New TD - AMA!

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Darkson
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Re: New TD - AMA!

Post by Darkson »

P.S. One the NAF map page it says: "An interactive map of upcoming tournaments can be found here: NafMap." but the link under "NafMap" is giving a 404 Not Found error.

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Re: New TD - AMA!

Post by gjnoronh »

Glad this generated some discussion.
Couple of thoughts/findings.

1- the fact we have a Map, a List, and a Database of tournaments is 'good.' What's problematic is if you click on the Map, List, or Database page there is no reference to the other two options for finding events. Could we just include on each of those pages something up top along the lines of "Another way to find tournaments in your area is to use our MAP (hyperlink), or LIST (hyperlink) of upcoming events.'

I think that's generally an issue I have with the NAF website -awesome resources but if you hit one useful page it may not always reference the other pages that are pertinent to the one you are looking at.

2- The Map doesn't seem to actually hyperlink me to most the tournaments in my region when I click their name - just bounces me back to the map page. I suspect that's because the tournament doesn't have its own unique 'web page' the TO filled in when registering the event. I wonder if we could have it default to the tournament web page on the NAF website registration (may require tech resources we don't have.) Alternatively provide more coaching for TO's to fill something in the web page field - even if it is editing the event after registration to include the web page on the NAF website (or using a Facebook event or the like.)

3. The List (https://www.thenaf.net/tournaments/info ... urnaments/) is cool but again the US is big enough that the city names are non recognizable without a state. I recognized the tourist locations (Tampa, Las Vegas) but the other city names could be anywhere in the US including a few hours from me. Again that's specifically a US problem so may not apply to all our coaches. Not sure how to fix that but I'm sure the list is useful to others.

4. @Purplegoo (and also everyone else) thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. I'll note an issue with the Facebook suggestion to use local groups- how do we find them? When publicizing the two tournaments I ran this year I did a lot of searching on Facebook looking for regional groups. New York State has at least 3 Blood Bowl Facebook groups for local leagues that I've found so far. It wouldn't surprise me if there are more that I haven't found. There wasn't a state or North East US Blood Bowl discussion group that I've found. Is there a way to help players and TO's find local or regional FB groups?

Certainly at this point FB communication seems to be the dominant mode of Blood Bowl communication right now (compare the BBC FB group total number of daily posts to the NAF's forum + Talk Fantasy Football combined) even if it's not the best for enduring intermediate term discussions like tournament registration and information. Twitter has 'lists' of users interested in a specific topic (not really sure how that works) and forums often had links to other related forums. FB has options to have suggested other groups but isn't designed to handle the number of other BB groups there are. In my Warhammer hat I used to keep the following list (now quite dated) https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/wyrmlin ... l#p4352073
Not sure how best to do it - but if the conversations are on FB subdivided into many many small regional groups I'd love to find ways to help gamers and TO's find those groups.


5 . Bottom line I recognize there are all sorts of things we could do with an unlimited budget and IT support but that's not the realistic answer. I'm really wondering what lower tech options we have to make the tools available more usable. By low tech I mean the right links available to the right pages, and the right guidance/coaching from the NAF to help TO's succeed in reaching potential players. Purplegoo's answer to my question is a good example of the coaching on 'how do you get the word out.' Take a look at the NAF and TFF sub forums for North American events and you'll see the vast majority aren't following all those steps. There are also probably other low tech solutions (some how getting a hyperlinking list of FB BB groups) that require some more creative thought.

I understand it's a previously described issue but I think we have good success in reaching long term NAF members or in areas where there is a lot of Blood Bowl being played (i.e. many areas of England) but our existing work flows probably don't hit those players/leagues without existing NAF ties.

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Re: New TD - AMA!

Post by Purplegoo »

Thanks for the further post, gjnoronh. There are certainly some good points there for us to look into; I especially like the inter-linking idea (although I am not tech savvy, I have no idea how easy that would be to implement).

Specifically on the US Facebook point - there did used to be a central US forum, but I'm told that the originators are perhaps less keen on BB than they were and as such, the community that were using it has migrated to FB. I am very far from a FB expert (I use it extremely infrequently), but the network of US pages and groups is as opaque to me as it is to you. Perhaps an American with a better grasp could enlighten us both?

I have dusted off my Facebook password, as I agree it has become a bit of a BB discussion hotbed and is perhaps the best way of catching new coaches. I just don't like it very much. ;)

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Re: New TD - AMA!

