Panic Buying or Plain Daft

General slalom chatter...rant about the bad, rave about the good
Dee
Posts: 1444
Joined: Sun May 08, 2005 8:34 pm

Panic Buying or Plain Daft

Post by Dee » Tue Jan 15, 2019 5:43 pm

Today has been manic. <<RANT MODE WELL AND TRULY ON>>

People are just getting plain silly. Competitions do not fill up that fast and with the new priority for paddle-ups on the waiting list there is no advantage to getting an entry in stupidly early. In spite of this we had over 750 entries between midnight and 1am and this went on through the night. Doesn't anyone sleep?

PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE ARE STILL PLENTY OF SPACES AT ALL COMPETITIONS - THERE IS NO NEED TO PANIC

I'm not objecting to people getting their entries in, but I have a suspicion that some paddlers are not even really looking at what they are entering, but just clicking enter against every possible race on the basis of making the actual decision later. If last year is anything to go by about 25% of these panic entries will be cancelled further down the line and I for one may well decide not to refund early entries in the hope of stemming the tide. .

You may have noticed the rather prominent View Restriction button in red against some competitions.
Pinkston Div 1 has this against their practice slots. The slots are limited to 14 paddlers per slot and paddlers are asked to only book one slot. There are four slots each day (so 112 places in all - 56 each day).

Yet some have booked not one, not two, but eight slots. This is the height of selfishness as the organisers will now have to sort the mess out! It also strikes me as idiotic to book for 4hrs of continuous training in between Saturday and Sunday racing and if you are not using all the slots then why not let others use them. I suspect this is all down to the panic mentality.

<<RANT MODE OFF ... for now... >>
Kit Washer, Entry Clerk, Chauffeur, Reluctant Organiser, Online Entry Advocate .....
Anything I post under this user is my personal opinion; I am not posting as a member of the Slalom Committee!

Dee
Posts: 1444
Joined: Sun May 08, 2005 8:34 pm

Re: Panic Buying or Plain Daft

Post by Dee » Tue Jan 15, 2019 5:45 pm

PS It's quite fun watching the surges in entries coming in though.
But I'm very tired having stayed up til 1am just in case of any issues. I think this probably makes me even dafter than the rest of you :lol: :lol:
Kit Washer, Entry Clerk, Chauffeur, Reluctant Organiser, Online Entry Advocate .....
Anything I post under this user is my personal opinion; I am not posting as a member of the Slalom Committee!

Dee
Posts: 1444
Joined: Sun May 08, 2005 8:34 pm

Re: Panic Buying or Plain Daft

Post by Dee » Tue Jan 15, 2019 7:50 pm

PPS . Having just received an email, my rants are generally slightly tongue-in-cheek and I was laughing whilst typing so all is well with the world .

Happy paddling everyone . :lol: :lol: :lol:
Kit Washer, Entry Clerk, Chauffeur, Reluctant Organiser, Online Entry Advocate .....
Anything I post under this user is my personal opinion; I am not posting as a member of the Slalom Committee!

CeeBee
Posts: 331
Joined: Sun Aug 19, 2007 9:12 pm
Location: Falkirk

Re: Panic Buying or Plain Daft

Post by CeeBee » Tue Jan 15, 2019 9:55 pm

Quite entertaining to watch all the entries come in today :D

I've cancelled all the duplicate practice slots leaving one in. So, if you had 2 or 3 or 4 booked for Friday, you now have 1. The same goes for Saturday,

This has let me offer out the spaces to those on the waiting list. I was going to e-mail and ask preferences but decided to cancel them fairly randomly so you have one of the slots you applied for but not necessarily your first choice.

Apologies to the family who I mistakenly split across consecutive slots - hadn't spotted the sibling. However does mean the parents can watch each child padding for the hour - sorry.

JimW
Posts: 570
Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2015 2:17 pm
Location: Pinkston

Re: Panic Buying or Plain Daft

Post by JimW » Tue Jan 15, 2019 11:01 pm

Er, I was on between midnight and 1am making my competitions live :oops: , so it seemed to make sense to enter other races at the same time.

I have however already transferred almost all the Prem/1/2 races to my own calendar and added codes for the ones I was going to definitely enter, definitely not enter and ones I might enter - I simply went through my calendar and entered the ones I had marked to defintely enter that were already live, so yes some are in the very distant future, but it is all part of a master plan, of sorts :mrgreen:

What I hadn't done in advance is estimated the cost of all the races, scary since some aren't even live yet, and I will probably enter some of the maybe's later....

Dee
Posts: 1444
Joined: Sun May 08, 2005 8:34 pm

Re: Panic Buying or Plain Daft

Post by Dee » Wed Jan 16, 2019 12:12 am

JimW wrote:
Tue Jan 15, 2019 11:01 pm
...
What I hadn't done in advance is estimated the cost of all the races, scary since some aren't even live yet, and I will probably enter some of the maybe's later....
When we started this system we charged everyone as soon as they entered, now that would have slowed things down a bit :twisted: :mrgreen:
Kit Washer, Entry Clerk, Chauffeur, Reluctant Organiser, Online Entry Advocate .....
Anything I post under this user is my personal opinion; I am not posting as a member of the Slalom Committee!

