Filling places & choices
Posted by Rajiv Jul 12, 2019 16:31:07 GMT 8
Post by Rajiv on Jul 12, 2019 16:31:07 GMT 8
The problem of clustering has gotten worse since mid June 2019, especially since the start of July 2019 for the Monday night game at Macpherson (at the expense of the Tuesday night game at Macpherson and the Thursday night game at Khalsa), notwithstanding my attempts to use the priority system and admin fees to get a better spread of players across all games. The waitlist for the Monday night game at Macpherson, the Wednesday night game at Khalsa and the Saturday evening game at the Grandstand have been as follows:
The game for Wednesday, 17 July 2019, which was put up this morning, already has 4 on waitlist.
For the game on 1 July 2019, players surprisingly voted for switching to playing 3 teams over 2 hours, but unfortunately, a second hour was not available, and is unlikely ever to be available on a Monday night at Macpherson, as they have to close by 10 pm.
I reintroduced the Tuesday night game at Macpherson at the start of the month, but the game has been cancelled in each of the two weeks so far (2 July 2019 and 9 July 2019) with only a couple of names put down.
What is even more disappointing is that the Thursday night game at Khalsa and the Sunday evening game at Grandstand, both of which I have been trying for years to stabilise, have barely had half the players required in the past few weeks. We have not had a Thursday night game since 6 June 2019, while the Sunday games on 9 June 2019 and 7 July 2019 were cancelled, with several other Sunday games over the past few months filling up very late on, and even then, only after a lot of asking around. The game for this Sunday (14 July 2019) only has 6 names down at the time of this post (Friday afternoon).
I have spent a lot of time over several years trying to sustain the Thursday night game at Khalsa and the Sunday evening game at Grandstand, but players clustering around the Monday night game at Macpherson, the Wednesday night game at Khalsa and the Saturday evening game at Grandstand undermines my efforts. I will stop scheduling the Thursday night game for the rest of this month, and if the game this Sunday is cancelled, I will also stop scheduling the Sunday evening game at Grandstand for the rest of the month. I will review the situation towards the end of the month, but I am not likely to resume these games until September 2019 at the earliest.
Instead, for now, I will focus on the extra game on Monday night at Macpherson and, if I stop scheduling the Sunday evening game at Grandstand, I will re-start the extra Sunday night game at Khalsa.
The entire system is based on a "pooling effect", that is, a larger group of players across a wider range of games. Clustering undermines the pooling effect, and I will look at other ways to deal with this issue.
The Tuesday night 6-a-side game at Grandstand has just about been filling up, and I treat it separately, as it is the only regular game that is not 7 or 8-a-side. As most players only want to play 7 or 8-a-side, the pool for the Tuesday night game at Grandstand is smaller.
To encourage PRG players to play the additional games, those who put their names down for Tuesday night at Macpherson or Sunday night at Khalsa will have priority in the first 24 hours for all games for which the schedule thread goes up that Tuesday or Sunday or in the 6 days after that day.
To deal with the issue of "hogging" or "choping", I posted the following on the "GIFFA system & playing rules" thread on 10 April 2019:
I have not had to apply this up to now, but I will do so going forward. As this has not been applied before now, I will delete the post from the "GIFFA system & playing rules" thread.
- Saturday, 15 June 2019, 4.
- Saturday, 22 June 2019, 2.
- Saturday, 29 June 2019, 2.
- Monday, 1 July 2019, 10.
- Wednesday, 3 July 2019, 4 (but reduced to nil by withdrawals).
- Saturday, 6 July 2019, 2.
- Monday, 8 July 2019, 8.
- Wednesday, 10 July 2019, 3.
- Saturday, 13 July 2019, 6.
- Monday, 15 July 2019, 12!!!
The game for Wednesday, 17 July 2019, which was put up this morning, already has 4 on waitlist.
For the game on 1 July 2019, players surprisingly voted for switching to playing 3 teams over 2 hours, but unfortunately, a second hour was not available, and is unlikely ever to be available on a Monday night at Macpherson, as they have to close by 10 pm.
I reintroduced the Tuesday night game at Macpherson at the start of the month, but the game has been cancelled in each of the two weeks so far (2 July 2019 and 9 July 2019) with only a couple of names put down.
What is even more disappointing is that the Thursday night game at Khalsa and the Sunday evening game at Grandstand, both of which I have been trying for years to stabilise, have barely had half the players required in the past few weeks. We have not had a Thursday night game since 6 June 2019, while the Sunday games on 9 June 2019 and 7 July 2019 were cancelled, with several other Sunday games over the past few months filling up very late on, and even then, only after a lot of asking around. The game for this Sunday (14 July 2019) only has 6 names down at the time of this post (Friday afternoon).
I have spent a lot of time over several years trying to sustain the Thursday night game at Khalsa and the Sunday evening game at Grandstand, but players clustering around the Monday night game at Macpherson, the Wednesday night game at Khalsa and the Saturday evening game at Grandstand undermines my efforts. I will stop scheduling the Thursday night game for the rest of this month, and if the game this Sunday is cancelled, I will also stop scheduling the Sunday evening game at Grandstand for the rest of the month. I will review the situation towards the end of the month, but I am not likely to resume these games until September 2019 at the earliest.
Instead, for now, I will focus on the extra game on Monday night at Macpherson and, if I stop scheduling the Sunday evening game at Grandstand, I will re-start the extra Sunday night game at Khalsa.
The entire system is based on a "pooling effect", that is, a larger group of players across a wider range of games. Clustering undermines the pooling effect, and I will look at other ways to deal with this issue.
The Tuesday night 6-a-side game at Grandstand has just about been filling up, and I treat it separately, as it is the only regular game that is not 7 or 8-a-side. As most players only want to play 7 or 8-a-side, the pool for the Tuesday night game at Grandstand is smaller.
To encourage PRG players to play the additional games, those who put their names down for Tuesday night at Macpherson or Sunday night at Khalsa will have priority in the first 24 hours for all games for which the schedule thread goes up that Tuesday or Sunday or in the 6 days after that day.
To deal with the issue of "hogging" or "choping", I posted the following on the "GIFFA system & playing rules" thread on 10 April 2019:
If, within 24 hours of the schedule thread going up, a game fills up and has players on waitlist, and continues to have players on waitlist until the selector poll goes up (not more than 24 hours before the game), but withdrawals after the selector poll going up results in the game being cancelled or postponed, those who had a confirmed place when the WhatsApp group chat was created, but withdrew after the selector poll went up, will lose priority in the first 24 hours after the schedule thread for the following week's game goes up.
I have not had to apply this up to now, but I will do so going forward. As this has not been applied before now, I will delete the post from the "GIFFA system & playing rules" thread.