I guess I just will get permanently classified as the chronic UB naysayer, and if that is the case, then so be it.

This whole deal with the obs chat being disabled at cash games and sng's is just another action without thought. It is amazing to me that UB has made about 1000 actions that anyone with a reasonable business mind would have been able to foresee a negative reaction from it's lifeblood, the players.

I had the pleasure of previously speaking with Victor at UB, and I can assure you he is a breath of fresh air. I don't know rationally how he came to the conclusion that this was a good decision, unless of course yet again UB has hired someone to do a job and simply ignored his input. If this is the case then kudos to UB for persisting in a business model that caused them to lose customers to begin with. There are two parts to fixing UB, and that is hiring good talent, but the second part is empowerment, without it you may as well stick your head in the sand.

If there is a chat problem at UB, then the solution is not to eliminate chat ability at the one site that I have stated repeatedly is the only one to feel like a "home game". Part of good management is to understand the business mechanisms which make you successful, and by eliminating the obs chat at cash games and sng's then you obviously do not have a grasp of one of the inherent strong positives about your brand, and that is the overall friendliness and comradery that exists amongst many at UB.

If the argument is to be made that party poker has done the same thing, well than I can tell you this... YOU ARE NOT PARTY POKER, NOT EVEN CLOSE. Party Poker has built it's brand around a completely different business model. That being said, everyone I know hates the fact that there is no obs there, but we play simply based on the sheer volume of players which contributes to prize pools that dwarf UB's. I can also sit in a $200 sng at Party and it fills in less than 30 seconds EVERY TIME. If i sit in a $100 or $20 sng at UB, it could literally take hours to fill, if ever.

That being said, Party software and structure sucks in comparison to UB's. I would think that UB would be making smart researched decisions regarding tournament schedules and customer concerns in order to GROW the site so that we will have larger prizepools and sng's that fill quickly instead of never filling at all.

There are two options at UB that are available for every player at the site to take advantage of, and that is the ability to disable either other players chat at your table, or to disable observer chat. UB should educate it's players on this ability, otherwise it will find itself the site that went from "home game" feel to one that is run of the mill and ordinary.

I still can't comprehend how they didn't see the backlash that would come from this, but then again I haven't agreed with a lot of their decisions. I'm sure that UB like all sites receives a large amount of chat complaints. The answer is not to eliminate the chat, it is too understand that as your volume of players increases, then of course the number of complaints wil correlate. A personally like Absolute Poker's solution, which is to have a button at every table to report abusive chat. The mere fact that a chat complaint button exists and is in plain sight probably serves to act as an abusive chat deterrant itself!

If you are a large site that has enjoyed tremendous success, then your next focus should be on how to retain and make happy your customer base. If you are UB, and you are trying to recapture lost customers and find new ones, then I suggest your focus should be on doing enough preliminary research to make sure any action that you are about to take is a prudent one, and wil not cost you any further bad feelings with your existing customers.

Sorry to be the "negative poster" again,

GL UB,

Chris.

i hope you emailed it to them :) please do if you didn't

UB is likely doing this to protect their player base. I think they could have separate chat rooms that might actually work better than the old model.

I think this is a step forward for them as unpopular as this may be. I know this will be unpopular for me to even say.

This could all be fixed easily by having 6 chat rooms separate of the tables.

Just my opinion.

PS P5's needs their own chat format anyway. I know they hate that when I say it but it would be a blast.

You're supposed to be using the Buddy list to collude with friends or stalk people you hate, not chat. Chat doesn't generate rake. If they were really your friends they'd give you their AIM ID. :-)

F Beanie

Chat does generate rake. I asked my friend to play a tourney today in chat. He accepted. Entry fee collected.

I agree Jennifear, I remind people all the time when a tourney or something starts, that I think they'd like to play. I don't think just because you don't have them on IM, doesn't mean you are not friendly and are comfortable to chat with 100 or more people on any site. Yet who wants an IM list with 200-300 people, if you play more than 1 site? I know I don't.

Beanie tried to sway me yesterday via our 10 second IM chat, but I basically told him to go blow a bear. I understand Beanie stating that the sites were protecting themselves from spammers working for affiliates to recruit other players. I don't believe this argument holds water for one second. One problem should not be created in order to solve another one...

Poker stars came out with a VPP program to ensure that their valued customers would have a reason to stay at the site, and wouldn't be enticed by outside affiliates to move elsewhere. I would suggest that UB either come up with a remedy similar to Poker Stars, or simply hire me to put a bullet in the brain of all of the affiliates (just kidding beanmeister).

Maybe a reasonable solution would be to enable chat privileges for obs at cash games and sng's for any customer who has had a real money account for at least six months, and has met a minimum deposit requirement. This would eliminate the ability of the spammers setting up bogus accounts.

Gl,

Chris.

Chris has a good idea Chat should be based on valid accounts this solves the problem with spamers.
The best part of UB is the community without that it feels like crap.
Here is my impression of the new SnG chat

NeBlis: ARGGGGGGGG ni rivr you bastid
Texas Troll: YEP SURE WAS!

little box comes up (OBS chat is not allowed at this table)

followed by me pounding my keyboard.

NeBlis