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  #1 (permalink)  
Old Thu Nov 29, 2018, 10:54pm
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I will add a few words to this thread. My opinion is that Arbiter is not a good system now because they grew too quickly when the NCAA became part of it. The servers were not equipped to handle the capacity and activity, the programmers do not have enough options available for individual officials who work in multiple areas or for multiple assignors, assignors are often frustrated with the lack of detail in their options, the tech support is slow, the fees are too high, and the security cannot be trusted. (There have been two high profile breaches that I know about, including one involving NCAA basketball officials. Additionally, the system used to email your password to you when you joined a new group. I got them to cease doing that because email accounts are relatively easy to hack.)

I was the admin for our Arbiter group for eight years. I dealt with numerous issues from various angles: the assignor side, the school admin point of view, and the individual officials. Over that time the fees were raised four times and new fees were added. We eventually concluded that Arbiter was not worth the money and dropped it. We purchased a website and hired our own programmer to design an assigning system to meet our needs. For about 20% of the cost we have a system which is ten times better.
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Old Thu Nov 29, 2018, 11:58pm
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 1,241
I work as an assigner and use Arbiter both as an assigner and as an official. I think there are some good and bad things to Arbiter. One of them actually has been changed recently.

In some sports, like swimming and track, it is common to have a boys and a girls meet at the same time. Previously with Arbiter you could not have a boys and girls meet at the same time at the same site. Arbiter would block out the site and the prohibited any new assignment from being made at the site during the time period. This was a major pain.

I was notified earlier this week that they have changed this and when assigned a track meet for Spring, I found this to be true. You now receive a warning that the site is in use at that time, but you can over ride this and assign the game anyway.

Arbiter can be responsive to the needs of those using the system.
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  #3 (permalink)  
Old Fri Nov 30, 2018, 03:51am
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Join Date: Aug 1999
Location: In the offseason.
Posts: 12,263
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nevadaref View Post
I will add a few words to this thread. My opinion is that Arbiter is not a good system now because they grew too quickly when the NCAA became part of it. The servers were not equipped to handle the capacity and activity, the programmers do not have enough options available for individual officials who work in multiple areas or for multiple assignors, assignors are often frustrated with the lack of detail in their options, the tech support is slow, the fees are too high, and the security cannot be trusted. (There have been two high profile breaches that I know about, including one involving NCAA basketball officials. Additionally, the system used to email your password to you when you joined a new group. I got them to cease doing that because email accounts are relatively easy to hack.)

I was the admin for our Arbiter group for eight years. I dealt with numerous issues from various angles: the assignor side, the school admin point of view, and the individual officials. Over that time the fees were raised four times and new fees were added. We eventually concluded that Arbiter was not worth the money and dropped it. We purchased a website and hired our own programmer to design an assigning system to meet our needs. For about 20% of the cost we have a system which is ten times better.
I know of a much better and cheaper solution too!
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  #4 (permalink)  
Old Fri Nov 30, 2018, 09:12am
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Originally Posted by Camron Rust View Post
I know of a much better and cheaper solution too!
Yes, RefTown seems to work pretty well -- but I would like to be able to export ALL my games to Excel for a specific time period , instead of having to do it for each group separately. (Unless I'm missing something -- it's not used for Basketball here, so I haven't been on the site in a while)
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Old Fri Nov 30, 2018, 01:19pm
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Location: In the offseason.
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Originally Posted by bob jenkins View Post
Yes, RefTown seems to work pretty well -- but I would like to be able to export ALL my games to Excel for a specific time period , instead of having to do it for each group separately. (Unless I'm missing something -- it's not used for Basketball here, so I haven't been on the site in a while)
It wasn't there...but it is now. Thanks for the suggestion.

1. Go to Schedules -> My Games (All Accounts)
2. Use the search filter to pick the date range you want
3. Then click Quick Links -> Export

It isn't 100% polished yet. It may contain a few blank columns you may not need, but I set it include columns that may be used in any organization. I'll add more intelligence to later it to eliminate those columns if none of your organizations use them.
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  #6 (permalink)  
Old Fri Nov 30, 2018, 01:24pm
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Posts: 18,191
Quote:
Originally Posted by Camron Rust View Post
It wasn't there...but it is now. Thanks for the suggestion.

1. Go to Schedules -> My Games (All Accounts)
2. Use the search filter to pick the date range you want
3. Then click Quick Links -> Export

It isn't 100% polished yet. It may contain a few blank columns you may not need, but I set it include columns that may be used in any organization. I'll add more intelligence to later it to eliminate those columns if none of your organizations use them.
Thanks -- and the specific columns don't bother me -- I have to re-format it anyway to get to my personal (for taxes) tracking spreadsheet and / or to import to Outlook for the calendar.
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Old Fri Nov 30, 2018, 02:16pm
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Location: In the offseason.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bob jenkins View Post
Thanks -- and the specific columns don't bother me -- I have to re-format it anyway to get to my personal (for taxes) tracking spreadsheet and / or to import to Outlook for the calendar.
As for the calendar, there is already an outlook import format available (top of the date/time column of any listing of games). There is also a calendar subscription (calendar feed) that will put the same info onto your calendar automatically within a few hours of being assigned (or removed it if canceled).

Manual Calendar Entry: https://www.reftown.com/kbp_60/index...try&EntryID=77

Automatic Subscription: https://www.reftown.com/kbp_60/index...ry&EntryID=186
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  #8 (permalink)  
Old Fri Nov 30, 2018, 03:28pm
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Posts: 18,191
Quote:
Originally Posted by Camron Rust View Post
As for the calendar, there is already an outlook import format available (top of the date/time column of any listing of games). There is also a calendar subscription (calendar feed) that will put the same info onto your calendar automatically within a few hours of being assigned (or removed it if canceled).

Manual Calendar Entry: https://www.reftown.com/kbp_60/index...try&EntryID=77

Automatic Subscription: https://www.reftown.com/kbp_60/index...ry&EntryID=186
Yes, but for various reasons the excel option works better for me.
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