Standards for competition reporting

Bruce's FB page does not require logging in to view.
He was also using my tracker, along with the rest of it. As I was not a registered competitor, the tracker "JS" appeared on the Garner Field tracking, but not under the 18m Nationals link which had the turnpoints.
Others possibly had not registered trackers on glideport.aero, but just let their crew have the link.
I put my APRS in Brad's glider on the last task, thinking it could all fall apart. That tracker is only on the usual APRS sites.
Jim

On Saturday, August 12, 2017 at 7:33:26 PM UTC-6, wrote:
"Some competitions have been very communicative with status updates multiple times per day, promoting the event, posting results shortly after completion, which really gives remote spectators like me an opportunity to experience the event virtually via the internet."

Very true Adrian, but way too few. Wake up SSA, a "dark" contest is hurting our soaring movement.

Same for tracking, the number of pilots operating trackers is shrinking. One day at the recent Uvalde Nationals there were only 7 out of 30 plus sailplanes "tracking". Few trackers and infrequent updates provide little, if any, entertainment.

R.A.S. hashed this before, the reality is "reporting" does not work well if it requires a computer and an internet connection to "assemble" the report. Reasons ... reliable internet is difficult to find on many contest sites, too much work load for one person and one person cannot report as well as "many", too much work to include pictures, and by the time it gets published, its "old news". Right now, like it or not, what works best is a Facebook group because it is focused to only those interested. Yes, a Facebook group requires effort because the group owner has to approve requesting membership. But, it is so, so feature rich. It allows any group member to report or share a picture almost in real-time and usually with just a smart phone.. The time difference can be measured in minutes instead of days.

Just look at Uvalde's outstanding Facebook reporting. Sean Franke broadcasted daily pilot's meetings from his Wings & Wheels page https://www.facebook.com/wingsandwheels.aviation/ . Bruce Taylor's Taylor Gliding Page https://www.facebook.com/Taylors-Gli...-298561465980/ or Sean Fidler's Sean Fidler Soaring https://www.facebook.com/SeanTiff7T/ provided daily grid, in-flight, land-out, and post blow-by-blow updates. Thank you guys, you really made a difference. Even Charlie Spratt's magical reports could not begin to compete with the power of Facebook.

For you "I'll never do Facebookers", this darkness would improve if the SSA would "handshake" with these excellent reporters and find a way to immediately "mirror" Facebook reports on the SSA website.

The bottom line: currently, if you want to stay informed, open a Facebook account and follow these outstanding reporters. If you want the SSA to report, "court" your SSA director and ask for their support to provide better contest reporting.

FB is not particularly reliable and shapes what a particular account might see. Some posts appear rather late. I checked Sean Fidler's personal page and very few Uvalde posts there. I checked your link to Sean Fidler Soaring and found an invite for me to like the page. That invite never appeared on my FB page that I recall or was lost in the noise. Taylor's Gliding Page was liked by SSA FB and me and LetsGoGliding and has been used as resource previously. Page feeds are checked, but FB shapes what it shows and I never noticed a post from Bruce. After Jason Stephens asked for some coverage of the World's Glider Aerobatics competition, we were flooded with posts from that event. It's also been a very busy two weeks, so no time for further digging. In the past, I've tried to recruit people to post directly to the SSA FB page, but am now of the opinion that specific event pages are better for archival purposes. We just don't have a process in place yet.

As far as any trouble posting to the SSA server, I've only noticed issues during incremental and full backups, which are done in the wee hours in the Central Time Zone. So filing a late night report could bump into this. Any server development or maintenance is done after business hours in Hobbs. Sometimes a reboot is required. Unless the server is going offline for some period, such work in not announced. Someone filing a contest report might run into an issue posting.

Frank Whiteley

Some quick clarifications...

Facebook pages are generally intended to be public. Sean Fidler Soaring is public. Pages are different than personal Facebook accounts which have more security and often cannot be accessed without permission (in other words being accepted as a friend). When you receive an invitation to "like" a page (usually a business, event, subject, topic, common interest, whatever.....) it is meant simply as an invitation to "follow" the page and receive automatic updates on your personal Facebook page news feed whenever new posts are made on that page.

As with all things new, some light study, reading and practice (just 15 minutes) can go a long, long way very quickly. Simply search YouTube. Here is an example of a good Facebook beginner tutorial...https://youtu.be/wkVf8BlE8rI There are thousands of other tutorials on many Facebook features.

Again, my "Sean Fidler soaring page" is fully intended to be public. Tiffany posts much of the content during contests. "Liking" the page simply means you wish to see those updates on your news feed (stay informed) whenever new content is published (this too can be controlled...by you...in various ways).

You can (for example) also "not like the page" and simply type "sean fidler soaring" into the search bar at the top of your Facebook page (at your leisure) to check it out when you wish without regular newsfeed updates (perhaps during a contest you are interested in).

If you wish to like (follow) these pages please click the links below and click the like button near the top of the page...

Sean Fidler Soaring:
https://m.facebook.com/SeanTiff7T/

FAI Sailplane Grand Prix USA: https://m.facebook.com/FAISailplaneGrandPrixUSA/

But Facebook requires internet, too...

On 8/12/2017 7:33 PM, wrote:
R.A.S. hashed this before, the reality is "reporting" does not work well if it requires a computer and an internet connection to "assemble" the report. Reasons ... reliable internet is difficult to find on many contest sites, too much work load for one person and one person cannot report as well as "many", too much work to include pictures, and by the time it gets published, its "old news". Right now, like it or not, what works best is a Facebook group because it is focused to only those interested.

--
Dan, 5J

Agreed.
One way to deal with too many users is have one device listed in the router to get priority and let others divvy up remaining bandwidth.
Not too hard to do on a lot of routers. Device could be a PC, tablet, iPad, etc. that way reporting person and staff have enough bandwidth to do what they need when they need to.

To those that volunteer to report, I again say thanks.

Thank you for the reports, Sean. I now checked the page you linked, and I can see some things there. But as I am an "I'll never do Facebooker", FB covers 1/4 of the screen with a demand to "login or join". And I only see a few posts, from the last 3 days or so. I can't tell if anything more was supposed to be there.

Sadly refusing to have a Facebook account leaves you behind...sorry :-(

Go outside and play! Leave your cell phone behind. Who needs "virtual
friends"?

I created a Facebook account using a fake username and a separate email
created just for that purpose. I refused all attempts to "locate
friends" and I don't monitor that email account. Problem solved! I can
see the postings of gliding related stuff if I choose, and I'm not
bombarded by "friend requests" from people I've never heard of. For a
good laugh, look up the Southpark episode regarding Facebook...


On 8/15/2017 11:51 PM, Sean Fidler wrote:
Sadly refusing to have a Facebook account leaves you behind...sorry :-(

--
Dan, 5J

On Wednesday, August 16, 2017 at 1:51:37 AM UTC-4, Sean Fidler wrote:
Sadly refusing to have a Facebook account leaves you behind...sorry :-(

And even more sadly perhaps, goes the reason why there is ever decreasing participation in gliding and specifically glider racing!

Bob 7U

On Wednesday, August 16, 2017 at 1:51:37 AM UTC-4, Sean Fidler wrote:
Sadly refusing to have a Facebook account leaves you behind...sorry :-(

What if you gleefully refuse?
Grammar Nazi