barmar, on 2011-August-04, 20:00, said:
I come from ACBL territory, where it's not alertable. I've never played in England, or any other area where 2/1 GF is alertable. So I have no reason to be "in doubt", and I don't alert it. Then my English opponent calls the TD, complaining about the lack of alert.
How should the TD rule? I followed the rule to the letter, yet my opponent's feeling of damage seems reasonable.
Whether 2/1 is alertable when playing face to face without screens in ACBL is irrelevant because alertability is different online than F2F. This is one very basic thing that online players really have to understand. In particular, even if you are used to not alerting at the 4-level and higher you must still alert through 7NT when playing online.
The question you should ask yourself is: is it plausible that failure to alert might damage opponents? Note that the answer probably isn't "no, because opps can protect themselves" because opps are entitled to expect that you alert much more online than F2F.
As for your specific question: pre-alert it. This is what most TDs say in the welcome message also: pre-alert your carding and general approach.
There could be issues with things like jump overcalls which are usually not pre-alerted, if you play a style which is universal in your part of the World while opps expect the style that is universal in their part of the world. Here I would personally say that people who play intermediate jump overcalls probably know that they are unusual on BBO so they should alert them. But if someone new to BBO who has never plaid outside his local club where everyone plays IJO fails to alert an IJO, tough luck.
At the end of the day, we have to rely on people's sense of sportsmanship:
- give full disclosure, sometimes beyond what you think the rules require. For example, even if you think (wrongly, as it happens) that you are entitled to not alerting Michaels', alert it anyway. Just in case that you are wrong, or that opps think that you are wrong.
- cater to opps not knowing the alert rules or having limited computer skills. So protect yourself.
- this is not serious competition and TDs are often overloaded. So if you are damaged by an infraction you will not always be compensated. Get used to that.