Changing the Sign-Up Process (POLL)

[Plus]

Sometimes the sign-up process is unfair, and honestly it's impossible to keep everyone happy. Here are some options I have in mind that I could see working in terms of making it easier for more people to sign up.

Please read each option carefully before casting your vote.

Option 1

Make sign-ups available at 2 different time zones during the day.

Each sign-up period will close after 30 posts have been made instead of 60.

Pros

• Allows more people with conflicting schedules to sign up
• Gives people an opportunity to see which metagames are still available by the second sign-up.

Cons

• The sign-up threads take only ~20 minutes to reach 60 posts. It would probably take less than 10 for each iteration of the sign-up thread to fill up by setting it to 30.
• Are there really enough people with conflicting time schedules to warrant this change? We barely have any tutors from Asia / Oceania, so what would it matter if we catered more towards tutees from those areas?

• Note: B101 Staff previously did multiple sign-up threads in the past (twice in the span of ~5 years to be exact) and it never quite worked out largely due to the reasons stated above.

Option 2

Make sign-ups exclusively on the weekends at a set time every round.

Pros

• Most people are free on the weekends
• People will know times ahead of schedule and can plan accordingly

Cons

• Surprisingly, not everyone is free on the weekends
• This completely bones everyone who is not free on the weekends because the sign-up times will never change

Option 3

Keep things as is.

Pros

• Sign-ups with different dates and times allow for different types of people to sign up

Cons

• As with every other option, not everyone is free during these times

I'll leave this open to discussion. If you have any suggestions or clarifications on why or if we did certain things in the past, go ahead.

EDIT: This is just a poll to see where everyone in the community stands. Nothing is set in stone if a particular options wins, I just want to gauge interest.

 

[jvl101993]

The main thing is that, regardless of whichever method you all choose, someone's going to be left with the short-end of the stick.

What if there was a combination of Option 1 and Option 2: a Saturday sign-up and a Sunday sign-up? That might be tricky to work with timezones (since people who sign-up can be from all kinds of different places, but the idea of two sign-up times on weekends would be to give people multiple opportunities). Just a thought.

I'm probably more keen on Option 1 if I have to pick (I signed up right before class yesterday, and being caught with my phone in class means a drop in my overall grade, so I'm relieved it was posted slightly before 2 EST), but ultimately, it's up to you all.

 

[Kink]

Consistency and transparency are two of the most important elements of b101. Option two is the only way to go.

 

[PD]

Yes I believe the second option would be most convenient because of the consistency and since Pokemon showdown is a worldwide open server. With a constant sign up time, things will be less confusing, and efficient. It will be easier for people to sign up especially since the weekends are when most people aren't as occupied.

 

[Luigi]

I was a tour host during the weekend in which we changed tour signups to accommodate for oceania and there just aren't enough people from that timezone in the site to warrant such changes being made. A standard oras ou tour gets a minimum of 128 people sometimes getting to 256. The one tour i hosted with oceania friendly timezones got 96. Maybe that isn't a bad thing though, what i expect would happen is: the first tutee signups fills up in a few minutes then the oceania friendly gets posted later, gets a few guys from that timezone then it stays open and vacant for dudes of other timezones that didn't get in on the first oo


That said, second proposal is way better, the majority of tutee hopefuls go to school instead of a job so they are much more likely to be free on the weekend. Maybe mix it a little bit, like one signup on saturday then next time on sunday or friday just to make sure oo

 

[toshimelonhead]

What about creating a tutor backlog so that anyone can sign up at any time and the Battling 101 staff can give them the best estimate as to when they can have a tutor and who the likely tutor will be? You can then break tutors into timezones and then assign tutors a backlog based on their tiers they tutor plus keeping tutors and tutees within a reasonable time zone (e.g. have an Oceania tutor with a backlog of Oceania tutees.) The downside is obviously that would become a clusterfuck of a thread, but it provides more transparency than any other option listed. It would also give the Battling 101 staff the ability to monitor player activity and skip a potential tutee if they are inactive.

 

[Haruno]

2. Poll like a week before on what the most ideal time is and just base off of that. Easy

 

[AM]

Option 2 seems more practical. For example this week I didnt even know the round was going on until I came home 3 hours after it was already over. I mean yes someone will probably be unfortunate enough to not be available during this time frame but at least it'll have a bit more visibility. That's just how I see it.

