Good news. . . . a system for ranking ASL players is coming back to life. . . .
Building on the work of many others, including most recently Bruno Nitrosso, a new website has been built (partially) and will provide access to the previous AREA data and ratings methodology and will incorporate results since 2017 and going forward.
First and Foremost: the work on this is being guided by the principles that drive VASL: open-source and open data. Both the website files and the underlying data will be available to the ASL community at all times. See
https://github.com/vasl-developers/Player_Rating_website. The new player ratings tool will be as open as vasl and will encourage and enable community participation and access.
There is a test site, still very much under development, but in the spirit of the above, you are welcome to have a look and to comment. It is being hosted deep in the heart of Texas by the good folks of the Texas-ASL Club. Many thanks to them and Sam Tyson in particular. View it here:
http://ratings.texas-asl.com/ .
The site will develop as we build the functionality and I will post alerts when major updates appear. But if I get hit by a bus and never post again, the site and the data will still be available (see first-and-foremost above).
As for the data, the core data from the AREA system is captured in 3 files on the github site, with Bruno's agreement. I spoke to him yesterday and he was comfortable with what we have done so far. The data files are in JSON format and can easily be uploaded into a database. They are a community resource.
In short, the workplan for this initiative looks like this at present:
- 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.
Final points:
- This is not being done by a secret society or closed group. Anyone who wants to contribute to this is not only welcome but is totally free to do so. (In saying that, I do NOT mean to be critical of any work that has given us tools in the past. We are all greatly indebted to people who simply "got her done!")
- Comments, suggestions and observations are all welcome. Just as they are with VASL. The aim is to build a useful toolset so we need to know what you need, what works, what doesn't. You know the drill: it won't all get done right away but it is not ignored.
More later (but soon).
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