New BOF Fixture list

[SeanC]

I agree a map of events would be useful.

However I suspect there wont be any major changes for a while as there will be a bedding in period where bugs appear (and have to be fixed) as the system is used - so Angry Haggis's map will probably be needed for a while.

I wonder what newcomers think of the new list, and how we would find out?

Dogs are the clear winners though. How many organisers forget to mention dogs in their event details (I know I do)? The new list has "Dogs Allowed?" field in the event details, and a little doggy icon.

[orient]

Dogs are the clear winners though. How many organisers forget to mention dogs in their event details (I know I do)? The new list has "Dogs Allowed?" field in the event details, and a little doggy icon.

All these extra icons you see only appear if the person inputting the event remembers to tick the relevant boxes otherwise none of them would show.

[SeanC]

yes that's right, but the "event details" page serves as a useful reminder of what information is required. Sometimes event details are too brief and don't always display information with the beginner in mind, or dog owner.

One improvement might be to have a larger free text field to sell the event. For example putting in details about a cafe or visitors centre that might be near registration.

[Roger]

We have always tended to use grid references to locate an event car park. The "affluent" apparently like to use a post code and input it to their Tom Tom.

...There are GR reference to Post code converters. This exercise will however take a little time so be patient.

There are going to be a lot of frustrated people then.

I believe that the underlying latitude and longitude associated with a postcode is the centre of gravity of all the 'delivery points' (i.e. letter-boxes) that share that postcode. And I presume that the sat-nav will take you to that location. You may be lucky and find that your event car park is at the centroid of the several scattered farms that share the postcode produced by the converter, but that would be a fluke.

In the countryside, the granularity of postcodes is much coarser than that of six-figure grid references -- and sometimes coarser than 4-figure grid references, i.e. the kilometre grid squares. A system that's designed to get the post delivered to your house will usually suffice to get a sat-nav owner delivered to your house, but it's a very flaky way of getting you delivered to your orienteering course. Converting from grid reference to postcode is throwing away information; I'd much rather see event locations described via grid references than by postcodes.

The converter at http://www.nearby.org.uk/conversions.cgi (just an example) will convert grid references into lat/long. However, although latitude and longitude may have more widespread applicability for sat-nav devices than the UK National Grid does, it's probably less user-friendly to input. Until the sat-nav devices can access the BOF fixture list directly and be programmed with a single click to 'go to event', the good old six-figure grid reference, supplemented of course with its two letters, looks like the best solution to me.

Caveat: I possess a road atlas and a brain, so I'm no expert on sat-nav devices.

[Pete_Bog]

For those who use SatNavs for navigating to events, clubs are beginning to use the Points of Interest feature to assist (POI).

For example see http://www.leioc.org.uk/fixtures/poi.html

The relevant file can be loaded into a SatNav. It is then just a matter of finding the correct car park for the event. I am aware that the next fixture on this clubs list has several possible starts! Has anyone tried this yet?

[EddieH]

Personally I enjoy navigating. I can see no desirablility in being told by some disembodied voice that I am going the wrong way

[Scott]

You've clearly never heard the alluring tones of some of the more seductively feminine disembodied voices on offer.

[PorkyFatBoy]

Dogs are the clear winners though. The new list has "Dogs Allowed?" field in the event details, and a little doggy icon.

Maybe we should forget about trying to get more M/W21s to come to our events and target Kennel Club members instead

I like it apart from losing three months every time I hit the "Next" button...

[SeanC]

Google answers says

"Estimated Number of UK Households with Dogs, 2001: 5.3 million"

So that's about 15%* of the population who will be thinking "would like to try this sport, but do I have the hassle of leaving Rover at home?"

Then again some of us aren't keen on dogs so might want to encourage people to swap the dog for a cat?

The BOF website says the event details section is still under construction. I'm hoping there's going to be an "other details" section where we can put stuff like the post event pub which would be more relevant to non dog owning M/W 21's.

* depending on how many people are in a "household"

[ricardito]

We have always tended to use grid references to locate an event car park. The "affluent" apparently like to use a post code and input it to their Tom Tom.

As another poster has pointed out, post codes are less useful in a rural area.

Anyone who wants to use a sat nav for getting to orienteering events might want to consider the Garmin range - my nuvi 610 (and I presume other nuvis) allows a destination to be specified as a grid reference.

[egocentric pothunter]

I really do not like the new fixtures list.

It is for me cumbersome and awkward and overcomplicated.

I liked the old list where you could see the whole years events in one go and plan accordingly.

I'm sure that it took the fixtures secretary an age to do and I thank him for that.

We need something as equally simple.

The old list is still running at http://freespace.virgin.net/pat.martin/fixtures.htm

I'll still go there for the forseeable.

[Copepod]

Our cat has never shown any interest in coming to orienteering races - but she loves playing with maps and compass strings!

[geomorph]

I really do not like the new fixtures list.

It is for me cumbersome and awkward and overcomplicated.

I liked the old list where you could see the whole years events in one go and plan accordingly.

I sort of felt along these lines until Angry Haggis suggested a way round (page 1). do try it, its only downfall is the amount of whitespace relative to the old list. Then do what Mrs H said and bookmark it - this then gets round loading all the BO(F) front page stuff.


Thinking about this long list and the way I used to do things to create my own local 'I'll consider events from this personal list' (copy paste in word and delete rows) it would be a nice feature to 'add event to basket' which I can then take away with me (and print or stick in my e-calendar).

Oh, and the back button in the details page should go back to the position in the page from which the details were requested, not the top of page. If this is not possible t hen remove that button and I'll use the browser button

[Marco Polo]

The old list is still running at http://freespace.virgin.net/pat.martin/fixtures.htm

I'll still go there for the forseeable.

But you could be missing out. the new list has 13 events listed for tomorrow- the old list has about half this number.

This could be because the old list is not being updated and/or the inclusion of what would have been ER1S events in the new list (Those events that you would have had to check individual club websites to find.). It might also explain why the old list feels a little less cumbersome- if it had as many events as the new list, it would be much longer anyway.

[SeanC]

The big long list was fine and probably quicker for experienced orienteers who know the shorthand, but not so good for newcomers. Because of the flat list format, a lot of jargon was necessary to stop it getting too huge.

Once you put the big list on the internet you can't control who sees it. Likely reactions of a newcomer to the old list that we might not want include

a) "?????????"
b) "I'll come back later."
c) "This sport loves jargon, it doesn't seem welcoming to newcomers or easy to learn, I'll do something else"
d) "This sport loves jargon, that's great as I'm a jargon obsessed nerd - I'm going to take up the sport and create lots more."
e) (If they persevere and analyse the list). "There are no events in my area for weeks"

Anyone researching the sport with a view to taking it up is likely to end up on the BOF site, and then onto the events page. As soon as we put something on the internet we are marketing our sport whether we like it or not. With the growth of the internet in the past few years this becomes a bigger problem.

Also the big long list was never going to cope with the big increase in local events that the sport needs. Now clubs can update details last minute, there is no reason to keep their local events off the list.

However the big long list might have a place, in the back of Compass Sport and/or Focus. Perhaps just the important events (old district and above) picked out by the editor for advanced planning for those that want to do more than local orienteering?