Arbiter App for Smart Phones.
 

Does anyone use the Arbiter app for smart phones? It is called ArbiterConnected. How much does it cost? Is it a one time charge or a monthly charge? Thanks.

MTD, Sr.

It's not an app. It's a "mobile optimized website". I think it's a one year subscription. Can't remember the cost. I don't see any benefit to the mobile version. In fact I continue to use the "full" version on my internet browser.

Ridiculous
 

Thanks for the setup for my rant Mark.

As a tech guy and web app developer, the fact their "app" is just access to a mobile version of their website is ridiculous. The fact they don't have a mobile version of their website available for free is ridiculous. Money grubbing jerks.

I know of no other site that has this type of business model this day in age. I would pay for a native iOS app. I will not pay for a mobile enabled (aka responsive) website.

I feel like Arbiter is one of those sites that if someone did it just a bit better, they could get critical mass to overtake it (at least from non-NCAA entities). Hell, they can't even get emails working correctly. Our board is constantly having issues with automatic emails from them not being delivered.

Mark, Jr., and I have, in Ohio, one H.S. baseball/softball assigner, and in Michigan, we have one H.S. baseball/softball assigner, one H.S. baseball assigner, and one H.S. softball assinger that use Arbiter; and Mark, Jr.'s women's college assigner uses Arbiter.

This weekend we upset our H.S. baseball assigner in Michigan. When we left home on Friday morning to officiate in the Ohio Special Olympics Basketball State Finals in New Philadelphia, Ohio (a three hour drive from our home), our Arbiter accounts showed that we were open on Monday, March 30th, which was accurate. During our drive commissioner of a conference in which we officiate basketball called me and wanted to know if Junior were open to umpire a varsity baseball game at a school in the conference on Monday (the school is a 65 mile drive from our home). He does not assign baseball but the school is in its first year and he was trying to help the school and he knew we umpired as a crew; we told him we would take the game.

We weren't going to get back home until Saturday evening and we really weren't to worried about getting an assignment for Monday on Aribter. BUT!! Wouldn't you know it, just a few minutes after 04:00pm both our cell phones go off telling us we have an assignment from our H.S. baseball assigner in Michigan. There is nothing we can do until we get home.

We get home and see that the assignment for a JV baseball DH on Monday at a school that is only 43 miles from home and the game fee is double of the game fee of the VAR game we agreed to cover. Oh well, that's life.

We declined the DH, and closed out our other assigners on that date. I then set the assigner an email explaining why we had declined the DH. He responded saying that he is now going to look foolish because he is going to have to tell the schools that they won't be able to play their DH because he has no umpires to umpire the game.

I have had situations where I have accepted a game and as I am logging into Arbiter to close out that date, the assigner has assigned me a game on that date.

Because I am the retired structural engineer, I am expected to be our family's social secretary, LOL! That means I am the one that really knows our officiating and umpiring schedules. My position is: Hey!! Doggie doo doo happens.

MTD, Sr.

I use the full site on my smart phone. ... for free

I know one that, according to many who have used both, fits that description.

The owners of this board sell one, matter of fact.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

If you have a smart phone you can access the full arbiter website by using the Internet browser on the phone.

That said, I expect a phone call for assignments that are less than 4 days away. I keep my arbiter up to date so almost always say yes, but I expect a certain level of professional courtesy. One exception is a college football conference I used to work. The expectation was crews would work every Saturday but we wouldn't know our location until a few days out.

We do keep our Arbiter up to date, but when one is out of town on a weekend and there is no internet access available doggie doo doo happens where a change in one's availability cannot be changed immediately.

MTD, Sr.

For me, it wasn't expensive, but I only did it for one year. Even as cheap as it was, there just wasn't any need for it and it didn't have any real added value.

What everyone is saying is that if you are considering the arbiter app (mobile site) for your smartphone, it isn't necessary because you can already use the full site from your smart phone to update your availability in arbiter.

If you had access to a smart phone you could have closed the date immediately without needing to access a computer.

If you don't have internet access, the app won't do you any good either.

app
 

in reply to the OP, the app costs less than $10 per year. While it is inexpensive, it is no different than using the full site from your phone's internet browser. It is a bit easier to view dates/assignments and to block dates but not worth it. If they would invest a little time and effort into it, it would be awesome to have in app form. I get annoyed always having to pinch in and out on my iphone in order to block dates or hit the links on the full site version. Overall, I'm cheap and would not purchase the app, just not enough benefit.

Like RefCT says above, and I completely agree. They are charging for access to their responsive mobile "friendly" website. It's NOT an app. NOT in any sense of the word application.

Ditto. I've had to accept games on my phone and it's not too much hassle for me to use the full site on my smart phone.