Rally registration system test

I've written a registration system for stage rallies. I'm looking for some beta testing and some feedback.

If you would, please go try it out and let me know how it works for you:

http://blackriverstages.com/2008/register/index.php

Feel free to create crazy names, cars, bikes, whatever.

And no, just because it's in the demo list of classes available, BRS isn't going to have MaxAttack! It's just a test of a single-class "event".

Cheers,
Anders

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Grassroots rally. It's what I think about.

Um...I just get a blank page.


The CRS typically uses Mike Gibeault's registration system. You might wanna give him a call and see what sorts of issues he's had with it and what could be done to solve them.

It also ties into his scoring system, which is what gives live results at events (typically scores get posted to the web within about two minutes of a competitor finishing a stage).

Now, if we could only get Kris Dahl's results-displaying system tied in with that...

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Self-righteous douche canoe

just a question, why would you re-invent the wheel?

www.motorsportreg.com

^^ couple different sites like that. Not sure if it has all your requirements, but seems better than managing your own software/website/etc.

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Jon Burke - KI6LSW
Blog: http://psgrallywrx.blogspot.com/

nvermind......i see.....co-driver.....crew members......yeah, lots more.

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Jon Burke - KI6LSW
Blog: http://psgrallywrx.blogspot.com/

Jon Burke Wrote:
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> just a question, why would you re-invent the wheel?
>
> www.motorsportreg.com

Yeah, I looked at that. Pretty impressive flexibility. Given their pricing scheme, it would cost over $1,000 in fees for a typical rally. php and MySQL are, like, free, man.

Didn't find any sites that would handle the multiple competitors, crew, service vehicles, waiver tracking, VIN tracking, insurance tracking, simultaneous entry to multiple classes for overlaping championships _and_ (and this one was important to me too) would integrate onto the event web site seamlessly.

Just another indication of how rally is different from all other forms of motorsport.

Cheers,
Anders

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Grassroots rally. It's what I think about.

hoche Wrote:
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> Um...I just get a blank page.

IE? Cause I found a bug that gave IE a blank page even though FireFox (that I developed with) worked just fine. It's now been fixed...

Cheers,
Anders

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Grassroots rally. It's what I think about.

Plus if it works, other organizers may pay to use it.

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RichardM

Works good for me. I like it. Simple, straightforward, but lots of info.
Was their a service vehicle option on there?

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Grant Hughes

Anders Green Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Jon Burke Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > just a question, why would you re-invent the
> wheel?
> >
> > www.motorsportreg.com
>
> Yeah, I looked at that. Pretty impressive
> flexibility. Given their pricing scheme, it would
> cost over $1,000 in fees for a typical rally. php
> and MySQL are, like, free, man.
>
> Didn't find any sites that would handle the
> multiple competitors, crew, service vehicles,
> waiver tracking, VIN tracking, insurance tracking,
> simultaneous entry to multiple classes for
> overlaping championships _and_ (and this one was
> important to me too) would integrate onto the
> event web site seamlessly.
>
> Just another indication of how rally is different
> from all other forms of motorsport.
>
> Cheers,
> Anders
>
> Raleigh, NC
> Impreza H6 3.0


so, a few months ago, the guys that started www.rally411.com came up to me and asked me what was 'missing' from the usual rally sites. I don't know why they'd ask me, but they did, so I thought about for a little bit and gave them some suggestions.

One of the suggestions was a little beyond their scope, but since you're building something from scratch that's a registration system...maybe you're up for it:

Obviously being able to register driver, co-driver, crew, etc. is key. got it.

Registering volunteers for an event....key, got it.

But how about a system that allows you to 'sign up' (before hand) as a volunteer (or co-driver, crew) for a particular region/area/rally....so that when something comes up, you would get an email/notification about it. Kind of like a match.com for organizers/volunteers.

so the process would look like this......people register on your site as a person available to volunteer or crew for either a specific region (xxx miles from home) or for specific rallies. When the organizer(s) 'opens' the rally on your system, and email goes out to volunteers about it, and asks him/her to confirm if they can come.

But same with teams.....so a team registers on your system, and they can also say....hey, we need 3 crew members......once they pay, then a separate email goes out to all the folks that said they'd like to crew for this rally or a rally in this region. Then, the team/crew are connected via your site and they can sign up with that team through your site.