Post by Wulfyn »

Hi gjnoronh,

I noticed this issue as well. Whilst the NAF has all the data, the tools for promoting those tournaments seem to be a bit spread out. And whilst TFF is the main tournament stop for me that's because it is far more popular for UK tournaments; but it also lacks that integration. That's why I (shameless self promotion time!) am trying to do my part to help the community with this:

http://thetacklezone.net/tournaments/

Anyone who signs up is free to post the tournaments they are running. This puts a pin in the map and also if you entered your address when you signed up it will list the tournaments in order of which are closest. Click on the pin and it will take you to the tournament page.

The tournament registration also includes all the information you'd expect to see like the date, cost, skill tiering, etc. This allows us to have filters such as searching for 1 day tournaments. TOs can also upload their rules pack and it even automatically creates a forum thread on their behalf.

I'm hoping that people will find this a useful addition to the normal places they'd advertise such as FB and here. We only launched a couple weeks ago so still early days, but I hope people will find it useful.

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Re: New TD - AMA!

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Re: New TD - AMA!

Post by gjnoronh »

Mike yes I think that's the right idea. Might combine it with some of the welcoming friendly text on other pages and just make sure it's easy to find when you get onto the site. I think the issue with the NAF website is we have lots of sub pages that have been built over the years that don't reference each other. Also would be interested in what others think about that link.

@Wulfyn that map is really cool and easy to read. Wonder if you could provide some of that database tech help to the NAF to improve the existing MAP rather then having multiple Maps folks are using?

Gary

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Re: New TD - AMA!

Post by Wulfyn »

gjnoronh wrote:@Wulfyn that map is really cool and easy to read. Wonder if you could provide some of that database tech help to the NAF to improve the existing MAP rather then having multiple Maps folks are using?
Hi Gary - the database tech has not come from me but rather I've paid for it to be professionally developed. So whilst I'm always happy to help the NAF where I can, map software is not one of those areas. The reason why I have done this separately to the NAF is that I also want to create somewhere where non-NAF people are able to post their tournaments as well. Whilst I am a huge fan of the NAF there are some people that think it is not for them. I mean I think that they are wrong and it is for them, but that's the great thing about living in a free society where people are allowed to choose for themselves. This is also thinking of the growing online community that is largely independent from the NAF. So yes it may just be another place for people to look, but at least this is another channel for people to be able to advertise. I've no idea how people find tournaments on facebook, I struggle to find the ones that I've actually signed up for!

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Re: New TD - AMA!

Post by gjnoronh »

Makes sense - I'm by nature more a lumper then a splitter. But recognize just based alone from the Abstaining from Rankings thread there are folks who aren't interested in being NAF associated.

Gary

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Re: New TD - AMA!

Post by gjnoronh »

Dear @purplegoo
Also wonder if we could update the following for 2018 including reference to NAF rules updates post BB16 maybe incorporating some of the best practices advice articulated in this thread

https://member.thenaf.net/index.php?nam ... pic&t=5447

7 years is a long time :)

Maybe have it hold a link to a static (but updated whenever appropriate) current NAF suggested tournament rules page.

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Re: New TD - AMA!

Post by Purplegoo »

Hi there,

Wow, you’ve found quite the vintage thread and version of that document!

At a quick glance on my phone, it looks like we don’t have one thread on the forum containing all of the important links (all found behind the big, red ‘tournament documents’ link on the NAF.net). I’ll perhaps set that up later in the ‘announcements’ section, rather than update very old threads in the regional bits? A version of Pippy’s 2011 thread seems to appear in every section, I think we can probably unsticky them now...

Cheers,

Phil.

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Re: New TD - AMA!

Post by gjnoronh »

Thanks admining my own WFB forum I know how old stickies can tend to 'stick' long after their utility has passed.

As a new TO I did read that sticky last year trying to get my head around what I had to do to run a tournament.

Of note I've been pointing people to this thread to get a sense of 'best practices' in publicizing an event. I know the number of posts in that NAF forum has recently taken jump some of which are longstanding TO's who use the NAF forum but some of which are new users.

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Re: New TD - AMA!

Post by Purplegoo »

I'm going to try and keep monthly blogs as I progress as TD. January's duo is now up. Thoughts on tournament stuff can be found here, and a report of a tournament I attended, this month the UKTC, can be found here.

Enjoy, or not, either way, let me know by feeding back in the blog areas.

Cheers!

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Re: New TD - AMA!

Post by speedingbullet »

Great tourney report, very good reading, thanks Phil

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Re: New TD - AMA!

Post by Purplegoo »

No worries, and thanks! :)

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Re: New TD - AMA!

Post by Purplegoo »

My February TD blogs are up. Thoughts on tournament stuff can be found here and a tournament report (this time the Waterbowl - please forgive the massive image I can't seem to fix!) here. All comments in the relevant sections welcome!

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