To MODERATORS: Please STOP moving genuine tournaments!

[Rebel]

Events that require others to subscribe and participate need exposure, and when they do not get it they will have to be cancelled because there are no participants.

Couldn't a mass email be sent out to all of the engine authors?
That would give them the necessary information directly. This would surely allay some of the concerns being expressed.

What is wrong 3-4 historical tournaments once a year post an announcement in the main section?

[PaulieD]

I see the 'Tournaments' section as a place to view the major rating list matches only.

All others should be put into the 'General' section since they tend to be 'everyday' people posting their results...Generally speaking

[hgm]

Well, posting results is still something quite different from making an announcement to inform potential participants the event will take place...

[Dann Corbit]

If your browser is set in flat view and you go to the tournaments section, you can see all of the tournaments that are starting at a glance.

The problem with posting 3-4 tournaments here is:
Which 3-4 are OK, and why are the others not OK.

It makes it so much easier for the moderators to simply apply a rule rather than judge each tournament as "deserving of off topic status" or not.

Quite frankly, I see no hardship whatsoever in examining another forum.

[hgm]

Well, I do, so your proposal sucks. It means that I and many others would have to open a forum section we would normally never visit several hundred times per year. For practically zero benefit to others. It not only wastes my time, but burns energy, spoils the climate, and contributes to destroying the human race.

It is totally trivial to determine which postings about tournaments need maximum exposure, and for which this does not matter at all. Announcements calling for participation need exposure, and deserve to be placed wherever the poster think he will get enough of that. Even if it would be in all 5 forum sections, if the organizer deems that necessary. Those that merely present results of something the poster did on his own are not dependent on anything, and can be buried with their ilk.

If it is to much work for moderators to make that distinction on their own, it might be a good idea when they can simply go with the judgement of the poster. Especially when he starts his posting with an explicit motivition why he made the choice he did.

[bob]

Computer vs computer, but ONLY authors can apply. You can't just choose a program and enter it...

HG uses the programmers section for his monthly tournament announcements, so a precedent has been set for this. If the intended audience for this is engine authors only, then perhaps the announcement itself could have been posted there.

Better look again. He always announces them in the _programmer's_ section.

But the point is, SOME tournaments have appeal beyond the programmers, such as the WCCC or ACCA events (not to mention others). Posting the announcements in the general forum is the appropriate place. 500 post threads about games played belong in the tournament section, certainly.

[bob]

The Tournaments and Matches section is really for home tournaments...

Why do you believe that ?

Because of why it was created. It was specifically created to collect all the active mini-tournaments into one place so that the general forum and programmer's forum are not swamped by posts. It was NEVER intended that any post with the word "tournament" would be moved there no matter where it originated.

[bob]

Events that require others to subscribe and participate need exposure, and when they do not get it they will have to be cancelled because there are no participants.

Couldn't a mass email be sent out to all of the engine authors?
That would give them the necessary information directly. This would surely allay some of the concerns being expressed.

What about all the non-authors that are interested in WCCC, ACCA, CCT, etc???

EVERYTHING we do here could be done by email, with no record left behind for others to find.

[bob]

Hi there,

Leiden or other match / tournament constellations ...
Is the same as livening room comp-comp tourneys by users.

Chess programs are playing chess in both cases, not more not less.

Best
Frank

Frank, One does not make travel arrangements for a basement tournament.

Two competing models are being discussed:

a) The user finds the information
b) The information finds the user

Pushing information at users, i.e listing tournament announcements in the general section, because 'otherwise no one will not see the information', is spam.

Sending out an email, as Graham suggests, to engine programmers is a reasonable solution.

A 'sticky' could be added to the top of the Tournaments and Matches section listing events requiring travel arrangements.

Or, a subforum could be added to Tournaments and Matches specifically for such events.

We see dozens of new engines every year. HOW will you send email to those unknown authors?

We started off with one forum. We made a decision to split it into three. One for general information, which a WCCC or ACCA announcement certainly qualifies. One specifically for programmers, which keeps the technical stuff where it is easy to fine (and this is the only forum I generally look at on a daily basis) and finally the tournament forum where one can announce an event, post round by round results, and discuss the games as desired.

A WCCC event will produce one announcement per year. The CCRL events produce dozens per month. It is about volume and convenience. Not about a draconian policy that any post mentioning a tournament gets moved. HGM's monthly tournaments are announced in the programmer's forum, generate maybe 20 posts per event, and they have not been moved. Why, then, move the ACCA announcement which is once per year?

Consistency would be a good thing.

[hgm]

For those who do not remember:

The tournaments forum was originally created on Bob's request, when TalkChess first switched to using phpBB.