New Scaratings

I am happy to announce that--as early as this Tuesday--The Fellowship will be moving to its new home at The Basement in the Valley in Akron, Ohio.

I should take a moment here to praise the management there--especially Dustin and Justin. When we approached them to see if they'd be interested in having us, they offered right on the spot to install the system and reserve the back of the restaurant for us every Tuesday evening. They acted with alacrity once we accepted their offer, contacting Buzztime immediately and scheduling the installation quickly. In speaking with Dustin today, I found out that--barring unforeseen circumstances--he fully expects the system to be ready on Tuesday. If so, our downtime as a team will have only been one week. Even if there are unforeseen circumstances and it takes another week, sincerest thanks to them for making the transition so relatively quick and smooth.

As this is a new installation, it does not come with any boxes/pads; and as we all know, Showdown is not on the app yet. Until it is, then, we will probably only be playing through Brainbuster on Tuesdays. It's disappointing to be Showdown-less, of course, but I'm sure we will still find a way to have fun as we always do.

So let this stand as an open invitation: If by some strange set of circumstances you find yourself in the Akron area on a Tuesday evening, please come out to The Basement in the Valley and play with us!

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

It's good that You've found a new home, but bad that The Fellowship can't play Showdown. Our group and yours had a great rivalry of where the trophy was going to be next year. Hopefully, BT will speed up the process of getting the app out ASAP.

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Middle age is when a broad mind and a slim waist exchange places.

I agree with you entirely, about everything. I hope you will have a chance to visit us in our new place sometime!

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

So glad you found a new spot! I'm pleasantly surprised that Buzztime got it set up so quickly. The new ownership sounds like a very accommodating crew, We at the Surf wish you all the best. If I am ever in the Akron area I will be sure to visit on Tuesday, just to play Brainbuster with y'all.

How’s the Basement looking for tonight?

As of noon today it’s not showing as connected on the old BT site. It does show on the “view map” listings for Akron which shows all current locations connected or not. So it’s close, maybe just needs a final connection? My understanding is the small BT box for bring your own device bars is self installed in about 15 minutes. HDMI cable to one tv, power cord and internet can be hard wired with Ethernet cable or WiFi.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Orioles and the 9 and 5!!

Unfortunately, the manager there texted me mid-afternoon to tell me that the equipment had not arrived, and was now expected the next day (today). I was able to dash off a quick email to the team around 3 PM telling them that trivia was off for the evening, and I'm hoping everyone got it before they left for The Basement.

It was a bit disappointing, but I am grateful to the manager for keeping me in the loop. As of now, we are planning to be there in force on this coming Tuesday. Fingers crossed.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Good morning! What's the latest news on your relocation? I ask because we at The Surf will eventually undergo the process, and I
am interested in how long the conversion will take. We will continue to play at the Surf, but I am growing leery of their assurances that
the transition will be smooth. I worry that the beancounters will dictate the new rates. Whatever the Basement will pay monthly may
differ from what an already-established site might pay. Sounds weird, but what should be an easy decision to make might get
complicated,

Best wishes to The Felloqship. Hope to see y'all atop the Brainbuster standings (where you belong) on the 6th. Take care,

Thanks so much for your kind words! It is good to be back.

We inaugurated the place on Tuesday, and I think the evening was a success (except for coming in 2nd to Slate St. in Brainbuster). We won the 5:30, 6:00, and 7:00 Countdown games (the latter two with perfect scores) and came in 2nd at 6:30. We even won Sports Trivia, which is usually our Achilles Heel. You didn't see us, though, because app-only sites do not show up in the network rankings at the box-using locations. I understand that BT is working on this, and once the transition to the app-only system is complete, everyone will be able to see everyone else. Until then, though, only the next day's HOF will show you what the real standings were for the premium games.

From our perspective, there are some pros and cons to the changeover to an app-only location.

PRO:

--No more fighting with boxes/pads. I know there are advantages to playing on a box rather than one's phone, but our enthusiasm for them was tempered over the last year or so. Toward the end at Punts & Pints it was a real struggle to make sure the pads were charged enough to make it through Showdown--I had to show up early and check each box, try to reboot the ones that were dark, and plug the low-battery ones higher in the charger in hopes that they would get enough of a charge to take out at 8:30 to last an hour. Even with all of this prep, one or two would routinely crap out mid-game. There also often were not enough to go around. Now, for better or worse, I don't have to spend that time and frustration on the pads and everyone can play all the way through. I bring a phone charger just in case someone needs it, but most folks are pretty good about making sure their phones are charged.

