the "Not-so-friendly" Fibsters

[Dee Dee]

I have a question about FIBS or 3DFiBs, who should I ask?
A good place to start is www.fibsboard.com. Many differnt FIBS clients have their own forum page there and anything FIBS is actively discussed. If you are logged in to FIBS, you can try a shout (chat into the lobby area) for some answers.



This is a copy and paste from the 3DFiBs Backgammon support site.   I tried this for several of my questions and was met with rudness from a coulple of the 'regulars'.  It does not pay to use the shout area for help because after reading it for a while (after I was treated so badly, being told to 'stfu' many times)  I realized that the bullies use it for their personal crass and sexist talk.  Anyone else is not welcomed.  My experience.  Some players were nice at first, but others are plain abusive.


Another copy and past from the same page:


I have a lot of saved games, all of which are from my opponents dropping.
Use the repbot tool to filter your invites. All dropped games expire after a few weeks. Droppers eventually get bored with FIBS and leave. Most long term players on FIBS are very nice and friendly.


Very nice and friendly???   Some of them need some lessons in this area.

[socksey]

I'm sorry you experienced rudeness from your questions on Fibs.     Most of the seasoned users are helpful and patient with newbies.  Sometimes we get tired of the repetitive questions that are answered at Fibs.com and on fibsboard.com and we can be less than helpful.   

There are a few jokesters who love to harrass newbies as a joke.      Please forgive them because they mean no real harm. 

Please feel free to scroll through the subject matter found in the forum area of this site and you will find all the answers to your questions.   

socksey



"It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it." — General Douglas MacArthur

[Dee Dee]

well, it was after using the help sites, and FAQ's  that I decided to try the shout area. not all subjects are covered in the FAQ's.

Thank you for your response.
Dee Dee

[diane]

There are a few jokesters who love to harrass newbies as a joke.      Please forgive them because they mean no real harm. 

It is very hard to know what they do mean, certainly making newbies feel unwelcome and stupid is very definitely on their agenda.  Harm? No, they probably wouldn't shoot you, or cause you actual physical damage, but the harm they do cause is real.  They certainly scare away, or into silence, anyone who would oppose their domination of the shout room, making sure we always have a predominantly vicious population there.

Nevertheless, DeeDee, there are people who will help, and who are worth knowing.  I hope your encounters with the 'not-worth-knowing' don't cause you to leave too, nor that you become of the 'well I can't beat em, so I will join them' crew.  We really do need more of the 'long term players on FIBS who are very nice and friendly'.

I do understand that answering the same questions for every newbie that arrives is dull, but a lot of us have some FAQs on macros for just such occasions, so forgive us if the answers seem rehearsed    And yes, when the newbies arrive who want to change everything, without reading any material, or lifting a finger to help, arrive - they might get a frosty reception 

Meanwhile, I do hope you stay with fibs, at least long enough to properly assess who is here beyond the shout room, this remains my favourite site, despite the schoolground bullies    Hope to see you over a board 

[Dee Dee]

   Thank you, Diane, I knew there had to be nice people around here.   I have not left the site for love of and addiction to backgammon.  I just changed my player name to avoid further mistreatment.  My questons were more about navigating the menues and options available that other users seem to have no problem with, but I was (still am) having problems with.  But I will get by without knowing all the ins-and-outs of the fibs area.
Dee Dee

[socksey]

All that being said, are there any more questions you have that have not been answered?      

My first choice of interfaces for Fibs is Javafibs, but I use 3dFibs also. I'd be happy to help if I can.   

socksey



"You win some, lose some, and wreck some." - Dale Earnhardt Sr.
 

[diane]

My first choice of interfaces for Fibs is Javafibs

This is true for most of us who have been here for any length of time    If you are still getting used to your client, I would advise getting used to javafibs instead, it is a much more flexible and powerful interface in the long run.  As you become better versed with fibs and how it works, you will realise just how much more it can do than pretty much any other client.  At that point, if you are very used to another client, it will be more difficult to change 

[Sequit]

Dee Dee, I love 3DFibs, and have an archive of programs and graphics for it. I use version 2, because it it simple. Version 4 tries to do too many things. Feel free to take anything from my site:http://www.sequit.net. Click 3DFibs, once you make it to the home page. Also, ask any questions about it or anything when you see me logged in.

[Bones]

Dee Dee, the last place on earth to look for help is in the shout room.  I've been at fibs almost six years, and I can probably count on my fingers and toes the number of times I've "shouted." 

