View Poll Results: What do you think of the online race entry system?

Voters
19. You may not vote on this poll
  • Great - No Problems

    5 26.32%
  • Good

    6 31.58%
  • OK

    4 21.05%
  • Needs Improvement

    4 21.05%
  • Bad - Paper Forms are Better

    0 0%
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Thread: Poll for Online Race Entry

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    San Francisco Bay Area
    Posts
    2,095

    Default

    Hey, I'm crew on Velocious, owned by George McKay. George registered for the race, so the boat is in there, do I have to register as crew?
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Posts
    1

    Default

    I much prefer online entries to paper and am glad it's helpful for you guys but that form is in desperate need of help. Having each little bit of information need its own page at the end was tedious (couldn't my t-shirt size and my crew's t-shirt size have been on one page?). That being said, I'm willing to put up with a little inconvenience to help you guys organize the race with less difficulty.

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    577

    Default

    No Alan, that part is unchanged. Your skipper registers and gives us your name ... and no other information about you except your shirt size. All you have to do is show up and race.

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    San Francisco Bay Area
    Posts
    2,095

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Critter View Post
    No Alan, that part is unchanged. Your skipper registers and gives us your name ... and no other information about you except your shirt size. All you have to do is show up and race.
    OK...I can do that!
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  5. #15
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    San Francisco Bay Area
    Posts
    2,095

    Default

    According to George, the boats entry wasn't finalized because I hadn't entered.

    so in order to race I went ahead and gave a f@@@load of personal information...mailing address, telephone number, birthdate, BIRTHDATE??????? WHY do they need my BIRTHDATE? everything that anybody would need except for social security number to do an identity theft.

    just merrily handed all that to ...I have NO idea whom. Who are these people that are running this site? How do they make their money? Do they charge for their services? Do they make it by selling off contact information to spammers? They may SAY they don't but when was the last time you went up on a website and there it was, loud and clear "We give your information to people who will saturate you with advertising for penis-enhancement drugs".

    Why should I trust these people?

    I am not happy about this.

    ...and while I totally sympathize with the ginormous headache that the RC goes through to organize a race with over 300 boats, I'm not happy at all about being told that I have to hand over a crapload of personal information to people I don't even know, in order to race.

    There. I said it. Now I'm going to be even more clear. If I have to do it again...register online with a DIFFERENT company because the Board isn't happy with this one, I will stop racing with the SSS.

    Once is bad enough. Please don't ask me to do it again. I'll give YOU my personal information, because I know where you live and where you park your car at night....but these guys?
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  6. #16
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Posts
    97

    Default Team Requirements

    Alan,

    We don't want you to stop racing SSS just because of the online registration process.

    I can see where there is some confusion on the requirements for registering team members. There is a requirement for the boat registration that is a field called crew name and crew T-shirt size. When the boat skipper registers for the race entry they put this information in and this part of the registration is complete. Steve can order your T-shirt in the correct size and we know who else is on the boat with George.

    The is also a place in the race entry form where you can add team members. This is not a requirement for entry into the race. If you have not completed the team setup in the compete-at system, you get a red incomplete message under the team setup. This is not a race requirement. In order to setup your team, all of the team members have to be registered in the system.

    That's a long winded way of saying that when I looked in the compete-at system for George's boat entry he's got all the race requirements completed, his PHRF rating is approved and he's got you added to his team. None of the other doublehanded entries that I looked at went to the extra step of getting their team members to register in the system and add them to their team. They just put the crews name and t-shirt size in the required race entry fields and ignored the incomplete team setup. Their race entry is complete. Going the extra step of putting in the team members is not necessary. Sorry for the confusion.

    I'm not the one that designed the system but I am doing my best to figure out when people are having problems what is happening. There is also some confusion about needing to fill out all the items in the compete-at passport which is not needed for SSS race entry. We are working with the compete-at support people to resolve issues but some of what is happening is just confusion with the new system, what is required and what isn't required.

