DRAFT 2019 registration form is up–please review!

[josh]

Uh-oh, I just re-registered for BAFS 2018. I saw a submit button and just had to click it. Sorry!

On the feedback side, shouldn’t the placeholder text for the miles ridden in BAFS 2018 be “Miles in Freezing Saddles 2018” rather than “Miles in Freezing Saddles 2017”? Also, I’m torn on whether I should help teach self-driving cars via reCAPTCHA.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]18593[/ATTACH]

[jrenaut]

I will reiterate my pedantic complaint that FCC at Swings, being the original, does not need the “I”.

Otherwise it looks good. Thanks for the work!

[Fast Friendly Guy]

Anyone else notice that the registration form for BAFS2019 does not have a “SUBMIT” button?
Thanks
FFG

[drevil]

@Fast Friendly Guy 182914 wrote:

Anyone else notice that the registration form for BAFS2019 does not have a “SUBMIT” button?
Thanks
FFG

Cvcalhoun’s head is exploding right now

[chuxtr]

One correction. Delete what’s in red in paragraph below:

Freezing Saddles is a game organized by friends in the Washington Area Bike Forum. It is a hat tournament style competition where participants are randomly assigned to teams based on some weird system the Washington Area Bike Forum has come up with over the years. Communications and organization will be through the Washington Area Bike Forum.

Question: 250 registrations = how many teams? I can’t remember how many people per team (you would think I should know since I was a team captain last year). But 250 is only “easily” divisible by 10, so that would mean 25 teams. Is that what we’re aiming for?

[chuxtr]

Another thing … Are we really going to try to create teams based on locality? I don’t think Casey did that last year. And seems like it would be a total PITA to do. If everyone wants to be on a team where all their team members are close by, I’m guessing it will be nearly impossible to put together 20+ teams. Plus I always thought part of the “spirit” of FS was for people who lived in different places to get to know each other.

[awitt]

At the risk of stepping on the toes of people who have been doing this for many years, I have a couple of things to mention:
I wouldn’t describe the team assignments as random, but I tend to take everything litterally which I know is not very FS.
I like having local teams and I wished my team last year was more local. I never met several people on my team because we were so spread out. Multi-team rides and other events are the time to meet people from other areas. I’m also volunteering to help with team assignments because i know this is a PITA.

[cvcalhoun]

@josh 182896 wrote:

Uh-oh, I just re-registered for BAFS 2018. I saw a submit button and just had to click it. Sorry!

On the feedback side, shouldn’t the placeholder text for the miles ridden in BAFS 2018 be “Miles in Freezing Saddles 2018” rather than “Miles in Freezing Saddles 2017”? Also, I’m torn on whether I should help teach self-driving cars via reCAPTCHA.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]18593[/ATTACH]

You managed to get into the form in the approximately 30 seconds before I realized that it was still incorporating the 2018 form, rather than the 2019 form. After that was fixed, all the problems you mentioned (except maybe the self-driving cars) went away.

@jrenaut 182900 wrote:

I will reiterate my pedantic complaint that FCC at Swings, being the original, does not need the “I”.

Otherwise it looks good. Thanks for the work!

FCC is now without the I. Never say I don’t take criticism into account!

@chuxtr 182918 wrote:

One correction. Delete what’s in red in paragraph below:

Freezing Saddles is a game organized by friends in the Washington Area Bike Forum. It is a hat tournament style competition where participants are randomly assigned to teams based on some weird system the Washington Area Bike Forum has come up with over the years. Communications and organization will be through the Washington Area Bike Forum.

Question: 250 registrations = how many teams? I can’t remember how many people per team (you would think I should know since I was a team captain last year). But 250 is only “easily” divisible by 10, so that would mean 25 teams. Is that what we’re aiming for?

It is in fact a hat tournament. See this link for a definition. http://www.whatisultimate.com/what-is-ultimate/types-of-tournament/.

We limit it to 250 registrations. However, that does not necessarily mean 250 players. Some people register, then fail to show up, so they get struck from the rolls. Sunyata then has complete discretion to include enough people over the 250 cap to make up the number of teams she thinks is appropriate.

@chuxtr 182919 wrote:

Another thing … Are we really going to try to create teams based on locality? I don’t think Casey did that last year. And seems like it would be a total PITA to do. If everyone wants to be on a team where all their team members are close by, I’m guessing it will be nearly impossible to put together 20+ teams. Plus I always thought part of the “spirit” of FS was for people who lived in different places to get to know each other.

@awitt 182922 wrote:

At the risk of stepping on the toes of people who have been doing this for many years, I have a couple of things to mention:
I wouldn’t describe the team assignments as random, but I tend to take everything litterally which I know is not very FS.
I like having local teams and I wished my team last year was more local. I never met several people on my team because we were so spread out. Multi-team rides and other events are the time to meet people from other areas. I’m also volunteering to help with team assignments because i know this is a PITA.

I believe that last year, we had teams based on locality for those who chose to be on them. It is Sunyata’s call whether to do that this year. (I suspect the likelihood will be increased if you offer to help her.)

