Seniors Contest

On Mar 15, 7:28*am, rlovinggood wrote:
I don't understand and yes, maybe I would if I were to CM a contest.
But no, I still can't wrap my minuscule mind around the concept of not
posting scores as soon as they are available and as soon as internet
service is available.

Regarding posting the scores, may I make a proposal?

If the scorer can't upload the scores due to lack of internet service,
why not use a telephone, call someone who does live in internet land,
and say, "Hey Bob, the top three finishers for today were X, Y, and Z
in 18m and W8, B, and C in Club Class *Would you please post this
information on RAS (or even some pre-arranged deal with SSA to post to
their website.) Scores have been computed and will be posted when we
get internet service restored."

Or, "Hey Bob, please post to RAS (or, again, to the SSA website), that
we didn't fly today due to weather (or a called rest day.)"

How hard would that be? *Just throw us a bone out here and let us
know, briefly, if you flew or not, and maybe the top three finishers
for the day, AND LET US KNOW YOU WILL POST THE SCORES AS SOON AS THE
INTERNET (OR WHATEVER) IS BACK UP!!!

It's just frustrating in this day and age when no timely information
is provided. *NONE, NADA, ZIP.

Surely, there's a way to get some type of short message out quickly
("Tweeter"???)

Respectfully,
Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA

Correction: *"Twitter" is what I meant to type.

Ray

Twitter might actually be a very good platform for getting the info
out. There's a search engine called "Montwitter" at WWW.montwitter.com
that allows you to watch or search words of your choice. That would
allow us to find what we are looking for in all the background noise
on Twitter.

On Mar 15, 8:26*am, bildan wrote:
On Mar 15, 7:28*am, rlovinggood wrote:



I don't understand and yes, maybe I would if I were to CM a contest.
But no, I still can't wrap my minuscule mind around the concept of not
posting scores as soon as they are available and as soon as internet
service is available.

Regarding posting the scores, may I make a proposal?

If the scorer can't upload the scores due to lack of internet service,
why not use a telephone, call someone who does live in internet land,
and say, "Hey Bob, the top three finishers for today were X, Y, and Z
in 18m and W8, B, and C in Club Class *Would you please post this
information on RAS (or even some pre-arranged deal with SSA to post to
their website.) Scores have been computed and will be posted when we
get internet service restored."

Or, "Hey Bob, please post to RAS (or, again, to the SSA website), that
we didn't fly today due to weather (or a called rest day.)"

How hard would that be? *Just throw us a bone out here and let us
know, briefly, if you flew or not, and maybe the top three finishers
for the day, AND LET US KNOW YOU WILL POST THE SCORES AS SOON AS THE
INTERNET (OR WHATEVER) IS BACK UP!!!

It's just frustrating in this day and age when no timely information
is provided. *NONE, NADA, ZIP.

Surely, there's a way to get some type of short message out quickly
("Tweeter"???)

Respectfully,
Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA

Correction: *"Twitter" is what I meant to type.

Ray

Twitter might actually be a very good platform for getting the info
out. *There's a search engine called "Montwitter" at WWW.montwitter.com
that allows you to watch or search words of your choice. *That would
allow us to find what we are looking for in all the background noise
on Twitter.

Sorry, I'm getting Ray's fat finger. I meant www.monitter.com

On Mar 15, 9:10*am, rlovinggood wrote:
(one-time CM and real-time public scoring aficionado)

Tuno,

I don't understand and yes, maybe I would if I were to CM a contest.
But no, I still can't wrap my minuscule mind around the concept of not
posting scores as soon as they are available and as soon as internet
service is available.


Respectfully,
Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA


Ray,

Don't fret; your mental capacity is not in question. It's a subtle
point, but...

If the awards banquet is scheduled for the evening of the last contest
day, there's a tendency for some folks to bail early and start their
long drive home. Keeping some amount of suspense around the outcome
encourages at least a few more people to stick around. Having been
left holding (the not insignificant) bill for a bunch of no-shows when
we've prepaid a caterer for some minumum number of participants, I
can tell you it's not a nice feeling. There are ways around it, but
at the end of the day, it's nice of the winners have a few more of
their peers around to cheer for them.

P3

....because a very fair number then skips the banquet and head home...

Most of us are contest news followers at some level and its
understandably frustrating when no updates are available but reporting
is not the primary "job" of contest organizers. There is a lot to do
at the end of a contest as organizers are running around with
accomplishing contest related duties. Holding the scores is an
organizers prerogative.

Remember the old days? You waited until the results came out in
Soaring, back when the entire score sheet was printed. Then Larry used
to leave phone recordings at the SSA office and you could call in for
an update often days later. Then SSA staff would fax them to you if
you called and asked. Then the organizers would electronically send
the results to the office and the SSA staff would post them online
often coming in to work on weekends to get this done. Now, through the
genius of SSA web guru Doug Easton, results can be posted directly to
the net and they show on the SSA site in seconds. It is wonderful that
people want to follow contest news but give the organizers a break if
they decide to put out the fires at hand before posting or control the
release of the final day. Embrace the anticipation.

