There are 18 events in Leinster between now and the end of September. Right now I can enter exactly one of those events.
Can anyone provide any reasonable reason why this should be so?
Why not open entries as soon as the event goes live? Especially if it's a LMS CATI event or a Scatter?
I suspect many are to do with the default entry open/entry close settings when setting up an event. And these often don't get changed unti lthe issue is pointed out, usually with event entry closing.
I just tried this out. I started inputting event for 30th June. the default start time appeared as 18:00.
The resulting default entry window opened on 24th June at 18:00 and closed on 28th at 18:00
Probably true - which in my view just makes it even dafter!
I've just about decided I'm not going to bother pre-entering any more, aside from major events and league event. It's too much hassle to keep track of, and frankly I've better things to do with my time.
I'll take my chance turning up at these sorts of events.
it's all a very fair challenge and if you are involved in the organising team for one of those 18 events would be nice to test the logistics as everyone would welcome the feedback as to how it went
@john-r: Not 100% sure what you are trying to say, but you seem to be hinting that if I was involved in organising one of these events I might feel differently? Is that correct?
Look, If I turn up at an event and they are out of maps, or don't want to take my entry, then that's fine, I'll just go for a run, but what I'm fed up doing, is going in and out of the fixtures list, and each event on the list, weekly, to see if, or when, they will be open for entries. I'm pretty much done with doing that.
My personal view is that unless there is a very good reason for it, if an event is public in the fixtures, then it should be open for entries. I've yet to hear any valid reason why that cannot be the case.
It would also help if the fixtures list itself showed if an event is open for entries, and if not, the date when it will be open.
Great conversation! I heard you saying it verbally the other night but didn't get to chat.
I built in about a one-week default opening time for each event based on a few ideas:
1) I believe that club committees commit to events without knowing exactly where they'll be/who'll plan/sometimes what kind of event it is
2) can't enter until you have courses details finalised, which in my experience is often about a week before the event
I think the second point is most salient, particularly for non-league events?
That said, club organisers are also free to override this easily, but as someone else pointed out club organisers are generally busy so likely to go with default.
We could try changing the default window to say 3 weeks, but I don't know if that would make your life easier? If the default was 3-6 months in advance would the person creating the fixture also have the course details?
I like your idea of displaying some kind of 'ready for entries' indicator on the main list.
There is a corollary which is that it helps organisers if you enter in advance online (no bits of paper, no cash/Sum up machines, they know how many maps to print etc etc). I can see the benefit from an organiser's point of view but I have also seen people turned away from events who turned up unentered which is a real pity. Not your main point but a related one worth considering - we'd all like to make life easier for organisers!?
It'd be great to hear any other thoughts or comments.
Gavan