Mike Mitchell
Posts: 180
Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2014 10:44 pm

Re: Panic Buying or Plain Daft

Post by Mike Mitchell » Wed Jan 16, 2019 7:39 pm

So at 10.30pm last night after getting in from training, I realised everyone had been entering Races all Day.
So as it is so easy to enter everything in one go, I did everything for the Year and then Davids. So some £640 to Date.
So the problem came when I got to Pinkston Slots. They were all marked at full. So not panic shopping I just applied for them all hoping to get a cancelation in One.
The system is brilliant Dee, especially because I can still remember sending the entry in an envelope with Two SA Envelopes for Start list and Results.
Only problem now is noticing when any of the not listed event come on line, can you tex me a reminder.

Dee
Posts: 1444
Joined: Sun May 08, 2005 8:34 pm

Re: Panic Buying or Plain Daft

Post by Dee » Wed Jan 16, 2019 10:34 pm

Mike Mitchell wrote:
Wed Jan 16, 2019 7:39 pm
can you tex me a reminder.
:lol: :roll: :lol: :roll: :lol: :roll:
Kit Washer, Entry Clerk, Chauffeur, Reluctant Organiser, Online Entry Advocate .....
Anything I post under this user is my personal opinion; I am not posting as a member of the Slalom Committee!

JimW
Posts: 570
Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2015 2:17 pm
Location: Pinkston

Re: Panic Buying or Plain Daft

Post by JimW » Wed Jan 16, 2019 10:39 pm

Dee wrote:
Wed Jan 16, 2019 10:34 pm
Mike Mitchell wrote:
Wed Jan 16, 2019 7:39 pm
can you tex me a reminder.
:lol: :roll: :lol: :roll: :lol: :roll:
Mike, you will have a calendar app on your phone, get David to show how to set reminders on it, and then set them up for all the events that are scheduled to come online in the future. Obviously you can't do it for events that aren't showing up at all yet, maybe also add a monthly reminder to check if any others have been added? :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Mike Mitchell
Posts: 180
Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2014 10:44 pm

Re: Panic Buying or Plain Daft

Post by Mike Mitchell » Fri Jan 18, 2019 7:25 pm

Thanks Dee and Jim :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I have just been informed that all the Prem Official spots have all gone.
Not that I enter these but if you want an entry you need to be Quick.

JimW
Posts: 570
Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2015 2:17 pm
Location: Pinkston

Re: Panic Buying or Plain Daft

Post by JimW » Fri Jan 18, 2019 7:57 pm

Mike Mitchell wrote:
Fri Jan 18, 2019 7:25 pm
I have just been informed that all the Prem Official spots have all gone.
Not that I enter these but if you want an entry you need to be Quick.
Its a nightmare - HPP Prem clashes with Scottish WWR champs and I am struggling to decide between them!

Although it has been suggested I could do the Prem and use the Sunday evening WWR slot to train for WWR selection which will be at HPP in April...

What to do?

Dee
Posts: 1444
Joined: Sun May 08, 2005 8:34 pm

Re: Panic Buying or Plain Daft

Post by Dee » Fri Jan 18, 2019 8:31 pm

Change your name to Dolly?
Kit Washer, Entry Clerk, Chauffeur, Reluctant Organiser, Online Entry Advocate .....
Anything I post under this user is my personal opinion; I am not posting as a member of the Slalom Committee!

JimW
Posts: 570
Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2015 2:17 pm
Location: Pinkston

Re: Panic Buying or Plain Daft

Post by JimW » Fri Jan 18, 2019 9:31 pm

Dee wrote:
Fri Jan 18, 2019 8:31 pm
Change your name to Dolly?
Took me a few seconds to work that out - baaa!

Dee
Posts: 1444
Joined: Sun May 08, 2005 8:34 pm

Re: Panic Buying or Plain Daft

Post by Dee » Fri Jan 18, 2019 10:23 pm

JimW wrote:
Fri Jan 18, 2019 9:31 pm
Dee wrote:
Fri Jan 18, 2019 8:31 pm
Change your name to Dolly?
Took me a few seconds to work that out - baaa!
Well I was in the pub
Kit Washer, Entry Clerk, Chauffeur, Reluctant Organiser, Online Entry Advocate .....
Anything I post under this user is my personal opinion; I am not posting as a member of the Slalom Committee!

djberriman
Posts: 806
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2007 8:19 pm

Re: Panic Buying or Plain Daft

Post by djberriman » Wed Jan 23, 2019 1:15 pm

I guess the only real way to prevent such things is to restrict the number of 'active' entries in Prem and Div 1. This is a system used by other sports.

Thus lets for example take a figure of say 10 (or 5 doubles). You can enter up to that maximum and then have to wait until you have raced (or cancelled) an event before you can make your next entry. I think we did discuss this at the ACM. Postal entries would have to be vetted which would be fairly simple and quick (as they are minimal).

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