Just curious, is there a status with D3Soccer.com? Or what we see is what we will get for this year?
SC.
Quote from: SimpleCoach on August 29, 2022, 05:40:22 PM
Just curious, is there a status with D3Soccer.com? Or what we see is what we will get for this year?
SC.
You might try mailing them via their official email address, d3soccer.com@gmail.com; Christian Shirk has been the most active in the past (d3soccer.shirk@gmail.com) but his site bio says "Chris has served as lead columnist, Deputy Managing Editor and Managing Editor prior to transitioning into his current role as a Special Consultant and Advisor." The guy who helped with last year's Pool C analysis, Jim Hutchinson, has "in early 2022, Jim "retired" and now assists as available" on his bio but you can try d3soccer.hutchinson@gmail.com. Jim Matson (d3soccer.matson@gmail.com) is listed as publisher but I haven't seen anything under his byline in years. Duane Cole (d3soccer@gmail.com) is listed as a contributor on the women's side, but there's been virtually no coverage of the women for years, either.
tl/dr basically, it's dead, Jim.
Someone is running their twitter account..
Quote from: NEPAFAN on August 30, 2022, 10:06:17 AM
Someone is running their twitter account..
I was just going to say this as they posted something (pretty generic, but still a post) this morning.
https://twitter.com/D3soc/status/1564614869604880386
So maybe it's on life support, at least.
Sorry, everyone. I've been wanting to provide an update on the website all summer, but it wasn't clear what the status was or would be for the 2022 season. About 2 weeks ago an approach to the 2022 season was agreed upon by those involved. A message will be posted to the website homepage in the next day or two (was meant to be written and posted over the weekend, but family life kept getting in the way).
I'll try to give an overview and then later will provide a link to whatever we post on the website. Jim Hutchinson has now retired from running the website as I did a few years earlier. We both want to see the website continue and are willing and interested in remaining involved on a limited basis. We have not found new leadership to take over the huge task of running the website on a volunteer, unpaid basis. Consequently, it appeared that the website would be discontinued.
However, there is one party interested in helping to keep the website up and running in a Board of Directors kind of way (which would crucially involve pursuing financing), but there was not enough time prior to the current 2022 season to explore financing options and determine if there is a way to make this work in the absence of an unpaid, volunteer managing editor. Therefore, this interested party will use the next 9 or so months to see if a re-launch of the website for the 2023 season is feasible.
Given this possibility, Jim Hutchinson and I have decided to maintain the website for the 2022 season on a very limited, but hopefully still useful/beneficial basis. Consider this a bridge year to a potential re-launch in 2023. Along with the help of some other behind the scenes volunteers, we will keep the schedules, results and standings up-to-date throughout the season. Besides those items, the website will largely be on hiatus. That means no weekly Top 25, no columns, no posting the Regional Rankings, etc. throughout the season. Similarly, we are not committing to any post-season coverage either, so do not expect any Conference Championship Central, at-large berth predications, NCAA Tournament Central, or All-America teams this year.
This is sad, especially for those of us who have personally invested so much into the website over the years, but Jim and I have had to say "no" to continuing to over-extend ourselves to the detriment of our families and personal well-being. We had considered discontinuing the Top 25 and All-America teams already in 2021, but continued them as a bridge to 2022 when we hoped something would come together to keep the website up and running under new leadership. That hasn't transpired, unfortunately.
For the most part, the website is ready for the 2022 season on the limited basis upon which it will operate. The team pages and the conference pages (standings and schedules) have been created. Schedules are nearly complete. There are a few other odds and ends that we'll update yet, but we are largely ready for the opening of the season on Thursday.
Thanks for all you (and the others who have since moved on) have done to keep things running over the years, Christian. It's great to hear that there's at least some kind of hope/plan to keep it moving forward next year. At the same time, doing the kinds of things you all have been doing without any kind of remuneration gets old fast, and I wish you and Jim well as you move on to other pursuits.
