Mo TT (and I'm sure, others

Here's the point.. many people like something to shoot for, and feel like they have no chance vs. the routers, or because they are inexperienced, or because they can only race on weekends, etc.

Also, I have found that ranking battles are another interesting part of SOL, and another great conversation starter. Whether you just congratulate someone or throw down the gauntlet to create some "game within the game," it's another point of conversation with other SOLers. Some SOLers I primarily know because I am or have been close to them in the rankings.

For that reason, I think national/regional rankings, at least for the countries with a certain minimum of competitors, would be great at some time in the future. There used to be a site with something like that but I don't think it is kept up any more.

And for those of you who don't care about rankings, they're easy enough to ignore. But there's no doubt that it rankings, and competiton in general, raise the interest level. How far would any major sport get without divisions, playoffs, awards, and championships?

So I say, the more we have at SOL, the merrier.

Journey
2009-10 Southeastern Massachusetts Weekend/Weekday Non-Router Champion

Thanks Francois

I thought there might be an easy fix, perhaps just adding the date or race number to the name of each race.

Do you know how the chronology is determined? It is not a straightforward lookup as capnjack suggests. Does SOL go by the race numbers (currently around 223) that you see in your address window? The date/time a race begins? Ends? Or is it always in the order they appear in the archive?

I'm really not obsessed with rankings but it's one of the benefits of joining SYC, and I think it adds to the fun to know what you have to beat to improve your number. As most of us are not often in contention for the podium, it creates a game within the game, sort of racing against yourself, or racing to improve.

Thanks again

Bob McDonald
"Journey"

I see where we have almost reached the point where we have 30 races counted in the overall ranking, so I would like to resurrect an old suggestion.

Is there any way to indicate which races are the oldest, or at least which is the next race to drop off. It's the first thing I usually look at... what finish do I have to replace or can I improve on? Am I about to lose a top ten finish or a DNF? What about the guy I'm trying to pass in the rankings?

There might be several ways to implement this. Perhaps there's one that wouldn't be too difficult on the overworked SOL gods?

Thanks

Bob McDonald
"Journey"

Just checked around... right now, "Game Feature Suggestions" is extending into the race area, and this forum thread is not.

Hope that helps.

Bob McDonald
Journey

I have seen this as well, but it is sporadic... I know this is the most fun kind to troubleshoot perhaps it occurs in some forums and not others.

Bob McDonald
Journey

Thanks for all the work from the Race Committee! The changes represent an improvement though possibly a little overkill. I agree with Colin that counting 50% of races would be a minimum.

The Weekend/Weekday and Ocean Race categories have been long talked about. I would further suggest that it would increase interest to have some subrankings, for example by nationality or region, perhaps men/women/youth. I think the principle ought to be inclusiveness. An average racer might still make the top ten among his countrymen, and feel like he/she has something to strive for.

Again, thanks for all your hard work!

Bob McDonald
"Journey"

I think this thread is on the right track. In addition to a more forgiving proportion than our current 10/15, the key improvement would be the addition of more subcategories.

But why stop at the type or time of race categories. I would love to see country/region rankings and maybe a separate "newbie" division.

Having many rankings is a great way to keep interest high. And once you have the raw data, it's easy to create then. Why limit ourselves to one, or even the currently proposed four, rankings. The more the merrier!

Although this is an interesting idea, I don't think a race is worth more just because it's longer.

Long races require different strategies and abilities. For example, weather forecasting is more important in a long race, while finer points of tacking, hitting marks, navigating among islands is usually a part of the short races.

I can't think of any other sport where the length of a race is weighted higher. Do we give multiple gold medals for longer races in track, swimming? Is an overtime victory worth more than one in "regulation time"?

I think as long as we have a good balance in length of races offered, the current system is better.

Helloooooo, anybody out there?

The gist of my question is that the thing I most want to know is usually which race on the list is about to drop off, being the 15th race back chronologically. Presently I go to each race and check the number in the address bar (e.g. the Stockholm Import was # 151). But sometimes those numbers seem a bit out of sequence, such as the Virtual OSTAR which was pretty recent and yet was race #140.

So it would be a lot easier if the races were identified in some way in the same order that is used in the SYC Rankings.

Is there any way the individual ranking page could include the date or the order of the races used in the ranking, so we can determine which races are about to drop off?