My Pet Peeves (on Fibs)

[socksey]

A few days ago I was shouting about a couple of my "pet peeves" on Fibs.  It occurred to me Fibsboard might be a better place to vent, and it would be nice to see what others find annoying.     So, hope lots of you join in and add to the list.  

First on my list is droppers, of course.  That may be allowed to go unsaid since we have another forum covering that annoyance.  

Second for me is newbies or others who invite you, then right away go on to invite someone else and someone else, and so on.  They don't know that the next invite cancels out the last, so when you try to join them, you get a message saying "X did not invite you".  Then you either fume or you invite them only to find out they are already playing with someone else, so your efforts have been wasted.  I don't play anyone any more without first checking RepBot and saved games, so if I haven't played you before or don't know you, it will take me maybe 5 -10 seconds to do this!  

Third is the people who are on "ready" who are not there.  Maybe they've gone off to the loo or whereever, but they don't respond.  They don't say, "Not now, ty." or "I won't play you."  They just sit there apparently ready but never respond.  

I'm sure I can think of more as the list goes on, but that's all for now.  

Already adding another one.  How about the ones who sit in Fibs but play poker elsewhere at the same time!?  Had one of those on Saturday for Mini-Matches (not the first time).  He couldn't play the tourney because he was in a poker tourney at the moment!  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr..........

socksey



"I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do something I can do." - Helen Keller

[Caliman]

  My latest 'peeve' is SLOW players and those that invite then dont move at all!
I used to get the hump when pc players just totally blanked me when i invited them but it does not bother me so much now although a no thanks would be courteous.
AND! pc players shouting rubbish about me thinking i cant see them as a phoney player, WRONG! (Mobile version of 3d fibs is handy!) I even had a complaint against me for being over? Courteous lol
General abuse for being a mobile player is common, sat here with a laptop waiting for service provider to get me online for a week! Thats off topic sorry.
Ive made myself a target for droppers due to the hall of shame, thats backfired on me big time.
Sine ira et studio - Tacitus

[playBunny]

who invite you, then right away go on to invite someone else and someone else, and so on.  They don't know that the next invite cancels out the last, so when you try to join them, you get a message saying "X did not invite you".

Yup, that one's second on my list. It would actually be easier to bear if the message didn't add insult to injury by lying about what happened. "X has buggered off to play someone else" wouldn't make me annoyed with Fibs as well!

Another peev is when those machine-driven "Hi from SomeWhere" messages are delivered with zero sincerity. If I then make a manual response which invites a response but there's no reply, it makes a mockery of the greeting and makes the opponent seems rather thoughtless.

My latest 'peeve' is SLOW players ...

This is absolutely the number one peev for me. If I want slow games then I've got DailyGammon. Admittedly that's reeeeeeeeeeeeealy slow, being turn-based, but I don't want an online opponent who tries to emulate it, even to the smallest degree! I usually split the slowcoaches into two groups. There are those who are beginners and take a lot of time but can make some fast moves. I accept that because they are in learning mode and I respect the need for thinking time. The others take ages even with trivial and obvious moves and that makes a match intolerable.

[dickbalaska]

The others take ages even with trivial and obvious moves and that makes a match intolerable.

Especially when bearing off.  How can it take 20 seconds to bear off a 6-2???  You have 9 checkers on the 6 and 4 on the 2.  Are you contemplating moving a 6 to the 4???

Wait, i can't finish this post.  It's my bid in superstarspokeronlinetotallyfreeonlinepoker.com

Ok, i'm back...

dik

[lewscannon]

Ditto on all of sox's peeves. I can add the players who b#t#h about your good dice during the early part of the match and fail to acknowledge their good fortune if they happen to win.

[socksey]

The others take ages even with trivial and obvious moves and that makes a match intolerable.

On the other hand,    there are those who rush the heck out of me!  After 10 years on Fibs, I'm learning that it pays to think when you're playing (most of the time) and I am deliberately taking my time.  I also enjoy shouting and chatting in "tells".  I try to do this as soon as my turn is finished so as to shorten the time, and I'm not often considered a slow player, but, really, give me a break!      You can be a little patient, can't you?  

socksey



"I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph." - Shirley Temple Black

[stog]

 

[spielberg]

I don't really have any serious peeves. Dropper scum annoy me particularly when they pick on the newbies but besides that everything's fine. When someone's stupid enough to quibble about the dice lews just use it as a source of yet more amusement.

[SavageHenry]

I play pretty fast, occasionally taking a little bit longer on more complicated positions.  I generally would never ask someone to speed up, it comes off sounding pretty bad imho.  The other day it was very laggy and my opponent assumed I was moving slowly and starting telling me "he was falling alseep" and to "hurry up! play faster"  and then "bye" and he dropped.