I've also seen crews being shared between two teams, another way to hook people up.


something like that would have a lot of value (imo) to any rally event, because like you said, rally is so unique in how the events are run, where volunteers come from, etc. You could charge a *nominal* fee to cover your expenses.

just thinking out loud.

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Jon Burke - KI6LSW
Blog: http://psgrallywrx.blogspot.com/

NoCoast Wrote:
> Works good for me. I like it. Simple,
> straightforward, but lots of info.

The goal was to capture everything that's on the paper forms.

> Was their a service vehicle option on there?

Yup, you can add one or multiple service vehicles.

Cheers,
Anders

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Grassroots rally. It's what I think about.

Jon Burke Wrote:
> Registering volunteers for an event. ... Kind of like a
> match.com for organizers/volunteers.

I've been a fan of that for a while. Here's a post of mine back in 2005 bemoaning the fact that a project discussed in 2002 hadn't yet come to fruition.

http://specialstage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9248


> But same with teams.....

Along those lines, it would be cool to get "nearby" connections from the system. Potential car-pooling with teams, etcetera, would be cool.

Actually, that's why I added the "show cities" to the entrants page, my hope is that the bike guys and car guys can get together, share a trailer, and split gas. Exactly like you said, providing information can actually be a value-added part of an event that makes it more enjoyable or more affordable for the competitors.


> something like that would have a lot of value
> (imo) to any rally event, because like you said,
> rally is so unique in how the events are run,
> where volunteers come from, etc. You could charge
> a *nominal* fee to cover your expenses.

You're right Jon, I think that there is a "market" for some kind of information services provided to rally people. For $10 hook me up with some crew? For $50 get me a bunch of volunteers for my rally? Sure. I mean, seriously, ring tones are a million dollar business... there must be some kind of rally info worth paying for.

I'm still a fan of some third-party or open-source effort to manage it, although that also brings in its own complications of privacy and so on. It would take someone serious enough to be willing to negotiate the features with all the existing organizers.

Cheers,
Anders

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Grassroots rally. It's what I think about.

Quote

I think that there is a "market" for some kind of information services provided to rally people. For $10 hook me up with some crew? For $50 get me a bunch of volunteers for my rally? Sure. I mean, seriously, ring tones are a million dollar business... there must be some kind of rally info worth paying for. winking smiley

absolutely...unfortunately I'm just a software sales guy....so I'm good at pitching it, and coming up with ideas for functionality that would be cool for it, but doesn't exist yet.

In other words, I can help you get the customers on board, but I have no idea how to write code or actually develop anything.....need to get someone smart like Hoche on that idea.

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Jon Burke - KI6LSW
Blog: http://psgrallywrx.blogspot.com/

Smart? If I was smart I'd be putting more money in my retirement accounts rather than doing stupid things with a 23-year-old econobox...

Anyway, Anders, I'd give Mike G. a call if I were you. His system has most of the bells and whistles I think you're planning on. I'd like to see it migrated to something more modern and flexible than what he's using (for instance, I think he's using MS Access as his database), and perhaps opened up to a team of volunteer developers so that features could be implemented more rapidly and the interface could be slicked up a bit, but it works pretty well.

Right now I'm sorta backlogged on projects. I'm working on a rally-specific APRS program based on feedback I got from the APRS effort at NNR, and which can also potentially be used for relaying scores in. I'm sort of envisioning sending people out into the field with nothing more than a radio and either a smartphone or a small computer like an Asus Eeee, and getting instant scoring updates that way.

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Self-righteous douche canoe

hoche Wrote:
> Mike G. ... His system has most of the bells and whistles
> I think you're planning on. I'd like to see it
> migrated

He's using ColdFusion, which I actually really like. The hosting for it, however, it more expensive. And one of my primary criteria is that I wanted the registration to be hosted on the site that is the event's, so going to an off-site registration makes that criteria hard to satisfy.

> opened up to a team of volunteer developers so

If rally had a team of volunteer developers, I'd rather see them working on the volunteer thing mentioned above.

> Right now I'm sorta backlogged on projects.

Who isn't!

Cheers,
Anders

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Grassroots rally. It's what I think about.