One thing for sure I do know - your party should reach out to SimpleCoach who has done an excellent job the last year of covering all sorts of teams and providing his thoughts on the national scene. He would make a great lead columnist if he's interested.
Well, I want to be careful not to discuss publicly what should be private conversations. But I will say this.
I think what SimpleCoach has been doing is awesome. It's been a tremendous new resource for D-III soccer fans. We are glad to see his success and that coaches have been willing to have these long, in-depth conversations with him for "publication".
If Jim Hutchinson and I were not retired and still intended to run the website day-to-day, then we most certainly would be looking to collaborate with SimpleCoach in some way. SimpleCoach came along at an odd time with me already retired and Jim Hutchinson in his last year running the website. We had some introductory conversations with him, but it hasn't been clear if there would even be a D3soccer.com website anymore after the 2021 season. We will keep lines of communications open with SimpleCoach and if he can play any role in helping keep D3soccer.com up and running, we welcome that.
Quote from: NEPAFAN on August 30, 2022, 10:06:17 AM
Someone is running their twitter account..
We have had a volunteer who for several years now has, largely autonomously, been doing social media posting on behalf of the website. In the off-season this primarily involves posting coaching changes. Our social media presence has been lacking, to say the least, but besides me posting links to the Top 25, columns, etc. on our Facebook page for a few years, this volunteer has given us what social media presence we have. The tweet that Ron Boerger referenced could give the impression that it is business as usual at D3soccer.com for the new season. If this is misleading, that's a consequence of this autonomous relationship.
Thanks for the update, Christan. I hope that the retooling works out, because d3soccer.com is a great resource. And I think that I speak for a lot of us when I say that the d3soccer.com All-American team is the gold standard. It puts the USC All-American team to shame.
I had a lengthy phone call with Jim Hutchinson last spring, and I told him how much I appreciate everything that the two of you have put into running that site over the years ... and I'd like to repeat that thank-you right here.
Despite several years of warnings, reading Christan's post (for me at least) is simultaneously totally understandable and jarring. I've been here for over a decade and still I can take so much for granted. I realized this again 10-11 days ago when I wanted to post "games to watch" for the first couple of weeks of the season. The schedules weren't up and I couldn't search by the day to quickly scan through which games stood out. Took me hours instead of a half-hour. It's the deep infrastructure stuff that I think we most take for granted while lamenting the potential loss of the most popular, "big ticket" features like the top 25, Conference and NCAA Tourney Centrals, AA teams, feature columns, coach interviews at the Final Four, etc. And so of course if anyone or any group of folks takes the reins they'll need to have a plan for how the nitty-gritty infrastructure work and data-entry will get done.
I sent Christian a message offering to take over the Top 25 but I don't know how feasible that is. I don't have the contacts or a site to publish the results on, so I could mainly provide a way to easily amalgamate the ballots and the time to do it. I also don't have the contacts, so I suspect it's a pipe dream. But I will miss it. Like the All America teams, D3Soccer.com just did it better than the alternatives.
I think the situation is fine. 2021 I used the site for Scores, Schedules and Records. The Links to Games, Teams and Conference Websites are also huge time savers when writing. That's it and it still worked fine as I did not need much else. The links I used for navigation to get the info I needed but allowed me to start in one central place. If people used the site differently in the past then they will have to adjust. New ownership could possibly bring a fresh approach or it could sputter the thing into oblivion. Its a toss up so I say stay with what you know until they can absolutely do it no longer. It sounds dire but also like they are trying to figure it out but need time and maybe money. New ownership could bring unwanted conflicts of interest as well. idk thinking out loud
Here's a link to the "official" release about the status of the website: https://d3soccer.com/notables/2022/back-for-2022
I also threw together an Opening Day 2022 article where I summarize some of the changes for 2022 (conference moves, rules changes, etc.): https://d3soccer.com/notables/2022/opening-day-2022
Quote from: PaulNewman on August 30, 2022, 07:56:24 PM
Despite several years of warnings, reading Christan's post (for me at least) is simultaneously totally understandable and jarring. I've been here for over a decade and still I can take so much for granted. I realized this again 10-11 days ago when I wanted to post "games to watch" for the first couple of weeks of the season. The schedules weren't up and I couldn't search by the day to quickly scan through which games stood out. Took me hours instead of a half-hour. It's the deep infrastructure stuff that I think we most take for granted while lamenting the potential loss of the most popular, "big ticket" features like the top 25, Conference and NCAA Tourney Centrals, AA teams, feature columns, coach interviews at the Final Four, etc. And so of course if anyone or any group of folks takes the reins they'll need to have a plan for how the nitty-gritty infrastructure work and data-entry will get done.
