Soliciting ideas for the future of BJT

If you can stand the additional work to for lack of a better term "police the members", I have no doubt that adding 3cp, baccarrat and craps events to the schedule will end up creating more members. If the home page had links to a schedule for each and members loaded the events, tournament players, just googling the internet would find the site. I am not sure there are in "free sites" like this one that are dedicated the various types of tournaments.

These different types of events would I believe need their own strategy forums.

 

One little thing I'd like to see is the ability to geographically search for tournaments with narrower parameters. If I'm going to Vegas for a major, I like to hit smaller events for practice, right now one must scour through the entire Southwest U.S. list.

 

Some thoughts without much thought

Including other tournament venues in the event calendar is a great and often wished for positive potential change, I suggest 5 catagories. BJ, 3CP, Craps, Baccarat and other.

The default casino phone number listed in upcoming events is normally incorrect, perhaps this field should be left blank for the event poster to include the current correct number.

Some threads have not been updated in over two years and could possibly be purged to eliminate clutter, ie. Blackjack Tournament Cruises, UBT, World Series of Blackjack and Tournament Blackjack Players Association.

Player interviews always provided a good read and are missed.

A monthly tournament tip by your's truely would be a welcomed addition to this forum.

 

Rookie789's suggestions seem excellent to me! Especially the one about a monthly op-ed piece re: tournament strategy. Asking different known players who inhabit this site to write one up would provide varying viewpoints and take the load off one person. These could run the gamut from advanced strategy to more beginner-oriented stuff such as what one should expect when arriving at a tournament site.

 

I like the simplicity of vbulletin. I would like a pro con analysis of what this other software can provide. Ok, I admit, I don't like relearning something....like when word or excel goes through its changes, or windows moves everything around.

and if you ever let this site go by the wayside, many of us will find you....ok maybe just me.

ok i did think of something, how about an I won or I made the finals section.

i like reading/hearing about the last hand scenarios that lead to victory or defeat. list where you finish and how much you got paid so we can all celebrate the victory.

 

Would it be used?

The "I won/made the finals" is a nice idea but many here are too humble to blow their own horn (Rookie?). Guess it couldn't do any harm as a feature for those that choose to use it.

Billy C

 

My ramble

Ken apologized for not a ramble. So I'll do it for him.

1> Don't go away.

2> I'm with legend in staying with format.

3>Billy correct about humble or maybe not wanting to give away secrets.

4>Per Rookie. Other tourney listings good idea. Participation there leads to BJ invites.

5>Like BLOG section. Cause just random discussion as of now is limited. Everyone too close to the vest or don''t want to be a pest? Must be too much PM and not enough free for all discussion.

6>There are a lot of regional "small" reacurring tourneys. Mich. Iowa. Tunica. Gulf Coast. Laughlin. Others. someone compile a condensation of those opportunities..though I know many go away as often as they do occur.

7>Lefty's preception right on as usual.

8>Ken's level of insight, participation and advantage play so far above more than just a few of THE members here, anything he decides to do (as long as he continues the site) is an advantage to the rest of us.

Whatever happens...."Good Fortune" to one and all. Don't go to the "Dark Side" as so many we have trusted in the past have done.

 

Event Calendar Integration With Forums

I was going to think about this for a while and then post all of my ideas, but I've now decided that it would probably be better to post things as they occur to me. Having said that, I have already accumulated a few suggestions for how the Event Calendar integrates with the forums, so I'll start with that.

