I don't have infinite (or even a lot) time to spend on this project, so in theory help would be useful. However most of how I want things to work is in my head now, so it is hard to have people work on stuff in a way that will be useful. However, shortly there will be some code deployed compatible with where I want the project to go that will provide a base for other people to add on to.
I will not be able to make the raw data available because some of it is confidential. I have made all of the public tables/views available which might be useful for people to use as test data for their own version of these pages.
This site will contain no pages that use Java, Javascript, ActiveX, Plugins or nonstandard HTML extensions. These all reduce accessibility; many force the viewer to reduce the security of their system to use; and some increase bandwidth for very little gain.
I am not planning to use any images at this time, though I might consider placing a logo image on the pages if we were to have one. The format for images on the AREA pages will be png. (I know I still have some gifs and jpegs on some of my other pages, but new images will be in png format and eventually I will go back and redo the other images.)
I don't believe that putting large amounts of image data on a site like this (or most sites for that matter) is an efficient use of bandwidth.
People will be allowed to control access to their data. We feel some data belongs to AREA and will be freely published. This includes AREA IDs, AREA rankings, reported match results, timestamps on any of these and any data solely derived from these. People will have control over their names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, locations (lat/lon), interest list and any other data we collect from them. In order to particpate in AREA we will need to have a real name and postal contact information which will be available to all of the administrators (about a half dozen people currently).
One issue with this is we have a lot of data which was collected without asking for how it was to be protected. We also don't have good (fast and easy) ways to confirm who people are when requesting changes in their data status. This will cause occasional problems. The presumption for legacy data will be that it is OK to publish names, that addresses can be given to tournament directors for people who are rated or specified interest in a game being played at that tournament, all other contact data is restricted to AREA administrators.
I also want to allow people to be able to supply contact information and make it public if they want. Besides the normal contact stuff, I will allow people to provide their latitude and longitude (perhaps of a landmark near, but not at their home) so that people can find people close to them (by distance rather than municipality) interested in the same games.
I also want to people to be able to solicit contacts of different types for different games. So that if they want to hear from people in their area who want to play the same games or about tournaments they can let people, wanting to ask, know it is OK to contact them.
A secure version of this page is located at: https://wolff.to/area/philosophy.html