[helene_t]

jdonn, on Dec 6 2008, 06:17 PM, said:

The_Hog, on Dec 5 2008, 07:46 PM, said:

Jeez, don't jump down his throat. He has a point and he made a reasonab;e suggestion.

Sarcastic answer: Sorry mommy.

ha-ha do you think Ron was serious? He was defending Nuno, has that ever happened before?

[han]

Yes.

[maggieb]

How about a new forum to discuss forum names!

[mr1303]

On a serious note, there's a reason why the BPO hasn't been done recently:

1) To actually organise it requires a lot of work
2) There are a lot of people who complain about the scoring
3) There are a lot of people who complain about the hands given

Certainly these were my experiences when I had a go. I might be tempted to do it again, so long as people appreciate:

i) I have a finite amount of time to devote to bridge each week. Things like work and my family will come in a higher priority to anything like bidding polls
ii) The scoring system is always based on someone's opinion. If you don't like the opinion of the person carrying out the scoring, do someone else's bidding poll
iii) Choosing a number of hands that have a variety of bidding choices is actually quite difficult and requires a lot of work in itself.

[jdonn]

If there is going to be a new forum created, how about one for announcements and congratulations? The forums are generally quite supportive of its regulars for bridge achievements and birthdays, so with a forum devoted to that stuff we could toss in major life accomplishments like new jobs or marriages or new homes, a place for us to brag a little if we get promoted or announce if we are moving, stuff like that. True that is always the water cooler, but it has essentially become a place for political and social debate, so I don't see why this couldn't be seperated out.

Plus it would prove to visitors that no matter how much it seems like we loath each other when discussing in the bridge forums and the water cooler, we are all friends after all.

[maggieb]

Congratulations on coming up with a good idea for a new forum Josh!

[Fluffy]

whereagles, on Dec 6 2008, 12:06 AM, said:

3. Sure. Just send me a book on black magic so I can learn how to raise dead

Beware Nuno, the way for the Black magic is dangerous, it will capture your soul and change how you see things now, you won't have no respect for anyone's life anymore.


BTW: I don't normally know if I should post hands on interesting bridge hands, or advanced/expert bridge. But if I wanted to post a deep theorical question such as how to make different knds of blackwoods depending on the range of strenght partner has shown, I know it should go to advanced/expert.

[whereagles]

Fluffy, on Dec 8 2008, 10:39 AM, said:

Beware Nuno, the way for the Black magic is dangerous, it will capture your soul and change how you see things now, you won't have no respect for anyone's life anymore.

You can call me Darth Where

[matmat]

whereagles, on Dec 8 2008, 03:34 PM, said:

Fluffy, on Dec 8 2008, 10:39 AM, said:

Beware Nuno, the way for the Black magic is dangerous, it will capture your soul and change how you see things now, you won't have no respect for anyone's life anymore.

You can call me Darth Where

i think Darth Fluffy has a better ring to it.

[the hog]

There is the perception of a lot of black magic where I live - seriously!
My next door neighbour and I had a dspute about land boundaries and he threatened to put a curse on me. No joke. I told him I was part Australian Aborigine, (I'm not), and I pulled out a chicken bone and pointed it at him. I explained that if he didn't behave himself he would become seriously ill. He shat himself and I have had no troubles with him ever since. People here are VERY superstitious.

[maggieb]

That is very funny, hahahaha.

[jillybean]

The_Hog, on Dec 8 2008, 05:32 PM, said:

There is the perception of a lot of black magic where I live - seriously!
My next door neighbour and I had a dspute about land boundaries and he threatened to put a curse on me. No joke. I told him I was part Australian Aborigine, (I'm not), and I pulled out a chicken bone and pointed it at him. I explained that if he didn't behave himself he would become seriously ill. He shat himself and I have had no troubles with him ever since. People here are VERY superstitious.

Hi Ron lol I dont doubt that you could pull that off!

[cherdano]

I know this comes up periodically and there isn't all that much point in changing a lot. Still, I would really really love to see a forum devoted to play and defense problems. Once I get sick of discussing bidding gadget I would still like to have a place where I can look up recently posted play problems now and then. As of now, they are difficult to look for.

[inquiry]

cherdano, on Jan 1 2009, 09:06 AM, said:

I know this comes up periodically and there isn't all that much point in changing a lot. Still, I would really really love to see a forum devoted to play and defense problems. Once I get sick of discussing bidding gadget I would still like to have a place where I can look up recently posted play problems now and then. As of now, they are difficult to look for.

How might you suggest we format this? We currently have two bidding forums, SAYC and 2over1, and non-natural systems. If these are not enough, would you suggest a "convention" forum for other bidding issues?

For play, we have interesting hands, beginner/intermediate discussion forum, and advance and expert discussion forum. Would you suggest sub-forums in those or new forums, and should they be based upon defender problem and declarer problems? If we add such forums, would you suggest removing some of the existing ones (with threads moved)? Not sure if this would break links to some of the older post or not.

Can you suggest what layout (forums and subforums) and groupings you think would be better?

[helene_t]

The thing is, expert/advanced is not specific to play or to bidding, and there is much more bidding than play. Even "interesting hands" has a lot of bidding stuff. It would be nice to have a forum dedicated to declarer play and defense. Maybe an advanced/expert card play theory forum as well as an advanced/expert bidding theory forum.

[cherdano]

I was just suggesting to add one forum called "play and defense problems". "Interesting bridge hands" and the A/E forum would become specific to bidding.

[FrancesHinden]

cherdano, on Jan 1 2009, 05:42 PM, said:

I was just suggesting to add one forum called "play and defense problems". "Interesting bridge hands" and the A/E forum would become specific to bidding.

Yes, then we'd have one forum for play and defense problems and 4 for bidding. That probably reflects the ratio for threads.

Slightly more seriously, if the SAYC and 2/1 forum is intended to be for any interesting bidding problems, then it should be called something else. At present it is used to ask questions about SAYC and 2/1, as you might expect from the name.

Perhaps the forums should include the following:

- Suggest an Auction for slams generally hard to bid in standard methods, in which posters can make up implausible auctions and argue with Ken about cue bidding

- Textbook play/defence for hands taken from books (or which actually came up at the table) that demonstrate a well-known theme

- Pointless Polls for lead and bidding 'problems' where the obvious thing to do happned not to work

[whereagles]

I will make a forum bundle suggestion later, if someone cares.

[inquiry]

Would users accept subforums such that one had to click on, say, interesting hands, and then click on "bidding" or "play" or some other such forums to get to the actual post?

What existing forums would you agree to seem removed (with existing post in those forums moved to the correct new forums)?

[helene_t]

FrancesHinden, on Jan 1 2009, 08:13 PM, said:

- Pointless Polls for lead and bidding 'problems' where the obvious thing to do happned not to work

We also need:

- Pointless polls aimed at showing that partner was an idiot
- Pointless polls aimed at showing that opps were cheating

In the tournaments and TD forums we obviously need even further sub-division. For the Water Cooler we need so many sub-forums that some organization tool with "my favorites", "friend's favorites" and "advanced sub-forum search" would be necessary.

Maybe it would be useful, instead of just distinguishing between pointless and not-so-pointless polls, to rate them as
World-class polls
Expert polls
.....
Meaningful Novice polls
Semi-meaningful novice polls
Meaningless novice polls

As we all known, it is difficult to asses your own poll objectively, so we also need a forum for poll-assessment polls, of the kind "in which forum does this poll belong?"