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The solution... (?)

Posted By: Coolrey
Date: Thursday, 18 June 2009, at 2:27 p.m.

I have been receiving emails and suggestions from every corner on the subject of statistics. I just couldn't believe that nobody was keeping stats, and as it turns out, I was right...

Bill Davis is keeping some, (under wraps), and then there is this place called BackGames.org...

I think Bob Koca copied and pasted the stats from the beltway club one time and I was impressed with that data. As it turns out the beltway club has used the shareware from BackGames.org created by Mike Darooge. Looks pretty simple, but I heard from Patrick Gibson that one of his players entered half of his 2008 tournaments and then gave up. But, Pat has two events a week, not to mention his ABT events and the way he does buy backs I guess it requires a LOT of data entry and to do a whole year would be tedious at best.

The ABT however has about 1.5 tournaments a month, and if there were a few trained individuals that only recorded American Backgammon Tour events, Main, Conso, Last Chance, Masters... It would not be too laborious for anyone in particular! Or else I could just volunteer to do it, cuz I have the time and the inclination and I will retire soon anyway and I am a backgammon addict otherwise why in the HELL have I posted over 900 messages in this idiotic place and got fat???

Please read the conditions below and weigh in on the subject if you want to. Looks to me like we could create an American Backgammon Tour "club" and maintain stats annually. It would be remotely located and accessible from any computer, but not necessarily published in a pamphlet distributed at tournaments, (where MCG would be subjected to scorn and ridicule by his peers).

I am guessing that Matt Reklaitis has something similar and I look forward to discussing it with him @ Novi. He checked it out and posted that he "liked" BackGames.org. Carol Joy Cole highly recommends it, and labels Mr. Darooge a genius.

If we do this I would suggest that we take up a collection, (voluntary UBK), of like $20 per player who would like to establish it and reward Mr. Mike Darooge for his expenses, time, and sweat in creating the thing. I could secure donations from players as part of my auctioneer duties perhaps, or there could be a $1 fee or some such from each tournament player... Whatever makes sense.

I am sure the computer dudes here at bgonline will weigh in with their suggestions, fears, better ideas, reservations, whatever. To me, it kind of looks like an answer for the ABT stats!

The following was copied from the site:

Welcome to BackGames.org BackGames.org is an online resource for backgammon clubs worldwide. It's the first database of its kind where club directors can directly update their club info and tournament results and get automated club standings and player statistics online without any manual calculation or hand editing of web pages.

News... November 2006 - Backgames.org moved to a new server!

Several program enhancements were added during the move! Most notable of the new features is search & pagination on the Club Player lists. With some Club lists approaching 300 players, this was becoming a critical item. Also added is a handy calendar date picker for entering tournament dates. Many other smaller items have been addressed as well. A detailed list is posted on the Change History page.

BackGames FAQ What is the Backgames.org Club database? It is a program to manage your club info online: club venues and meeting times, tournament results, club standings, master points, player ratings, etc.

It's been in use by the Grand Rapids Backgammon Club for over 5 years, and currently has over 40 clubs from around the world. It has proven invaluable in promoting the club activities and keeping interest up among the regular players. Every week there seems to be some discussion about the various club stats. The Nemesis Report (who's beating who) is especially popular and would be virtually impossible without a true relational database.

How does it work? The program is accessed online through your web browser. Club info, player info, and tournament results are stored in the BackGames.org database. It takes only a few minutes to enter the tournament results for a typical weekly club event. Once the data is saved, club standings, player statistics, and other club info can be viewed as web pages on the internet which are updated automatically. These pages can be directly linked from any club website.

What's required? All you need is internet access and a browser that supports CSS, Javascript, and has Cookies enabled, no other software is required. Explorer5+ and Netscape6+, Safari, Firefox, Opera, and others should work fine.

How much does it cost? It's offered to club and tournament directors as "shareware" supported by donations. Try it out for a few months, if you find it to be a valuable resource (and we're sure you will), take up a collection among your local players and send a donation to help offset the cost of maintaining the database and server.

How do I sign up? If you are a backgammon club or tournament director, you can register your organization to use the database program. Registered users will receive login and password access to the database with their own club account. Users are expected to abide by the Terms and Conditions outlined in the User Agreement.

Acknowledgements Thanks to the club directors John Drexel (Grand Rapids BG Club), Carol Joy Cole (Flint Area BG Club), and Paul Berg (Metro North BG Club), plus Jim Slomkoski, Rudy Silich, Brion Brooks, and the many others who have provided valuable input and feedback during the design, development, and testing of this project.

Thanks to Russ Taber who designed the Backgames.org logo and provided the server (websting.com) for this site. Contact Russ for any of your web hosting and graphic design needs.

And a special thanks to my wife, Elizabeth, who affectionately pretends to tolerate this backgammon insanity and occasionally lures me out of the programmer's den with a hot meal or some other distraction.

Your site guru and database dilettante,

Michael Darooge (aka "BluesRascal" on GamesGrid)

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