[zielona]

Dear Uday and Fred,

I am a free td. Trying to be fair and polite and provide tourneys for everyone to enjoy. As most tourneys these days are for money, I think BBO should appreciate free tourneys as through participation in such the players learn the concept and may (usually will) eventually join paid clubs and tournaments. In my turn, I appreciate that BBO gives me opportunity to spend my free time in a pleasurable way.
As all td's, I cop occasional abuse but usually there's more nice than bad. Every now and then though I am ready to give up. Like today. The following comes from my chat, un-edited:

PLAYER1->Tournament: pls sub me dir = ACBL starts in 8 mins
PLAYER1->Tournament: i never knew that this is such a slow tourn
->Player1: sorry this not an acceptable reason
->zielona: Automated message: MISSING: 1 player in T# 189 (Individual)
zielona->Tournament: Last round for last tables - thanks all again.
nebula1: glp
buddy44: !H thank you for nice tourney !H
->buddy44: ywc !h
PLAYER2->Tournament: some players PLAYER1 are not 'experts'and need more time...... sorry for that ...........
->zielona: Automated message: Substitution error. xxxx not replaced with xxxx
zielona->Tournament: no need to apologize Player2. Player1, so you don't make a mistake and join my tourney again, would you like me to put you on my "ban" list?
Player4: that is a very rude way to handle this situation
Player4 (Lobby): you need to take some lessons before directing again
Player1 (Lobby): pls do so
Player3 (Lobby): TY for your tourney. Player1 complained about being slow EVERY time I was at a table with him.... (no need to reply)
Player2->Tournament: i don't know what is 'ban' list - do as you please....
->zielona: Automated message: Substitution error. xxxx not replaced with yyyyy
->Player4: Player1 asked to be put on the ban list and i will drop you there too. free td's do not need critisism like that. i am not sue if you can tell the difference between rude and polite ...
->Player4: so i don't need you at my tourneys. thanks for participating today.
Player4 (Lobby): i didn't participate ..i watched...and bbo tournaments should be directed properly whether they are free or not
Player1 (Lobby): i am a dir of BBO Money bridge and shall speak with uday and fred to ban you as a director of any tournament - unles you apologize .....
Player4: banning those who point out your errors is not the way for you to learn to do it better

For your info, Player1 and Player4 joined the ACBL tourney as a partnership. So I couldn't find out what errors I made.

kind regards

zielona

[inquiry]

I have edited your post, we do not allow the menton of names of players in public forums in a negative way. The original post with names has been passed on to the fred and uday.

Second, I want to take exception to the concept thathtere are more pay tournaments than free ones... take soem time to count tables and tournaments in a day and you will find many more free ones than pay ones. The payones cna schedule dozens in advanced, the free ones can not so the long list looks like more payones, but other than ACBL, the pay ones do modestlly at best.

[zielona]

Thank you Inquiry. I wasn't aware of the etiquette.

[Elianna]

As a high school teacher I've learned that if someone is acting up, you will get better results lowering the stakes rather than raising them.

So while I think that banning a person from your tournament for the future is fine, announcing it to the tournament is just an invitation for that person to argue with you, because now you've insulted him in public (so he might think) and he feels the need to respond in public.

I think for next time, you'd be better off private messaging a disruptor if you need to have a conversation with him/her.

I do agree with you, that the desire to join another tournament is not a valid reason to leave yours.

So in summary, I think that your error was addressing the not playing in your tournament issue in public, instead of privately. If I felt like saying anything, I might have said "I think that we'll both agree that you're not playing in my tournaments again". If I said anything or not, I would have reported the ditching of my tournament and subsequent actions to abuse. But don't threaten to do so, just do it.

Also, btw, I bet you didn't have to offer to ban the player, I doubt that he'd be playing in your tournament again after this.

[jillybean]

Hi zielona,
I’m sorry but not surprised to hear you are ready to give up as a TD, what I have found works for me is this..

