O2cm banned from NDCA events?

This seems to be heating up again--I don't know about others, but I received an email recently from O2cm asking for donations because of the NDCA ban (which the email says is due to o2cm's use by USADance). Near the beginning of this thread, there was mention of a possible new NDCA system called 'Premiere'. Any update on that?

Myself as a pro/am competitor, I like o2cm and have found infinitely useful compared to cmpmgr which is tedious and difficult from which to get the information I am looking for. For example, in o2cm I can look up all pro/am 'B' age events at a comp and be able to see virtually instantly how many people on average competed in all of those events. I can narrow it down further if I would like, but essentially I can see results by event--almost instantly.

In cmpmgr, in order to see results for a specific category of events (like pro/am 'B' age group) I have to open one window to the category of events, choose the type of event I am looking for (eg. pro/am standard multi-dance), which I believe opens up a 3rd window to a list of names of competitors who competed in all those events (and this is all assuming the stars and universe align and cmpmngr doesn't freeze trying to load the results). From there, unless I can recognize the name of a specific competitor I know to be the approximate age and level for which I am looking I have to click through each name individually (which I believe opens yet another window) and hope I find at least one of the events I am looking for, note the names of the other couples in the event, then look up their names to see if they competed in other events in that particular category. I find this a very tedious way to do research (which for me is necessary to do before considering spending money to travel to an event--I would prefer not to do that and find myself alone on the floor or with only one or two other couples).

If anyone knows an easier way to get results listed by event in cmpmngr like in o2cm, please please let me know!

I am mainly curious if there is an update on this beyond the email that was sent from o2cm. Is NDCA still banning it's use? Does the NDCA have a new system that is better than cmpmngr about to be launched as mentioned last year?
 
So sad that politics and money trump quality and the needs of the dancers. I would be interested to see if a competitive program existed, and was chosen; at least the benefits of competition between the programs would benefit. But I see zero advantages of Compmgr over 02Cm, and unless I hear of any, then I have to assume that the decision was punitive...
 
Spookisgirl said:
In cmpmgr, in order to see results for a specific category of events (like pro/am 'B' age group) I have to open one window to the category of events, choose the type of event I am looking for (eg. pro/am standard multi-dance), which I believe opens up a 3rd window to a list of names of competitors who competed in all those events (and this is all assuming the stars and universe align and cmpmngr doesn't freeze trying to load the results). From there, unless I can recognize the name of a specific competitor I know to be the approximate age and level for which I am looking I have to click through each name individually (which I believe opens yet another window) and hope I find at least one of the events I am looking for, note the names of the other couples in the event, then look up their names to see if they competed in other events in that particular category. I find this a very tedious way to do research (which for me is necessary to do before considering spending money to travel to an event--I would prefer not to do that and find myself alone on the floor or with only one or two other couples).

If anyone knows an easier way to get results listed by event in cmpmngr like in o2cm, please please let me know!
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aaahhhh!!! I have this same issue!!! We generally try to look up past comp results to determine the numbers in certain categories (much like yourself, in order to decide if we should spend some of our dance-travel budget for specific comps). I found the same tedious experience with compmanager...
 
Bailamosdance said:
Looks like the NDCA needs to change some of their requirements. The manpower and waste of paper alone…
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I can't help but agree with this. With the *massive* volume of financial transactions performed online as a matter of course these days (mortgages can and often are originated long-distance without ever making face-to-face contact between the lender and the borrower - even more so with automotive refinances and credit cards / personal lines of credit), it seems like the NDCA could benefit from "getting with the times" and investing some amount of manpower in better digital record-keeping and scoring verification (not that Mark's system is there yet, but it's a heck of a lot better starting point than pen-and-paper scoring). I'm not sure people would love the breaks between rounds getting shorter at Blackpool, but it would help many smaller comps run far more efficiently.

For what it's worth, ballroom judges are decades ahead of Lindy Hop Jack and Jill competition judges in judging efficiency, based on my experience a couple weeks ago at a local workshop.
 
While still stupid because it fails to take advantage of one of the benefits of O2CM, there's an easy solution to #1: have the judges mark on paper.

#2 is equally stupid; the marks and all scoresheets are all online.
 
Larinda McRaven said:
again going back to page one of this very thread....
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And going back to all of the replies to this page one post, I'm not sure that quote makes any sense.

#1 As far as I know, quite a few comps have the judges mark on paper, then that is input and handled digitally from there on. Just like any other comp software. So this has nothing to do with o2cm.

#2 might actually make sense -- they want to have the marks in a certain format, not just readable on the web. But... I'm not a programmer, but I imagine it wouldn't be that hard to convert o2cm's files into the format NDCA is looking for. Plus, if you look back at Jude's post from last year, you'll see that they just arbitrarily decided that COMPMNGR results may be submitted, not that they're looking for a specific format.
5.If the organizer is using COMPMNGR written by Richard Douglas, a computer Disk with the above information may be sent in lieu of the written paperwork.
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I haven't read up on this in quite a while, so please correct me if I'm mistaken somewhere. Actually -- does anyone have a link to NDCA documentation/announcements/rational/etc. on the o2cm ban? Is there any other explanation given? The paper issue is bunk, but have they said anything about why o2cm electronic formatting is unacceptable? Is there any actual evidence that this has to do with the NDCA/USAD fued?
 
I just checked the COMPMNGR site, and the only file export info I can find is PDF and RTF (Rich Text Format). In other words, just standard text, not any kind of XML, database file, etc.
 
dbk said:
I'm asking about official statements, documentation, explanation, etc. The speculation is very probably true, but it's just speculation as far as I've seen.
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Are the NDCA statements barring their registered judges from judging at USAD NQE's not official enough? The anti-o2cm bit on the NDCA's part might have nothing to do with the NDCA/USAD animosity, and might just be more NDCA posturing to further solidify their monopoly position in pro/am competitions (since presumably compmngr has paid some sort of fee to be the sole provider of sub-par competition management software for NDCA competitions).
 
Dancing Irishman said:
Are the NDCA statements barring their registered judges from judging at USAD NQE's not official enough? The anti-o2cm bit on the NDCA's part might have nothing to do with the NDCA/USAD animosity, and might just be more NDCA posturing to further solidify their monopoly position in pro/am competitions (since presumably compmngr has paid some sort of fee to be the sole provider of sub-par competition management software for NDCA competitions).
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I mean on the topic of o2cm. I'm not entirely sure why several people here are reading "does anyone have official info about NDCA's o2cm ruling?" as "obviously there is absolutely nothing going on here and the NDCA is a choir of angels and politics don't exist"........

I'm actually quite in agreement with most people over some of the BS NDCA has been pulling, I just want to (gasp) be informed. Shocking, I know.
 
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