Overall pool state

[jbholden]

I was planning on including the overall pool state in the overall results data for different uses. I am attempting to document those states here, what they are technically, and how they would be used. This is mainly for the overall leaderboard page, but might have other uses.

These state values would be determined by some function, not stored in the database.

The cases I am struggling with is the "player signup" state and the "enter picks" state. I will make a 2nd post about this.

list of states (final state name not decided yet)

• pool year does not exist
• pool year has not started, player signup
• player making week picks
• player picks complete, week games not started
• pool week is in progress
• pool week completed
• end of year

list of states (use cases)

• pool year does not exist
  • when trying to access a page with this year number an error message would be returned
• pool year has not started, player signup
  • the overall results page would display a link to player signup page
• player making week picks
  • display all previous week results
  • display making week picks message and link to enter picks page
• player picks complete, week games not started
  • overall results show previous weeks results
  • overall results shows current week overall points (basically 0 unless a defaulter)
  • overall results shows current week possible points
  • overall results displays a message saying week has not started
• pool week is in progress
  • overall results status message that week is in progress
  • overall results page shows overall, overall projected, overall possible
  • overall results page shows previous week results
• pool week completed
  • overall results status message that week has completed
  • overall results page shows overall, overall possible
  • overall results page shows each week results
• end of year
  • overall results shows year final message
  • overall results shows each week results
  • overall results shows final overall points

list of states (technical details - compare to week state in #18)

• pool year does not exist (all weeks invalid)
• pool year has not started, player signup (week exists but not in invalid,open, or locked state)
• player making week picks (week # open or locked)
• player picks complete, week games not started (week # locked)
• pool week is in progress (week # locked)
• pool week completed (week # locked)
• end of year (all weeks locked)

list of states (technical details)

• pool year does not exist
  • no weeks in the week table with this year number exists
• pool year has not started, player signup
  • week number 1 with this year number exists in the Week table
  • week number 1 has no games assigned yet?
• player making week picks
  • week exists with games
  • pick deadline has not passed
• player picks complete, week games not started
  • pick deadline has passed
  • weeks, games, and picks for the week all exist
  • all games have not started
• pool week is in progress
  • at least one game for the week has started, in progress or completed
  • all 10 games have not completed
• pool week completed
  • all 10 games for the week have completed
• end of year
  • all 13 weeks for the year have completed
  • games for week 13 are all final

[jbholden]

The following states might be intertwined, so I am not sure the best way to determine these states at this point.

• pool year has not started, player signup
• player making week picks

I see the following possible cases:

1. all players must signup before the week 1 picks are opened
2. players may sign up and enter picks until the week 1 pick deadline has passed

I think case 2 would work better but requires storing some variable in the database.

case 1 - all players must signup before the week 1 picks are opened

• player signup phase can be indicated by a week 1 that exists with no games
• player pick phase can be indicated by assigning the games for week 1

case 2 - players may sign up and enter picks until the week 1 pick deadline has passed

• this case requires a separate variable somewhere to indicate that a player can signup
• player pick phase will be open after a week is created with games
• the signup phase and week 1 enter picks phases can happen at the same time

[jbholden]

I think that case 2 could be implemented as follows:

• week 1 is created in the Week table (with or without games)
• if only week 1 exists then the players can signup
• once week 1 has games, then picks for week 1 can be made
• after week 1 pick deadline has passed, no more players can signup

Do you think there will be a case where someone wants to signup after week 1? (A person might take a score of 0 for week 1 and then start play in week 2)

Also do we need a way to remove a player from the pool? (for example, someone does not pay)

[jbholden]

Sorry for the long posts, this is mainly for documenting my thinking process.
I think I can finalize the overall state as follows:

• "invalid" : pool year does not exist
• "not_started" : week 1 exists with no games
• "enter_picks" : a week has games and the pick deadline has not passed
• "week_not_started" : all picks entered, no week games have started
• "week_in_progress" : at least one game has started or completed, all games not final
• "week_final" : all games are final, the next week number has not been created
• "end_of_year" : all games final, 13 weeks have completed

To detect the player signup phase:

• week 1 exists and pick deadline has not passed

Do you agree with the following?

• players may sign up and enter picks until the week 1 pick deadline has passed
• no new players will be added after the week 1 pick deadline
• to start the pool year, enter a week 1 without games or a week 1 with games
• "week 1 without games" could be used to allow people to signup a few weeks before the week 1 games are known

[blreams]

[Brent asked] Do you think there will be a case where someone wants to signup after week 1? (A person might take a score of 0 for week 1 and then start play in week 2)

This has happened in the past. But it is kind of a pain. We can certainly take a hard line and say you can't do that anymore.

[Brent asked] Also do we need a way to remove a player from the pool? (for example, someone does not pay)

I was thinking that each player would have a "state" (signed up, paid up, etc.). This would help the commissioners to see who has signed up to participate and who has actually paid. Then, if they aren't paid, they wouldn't show up in any of the reports. Right now each row of the Player table is a player/year, correct? So this "state" would only apply to a particular player/year combination.

[Brent asked] Do you agree with the following? I agree with all 4 of the bullets. It will require some mods to create_week...to support creating a week without any games.

[blreams]

Was just revisiting my previous answer about removing players from the pool. We don't want to allow a situation where a player could "game" the system by not paying initially but still submitting their picks each week in the hopes that they could pay at a later date and thus become a participating member (ie. once they have determined that they are playing well enough to be a factor). Basically, we should not allow anyone to join the pool after week 2 picks are locked. I'm still OK with allowing someone to join after week 1 is complete with the stipulation that they begin with a 0 score for week 1. However, if it is too much of a hassle, then we can take the hard line and not allow anyone to join after week 1 is locked.