[StevenG]

Since I have been playing on the browser version I have been checking other players' profiles for compatibility. I have had five stars with the vast majority of people I play with regularly, and quite a few others, from expert to not really very good, and I've been curious as to why.

However, as of a couple of days ago, all my five stars have been reduced to three-and-a-half. Why? Have I done something horrible? Will the trend continue? Will I be down to two stars at most in another few weeks? Will I disappear completely? I'm getting very worried.

[FelicityR]

When I do play on BBO - rarely these days as I prefer playing in the club - I take the compatibility 'star' factor with a pinch of salt. It would be interesting to know how BBO assess bridge compatibility. It seems a bit like online dating with cards, and many of us know (including myself) how inaccurate supposed compatibility is on dating sites!

[barmar]

Did you make any changes to your profile recently? The compatibility score is based on matching up various items in your profile, as well as things like your masterpoints. Since you don't have any points, it must be your profile.

[StevenG]

barmar, on 2017-April-05, 08:50, said:

Did you make any changes to your profile recently? The compatibility score is based on matching up various items in your profile, as well as things like your masterpoints. Since you don't have any points, it must be your profile.

No, I've changed nothing. I don't play much, and I've played even less recently, so I was wondering if it was lack of activity causing the "problem". Interestingly a former face-to-face partner had a compatibility of one star IIRC even though our profles were almost identical. She never plays on BBO these days (it was a shock to see her logged on) and used to play in the main room rather than the Acol club as I do. So I was thinking venue and/or activity level might be part of the algorithm.

Compatibility does rather bug me, as I get obsessed with picking out the patterns in such things. You can't see the compatibility of someone who isn't logged on, which suggests that some necessary data isn't available (or else the coding is a bit trickier and nobody's prepared to spend time on it).

[GrahamJson]

As far as I can tell compatibility stars mean very little. I have nothing listed in my profile. This results in others who have nothing listed having three or more compatibility stars. Make sense of that.

[sfr]

I must be a very incompatible player ... no Stars .. Can't understand why. I guess it is because I have a hard time with players who use systems ... who become offended when I ask what their actual bid means..
A SYSTEM BID MUST BE EXPLAINED without having to be asked. Why are you wasting time and slowing down the game? Do Not Ass/u/me that everybody understands your bid when you say Polish Club/Precision/Bergen/Jacoby or any other artificial bid.
This is a game with full disclosure. Everybody at the table has the right to any information implied within your partnership agreement.

[barmar]

sfr, on 2017-April-06, 08:00, said:

I must be a very incompatible player ... no Stars .. Can't understand why. I guess it is because I have a hard time with players who use systems ... who become offended when I ask what their actual bid means..

System information is not used in determining compatibility (I lobbied for this, and even wrote the code to do it, but management decided against it).

[barmar]

Here are the things we compare between the two players to decide how compatible they are:

Country
Language
Ratio of people who follow them to people who list them as enemy
Masterpoints

The more of these things that are similar, the more compatible you're considered.

[Curls77]

sfr, on 2017-April-06, 08:00, said:

I must be a very incompatible player ... no Stars ..

I am another alike, feeling like ET in BBO. I only have 3+ compatibility stars with people that even if they knew I existed would never in life play with me, as Jec, JLall, vugraph commentators etc

But what's funniest is that I have 0 compatibility with myself!! - this my name and my "hider" are star-free. Both play rarely, profiles are very much same, neither has any Masterpoints, neither has any enemies, only thing that differs is the Country flag, as in one I use flag of country where I am from, and on another of a country where I live now.

So Steve, know you'r not only one, we can always choose to just ignore the compatibility thingy.

[StevenG]

Well, today I seem to be back to where I was. Five stars again with one friend and with one "star". (A sample of two isn't great, but I'm confident normality has returned.) I played 25 boards on Wednesday evening, so I do think the abnormal results must be a function of my recent relative inactivity.