Virtual Players meetings....Smartphones at tournaments

[aardvarkious]

Twitter is way easier for a TD to use than text message- you just need to add a tag to your post instead of accurately getting dozens of phone numbers in your phone and setting up a group text. And people can look at what is being said on Twitter without signing up. I think I might use Twitter for the next tournament I TD- not as a primary but as a supplemental way of communicating.

 

[Dave242]

I was not aware of that rule change. It makes sense as in my opinion, data gathered from a range finder is of minimal value/impact.

Water carries would be the exception. Those totally mess with my perception of distance. And it's bad if you guess wrong.

 

[18Down]

Obviously you haven't been to many tournaments. Most disc golfers live in their cars and cant afford this type of technology.

 

[cjskier]

This idea disgusts me. Get off your phones and live life! Such a social crutch these days. Seems people are scared to actually talk to one another now.

 

[Dave242]

Obviously you haven't been to many tournaments. Most disc golfers live in their cars and cant afford this type of technology.

I guess the economic downturn did occur right after I stopped being a regular in the tournament scene (mid 2008). It truly is sad then how hard disc golfers where hit that caused this huge change! At least they can still afford cars....

This idea disgusts me. Get off your phones and live life! Such a social crutch these days. Seems people are scared to actually talk to one another now.

I do not disagree with you at all on this....heck, I am the biggest offender in my family whom my wife and I are constantly trying to get off our dumb smartphones (and other electronics) when we should be enjoying time with each other.

But....how does that apply to this? How is it any different than people having their noses in pieces of paper reading the ground rules (or the rulebook or the schedule) rather than actually talking to one another?

 

[Dave242]

Obviously you haven't been to many tournaments. Most disc golfers live in their cars and cant afford this type of technology.

It just occurred to me....for those who want to "move the sport forward" away from some of the negative connotations, it might be a really good thing to implement some of the new and really helpful technology that is easily accessible today (like Smartphones) more and get at least the tournament scene reputation changing towards something more socially mainstream/acceptable.

 

[araytx]

What got me to think about this is that Henry Childres in Charlotte for an old guy tournament he is running is having the players meeting at 9 with a tee time of 10. That allows people to warm up and then transition right into playing without the whole warm down thing.....it takes seems to take forever to gather everyone for the meeting, have the meeting, travel across the course to your starting hole, and then have the 2 minute warning (often without any time at all to re-warm up).

This would almost accomplish the same thing in this aspect.

And it does not have as big a potential for logistical snafus the early players meeting has....it is good to have people close to tournament central if you have day-of sign-ups, wait lists, and group or hole re-ordering. But, if all the data is online....most of this can be communicated electronically or in the WebEx.

Yes, I agree with you on this idea. Meeting at 9, everyone get to where they are going by 9:30-9:40, and still have time to warm-up. Unfortunately, around here, a good number of people would skip the meeting altogether and go straight to the course.

 

[scarpfish]

Twitter is way easier for a TD to use than text message- you just need to add a tag to your post instead of accurately getting dozens of phone numbers in your phone and setting up a group text.

Agreed, but the point of a message is to get the message through. If a player doesn't have a smartphone or some other device that can connect to Twitter, any means that is easier on the TD is useless for that individual.

And people can look at what is being said on Twitter without signing up.

Again, they can only do that if they have a device that can access it.

 

[Hampstead]

I'm not a big fan of the smart phone player's meeting idea.

I don't like the idea of giving more power to the machines and removing some of the human element from an event.

I have no problem with supplemental info being passed on via Twitter or some such thing, but like many others have said, I leave my phone in the car and look forward to being away from technology while I'm out playing.

 

[beereakfast]

This idea disgusts me. Get off your phones and live life! Such a social crutch these days. Seems people are scared to actually talk to one another now.

Word.

 

[TooNA]

At least superimpose the map on a phone with a "you are here" dot on a google map image

 

[Erikk.novadg]

I love the idea of supplementing the players meeting with electronic info. I think it would be cool if there was a pdf file to download online wherever registration is, this way you could get familiar with the o.b., dropzones, different baskets, special rules etc...a map of the course would be sweet as well.

I think having the players meeting electronically only would be a headache though. Even just from the aspect of making sure every card has a smart phone. Also as somebody mentioned before i wouldn't want to have to rely on somebody else's phone if i didnt have one for whatever reason

 

[Agricolae]

Churches are tweeting.

The former pope was tweeting.

Heck, I even got an text from Jesus the other day (my Mexican friend is getting on board with technology.)

I'll carry the paper, you carry the phone. Cool.