Just sit and read the shouts for five minutes, and you'll never be tempted to go there again.  The ones who do the most shouting are the foul-mouthed, self-aggrandizing morons that you have already encountered. 

There are plenty of great people at fibs, and an unknown quantity of total jerks.  Shouts is a jerk magnet. 

Anything we can do to help? 

[Dee Dee]

Thank you for your kind responses and willingness to help.  I'm afraid I'm just not very computer savvy.   Point and click is about all I know.   I appreciate that you are willing, and maybe I'll just take you up on the offer.  But once that happens you may regret taking me on!

Dee Dee

[diane]

Dee Dee, the last place on earth to look for help is in the shout room. 

Sadly, the newbies don't know that - and are directed there for help.  It would be nice to populate the area with the promised help, rather than the other characters you mention - here is hoping...one day maybe 

[garp_02]

May I just say that I, too, have found that the shout area is a disgrace.  The same old morons every time (including some, seemingly, well-respected members of this board and Fibs League.

Rather than suggest to Dee Dee that she simply avoids this area, would it be possible (or desirable) to remove the chat function from the people in question and make the shout room a more welcoming place to newbies and oldies alike. If the egocentrics wish to spout their rude, racist drivel, then shouldn't they be forced to do it elsewhere and leave the nice backgammon people to chat more politely?

Garp

[stog]

there is a gag option should you choose to use it

[dorbel]

Shouts is an uncensored, unmoderated chat room. It is the ultimate in free speech and thus worth something. Of course some people use this to say things that we don't like, but remember, it is a room populated with people that you choose, because if you have javafibs you can move people that you don't like to a villains list. After that, you can't hear them shout, they can't message you, they can't speak to you and they can't watch your games. In effect, they cease to exist!
Use this wisely. A totally emasculated chat room would be very dull and in its present form a certain level of thick skin is essential.

[Bones]

I'm with dorbel on this one.  I avoid shouts except when absolutely necessary -- a great deal of moronic and/or offensive conversation goes on there.  However, it serves a useful function, and cannot/should not be "regulated." 

One possibility that's been discussed here, that *might* make a *tiny* bit of difference, is to keep a permanent log of shouts.  Theoretically, a running log of shouts should deter some inappropriate behavior.  Practically, though, a moron is a moron is a moron. 

I didn't know javafibs had that feature, dorbel.  Maybe I'll give it a spin. 

Oh, and for those of you who have never seen it, here is The Fundamental Rule of All Social Spaces:  http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_a_dick.  If only it were enforceable! 

[socksey]

Dee Dee, the last place on earth to look for help is in the shout room.

I have to disagree with you on that one, Bones.     I personally have helped countless newbies who shouted for help.  I usually take it to chat with my responses so as to segregate my response from the sometimes confusing shout responses, but the help came from a request in shouts, so, you may not know what goes on in the "tell" sidelines when you make such a rash statement.   

Dee Dee, I still do not see any specific problem you are having with 3DFibs that any of us are willing to help you with. 

socksey



I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. - Thomas Jefferson

[Dee Dee]

Well, I have been hesitant in getting into the issues I've had on the 3DFiBs.   But some of my problems are....................
1.   How to get my 'Kbitz' to show in a window instead at the lower left of the screen.
2.   How to get a welcome message to show automaticaly.  It seems other players have this feature, and I'd like to use it.
3.   When wanting to watch (maybe someday join) a Tourney,  the instructions say 'type watch tourney' but it doesn't say where to type it.   It seems obvious to the users that are familiar to the game site,  but still not working for me.

4.   The big one that got me the most trouble from the regulars was when I asked how to tell if a player is using a mobil phone,   It simply does not show on the screen.  And according to some of the 'helpful' shouters, I am just too stupid to see it because "it's there, just LOOK" .

5.   How come I'll invite a player and the server screen says 'no player by that name'?
6.   Sometimes I accept an invite and nothing happens,  the server says 'invitation accepted'  but the game does not start.

So, hopfully I can understand the system a little better, but as I said before, I can still play the game just fine on there and having these questions answered just would help make the experience a bit easier.

[dorbel]

The answer to all these problems is to download javafibs and uninstall 3dfibs.

[diane]

1.   How to get my 'Kbitz' to show in a window instead at the lower left of the screen.
2.   How to get a welcome message to show automaticaly.  It seems other players have this feature, and I'd like to use it.
3.   When wanting to watch (maybe someday join) a Tourney,  the instructions say 'type watch tourney' but it doesn't say where to type it.   It seems obvious to the users that are familiar to the game site,  but still not working for me.

