[blml] Disclosure f2f

[Brian]

On Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:19:35 +0900
Robert Geller <geller at nifty.com> wrote:

> ><shrug> Please yourself. It's my opinion that you're in a small
> >minority, evidence being the extensive VuGraphs of national and
> >international events offered on BBO, presumably with the co-operation
> >of the organisers, the online laws produced some while back by the
> >WBF,
> ->  These are very important as a way of publicizing bridge, but the
> events being webcast are all F2F (with reare exceptions of on-line
> exhibition matches.) 
> 

I know. I offered them as an example of the offline world being
concerned with online bridge. Presumably if online was as unimportant
as Stefanie thinks, the organisers of the F2F tournaments wouldn't
bother. 


> 
> >the online games run under the auspices of various NBOs, the fact
> >that some rather large NBOs sanction online games for purposes of
> >awarding master points... all of this seems to me to suggest that
> >there are quite a few people in "the world of bridge" who are
> >concerned with the online game. 
> Yes, sort of.  But because of the security problems on-line tourneys
> can't be accorded serious status as competitions.
> 
Yes, security is a problem when your opponents can't see you. That's
not the point I was making, though. 

> 
> >You'd be surprised how many players are online who have never played
> >at a club. Without online bridge, those players would mostly be lost
> >to the game. With online bridge, you still have a chance of getting
> >them to play both, assuming they have a club within reach (my
> >nearest is 50 miles away and plays only in the afternoons). Online
> >bridge, IMO, has a substantial part to play in the future of the
> >game, and hopefully those in charge will be a little less
> >short-sighted than you. 
> Yes, it certainly is an important avenue for getting new players.
> But they need to be roped into playing F2F bridge if they're going to
> improve.  
> 

Well, I think there's sufficient online competition to get the
majority of people to their peak. Most evenings (USA time) you can find
Garozzo online, usually playing in Jimmy Cayne's series of team games.
I've seen Fantoni/Nunes playing in them before now, too. Soloway and
Goldman were long-time stalwarts of OKBridge until their deaths.
Someone who knows more about international bridge than I do would
no doubt recognise more big names. No doubt John Probst can give us a
few names from BPL to add to the list. Unless you think Fred Gitelman
doesn't know what he's doing when he dishes out his "star"
classification, there's no shortage of other not-quite-so-big names.

And as regards roping new BBO players into playing F2F bridge as well,
Fred seems to be fairly open to suggestions, not to mention
advertisements. You know where to find them...

> Also, because the new on-line players are new players period, someone
> needs to teach them about ethics, etc.  Not sure if anyone is working
> hard enough on this.
> 

Couldn't tell you. There's certainly no shortage of people offering
paid lessons on BBO, including some fairly well-known names, although
I'd guess that they'd be more likely to be teaching advanced players.
Never having taken an online lesson, I can't answer your (implied)
question. 


Brian. 

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