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PowerLines
The Official USAPL Electronic Newsletter
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Re: Rankings and Results Database
Posted By: Cheryl Anderson In Response To: Re: Rankings and Results Database (Eliot Feldman)
Date: Thursday, 4 June 2009, at 6:14 a.m.
1. Here are some good questions I’ve just received from others:
“I've been following the Rankings discussion online. I wonder who owns the new system? Is it the USAPL or Madvig/Sampson? If they pull the plug, or want to start charging in a year or two, is the USAPL left to start all over again?”
“How many total lifter entries (number of times you entered lifters in the database) do you have for 2008, including duplicates (lifters that went into multiple meets)?”
2. There was also the question of who was behind it?
In less than a week, we went from a claim (by Sampson) of only ONE volunteer solely responsible for the rankings database (Sampson himself)... to TWO (you post that it is Madvig and Sampson’s work -- which we knew about, as we heard it trumpeted enough times -- with Sampson denying it this past week)... to now SIX (Madvig and Sampson, now with the yet-to-see system named after them, along with Priscilla Ribic, Angela Simons, Cathy and Joe Marksteiner). Why the inconsistency?
3. You say it’s almost done, and then you say it’s not.
You say, "we have only one national meet and international results left to manually input into the database to produce rankings for 2008."
Then it's almost done? What this means is that it’s just missing a mere handful of meets. So it is more than ready to go live for all to see, right now.
Can we see it?
You also say: "We will have 2009 mid-year rankings, based on manually input National and International meet results, within 30-45 days after the close of the second quarter."
“Close of second quarter” = end of June/start of July. So 30-45 days after that = August 1st - 15th. So, you are saying that sometime in the first two weeks of August, the membership will see all the 2008 rankings and 2009 rankings up to mid-year.
But then…you say: "Moving forward there will be problems with roll out and growth of the system. Please be patient. I ask our members to grow with us and help move the system forward. Help us ensure that all meet results are entered into the database."
Did you not just say that there are only a handful of meets -- National and International -- left to enter??!
4. I’ve done a little research and got some info from Mike Armstrong (from weeks prior to this) and learned more about what he actually charged and what time went into the database. I roughly calculated that if USAPL took just $1 of each of its approx. 4000 memberships, it would have covered 4/quarterly editions of Powerlines for the year, which is what we used to get. Each edition had an average 20-30 meets with full results listed, PLUS this cost included the rankings database and year-end lists!!!
Let’s say, even if the prices had been jacked-up to triple the amount from there, it would have been $3 per member for quarterly online issues. Do you think the membership would have been willing to pay that to have ongoing/annual stats? I do. We pay a hell of a lot more for a lot of other things, just to participate.
It looks like a big decision was made by some, without first asking the rest of the membership what they thought, what they would be willing to pay, or whether they had any input/suggestions for what would be best to do.
5. Website -- yes, the release of the rankings is very delayed
On the home page of usapowerlifting.com, our rankings lists and database, as well as Powerlines, are very prominently featured as main sections -- a link in the upper right corner of the home page (Top 20 Lifter Rankings -- linking to database), and two modules in the right-hand side navigation, pointing to these tools (Rankings Database, and below that, Powerlines). What’s bad is that, while these look awesome, the most recent data returned is from 2007. So while we are trying to create the PL database that is better than anything anyone’s seen before… the fact is, others were able to do it and HAVE an up-to-date database in use right now.
I work in Corporate and Employee Communications, and it involves a lot of public relations and marketing (I work for a global brand management company). So I can see what you are trying to accomplish with your post. However, there is a huge trend in Corp Comms called transparency. If you want to reach out and get membership buy-in, you have to encourage two-way communication -- but even more importantly, they MUST get consistent and honest info that they can trust. Right now, we are not, because certain individuals are being catered to, while others are getting screwed.
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