When will planning for Freezing Saddles start?

[cvcalhoun]

Thanks! Mine involved limited coding, although I did use a WordPress site rather than Google forms. (That allowed me to refuse registration to people who chose certain wrong options, provide a bit neater compilation of the answers, add two different anti-spam measures, and put the nice header image at the top.) But I’m really excited about the competition. And having participated without volunteering much (other than setting up the team’s first get-together, and creating a Facebook group for the team) in prior years, I figured I’d try to make myself useful this year.

@lordofthemark 128945 wrote:

I am so impressed with the folks who do the coding and related organizing, whatever everyone else wants to do about slackers, geographic teams, etc is fine with me.

My goals for FS this year are to get more points than last year, do some beerneuring, and maybe contribute a pointless prize. And have fun and meet people. And of course to impress all the people I know who do not think it is possible to ride a bike in the winter. And to convince my family that I am, indeed, insane.

[Steve O]

@Steve O 128932 wrote:

No worries. I actually am a robot.

Oh, great! Now this shows up on the registration form. Guess I’m out.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]10171[/ATTACH]

[Steve O]

@DrP 128941 wrote:

I have kind of like the idea of the winter riding I do anyway “counting” towards something. So, it looks like I could sign up for BAFS and continue doing the riding I regularly do – commuting and one weekly fun ride – and perhaps not join in on other rides (although the occasional happy hour) because I already ride about as often as I can now. However, I have a dumb phone and no GPS device nor really want them (yes, I know I sound like a curmudgeonly Luddite). Can I enter the rides in strava manually and still do this? (which I think means I cannot do any of the time or location challenges since it looks like the strava manual entry is simply length of ride and comments (no real start and stop time or location, unless in comments)). Does it make sense for me to join in under these conditions?

Yes. We have a number of riders who do manual entry each year. They have fun.

[cvcalhoun]

@Steve O 128958 wrote:

Oh, great! Now this shows up on the registration form. Guess I’m out.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]10171[/ATTACH]

You can always lie. It only stops stupid or extremely honest rebots. [emoji6]

[Anonymous]

At the risk (ok, near certainty) of turning this 11 page thread into a 22 pager, can we confirm a few details that haven’t been explicitly argued over yet, so that when the registration form is ready, there is good info to provide to people who haven’t participated in the past and may not be entirely sure how this thing works?

Registration info:

1) Leaderboard authorization same link as last year?
2) Are we using BikeArlington Strava Club again to pull people in to the leaderboard? I vaguely remember hozn suggesting he might prefer doing a strictly Freezing Saddles strava club instead?

General game info:

3) Team size: teams of 9-10 people again?
4) Scoring: same as previous years? 10 points per day, one point per mile, one mile minimum for your daily 10?
5) Game runs 00:00:01am January 1 through 23:59:59 pm March 19. In order to for your ride be counted by the leaderboard app, be sure it doesn’t start before midnight on December 31/January 1 or extend past midnight on March 19/20. Stop your GPS (or crop your ride?) if necessary if you happen to be riding through the cutoff time.
6) A Strava account is required and is used to pull rides and miles into the leaderboard. Manual entry is acceptable; GPS or smart phone devices not required.
7) Anything else anyone can think of that might need clarification?

I’m not going to update the sticky post with registration info at least until I have the answer to the first two. I think it’s more, rather than less, confusing if I put only some of things people need to do and then later go change it to add more. I’m not so particular about the other stuff, and am fine with adding it later or having it in another post but it’s probably a good idea to explicitly explain how the game works somewhere…

[cvcalhoun]

The only one of these I care about is “A Strava account is required and is used to pull rides and miles into the leaderboard.” The draft registration form asks people for their Strava numbers, and requires an entry before the form will be processed. If for some reason we’re not using Strava, please let me know ASAP so that I can fix this question.

@Amalitza 128963 wrote:

At the risk (ok, near certainty) of turning this 11 page thread into a 22 pager, can we confirm a few details that haven’t been explicitly argued over yet, so that when the registration form is ready, there is good info to provide to people who haven’t participated in the past and may not be entirely sure how this thing works?

Registration info:

1) Leaderboard authorization same link as last year?
2) Are we using BikeArlington Strava Club again to pull people in to the leaderboard? I vaguely remember hozn suggesting he might prefer doing a strictly Freezing Saddles strava club instead?

General game info:

3) Team size: teams of 9-10 people again?
4) Scoring: same as previous years? 10 points per day, one point per mile, one mile minimum for your daily 10?
5) Game runs 00:00:01am January 1 through 23:59:59 pm March 19. In order to for your ride be counted by the leaderboard app, be sure it doesn’t start before midnight on December 31/January 1 or extend past midnight on March 19/20. Stop your GPS (or crop your ride?) if necessary if you happen to be riding through the cutoff time.
6) A Strava account is required and is used to pull rides and miles into the leaderboard. Manual entry is acceptable; GPS or smart phone devices not required.
7) Anything else anyone can think of that might need clarification?

I’m not going to update the sticky post with registration info at least until I have the answer to the first two. I think it’s more, rather than less, confusing if I put only some of things people need to do and then later go change it to add more. I’m not so particular about the other stuff, and am fine with adding it later or having it in another post but it’s probably a good idea to explicitly explain how the game works somewhere…

[jrenaut]

@cvcalhoun 128964 wrote:

The only one of these I care about is “A Strava account is required and is used to pull rides and miles into the leaderboard.” The draft registration form asks people for their Strava numbers, and requires an entry before the form will be processed. If for some reason we’re not using Strava, please let me know ASAP so that I can fix this question.

