Racing points?

[Andrew 4CE]

From APBA eNews...

What do YOU want from the APBA website?
Inboard racer Elizabeth Wolfe of Chicago, IL spent time during the National Meeting asking members what they would like to see at www.apba-racing.com in the future. Each category commission appointed a representative to communicate recommendations to Ms. Wolfe. She and a website committee will use that input to build a list of proposed changes, establish feasibility and costs for each, and make recommendations to the Board. Several categories have created their own independent websites. For some, that may be the best option. Others might be well served by an updated and more user-friendly APBA website.
One issue standing in the way of progress is the amazing complexity of APBA's routine procedures. Each category has its own special rules for legal starts, legal heats, awarding points, etc. That means that one single computer program will not work for all; Headquarters (Cindy Minoletti in particular) must input all scoring sheets by hand, altering formulas and results per each category's rules. One programmer working with Headquarters walked out, saying, "I have a headache. Your system is more complicated than General Motors'." The goal, as stated by APBA President Mark Weber, is a single points system for circle racing within two years. Executive Director Gloria Urbin stressed during the Annual Meeting, "APBA and the categories need to come together to do what is best for the Association as a whole."
When that happens, we could see a much more understandable and inviting presence on the Web; faster processing and posting of race results; and simpler procedures for scorers.
If you have feedback for the website committee, ask your category chairman for the name and contact information of your designated website representative.


This is interesting... and would make things great as far as developing a computer scoring program... First I've heard of it though... has there been any talk yet as to what they are thinking of doing/changing? I'd like to see something that factors in the number of boats in the heat.

[Kev43V]

they have one... or I should say three or four of them. it probably would be best if there were only 1 but not all cats start and score the same. so what to do.
I think we should take APBA.com back from the PWC. they can have APBA-pwc. stock should have APBA-stock.com. etc.

[PopPop]

number of boats

It is very simple to factor in the number of boats in a heat, particularly in this day when everything is done by computers. Instead of 400, 300, 225 etc., etc., why not 40, 30 , 22.5 then multiply by the number of boats. If there were 10 boats, you get back to 400, 300, 225, etc., etc. If there were 5 boats, you get 200, 150, 112.5, etc., etc. Wiyh 6 boats you get 240, 180, 135, etc., etc. It is directly proportional to the number of boats and "fairer". Some whiz-kid with windows XL could do it in a flash with simple 5th grade math. I know it doesn't factor in the "quality" of the field. Yhat's why it is only fairer and we still have divionals and national for possibly 2X and 4X points. I know change is frightening to you'll, but the system we have now is like a camel being a horse designed by a committee. They couldn't decide on one hump or two so the made both.

[B Walker]

Before too many worms get out of the can here....

We cant "take back" APBA.com. Its owned fully and completely by ENOM, INC and paid for in full to 13 Jan 2010.

They got it because they asked for it first, it was available, and they paid for it.

Its a done deal.

As far as scoring goes I just dont see a scoring system that crosses all Divisions and Categories. That is, a Universal Scoring System for everyone racing under the APBA umbrella.

Maybe the problem is really in having a centralized and handwritten system of recordkeeping.

Making every division responsible for their own recordkeeping, tabulation, and results would move the workload and responsibility off of the national office. Every division/category would then be able to figure out a scoring system (electronic or otherwise) that works for them. Innovation is sure to occur faster at the division/category level than the National Office level.

In a perfect world it may even be possible to move the cost savings of a decentralized scoring system to compensate the Chief Scorer of every division a little bit for their added responsibility and duty.

The part I found most interesting in the original quote was not the scoring part but the question of expectations of the website itself. How about live video streaming of events, real time result reporting, dial in password info to "open" conference calls, reposting of the propellor magazine in a format that is more like the actual magazine, and race pre-registration and payment.

Feel free to add your own ideas on what you want from your website.

BW

[Andrew 4CE]

I've be scoring races up here for 5 years and accounting for the number of boats. Like you say, Excel makes that easy.

