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KCBS Contest Map Application

Awesome! It's quick and easy to navigate. I also like the ability to see the previous years results when you're checking out the current year. But I don't see a way to see last years results for contests that didn't happen yet this year.
 
Plowboy said:
I don't think he'll be able to tell what is a Jack Qualifier. You don't have to be a State Championship to be a Jack Qualifier. Nor are all State Championships Jack qualifiers.
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That's why I added "somehow" :rolleyes:

The Pickled Pig said:
I don't have the actual contest addresses, just the cities. As a result, the geocoding is only done to the city level but it can still provide approximate mileage, drive time, and directions from a known starting point. This can be automated once personalized but I think I can at least add a link for the time being. I'll work on it later this week.
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It doesn't have to be exact. It would be a help when planning out a schedule or deciding between two comps.
 
That is awesome. I just bookmarked it and look forward to the 2009 edition :-D
 
That is really a fantastic application and one that will certainly make it easy for teams to plan. We've been real fans of your site and the rankings you've been doing and appreciate the way you are using technology to bring all of this data into forms that make it really easy to see and understand.

I have a suggestion for you but I don't know how feasible it would be to make happen. Regardless, here it is...

The Power Rankings are not necessarily the most accurate representation of which team is really "the best" at any given time. The reason I say this is because it is based on raw data and not on any kind of average. I'll give you an example of what I mean using baseball as a comparison.

Each year, Major League Baseball crowns a batting champion and that title is won by the player with the highest batting average. However, in order to qualify for the title, a player must have a minimum number of plate appearances. The reason there is a minimum plate appearances requirement is so that the batting champ isn't a guy with 50 appearances and a .375 average. As it stands right now at the All-Star break, the minimum number of plate appearances required for consideration is 295.

I propose that a more accurate way to Power Rank the teams would be take the number of points they have earned using the same method of calculating those points as you do right now but to then average those points by the number of events it took for the team to earn them. Teams would then be ranked according to their average but only those teams with a minimum number of events completed would qualify. (The number of events completed would be the counterpart to plate appearances in the batting average example.)

The reason I think this is a more accurate method for ranking is because the average would serve to level the playing field for teams that do not have the geographic advantage of being in an area where contests are available to them almost every weekend of the season. It would also take into account the times that a team has competed in an event and not finished in the Top 10 in any category or in the Overall rankings. The average would be based on all the events a team has entered and not just the ones in which points were earned.

This is my suggestion.
 
VisionQuest220 said:
That is really a fantastic application and one that will certainly make it easy for teams to plan. We've been real fans of your site and the rankings you've been doing and appreciate the way you are using technology to bring all of this data into forms that make it really easy to see and understand.

I have a suggestion for you but I don't know how feasible it would be to make happen. Regardless, here it is...

The Power Rankings are not necessarily the most accurate representation of which team is really "the best" at any given time. The reason I say this is because it is based on raw data and not on any kind of average. I'll give you an example of what I mean using baseball as a comparison.

Each year, Major League Baseball crowns a batting champion and that title is won by the player with the highest batting average. However, in order to qualify for the title, a player must have a minimum number of plate appearances. The reason there is a minimum plate appearances requirement is so that the batting champ isn't a guy with 50 appearances and a .375 average. As it stands right now at the All-Star break, the minimum number of plate appearances required for consideration is 295.

I propose that a more accurate way to Power Rank the teams would be take the number of points they have earned using the same method of calculating those points as you do right now but to then average those points by the number of events it took for the team to earn them. Teams would then be ranked according to their average but only those teams with a minimum number of events completed would qualify. (The number of events completed would be the counterpart to plate appearances in the batting average example.)

The reason I think this is a more accurate method for ranking is because the average would serve to level the playing field for teams that do not have the geographic advantage of being in an area where contests are available to them almost every weekend of the season. It would also take into account the times that a team has competed in an event and not finished in the Top 10 in any category or in the Overall rankings. The average would be based on all the events a team has entered and not just the ones in which points were earned.

This is my suggestion.
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That's why I never did pay too much attention to the rankings. Some of these guys do 30-40 comps a year. So they could have a bad year and still beat someone who had a fantastic year with only 12 comps in. I like the 'average' angle...it sort of puts everything in perspective.
 
Wow!! Very cool!! :cool:Thanks Paul...your site rocks and just keeps on getting better and better!!! Thanks!
 
Well Paul, what you have done and are doing is amazing, and appreciated.

You know, in April I contacted the KCBS Board and inquired as to when they would have the current team rankings posted. I was answered in an email on May 28th that the issue was addressed at the May meeting and they would hopefully be posted before the next meeting on June 11th. On July 3rd I asked about the status again, and was informed it was taking longer than expected and hopefully they would be posted by the end of July.

Sorry I got a bit off topic here talking about the rankings instead of the map,,,,,but still, like I said, what you have done and are doing is appreciated.
 
FireAnts said:
Awesome! It's quick and easy to navigate. I also like the ability to see the previous years results when you're checking out the current year. But I don't see a way to see last years results for contests that didn't happen yet this year.
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I didn't see a lot of need to include a previous year's map on the site. That data is actually available under the "Contest Results" section of the site.

That being said. Here are is a way to see it on the map:

1) Change the month identifier in the URL below (i.e., change "10" to "9" to see September 2007 results). My db only goes back to Jan. 1 of 2007 so that is a hard limitation.

http://www.thepickledpig.com/PPapps/contesthub/contestmapper.cfm?Month=10&Year=2007

If enough want this capability I can add a way to navigate to prior years.
 
That is awesome. Thanks for all the work.

On the driving distance etc. I use my spreadsheet program, and have listed all the places that I go to or want to go to. I have an old version of the Rand McNally road atlas program that I have tweaked the driving speeds, gas mileage etc., and it is real close for my driving and it always come real close to actual driving distance. I plug that info in, and then just enter the data into my spreadsheet. Once I have the driving distance, etc., I can adjust the gas price, and it will tell me how much I will spend on gas. I suppose one could use any of the on-line map programs to get the info as well.
 
The Pickled Pig said:
I didn't see a lot of need to include a previous year's map on the site. That data is actually available under the "Contest Results" section of the site.

That being said. Here are is a way to see it on the map:

1) Change the month identifier in the URL below (i.e., change "10" to "9" to see September 2007 results). My db only goes back to Jan. 1 of 2007 so that is a hard limitation.

http://www.thepickledpig.com/PPapps/contesthub/contestmapper.cfm?Month=10&Year=2007

If enough want this capability I can add a way to navigate to prior years.
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Thanks, that works for me.
 
Paul, how about showing contests by state. Like 2008 Missouri contests all on one Missouri map. I guess you could just show all contests on one map and then a person could zoom in to the state they wanted to see.

Also, how about moving all of your text below the map. Makes for better usability once the map redraws. The user doesn't have to scroll as much.

Keep going... you are on a roll.
 
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