[zenbiddist]

When I first encountered BBO I was surprised and impressed that it was completely free. As I recall, BBO was founded off the back of some large donations. It was doing a great job of revitalising bridge and connecting people from around the world. As a youngster I played half my bridge on the site, as did most youth players I know.

I don't know any youth players who use BBO now. Why would they? One friend recently logged back in after a hiatus and said afterwards:
'BBO now resembles every other repulsive money-grabbing app out there. Stop shamelessly trying to milk our udders. I'm not a cow, I logged on to play bridge, f*ck off! Talk about the embodiment of the term ensh*ttification.'

Not the most diplomatic review, but the sentiment is shared by everyone I know who used to love BBO. BBO used to be above greedy and invasive tactics. That purity of mission was one of its greatest strengths. I doubt many previously-loyal users will feel confident to make smaller-scale donations at the moment, given BBO's recent direction. I imagine the path forward is probably large grants/donations given on the condition that BBO returns to its original mission.

[1992m]

surely no one is actually going to sign up for these ridiculous subscriptions. What an absolute bunch of greedy ***** tossers that run BBO these days.