because they love the game, they honor the game, they simple want to be part of the game. I for one am standing up and being heard - I'm not about to let some deviant who is so stuck in the forest of their self-serving narcisstic misery to see the sky above them rob my enjoyment of the game.

I TOTALLY agree with the (edited for those which I agree with ) comments from keylime - GET a life everyone ----- THANK all the dear folks who spend their valuable time directing tournaments for our benefit ----- and if you don't like tournaments here which are free and fun --------- go somewhere else and let those of us who are willing to play by the rules here do so

[bb116]

First Let me say that I have the privledge of directing with bambi1 for some time now. The tournament she hosted was to replace the one scheduled by me on Tuesday evenings as last week I had to go for a cat scan in the AM and honestly didn't get any sleep the night before and e-mailed her (as we usually co direct each others tournaments) telling her I just couldn't stay up to direct that evening.
We try to run fast and fair tournaments, I have to say that bambi1 has taken much unwarranted abuse at times, however the vast majority of players constantly message me to say that she is the best (and I tell them I know
I am sorry I put bambi1 in that position. I do understand her changing the format to unclocked as she was directing alone and the adjustments come fast and furious from the MP Tonight crowd at times, that and disconnects can make a tough job for TD. Both bambi1 and I prefer CLOCKED as well as most players but there are times it is not practical. The change was announced and it really is the players responsibility to read the rules before signing up and they have to learn that
There is no reson for abusive language to TD, it doesn't matter if she changed format or cancelled the tournament. We do not charge players to play, we volunteer our time to make the community more fun for all, we do our best weather you agree with past adjustments or not they are done in the spirit of fairness always. I can not see any reason for a player to be verbaly abusive to a partner or TD. We can disagree or make a point without using the language directed at bambi1.
I agree with aisha759 about some players can be difficult but most are pleasant and thankful, unfortunately the happy ones are usually more silent than the troublesome ones...
Bambi1 I am grateful for your running the event and sorry for your experience, but more then that I value your friendship and experience.♥

PS: The test came out well, thanks to those who asked; and guess you have to put up with my tourneys a little longer....

[ehhh]

I agree with keylime - wake up and get a reality check. As i see it bambi's only fault is her good nature and patience.
BBO's support staff are more than supportive in dealing with these individuals. Is this another arguement for a data base that TD's can access so they can protect the integrity of their tournaments?
There are far more appreciative, understanding, and supportive players out there than bambi had the unfortunate experience with which to come across. If we didn't believe that, there surely would be no incentive to run the tournaments, refer minor sports, or volunteer within out communities.
I only hope is that we don't lose the bambi's of the site and that they see these individuals for what they are and get back on the bike.

[Free]

I'm not a TD, but I have my humble opinion.

I think it's wrong what Bambi did, simply because she lets just a few people ruin the tourney. I don't know how many people were playing in it, but say you have around 50, and 5 guys complain (and keep complaining), then I still don't think she should cancel the tourney. All other 45 players WILL be mad, because they want to know how well they did. Just put yourself in their place, you wouldn't like it either. Keep in mind that for everybody, it's still the TD's fault, not the few persons who really caused the TD to cancel. Punishing 90% of the players because some 10% were complaining can't be a right descision imo.

On the other hand, despite I think she made a mistake, I wouldn't punish her. Bambi does a great job, and everybody makes mistakes. The only thing we can hope is that it doesn't happen again. I know that it's a free service, and I really apreciate the energy and time some people put in it, so I would go soft on them

[DJNeill]

Hi all,
TD's are volunteers, so the fact that there is a tournament at all is a blessing for players. What right to players have to be rude to a TD?

"I deserve this and that in my tournaments. Hrumph!"

Yeah and how much do you pay for these tournaments again?

There is room for opinion, but after the tournament when the TD is in a receptive mood.

Later,
Dan

[aisha759]

I have had tournaments cancelled out on me a few times, whatever the reasons are, one gets over them.....however, it's a little bit harder getting over being insulted, whether its 1 insult or 5 insults..... i have TD'ied a few times, and have been told off....some days i bite my lips and swollow it, other days i wonder why i ever took this up, and other days, it just doesnt even bother me.....i have played in bambi's tourneys many times, and she is a great director!!! There should be no argument as to why she reacted by cancelling....its not like she does it all the time!

I am sure those players who didn't get their results will get over this trauma

[Trpltrbl]

I feel for you Bambi. I know there are some really rude people out there, and they just do what they want to do and that doesn't include reading the description of the tourney. Though for them, if they can't read or follow direction, maybe they should go play somewhere else. Or some thing else you might be able to do, is adjust their score in such a manner they don't want to be rude anymore.

Mike

[dogsbreath]

Hi Bambi ..
I try to avoid unclocked tourneys but occassionally play them when invited.
I appreciate the efforts of all who run tourneys and there is no excuse for rude comments toTDs ..i sympathise with you.
Dont give up Regards, Dogsbreath

[JRG]

Bambi1

For what it is worth, the problem you encountered has clearly been a problem in face-to-face bridge as there is actually a law in "Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge" that covers it. Clearly face-to-face and online bridge differ, but in general the Laws still apply (the ones I think apply are quoted below, purely for reference).

My opinion is that the offending players should have been nuked (substituted out) rather than cancelling the entire event; however, with only two tables left in play, it probably wasn't worth it (except to make a point). In any case, I will not argue with your action.

In hindsight, it might have been effective to have made an announcement along the lines of

"I have been receiving too much abuse from some of the contestants. This event is going to be cancelled.",

before cancelling it. It might have been worthwhile to let everyone know why you were about to throw in the towel.
____________________________________

In the section on "Proprieties", Law 74 is entitled "Conduct and Etiquette". Law 74 B says:

"B. Etiquette
As a matter of courtesy a player should refrain from:
...
5. summoning and addressing the Director in a manner discourteous to him or to other contestants."

I suspect a director can use Law 91 to deal with offenses (it seems to bestow sufficiently wide-ranging authority):

"Law 91 - Penalize or Suspend

A. Director's Power
In performing his duty to maintain order and discipline, the director is specifically empowered to assess disciplinary penalties in points or to suspend a contestant for the current session or any part thereof (the Director's decision under this clause is final)."