[patchyfog]

Many players on BBO want fast play. Two points: 1. Why not have a special room for fast play? This would relieve a lot of pressure on the rest of us. 2. Most "slow play" is not slow play at all, but a weak connection. I would urge BBO to do everything they can to minimize the information passed back and forth between BBO and the player, to help speed things up. I wouldn't be surprised if BBO could reduce this information transmitted by 70%.

[pescetom]

patchyfog, on 2026-January-07, 08:53, said:

2. Most "slow play" is not slow play at all, but a weak connection. I would urge BBO to do everything they can to minimize the information passed back and forth between BBO and the player, to help speed things up. I wouldn't be surprised if BBO could reduce this information transmitted by 70%.

This is wrong on both counts.
BBO sends small messages between server and client, almost nothing compared to the bandwidth available. A slow connection (by today's standards) should have no effect (even if BBO sends a warning that "it might effect your experience") and will certainly not result in slow play.

There is a problem that BBO is nonetheless very sensitive to a poor wifi connection between your device and your router, but that is a separate issue and again it doesn't result in slow play but in disconnections and anomalous perception of the state of play and perceived presence.

[Huibertus]

pescetom, on 2026-January-07, 10:09, said:

This is wrong on both counts.
BBO sends small messages between server and client, almost nothing compared to the bandwidth available. A slow connection (by today's standards) should have no effect (even if BBO sends a warning that "it might effect your experience") and will certainly not result in slow play.

There is a problem that BBO is nonetheless very sensitive to a poor wifi connection between your device and your router, but that is a separate issue and again it doesn't result in slow play but in disconnections and anomalous perception of the state of play and perceived presence.

I frequently lose connection on BBO. I also NEVER lose connection on any other site. Just saying.

[pescetom]

 Huibertus, on 2026-January-08, 06:32, said:

I frequently lose connection on BBO. I also NEVER lose connection on any other site. Just saying.

Sure, it's a frequent complaint, BBO is unreasonably sensitive to network problems that do not bother other sites and services.
But you lose connection, or appear to, or wish you had.
You don't bid or play slowly as a result.

[mycroft]

slightly off-topic, but I "lost connection" twice Monday night for switching to a tab in another window and reading when I was dummy.

I know this is an issue with modern browsers (this was on Opera, Windows 11). Did we ever come up with a useful workaround?

Especially because it *doesn't* make noise when it just logs you out, so you go back and who knows how long you've been gone/they've been waiting for you to bid on the next hand.

[pescetom]

mycroft, on 2026-January-09, 11:35, said:

slightly off-topic, but I "lost connection" twice Monday night for switching to a tab in another window and reading when I was dummy.

I know this is an issue with modern browsers (this was on Opera, Windows 11). Did we ever come up with a useful workaround?

Especially because it *doesn't* make noise when it just logs you out, so you go back and who knows how long you've been gone/they've been waiting for you to bid on the next hand.

Not only did we not come to a useful workaround (or more useful than "do not switch to another tab") but we never even came to a convincing explanation of the issue either. Yes the browsers decided to move idle tabs into background, but Chrome (and I imagine Edge) allow the user to control this (Settings/Performance/Always keep these sites active): I did so for bridgebase.com, but BBO still goes dead if I switch to another tab. And this issue was present in the BBO Android app years before that browser modification, if you looked at History between games then your session died in just the same way (which is even more perverse because the app itself invoked the browser for its own scopes).