I only have 200 experiance so I'm probably not in a position to complain to much, however it's the rep system more than the droppers that annoy me.  Players will always drop games, you'll never completely get around that.  So I've had four people disconnect or drop on me so far, and to the stranger looking at my rep you couldnt tell whether it was me or the other person dropping games.  If they're a poor loser the might even through it a complaint as well.  Why not?  All that and you may have been the most corteous player in the world. 

Why not have a system similar to that used on chess servers?  Players can define a game to be 'noescape' so if you are disconnected you automatically lose the game.  If you have a bad connection this will obviously cost you games, but you could simply choose to play without that feature. Aside from phone users, most people these days have a fairly secure connection anyhow.  This would instantly kill the ability to drop and increase your rating.

I guess this would require someoone to work on it and that may not be possible.  Addining the a feature to play variants would also be cool if someone was going to work on the code.   

Another pet peeve is people using an interface that allows them to double even when they're at match point.  Kinda funny as well I suppose.  Either they're purposely being annoying, or they have no idea what the scores are. 

[diane]

The multi invite thing of course...even more annoying are those who argue with you when you patiently explain that a second invite cancels the first....

Slow players...sometimes it helps to tell them about greedy bearoffs, as they simply dont know - as a newbie I repeatedly asked how others managed to bear off so quickly!!  I mostly avoid players who shout or tell during matches, it is pretty much ignorant and the slow play is a waste of my time.  The exceptions I make to that are if the player is involved in a shout topic in which we both take part.  If something burning comes up in shout that I want to respond to, I generally apologise to my opponent, and keep it to as few times as possible.

People who whine about bad luck, of course....like it never happened to anyone else....

People who dont like your autohello / goodbye, if you think I am typing that out each time, get a life - also those who think it is innapropriate to thank someone for playing if they lost...what do they want me to say.....loooooossseerr? Or brag a bit

The newbies with a thousand and one suggestions to make fibs a better place and to deal with droppers...they won't have RTFM and therefore know that we have all been there and done that till our heads bled from banging it against the brick wall..

I am sure there are more 

[SavageHenry]

The newbies with a thousand and one suggestions to make fibs a better place and to deal with droppers...they won't have RTFM and therefore know that we have all been there and done that till our heads bled from banging it against the brick wall..

I don't know if this is directed at me or not, either way....

If it's a paying dues thing, that's fine, but I still can't see why a suggestion like mine wouldn't be far better than the current system. Unless it's  man power or strange technical issue, that's a different story.  Or maybe some other reason, which I'd be glad to be corrected on.

Granted, games like chess, scrabble etc. are less "droppable" games, in the sense that people don't 'steam' so much and are less likely to rage quit. 
But you just don't get pages of complaints about 'bad players' and droppers and so on and so forth in these games.  It's just not an issue.  They simply have a better system. 

Anyway, I was just adding my thoughts as a 'pet peeve' not to tell people how it should be run.  If I'm wrong I'll never mention it again.

[garp_02]

I agree with all of the above peeves - slow players are a particular pet hate of mine. I have dropped several matches due to consistently slow play.

My other pet hate is those who refuse to resign even when it is mathematically impossible for them to win/save gammon etc.

Combine slow play with refusal to resign and it's a long, long evening.

Cheers,

Garp

[diane]

I don't know if this is directed at me or not, either way....

If it's a paying dues thing, that's fine, but I still can't see why a suggestion like mine wouldn't be far better than the current system. Unless it's  man power or strange technical issue, that's a different story.  Or maybe some other reason, which I'd be glad to be corrected on.

Granted, games like chess, scrabble etc. are less "droppable" games, in the sense that people don't 'steam' so much and are less likely to rage quit. 
But you just don't get pages of complaints about 'bad players' and droppers and so on and so forth in these games.  It's just not an issue.  They simply have a better system. 

Anyway, I was just adding my thoughts as a 'pet peeve' not to tell people how it should be run.  If I'm wrong I'll never mention it again.

It wasnt directed at you specifically, no.

If you read the material here, and talk to regulars, you will find that we have been making suggestions like this for probably more than 10 years.

The bottom line is this:
The server works, it is not maintained unless something actually breaks.

There are better servers around which deal with dropped matches and all the things you mention, just as the chess sites etc do. Most of them are pay for, but offer some level of free access so anyone can play there.

If dropping is that big a deal to you, go there [do not interpret this as 'bog off' btw  ]

The thing with fibs is, that where it works well, it works better than every other site, and I never stay at others very long. But that really is my choice, and so I don't whimper about what doesn't work, but enjoy what does work.

The main frustration about those suggesting improvements is this  - all the suggestions have been made, over and over again. A few people have even offered to put their time where their ideas are, but it doesn't go anywhere.  Most of the improvements seen in using fibs come from those who write and maintain interfaces which work to overcome the shortcomings. It is just frustrating to keep seeing a big rosey picture of how much better things could be...but never seeing the ideas go anywhere.