--Price. This is more a pro for the management; but it also worked in our favor, too. The advertised price on the BT website is $149/month. It made it much easier to sell new locations on getting the system for the equivalent of $5/day. The Basement had Opinionation on Tuesdays, which cost more per week than the BT system cost for a month, and brought in fewer people. I think this is why the management there offered to adopt the system on the spot. In addition, we got the $250 bar tab promotion for referring the place to BT, but unfortunately that would not apply to an existing site like Surf Bar.

CON:

--No Showdown. This is the biggest one for us. Showdown has been the focus of our team for 20 years now, and it is weird and frustrating not to be able to play it, or even know when it will be available. I hear the folks at Walsh's in Chicago had the same issue with Spotlight when the management there switched over without consulting the players.

--App Issues. The app was glitchy for a few of us, although getting on wifi seemed to help those folks who were getting kicked out of the game from time to time. One of our teammates can not get it to work on his phone at all, we're not sure why. The biggest issue for us, though, is one that others have commented on: lag in responding to changing answers. On the boxes or pads, if you change your answer quickly after the third clue, you usually can get 225-250 points. On the app, we were lucky to get 110-125 on the third-clue switch, and many of us only got double-digits or zero points for those questions. Of course, the old response to this kind of complaint is usually something like, "Well, that's what you get for not knowing the answer." True enough, but other teams that don't know the answer essentially get a 100-200 point bonus over those using the new system. We lost to Slate St. in Brainbuster 10,784 to 10,173--about a 600 point difference. If both teams were switching answers for at least four questions (which is what it looks like may have happened), there is at least a decent chance that the late-switch penalty cost us a chance of winning the game. Of course, this will cease to be an issue once everyone is on the same system and there is a level playing field.

--Network Rankings. As mentioned above, we could see you, but you couldn't see us. As more sites switch over, this is going to be an increasing issue, especially for the non-premium games that do not end up on the HOF. Only the app-only sites will be able to see the "real" network rankings, but they will only see the top ten. For whatever reason, the app-only sites only show the top ten individual and site locations instead of the top twenty.

All this being said, I'd like to stress that we are still very glad to be back in action after only a couple weeks hiatus. The management of The Basement has been really great so far, and the servers dealt with our invasion like pros. A lot of the cons are going to go away once the transition is complete and Showdown is back on the app. Until then, I guess we're all just going to have to settle for enjoying each other's company until 8:30 on Tuesdays.

Thanks again for your kind words, and if you have any other questions about our experience with the new system, please feel free to ask.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

How did The Fellowship do last Tuesday? When the new or newly-converted standings are posted, how many sites are listed?
Any feedback from Walsh's? Unless I misunderstood the message, they converted without notifying the players.

Last Tuesday was considerably more frustrating than the week before, mostly due to circumstances beyond our control. A powerful storm swept through the area in the late afternoon, knocking the power out in the area where The Basement was. After the power came back, it took a while for the Buzztime and the wifi networks there to get back on line and on the TVs. Even after that, though, the app was just not performing well all evening. It did not allow most of us to answer some questions until after time expired. As a result we basically lost one or two questions in every game we played.

Ordinarily I would guess that it was a bandwidth issue, but we did not have the same trouble the week before when even more people were playing. The Buzztime unit was not in the same place as it was the week before (the management is still waiting for someone to mount it in what will be its permanent position on a wall), so I'm wondering that or the position of its antenna has something to do with it. I will be inquiring about this before we meet tomorrow.

I did notice that there was a new update to the Buzztime app over the weekend with "Additional fixes and performance improvements," so maybe that might help. I'm not holding my breath, though.

The streaming-only sites only give the top ten in the standings. And I have been informed that the folks at Walsh's sometimes have experienced a similar issue (not letting you answer until time is gone or almost gone) on occasion. They did indeed make the switch without informing the players, and because Spotlight was one of their big games, they just don't show up there as a team on Fridays anymore.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Kevin,

Also check on if the bar WiFi router with it’s antenna was moved. That is the more critical item. The small Buzztime box communicates directly only with the WiFi router and each phone also communicates only to the WiFi router. That is different than box bar systems where each box needed good access to the BT antenna. Getting the small BT box up higher in the air and less obstructed to the wifi will help. Don’t let them mount the BT box behind neon bar lights, those are very signal obstructive.

