The scheduling of the tournies has been a bit haphazard, but it's time for that to change!
Starting with the May tournies, we're putting things on a proper schedule:
Tournament Signups: Signups for a given month's tournies will start the first Sunday of that month. So look for the May tournies to appear on the Touraments page May 3rd. A message will appear on the Current Games page for the first week of signups.
Tournament Commencement: Tournies will start the fourth Sunday of the month. So look for the May tournies to start May 24th. Of course, a tourney that doesn't have enough players will wait to start until some time after the fourth Sunday, when it has enough players. (Note that it's the fourth Sunday, not the last Sunday. If a month has five Sundays -- like next month, for instance -- we'll still start the tournies on the fourth Sunday.)
Tournament Cancellation: Tournies that don't start within a month of when they're supposed to start will be cancelled and replaced with a new one. Players signed up for the old one will be transferred to the new one and notified. This may seem a bit pointless, but it seems wrong to (for instance) have the November '08 UltraFast Mill tournament start in May 2009! And the periodic notifications will remind the players who signed up originally that they're signed up for a tourney that hasn't started yet. So if we'd had this system in place all along, the players in the Nov08 UltraFast Mill tourney would have been moved to the Jan09 UltraFast Mill tourney when it turned out it hadn't started yet, and then the Mar09 UltraFast Mill tourney when it turned out the January one hadn't started yet, etc., with notifications each time.
What this does is:
Bring some consistency to the process
Gives us a good long signup period
Gives us a week (sometimes two) between the commencement of one month's tournies before the next month's tourney signup starts
You may be asking what the reason is for #3. Well, sometimes a tourney doesn't quite have enough players to start when it's supposed to, and the process of creating tournies will skip creating a new tourney when there's already one outstanding -- so for instance, if the April UltraFast Mill tournament hasn't started yet, when we create the May tournies, there won't be a May UltraFast Mill tournament. So having a week (sometimes two) of leeway gives tournies that are really, really close some time to get their last couple of players before the next batch is created.
Other tourney news:
[ You didn't hear any of this from me, because I never give timescales for anything. ;-) ]
1. Look for big improvements to the tournaments page -- yes, including signing up for more than one tourney at a time -- in the next couple of weeks.
2. Yes, we will be fixing that irritating "moot game" problem in the next couple of months. (A "moot game" is an uncompleted game that won't affect the outcome of a round in any way, regardless of who wins it. Currently, moot games hold up the beginning of the next round, which is silly and just drags the tourney out unnecessarily, since they don't have any effect on the next round. I can't believe I still haven't fixed that problem, not like it wasn't reported by one of the testers -- my own brother, as it happens -- before tournies even went live!)
Enjoy your (tourney) games! -- T.J. Crowder First Primate Pocket-Monkey.com
Great improvements T.J. Specially the one that allows you to sign up for more than one tourney at a time, saves some clicking.
And deleting tournaments that didn't start within a month will make everything more clear indeed.
Re: Tournament Scheduling
Message #14536 Replies: 2
posted by robin (Happy Johns other half x) on 04/19 at 09:48
Great news, as i only sign up for tournis every other month, when vacc's are allowed and it can be frustrating when that month is currant but the tourni i want to play in wont start because the previous tourni hasnt had enough players so it ends up I cant sign up that month either. A roll over to the next month is very welcome. And the "moot game" problem is equally frustrating so thats good news to.
Keep up the good work T.j we all do apprecitate the work and effort you put in to it all here at PM. Tracey :O)
Ah yes, the vacation thinghy. Maybe it's best to have all tourneys that fill up slowly allowing vacations? Not that it's a problem for me, I only play backgammon :P Those fill up easily.
I hadn't thought of the vacations aspect of it, but coincidentally it works out -- since the new tourney will be created two months after the cancelled one, it will have the same vacations setting as the old one. Pure coincidence, but nice when that sort of thing happens...
-- T.J. :-)
Re: Tournament Scheduling
Message #14539 Replies: 0
posted by RedBaron (Will C. Crowder) on 04/19 at 14:22
All sounds great!!
Keep up the good work! :-)
Will
Re: Tournament Scheduling
Message #14540 Replies: 0
posted by reg914 (Rochelle Gary) on 04/19 at 14:27
Absolutely Brilliant. The work you do is great and considering you dont charge us for any of this, the developments and progression are hugely advantageous to us as users, so thankyou very much for the hard work you do for us to enjoy our gaming more and more.
Nice improvements. Keep up the good work T.J. Must say its really appreciated. Great work you do. Enjoyable to play on this site.
LadyRegal
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