Posting USFA member ratings online

[alewive]

Tournament tomorrow, and a lost USFA card this evening.

Not to start a USFA web-bashing thread, but is there any reason why members/ratings are not posted on the USFA website? We receive new cards fairly promptly with ratings changes, so it seems this data should be readily available. Even a database to show members are current would be helpful.

I can't imagine this is the first time this issue has been raised. Does anyone know why it's not online...or am I missing it???

[peet]

Tournament tomorrow, and a lost USFA card this evening.

Not to start a USFA web-bashing thread, but is there any reason why members/ratings are not posted on the USFA website? We receive new cards fairly promptly with ratings changes, so it seems this data should be readily available. Even a database to show members are current would be helpful.

I can't imagine this is the first time this issue has been raised. Does anyone know why it's not online...or am I missing it???

Hopefully this and other such access to useful information will be part of the upcoming online tournament and membership management project that is (AFAIK) under way.

At least it would certainly be one of the things that I would have included in the project if my firm had been awarded the contract. (Sorry folks. I just couldn't resist getting that little dig in there! )

cheers!

-p

[JEC]

The Southwest Section has several online excel databases that are updated about every month or so. These databases include membership status, club membership status, and ratings. Bout committee is able to check before the tournament the USFA status and ratings of the pre-registered fencers (typically using AskFred in our section and cross checking to the database). Obviously, there are some ratings that are too new to make it to the database, but those are few exceptions. At registration, the membership and rating of the fencer is decided, and if needed, the fencer writes an USFA application with a credit card and at the top of the application write CONFIRMING MEMBERSHIP" .

[Inigo_Montoya]

The USFA has plans for including an online database of current members and their ratings. I believe they have this planned for 'phase 3' of their website. I'm not sure when they are planning on having it up and running. Will probably be a while. This is what I heard when I was at Coaches College over the summer.

[SmokeyTheCat263]

Tournament tomorrow, and a lost USFA card this evening.

Not to start a USFA web-bashing thread, but is there any reason why members/ratings are not posted on the USFA website? We receive new cards fairly promptly with ratings changes, so it seems this data should be readily available. Even a database to show members are current would be helpful.

I can't imagine this is the first time this issue has been raised. Does anyone know why it's not online...or am I missing it???

As a certain someone I know would say: "IF YOU WANNA SEE RATINGS ON THE WEBSITE, DO IT YOURSELF!"

[MyrddinsPrecint]

Tournament tomorrow, and a lost USFA card this evening.

Not to start a USFA web-bashing thread, but is there any reason why members/ratings are not posted on the USFA website? We receive new cards fairly promptly with ratings changes, so it seems this data should be readily available. Even a database to show members are current would be helpful.

I can't imagine this is the first time this issue has been raised. Does anyone know why it's not online...or am I missing it???

oh god.

huge legal NIGHTMARE.

or, at least if it was open to the public.

(but what's the public in fencing? are tournament organizers privy to information the public shouldn't be??)

my college is required to allow people to have their information removed from the directory, and they are required to let people know that it's an option to have it removed. i'm not sure if whatever legal ruling that requires Smith to do that would cover the USFA as well, but i know i wouldn't want my name up there.

i've known way too many creepy people to want it to be that easy to track me.

[peet]

oh god.

huge legal NIGHTMARE.

or, at least if it was open to the public.

(but what's the public in fencing? are tournament organizers privy to information the public shouldn't be??)

my college is required to allow people to have their information removed from the directory, and they are required to let people know that it's an option to have it removed. i'm not sure if whatever legal ruling that requires Smith to do that would cover the USFA as well, but i know i wouldn't want my name up there.

i've known way too many creepy people to want it to be that easy to track me.

I wouldn't get too worried. I'm sure the USFA will limit the publicly available info to fencing related stuff, like ratings, club and division affiliation. I doubt they would include anything that would help stalkers track people down!

-p

[mrbiggs]

I wouldn't get too worried. I'm sure the USFA will limit the publicly available info to fencing related stuff, like ratings, club and division affiliation. I doubt they would include anything that would help stalkers track people down!

-p

Club and division affilition would make it possible to get people's general area...plus, it's extraneous. All tournament organizers need is name, age, rating, and if they're a member. The fencer can fill out everything else.

[peet]

Club and division affilition would make it possible to get people's general area...plus, it's extraneous. All tournament organizers need is name, age, rating, and if they're a member. The fencer can fill out everything else.

The club might be extraneous, but division is relevant to various qualifiers.

Lots of this stuff can already be gleaned from existing tournament results listings anyway...

-p

[MyrddinsPrecint]

oh yeah. because if i have a rating in one weapon, and am a member of a club that has a website that specifically lists open fencing for that weapon as one night, it'll be REALLY HARD to track me down.


i mean, i suppose that it really wouldn't be that hard to find me already, because i've loosened up my grip on my privacy a bit in the 9 months or so. but i have another friends who still keeps a copy of a restraining order with her at all times. i doubt she wants her personal information online.

[mrbiggs]

The club might be extraneous, but division is relevant to various qualifiers.

Lots of this stuff can already be gleaned from existing tournament results listings anyway...

-p

Yeah, that's true.

[peet]

oh yeah. because if i have a rating in one weapon, and am a member of a club that has a website that specifically lists open fencing for that weapon as one night, it'll be REALLY HARD to track me down.


i mean, i suppose that it really wouldn't be that hard to find me already, because i've loosened up my grip on my privacy a bit in the 9 months or so. but i have another friends who still keeps a copy of a restraining order with her at all times. i doubt she wants her personal information online.

I hear you. Privacy and safety on the web is serious business. It's always a balance between privacy & usefulness. Assumedly the USFA will look at the implications of making certain data available, and devise some compromise, perhaps including mechanisms like requiring a login to access data of a certain specificity.

I don't want to sound callous, but a creep who already knows you can probably find out what club you fence at without help from the USFA website, if s/he is so motivated.

-p

[Frank Pratt]

I doubt that posting a name, division, club, and classifications for all three weapons will pose a problem. The club information is not really important (except for team competitions, perhaps,) so it can probably be omitted if people really get really picky. Then again, some of fencers (e.g. college students) might be officially listed as a member of a club that's thousands of miles away from their division. If someone can deduce that a fencer might live in or near a city with a population of 30,000 to 1,000,000+, he/she is going to need to dig much deeper to figure out which house to park in front of. Without the club information, using the USFA website to track someone down is pretty much impossible.

The point about these fencing data bring readily available for thousands of fencers on hundreds of websites is a good one. Furthermore, if someone really wants to track a fencer down, there are plenty of websites, private investigators, and hackers out there that can provide them with far more information than the USFA even possesses about the individual.