    What Max said earlier still stands as far as I know:
    Your skipper registers and gives us your name ... and no other information about you except your shirt size. All you have to do is show up and race.
    I don't want to answer your forum post with anything snide or contrite. The compete-at company is a legitamite business making their money through online credit card transactions. They charge the SSS only if you process an online credit card payment and do not charge the SSS if you pay us by check. They do have extensive information about their secure database and privacy policies online at: http://compete-at.com/corporate/policies.htm

    If there is anything else I can do to alleviate your concerns or further answer your questions, let me know.

    Matt Beall
    Tinker
    SSS Web Editor

  7. #17
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    San Francisco Bay Area
    Posts
    2,095

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Tinker View Post
    Alan,

    We don't want you to stop racing SSS just because of the online registration process.

    I don't want to answer your forum post with anything snide or contrite. The compete-at company is a legitamite business making their money through online credit card transactions. They charge the SSS only if you process an online credit card payment and do not charge the SSS if you pay us by check. They do have extensive information about their secure database and privacy policies online at: http://compete-at.com/corporate/policies.htm

    If there is anything else I can do to alleviate your concerns or further answer your questions, let me know.

    Matt Beall
    Tinker
    SSS Web Editor
    I want to make sure that the Board and Race Committee knows that I grok the enormous headache that goes into running a 3BF. Ask Dan Alvarez about the 3BF when he and I ran around like crazies at midnight after the race was over, chasing down an errant Coronado 25 that hadn't cleared off the racecourse. I've done 4-5 3BF race decks, a couple of times I've stayed on the deck all day, from start until the last finisher came through. The logistics of setting up the race, processing the entries and handling the money, t-shirts and the Coast Guard is a freaking nightmare. And this year, you've got over 300 boats!!!

    I get that!

    And OK, so I've done it.....I've handed over personal details to some company that I've never heard of that has lovely privacy policies on their website. I've screamed and shouted about it on this forum. I'm sure they're great guys.....until their main server goes down, a few thousand people start screaming at them about misplaced Master Card and Visa transactions, and in desperation to make some $$$ to shut people up, the "New Owners" since the old ones disappeared when the servers died make a few bucks by quietly handing over their database to a "Marketing Company that Respects Our Customers Privacy". Again, have you ever visited a website which says in their privacy policy "Our Privacy Policy is that we're going to sell your contact information to as many people as we possibly can." A "Privacy Policy" is a load of bunk, it means absolutely nothing, and once your private information is dished up to the bad guys..it's *GONE*....it's fair game to any jerk that can get it. Trusting that some guys are nice guys because they have an online "Privacy Policy" is flight of fantasy.

    OK....OK, then. All well and good, and now I'm in their database and it's done. Fine. I can live with it, I'm done bitching about it. I've pissed and moaned enough.

    Just DON'T decide, now that 300 people have dished up their private information to this outfit, that gosh, we don't like them so much after all...now we're gonna go with this OTHER company.....who also wants all your personal information. That's all I ask. You picked one company, now stay with them.

    OK. 'nuff. Let's go race.

    Oh, one last thing.

    I gave them my correct mailing address and primary phone number.

    but the secondary and third phone number...they require THREE TELEPHONE NUMBERS??.......are made-up bunk.
    And I didn't give them my correct birthday, either.
    Last edited by AlanH; 01-26-2009 at 07:28 PM.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  8. #18
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Vancouver British Columbia, Canada
    Posts
    133

    Default

    Boy!!! That'll show 'em !!!!!

  9. #19
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    San Francisco Bay Area
    Posts
    2,095

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by haulback View Post
    Boy!!! That'll show 'em !!!!!
    Ever gotten a phone call asking if you really, truly just spent about $18,000 on your credit card?

    I have.

    I admit that I'm a bit sensitive to the issue.
    Last edited by AlanH; 01-26-2009 at 08:37 PM.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  10. #20
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    577

    Default

    I encourage everyone to put phony information in the fields that are unjustifiably required. I was born in 1891, and I'm a citizen of Burkina Faso. Did you know that Vince Swerkes is an Afghani woman?

    But seriously, I complained about these requirements to the vendor, and their answer was that these are important bits of information to international regatta organizers, and therefore they require them of everybody. Clearly, what they need to do is let administrators (the likes of Matt, Thom and me) customize their registration requirements. Then, if one of us goes on to use our "passport" to register for a regatta that requires more information, we can enter it then.

    Max

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