I have mixed feelings about this. It knocks out some of the competitions that we used to do. (For example, ones that involve crossing all the bridges between DC and NOVA put a team based in Gaithersburg at a disadvantage.) And I always used to enjoy getting to meet people whom I would be less likely to run into on the CCT. However, again, it is Sunyata’s call. Can you two please get in touch with her, and let me know the resolution, quickly so that I can modify the form if needed?

[jrenaut]

One thing to note about local teams – my experience is that it puts DC teams at a disadvantage. Our team tended to be better than average at getting out for a quick ride on a crappy day, but we didn’t get anywhere close to the mileage of the people with 15-20 mile commutes. On a solid team I should be maybe 5th place but I lead my team in miles. My experience may not reflect everyone’s, but will not be doing a local team again.

[dbehrend]

The draft form looks great. Maybe consider adding a text box for other information people may want to share. Most people won’t use it, but you may get additional details (e.g., other good ideas).

As a first time participant last year, I thought the instructions that you all provided regarding registration were clear and comprehensive.

[cvcalhoun]

@dbehrend 182946 wrote:

The draft form looks great. Maybe consider adding a text box for other information people may want to share. Most people won’t use it, but you may get additional details (e.g., other good ideas).

As a first time participant last year, I thought the instructions that you all provided regarding registration were clear and comprehensive.

To be honest, I’m wary of allowing people to submit other information via the form. The reason is that I already end up being the recipient of all sorts of questions that really should go to other people. My only function is registration. Yet people ask me when happy hours will be, how to fix a problem on the website, how to set up a pointless prize, etc.–none of which I am in a position to know. So this year, I will have a complete list of who is in charge of what go into the confirmation e-mail, in the hope that I won’t end up being in the middle quite so often. If I allowed people to submit other information via the form, then I would have to keep track of each registration as it arrived, and direct any questions to the appropriate person myself, which would rather undermine that effort.

[dbehrend]

@cvcalhoun 182949 wrote:

To be honest, I’m wary of allowing people to submit other information via the form. The reason is that I already end up being the recipient of all sorts of questions that really should go to other people. My only function is registration. Yet people ask me when happy hours will be, how to fix a problem on the website, how to set up a pointless prize, etc.–none of which I am in a position to know. So this year, I will have a complete list of who is in charge of what go into the confirmation e-mail, in the hope that I won’t end up being in the middle quite so often. If I allowed people to submit other information via the form, then I would have to keep track of each registration as it arrived, and direct any questions to the appropriate person myself, which would rather undermine that effort.

Ok. That makes sense.

[Sunyata]

I am hoping to answer all the questions directed at me here. It has been a busy weekend (BikeneticX was a muddy mess of a success, though!).

Just an FYI, in case anyone cares or it makes a difference: I am NOT participating in BAFS this year. But I do hope to see all of you out and about over the winter and will probably still organize some fun rides (specifically catered to those who are doing Croatan Buck Fifty or like to ride and drink beer).

Team Assignments:
In the past I have done my best to put everyone that requested to be on a “local” team on a “local” team. This generally meant folks from MD who wanted to be on a local team were teamed up with other folks from MD. DC and VA were the same. I tried to be as accommodating as possible, but it is really hard to make the teams equal when folks in DC only have a 5-10 mile commute versus those out in VA who might have a 20-30 mile commute. Plus, it makes doing team assignments a bigger pain in the ass.

The assignments have never truly been random. I assign everyone a value based upon the information that I can gather about their riding styles. Some of this information is based upon what they put on the registration form, some of it is based upon previous years, and other is gathered through ride tracking data (Strava, Garmin Connect, Wahooligans, etc.). I then assign values for “local” teams if they have indicated they want to be local. There is a value for those who want to be team captain. I then do a lot of fun math and put people in buckets with specific values that I randomly draw from to arrange the teams so that they all have a relatively equal value in the end. This generally gets done a couple of times before team announcements because people inevitably send messages about deciding not to play or someone has a friend that will JUST ABSOLUTELY DIE if they can not play. Then once the announcements are made, that is when the REAL fun starts when people never show up or hate their team, etc.

Again, I have always tried to accommodate all the requests that I get, but you can not make everyone happy. People complained so much last year that I am pretty much done with trying to accommodate people. Which is why I said I would do it, but once assignments are done, they are done and no substitutions will be made. (But, honestly, if we have a way to only allow folks with confirmed emails in, that might actually solve all the problems.)

If Chuck or awitt want to take it over, by all means, have fun. But you will be on your own, as I am not going to have much time between now and the end of the year to walk you through the process between work and CX nationals.

[rcannon100]

Dont collect any information that you do not need

[chuxtr]

Also cross-posting to the volunteers thread.

@Sunyata 182952 wrote:

If Chuck or awitt want to take it over, by all means, have fun. But you will be on your own, as I am not going to have much time between now and the end of the year to walk you through the process between work and CX nationals.

If I’m going to be on my own if I decide to take over, does that mean I’m free to come up with a “system” for team assignments that may or may not closely resemble the existing system? And do we absolutely have to have local teams? Since it would be my first time doing it, I’d rather make it as “simple” as possible.

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