[KrisKiki]

A friend wants to register on the BBO App and is being asked for her ABCL number. I have been using BBO for quite a while and do not have an ABCL number. Is this a new requirement?

[diana_eva]

KrisKiki, on 2021-January-05, 12:09, said:

A friend wants to register on the BBO App and is being asked for her ABCL number. I have been using BBO for quite a while and do not have an ABCL number. Is this a new requirement?

ACBL number is not mandatory. Advise your friend to not write anything in the ACBL number box, leave it blank. Then registration should work.

[pilowsky]

Of course, if you want to accrue ACBL masterpoints, then it is necessary to register an ACBL number.
Or so I was led to believe. Is this correct?

[Chas_P]

pilowsky, on 2021-January-05, 13:49, said:

Of course, if you want to accrue ACBL masterpoints, then it is necessary to register an ACBL number.
Or so I was led to believe. Is this correct?

An astute observation of the blatantly obvious.

[pilowsky]

Chas_P, on 2021-January-05, 18:54, said:

An astute observation of the blatantly obvious.

I agree - in Australia, we would say 'bleeding' - but if that was true, then why ask the original question?

[mycroft]

Because the App is now presenting new users with the box to enter ACBL number, and it's not clear that it's optional. And there are way too many online forms that won't tell you what is required (or what format is required), so users are trained to panic whenever presented with request for information they don't understand or don't have.

Frequently I'm required to put a zip code in my request for information. I don't have a zip code, I have a postal code, and it doesn't fit in the box. I will admit, I'm also not willing to give "location to a block or two" when just trying to get access to what something costs (before shipping, obviously), so even if I wasn't forced to lie, I'd frequently lie. 60613 is my go-to lie, because the rest of the address matches (some programs check) I'm a child of the '80s (even if I never actually saw the movie until '96 or '97).

So they ask. Multiple people ask. It might be poor UI. Once Diana Eva has to answer 6+ questions about it, I'm sure she'll let the coders know it's poor UI, and it'll be made better.

Spoiler

1060 W. Addison, Chicago IL, "home" of Elwood Blues. Some forms are smart enough to reject 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

[barmar]

mycroft, on 2021-January-06, 12:20, said:

And there are way too many online forms that won't tell you what is required

The registration form says Required next to all the required fields. The ACBL number isn't marked required.

We're redesigning the login and registration forms. The new one will have * next to the required fields, which is an industry standard notation.

[Stevenator]

Chas_P, on 2021-January-05, 18:54, said:

An astute observation of the blatantly obvious.

Your comment is rude and uncalled for. If you cannot add something constructive to the question or conversation, then you should just let it go.

[mycroft]

Stevenator, there's history (on both sides). That's all I'll say publicly.

Barmar, I didn't say that your form was necessarily bad (but after multiple questions, it's obviously more confusing than you thought it was), or that you were doing the unhelpful bit. Just that many form writers *do* do the dumb - bonus points if they tell you what is necessary, while blanking out all the rest of the information. After that happens twice, on two separate fields, or with the "only report the first failed password rule" guessing game, it tends to be foam brick time for me; I can't imagine what it's like for people not in the industry.

So people see a form entry that they don't understand and they panic. "I don't know if it's required, but I don't have one. Is that a problem? Do I have to put something random in there? What if I put something random and it complains it's not right, and I have to do it all again? What do I DO???" And you and I have to deal with the consequences of other forms' bad design.