[nemojames3]

I have just started on BBO and really enjoy it but every time I look for a table I have to hunt around for someone who uses the same conventions as me which can be hard as by the time I have read their profile someone has jumped in before me. It is made harder as so many people don't seem to fill in their profiles anyway.

I assume the friends thing is good for this but not sure of the protocol. I have looked at the FAQ and still have further questions.

Is it like facebook where when you add a friend they have to accept your friend request?
If you are playing with someone and you seem to be compatible do you just add them or should you ask their permission first?

[Antrax]

Adding someone as a friend basically tells the software that you're interested in that person. That person doesn't get any notification that you did it. So, not like Facebook.
I've had people ask to add me, so there seems to be such an etiquette, probably to ensure when you offer them a game they'll know who you are and why you're offering.

[CSGibson]

 nemojames3, on 2012-September-24, 02:06, said:

I have just started on BBO and really enjoy it but every time I look for a table I have to hunt around for someone who uses the same conventions as me which can be hard as by the time I have read their profile someone has jumped in before me. It is made harder as so many people don't seem to fill in their profiles anyway.

I assume the friends thing is good for this but not sure of the protocol. I have looked at the FAQ and still have further questions.

Is it like facebook where when you add a friend they have to accept your friend request?
If you are playing with someone and you seem to be compatible do you just add them or should you ask their permission first?

Friends is just an easy way of keeping track of certain players - they have no idea whether you have labeled them as such, and they do not have to reciprocate. For example, I have friended every player I personally know on here, as well as all starred players from the United States/Canada, and some starred players that are particularly famous from other countries. Friending the local players makes it easy to find other local players, find games, and keep tabs on the competition, while friending the stars gives me an idea of who the top players in the world are playing against or kibitzing. BBF Forumers might also find themselves friended

Others use friending to keep track of particularly enjoyable online partnership experiences, with the hope of playing again, or playing in the future. There's no right or wrong answer, its all very personalized by you to meet your needs.

[Bbradley62]

While you are looking at the Friends feature, you should also look at the Categories feature. The Categories feature allows you to color-code people (both people on your friends list and people who aren't) so that you can easily know why you have flagged them. In Gibson's example, you might use one color/category to identify potential partners and another to identify top players who you might want to kibitz, etc. You could also then have a color/category for people who you do not want to play with, without having to mark them as enemies, which carries other ramifications.

[nemojames3]

wow what a useful feature. The only thing is I can't for the life of me find anything to do with categories and colour coding. Where do I find it?

[Bbradley62]

When you are viewing someone's profile, right-click on his name. Among the choices are "select category", which will also allow you to define categories.

[Quantumcat]

Wow I never knew about categories. I'll have to try that.

I was going to add that a good reason to make someone a friend is so you can see when they log in. This may be people worth kibitzing, or people you want to play with, or people you like to chat to during vugraphs.

[nemojames3]

That's excellent, thanks. BBO is such an excellent site I am surprised the FAQ's are so bad. There is not a word of all this in the friends section.

[paua]

 nemojames3, on 2012-September-25, 00:25, said:

That's excellent, thanks. BBO is such an excellent site I am surprised the FAQ's are so bad. There is not a word of all this in the friends section.

New feature with web version, and FAQs haven't been updated.