[EugeneLS]

...on BBO (social areas) even when it's obvious what should be bid or played.

Some will argue that it's mainly due to poor internet connections. Others, that the player is being constantly distracted e.g. children, phone calls...

I have a different theory. Are there any scribblers amongst us?

[jillybean]

Yes, and we have a few of them in live games too.
By the time they finally pull a card, I have forgotten what we are playing.

[pescetom]

 jillybean, on 2026-October-10, 07:49, said:

Yes, and we have a few of them in live games too.
By the time they finally pull a card, I have forgotten what we are playing.

I'm the last person to exalt the dubious virtues of f2f over electronic play, let alone distinguish it as "live" (?), but you can at least stop this happening both as opponent and TD. They have a duty to maintain tempo and nobody has a right to memory aids, be it a piece of paper or a phone.

[EugeneLS]

I sometimes type "too slow" in the chat line, but I don't really like doing that.

I believe most tournaments on BBO are timed anyway - certainly the Acol one I've been playing is. I don't know what happens if a table overruns the time limit: perhaps the TD can award an adjustment - as happens in f2f bridge.

[jillybean]

EugeneLS, on 2026-October-11, 01:56, said:

I sometimes type "too slow" in the chat line, but I don't really like doing that.

I believe most tournaments on BBO are timed anyway - certainly the Acol one I've been playing is. I don't know what happens if a table overruns the time limit: perhaps the TD can award an adjustment - as happens in f2f bridge.

Where are you playing f2f?

[mycroft]

I'd not want to say "too slow" either. That's a value judgement, not a statement of fact, and implies that your values are of more validity than the opponents'. I would have to be very careful in my reply to that, especially if it's the second hand of three and we've blitzed through the first, but this time I have to take 10-15 (or 30) seconds to decide what to do - but we have 12 minutes to play the last 5 tricks of this board and the next one, and you can see the clock as well as I can.

"Please watch the time"; "we're running behind"; "your bid, North" (in case they didn't notice they were dealer); and the like are much better.

If you're just playing socially, then you can decide if the table is too slow for you, as you can decide it's too weak for you, or too friendly for you, or too OBM for you, or ...

In a tournament, there's a director (and yes, when the clock runs out, unlike F2F, said director is allowed and encouraged to assign a result based on the auction and play so far). But strangely enough, the director is just as likely to point out "there's 12 minutes on the clock for this decision and the last board, you're not late" as the person thinking is.