OARS

[Hubbs5]

Hey Nat,

First of all thanks for putting up the forums, I really enjoy them.

Is OARS functional to where you can send in your results and have it change your rating? If so how would I do that? I also was looking for the chart that showed the points won/lost depending on the difference in the two players ratings. If this isn't working no biggie as I know how much work you have put into this and I really do appreciate it. Thanks for all you do.

 

[Nat Mallet]

OARS is functional enough to add battle, which will update your score automatically.

To enter a battle, the scenario must previously have been entered, and your opponent must also be registered. Once those two conditions are met, you can enter your battle. Your opponent must also enter the battle from his perspective (i.e. if you won, your opponent must say he lost, etc). Once both you and your opponent have entered the battle, ratings for everyone will be updated.

I have a few battles that have been entered so far, and a few more on hold (waiting for an opponent to enter their version of the battle).

The points won/lost are internal only. However, I am working on making a player's battle available so that he can verify his ratings progression. This will be available on a player's profile page. I'm not sure when this will be released, but I'm hoping soon.

Until then, if you'd like to confirm that data has been entered properly, feel free to email me with this information you would like.

Nat

 

[Hubbs5]

Sorry Nat,

I just figured out why the form wouldn't come up on OARS, I had logged into the forums but I had forgotten to log in to OARS when I went over there. Sorry to bother you but thanks for the answer.

 

[Fred Ingram]

Nat: There should be no reason why the players have to enter the scenario manually (all scenarios should be in your database as minimum data requirments). This should not be too hard to load up in mass - as the scenario lists exist in one shape or form electronically from many wources.

Has David Croome ever got back to you with his data or code ?? :roll:

 

[Nat Mallet]

There should be no reason why the players have to enter the scenario manually

I can think of three off the top of my head

(A) I don't have all of that data
(B) Entering all that data takes time
(C) New scenarios are created all the time.

You do have a point about existing scenario lists. It would eliminate (A) and (B). I will keep the scenario entry form though, for reason (C).

I know of two online scenarios lists, the old OARS database and ROAR. I don't have access to either one, although I haven't asked the ROAR maintainers if they'd be willing to share. I've pretty much given up on David's data. After several emails (from me and others) and a fe months, I've received nothing yet.

Do you know of any other databases? If there are any other sources for scenario information, I'd be more than willing to take a look at them, if nothing else than to populate the OARS database with the more popular scenarios.

Nat

 

[Nat Mallet]

I had logged into the forums but I had forgotten to log in to OARS when I went over there

The OARS system should have popped up an error message, telling you that you have to be logged on to enter a scenario or a battle. It's a known bug in the system. I'm not sure where it came from, as I've tested that feature BEFORE the system went live.

Nat

"It's not a bug, it's a feature"

 

[Fred Ingram]

That is so unfortunate that david Croome has not sooperated (as he promised) in sending you his data. It would have just been nice if he gave you the whole app & let you host it. But, that seems not to be.

perhapos you can talk with the ROAR administrator and simply write some addin code to calculate a rating based on history and new inputs to that site. That site already has a complete scenario list and a huge list of users. No sense duplicating all of that again.

Your site coould contain searches against his DB for rating (but the ratings would be automated based on normal entry from the ROAR site.

Maybe it wont work with competing webmasters.

Just an idea to get some standard rating service up and running with somone committed to keeping it going (unlike Mr Croome)

 

[Nat Mallet]

In an ideal world, ROAR would be the defacto ASL ladder. It already has a lot of information, players, scenarios etc. I'm pretty sure adding a bit of functionality wouldn't be that difficult.

I see two additional benefits. First, the site would have multiple maintainers. If something should happen to one, the other(s) can cover for him until that maintainer is back or is replaced. In addition, the experience of the departed maintainer would not be lost.

Second, it would avoid wasting energy on implementing the same features on multiple sites. ROAR and OARS (V1) are both excellent tools, but each have their strengths. If the two were combined, the ASL community would have a truly remarkable site.

Is the ROAR site actively maintained? Also, what happened to that other ladder project out of Norway or Sweden? Apparently it was code complete, and it was simply looking for a new home.

Nat

 

[John B.]

A couple of years ago I tried to discuss combining OARS & ROAR with their respective developers.

Its seems that JR VanMechelen (ROAR) was very open to sharing his data and cooperating as much as he could. Unfortunately David Croome (OARS) never repsonded to my inquiries.

I don't know what happened to David but he seems to have taken a break from ASL. Maybe now would be the time for anyone interested in doing this to contact JR. If nothing else you could at least obtain his database to import into yours.

If you are interested in adding ladder features to it you could contact Mike Hammond over on the TRAC list. He has developed an automated ladder for TRAC. I believe it was done in Access.

 

[Fred Ingram]

David Croome sseems to have a history of the "does not reply" syndrome.

What I do not understand is: If he is not bothering to activly maintain and operate his OARS site - why dont he just turn it over to someone who has the initiative and interest?

When Nat wanted to start this OARS project - David did respond once to me about sharinf his code and data(a positive response)

Then he stopped replying to requests

Maybve we should all send him ONE message asking him to please loosen up the vault

dcroome@20vic.com

 

[John B.]

Fred,
Sounds like a good idea! How should we go about doing this?

JB

 

[Fred Ingram]

His e-mail address was in my previous post

What I meant was - each one of us can send him an e-mail asking that he give up his source code and data for the good of the hoopy (what other use could he put that stuff to anyway)

No form letter - just everyone send what you mean in your own words