You can find Division III soccer scores on D3sports.com -- I can't say it will be complete, but it will have something, anyway.
Christan, in simplistic terms, how DOES the scoreboard work? And how do some games have links to V and LS and/or some have scores in progress with time remaining? Some teams seem to have automatic links to the RCs too in the scoreboard? And then I assume there is some automatic system with results getting plugged into the team schedules.
Jim Hutchinson here, not Christan, but here's the situation, and I will try to not get to deep into the weeds. The key is what hosting platform are the institutions using. There are minor exceptions but Prestosports and Sidearm are the two players in this space. In 2021 it was split 37% of D3 institutions sponsoring soccer were on Presto, 62% on Sidearm. Presto is our platform and we have access to whatever the institution puts in their site. We use schedules, V and LS links if provided, and final results. If at least one of the two competitors is hosted by Presto. If both are Sidearm we track the schedules and results, and then update our database in Presto.
So there is quite a bit of manual effort, and plenty of opportunities for fat finger errors. And unfortunately for us, there has been a long term trend (at least since 2015 that I know about) of institutions moving from Presto to Sidearm. So its getting worse over time.
I have built some (unreasonably complex) Excel workbooks, macros, web scraping routines, and scripts over the years to automate pieces of the tasks. My challenge is they require a lot of handholding to keep working. Reminds me of my first car was a '54 Ford convertible. Thing was a tank ... that's probably why my Dad let me have it. (The $150 purchase price wouldn't buy the spare tire today, but I digress)
Quote from: ThankstoJack on September 02, 2022, 05:59:46 PM
Jim Hutchinson here, not Christan, but here's the situation, and I will try to not get to deep into the weeds. The key is what hosting platform are the institutions using. There are minor exceptions but Prestosports and Sidearm are the two players in this space. In 2021 it was split 37% of D3 institutions sponsoring soccer were on Presto, 62% on Sidearm. Presto is our platform and we have access to whatever the institution puts in their site. We use schedules, V and LS links if provided, and final results. If at least one of the two competitors is hosted by Presto. If both are Sidearm we track the schedules and results, and then update our database in Presto.
So there is quite a bit of manual effort, and plenty of opportunities for fat finger errors. And unfortunately for us, there has been a long term trend (at least since 2015 that I know about) of institutions moving from Presto to Sidearm. So its getting worse over time.
I have built some (unreasonably complex) Excel workbooks, macros, web scraping routines, and scripts over the years to automate pieces of the tasks. My challenge is they require a lot of handholding to keep working. Reminds me of my first car was a '54 Ford convertible. Thing was a tank ... that's probably why my Dad let me have it. (The $150 purchase price wouldn't buy the spare tire today, but I digress)
Thanks, Jim. I keep reading what you nicely dumbed for me and I'm still struggling. Thank you for all your work behind the scenes.
Quote from: PaulNewman on September 02, 2022, 06:45:15 PM
Quote from: ThankstoJack on September 02, 2022, 05:59:46 PM
Jim Hutchinson here, not Christan, but here's the situation, and I will try to not get to deep into the weeds. The key is what hosting platform are the institutions using. There are minor exceptions but Prestosports and Sidearm are the two players in this space. In 2021 it was split 37% of D3 institutions sponsoring soccer were on Presto, 62% on Sidearm. Presto is our platform and we have access to whatever the institution puts in their site. We use schedules, V and LS links if provided, and final results. If at least one of the two competitors is hosted by Presto. If both are Sidearm we track the schedules and results, and then update our database in Presto.
