News

Ladder Archive Returns!

Well, it's taken way too long, but the Ladder Archive is finally back!

Before I elaborate on the good news, I do have some bad news, although it's not major. Beginning next week, I have a scheduling conflict with our club's regular Thursday session. As a result, I won't be able to get the new weekly results posted until either Tuesday or Wednesday following each session. Of course, in the past there have been some weeks when I never got around to posting the results, so you may not even notice a difference!

As I write this, only the results for the first week of the season have been posted. This will at least allow you to explore the new features of the archive. Results will be added as they are entered, which of course is at my leisure. However, I have access to the club's official ladder book until Tuesday, so I'm going to try to get all, or at least most, of the results posted by then. With access to the ladder book, it's a lot easier for me to keep the results accurate! So check back periodically to see if new results have been added. (News items will not be posted as results are added, so check the main ladder index.) In the unlikely event of a major bug delaying the adding of new results, I will post a news item to let you know.

Below is a summary of the enhancements and changes. Please keep in mind that while there is a lot that is new, there is nothing really major. Certainly, nothing that warranted delaying the results for over six months. It was only supposed to be a two-month project, but that's how it goes I guess.

The major addition is the new Hall of Fame. This is a complete, cumulative record of club accomplishments in various categories. The Hall of Fame uses a progressive qualification standard, so as the club improves, it will be harder to make it to the Hall of Fame.

Another notable addition is that of overall club statistics! Club-wide attendance and scoring are followed here. Perhaps the most notable feature of the club stats is the tracking of top 20 most heavily attended sessions. The club statistics are archived to allow people to observe changes in attendance, so you can access them from the ladder index page, or via the link in each ladder page.

Of course, the main ladder and full ladder have also been enhanced! Players' cumulative point spreads are tracked for both the season and all-time (a much-requested feature). Average scores and positions are now stored as fractions and shown to two decimal places for greater accuracy. Undefeated and Winless streaks are now tracked. Also, each player's ten highest scores and three lowest scores are now stored! The Number of Nightly High Games is now tracked, as this is a category for which the club awards a seasonal prize. Links to the previous and next week's sessions allow you to navigate through the archive more easily. Last but not least, the stats are now more accurate in various ways. One notable example is that byes no longer count towards Games Played, which dragged down the average scores.

Finally, it's important to mention that the stats have been recomputed using all of the data from January, 1999 thru February, 2000. I felt it would have been unfair to mix the more accurate stats with the older ones, or to disregard the older ones entirely. Implementing this was what took the bulk of the time, but I felt it was worth it. (Well, it was at least worth the planned two-month disruption anyhow.) Besides, the archived results take up several megs of web space, so they may as well be used for something!

I hope you enjoy the new Ladder Archive. Please let me know what you think, and especially let me know if there are any bugs!.