Is AREA defunct?

GeorgeBates

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I just looked at the AREA page. It appears it has not been updated for nearly a year. Sent Bruno a note asking about his status. Anyone here have an update? I hope he has not given up!
 

Michael R

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He mentioned somewhere online that he is going through a period of lacking motivation and time to keep the site up to date. He did NOT say he is giving it up, however.
 

GeorgeBates

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Aha, a garage without motivation! The man needs a visit from Wolf!

On a more serious note, if the burden is wearing on him, I'm sure there are volunteers who would be able to lighten the responsibilty.

He ain't heavy
He's my brother...
 
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ecz

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It seems he's still collecting results from the TDs that graciously send them to his email.
I'm optmistic
 

Carln0130

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Aha, a garage without motivation! The man needs a visit from Wolf!

On a more serious note, if the burden is wearing on him, I'm sure there are volunteers who would be able to lighten the responsibilty.

He ain't heavy
He's my brother...
I believe the correct Wolfism is "a vacant garage". We have to keep the inane things in life in order you know.

I also recall Bruno stating that things were quite busy and with what spare time he had, he wanted to spend it, well, having spare time. I can understand that.
 

GeorgeBates

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... I can understand that.
Aren't you the guy who's whipping and driving everyone to get Dinant done? ;-)

The up side of Bruno's absence is that I have the opportunity to cover over my recent abysmal tournament match performance. Hopefully I'll be back over .500 before he logs them all!
 
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hongkongwargamer

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Dude - congrats on getting your spare time back! Saw you on VASL earlier (in your evening mind you). Hope all's well? :)
 

Carln0130

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Dude - congrats on getting your spare time back! Saw you on VASL earlier (in your evening mind you). Hope all's well? :)
Well, rumors of my spare time being alive have been greatly exaggerated, but when I need an ASL fix, Damn The Torpedos, Full Speed Ahead.
 

Paolo Cariolato

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Best thing would be MMP taking AREA stuff into his own hands.
Create a site where TDs around the world could put the results and a software that alaborate the result into a ranking.
ASL Tournament scene deserves no less than that.
Bruno's efforts are more than welcomed, but it's really too much burden for a man alone. And results are too old and a lot of ASLOK results are not even into that ranking.

jm2c
 
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hongkongwargamer

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There sud be some mechanism to do a little due diligence to make sure the folks who does the updating are real TDs.
 

von Marwitz

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Best thing would be MMP taking AREA stuff into his own hands.
Create a site where TDs around the world could put the results and a software that alaborate the result into a ranking.
ASL Tournament scene deserves no less than that.
Bruno's efforts are more than welcomed, but it's really too much burden for a man alone. And results are too old and a lot of ASLOK results are not even into that ranking.

jm2c
MMP has other things to do with its overseeable resouces.

As I understand it, various people have offered help to Bruno which he has not taken up - at least for the moment. This is fair enough if he wants to keep control over who is entering data to AREA to safeguared against possible chaos. It is his show after all.

Some time ago when I met him at a tournament I have talked to him about AREA and the main difficulties. This is what I remember:

Usually, a lot hinges on the tournament directors:
Do they collect the information at all? Or only Win/Loss?

Do they provide AREA with correct names, i.e. the right spelling?
This seems to be a major issue as at numerous tournaments, it appears that slips of paper are collected that hold the players' names in shoddy handwriting. Where the TD's collect this info and feed it into their own lists (that should have the names of the participants of their tournament correctly spelled) some of the problem is alleviated.

Some hinges on the players:
Shoddy or incomplete handwriting (see above). This is not only true for the names but also for scenario names.

Some players merely provide the win or loss result but nothing else to the TD.


But then I think, some also hinges on AREA itself:
If TDs just knew what is needed in what particular form it could go a long way to provide Bruno with the necessary information that optimally would only need to be copied / pasted. And save him a lot of time trying to correct wrong spelling or to figure out missing information.

Maybe providing an "AREA report-form" downloadable with written instructions by AREA and made available somewhere (on the AREA site would be the obvious choice) would be of great help. It could be doable without much investment of time by Bruno if he so elected, I believe.


von Marwitz
 

benj

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As I understand it, various people have offered help to Bruno which he has not taken up - at least for the moment. This is fair enough if he wants to keep control over who is entering data to AREA to safeguared against possible chaos. It is his show after all.
And also, it is frustrating for someone to invest time training and giving access to people claiming they want to help but that disappear when the boring job has to be done. How many time this happens...
 

GeorgeBates

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And also, it is frustrating for someone to invest time training and giving access to people claiming they want to help but that disappear when the boring job has to be done. How many time this happens...
The success of our hobby is based on volunteerism. As such, when you need help, you take all comers and manage your expectations. The trick is not to get hung up on the ones who fade, it is to recognize, reward and enjoy time with those who give of themselves.
 

ecz

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I use (and suggested) a standard for AREA data long time ago.
First Player (playing Axis) - Second Player (playing Allied) - result in form of 1-0 or 0-1 or "draw" and finally scenario name/ID code if available, not strictly necessary.

Probably not the best possible standard, but better than the mere chaos. Bruno apparently appreciated my suggestion, but the problem of insert data one by one remains.

We TDs are still continuing to send results. The main problem is that data are growing and when Bruno (or who at his place) will seat to update the site, he will have a panic attack and will flee away crazy (assuming this has not been already happened).

So we could consider to use an employer (found by Bruno) to make this dirty work at least to cancel the huge arrear formed in last 18 months. We TDs and whoever want, could give a small contribution via paypal to be used to train a guy that must make this boring work. I assume that a day of work at the basic pay for a secretary/clerk in France should be enough. May be 60 euros? 80 euros? In Italy I could find plenty of people for less.
I think we could amass this small amount of money in two hours and let Bruno with only the problem to find this guy, (that could be a friend, a sister, or a nephew) and teach him/her how insert data.

no offense is intended, I think that everyone here would see Bruno continue to manage AREA personally, but if he cannot we can give suggestions to help. This is the best I can think at the moment.
 

von Marwitz

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Probably not the best possible standard, but better than the mere chaos. Bruno apparently appreciated my suggestion, but the problem of insert data one by one remains.
I do not know the mechanisms behind area, so I am left guessing to an extent.

I guess that the data in area will either be entered in some sort of tables or forms. If it is tables/spreadsheets, then some of the work could be taken off Bruno's shoulders if the data is already sent to him in (standardized) tables as he requires. Maybe this could eliminate some sort of manual transcription from incoming data to final AREA data.

von Marwitz
 
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