[barmar]

MrAce, on 2014-April-25, 16:46, said:

What is happening is, when we reply and then hit the submit button, it seems like it did not register. I guess people are hitting the "submit" button while the page is being slow. I got my lesson the hard way for this in the past so I simply click on the title of the post again which then I see the post I was trying to submit is already submitted.

For some reason the forums have been slow in submitting the posts lately.

EDIT: See this happened again when I hit the submit button as I was replying to you. Seems like it is happening once every 2-3 replies I make. Not sure this is only me or it does to everyone.

For the past 4-5 days there's been some kind of problem with the forum that causes these frequent "Gateway timeout" errors, only when posting. We haven't been able to figure out what's causing it, so we can't fix it.

But when it happens, the post has always gone through. So if the poster refreshes and chooses the option to re-submit, it ends up creating a duplicate. If this one also gets an error and they re-submit again, we get 3. So far, the worst one I've cleaned up had 6 copies.

So if you get this error, please DO NOT resubmit. Just re-open the forum.

[barmar]

A question about "autoplay of non-singletons" was posted twice in BBO Support (I assume the duplicate was due to the gateway timeout problem) and also in Suggestions for the Software. I removed the duplicate and the one in Suggestions.

[Gerardo]

Removed a number of duplicate posts and a post about the duplicate posting in the thread Takeout opposite takeout

[Zelandakh]

inquiry, on 2014-April-25, 08:19, said:

So where would I move the hand evaluation thread if I was unhappy with it in the Expert forum? Certainly not to novice, intermediate or advanced threads. Plays have enough trouble counting to 13. . Certainly not to "general bridge discussion" because it wasn't general. And of course, it has nothing to do with the general off line bridge, natural or unnatural bidding, youth bridge, etc categories.

It seems to me that such evaluation tools are ideally suited to the I/A forum. Beginners are probably better off improving their basics while experts do not need them. It is the I/A players that tend to look around for short-suts on improving their judgement and evaluation.

hrothgar, on 2014-April-25, 09:01, said:

If you banned a half dozen people, you solve 90% of your problems.

If you established some decent standards for the moderators, you'd solve 99% of the problems and might even have a decent site where folks could discuss bridge.

I am not a great fan of banning posters unless they are actively and openly trying to cause trouble. Most of our trolls at least pretend to be talking about bridge (outside of the WC) and sometimes a real discussion comes from their input, at least for a little while.

Vampyr, on 2014-April-25, 10:32, said:

Obviously if someone complains the mods should look at the thread and decide whether the complaint is valid, but it seems that often the complaint comes from someone who is not a participant in the thread, is not himself being insulted, and who could simply not read the thread instead of trying to control what others may write and read.

I often report posts that are personal attacks even when they are not directed at me. It is not about trying to control what people are writing but rather about keeping the forums as a generally friendly place to be. In addition to the full-blown attacks we also have a couple of minor disputes between pairs of posters. Hopefully these will run their course in time - sometimes moderation can actually help to facilitate that but that is very much a judgement call for Barry, Ben and co to make.

MrAce, on 2014-April-25, 16:46, said:

EDIT: See this happened again when I hit the submit button as I was replying to you. Seems like it is happening once every 2-3 replies I make. Not sure this is only me or it does to everyone.

For me it happened when I got an error after submitting a replay and then pressed the refresh button. Having seen the issue it is easy enough to avoid - go back to the forums using your Favourite link rather than pressing refresh. Hopefully the technical gurus will be able to track down the problem soon.

[barmar]

Deleted a duplicate question about transfering BM2000 purchases from the download version to the online version. I've asked someone to answer the original question (as well as when someone asked the same question last fall after we introduced the online version).

[diana_eva]

Moved the "Big cards" topic from General BBO Discussions to BBO Support.

Because I can

[barmar]

diana_eva, on 2014-May-02, 12:02, said:

Because I can

Diana just became a forum admin a few days ago. It appears she's gone mad with power.

