[oryctolagi]

I'm running BBO on Chrome.

I've had to enable AdBlock for the bridgebase.com domain. I was reluctant to do so, knowing that this may lead to BBO losing some much-needed advertising revenue, which I have no wish to deprive them of.

But it seems I have no option. The problem is not the adverts themselves: I have no interest in them, but they all pop up conveniently in the sidebar and can be ignored. No: the problem is the incessant notifications of a popup loading ("waiting for...."), which appear at the bottom of the screen, directly on top of the chat-line entry. This makes it difficult to type in any chat text which happens to be longer than one of the stock abbreviations like "typ" - e.g. agreeing convention with partner.

Getting the chatline moved up the screen a bit would solve the problem. Failing that, AdBlock stays on, I'm afraid. Unless anyone has a better idea.

I don't want to switch to another browser if I can help it. I use Chrome for nearly all browsing activities, not just BBO.

[1eyedjack]

One day you may take the plunge and play in a paid tourney. Many of them only cost $0.25 and come with added benefits one of which is that you get an ad-free experience for 24 hours. Same if you rent a robot (although that comes with a minimum $1.00 pricetag and may come with added frustrations)

[oryctolagi]

1eyedjack, on 2015-December-28, 18:07, said:

One day you may take the plunge and play in a paid tourney.

I may well do that - if I build up enough confidence in my ability! ...

No robots, though. I'm sure the GIB robots are excellent, but ... I've tried robotic bridge before now (not GIB and not on BBO) and found it a bit soul-destroying. I keep thinking of HAL ("I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't bid that....").... Human players are fine with me.

[mgoetze]

1eyedjack, on 2015-December-28, 18:07, said:

One day you may take the plunge and play in a paid tourney. Many of them only cost $0.25 and come with added benefits one of which is that you get an ad-free experience for 24 hours.

It used to be for a week, which was great. Now I'm just annoyed when the ads come back seemingly immediately. They should at least give me more credit for playing three $1 tournaments than I would get for a single 25¢ tournament.

[1eyedjack]

oryctolagi, on 2015-December-29, 03:04, said:

I may well do that - if I build up enough confidence in my ability! ...

No robots, though. I'm sure the GIB robots are excellent, but ... I've tried robotic bridge before now (not GIB and not on BBO) and found it a bit soul-destroying. I keep thinking of HAL ("I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't bid that....").... Human players are fine with me.

I will happily play in a paid tourney with you. Not before the end of Jan, unfortunately - working 25/8 at the moment.

Playing with robots is not for everyone, and to do well with them does require an additional set of skills that only really comes with extensive practice playing with them.

They do have the advantage that, unlike HAL, they can never be rude or complain about your actions, or leave, or kick you out.

You could, if you wish, think upon it as a daily donation to BBO of $0.25 (that is about £0.17 at today's rates) to register in a robot tourney, without even playing it out if you find the experience that unpleasant, but at least it cuts out the ads. But having paid, I expect that you would at least play out the 8-board tourney that you have entered, even if you end up in last place. And if you do it in one of the "Instant" tourneys, no-one else will ever get to see your embarrassing performance (I suspect that you would seldom come last in practice). And of course you would not pay the $0.25 for any day in which you have no intention of playing elsewhere on BBO.

Or you could use an ad-blocker, as you have found.

[oryctolagi]

1eyedjack, on 2015-December-29, 03:54, said:

I will happily play in a paid tourney with you. Not before the end of Jan, unfortunately - working 25/8 at the moment.

Is that an offer? Maybe I'll take you up . Ah! But you see, I'm a pensioner, so I have a bit more time to waste. But I agree, younger players ought to be encouraged to keep the game alive - if they can find the time! When I first learnt to play I was quite a youngster.

As well as BBO, I've recently been playing face-to-face at a local U3A club. The most senior player I've partnered there, to date, is a young lady who's just celebrated her 101st birthday. Still a pretty neat player, although her arthritis makes it difficult for her to shuffle or deal, so someone else performs that honour for her.... I don't expect to last that long, myself...

Oh and I hope no-one thinks me a tightwad, as regards paid-for content. I subscribe annually to several useful websites, including a music-composition site on which, sadly, I haven't actually composed any music for almost a year. So - I think I'll take up a BBO paid account. I've now used the site a lot.

The one thing I will not subscribe to, on the other hand, are the newspapers' paywalls, especially the UK ones. I see no reason to pay good money only to read some opinionated rubbish which I'm bound to violently disagree with....

Cheers.
Pete.

[lycier]

I am in favour of BBO advertising, it looks like very beautiful, I like it.
Now you would see my screenshots at below.

[lycier]

Very pretty

[lycier]

However,some of the ads can't jump to a new page when click it.
Some of the ads can't be fully opened,for example :

[kuhchung]

The worst were the animated ads, which would actually noticeably slow down my computer. I haven't seen those lately though, but I guess I always chip in a quarter when I pop on.

[barmar]

lycier, on 2015-December-29, 07:26, said:

However,some of the ads can't jump to a new page when click it.
Some of the ads can't be fully opened,for example :

This has nothing to do with ad blocking. One of our advertisment providers has a glitch when they fall back to our in-house ads (those are ads that are for bridge products and services, like tournaments and teaching). We're trying to get them to resolve this.