Maybe it's hard to come up with a point system for all... but is everyone using the same final totals? Like a 1st is worth "X" in every category? That would likely make things easier for posting results too. How you get to "X" doesn't matter. consi, qualifiying, heats, extra laps, etc...

It is very simple to factor in the number of boats in a heat, particularly in this day when everything is done by computers. Instead of 400, 300, 225 etc., etc., why not 40, 30 , 22.5 then multiply by the number of boats. If there were 10 boats, you get back to 400, 300, 225, etc., etc. If there were 5 boats, you get 200, 150, 112.5, etc., etc. Wiyh 6 boats you get 240, 180, 135, etc., etc. It is directly proportional to the number of boats and "fairer". Some whiz-kid with windows XL could do it in a flash with simple 5th grade math. I know it doesn't factor in the "quality" of the field. Yhat's why it is only fairer and we still have divionals and national for possibly 2X and 4X points. I know change is frightening to you'll, but the system we have now is like a camel being a horse designed by a committee. They couldn't decide on one hump or two so the made both.

[sam]

I think we should take APBA.com back from the PWC. they can have APBA-pwc. stock should have APBA-stock.com. etc.

I just typed in www.APBA.com ... I don't think the PWC guys own it; the do seem to own www.apbaracing.com

Here's a partial list of other organizations using APBA:

APBA Asociación de Psicólogos de Buenos Aires (Spanish)
APBA Australian Power Boat Association
APBA Autoridad Portuaria de la Bahía de Algeciras (Spanish)
APBA Australian Pipe Band Association
APBA American Professional Baseball Association
APBA Acquisition Program Baseline Agreement
APBA Association of Pocket Billiards Australia
APBA Auxiliary Police Benevolent Association (New York)
APBA Arlington Police Beneficiary Association (Arlington County, Virginia)
APBA Australian Pig Breeders' Association
APBA Australian Pinzgauer Breeders Association
APBA Australasian Police Basketball Association
APBA Arkansas Professional Bail Association (North Little Rock, AR)
APBA Appleton Police Benevolent Association (Appleton, Wisconsin)
APBA Almost Perfect Binary Array
APBA Ames Police Benevolent Association (Aimes, Iowa)
www.apba.com seems to be owned by the Port of Algeciras Bay and used with "Agreement at Port of Algeciras Bay" in reference to their collective bargaining agreement with their longshoremen

Some of these are gaining on us in hits on the search engines ... the baseball guys used to be our only real competition

[reed28n]

Scoring

To me the scoring is easy. This is the type of thing that a sanctioning body should provide. Tell us what the points are, we will race to get them...... period.

The current numbering system seems to be a proven commodity, I believe the calculations they are looking at are high point titles etc..... most of the categories have similar systems now.

There is no need to reinvent the wheel.......I am already winning bigger Tee shirts and ain't because of no points system......its beef and beer.

[Kev43V]

Sam you are 100 percent right. for some reason I was sure I had typed in apba.com once and got pwc's.

[sam]

I think Brad's idea is best, decentralize the points. All the main APBA HQ site needs to have is a link to them.

I'd like to see changed on the main APBA site ... more graphics ... pictures of each class's equipment and pictures of the faces of each of last year's class Nationals winners, High Point winners and Hall of Champions

As far as the current web site ... the difficulty the current webmaster has in keeping the speed record pages from crashing shows that the hosting software is deficient and complicated beyond our need. We need to admit we got ripped off on it and move on to something else even if it is just simple typed (html) text.

[Kev43V]

Brad
on conference calls. try skype it flipping works and works well. For non-land line calls it is completely free. if you want to be able to call land lines/cell phones it is 4.00 per month or just under 30 per year for nationwide calling.
it is very simple also, when you want to ad some one to the conference call you just pull up their contact and click on add to conference call.
I have started using it for sales calls as the clarity beats my new lg phone to death when I am at my computer (its in my basement office)

[Dave M]

Some ideas for Website

I would like to see much easier navigation to circulars, and schedules. I would like to see every race APBA has scheduled that year far in advance, even if it is tenative. The Propeler magazine is okay, but usually far outdated information, so the web can help with this. Update it daily....

