UHC Apps | Competition Hosting
Posted: June 8th, 2017, 6:53 pm
COMPETITION GENERATOR
WHAT IS IT?
It's a competition generator. I started working on it a few years ago when I began hosting my own competitions, and realised how much work it would be to manually create forms, validate scores, and check to make sure participants followed the rules. I had big plans for it and even went as far as writing Android and iOS apps for score submission, leaderboards and various other useful stuff such as push notifications and calendar integration, etc. Life got in the way however, and other business commitments had to take priority. In the end, development stopped and I decided just to use it for my own competitions and a couple of others, hosted by other community members.
When I started doing consultancy work for Expansive Worlds I stopped hosting competitions altogether. However, community competitions are a very special part of this forum for me. They are what got me involved in the community and I think they add tremendous value. Community competitions are, in my opinion, much more interesting and rewarding than the official competitions, so I very much them to continue and for more and more community members to host their own. With the help of Tod, our lead moderator and one of the founding members of White Out Hunting, I take great pleasure in announcing that the competition generator is slowly going to be opened up for public use.
HOW DO I HOST A COMPETITION WITH IT?
At the moment there is still some work involved in getting a competition configured and running. This part of the process requires access to the UHC Apps server and all of the source code. For that reason, and until such times as a more automated version of the application becomes available, not everyone can have access to the core system. However, everyone is free to request that their competition be put on the system and hosted on the UHC Apps server. Tod has kindly agreed to manage the competition generator and although his time is not unlimited, he shares the same passion for community competitions as I do and has kindly volunteered his time to community members looking for a more robust platform on which to host competitions.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?
The main benefit of using the competition generator as opposed to an alternative such as Google Sheets, is flexibility and automated verification of scores. The system communicates directly with theHunter API and uses a number of functions to validate submissions. This enables hosts to forget about manual validation of scores, a process that can take a significant amount of time and result in human error. The system is able to check a huge number of variables and alert participants if a part of their submission is incorrect or fails to meet the rules or criteria of the competition. The system can also keep track of attempts, time limits, and even more complex things such as shot placement (which organs have been hit) and how many points a rack has, or horn length, etc. This affords competition hosts more flexibility and accommodates more imaginative competitions which might otherwise be prohibitive using manual entry and validation systems.
DO I HAVE TO PAY?
No, there are no fees to use this system. All you have to do is remain cognisant of the fact that it is being run and managed by volunteers who have other commitments, so it may not always be possible to host a competition exactly when you want to. If hosts want to include em$ prizes in their competitions, then this is the responsibility of the host.
I WANT TO HOST A COMPETITION - WHAT NOW?
In the first instance, please contact Tod. You can find his forum profile here. He will discuss your competition idea with you and try to agree a suitable timescale for preparations, so you a convenient date for the competition can be agreed.
SUPPORT
Support is provided by volunteers, so please be patient. Holidays, sickness and other real life events can and will from time to time result in delays and an inability to accommodate the needs of hosts. I will continue to work closely with Tod on the development of the system. Improvements and updates will be communicated in this thread.
QUESTIONS
If you have any questions feel free to post them below, or send a private message to Tod or me (or both).
Thank you for your interest in the competition generator, and a big thank you to Tod for giving up his free time to help improve the system and enable others to host competitions. I look forward to seeing many more competitions hosted on it in the future.
UHC Apps | White Out Hunting | Current Competition Schedule