Usefulness of the IOLD

[Cooleyvol]

IMO, the IOLD would be useful if it were purged of all the dead league links in it. In its present form (with a large number of dead leagues), its unusable for me.

[RBLwebguy]

I know for my leagues, the wrong links are posted and 2 of the 3 are still operating, but I forget passwords to IOLD :P

[kq76]

Originally Posted by Cooleyvol

IMO, the IOLD would be useful if it were purged of all the dead league links in it. In its present form (with a large number of dead leagues), its unusable for me.

Well, you can pretty easily filter out the defunct leagues from a search. The search page has an advanced search section where you can just select no for defunct. Sure, it'll still include defunct leagues that haven't been recorded as such, but many have been and if people ever feel like wanting to report which leagues are defunct then we'll quickly check that they are and then mark them as such.

I'd be open to defaulting the basic search to exclude defunct leagues, but I wouldn't want to just purge defunct leagues as there can be some value in looking back at them.

Originally Posted by RBLwebguy

I know for my leagues, the wrong links are posted and 2 of the 3 are still operating, but I forget passwords to IOLD :P

If you still have access to the email addresses listed for the leagues then you can use the reset password function on the help page. And if you don't remember it then you can just ask me to send you a reset password. Or you can just tell me what you'd like changed and I'll do it.

[RBLwebguy]

Thanks for the tip, I was able to update all of my leagues!

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by kq76

but I wouldn't want to just purge defunct leagues as there can be some value in looking back at them.

Agreed, however if the league website is gone then they should be purged completely since there is "nothing" to look back at.

I was always a big fan of the IOLD, but felt it needed full time attention to keep it updated. I like the design that allows users/commishes to input their leagues, but a lot of them don't update it once the initial information is there. Either they forget about it, or just can't be bothered, especially once a league folds.

[rutri01]

Thanks for the reminder- I just updated my league in the IOLD.

[kq76]

I just moved the above posts to a new thread so the old thread could remain on topic.

Originally Posted by BruceM

Agreed, however if the league website is gone then they should be purged completely since there is "nothing" to look back at.

Not necessarily true. Just the data in the records can be useful. For example, when we had that question of whom should we ask permission to unlock the password to the Laseron league, yeah, I already had a good idea goody/portlander/9lives was the founder, but it could have come in handy in confirming that. It did point us to Dark Horse as being another commish. There's been numerous times I've looked to it to check up on things. Sometimes it's just for curiosity's sake or reminiscing, but sometimes it's for purposes of real value too.

One important part of it is the last and old site address fields. If some of the old addresses are listed there then you can plug them into the internet archive waybackmachine to get a cache of the past websites, which can oftentimes be even more useful than what data is in the IOLD.

So yeah, while it might not seem like including these defunct leagues can be useful, it definitely can be.

Originally Posted by BruceM

I was always a big fan of the IOLD, but felt it needed full time attention to keep it updated. I like the design that allows users/commishes to input their leagues, but a lot of them don't update it once the initial information is there. Either they forget about it, or just can't be bothered, especially once a league folds.

That's true. It does take quite a bit of attention to be useful. I spent a lot of time on it and then so did satchel (he may still, I don't know). It works best if people update it on their own, but like you said, a lot don't.

One thing I wanted to add, but never did was a field asking permission to email the email address listed once or twice a year asking people to update their league's records. Yeah, I could just send out an email, but I wouldn't be comfortable doing it without at least allowing people to opt out of it.

I wish I could make it more like wikipedia, but I'm not that good. I could probably do a better job of it now (the unnecessarily long URLs have always bugged me), years later, but an overhaul of it just isn't high on the priority list.

[Cooleyvol]

Originally Posted by kq76

Not necessarily true. Just the data in the records can be useful. For example, when we had that question of whom should we ask permission to unlock the password to the Laseron league, yeah, I already had a good idea goody/portlander/9lives was the founder, but it could have come in handy in confirming that. It did point us to Dark Horse as being another commish. There's been numerous times I've looked to it to check up on things. Sometimes it's just for curiosity's sake or reminiscing, but sometimes it's for purposes of real value too.

This is obviously the opinion of the creator of this application, not the users. As the creator, I understand becoming fond of the history of the application, but as the user, its honestly a pain in the ass to the point that I don't even attempt to find a league there. Its easier for me to search through the Online Leagues forum to find a certain league's address.

Like it or not, you're likely one of a very few that wants the defunct leagues left in it.

As far as a wiki of OOTP leagues, that could be up and running in fifteen minutes.