Suggesting a game on Manual table creation

[Sewrendipity]

I'm new to BGA and I'm trying to understand the etiquette around starting new tables on Manual. I find myself wanting to play many live games that are not that popular and the waiting time is long (over 15 mins). But I noticed that on Manual there is an option to suggest a player joins from a list. These are people who have Favourited the respective game.

Is it considered spam/annoying if you invite them, if you are not friends/know them?

[nik592]

I can't remember where I've seen it, but there is something on the website that says you shouldn't invite people you don't actually know. In addition, I'm not sure if it restricts to online players, but online players who are interested in live games are often playing them, and likely some who are online may not be interested in live games (like me, when I'm online, I'm mostly playing through my turn-based games). So you're probably fairly likely to be reaching someone who at best may just not be interested in your table right then, and at worst, may find it an annoyance to receive such invites as they're never likely to be interested.

[Meeplelowda]

I can't remember where I've seen it, but there is something on the website that says you shouldn't invite people you don't actually know.

I've never seen anything like that. And if they really cared about that it would be easy enough to limit the list the OP mentioned to people who are on your friends list.

Are you thinking of the warning that's given when you message someone who isn't on your friends list?

[Jellby]

Yes, there is a warning (or used to be, I haven't tried recently) when you invite someone who's not your friend and with whom you haven't played recently, I believe. But there is no warning when you suggest anyone in the list mentioned by the OP. It already has some "antispam" measures built in (you have to wait 5 seconds between suggestions, you cannot suggest the same player several times at the same table). I'm sure some people will have strong feelings against it, but I don't think it's bad etiquette to use it (although it will probably be less effective than you expect).

[nik592]

This warning. On Play Now, when you create a table manually, it pops up when you start looking for someone to invite.

Conversely, I've never seen the "suggest" list mentioned here - is this in the old lobby or new? I mean, I either open a table and just wait, or I invite specific people, so perhaps I've just never hung around long enough to see it.

[Jellby]

It's through the "old" lobby, or with links of the form

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https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=<tableid>&nr=true

[Meeplelowda]

It's through the "old" lobby, or with links of the form

Code: Select all

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=<tableid>&nr=true

This is what I'm familiar with. To me it seems like they are actually *encouraging* you to "suggest" people you don't know join. In this context I guess saying "invite" is wrong because it doesn't actually reserve a spot at the table like an invite does (I've used the feature). And as mentioned, the anti-spam feature keeps you from just going click click click down the list.

[Meeplelowda]

This warning. On Play Now, when you create a table manually, it pops up when you start looking for someone to invite.

Conversely, I've never seen the "suggest" list mentioned here - is this in the old lobby or new? I mean, I either open a table and just wait, or I invite specific people, so perhaps I've just never hung around long enough to see it.

I guess I'd never noticed this before. But then, I've never directly invited (as opposed to "suggested", see above) someone I don't know to a table. Even if they weren't on my friends list I still knew them (like a person who doesn't use BGA a lot who didn't notice the friend invite), so I think it's totally possible I saw that message and forgot about it because it didn't apply to me.

[nik592]

It's through the "old" lobby, or with links of the form

Code: Select all

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=<tableid>&nr=true

This is what I'm familiar with. To me it seems like they are actually *encouraging* you to "suggest" people you don't know join. In this context I guess saying "invite" is wrong because it doesn't actually reserve a spot at the table like an invite does (I've used the feature). And as mentioned, the anti-spam feature keeps you from just going click click click down the list.

I've never seen that. I just setup a couple of tables through Play Now and didn't see that screen. Is it only for real-time games perhaps? I don't often set those up. That does seem to be a different thing that somewhat encourages suggesting as mentioned. So it's probably fair enough. I also don't think I've ever been bothered by it, but especially if it's for real-time games, I wouldn't want to be, so I'd hope there's some way to opt-out of it.

[Meeplelowda]

I've never seen that. I just setup a couple of tables through Play Now and didn't see that screen. Is it only for real-time games perhaps?

I think it's only for real time. It is useful for extremely low traffic games. I doubt many people use it for Ark Nova or Azul.

I only recall a handful times in nearly 5 years I've been contacted through that feature, so it's not like you're inundated with requests.