[ahydra]

These days there are a lot of vugraph events, which is wonderful. Unfortunately however it seems that an increasing number of them do not have commentary, I guess because there are no commentators available at the time.

What do people think of allowing viewers to commentate/discuss the vugraph events if there are no "official" commentators? I imagine there are a lot of good players watching vugraph who wouldn't mind offering their thoughts, and plenty of viewers who would appreciate commentary rather than just silence. (I fall into both categories.) One area in particular is systems - often CCs are available by following links from the vugraph schedule, but even if there aren't any, experienced players can take educated guesses at what's going on. Having someone relay system info to the table is a much better experience for viewers than seeing no alerts/explanations on bids and wondering what's going on.

Obviously this has the potential for abuse etc, so perhaps it would require a limit on the number of people talking at any one time, and some sort of voting system so if someone is just terrible at analysis, criticizes players unfairly, and so on, then they can be voted off (which would take effect for a period of time, not just the current match). I guess a language restriction (e.g. English and/or the host country's language) would need to be imposed too. But hopefully a scheme like this would allow more events to have commentary, and even allow some new regular VG commentators to be "discovered".

ahydra

PS. I take it the imminent World Bridge Games is going to be covered on VG? It currently doesn't appear on the schedule.

[Phil]

It's worth a try but anyone that signs on as a commentator needs to understand protocol. In a JEC match Susy watches things closely and there's a level of self-governance as well. I would be concerned some loudmouth starts criticizing or blathering.

[barmar]

I've moved this discussion to the Vugraph Issues forum.

[The_Badger]

Phil, on 2016-August-24, 12:21, said:

It's worth a try but anyone that signs on as a commentator needs to understand protocol. In a JEC match Susy watches things closely and there's a level of self-governance as well. I would be concerned some loudmouth starts criticizing or blathering.

So right Phil,

My take on it is this:- While BBO expects people to do Vugraph commentary voluntarily - and well done all those players that offer their services due to their love of the game - BBO isn't a charity shop!

There is a lot of money invested in bridge these days, and BBO needs to find a way of rewarding people who provide a service. Even if it's in BB$ (that technically cost zilch). Expecting it for nothing doesn't happen in the real world.

Golf commentators, tennis commentators, football commentators, etc., etc., get paid in real cash.

A friend recently questioned me about writing on these forums. "Why do you give your knowledge free?" she asked. "I enjoy it." I replied. "Keeps my mind active."

However, there's a big difference I feel between writing on a forum, that I can discontinue at any time, and being asked to provide a professional commentary on a professional bridge match.

BBO needs to address why so few commentators are available. I'm sure more players will watch Vugraph with a commentary, especially if there is one in English and the host language

[diana_eva]

The_Badger, on 2016-August-25, 04:35, said:

There is a lot of money invested in bridge these days, and BBO needs to find a way of rewarding people who provide a service. Even if it's in BB$ (that technically cost zilch). Expecting it for nothing doesn't happen in the real world.

Golf commentators, tennis commentators, football commentators, etc., etc., get paid in real cash.

Using BBO to broadcast a live bridge tournament is free. It's up to each tourney organizer to hire commentators and arrange commentary for their own events if they prefer a more professional coverage.

[The_Badger]

diana_eva, on 2016-August-25, 05:57, said:

Using BBO to broadcast a live bridge tournament is free. It's up to each tourney organizer to hire commentators and arrange commentary for their own events if they prefer a more professional coverage.

hi Diana,

Thanks for clarifying this. I'm sure many players on BBO didn't know how Vugraph works. It's good that BBO offer their services for free for Vugraph games

In an indirect way you've probably answered ahydra's question (above), that basically the onus of commentary is with the tournament organiser, and whilst it would be good having some commentary where there is none, perhaps it wouldn't be quite appropriate to have a spontaneous commentary from BBO players except if the tournament organiser agrees.

[ahydra]

Wow, I didn't realise the event organisers can pay for commentary. I figured whoever is free at the time may decide to volunteer their services as commentator. (Surely that's not the case with every tournament though - for example big events like the BB always have loads of commentators there, and occasionally the much smaller tournaments still get the odd commentator joining in for part of it?)

In any event, this still isn't a problem - just allow tournament organisers to choose between no commentary, paid commentary, free commentary from whichever BBO "official" commentators are available, or free commentary from community volunteers. I imagine there must be a site somewhere where people planning to host vugraph events set up the details of their event, so it can be added as an option to that.

ahydra

[diana_eva]

ahydra, on 2016-August-25, 10:24, said:

I figured whoever is free at the time may decide to volunteer their services as commentator.

That's how it works, yes. Commentators are volunteers, nobody's paying them as far as I know.

If there was some sort of payment involved, it shd come from event organizers, not from BBO who offers a platform free of charge.

[barmar]

The way it works is that there is a large contingent of pre-approved commentators. Unless the organizer disables it, these people can sign up to commentate any event.

In addition, the organizer can add their own list of commentators.

How the organizer finds these commentators, and any financial consideration between them, is entirely up to them, BBO is not involved (although they could potentially do it by buying BB$, then using the BB$ transfer screen to gift it to the commentator). But we have limits on the amount of transfers people are doing (to prevent us being used as a money-laundering service).

[ahydra]

barmar, on 2016-August-25, 12:42, said:

The way it works is that there is a large contingent of pre-approved commentators. Unless the organizer disables it, these people can sign up to commentate any event.

In addition, the organizer can add their own list of commentators.

How the organizer finds these commentators, and any financial consideration between them, is entirely up to them, BBO is not involved (although they could potentially do it by buying BB$, then using the BB$ transfer screen to gift it to the commentator). But we have limits on the amount of transfers people are doing (to prevent us being used as a money-laundering service).

Ah, that makes sense, thanks.

ahydra