So there is quite a bit of manual effort, and plenty of opportunities for fat finger errors. And unfortunately for us, there has been a long term trend (at least since 2015 that I know about) of institutions moving from Presto to Sidearm. So its getting worse over time.
I have built some (unreasonably complex) Excel workbooks, macros, web scraping routines, and scripts over the years to automate pieces of the tasks. My challenge is they require a lot of handholding to keep working. Reminds me of my first car was a '54 Ford convertible. Thing was a tank ... that's probably why my Dad let me have it. (The $150 purchase price wouldn't buy the spare tire today, but I digress)
Thanks, Jim. I keep reading what you nicely dumbed for me and I'm still struggling. Thank you for all your work behind the scenes.
Let me try this.
Team A and Team B use Prestosports for their athletics web sites.
Team C and Team D use Sidearm
A plays B Information automatically available to D3soccer.com
A plays C or D Information automatically available to D3soccer.com
B plays C or D Information automatically available to D3soccer.com
C plays D Jim H is the automation :)
Specific examples. Kenyon is Sidearm, ONU is Presto. John Carroll is Sidearm
The 9/1 match was automatically on our schedule along with the final score and a recap because ONU uses Presto.
The 9/3 match schedule with John Carroll was entered by me. Even though there will be a V and LS, we don't show on our schedule page. That would require additional manual updating.
Hope this helps.
The C vs D scenario is becoming more common as schools move from Prestosports to Sidearm for the web site service. Particularly as more conferences make the change and bring along most / all of their member institutions.
Quote from: ThankstoJack on September 02, 2022, 08:31:48 PM
Quote from: PaulNewman on September 02, 2022, 06:45:15 PM
Quote from: ThankstoJack on September 02, 2022, 05:59:46 PM
Jim Hutchinson here, not Christan, but here's the situation, and I will try to not get to deep into the weeds. The key is what hosting platform are the institutions using. There are minor exceptions but Prestosports and Sidearm are the two players in this space. In 2021 it was split 37% of D3 institutions sponsoring soccer were on Presto, 62% on Sidearm. Presto is our platform and we have access to whatever the institution puts in their site. We use schedules, V and LS links if provided, and final results. If at least one of the two competitors is hosted by Presto. If both are Sidearm we track the schedules and results, and then update our database in Presto.
So there is quite a bit of manual effort, and plenty of opportunities for fat finger errors. And unfortunately for us, there has been a long term trend (at least since 2015 that I know about) of institutions moving from Presto to Sidearm. So its getting worse over time.
I have built some (unreasonably complex) Excel workbooks, macros, web scraping routines, and scripts over the years to automate pieces of the tasks. My challenge is they require a lot of handholding to keep working. Reminds me of my first car was a '54 Ford convertible. Thing was a tank ... that's probably why my Dad let me have it. (The $150 purchase price wouldn't buy the spare tire today, but I digress)
Thanks, Jim. I keep reading what you nicely dumbed for me and I'm still struggling. Thank you for all your work behind the scenes.
Let me try this.
Team A and Team B use Prestosports for their athletics web sites.
Team C and Team D use Sidearm
A plays B Information automatically available to D3soccer.com
A plays C or D Information automatically available to D3soccer.com
B plays C or D Information automatically available to D3soccer.com
C plays D Jim H is the automation :)
Specific examples. Kenyon is Sidearm, ONU is Presto. John Carroll is Sidearm
The 9/1 match was automatically on our schedule along with the final score and a recap because ONU uses Presto.
The 9/3 match schedule with John Carroll was entered by me. Even though there will be a V and LS, we don't show on our schedule page. That would require additional manual updating.
Hope this helps.
The C vs D scenario is becoming more common as schools move from Prestosports to Sidearm for the web site service. Particularly as more conferences make the change and bring along most / all of their member institutions.
Jim, thanks, very helpful. I'm getting there.