The power problems could have also slowed down the bar WiFi router and it’s internet connection. Reboot everything and see if it’s better.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Orioles and the 9 and 5!!

Thank you so much, BUD! I am ignorant of such technical issues, and I appreciate the help. The wifi was definitely a problem--there are two different wifi networks there that we were trying to use, and both were having issues.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Update: Things were much better last night for the most part. They have mounted the device on a wall closer to where we play. A few people--including me--had an issue with a lag preventing them from answering until late or too late, but once I turned off wi-fi and used data, that pretty much cleared up for me. For others, it seemed getting ON the wi-fi worked better for them. In any case, we did not routinely lose entire questions as a team like last week, EXCEPT. . .

Unfortunately, right after a precall during Brianbuster (the Congress of Vienna question), EVERYONE got locked out no matter how they were playing (5G, LTE, wi-fi, didn't matter). We all took a zero for the question. As it turned out, that one question was the difference between coming in 1st and 4th on the network rankings. This, of course, is not to take anything away from Phat Turtle, which earned the gold for the game--congrats to them!

So yes, it was much better this week, but still frustrating at the end. BUD, what do you think the problem might be?

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Well that is strange that everyone was locked out if on data or WiFi. I would guess there was a short internet disruption which then would limit the communication to the BT box by everyone. Nothing was going into the box for that short time which is dependent on constant internet and WiFi. One of the 2 had a hiccup I think. This isn’t as critical in the box/ tablet system it seems. The Streaming system needs constant connection.

I can see there being different speeds between players on data depending on their carrier so for those who were slow, WiFi could be better. Also you said there was 2 WiFi networks there, you might want to split the team to roughly half on each network to not overload the bandwidth on either.

I might see about plugging a small WiFi extender into an electrical outlet near where you all sit. That boost could help the WiFi signal to the BT box and to those using the WiFi.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Orioles and the 9 and 5!!

Good to know--thanks.



For me, wi-fi was actually slower for some reason. Other people had already answered the question while I was still waiting for choices to come up. Once I turned off wi-fi and shifted to data, I did not have that issue.



This is a good idea--thanks so much!

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Week 4 Update:

Things improved a bit this week, but there were still some issues. One person (but only one) kept getting kicked off. Another just cannot get the app to work on his phone at all, even after deleting the app and re-downloading it. Every time he tries to join he gets the swirling circle endlessly.

The biggest issue was that--once again--everyone got locked out of one question. Fortunately, this week it was in an early Countdown game rather than Brainbuster. We still have not picked up a wi-fi extender, but I'm not sure that would help with this situation.

BUD (or anyone), do you have a suggestion for our player who can't get the app to work?

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

If you haven't already done so, have the person check compatibility. This app requires Android 8.0 or higher (compared to 6.0 for the previous app).

Go to Settings -> Apps -> Buzztime Trivia -> App Details -> About This Game -> Scroll down to compatibility and it will tell you if its compatible or not.

If it is, then maybe see if a system update is available and helps....Settings > System > System Update

Those are for Android. iphone/ios may differ in their titles/sections.

Lastly, try uninstalling and reinstalling the app.

Those are some things that immediately come to mind. Others may have different suggestions.

I hope you get it working. I still don't like the new one as much but I don't think it matters what the players like or don't like to them.

Thanks, BRUTUS! He's already tried uninstalling and reinstalling, but I don't think he's tried any of the others. I'll pass this along--thanks again!

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

The one player that can't get the app to work must have an old phone?

Since he is able to download the new BT app then the phone is compatible, he wouldn't be able to download it otherwise.

He has tried both wifi and data to connect? Make sure wifi is on in his phone settings.
His phone may have a problem, try turning his phone off and then back on, that can reset important systems. Leave everything else closed on the phone try just the BT app. Does he have any trouble accessing other websites or apps while at the Basement? Try to isolate whether it's his phone or connecting to the wifi for anything.

Last option, does anyone have any extra iPad or tablet or something for the player to use instead of the faulty phone?

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Orioles and the 9 and 5!!

Thanks, BUD! I'll show him all of these possibilities. He has tried both data and wifi. I don't think he has problem accessing websites there, but I'll ask.

SKOLRZ may have another device for him to play, but it would be a lot more convenient if he can get his phone to work.

Thanks again!

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."