OT: NADs and the conventions surrounding them

[Paul Keating]

I have been unhappy for a very long time about having to flag harmless little jokes posted deliberately in public with health warnings that say ⚠️Watch out! ‼️Joke here! 🤣You're supposed to think this is funny! 

I heartily dislike the NAD convention. I clearly remember how it arose: I was there. In a deal a very long time ago, someone posted a joke definition in public. The dealer did not pick up from the message headers that it was a public post, took it as a serious submission (as if anything in this game can be treated seriously) and included it in the list for voting, to general hilarity. Because, of course, all the other players knew it was public. 

The dealer, aggrieved, complained that it wasn't a very funny joke, and they couldn't be expected to notice it had been posted in public. A dealer, they said, was entitled to flags saying ⚠️Watch out! ‼️Joke here! 🤣You're supposed to think this is funny! 

This convention reached truly ridiculous heights when a player complained about a NAD of mine because the flag, which I had reluctantly put there, did not conform to some imaginary specification for typeface, colour and position in the post. 

NAD flags arose from one dealer’s complaint, and were adopted (so far as I remember) without a word of discussion, let alone agreement. I would like to find out what round that was. I know it was before Round 1172 (in 2001), because at that point NAD flags were already a thing. The identity of the dealer might have had something to do with the uncharacteristic level of compliance. Some players had a penchant for making up rules, and then berating players for not obeying them. 

 Can any other players who were there at the time (all three of you) help me out?

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Paul Keating

Soustons, Nouvelle Aquitaine, France