[JanM]

I think it would be nice if the player profiles for players on Vugraph could have more information than they do now. I'm hoping that I can find someone (or ones) to work on creating a database of expert players (the ones we see often on Vugraph) with pictures and information about the players. I'm pretty sure we can persuade BBO to create links to the database and to help with database format as well, so that the information would appear in the players' profiles whenever they were on Vugraph. I also hope that we could have more information than a player can now put into the BBO profile, which has a pretty small limit on the number of characters.

If you'd be interested in helping with this, please respond. I think we need a person to work on database design and to supervise things and also some people to work on player information for players from different countries. If you have other ideas about what you'd like to see in Vugraph players' profiles, or anything else reasonably related to this concept, please respond also.

Thanks!

[ahollan1]

Jan,

I think there are 2 very different approaches to take here, depending on what BBO is willing to code.

There is a lot here, so take in small doses.
Most readers probably want to skip to the final section "PLAYER INFO"

1) Vugraph Operator Assistance

The database is used by operator to:
a) eliminate the typing test
b) standardize player name*, especially important with european names in asian venues and vice versa
[example depending on size of BBO field van Prooi, vProoijen, Rico van P, etc]
c) automagially assign national flag
d) place in correct seat
e) associate with correct team

* I'd like to see the table/session name standardized too [ex to allow search of "Trials", but that is outside of the scope of Jan's project

Ideally, BBO would automatically extract information from the host.
example from recent Vanderbilt: ACBL must have electronic copy of team rosters. Software could read the electronic information and parse team name, player name & country. This should be even easier in World Championships where team name = country

Of course, operator could always override the auto-filled data [happens often with flags]

1a) With the infrastructure of code that grabs and processes information from an external source, a second source could provide information that would be entered in the Player Profile open text field. Ideas for that type of information follow under "Player Info"

An approach that would require much less BBO design/coding ...

2) Viewer Assistance [includes spectators and vugraph commentators]

Vugraph Operator would still need to enter data manually, but perhaps this could assist with opportunities to copy/paste. ex: copy/paste player name for consistent historical records and/or manually add the link for this player's info into the profile field. [note that this would need to be done/confirmed every session]

This database would be a standalone set of data, so there are no real limitations on what information can/should be captured

BBO would only provide a link, but even that can be done in a couple of ways. Possibilities include, but aren't limited to:
a) static link on the vugraph home page [so available even if no vugraph sessions running]
b) link(s) specific to a particular vugraph match
(1) based on team name(s) [applies to both tables of match]
(2) based on partnership
(3) based on player

PLAYER INFO [i'm sure many other pieces of info would be fun/useful to capture]

01) Name as it should be displayed on vugraph
02) Full Name
03) nationality [how to handle plays for country X but lives in country Y]
04) vugraph partner(s)
05) vugraph team(s) [ex: lauria-versace play for Italy in world championships, a specific team in Italian events and another in ACBL NABCs
06) typical seat [most sit in same seat depending on whether playing NS/EW this could help vugraph operator setup room correctly]
07) BBO login name
08) nickname
09) link to online convention card(s)
10) URL to a player's web page
11) name of system played in each vugraph partnership
12) link to WBF bio page
13) link to non-proprietary system info
14) list/link for .lin files for player/partnership from previous vugraph sessions

I suspect others might ask for more personal information such as year of birth, but I'm trying to stick to bridge-data

[Fields that would require interviewing players]

101) favorite convention(s)
102) link to favorite convention(s)
103) favorite tournament
104) favorite tournament site
105) ranking of different forms of events [round robin, ko, bam, etc]
106) favorite event(s)

Warnings:
A number of these fields are dynamic. Whether text or a link, somebody needs to maintain the field for accuracy. [example: is the link to ACBL convention card from 2009 Team trials still functional]

System agreements change more often than access to online CC. Someone will need to decide whether to preserve links to CCs that are known to be obsolete or provide a way to let the viewer know that the entry is for historical purposes only.


Obviously I haven't really thought about this, so ideas are limited


Al

[JanM]

My concept is a little less ambitious than yours, Al. I can live with operators having to enter player names in the name box (and spell them correctly). What I'd like to get is a way to have each player's full name, country, picture, and record automagically appear in the player profile when the name is entered. I think that is reasonably "easy" in terms of setting the database up and linking it to BBO. The hard part will be to obtain the information about each player. But I hope that if a group of people work on it, it won't be too demanding.

Although it would be nice to be able to include system type information as well, that is much harder because it depends on partnerships.

[Gerben42]

I think that is a great idea! I know for a fact that I often see top players I never heard of, this will be the same for most.

[32519]

As an unrelated side question: How long are the records of broadcast matches retained by BBO before being archived (or eventually, deleted altogether)? I ask because I often search the records to see how top players managed to cope with either, a) difficult hand patterns, or b) hopeless misfits between the partnership hands.

[kiat]

Hi, these ideas look really interesting, did anything become of them?

[barmar]

kiat, on 2017-August-18, 11:49, said:

Hi, these ideas look really interesting, did anything become of them?

Yes. If you click on well known players in Vugraph you'll get some details about them, along with links to more information.

[kiat]

barmar, on 2017-August-19, 09:43, said:

Yes. If you click on well known players in Vugraph you'll get some details about them, along with links to more information.

Thanks, I've seen that already, but it didn't seem that different from 3 years ago (maybe my perception is wrong and the content has mproved considerably?) and wondered if there was some way it was automated from the tech perspective as discussed above.

[barmar]

The earlier messages were from 5 years ago, before any of this was done. Nothing beyond that has been done.