In one of my initial posts on this thread I posted the following workplan for the ASL Player Ratings Site:
- Bring the site into parallel with the current AREA site: meaning that the same data as contained in AREA is used to produce the same ratings.
- Start adding 2017-20 data and generate up-to-date ratings using the AREA methodology.
- In parallel with 2, continue to build a new toolset that allows easier updating of the key components: players, tournaments and tournament games results. This would involve more tools for TDs to improve data quality from them and facilitate updating the db, plus tools to allow individuals to contribute.
- Explore options for a more fundamental redesign of the data, the algorithms, and the output as per A. Cleavin’s work or something like it.
Due to a lot of help from my friends, items 1 and 2 are done. The site (
ASL Player Rating System provides rankings for Advanced Squad Leaders players based on tournament play. It also displays game results of ASL Tournaments.
asl-ratings.org
) is up and running and a boatload of new data has been added.
Item 3 is considered complete until Sam Tyson or I think of something new to add (and I have received helpful suggestions from other people; some are done, some to come). We added some new data views today. The Tools & Support menu offers a variety of tools to manage the data. And the site makes the underlying data available to the community as I committed to do.
Item 4 is underway. I am working with Aaron to produce a version of his work, incorporating a new rating methodology. The goal is to provide a comparison set of ratings that might help us debate the merits of one approach versus another.
While I work away on item 4, there remain a number of questions, comments and suggestions that I have received that belong to item 3. I am going to put them up here from time to time and try to get some input and advice from others.
The first of those is the question of how to deal with those in our community who have unfortunately passed away too soon and are no longer with us. There are a number of such individuals whose names and games are in the database and displayed on the site. There are several options available:
- Leave their names visible as a tribute to those individuals and to show that they are not forgotten by friends and across-the-table-foes.
- Mask their names but leave their records visible in the dataset. We do this now for players who do not wish their names to be used and for games with missing player names.
- Remove their records from the visual presentations on the site but include them for rating calculation purposes.
We are at option 1 at present, which I personally favour. Your comments and suggestions are welcome.