As Ken has already mentioned, there was already a suggestion for one forum thread for each event. Expanding on that idea:

• That thread should go into the appropriate regional forum (i.e. Blackjack Tournaments (USA)) instead of the Calendar Updates forum. That way, folks would be more likely to discuss the event in the same thread as the calendar updates, resulting in a single thread containing all discussion and updates for that event
• I think that the Calendar Updates forum should be abandoned.
  • The existing Calendar Updates threads could be moved into the appropriate regional forums, or the Calendar Updates forum could be left where it is and closed for new posts.
  • While we're at it, the regional forums could also be made more granular. Instead of just one forum for USA, there could be one for each region, with one region corresponding to the existing regions in the Event Calendar.
  • Las Vegas probably warrants being its own region. Perhaps Nevada (except Vegas) as well.
  • Canada, also being a very large country, might warrant separate regions for each province/territory.
• The first post generated into an Event Calendar thread should simply contain a link to the calendar event itself as well as thanks to whomever added the event. No need to repeat the details of the event within the post. That "thanks" could be the same as the "thanks" we members bestow upon one another for useful posts. That way it would show up in the member's profile stats. Even further, the post itself could attributed to the user who added the event instead of to "Calendar Bot"
• Updates to an event should result in another link to the updated calendar event being posted to the thread for the event. It would be really cool if the new link displayed the event with changes highlighted. If not, a summary of what changed could be part of the post for the update. We have the latter now, except that the free form description of the event is showed in its entirety with no indication of what has changed. Posts generated for updates could also thank the member who made the update and attribute the post to him/her.
• Automatic reminders could be generated into the thread for an event say, a month before, and then again a week before the date of the event. That way Billy C won't have to remind everyone to register for the Kewadin tournaments every time they come around The reminder would also contain a link to the calendar event and the upcoming date.
• There is currently no way to cancel one date of a recurring event.
• There is currently no way to rescind one's attendance for a given date of an event.
• When a member indicates or rescinds his attendance at an event, there should be an option to have a post generated into the thread for the event saying that the member will/will not be attending along with the message entered by the member into the event itself. In addition, or instead of this, a private message could be sent to selected other members or to the member's friends (or both).

That's all of can think of, for now. I hope it helps.

 

Calendar Events in General

The "bankroll" field is not suited as a single entry on the "Enter Details" page. Many tournaments have a different bankroll for each round. It may be appropriate as the initial bankroll required for live money events but otherwise, I think it is best left to the free form event info.

The search capability for events should be enhanced. We can currently search for things like small/medium/large prize pools and open/invitational, however an advanced search page should be made available for filtering every aspect of an event entry including matching strings within the free form description.

 

Email Digest

I receive a daily email digest of the activity in the forums that interest me. When I click on the link for a given thread, it takes me to the first post in the thread. It would be great if it instead took me to the first post for that day.

 

• 
  One of the reasons for making it the way it currently is was to allow people to easily dodge the stream of constant updates by marking the calendar updates forum as ignored. (So that 'New Posts' does not get swamped with stuff which you may not be interested in.)
  
  The stream has generally been more of a trickle, so it's not something I ever felt compelled to do, but I think some method of filtering out unwanted updates ought to be retained if at all possible.

 

Perhaps posts for new/updated calendar events could be separated from 'New Posts' in general, even if the threads are in the regional forums. Or perhaps posts for new/updated calendar entries could just be omitted from New Posts. We still have the "Recent Event Updates' link in the side bar.

 

If there are software changes then it may be possible to accomodate all sorts of competing desires, while others may remain incompatible. I think all we can put forward now is rough ideas, and thoughts on their relative priorities.

Poor Ken then gets the problem of trying to satisfy all of the people all of the time, plus finding suitable technology.

When it comes to expanding the calendar's features, I was wondering if it would be feasible to allow people to create/edit not just tournaments, but also the places (i.e. regions and casinos) where they take place. International tournaments (and maybe online tournaments, if legally permissible) could then be included, adding any new locations as they are discovered.

 

Sounds good to me.

Perhaps there could also be an option to 'subscribe' to particular regions, causing an email to be sent when there is an update (or maybe just for new events) in a given region, similar to the existing thread subscription idea.

 

Who are we to question The King?

I was the editor and chief writer of my college newspaper. And I missed it!

 

Soliciting in itself is not a dirty word -- it's what's being solicited that matters.

I don't really think you were leaning toward turning BJT into a hook-up site for blackjack players .... were you?