4.   The big one that got me the most trouble from the regulars was when I asked how to tell if a player is using a mobil phone,   It simply does not show on the screen.  And according to some of the 'helpful' shouters, I am just too stupid to see it because "it's there, just LOOK" .

5.   How come I'll invite a player and the server screen says 'no player by that name'?
6.   Sometimes I accept an invite and nothing happens,  the server says 'invitation accepted'  but the game does not start.

So, hopfully I can understand the system a little better, but as I said before, I can still play the game just fine on there and having these questions answered just would help make the experience a bit easier.

Firstly - I am only trying to fill in a few gaps that I can quickly - while you wait for a real 3D expert to come along and help you properly  

1 - I am surprised you find this, one of my pet hates about 3D fibs was the pop up windows, they pop up when someone talks to you, regardless of what you are trying to do - so if you are concentrating on a tourney match, for example, the windows are very distracting.  In answer to your specific question, I think kibitzes are fixed in the lower left [although you may be able to resize that] so using tells in the pop up windows would be a way around it.  You can ask your opponent to use tells instead of kibitz to make it easier for you to see.

2 - is a menu option, easy to do, but I can't recall where - an expert will soon have you doing that  

3 - The tourney question has two aspects,, neither of which are particularly interface specific..there is watching matches in the tourney, and knowing who is playing and how the tourney is progressing.  To do the first is easy, click on the players name in the player list and right click - I am pretty sure you get a list of options, one of which is 'watch' [if right click doesnt work - look at the the menu items at the top, watch will be a command option]..Select that and you watch the players match.  
Knowing which matches are part of the tourney requires an understanding of tourneybot, and how tourneys work.  If you watch shouts, tourneybot shouts will let you know who is playing, and if it is a manual tourney, again watch shouts for the TD - they will probably direct you to a website where the tournament bracket is listed.  There are more involved commands to get more info from tourneybot - but at your current level of experience, I suggest you keep it simple.  As you become more familiar, you can learn more commands and will hopefully be playing in the tourneys  

4 - you can't do this on 3D fibs - if you check the attachment below, you will see how the playerlist appears on javafibs, the client column tells you if it it is a phone user - Odyses or iPhone, and for extra info - the host column also has the comment added that the Odyses players are phone users and may have poor connections.  I do not know how you would achieve that in 3Dfibs.  [You will further notice all the names of Odyses players on my screen are greyed out - this shows they are on the villians list, which prevents them from being able to invite me to matches - that saves me having to work out who is what when the invite comes!!  ]

5 - That is the 'zombie' problem, mentioned in another thread.  3Dfibs has one of the worst zombie problems of all the interfaces - because the playerlist isn't updated optimally, and you don't see the status of players change as it should.  So - the player you can see on the ready list is either already playing, or has left!!  To get rid of them you need to update or refresh the playerlist - very tedious, as you need to do it frequently.  After 20-30 minutes logged in to fibs, I would find that 2 out of every 3 players on the ready list was a 'zombie'  

6 - This is not an interface problem [although your interface is making it more difficult to see what is happening].  When you invite a player in fibs, then invite another player - the second invite cancels the first.  Players often don't know this [even when you tell them!!  ], and sit serially inviting other players.  This means you have about a nanosecond to accept the invite before it is cancelled by their next invitation.  When you get this problem - your interface thinks you took the match - hence the message you see, but fibs is telling you that the player didn't invite you - which you aren't seeing.

Hopefully this will help you until the cavalry arrive    

And seriously - most of these issues are around the fact that 3Dfibs isn't such a great interface [although integrated repbot and the sound files are excellent  ]  While you are still learning - seriously consider learning javafibs.  You will find a lot of support with that interface.

[Bones]

And Dee Dee, if you're not confused enough already, we should add that there are different version of 3DFibs, and many players, including me, prefer an older version to the current one.  Different versions handle some tasks in slightly different ways, so when you post a question, please include the version number you're using (help/about 3dfibs)

You'll get better answers to your 3Dfibs questions by posting them at the 3DFibs thread on this board -- http://www.fibsboard.com/3dfibs-b14.0/

And Diane is absolutely right -- some of your issues are about the program you're using, and some of them are about the Fibs server itself.  Learning the difference takes awhile -- but keep asking! 

Just hang in there, you'll catch on.  Fibs is tons of fun, and you'll make good friends here, but it takes awhile to learn the ropes.  Give it time.