[virgosrock]

how does one deal with these players on bbo?
i am lost. almost all "experts" and "world class" are barely novices.

how does one avoid such? my "ignore" list is already HUGE.

[1eyedjack]

How does one avoid such?
1) Don't join tables containing unknown individuals who self assess as expert or world class
2) Host your own table, flag permission required to join, and reject applications from those who assess as expert or world class.
3) You can add your own comments to a quasi-profile field on their record, that is only visible to you, such as "bad expert", without necessarily flagging them as black, for when you next encounter them.

But is all this necessary? Having concluded to your satisfaction that they are barely novices, all that you need to do is mentally substitute "barely novice" for their skill level, and in the words of Foghorn Leghorn, Awaaaayyyy you gooooo.

[diana_eva]

virgosrock, on 2015-April-07, 04:42, said:

how does one deal with these players on bbo?
i am lost. almost all "experts" and "world class" are barely novices.

how does one avoid such? my "ignore" list is already HUGE.

Using the ignore function to mark bad players is not a good idea. "Ignoring" another player will block their chat, offline messages, invitations to play or requests to join your table. It's a tool meant to protect you from abusers/harassers, it's not a tool against stupidity.

Eventually you will find that when someone really insults you or does something terrible, you won't be able to "ignore" that person because your ignore list is already taken by a bunch of expert wanna-bees who probably haven't spoken a word with you anyway.

A better way to deal with players you dislike but who aren't actively harassing you in any way is to create a category, assign all such players to that category and maybe add a note to their profile stating what their sin has been to end up there. If you do that, you'll easily find the bad ones because they will be color-coded, while keeping the ignore list for what it's meant (ie blocking harassers/abusers).

And to address the main question: make friends. "Follow" players you do like, don't put so much weight on what their profile says. Invite those players again, and start creating your own circle of friends so that you play mostly with people you know. There's no shortcut. Like in any large community, it takes a while to find your place and make friends.

[Free]

I enter a 'n' (from Newbie) as comment. Don't write a big text, because afaik there are only a limited number of characters you can use in total for comments (it used to be this way, maybe this issue is solved).

To avoid such players you haven't marked yet, you can try to find some patterns. For example, some countries seem to have almost only world class players, so there will be more false ones between them for sure. Without wanting to stigmatize, I know from experience that world class players with a certain red flag are very often poor players. As a result, you can try to avoid these, at the risk of avoiding an actual good player...

Another one of those patterns: in general, people who rate themselves as "Advanced" are in many cases very decent players. I'd rather sit at a table with 4 advanced players than with 4 world class players without a star!

[billw55]

Yes, there are many who overrate themselves on BBO. However:

I play a lot with randoms in the main bridge club. In my experience there does seem to be at least a statistical correlation between some self-rating levels and actual skill. There are always exceptions of course, which are by no means rare, but I definitely find that when I seek out "experts", I have a higher chance of getting someone competent than an "intermediate", who seem to be very weak most of the time. Meanwhile, "advanced" seem to have about a 2/3 chance of knowing what a negative double is. Flags matter too - there is definite trend for certain declared nationalities to live up to their rating, or fail to.

Admittedly "world class" is something different and does not seem to follow this trend.

[Richardrls]

why this issue? If you are going to enter a table in the main lobby, as a single player, you simply take your chances as to the partnership you end up with. Make the best of it. I do not see that any self designation has anything to do with it. If your new partner is weak or inexperienced, try to strength him or her with good example and good bidding. If he or she is apparently stronger than you? Learn from him/her. I think the real secret is to make a date with one of your more permanent partners and be done with this issue. Hope this helps.