Nolan writes in another topic that some users have had trouble uploading files. I thought I would share my experiences.
I, likewise, have had trouble uploading files with Internet Explorer, probably due to path problems as has been suggested. However, using Opera, there have been no problems. As Opera is my preferred browser, it has not been a problem to download it onto the other hard drives that I have had to use.
I think that there is something on the TD/Affiliate page that says that it might not work with IE, and suggests that you try Opera anyway. It seems to work fine for me.
Are you working with the dBase file formats for uploading? I have posted a query concerning the file formats for non-dBase files but have no response yet? Do you know if those formats have been published.
I think so. I’m just working with the standard files that come out from Swiss-Sys. As Nolan has pointed out, you can always upload tournaments by hand, as well.
Sorry, I really know nothing about the USCF system except through personal experience.
Have uploaded a tournament by hand (Western Michigan Open), even with a pairing program – would still upload the tournaments by hand. With uploading by hand, would be able to make sure each game, each player in the event, was checked before sending the event. With doing it by hand, if there is a question on a player or game – just send it in for testing. So what you asked and read a number of emails, over the crosstables and the errors. It does give the director a better on hands feel of the final crosstable.
Have run a number of test tournaments, with it being a match or a round robin. Just to have the experience with the program. When it was ready to for rating, delated the tournament.
Finding the uploading by hand is much faster, better for the director and the players, then sending a hand written report. This change (uploading tournaments), takes care of any errors that have happen to the directors in the past. With having a paper trail, with letters being sent by both parties (directors, rating department), those days are starting to fade into the past. The errors, can be found out by the director, before the event gets on the desk of the rating department.
Oh my! I can’t imagine entering a tournament by hand being PREFERABLE to just uploading the files. Of course I check my tournaments before I click the final submit for rating, and that works well enough for me. I guess I just have confidence in the Swiss-Sys software.
Its’ not having the confidence of a pairing program, its’ to make sure the crosstables do not have an error. Just because the pairing program does the pairings, errors can happen when the data is wrong. Data can only be wrong when the director makes a human error. Anyway, only going to have 4 rounds, not dreaming of having more then 30 players.
The second factor, going to be having a number of match(s). With a number of tournaments, just for the club members, not knowing how the sections will be like till the end of the event. When you have a tournament with 3 or 5 people, with 15 or 20 ratable games. The section(s) will look very strange, just to get them in ratable form. How dependent does a director need to be to form a 20 game match, or a double round robin: on a pairing program.
When I did the Christmas KO, I put it into Swiss-Sys and did the pairings by hand. It worked fine, and generated the proper files for uploading. For some reason only four of the six sections are rated so far, but I’m sure the other two will be rated soon.
All tournaments that will be rated under the new ratings software will go through the same validation steps. It’s always better to catch errors BEFORE the event is rated than to have to fix them afterwards, even though the new system is designed to facilitate error correction and re-rating of events.
That means that there is very little difference in error-checking between uploading of the dBase files from your pairing program and typing the data in using the online form. (The online form does pretty much the same error-checking, displaying any inconsistencies or unusual pairing situations using a color-coding scheme, so I suppose it might help a TD catch a typo a few minutes before the validation program would catch it.)
That also means that tournaments sent to the USCF on diskette or on paper will go through the same error-checking as ones submitted online.
One major advantage of using the online interface is that the TD gets IMMEDIATE feecback about any errors or potential errors and knows what errors need to be corrected and when they are corrected, because the TD is an active partner in the validation process, AS HE OR SHE SHOULD BE!
When an event is mailed to the USCF, it takes some time before the event arrives and is processed, which is when the error-checking beginss, and the TD is pretty much out of the loop as to what errors are found and how or when they’re resolved.
I suspect that under the new programming there may be more occasions when an event submitted by mail has to be returned or the TD contacted to resolve errors that the USCF office cannot correct.