SSIA... is there a particular time games seem to run, because I'm the only on right now

I would try to play early to late evening. You can usually find games before, during and after the Sept 5K tournaments two of them (one at 8 central time, the other at 9 central time). I have not played during the day so I cannot say what the traffic is like at those times.

I basically feel like I'm talking to myself here, and perhaps, the few players who even care anymore. However, as difficult as it is to figure out anything given the vast information vacuum, I'm posting my latest observations/thoughts about BUP anyway. They're based on the few things that are observable and known.

Monday, February 11th, and the site is pretty much as dead as a doornail, and has been ever since the last promotion ended on January 31st. There are longer and longer stretches every day when there are zero players on BUP. The most I've seen lately is 7 or 8 at a time, and more often it's only 2 or 3. Winners of the last promotion haven't received their coin prize payouts, cash outs are still being delayed, and no sign of any new promotion. I've seen 3 or 4 new names playing, but overall this is very sad.

Management continues to be non-responsive.

I made a statement in one of my posts (somewhere on this forum), that the PNG leaderboard total was at 965, which of course includes multiple instances of many of the same players' names. This is because the rules changed at some point (in mid September, I believe) so that everyone can have four PNG stacks. I 'assumed' that this was a full list of all the players who had ever played on the site, but it's hard to estimate how many unique players there have been because of the duplicates. Since I posted that number, it appears now that the software has been updated to show the complete list, and the total number including duplicates would seem to be around 1800. Interesting that this is one of the few things management chose to make changes to, considering all the issues that have been brought up in the forum.

So why did the vast majority of these players disappear? Only a few names are ones that we either know for sure banned from the site because they posted here about it or we believe have been, plus the 10-15 loyal regular players, so what happened to the rest of them, and why? I hope management is asking themselves these questions, and trying diligently and intelligently to answer them and make changes accordingly. Perhaps an email exit survey would be helpful? Just sayin'.

Before you ask, yes I changed my location statement, but I'm not trying to imply that the many players who have tried BUP and then disappeared from the site were taken away by aliens in UFOs. Or maybe.............

Just got back from Tralfamadore only to find that nothing at Big Ugly has improved. :-(

I've given up on the place. PokerAnnie, you deserve a medal for continuing to check it's pulse. :-)

Btw, I play here more often than I care to admit but Pokerannie is pretty much spot on with all of her posts in this forum.

I'd like to see the site succeed but going dark for extended periods, sucks.

It'd be nice to just give us a little post saying "Hey didn't forget about you. We're working on xyz. Sorry for the extended absence".

I played in the 10PM EST 5,000 coin guaranteed tourney last night, after not being able participate in it for awhile. 18 players were registered, including some I don't regularly see playing anymore. This is a definite contrast to the virtually empty PNG tables, which started happening after the end of the last promo with no new one to replace it.

It's obvious to me (and should be to BUP management) that to grow the player base and retain current players, there must be ongoing PNG promotions plus quick removal of cheating players. Given the small size of the current player base, without a promotion there's not much incentive to play PNG's. Otherwise, it takes way too long, especially for new players who have to build up their stacks, to earn enough coins to get even a $10 pay out.

Folks, I hate to say it, but I guess this is really it. Seems it's time to say, "RIP BUP, even though we hardly knew ya" .

Signs of the absence of life:

• 2+2's Mat Sklansky posted today in the BUP Management MIA thread, "They have not responded to our emails." Not only does BUP not communicate with players, they won't even answer messages from 2+2 management.
• Last night, a player said in chat that a message in his Help Center confirmed there will be no February promotion. Rhetorical question: why does Help Center still sometimes reply, when all else is silent?
• Cash outs still aren't paid, and prizes for the last promotion contests period which ended two weeks ago, haven't been awarded. I posted to Help Center last night, asking when the winners of the last promo contests would get their coins.
• I hoped management might be trying to stage a recovery effort, when play was artificially stimulated for the last two days with the appearance of what seemed to be "house-owned bots". One or more bots played virtually round the clock, and appeared to be programmed to 'donate' chips to actual players.
• Today, no house bots and no actual players either. Mat Sklansky's post seems to have put the final nail in the coffin. Not much incentive to play/win more chips at this point, without any idea whether the cash outs/prizes already earned will be paid.
  