So in terms of getting the entire schedule posted prior to the season start, any game with a link to a A or B program will automatically get entered with you having to do nothing beyond having your Presto porgram turned on so to speak. Is that right?
And then for any C v D matchup how do you locate all those for you to manually input...like a C v D match set for like October 15? Or let's say Kenyon has 10 games with a connection to a Presto team and 6 without? What specifically do you have to do to get the 6 games without a Presto link inputed? You don't actually have to go to the Kenyon website , identify, and hand-read all of the 6 non-Presto linked games?
Regarding updating of rankings to sync with games, who does that updating? The SIDs, the Presto programs, you/your volunteers? [And is it literally you or do you typically have a few high school or college volunteers to do data entry?] Like using the schedule calendar, schedule currently shows for October 8 that #3 W&L is @ #16 CNU. Those almost certainly won't be their rankings on October 8, so how does that stuff get updated and by whom?
Finally, when I go to November 5 (last regular season game for some conferences and conference tourney games for others), why do I see....Babson TBD, Farmingdale St Skyline Conf Final, Roanoke ODAC Finals, Brevard 2022 USA South Championship?
Sorry, last one for real....so for full Sidearm games, in terms of posting the final score in the system, does that involve literally going to websites of a Sidearm school for the C v D games to find the scores?
Yes, for A or B programs. No additional work on our part. :)
For C v D match ups, yes, I go to each individual school website, find what matches we do not have on our Presto schedule and then create that entry in the Presto database. >:(
The rankings are the D3soccer.com coaches' poll from the most recent week. What you see currently is the Final poll from 2021. We make those entries into the Presto database after each weekly poll and there is programming that pulls from there to appear in schedules / results.
As an aside, we are not planning to produce a coaches' poll this season. It takes roughly 12 to 15 hours from start to finish to produce both polls (men's and women's), if everything goes perfectly. Rarely, if ever does everything go perfectly. I will likely leave the Final 2021 poll up for a bit longer but then will pull that ranking out. Chris and I are considering how we might identify the stronger teams so their contests will appear at the top of the daily schedule similar to those in the Top 25 do now.
What appears in the November 5 schedule currently is coming from two sources: (1) Anything with a conference tournament reference is coming from an individual school's schedule they set up in Presto. A few schools do make entries in anticipation of making the conference tournament. (2) The other entries are for NWC and UAA regular season matches. These are coming either from schools in those two conferences using Presto or I have created them in Presto for the "C v D" matches.
For full Sidearm games, yes, we go to the websites of one of the two to get the score and then post to our Presto database.
This season, I entered all the "C v D' schedules and will post most of those scores. Chris is going to help when he can, but he has a full-time job and a young family. The last few years Duane Cole helped a great deal with the schedule set up and score updates. He is not going to be able to help this season. We may have used other volunteers prior to my getting involved in 2015 but have not for the last several seasons.
Lastly, all the above are what happens in the vast majority of cases. There are a few exceptions. For example, there are a few SID's on the Sidearm platform who make some of the entries for us in Presto. That has it's own pluses and minuses.
Thanks, Jim. These are the details I was curious about. Is it not possible for you to run both systems or too cost prohibitive?
BIG NEWS!
The D3soccer.com men's and women's rankings are back for another season. That's the good news. However, in order to make this a reality we needed to find ways to reduce the effort required, and so we will only be doing Top 15's this year instead of Top 25's. Just kidding!!! It's all good news! We're doing the full traditional 25 teams. The men's and women's Top 25's are being voted on right now with the rankings released tomorrow morning as we have always done.
A big thank you to jknezek for taking on a portion of the process to help make this feasible for Jim Hutchinson and me. If new management can be found for the website for the 2023 season and beyond, at least now there will not be a gap year in the rankings.
And . . . something new and exciting. The results of the fan poll being organized by jknezek will be used as a ballot in the official D3soccer.com Top 25. This season will be a pilot and if it goes well maybe a fan poll can become a permanent part of the site's Top 25 voting.
Good job guys!
Very cool!!