Sharing PractiScore interim scores during a match.

[LabMan45]

My club has been using PractiScore at our weekly practice matches for about two months in preparation for switching to it as our standard scoring system for monthly matches beginning in December (moving away from our Palm-based StageScore). The trial has allowed us to work out procedural bugs and train a sufficient number of scorers to be confident that the transition will be smooth.

I already foresee substantial interest by competitors wanting to access interim scoring while the match is underway. What is the best way to allow that kind of access without compromising our match results? Can interim results be posted to PractiScore.com and then be updated, and ultimately replaced, with a final match result? I would prefer to limit the number of devices that have access to our match LAN.

[jcwren]

Since PractiScore is a "pull" system (the master devices pulls results from the scoring devices), it's relatively impervious. The only real risk is the master pulling scores from non-scoring devices accidently.

For monthly matches, we don't worry about this, and all the scoring devices are on the range's unsecured LAN (the LAN has no internet access, but that's because we've got no DSL or other WiFi access down in the bays). As you're tapping device names to pull results, just make sure you're hitting the device you want. Since PS refreshes the device list fairly often, it's possible for another device to jump into the list just where you're about to touch, so just be careful (I'd *really* like if we could configure a list of "authorized" devices, and only those would show up in my list. Filtering by MAC address or something that's relatively difficult to spoof).

For major matches (3 state matches to date), we've moved the NOOKs over to a LAN with WEP security. The only purpose in this was to keep from seeing 30 other devices in the list. Our intent was to sync a NOOK to the master periodically, then make that device available on the non-secured LAN for competitors to pull scores from.

However, if you have internet access, the competitors can always download the match from PractiScore, assuming you're posting interim results fairly frequently. We can't really do that, because the ranges don't have internet access.

I believe it's important to allow the competitors to pull scores in real-time. It doesn't create a problem (except for the number of devices in the device list), and I believe it adds something to the match. As I've said before, I've had to make comments about "Less scoring, more pasting!" to the shooters who are pulling scores and then comparing to their buddies. I think the ability to do that has added something to the sport, as it allows that real-time comparison (however unrealistic it is) between competitors.

Edited October 18, 2013 by jcwren

[LabMan45]

Thanks for the quick response. You pinpointed my concerns exactly.

I'm running our Nooks on a mobile LAN that is WEP secured and, like you, have no WAN or internet at the bays. I've not uploaded any results to PractiScore.com yet, but from your response infer that it is both possible and acceptable to upload interim results. I think I like that better than trying to bounce one device back and forth between WEP-secured and open LANs (it would cut down on the manpower required and allow me to focus more on shooting than IT).