P3,

I'll agree to disagree with you on holding scores on the last day.
Heck, hold the banquet on the night before the final day. The final
day might get rained out and there's going to be people traveling home
on the final day and not waiting around for the banquet.

But, for the other days, the organizers and participants should try to
get some news out. Just let us know if a race was flown and give us
the preliminary winner or top three (pick a number) for the day. As
mentioned previously, if the internet isn't working, grab a phone
(there is usually a land line at a contest site) and call someone that
does have internet service for a quick synopsis. Heck, if there's a
land-line telephone, there might even be a fax machine. Fax out to
someone with internet service and again, a quick synopsis such as "we
didn't fly due to weather" or "we didn't fly because it's a rest day"
or "the winner was...and preliminary scores will be posted when the
internet is working again..."

Respectfully,
Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA

Gee Ray...
The holding of scores for the banquet was just a speculation on my part
because I have known it to happen but I do not know it happened yesterday.
Anyway I thought I was sending only you a response...not the whole world.
I'm not about to criticize the great work of my good buddies John, Rick, or
Kunut. I better not after the kind words Rick had to say about my son Guy!
Guy has designed the scoring program (at my urging) so that it is very
simple for the scorer to download the scores to the SSA web site with almost
literally the push of one button. I, like many of you, do get frustrated
sitting at home hours after the contest day is over waiting for the scores
on the SSA site, especially when I have attended so many of these same
contests and seen how quick they are posted at the site. I feel that many
scorers are reluctant to post partial unofficial scores to SSA. I think
they should be encouraged to do so with the full understanding that many
unofficial updates are much preferred to the frustration of knowing nothing.
But like others pointed out...I remember the old days when you read about it
in the magazine a month later.
Ed
"rlovinggood" wrote in message
...
P3,

I'll agree to disagree with you on holding scores on the last day.
Heck, hold the banquet on the night before the final day. The final
day might get rained out and there's going to be people traveling home
on the final day and not waiting around for the banquet.

But, for the other days, the organizers and participants should try to
get some news out. Just let us know if a race was flown and give us
the preliminary winner or top three (pick a number) for the day. As
mentioned previously, if the internet isn't working, grab a phone
(there is usually a land line at a contest site) and call someone that
does have internet service for a quick synopsis. Heck, if there's a
land-line telephone, there might even be a fax machine. Fax out to
someone with internet service and again, a quick synopsis such as "we
didn't fly due to weather" or "we didn't fly because it's a rest day"
or "the winner was...and preliminary scores will be posted when the
internet is working again..."

Respectfully,
Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA

You have to understand there is a bit of tradition involved along with
timing. The drill is to land, put everything away, dress and head off
on a 20 min. Mr Toad Ride to make happy hour before the big event. The
scorers meanwhile are putting in the final touches, making sure
everything is right while thinking about making the "rounds". The
hotel has been booked way in advance , all the players get happy and
there is always a comedy skit along with all the opening acts.
Everyone knows not to hang around looking for scores and get on to the
party. The best thing is to link up with someone there and have them
call you when the scores are handed out, usually only about 1.5 hours
after we would normally know anyway.
Guest no more, baby Senior in 10'.
Look at my OLC flight on Sat. 14th and you'll see what the sniffer
does when the obvious is awaiting the warriors.
R

On Mar 16, 2:10*am, rlovinggood wrote:
I don't understand and yes, maybe I would if I were to CM a contest.
But no, I still can't wrap my minuscule mind around the concept of not
posting scores as soon as they are available and as soon as internet
service is available.

Regarding posting the scores, may I make a proposal?

If the scorer can't upload the scores due to lack of internet service,
why not use a telephone, call someone who does live in internet land,
and say, "Hey Bob, the top three finishers for today were X, Y, and Z
in 18m and W8, B, and C in Club Class *Would you please post this
information on RAS (or even some pre-arranged deal with SSA to post to
their website.) Scores have been computed and will be posted when we
get internet service restored."

What we have here appears to be a loss of technological capability.

There used to be a small device called a "modem" which was capable of
transmitting information over an ordinary phone line (even a remote
one) at speeds far higher than a human could speak that information.

The is also an ancient computer protocol and program called "uucp"
which copies information such as email messages and newsgroup messages
(though it is inherently extensibly to new types of data) from one
computer to another.

I used these ancient and lost capabilities to send the daily scores
from the 1995 Worlds in remote Omarama back to a computer in
Wellington and typically had the daily scores available in r.a.s and
emailed to key people around the world by around 20 - 30 minutes after
the last pilot got home, for the cost of 1 minute toll call. I then
joined the pilots in the bar while they were still on their 1st or 2nd
beer.

Those were the days.

Waa Waa Waaaaaaa!

You're still not going to get the scores until all the players are
feeling no pain , the ladies are looking real good , and Knut and
Ingrid are laughing and singing.

Note: I have attended the last 7 Seniors and this one was the
"absolute perfect" one. No runs, drips , or errors. We had an almost
perfect a few years ago, but someone backed over a wing dolly. Ingrid
got the goof award for failing to bring the goof award to the banquet.
And the list goes on.
R