[PhilG007]

Since the Coronavirus lock down started in March there has been a proliferation of private clubs appearing
on the free tournaments page. These clubs are only allowing a select number of players to
participate in their events. Anyone who tries to enter these tournaments gets blocked if they're
not a "member" It's become really frustrating to try to enter a tournament only to get the bar put up.because
you are not one of the chosen.
There really ought to be a separate section for these "closed shop" events on the website.
What about it BBO administrators(?) what do others here think?

[Vampyr]

PhilG007, on 2020-June-13, 14:19, said:

Since the Coronavirus lock down started in March there has been a proliferation of private clubs appearing
on the free tournaments page. These clubs are only allowing a select number of players to
participate in their events. Anyone who tries to enter these tournaments gets blocked if they're
not a "member" It's become really frustrating to try to enter a tournament only to get the bar put up.because
you are not one of the chosen.
There really ought to be a separate section for these "closed shop" events on the website.
What about it BBO administrators(?) what do others here think?

Perhaps BBO could simply require clubs to add “members and guests only” or similar in the game’s description.

[paulg]

Vampyr, on 2020-June-13, 17:24, said:

Perhaps BBO could simply require clubs to add "members and guests only" or similar in the game's description.

The tournaments automatically have the restrictions listed in the game's description.

The OP's problem is that he is not clear whether he is in the restricted group (like friend of the host or on the included guest list) until he enters.

[gordontd]

paulg, on 2020-June-14, 00:47, said:

The tournaments automatically have the restrictions listed in the game's description.

The OP's problem is that he is not clear whether he is in the restricted group (like friend of the host or on the included guest list) until he enters.

It's a fair assumption that he isn't in the group unless he has a clear reason to think he is. I don't wander around the country asking bridge clubs if I'm a member there.

[Vampyr]

The OP should try the ACBL club games. Many ACBL clubs have no members per se, and are available to all comers.

[pescetom]

gordontd, on 2020-June-14, 01:40, said:

It's a fair assumption that he isn't in the group unless he has a clear reason to think he is. I don't wander around the country asking bridge clubs if I'm a member there.

By tradition many Free Tournaments are open to all comers.
I don't think the OP is talking about BBO private clubs or about virtual clubs (which are not under Free Tournaments), just about Free Tournaments which are organised by and for a club and not open to all.

paulg, on 2020-June-14, 00:47, said:

The tournaments automatically have the restrictions listed in the game's description.
The OP's problem is that he is not clear whether he is in the restricted group (like friend of the host or on the included guest list) until he enters.

Exactly. But should one have to read the Description and understand Restrictions just to find out if entry is possible?
For that matter it's simpler just to attempt to register and then get the "This tournament is private" message.
But neither should be necessary I feel.

Vampyr, on 2020-June-13, 17:24, said:

Perhaps BBO could simply require clubs to add “members and guests only” or similar in the game’s description.

I do this for our tournaments, but it does not solve much.
Surely the interface could just not show a player tournaments which he cannot enter, or show them in a different colour or with a different setting?
BBO already knows whether or not the player meets the Restrictions and/or limitations in the Description.
This would also greatly reduce the number of tournaments on display, further simplifying choice.

[paulg]

pescetom, on 2020-June-15, 03:51, said:

Surely the interface could just not show a player tournaments which he cannot enter, or show them in a different colour or with a different setting?
BBO already knows whether or not the player meets the Restrictions and/or limitations in the Description.
This would also greatly reduce the number of tournaments on display, further simplifying choice.

I suspect BBO only checks the eligibility when the request is made and that it would be quite a lot of work to build the capability of knowing beforehand. You'd have to track every online BBO user and every tournament, maintain the resulting list as people login and logout plus all the changes made to the tournament eligibility criteria, including changes to include/exclude lists.

It would be a nice feature but I doubt it is simple. You would also miss out on tournaments where you might be able to ask the host to include you.

[pescetom]

paulg, on 2020-June-15, 04:46, said:

I suspect BBO only checks the eligibility when the request is made and that it would be quite a lot of work to build the capability of knowing beforehand. You'd have to track every online BBO user and every tournament, maintain the resulting list as people login and logout plus all the changes made to the tournament eligibility criteria, including changes to include/exclude lists.

It would be a nice feature but I doubt it is simple.

I think it would be fairly simple to implement and not be particularly demanding on the system either. The list is already dynamically maintained to take account of pending/running status and the code to evaluate eligibility for the current player and handle tournament full is already in place (or should be, the latter is not quite there yet).

paulg, on 2020-June-15, 04:46, said:

You would also miss out on tournaments where you might be able to ask the host to include you.

That is of course true. But it could be possible to toggle between eligible tournaments and all tournaments, or all hosts or favourite hosts, or whatever.
In general, BBO has put a lot of work into profiling players (even if some of it lost in V3) but much less into profiling tournaments.