Quiz Bowl Staffer Database

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A Dim-Witted Saboteur
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Quiz Bowl Staffer Database

Post by A Dim-Witted Saboteur »

Given that connecting outsiders willing to staff and tournaments that need outside staff is a persistent problem in QB, Matt Mitchell, Ryan Rosenberg, and I are working on a project that should help remedy that. The following google form represents the data collection stage of what will eventually be a tool integrated with QBNotify to alert potential staffers of tournaments happening in places they've indicated they'd be willing to go and tournament hosts of available staffers in their area. In addition, having a database of tournament staff will be useful for quizbowl as a whole. A map of available staffers should also eventually be generated, which should be useful for coordinating staff carpools and the like. Given that collecting this data will take a bit and all parties concerned have other projects, this will take a little while to become operative but should be up in the near future.

A link to the form is below; no more specific location data than your ZIP code will be requested.
https://goo.gl/forms/svJyZWzGW6oOwCvs1
Jakob M. (they/them)
Michigan State '21, Indiana '2?
"No one has ever organized a greater effort to get people interested in pretending to play quiz bowl"
-Ankit Aggarwal
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Habitat_Against_Humanity
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Re: Quiz Bowl Staffer Database

Post by Habitat_Against_Humanity »

This is a really great idea and I hope it streamlines the issue of finding staffers. The only possible suggestion I'd make is somehow giving some leeway when it comes to distance willing to travel. As long as I can drive there in the morning and get back at a reasonable hour, I'm fine staffing whatever, but if a tournament (and admittedly there are few of these) is willing to help me with lodging or transit or whatever, I'd be more willing to consider a longer trip. That said, I wouldn't know how to account for that in a google form.
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Aaron's Rod
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Re: Quiz Bowl Staffer Database

Post by Aaron's Rod »

Thanks for working on this, this will be useful to a lot of people.

Will all of the staffers' information be available on the front page, or will viewing information of staffers near you require entering a query? If the former, will this be indexed by search engines? If the latter, are the people listed in the OP (Matt, Ryan, Jakob) the only people that will have the full list of everybody's information without querying the tool, or will the results of the Google Spreadsheet be publicly available?
An Economic Ignoramus wrote: Tue Oct 23, 2018 7:18 pmA map of available staffers should also eventually be generated
Would you consider making this optional or opt-out?

(I know that you probably won't have a prototype up for some time.)
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A Dim-Witted Saboteur
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Re: Quiz Bowl Staffer Database

Post by A Dim-Witted Saboteur »

Aaron's Rod wrote: Wed Oct 24, 2018 2:41 pm Thanks for working on this, this will be useful to a lot of people.

Will all of the staffers' information be available on the front page, or will viewing information of staffers near you require entering a query? If the former, will this be indexed by search engines? If the latter, are the people listed in the OP (Matt, Ryan, Jakob) the only people that will have the full list of everybody's information without querying the tool, or will the results of the Google Spreadsheet be publicly available?
An Economic Ignoramus wrote: Tue Oct 23, 2018 7:18 pmA map of available staffers should also eventually be generated
Would you consider making this optional or opt-out?

(I know that you probably won't have a prototype up for some time.)
Given that none of the information in it is terribly private, my default position on this is that it should eventually be publicized, but I am open to be swayed in the other direction on that. I would definitely consider an opt-out option for the map.
Jakob M. (they/them)
Michigan State '21, Indiana '2?
"No one has ever organized a greater effort to get people interested in pretending to play quiz bowl"
-Ankit Aggarwal
A Dim-Witted Saboteur
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Re: Quiz Bowl Staffer Database

Post by A Dim-Witted Saboteur »

This project is now being integrated with QBNotify to tell registered staffers about local tournaments. If anyone has suggestions on an efficient way to notify tournament hosts of available staffers, I'd be open to hearing them. For now, name and email information on local staffers is available to tournament hosts on request (email me at [email protected] or message me on fb).
Jakob M. (they/them)
Michigan State '21, Indiana '2?
"No one has ever organized a greater effort to get people interested in pretending to play quiz bowl"
-Ankit Aggarwal
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