Re: self-explanations and self-alerts

Look peoples. The way they do it online is fundamentally different
from how it is (in theory) done face to face.

1. The laws for face-to-face bridge really try to protect the mistaken
bid -- the opps have no right to that information. Online, they
routinely hear about the mistaken bid.

2. If your partner for whatever reason makes a bid with a meaning you
don't understand, online the opps get to find out that meaning. In
other words, the opps know the meaning of partner's bid, even if you
don't.

3.  Put another way, in the online system, the partner****p in a sense
has an obligation to agree on the meaning of their bids. If they do
not, they are the "offending side". If they can recover, fine. But the
opps should not be punished by players not knowing the meaning of all
of their bids.

We can argue about whether it is legal for online to do this. We can
argue about how this could be achieved in a club and whether or not
that is legal. I would love to do that.

But I really am curious if people who play online (and who also play
face-to-face) like the online system better than the face-to-face
system. If no one likes it, there is little point in trying to expand
it to face-to-face bridge.

In other words, you are hijacking my thread. I may be the world's
greatest thread hijacker, so I am sympathetic, but for this once I
would like an answer to the original question. Start a new thread and
I will be happy to join you. Or we can discuss it at David's IBLF
(forums.bridgetalk.com).