[grantp]

I just did this again and it is very humiliating and painful for everyone involved!

I had been chatting with a friend and so I had my chat set on that person. Then I joined a table to kibitz some big name players. An interesting hand came up, and I wanted to talk about it, so I switched my chat to Table when what I meant was Kibitzers. This is just an easy thing to absentmindedly do. Then I typed crucial information during the auction and they had to skip the hand and I look like a jerk.

I've been the victim in this situation too, trying to play a hand and a kibitzer accidentally blurts out UI to the whole table. Of course it's not the boring hands that get ruined, because nobody has anything to say, it's the ones that are difficult to bid or play.

There are a dozen UI improvements that are possible that would reduce the chances of this mistake happening. One simple one that you could start with would be to just make the button that says what you are talking to turn red instead of blue when it's the whole table and you are a kibitzer.

Another option of course would be an "are you sure" popup that points out you are talking to everyone. It could do this when you try to chat, or even before that when you even try to switch your chat to Table.

Please do something, because I'm tired of being red in the face for making this error and I feel bad for all the other people constantly making this error.

Yes, I realize that the table owner can prevent kibitzer chat, but 1) sometimes they want a friendly game where kibitzers can chat, and 2) sometimes they forget, and 3) sometimes they are not good with the interface and don't know how to change options after starting a game.

[pescetom]

An obvious (to me at least) modification would be to make it impossible for a kibitzer to chat to table or players while play is underway.

[diana_eva]

 pescetom, on 2024-November-11, 13:50, said:

An obvious (to me at least) modification would be to make it impossible for a kibitzer to chat to table or players while play is underway.

This is a table setting. The host can block or allow this chat.

[pescetom]

 diana_eva, on 2024-November-11, 14:32, said:

This is a table setting. The host can block or allow this chat.

But is the default setting "block"?
If not then maybe it should be.

[barmar]

Since we expect most tables to be friendly and casual, the defaults are oriented towards this.

There are a handful of people who host these "big name" games, and we expect them to be familiar with the settings. E.g. Susi used to host the JEC games, and she was careful never to enable kibitzer chat to the table.