[MacLoggerContest] Year Missing on Contest Helper Panel?

[David Kaplan]

On Jun 6, 2009, at 4:16 AM, Jonathan G0DVJ wrote:


Hi David,

As one of the serious contesters that gave input to Don when he added/ 
designed the contest helper panel I thought I should offer an answer  
to this ...

Thanks for your calm, reasoned reply... I appreciate it greatly.

The worked before feature for contesters is purely about whether we  
have worked the station in that event before and therefore would be  
penalised for working a duplicate again, so the year is superfluous.   
If set up for this by specifying the date range to dupe check as most  
contesters would do, the year would always be displayed the same and  
hence no point to display it.    As a regular contester, it is very  
likely I would have worked lots of stations in the same contests for  
years, but frankly that is of little interest to me during a  
contest ... simply have I worked them (possibly per mode/band) in the  
current contest before.

No, it wouldn't slow me down if the year is there but in general it's  
a good principle to minimize the information in front of an operator  
when he is doing lots of other stuff with his brain while working  
stations as fast as possible.  Remember if you are giving away points  
in a contest to a "serious"/"big" contest station, the guy you are  
working is not simply working stations like you, he making lots of  
other judgements and doing other things to maximize his score  
simultaneously while working you.

Having been a very low level operator in several contests, I  
understand you completely. Actually, you are rebutting your own  
argument. First you say it wouldn't slow you down, but then you say  
"it's good principle to minimize the information...". I agree with  
your latter statement that it wouldn't be good for the operator to  
have to "skim" by the year to get the day.

I suppose it would be possible to add even more code to display the  
year IF and only IF the date range isn't set to limit the dupe check  
to a period in the same year but only Don would know if this is worth  
it to please more people.   For now, I think the contest helper window  
does the best thing for most contesters.

This brings me back to my original question awhile back on the forums:  
How would I get an easy replacement for the non-contester dup check?  
The little green bulb is handy, but then it takes time to manually  
type or copy/paste the call into the sql db call lookup. Originally  
someone suggested Contest Helper, which is how this all started, but  
having investigated it I found out the year problem. Of course if I am  
not in a contest, then the second or two to copy/paste or type the  
call is not significant. If I am in a contest (which I occasionally  
am), then I don't need the year as you said.

Why don't we "close this trouble ticket", give Don more time to  
himself if he'll use it, and go find a contest!


Hope this helps understand the original design idea.

Absolutely, Thanks!   73, David, WA1OUI


73
Jonathan G0DVJ
--


On 6 Jun 2009, at 02:53, David Kaplan wrote:


> To all:

>

> I realize that contesters might not need the year worked in a  

> contest, but would it slow them down if it were there? I enjoy  

> contests, but am not a serious contester, so I can't answer this  

> myself. At my level it wouldn't bother me, but that's not an answer.

>

> It would be nice to have it there in normal operation to know when/ 

> if I've worked someone before, and not just this year.

>

> And aren't there any contests that span Dec 31/Jan 1????? Just  

> Kidding.

>

> Thanks,

>

> David, WA1OUI

>

>

>

>

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