[barmar]

I removed a post in the thread about Partnership Desks -- it was a joke in very poor taste.

[the hog]

barmar, on 2014-May-03, 21:47, said:

Diana just became a forum admin a few days ago. It appears she's gone mad with power.

Well here is another suggestion for you. I suggest you delete the above post and get the moderator to post an apology. Moderation is a prickly subject with some posters anyway. Do you really want a moderator who posts the nonsense above? I find it offensive; others may well do.

[diana_eva]

No idea which post you find offensive and who's supposed to apologize.

[MrAce]

the hog, on 2014-May-05, 18:15, said:

Well here is another suggestion for you. I suggest you delete the above post and get the moderator to post an apology. Moderation is a prickly subject with some posters anyway. Do you really want a moderator who posts the nonsense above? I find it offensive; others may well do.

Really?

I mean if what Diana wrote "Because I can" came from someone that we don't know I would tend to agree with you. But by now we all know who she is and she is not even close to be a power freak person, most of her posts if not all are written in a very balanced tolerated tone both in BBO and BBF. We are a small community here and she once in a while wrote something which she obviously thought we will understand the joke. And Barmar replied with a counter joke and perhaps implied to her that not everyone can understand it the way she intended and kinda gave her a hint w/o offending her.

But asking for an apology? Delete? Calling it nonsense? Cmon, do you really want Gestapo rules to be applied here? After all you me and other posters saying things that we should not be saying all over the forums and they are tolerating us? As Clee said we are a small family here.

She just started doing the forum moderator job and I am sure Ben and Barmar will help her appropriately when needed. I am not always happy with what Ben and Barmar does, but this only proves they are doing their job good. I would be more worried if I always agreed with their decisions or if they made decisions that fits to my measures. We have 2 guys doing their job as best as they can given the conditions and Diana is very capable of helping them out and ease a little bit of the weight off their shoulders imho.

[diana_eva]

Ah well... sorry if my attempt of humor wasn't to everyone's taste. I was very excited about being able to move a thread myself. I guess I got carried away a little

Anyway, it was my uninspired way to announce the community that yay! I'm an admin now.

[Antrax]

I thought you already were. Should've announced you're not, first.

[barmar]

My "mad with power" comment was also intended as hyperbole. AFAIK, she hasn't done anything inappropriate with her moderator powers so far.

The other moderation she did recently was to edit the post that I deleted. She removed the offensive part, but in doing so she changed the meaning of the post to something the OP didn't intend (the offense was in an answer to a rhetorical question, so when she removed it it looked like the question was intended seriously). I decided it would be better to just remove it entirely.

[inquiry]

Removed the thread from the water cooler about legal problems for a Bridge Base Online customer for violation of the terms of service of this site. Also removed the original announcement of this removal for providing a bit too much detail on the removal of the thread.

[olegru]

Wow! This explanation is amazing. You should go to politics. 
By the way, agree with decision to delete that thread. I wish I did not see it 

[aguahombre]

inquiry, on 2014-May-14, 10:33, said:

Removed the thread from the water cooler about legal problems for a Bridge Base Online customer for violation of the terms of service of this site. Also removed the original announcement of this removal for providing a bit too much detail on the removal of the thread.

And in doing so, you provided more detail for those who read the first removal, but not the thread itself.

[inquiry]

aguahombre, on 2014-May-14, 21:25, said:

And in doing so, you provided more detail for those who read the first removal, but not the thread itself.

Anyone who read the first removal announcement could use something called google to find out more, so I don't worry about it.

[diana_eva]

Moved a thread about robots playing too fast from Novice/Beginner to Software Suggestions, and another one related to BBO's crash earlier today from General Bridge Discussions to BBO Support.

[diana_eva]

Removed a thread abt player skill rank after poster found an existing discussion on the same subject and added his suggestion to that one.