online registration

[Rideout]

Now tournament directors are no longer allowed to use Northwest Sign-Up or Reg Disc as their tournament website with the PDGA.

At first I thought this was just a simple misunderstanding with the new tour manager, Andrew Sweeton, as I tried getting www.regdisc.com to be added as the tourney website for the Rizzle at the River on June 4 & 5. But Andrew checked with Brian Graham, the PDGA executive director, and according to him it would be fine if it is a club or tournament website, but they aren't going to list any external registration website.

Northwest Sign-Up is a tournament website for many events. The Fort Steilacoom Disc Golf Club site is under construction and Northwest Sign-Up provides them with a web page filled their tourney's information. White River doesn't have a club website and Northwest Sign-Up is trying to provide them with a web page that displays their tourney information. The Fort Steilacoom Open isn't a club event and doesn't have it's own personal website - so even though I am running the FSO as the TD and I own the website, Northwest Sign-Up, should I not be allowed to use Northwest Sign-Up as my tourney website. As of now the FSO does use Northwest Sign-Up as it's tourney website, but I guess that will be removed soon.

What do you guys think of this new policy? I know people like using the PDGA's online reg, but should the PDGA be dictating what a tournament uses as their tourney website (within reason - websites that relate to disc golf)?

Mike Rideout

[all2common]

I think it should be up to the tournament director to put whatever tournament website s/he chooses to direct potential participants for information about the event. That is, unless the PDGA wants to start hosting a webpage with all the information about every event that would bog down their site even more.

[CMC206]

This seems counter productive. I dont get it. Whats the difference from going to your local pro shop and signing up for an event? This seems like the PDGA positioning to make more money. What else could it be?

[Jeff Hemmerling]

Doesn't make any sense to me either. I fact it makes me mad.
Maybe if the PDGA were more transparent about this it would make more sense?!

Paging Chuck Kennedy, paging Chuck Kennedy...

[ericedge]

Seems to me like a TD should be able to decide where to direct players to find out about their event through the link on the pdga event page. The pdga may be thinking that they are protecting players through this policy but a lot of TDs don't have great internet skills and rely on others to handle that side of promotion and registration. I think the pdga should be concerned with having easy access for players to find out about, and register for tourneys. Maybe the sign-up link on the pdga event page should be reserved for the pdga's own services but at this point I don't see why the info link should have that restriction.

[TYVEK]

i think that any online sign up should go through the pdga online sign up process. i really dont like signing up for an event online through some other website. last year somebody got hold of my credit card info from the computer and the only thing i used my card for around that time was to sign up for a tournament on a tournament registration website. we know that the pdga site is a secure site for transactions and it makes me feel safer doing the sign up through their site.

i think if a TD doesnt want to use the pdga online sign up process then the only other option for people to register would be by check or cash. it would make it alot simpler to only have one site to sign up for pdga sanctioned events.

[Tim]

Monopolies are always benevolent, right?

[Rideout]

I take credit card security very seriously. I spend a lot of money on keeping my customer’s credit card information secure. From all my research, Authorize.net is very good at secure processing and I keep a minimal amount of information stored on my site to avoid being targeted.

I would hope that if you ever thought there was a flaw in my system and/or that you felt your credit card information was gathered from my website, that you would contact me about it.

The PDGA doesn’t have it’s own online registration; it has allowed an outside business to come in and perform the duties: http://www.breinerinc.com/content/ .

I have nothing against Breiner; he has never done me wrong. Like Breiner, I am also a huge supporter of the PDGA and continue to try and help the growth of disc golf in my local area. Here is a situation where I can try to push the industry forward, through business competition, and reinvest money from the northwest into players and tournaments in the northwest.

What makes you confident in trusting Breiner’s site over Northwest Sign-Up; we both share the same risks?

Mike Rideout

[Flash]

Mike,

To resolve this quicker you should contact Dave Feldberg, Avery Jenkins and Cale Leiviska. All are on the board of directors and none are overly tasked with PDGA things to do. Given they are traveling players perhaps they can shed light on a TD prerogative!

Lets put these boys to work and see what they can accomplish. Dave Feldberg is up for re-election this year so maybe this is a way he could win your vote on this matter.

[Sean Phillips]

I like your style Flash

[Rideout]

Not a bad idea.

[Altophish]

That sounds shady to me. What's next? They'll start manufacturing discs and tell us we can only use PDGA produced discs?

They should treat sign up sites like discs. There should be a list of several sign up sites we can use as "PDGA approved."