Post by TTUxcountry on Oct 1, 2003 12:10:12 GMT -5
So, it's been five years that the site has existed. A lot of the what, when and why are covered in the Mission Statement and Contributions pages, but I thought I'd mark this anniversary by assessing the progress and future outlook of the major aspects of the site.
In no particular order:
Getting other people to sign up and help: A dismal failure. I'm still the only one contributing, and now I'm out of school, so I've got no access to what's going on. I'd die (or kill) for a chance to get someone currently on the team to join and kick-start getting news and biographies, so again, if you're on the team and have even the slightest interest in improving the site, . At present, though, I have to figure that I'll be doing it alone for the forseeable future, and as such, won't be getting much besides new results up. Feh.
Getting biographies: Mixed bag. I have (counts) thirty-five, but there must have been, what, 200 or so people that have been on the team in the past five years? On top of that, everything that research says about people not filling out surveys is *absolutely true*. I tried everything I could possibly think of while I was there and in the year since to get people to send one in, and got mostly frustration in return. This irks me to a great degree (though I don't blame the people), since the biographies are one of the main things that gives a little personality to the site, and makes it more than a giant number repository. I mean, tons of places have Leigh Daniel's race times, but where else can you find out that she can stuff her whole fist in her mouth? ;D It would definitely be a much better site if everyone had a biography up. Unfortunately though, due to the frustration and my unwillingness to bug people I've never met through the contacts I still have, I've pretty much had to give up actively asking for more people to send one in. If anyone still wants to give me one, I'll certainly post it (and bless you, child), but otherwise, the biographies page will pretty much become static from this point on.
Posting up results: The biggest unqualified success. I believe I can say without hesitation that no school track team, and maybe no sports team of any kind, has this amount and depth of statistics freely available on the Net. I certainly haven't seen any, at least. With that said, there's still a lot of possible sources I could look into (everything on this page besides the U 23.3 boxes, for starters), but I doubt that it would uncover any school records or anything. Not much else to say, really.
Picture galleries: Well, it was going good while I was there. Of course, that only includes the meets I was in plus the pictures I got from Dave Smith, so it's hardly comprehensive. I suppose that someday I'll have to bite the bullet and ask the Athletic Department for permission to use any pictures they have, plus the various news sources when I ask them for articles. This definitely can and will get bigger someday, but maybe later rather than sooner.
News Articles: As detailed in the Contributions page, this never really got started. Hopefully someday I or someone else will get something done about it. When that happens, it'll be very cool, I promise.
That's about it. It's been a good five years, hopefully the next five will be even better, yadda. As always, if you've got something to say about all this.
In no particular order:
Getting other people to sign up and help: A dismal failure. I'm still the only one contributing, and now I'm out of school, so I've got no access to what's going on. I'd die (or kill) for a chance to get someone currently on the team to join and kick-start getting news and biographies, so again, if you're on the team and have even the slightest interest in improving the site, . At present, though, I have to figure that I'll be doing it alone for the forseeable future, and as such, won't be getting much besides new results up. Feh.
Getting biographies: Mixed bag. I have (counts) thirty-five, but there must have been, what, 200 or so people that have been on the team in the past five years? On top of that, everything that research says about people not filling out surveys is *absolutely true*. I tried everything I could possibly think of while I was there and in the year since to get people to send one in, and got mostly frustration in return. This irks me to a great degree (though I don't blame the people), since the biographies are one of the main things that gives a little personality to the site, and makes it more than a giant number repository. I mean, tons of places have Leigh Daniel's race times, but where else can you find out that she can stuff her whole fist in her mouth? ;D It would definitely be a much better site if everyone had a biography up. Unfortunately though, due to the frustration and my unwillingness to bug people I've never met through the contacts I still have, I've pretty much had to give up actively asking for more people to send one in. If anyone still wants to give me one, I'll certainly post it (and bless you, child), but otherwise, the biographies page will pretty much become static from this point on.
Posting up results: The biggest unqualified success. I believe I can say without hesitation that no school track team, and maybe no sports team of any kind, has this amount and depth of statistics freely available on the Net. I certainly haven't seen any, at least. With that said, there's still a lot of possible sources I could look into (everything on this page besides the U 23.3 boxes, for starters), but I doubt that it would uncover any school records or anything. Not much else to say, really.
Picture galleries: Well, it was going good while I was there. Of course, that only includes the meets I was in plus the pictures I got from Dave Smith, so it's hardly comprehensive. I suppose that someday I'll have to bite the bullet and ask the Athletic Department for permission to use any pictures they have, plus the various news sources when I ask them for articles. This definitely can and will get bigger someday, but maybe later rather than sooner.
News Articles: As detailed in the Contributions page, this never really got started. Hopefully someday I or someone else will get something done about it. When that happens, it'll be very cool, I promise.
That's about it. It's been a good five years, hopefully the next five will be even better, yadda. As always, if you've got something to say about all this.