We are definitely using Strava unless someone wants to rewrite the entire BAFS website.

[sjclaeys]

@dkel 128918 wrote:

If someone put in a lot of miles in last year’s challenge, but plans not to put in nearly as many this year (for whatever reason), how is that person assigned to a team based on the information gathered by the form? The only reason I’m considering joining the slackers this year is that I’m not expecting to be able to put in a competitive effort when compared to my effort last year. As far as I can tell, if I were assigned to a non-slacker team, the handicapping system would then put that team at a disadvantage, since the assignment is based on last year’s mileage. I just don’t want to let anyone down, and I know how freakishly competitive people are around here (me included).

Does this mean that you won’t be competing as vigorously for side bets, like those involving beer?

[sjclaeys]

@Amalitza 128963 wrote:

At the risk (ok, near certainty) of turning this 11 page thread into a 22 pager, can we confirm a few details that haven’t been explicitly argued over yet, so that when the registration form is ready, there is good info to provide to people who haven’t participated in the past and may not be entirely sure how this thing works?

Registration info:

1) Leaderboard authorization same link as last year?
2) Are we using BikeArlington Strava Club again to pull people in to the leaderboard? I vaguely remember hozn suggesting he might prefer doing a strictly Freezing Saddles strava club instead?

General game info:

3) Team size: teams of 9-10 people again?
4) Scoring: same as previous years? 10 points per day, one point per mile, one mile minimum for your daily 10?
5) Game runs 00:00:01am January 1 through 23:59:59 pm March 19. In order to for your ride be counted by the leaderboard app, be sure it doesn’t start before midnight on December 31/January 1 or extend past midnight on March 19/20. Stop your GPS (or crop your ride?) if necessary if you happen to be riding through the cutoff time.
6) A Strava account is required and is used to pull rides and miles into the leaderboard. Manual entry is acceptable; GPS or smart phone devices not required.
7) Anything else anyone can think of that might need clarification?

I’m not going to update the sticky post with registration info at least until I have the answer to the first two. I think it’s more, rather than less, confusing if I put only some of things people need to do and then later go change it to add more. I’m not so particular about the other stuff, and am fine with adding it later or having it in another post but it’s probably a good idea to explicitly explain how the game works somewhere…

Wasn’t there a debate last year about whether e-bikes and now other electrically driven vehicles that occupy MUPs, bike lanes, etc. should be allowed?

[cvcalhoun]

@dkel 128918 wrote:

If someone put in a lot of miles in last year’s challenge, but plans not to put in nearly as many this year (for whatever reason), how is that person assigned to a team based on the information gathered by the form? The only reason I’m considering joining the slackers this year is that I’m not expecting to be able to put in a competitive effort when compared to my effort last year. As far as I can tell, if I were assigned to a non-slacker team, the handicapping system would then put that team at a disadvantage, since the assignment is based on last year’s mileage. I just don’t want to let anyone down, and I know how freakishly competitive people are around here (me included).

I don’t see this as being a big issue. First place, it should even out among the teams. There will be some on each team who ride more than last year and some who ride less. Second, once this year’s rides start to be posted, last year’s will disappear, so it’s not like people can be shamed for doing less this year.

[sjclaeys]

@Amalitza 128917 wrote:

I personally have no objection to grandfathering in previous players who have since moved and still participate in the forum, although admittedly sooner or later someone’s bound to move somewhere warm and then we’d have to deal with whether or not that’s allowed. But I’m not sure why everything else is up for discussion and this is not…

I strongly agree on letting previous players who have the misfortune (or not) of not being in the DMV participate as full players.

[hozn]

@Amalitza 128963 wrote:

1)Leaderboard authorization same link as last year?
2)Are we using BikeArlington Strava Club again to pull people in to the leaderboard? I vaguely remember hozn suggesting he might prefer doing a strictly Freezing Saddles strava club instead?

(1) yes, it will be the same, but we have old data still. I will clear the database, though I may leave authorizations in there so folks don’t need to reauth.

(2) good memory! Yeah, it was confusing to use the BA Strava club last year, so I vote we have a new “2016 BAFS” club this year and ask everyone to join that club (and stay joined). That can also be a non-forum way of making general competition announcements (club discussions), which seems helpful.

[Anonymous]

@sjclaeys 128967 wrote:

Wasn’t there a debate last year about whether e-bikes and now other electrically driven vehicles that occupy MUPs, bike lanes, etc. should be allowed?

I don’t know. Maybe! Was there also a resolution to the debate?

[Steve O]

@sjclaeys 128967 wrote:

Wasn’t there a debate last year about whether e-bikes and now other electrically driven vehicles that occupy MUPs, bike lanes, etc. should be allowed?

Like ELFs?

[Steve O]

@Amalitza 128963 wrote:

At the risk (ok, near certainty) of turning this 11 page thread into a 22 pager,

You know, you can change your settings to 20 per page. I’m only on page 6.

You can also change them to put the most recent post first, so it appears at the top rather than the end.

[Author]

Posts