[mycroft]

I am directing, and having to fill in a 10-table web. It's been a busy session (partner said "I think you had at least one call every round"), and halfway through, I get a call for a revoke. "We would have taken 5 diamond tricks, but he didn't play a diamond until it was good."

Okay, finish the hand, we'll discuss.

Director, please!

"Declarer just found the diamond J, after we cashed 5 diamond tricks." Okay, play it out, we'll discuss after the hand.

The expected time later: "Director! He took 9 tricks, we're not sure he has 8 running after we take our 5 diamonds."
"Director! She took the last trick with the diamond J, making 8 tricks."

Yeah, I had the same revoke, on the same hand, at the same time, at two different tables. I've certainly had "that board", but usually it's in a tournament with 6 (or 12!) copies in play, and never simultaneously.

(and the icing on the cake was that I hadn't played it yet. So I had to say "I know something about this hand, but I don't think it will affect our play" and then without a care in the world put partner's head in the noose because it was the obvious call. Strange, *partner* didn't revoke as they took their 5 diamond tricks into 3NT...)

[mycroft]

so, a month after I posted this, it has zero views. I assume that's a forum bug (given I've looked at it more than once), so I'm bumping it, maybe people will see it.

[smerriman]

mycroft, on 2025-August-27, 21:11, said:

so, a month after I posted this, it has zero views. I assume that's a forum bug (given I've looked at it more than once), so I'm bumping it, maybe people will see it.

Yeah, every post will remain permanently at 0 views until someone replies and it updates the cache. So doesn't mean nobody saw it, just that it was amusing enough to chuckle at (but not necessarily to add more to )

[mycroft]

Ah, I don't mind that then; as long as people saw my Incredibly Important Post, I don't care if they read and ignore...

Thanks for the information.

[jillybean]

First time I’ve read it, I guess you wanted to keep the laws and rulings forum pure.

[blackshoe]

My problem with these forums is that I frequently get the dreaded "something broke, come back later" screen. Sometimes I can try again immediately and it's fine. Just now I went to a private window and then had to try like five times to get back in. I've reported this to BBO in the past. They claim there's nothing wrong on their end, the problem is "with your browser". I am almost positive that BBO is wrong about that, having troubleshot it (including changing browsers) about a hundred times. It's annoying enough that my usual solution is to go away for a couple of hours (at least) and try again later -- which almost always works. If I weren't supposed to be running IBLF, I'd just say "to hell with the bbo forums".

[paulg]

blackshoe, on 2025-August-28, 13:27, said:

My problem with these forums is that I frequently get the dreaded "something broke, come back later" screen.

I get the same problem and I never know whether my post made it or has been lost, until a considerable time later. It is particularly frustrating when I've written a long post.

It seems worse when BBO is busy running a popular vugraph.

[pescetom]

 blackshoe, on 2025-August-28, 13:27, said:

My problem with these forums is that I frequently get the dreaded "something broke, come back later" screen. Sometimes I can try again immediately and it's fine. Just now I went to a private window and then had to try like five times to get back in. I've reported this to BBO in the past. They claim there's nothing wrong on their end, the problem is "with your browser". I am almost positive that BBO is wrong about that, having troubleshot it (including changing browsers) about a hundred times. It's annoying enough that my usual solution is to go away for a couple of hours (at least) and try again later -- which almost always works. If I weren't supposed to be running IBLF, I'd just say "to hell with the bbo forums".

The forum bug has got even worse in the last month, at least in my experience.
And it is not just related to the erroneous update of forum software leading to intolerance of certain character sequences, but some glitch in the hosting or an SLA that assigns zero priority (maybe paulg hit the nail about simultaneous vugraph access).

How come that BBO continue to ignore requests for help from long term (and generous) members who cannot even access the forum?

As an aside, they never gave me the explanation that the problem was with my browser, and just as well.

[barmar]

paulg, on 2025-August-28, 15:46, said:

It seems worse when BBO is busy running a popular vugraph.

That has to be a coincidence, the forum software is totally unrelated to vugraph.

[blackshoe]

barmar, on 2025-August-28, 16:11, said:

That has to be a coincidence, the forum software is totally unrelated to vugraph.

Unless they're run on the same server.

[pescetom]

 blackshoe, on 2025-August-28, 17:19, said:

Unless they're run on the same server.

Or competing for the same bandwidth, with Vugraph enjoying the same higher priority assigned to play.

[jillybean]

IIRC, I asked a while ago if BBO forums were going to be left to die a slow, painful death.

[jillybean]

pescetom, on 2025-August-29, 01:54, said:

Or competing for the same bandwidth, with Vugraph enjoying the same higher priority assigned to play.

Is bandwidth really a problem nowadays?

[pescetom]

 jillybean, on 2025-August-29, 10:47, said:

Is bandwidth really a problem nowadays?

It is if you signed an agreement for not enough, or to give priority to something else.

[barmar]

blackshoe, on 2025-August-28, 17:19, said:

Unless they're run on the same server.

We think it's a database issue (probably lock contention), and the forum uses its own DB server. It uses the same webservers as the rest of BBO, but if there were a performance/bandwidth issue there it wouldn't limit its effects to the forum. And vugraph doesn't go through the webservers at all, it's between the application and the BBO playing server.