[blml] Disclosure f2f

[Guthrie]

[richard willey]
Out of curiousity, Nigel, do you have any actual experience playing
online bridge?  if so, which service are you using and how long have
you been playing?  (I'm trying to figure out if you have any real
basis for your theories or are "just" engaged in idle speculation).
[nige1]
I could patronise in a similar vein but I'll just answer the question. 
MSN, OKBridge, and BBO. I prefer the latter and I've played for years 
in the "Funky Gibbons" in a BBO league.

[richard]
Case in point:  Right now, most online players claim to be familar
with some SAYC type system.  In actuality, none of them have the
slightest clue what they are doing because there is no consensus
regarding what SAYC actually is.

Standard American Yellow Card started out as a fairly well defined
system (It was a crappy system, but it was quite well defined).  Over
the course of a couple years, SAYC fragmented into a 1001 different
approaches as everyone and their brother started trying to "improve"
things while making no effort what-so-ever to preserve a clear
nomenclature.  Now-a-days no one has a clue whether or not their
partner shares the same understand of every day sequences like the
following

1S - 2N:  Is this a forcing Spade raise?
1S - 2C - 2N:   Is this forcing?
1C - 1H - 1S:  Does this promise an unbalanced hand?
How do you make a forcing raise of partner's minor?

There is no evidence that the system is stabling.  Indeed, I'd argue
that it continues to splinter.  Yeats said it best:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

[nige1]
I suggested a SAYC *like* system. A simple system, well-defined, 
complete, and coherent. Some on-line players are beginners (even if 
they label themselves "expert" or whatever). That on'line Bridge 
encourages learners is great for the game. I concede that novices have 
a shallow knowledge of SAYC (but "no clue" is over the top). With 
increasing experience however, I hope that eventually most players 
will become familiar with a system like BW standard or WBF standard.

IMO ...

- systems are growing more *sophisticated* (Transfers, relays, 
splinters, fit jumps, Jacoby 2N, negative, competitive, responsive, 
support, and lead directing doubles and redoubles, Multis, low level 
and exclusion RKCB, Lebensohl, 2 way Drury and on and on and on).

- but systems also seem to be *stabilizing*. Not just on-line but f2f 
as well. Notice how many players claim to employ most of the above 
gadgets)

BTW, although I advocate a standard system (from which to disclose 
departures) I will continue to play something different and simpler, 
myself.

IMO, one particular law that we should locally resist is the 2nd Law 
of Thermodynamics :)