Seems like it's becoming a growing trend during the spring sports season of not being able to consistantly websync stats for softball or baseball.

I've gotten anywhere from a flat out "failure to sync stats error" to an timed out because my computer - with a hard line connection - can't seem to find the server AGAIN!!!!

I guess that it really wouldn't be a HUGE deal if I weren't one of the few schools that actually does a webcast for my home baseball and softball games. If I can't websync, I can't webcast and then I have to make up excuses to my fan base as to why they can't watch the sons and daughters games on the internet.

don't bother telling me what could be wrong on my end. At this point, I'm 100 percent for sure that it's not on my end. I don't understand why the NAIA blindly took a leap of faith with Dakstats when the problems are becoming more and more of a pain in the neck.

Sorry to vent but it's not like many people look at this message board anymore anyway. They've all given up on trying to get any help in dealing with their numerous, to numerous to keep track of at times, errors and problems with the dakstats software.

In talking with SID's across the nation (Southeast, Midwest, Central, and West), all of us could not websync throughout the day on Saturday and most of Sunday...

I thought that the "Patch" was supposed to fix this? It kept timing out over and over again...and again...and again...

Although it is the impression that folks just sync once in a while, the majority of us try to sync immediately after our games (so we don't have to deal with it, and so our sites are up to date)...when the sync errors continue...we keep trying...40 times, 50 times, wasting our nights, trying to make it work.

Actually, the patch has help significantly reduce the effort required to Web-Sync. But it did not fix issues; simple provided a workaround to help get everyone through the remainder of the season.

As indicated in the email when the patch was released, the patch broke the upload of information (which is quite large in baseball and softball this time of year) into smaller chunks. Should the upload of some of the smaller chunk fail, the process restarts where it left off. Since the release of the patch (which happened between these two posts), there has been a substantial improvement in the reporting.

In regards to this last weekend, we had a separate issue that affected performance. A switch to a new virus scan and firewall on the server where all the information is hosted actually ended up being too through (scanning every bit of incoming traffic) that it ground the reporting to a standstill. Once we reverted to the old setup, service was restored. We sent a lot of email notifications this week as this was happening. We followed up with a lot of individuals follow restoration of service to make sure everything has been restored.
I generally like to keep posts short, but feel it necessary to provide the full story here. Heres the long and short of it.

As Raven SID mentioned, this has been a trend for the last 2 seasons in the spring sports. Its typically been a larger issue towards the end of the season. Fall and winter sports are typically not affected. The reason is the amount of data that is being uploaded. There are far more stats and games to upload in a baseball\softball season than in any other sport.
At this point we are doing everything we can to assist SID\coaches through the season and get stats uploaded within minimal impact to their time and schedules. The patch was one such step. Our helpdesk also remains diligent in assisting people. For the most part, since the patch, service has significantly improved.

Following the season there will be a complete overhaul in reporting for baseball and softball. Until then, unfortunately, there will continue to be some reporting (time out) issues. Based on what weve observed this week they should be minimal, but are affecting some more than others. Those with weak wireless connections will experience the time out issues more frequently than someone with a faster connection. This issue does remain on our side; its just that connection speed does affect likelihood of success. If anyone continues to run into the timeout issue, please contact our helpdesk. There are things we can do to assist.

One last comment on this long post. It seems that some individuals have the impression that were not doing anything to resolve these issues. Let me assure you that we take every measure necessary to resolve issues as fast as we can. I would simply request that people consider the effort and complicated nature of coordinating stats collection for over 1500 teams in the NAIA. We came off a very successful, soccer, volleyball, and basketball seasons. I realize that not being able to report is frustrating, but it can be fixed. We now have all the info we need to do so. Keep in mind, that for your efforts, NAIA athletes, fans and supports have access to information at an unprecedented level. The site is immensely popular and the efforts of SIDs and coaches benefit many.