News

Update

This is a general, but lengthy, site update that will touch on a few things, including the whereabouts of recent results, and the site's future. I'll do the plain news (like new site updates) first, and follow that up with some information on where this site is headed.

This update is a little different in that it refers to stuff that has not yet been posted as of the posting of this article. This is because I have to pause my updates for a few hours, but I wanted to make what I have done so far (especially yesterday's results) available immediately. Everything here WILL BE POSTED within 24 hours (and probably a lot sooner) so please don't email me asking me where stuff is (at least not until Wednesday).

First of all, the Winter Results are now online. I would have had them online yesterday but for some reason I was unable to connect in order to upload pages for about three days ending today. The tournament was a success, drawing 41 players including numerous out-of-towners. It was our first two-day tournament to feature cash prizes and used the new category structure described earlier. (See the Old News Archive.)

Second, the Ladders are being updated. The results from the 13th have been posted, and they include changes to win/bye totals to match the official ladder. This should hold us through to the end of the club season in about a month's time. The 20th and 27th will be posted later this evening.

The Ratings from our Marathon tournament will also be posted later this evening. One minor change will be the way the Consistency factor is computed. I was erroneously taking the player's entire average, rather than the average over the last six months -- the time period used in the other part of the calculation. As a little bonus, I'll be posting a FAQ answer explaining in detail how this rather mysterious but useful statistic is computed. It's actually pretty simple!

Now, I kind of threw that last bit about the site's future in there unexpectedly, but for those who might have been alarmed, please relax. By "site's future" I do not mean whether or not the site has a future. I'm committed to keeping this site current, even if I can only do updates once a month. So anyone who feared the recent lack of activity was a sign that the site was dying can now stop worrying.

However, there are a few things about this site that may be changing soon, so here they are:

• Update Frequency - This, as you know, has already changed, but I'd like to give you a better idea of when to expect updates. Unfortunately I can't keep the site as up-to-date as I'd like, i.e. as I have in the past. This may mean you have to wait two or even three weeks for new ladders, ratings, and other stuff to appear. I realize this will be an inconvenience, but it's the best I can do.
• Info. Page Updates - I recently went and browsed the entire site and noticed that some of the more static pages, like the new member introductions, are now slightly out-of-date. During February I'll be trying to update these pages and clean them up a bit.
• Out-of-Town Results - I have the Reno results but haven't been able to get them onto a web page yet. Most of our players didn't do all that well, unfortunately.
• Site Location - I may have found a decent web space provider to host this site. If this is the case, then obviously the site will be moving. However, there's no need to concern yourself with this. Since the site is currently on my personal space, I can keep redirectors up for as long as is needed, and thus the site should always be findable.
• Site Ownership - If the site changes location, ownership and control will be transferred to Club #374. About the only change this might mean is that other Directors would also be able to update pages, which isn't a bad thing at all!
• Site Design - Again, if the site moves, it would likely undergo a makeover either when it moves or shortly thereafter. This may also include major enhancements like polls, discussion forums, and other programs that I am not currently able to run. Again, this is, as the saying goes, a "Good Thing".

So as you can see, there are lots of good plans for this site! But this shouldn't surprise anybody. Over the last few months, the site's TOTAL hits have more than doubled (according to the counter at least), so I have every reason to keep this site running and continue to make improvements for a long time to come!