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BGonline.org Forums
Doubling Sportmanship Question
Posted By: Timothy Chow In Response To: Doubling Sportmanship Question (MandM1951)
Date: Monday, 22 March 2010, at 5:35 p.m.
This is a case where you have to understand that there are many "bad people" out there in the world, and you have to know how they behave, in order not to behave in a manner that causes you to be confused with one of them. Merely having pure motives and behaving according to those motives is not enough.
I don't play online; the only backgammon games I play on a computer are against a bot. The bot of course doesn't care if I am (allegedly) "rude" to it, and perhaps will double me in similar circumstances without any malicious intentions. I can see myself picking up the habit of doubling automatically in such situations without thinking about how human beings might interpret the action.
As you've learned from other's responses here, there are people out there who will double in your situation with malicious intentions. The fact that you had no such intentions is laudable, but from the outside, people can't tell the difference. So in order to avoid being confused with the bad guys, you have to learn to avoid doubling under these circumstances.
Over the years I've had to re-learn this lesson in numerous contexts. For example, when I make a promise, I mean it and I stick to it, even at great cost to myself and when breaking the promise appears to have very little cost. It took me a while to learn that I am so unusual in this regard that many people will assume that I'm lying when I make a promise and will be surprised when I keep it. Therefore I need to stay alert when I make promises, to ensure that I am believed. Merely making a promise is often insufficient to convince people that I mean it, if they do not know me very well. I have to do extra work to avoid being confused with the majority of people, who break promises routinely.
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