Repbot and, more recently, Tourneybot, are great add-ons, which vastly improve the fibs experience. The Nacci site too, fibsleaguebackgammon - all these are brought to fibs by people who have actually done something to enhance the FIBs experience for us all, rather than just suggesting stuff....

I would strongly recommend you read the material here and other repositories, going back 10 years, to see what has been suggested, and objected to or flat out ignored, before making the same suggestions again.

Having said all of that, there have recently been some changes - namely the introduction of the command 'show savedcount', which allows us, for the first time, to be able to see exactly and 100% accurately, how many saved games a player has.  That is brilliant useful information, and may indicate that the old wonderful dinosaur is climbing in a cacoon, after all this time 

I appreciate this is somewhat , but felt my peeve needed airing fully 

[RickPorter]

It is just frustrating to keep seeing a big rosey picture of how much better things could be...but never seeing the ideas go anywhere.

I see you're point and it's a shame.  I don't think its necessarily the newbies fault for making the suggestion though.  Like walking around with a hole in your head, people are going to point it out.  I have been through the forums before, not quite as far back as your suggesting though.  Sounds like research project. 

If dropping is that big a deal to you, go there [do not interpret this as 'bog off' btw

Like I said in my original post, it's actually not droppers that bother me, rather the way they are dealt with.  (on the assumption that you will always have a certain percentage of players who will drop games.) 

As it turns out it's a peeve that your peeve, and we're caught in feedback loop of never-ending irritation.  So if it is a technical issue regarding the owners of the server, to me it seems complaining about dropping is much the same gripe, if not more futile. It's like walking with a broken umbrella and getting furious with rain.

[Caliman]

Lmao oh socksey look what you started lol
Lately i have been warning players by kibitz that their opponent is a dropper, and if possible a shout warning of said dropper. Wont be bothering anymore as im seen as the bad guy?! Whistle blower Rickochet, thats me. So my last peeve il list here is players that dont appreciate a warning then complain when they get dropped: oh and the unlucky players that moan on and on about the dice then get a double 6 to come off the bar, take my checker as i was about to bear off for a Bg and go on to win! They never seem to acknowledge their own luck- que ce' ra ce' ra or whatever.
Semper idem! - virgil

[socksey]

Anyway, I was just adding my thoughts as a 'pet peeve' not to tell people how it should be run.  If I'm wrong I'll never mention it again.

Welcoms to Fibs and Fibsboard, SavageHenry!  You will find much discussion on reputation under the "Repbot" theme:  http://www.fibsboard.com/repbot-b25.0/ and for dropper discussion:  http://www.fibsboard.com/droppers-b47.0/

It was not my intent for this topic to be fraught with long-winded solutions/suggestions, but just a list of various "pet peeves" as a way of venting what our frustrations are.     If you want to delve deeply into any area that we have not already beaten to death, then start a new singular topic and we'll happily hash it out there.     But, please browse the topics in the forum first, and only start a new thread that has not been covered.  While you're browsing, you may find many subjects you wish to comment further on.  Feel free!     That's what the board is for.   

socksey



"The average man is more interested in a woman who is interested in him than he is in a woman with beautiful legs." - Marlene Dietrich

[diane]

I don't think its necessarily the newbies fault for making the suggestion though.  Like walking around with a hole in your head, people are going to point it out. 

It's like walking with a broken umbrella and getting furious with rain.

I take the opposite view, I always assume someone walking around with a hole in their head knows it is there already, and wouldn't dream of mentioning it  

To me, it is much more like walking into the house of a mutual acquaintance that you have not met before, and immediately telling them they need to rearrange their furniture....I really would want to get to know them better, and see if there is a good reason for the current arrangement before offering any unsolicited advice.

I left the last one in, mostly because I like it...it is so chicken and egg - if it werent raining I wouldnt need to lug an umbrella around - broken or otherwise    And since I never carry an umbrella and am happy to get wet, maybe that says something very profound  

Feel free to tidy this to a thread where it more appropriate, but I really wanted to address that hole in his head....

[garp_02]

Getting back on topic - anyone else annoyed with players who constantly move/undo/move/undo etc.

I know I previously complained about slow play - but at least take a few seconds to think about the move before playing, rather than just trying out every possible combination before committing.

I'm done now, I think

Garp

[playBunny]

People who use the phrase "get a life". Either they don't understand how rude it is or, more usually, they intend it to be rude. They who are soooo superior.

[spielberg]

Getting back on topic - anyone else annoyed with players who constantly move/undo/move/undo etc.

Very rarely I'll do this deliberately if it's an important match, I WANT to annoy my opponent and I think they might be susceptible to being encouraged to make some mistakes. Nice to see it may actually be useful teasing for once rather than the drivel with which I often fill the shouts.