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BGonline.org Forums
New poll on chicagopoint.com regarding USBGF
Posted By: Rich Munitz
Date: Friday, 14 May 2010, at 4:11 a.m.
A poll was recently posted on chicagopoint.com that pertains to the USBGF's Ratings and Stats efforts. As Chairman of the Ratings and Stats committee, I believe it is my responsibility to discuss this poll and present relevant facts, so that those of you in the community that choose to vote in this poll can do so on an informed basis.
The poll is written as follows:
POLL #20: The USBGF is currently compiling Win/Loss records of players competing at ABT events (dating back to 2009) for their organization’s private use.
a) I think it’s a good idea.
b) It makes no difference to me.
c) I think it’s a bad idea.
d) I’m OK with keeping the records, but the USBGF should not have commenced this process without giving advance notification of a start date.
This poll was posted without consulting with the USBGF to obtain our feedback on the accuracy of its statements, or whether it is misleading regarding USBGF policy or actions. Upon my discovery of this poll, I presented my opinion to Bill that the poll was at the very least misleading and requested that it be corrected. Sadly, Bill's response is that he stands by the accuracy of the statements and will not change the poll.
So here are the facts. You decide.
TRUE statement: "The USBGF is currently compiling Win/Loss records of players competing at ABT events (dating back to 2009)".
FACT: We are indeed doing exactly this.
FALSE or misleading statement: The USBGF is compiling stats "for their organization’s private use".
FACTS: The USBGF as an organization has no intent to use this collected data for any purpose whatsoever, other than to supply it along with statistics derived from it in a useful form to its members. We do not guarantee that our members will have the ability to view all data for all players, but at a minimum, each player will have the ability to view their own statistics for the matches they've played. As this is being done as a benefit of USBGF membership, it is true that any player who does not exercise their option to become a member will not have the ability to view their personal statistics. So if you consider the "organization" to be the set of people working for the organization, then it is false that use of any of the collected data will be restricted to these people (except for the moment public viewing of the data is limited because we do not yet have the software developed to display these statistics on the USBGF website). If you extend the definition of "organization" to include all of the USBGF's hopefully thousands of future members, then it is true that use of the stats will be private to people within the organization. Which definition of "organization" did you assume when first reading the statement? Regardless, I suggested that Bill remove this ambiguity by changing the wording to "for the private use of their members" and he was unwilling to do so.
Misleading statement: "the USBGF should not have commenced this process without giving advance notification of a start date"
FACTS: The USBGF will be providing statistics based on events dating back to early 2009. Since there was no entity called the US Backgammon Federation in early 2009, it is clearly impossible for an entity by that name to have given such notice in advance. However, it is false to say that the backgammon public was not informed back in 2009 that such results would be gathered for this purpose. Such notice took place prominently on this very site back in the first half of 2009. There was a great deal of discussion on the topic at the time. A well attended meeting to discuss the logistics was held in Novi in 2009. Ultimately those efforts along with other desires of the community led directly to the USBGF as we see it today. The following post from June 2009 directly shows the connection forming between that stats gathering effort and the US Backgammon Association founded by Rod Covlin earlier in 2009. The USBGA legal entity was ultimately renamed to the USBGF in 2010.
http://www.bgonline.org/forums/webbbs_config.pl?noframes;read=40994
The following BGO post from June 2009 shows that Bill Davis himself was involved in and aware of these discussions and knew full well back in H1 2009 of the intent to gather these match results for statistics purposes. His concerns were discussed prominently at the forementioned Novi meeting.
http://www.bgonline.org/forums/webbbs_config.pl?noframes;read=41887
The USBGF believes that these results from Open tournaments are public data and anyone attending them all, if they were willing to expend the effort, could produce the same statistics and should not be prevented from doing so. Notice should not be necessary to factually report on publicly available information. Yet advance notice of the intent to collect match results and publish statistics derived from them was given via BGO - the premier community site frequented by US tournament backgammon players. Notice was given during the Calcutta auction at the 2010 NY Metro when the USBGF first announced itself formally to the public. Notice was given in the February/March issue of the Flint Backgammon News (CJC's publication). Notice was NOT given in the Chicago Point because Bill Davis was asked if he would be willing to publish our announcement and he refused.
Bill Davis has pointed out that the USBGF does not have anything posted on its website to describe these plans. This is true. We believe in full transparency and we believe that our process and methods should be of the highest integrity and be able to withstand public scrutiny and even audit by anyone wishing to replicate our results. We therefore have taken Bill's feedback seriously and have undertaken an effort to formally define our policy and our methods in order to post it on our website. I hope to be able to do this within the next week.
By all means vote in the chicagopoint.com poll if you are so inclined. Provide your honest opinion.
Rich
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