[blml] Disclosure f2f

[Brian]

On Wed, 07 Nov 2007 07:31:01 +0900
Robert Geller <geller at nifty.com> wrote:

> Brian さんは書きました:
> >Well, I'll tell you that it's an absolute pain in the backside as far
> >as online bridge is concerned, where any number of newcomers to the
> >online game who have played bridge under their local NBO think that
> >it's *their* local regulations that are in force world wide. 
> 
> Each on-line site needs to adopt its own alerting rules, or even
> better, the various major onlne sites need to adopt a common set of
> rules. 

The online sites on which I've played over the past 12 years (OKBridge
then BBO) *DO* adopt their own alerting rules, and at least as far as
OKBridge and BBO are concerned, they are almost identical. 

> The situation is different for on-line bridge because
> self-alerting is technically feasible (the oppts but not pard sees
> the alert).  

Yes, I'm well aware of how self-alerting works, but I don't see the
relevance. It's not *how* you alert that's the problem, it's *what* you
alert. As I said, too many players come from F2F bridge to the online
game with the idea that their local NBO's regulations and common
systems are the world-wide standard, and disabusing them of that notion
can be a right nuisance. There *is* a cost to devolving down to the
national level, even if players who only play F2F in their own country
don't see it. 

> if on-line bridge ever became a major form of
> competetion then presunably what happens there would heavily
> influence F2F bridge, but since the security issues are permanently
> unresolvable (unless the competitors are concentrated at a few
> heavily monitores sites around the world) this may never happen.
> 

Well, given what I hear of the ACBL's declining membership, I wouldn't
put too much money against the online form of the game becoming the more
popular, at least in the USA, within the next decade. My local club
here in northern Pennsylvania folded due to lack of members about three
years ago, and now the nearest club that I know of is over 50 miles
away. 


Brian. 

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