 

[urban]

I like Luigi's idea of sort of combining options 2 and 3. Something like having two or three specific times that sign ups go up on the weekends, and rotating between those times from round to round. You could set the times so that at least one of them is accomodating to people in underrepresented time zones, as well.

Something like this:
Round 1: Sign ups go up at 4 PM EST Saturday.
Round 2: Sign ups go up at 12 PM EST Sunday
Round 3: Sign ups go up at 8 PM EST Friday.
Then repeat.

Not sure if this would really help all that much or just be a logistical nightmare for all of those involved, but hey, it's an idea.

 

[Ununhexium]

I'm a fan of #3 because some people (myself included) are busy on the weekends with like friends and sports and stuff.

Also if you didn't know that the signups were going up at 2 PM yesterday you can just follow the schedule lol they post the day before every time

 

[Freeroamer]

Option 2's con relates to the con of hosting a poll like this too, in that because the majority of people are free at the weekends they're going to vote for themselves and choose that option. I play football and work regularly on the weekends so I'm pretty much never going to be able to sign up unless I can ask someone else to do it for me, which iirc isn't allowed.

 

[Aberforth]

And I'm never available at 4am, when signups go up as it is now. Whatever we choose will inconvenience someone, and if fewer are inconvenienced by having it on the weekend then that should be what we go for.

 

[Nightingales]

Option two seems the most fair for everybody, but then you have the weekend folk who get shafted. If it IS against the rules to get somebody to sign up for you, maybe that rule could be lifted if you gave proof that you asked them to sign up or something.

 

[Plus]

replies:

What about creating a tutor backlog so that anyone can sign up at any time and the Battling 101 staff can give them the best estimate as to when they can have a tutor and who the likely tutor will be? You can then break tutors into timezones and then assign tutors a backlog based on their tiers they tutor plus keeping tutors and tutees within a reasonable time zone (e.g. have an Oceania tutor with a backlog of Oceania tutees.) The downside is obviously that would become a clusterfuck of a thread, but it provides more transparency than any other option listed. It would also give the Battling 101 staff the ability to monitor player activity and skip a potential tutee if they are inactive.

We did something similar to this a while back when Jimbo and Phil ran things in 09 ish (see rounds 46-47). I quit my duties as a tutor prior to that so I can't say that it was a success or failure for sure, but the whole backlog thing kind of just slowed down the process as a whole and it would be a clusterfuck to handle for b101 staff simply due to the sheer increase in the magnitude of people compared to 2009. It's not a bad idea per se, it's just that we're admittedly pretty busy/lazy with real life commitments.

Option 2 seems more practical. For example this week I didnt even know the round was going on until I came home 3 hours after it was already over. I mean yes someone will probably be unfortunate enough to not be available during this time frame but at least it'll have a bit more visibility. That's just how I see it.

Visibility is the least of my concerns with regards to Apprentice Rounds. Publicity for others b101 projects and 'how to play' videos are always encouraged, but Apprentice Rounds fill up so fast anyways so there's not much of a point in advertising elsewhere when an apprentice round is going up, apart from small-ish dedicated Smogon IRC channels.

Echoing what UUH said about the Schedule thread, people who want to be tutored should actually take the initiative to check up on that thread. There's a very helpful 'Watch Thread' option that you can use to receive alerts whenever IB or I post there. Sure, to the outside eye it might feel like we're not taking the initiative to make B101 as big as it is, but our program can only be as big as the amount of tutors that volunteer. As an aside, compared to what we were 5 years from now, I think B101 activity is constantly growing as it should be. But regardless, I feel that the way we do things now actually encourages tutees who are on top of their shit when it comes to punctuality to sign up.

---

Looks like Option 2 is the clear favorite, and after discussing it with IB and Tim we all voted for 2 as well. We have also agreed to compromise between keeping it on weekdays and weekends, so we'll have alternating sign-up dates for Friday and Saturday. I'll have another thread up where you guys can vote on timezones for each day and we'll figure things out from there. Thanks for the quick feedback, pairings will be up within a couple of hours.