Perform some interviews at the races and post them there. Videos would be cool too. Get an inside scoop on what the races are all about.

The pictures need to keep changing too on the website, and have all of them used archieved so people can browse them. Thumbnails work great. No links to Photobucket or anything like that, have them right there.

You want to attract new racers from the now generation.... get your chit together in the computer world. Most 10 year olds know more about computers than I do. We need to cater to them somewhat. Make it appealing. Lets face it, when was the last time anyone here picked up the yellowpages book to look up a phone number ? I see posts on this website often asking for someones phone number......... get my point ?

We also need a better scoring system at the races, so the APBA website can be updated acuratley, and quickly.

Lets face it, we are living in a "I want it now" world. Lets deliver.

[B Walker]

Good tip Kev.

I have used Skype before, but my Scottish heritage resists paying even 4USD a month when I know how to have worldwide voice communications for free using TeamSpeak or Ventrillo.

Kinda hard to make sales calls using computer to computer VOIP aps though. Also, it is not as easy as just picking up a phone and dialing a number.

But.....my point was that there are scheduled conference calls that are open to any APBA member to dial into and listen. I often hear of the results of these calls after the fact. I mean, whats the point of having a conference call that is open to the membership if the membership does not know when these calls occur or how to join these calls?

Also, all good points above from Dave Mason.....good thinking.

BW

[sam]

Or ... we could join the rest of the 21st Century and at least record the meetings and offer them as "podcast" downloads

[Kev43V]

I too used teamspeak, back when I played medal of honor online a lot. I think skype works much better and cleaner sound.
as far as calling from the puter... It is just as easy to punch the numbers in the keypad on the puter as the phone. the puter to puter is completely free. the computer to phone is the 30 bucks a year.
besides my rural phone lines are always full of static for the last several years. back when we had dial up INTERNET we had to have them out about once a month to get a good enough connection to even use it. Long gone are the days of the local AT&T phone guy to fix problems. Now we wait most of a week for a tech to come from somewhere to fix the problems.
LOL every time it is nearly the same:
Tech"are you sure the problem is not in you home? we find it usually is"
me "NO, I tried plugging my phone in out at the box on the outside of the house and still have no dial tone"
tech " what box?"
me " the box you call the d-mark, I call it a box"
tech " oh are you sure you plugged into the right line?
me "yes I know what my phone number is and have plugged it into that line, not the connection for the second line that we dropped after we no longer needed dial up"
tech "are you sure the phone works?
me "well it work up until the phone stopped working when we lost the dial tone"
tech" we should be able to have someone there a week from next Monday sometime between 8 am and 5 pm. But it might be Tue. or wed. will there be someone home in case we need to get inside? I see you are not signed up for the inside wiring plan, it only costs 4.95 per month and it will save you 30 dollars if we have to work on the inside lines. that way our service call is only 60 dollars instead of 90.00"
me " why do i need an inside wiring plan when the problem is always on your end?
tech " well it might be a problem on the inside."
me " and thats why when i disconnect the inside lines so i can plug in the phone outside, it still doesn't work?"

Sometimes it doesn't go like that, sometimes I even get a real phone guy.
but those conversations are not near as humorous.
Usually the real ones just say "as soon as I can get out there I will track down the wet connections and get them dried out so your phone will work for a while"
me " thanks"

besides we have been at this residence 11 years so i figure i have saved over 650 bucks by NOT having the inside plan

[B Walker]

Kev

man oh man oh man, I worked for AT&T as a field service regional representative for 5 years. Actually, I was a Cell One guy that got swallowed up.....errrr.......bought out by AT&T.

Just had a flashback reading your monolouge cuz you nailed it. The monster monopolistic communications companies are dead, they just dont know it yet.

right on Sam, podcasting of meetings, good call.

keep the website wish list coming

BW