  Well, I guess most of us had some fun while it lasted. Reluctantly, now I suppose it's time to get back to RL. Cue the tumbleweeds .

Say it ain't so...

I wish I could, Junger.

I chose to take on the role of self appointed BUP truth teller, so now I've got to keep on calling it like I see it. Always hoping I'll get proved wrong though.

Since I made my RIP BUP post, I HAVE seen a few players on the site. Unfortunately, they've all been alone, with no one to play with. Also, I don't know whether the 5,000 coin tourneys ran last nite. When I checked about an hour before the first one, only one player had regged, when usually there would be 10+. Obviously, I'm not on the site 24 hours a day, or even close to that, so can't say positively that no games have been running since the day before yesterday.

I don't intend to play on BUP anymore myself until the cash outs and prizes get paid, and management communicates that they intend to address our concerns, and tell us how they will make the site better and more successful.

Believe me, I'm not trying to hasten the downfall of BUP. I'm just reporting what I see. I racked up 4800+ minutes of play during each of the last two promotion periods and got enough coins without cheating to place in the Top 10 for both, so I absolutely don't want to see it fail.

I would LOVE nothing better than for the BUP management to post an apology and explanation to us on the forum about what's been going on, to have everyone get the cash outs and coins that they're due, and the site to suddenly have dozens of people playing and more joining every day. I miss playing and I miss my BUP friends . ATM though, I'm not holding out much hope that things are gonna get better.

I probably should just shut up and quit posting about it. Just trying to feel better about it, I guess, or looking for a shred of hope.

In the event that the site is dead, I wanted to take a moment to say goodbye to Annie. You are a class act and BUP was lucky to have you as an unofficial spokesmodel.

+1

Saw some new/returning players today, all playing with mompisan35 and santhiago, who were doing their usual chip dumping thing. BigUglyNiggrow (who I reported to Help Center, and recommended he be banned for having a racist user name) is new AFAIK. I think chefs 101 and TRUMPWON have been members for awhile, but haven't been active, or at least I haven't seen them playing, although I think they had been showing up on the PNG full leaderboard.

Just now saw new player, AnalAnnie2+2 (no it's not me). I guess now I have my own "mukujin2", lol. So nice to be popular ;-p. I will report her/him as well.


Also, thanks guys for your kind remarks. I still keep hoping that my posts will get BUP management off their azzes, and back to the business of actually running the site. I'm tryin'. As I said, I'm not planning to play on BUP until the cash outs and promo prizes are paid, but I'll still continue monitoring the site for awhile.

Cross posting this message in is/was this place dead thread and BUP withdrawal thread.

A reliable player just now said in chat, that he got a message in his Help Center saying there would be no future cash outs. His cash out has been pending for 14 days.



I's not sure whether this means that pending cash outs will be paid, but no new ones will be accepted, or that none will be paid. However, since the player who got the reply has a cash out pending, it seems to infer none being paid.

I just sent a message to Help Center, telling them that BUP management should be ashamed for only telling a single player about this huge and important development, rather than the entire player base. I also asked why they continue to keep the site active if they don't intend to pay any more winnings.

This is the most unbelievable, irresponsible, and disgusting action ever by this yellow-bellied bunch of (insert expletive deleted word or words of your choice). If they don't have the money, the least they could do is borrow it to pay us. It can't be more than a few thousand dollars. Not even enough for us to sue them over.

Color us suckered. I was pissed at them before, but now I'm REALLY pissed. I played on BUP for close to four months for many, many hours, earned enough coins to cash out $100 (if I had received my last promo prize coins), and I have a big fat ZERO to show for it. And why do I have to be the only conduit for information whispered to one player at a time in their Help Center that some of us have only found out because that player mentioned it in chat, about things which are of concern to the entire BUP player base, but the BUP management are too whatever to post publicly. Thanks, BUP...NOT!!