♣ I don’t do it for the gratitude, the complaints far outweigh the thanks I get

♦ If a player wants to leave I sub them, why they want to leave is irrelevant. If they hate my tournaments I’d rather they left and they probably wont join again. If they underestimated the time needed for the tournament and have another tournament to play in, husband is due home, favorite partner is online, visitor has arrived…it doesn’t matter there is rarely a shortage of subs..

♥ If a player complains of abuse from partner or opps I encourage them to send a screen shot to abuse
http://www.bridgebas...h/scrnsnap.html
I don’t send the complaint for them, I don’t get into any discussions. If I see the abuse I will replace the offending player.

♠ I no longer keep a ban list, it drove me crazy trying. I had easily over 200 names on the list, the exclude setting fails when there is this sort of number, players can easily bypass ban lists. I’ve decided its best to follow 1,2,3 and leave the rest to abuse.

♣ I include my rules in the tournament description, stick to them and set restrictions that make it easier to run the tournament.

jb

[sceptic]

Quote

As a high school teacher I've learned that if someone is acting up, you will get better results lowering the stakes rather than raising them.

I disagree. I quite like zielona's handling of someone like this, Player one has behaved in a way I come across quite often, his first line, just about sums up their attitude of disrespect

also the last statement of player 1 is amazingly arrogant hahahaha

Zielona, I prefer your way, than that of the TD that does nothing

[Elianna]

sceptic, on Nov 3 2006, 11:11 PM, said:

Quote

As a high school teacher I've learned that if someone is acting up, you will get better results lowering the stakes rather than raising them.

I disagree. I quite like zielona's handling of someone like this, Player one has behaved in a way I come across quite often, his first line, just about sums up their attitude of disrespect

also the last statement of player 1 is amazingly arrogant hahahaha

Zielona, I prefer your way, than that of the TD that does nothing

I NEVER said that the TD should do NOTHING.

There's a difference between doing nothing, and doing the least disruptive thing for the rest of the tournament. I feel that a goal of an online TD is to provide a pleasant (and part of that is fair) playing environment for ALL players. If PUBLIC (as opposed to private) discipline disrupts the rest of the players, I would say that the TD is not fulfilling this goal.

If a player is just going to escalate an argument and ruin the fun of everyone else in the tournament, isn't it better to try to kick them out privately and quietly?

They may be used to being subbed out of tournaments. I found player1's first two lines annoying, but not necessarily rude. I do agree that the later things were rude and obnoxious (to put it mildly) but I feel that it was somewhat incited by the public castigation done by the TD.

[sceptic]

my rules and it makes me happy

if they are rude I sub them, without question and quite ruthlessly and it makes me feel better, I sometimes explain to their pard wh|I did it, if I have time

I announce adjustments and decisions at my discression, I also stated they should not expect a proffesional TD, they can go pay for one of those somewhere else

All I run is a quick way of passing some time and the chances are, if you only have 30 mins or 1 hour, you get a better time in a quick and not so fussy tourney than in the main bridge lounge with all the table hoppers, this is one reason that I think free tourneys are so popular

My Tourneys are not for the purists, but for the people that like bridge as a social activity, not a matter of life or death,

So run your tourneys your way zielona, you will be appreciated by a lot of people and you will feel better if you just remove people like player 1

[sceptic]

Quote

I NEVER said that the TD should do NOTHING

Yes I know, I have a habit of saying something and adding a bit like that at the end, no idea why, but was not meant to infer anything, well unless you are a ACBL TD who seem to put up with alsorts for the sake of the odd dollar

But I disagree with you, I think something like saying publicly " PLayer 1 I am removing you for being rude to your partner or to me or what ever" and then removing him and ignoring subsequent abuse is the best way, but that is just a personal thing, I prefer direct conflict, rather than the diplomatic or apathetic approach, but that is just the way I am , I am not saying it is correct it is just my preference and I have found it works for me.