We know how easy it is to chat to a friend or to your table and accidently send your message to the whole club. It can be a bit embarrassing, especially when it starts a stream of replies - some funny, others very witty and, unfortunately, some which can be a bit rude or downright offensive.
This has always been a fun club with abundant courtesy and good, acceptable humour. We have usually recognised when the joke has run its course and the time has arrived for a period of relative quiet.
Over the last few days, some of us appear to have lost the plot and the amount of chat to the club and its tone has, frankly, gone over the top and become overbearing, intrusive and offensive.
This coincides with a significant influx of fellow Acol players whose clubs have closed during the current Corona Virus epidemic. They are, and should be, especially welcome. It is no surprise that many will try to emulate their club environment with invisible tables, exclusion of kibbers and restricted entry to the table. These are standard BBO parameters and ought not to be grounds for complaint.
The number of tables in the club has increased 3 fold during the evening and quiet afternoons have become very busy. As a result, the usual background hum has become a torrent of interruption and unnecessary comment.
This can so easily be seen as discouraging and unwelcoming to our new members and is upsetting quite a few of our long-standing members.
Please, please be extra careful about where your chat goes. Do not respond to uncaring comments and remember the old saying: