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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Code Replacements
Jason Watson, Photographer
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Palo Alto | CA | USA | Posted: 3:12 PM on 09.23.10 |
->> Hi Folks,
There is a bunch of news to share regarding my code replacements tool… first, NHL code replacements are now available. Players, coaches, arenas, etc are all included with the roughly the same format / options as my MLB, NFL, NCAA FB pages. I am presently working on NBA rosters and also updating NCAA MBB and WBB to include all the same features and enhancements.
To date, I have been operating this tool on an open-access model, relying upon the generosity of the users to contribute a donation. Thank you very much to those that have contributed to this project -- it is much appreciated (you should have already or will shortly receive an e-mail from me). However, due to a variety of factors, most notably the time and cost of supporting and maintaining this tool (and adding new features, etc.), I have decided to switch to a paid subscription model. Also, to better support the overwhelming number of users of the system (much more people are using code replacements than I ever expected), I have also migrated the tool from my photography website over to a new platform and URL (http://www.codereplacements.com). It is my hope that by making these changes, I will be able to continue operating this tool and also continue to spend the somewhat significant amount of time required keeping things up and running (and adding a new feature here and there).
As always, feel free to contact me with ideas, feedback, concerns, questions, etc. Thanks again for all your support -- it's much appreciated.
Regards,
Jason |
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Steven Bisig, Photographer
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Seattle | WA | USA | Posted: 4:04 PM on 09.23.10 |
| ->> Sounds good. Thank you for doing this, it saves us a lot of time. |
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Stephen Mally, Photographer
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Cedar Rapids | IA | USA | Posted: 4:08 PM on 09.23.10 |
| ->> Yes - thanks so much! |
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Christopher Trim, Photographer
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Elk Grove | CA | USA | Posted: 4:13 PM on 09.23.10 |
->> Jason,
As Steven said, thank you for all your hard work on this labor intensive project. Have you thought about offering a discount to SS members?
Chris |
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Jason Watson, Photographer
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Palo Alto | CA | USA | Posted: 4:16 PM on 09.23.10 |
->> Yes, I will offer 15% off a 1 or 3 year subscription to SportsShooter members... just e-mail me at jason@jasonowatson.com with a link to your SS profile page and I'll send you the coupon code.
Thanks,
Jason |
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Louis Lopez, Photographer
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Fontana | CA | USA | Posted: 8:42 PM on 09.24.10 |
->> I sent this email to Jason earlier, I did not see this thread. My thoughts.
Jason,
I think your finally charging for your code replacement is great, I just think the rates are way out there.
$25.-$30.00 dollars would be fair for a year. The reality is that even though your code replacements save time, they can be created individually by photographers.
I have been a big supporter that everyone donate to both you and mike stone for your efforts, I have donated $20.00 to each of you last year, I take it others have not. I would suggest keeping it to $20-$30.00 for the year. Forget all that monthly / six months stuff. Just do a year. Make it up on volume, most of these lazy guys will spend in that range.
Louis Lopez. |
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Butch Miller, Photographer
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Lock Haven | PA | USA | Posted: 9:15 PM on 09.24.10 |
| ->> $99.95 for 3 years less the 15% SS member discount = $28.32 per year ... I think that is within your budget Louis .... |
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John Korduner, Photographer
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Baton Rouge | LA | United States | Posted: 10:20 PM on 09.24.10 |
| ->> I think the 3 year subscription is a great value...but three years is a long time, and it's reasonable that someone might shy away from a long term commitment with a startup, because they're concerned the replacements might not still work in 6, 12, or 35 months. |
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Jason Watson, Photographer
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Palo Alto | CA | USA | Posted: 11:04 PM on 09.24.10 |
->> The primary reason why I started charging for this service is to make sure that I am able to keep it around for the indefinite future. I've been providing my code replacement scripts for free for the past 2+ years. During this time, the popularity of the tool has ballooned -- on the first Saturday of NCAA football this year, over 500 rosters were created. However, the site has been supported by a handful of donations (for which I'm very appreciative) and my own time and money. That model is not enough to cover the $300+ a year to pay for a dedicated linux server / hosting and the countless hours of coding, debugging, maintenance, etc. that I've put into this tool. So, after speaking with a lot of fellow photogs that use the tool, I decided to start charging for access to make sure I'm able to keep this running in the long term.
I'm offering a wide range of pricing options to meet the varying needs of different folks. This seems to be working well as people are signing up for all options in a relatively even distribution.
Of course, people are welcome to create their own rosters (and that's how I got started with this project) -- spending a lot of time dealing with spreadsheets and cut and paste. My goal for codereplacements.com is provide an automated, flexible, and easily customized tool that can generate rosters in seconds instead of the minutes (or longer) it takes to do it by hand. I'm working hard to include new requests, features and options -- with the goal to make sure that this can help as many people as possible.
Thanks again to everyone for your support, feedback, comments, suggestions, etc. It's very much appreciated. |
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Louis Lopez, Photographer
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Fontana | CA | USA | Posted: 12:43 AM on 09.25.10 |
->> A great product.500 downloads? Damn too bad they could not throw you a twenty for the season. Jason, I think its great, just offering my opinions. I just think at $20 any serious full time shooter will spend the money, at $60 those same guys are doing it themselves. What's the membership on SS? 3 or 4 thousand? Good odds at least a third are actual shooters who would use and appreciate your scripts. Twenty grand a year is not chump change and that's only counting the possible one third of this site.
What a great country!! America!! Land of opportunity!!
I hope they all buy the $60 package! |
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Louis Lopez, Photographer
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Fontana | CA | USA | Posted: 12:46 AM on 09.25.10 |
->> Butch,
Three years? Some guys may not have a job in six months let alone three years. |
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Craig Mitchelldyer, Photographer, Assistant
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Portland | OR | USA | Posted: 11:15 AM on 09.25.10 |
| ->> For $25 I'd sign up in a second. For $100 I'll type them up myself. But I don't fault you, I applaud you for making money! |
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Chuck Liddy, Photographer
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Durham | NC | USA | Posted: 11:18 AM on 09.25.10 |
->> First of, I type like crap. I don't even want to think about typing in rosters from all the different teams I deal with over a year of football, soccer, men's and women's basketball. I just did the math (as it pertains in my case) So I added up what I generally shoot on a regular basis during a season of football, basketball, hockey and soccer (baseball is a non figure for me) So in the course of a normal season I shoot about 275 events.
which comes out to about .36/game. THIRTY SIX CENTS PER GAME. this is a no-brainer. hell, for $10 a month it's a deal. especially now where all I have to do is type in the team initial and the whole field is filled out...and duplicate numbers are flagged. I can't tell you how many times that has screwed me up on deadline when I wasn't paying attention....the fact is if you added baseball to this, as many of you shoot, this is a better bargain than buying some of the non-essential "toys" we all are guilty of buying for making our jobs easier.
thanks jason, all the luck to you. |
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Chuck Liddy, Photographer
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Durham | NC | USA | Posted: 11:53 AM on 09.25.10 |
| ->> Oh and BTW. a little OT BUT...I'm taking the three year option. although there are several misinformed SS members who think I'm cranky, fatalistic and cynical...I am in fact always an optimist...hence three years, no problem....I'll still be around! Cheers. |
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Dannie Walls, Photographer
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Charlotte | NC | USA | Posted: 12:55 PM on 09.25.10 |
| ->> Well this year i'm shooting college ball and will pay for this and yes i would like it cheaper but it is what it is. I'm sure everyone you sale pictures to would like them to be cheaper to Louis but i'm guessing you dont drop it when they complain. I blow more money in a week then this...lol |
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Butch Miller, Photographer
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Lock Haven | PA | USA | Posted: 1:17 PM on 09.25.10 |
->> *** "Three years? Some guys may not have a job in six months let alone three years." ***
... and our planet could collide with a comet next week ... can't live in fear of future ... or you will never get anywhere ...
I recently had a parent ask me ... "Hey it only costs me 19 cents for a 4x6 at WalMart ... why do you charge so much more? .... need I say more on that point?
Jason offers a service. He has set his pricing for that service. I do the same with my images. Jason has the good sense not to negotiate my pricing and I in turn, will not request he reconsider and lower his .... either the service is worth the investment or not ... the same as any equipment, software or other items we use to get the job done. |
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Nick Doan, Photographer, Assistant
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Scottsdale | AZ | USA | Posted: 8:49 PM on 09.25.10 |
->> Ahh, see I have a problem here. I don't read the forums everyday and didn't know about your charges. While I would like to sign up, I am sitting here at a game right now, and I am about to email you for the ss.com discount code.
Hopefully, I'll get it sooner than later. A couple of weeks notice on your original space would have been helpful. |
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Todd Kirkland, Photographer
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Dallas (Atlanta) | GA | USA | Posted: 12:44 AM on 09.26.10 |
| ->> I agree Nick. So with that I typed mine up at the game. |
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Louis Lopez, Photographer
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Fontana | CA | USA | Posted: 2:46 AM on 09.26.10 |
->> Butch,
I was not negotiating anything. I was offering my suggestions on how he could maximize the sales potential with what the market would bear. (in my opinion)
Too many , charge way too much, not realizing the potential for volume sales.
If you read the the posts on these boards most guys complain of being paid peanuts. Fortunately I am not one of those, this product is for a specific market, I was suggesting, why not sell at a price point that appeals to everyones budget and not just to those have the extra spendable income.
For the record I will most likely buy the year.
"Hey it only costs me 19 cents for a 4x6 at WalMart ... why do you charge so much more? .... need I say more on that point?
My response to that very same question is always, my price already includes the 19 cents for the paper. The rest is for the image on the paper. |
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Louis Lopez, Photographer
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Fontana | CA | USA | Posted: 2:47 AM on 09.26.10 |
| ->> I thought this was a place where we all could discuss and offer suggestions??? |
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Jason Watson, Photographer
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Palo Alto | CA | USA | Posted: 3:39 AM on 09.26.10 |
| ->> In time for this week's start of the NBA preseason, NBA rosters have also been added to the site. |
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Corey Perrine, Photographer
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Augusta | GA | USA | Posted: 4:08 AM on 09.26.10 |
| ->> Add every high school roster and I'm in. |
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Dave Prelosky, Photographer
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Lower Burrell | Pa | US | Posted: 10:22 AM on 09.26.10 |
->> Add every high school roster and I'm in.
Jason would have to turn himself into a multinational and wind up outsourcing. I'm for American workers doing American code....
If I shot enough D1 and pro sports to make use of his work I'd hop on it. |
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Dannie Walls, Photographer
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Charlotte | NC | USA | Posted: 1:14 PM on 09.26.10 |
| ->> Yeah I'm with Corey add high school rosters in the surounding areas of Charlotte,NC.. lol |
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Butch Miller, Photographer
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Lock Haven | PA | USA | Posted: 2:18 PM on 09.26.10 |
->> *** I thought this was a place where we all could discuss and offer suggestions??? ***
Of course it is ... which is why I contributed my point of view ... you shouldn't mind that I did ... |
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Dennis Wierzbicki, Photographer
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Plainfield | IL | USA | Posted: 10:28 AM on 09.27.10 |
->> Back in the "old" days, I used to generate my own code replacement files. They were very basic, listing only player names and positions and maybe the jersey number. Even to cut and paste, these took something like 10-15 minutes to put together and format properly.
When I entered the names and other info from scratch it would take longer (FWIW, I still see people doing this manually, prior to games) and inevitably I'd end up with spelling errors (try doing a friendly soccer match with the Cracovia Football Club from Poland....) or other data-entry mistakes.
Add NCAA football to this mix, with duplicate numbers, and there is even more propensity for errors.
Fast Forward to a few years ago with Mike Stone's service. MUCH more detail in the file created, (having the options of including the position, or not, including the team name, or not, including the number, or not, etc.) plus it creates the file in seconds.
Now Jason has built on Mike's service to offer an even more full-featured product.
Let's say you buy a one year subscription - this comes down to about a dollar a week. If you're busy (I have 5 events this week alone), this breaks down to a very, very small amount per game. Even if you only shoot one game each week, it's cheaper than a soda or hot dog. If you sign up for three years, it's an even better deal.
A lot of time is spent in this forum discussing pricing, working for "free", supporting our fellow sports shooters, etc.. Here we have on of our own who has spent a lot of time developing and maintaining a service. Anyone who has used it has sung the praises of product, and he has decided to charge a VERY reasonable fee to cover his variable costs (and maybe even make a little profit) so I say let's support him in every way we can, including financially.
I'll get off my soap box now. |
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Chuck Liddy, Photographer
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Durham | NC | USA | Posted: 10:38 AM on 09.27.10 |
| ->> like I said earlier. if you do a lot of events this is a total deal. if you don't like to type, this is a total deal. if you want to do your own code replacement, well go for it. I too don't get the folks busting jason's chops for starting to charge for this service. if you don't want to fork over the dough...don't. plain and simple. |
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Louis Lopez, Photographer
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Fontana | CA | USA | Posted: 11:59 AM on 09.27.10 |
| ->> I must be missing the post, which one is " busting his chops" for charging for the service? |
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Todd Kirkland, Photographer
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Dallas (Atlanta) | GA | USA | Posted: 7:04 PM on 09.27.10 |
| ->> I have rosters for my home teams. I will make rosters for the visiting teams including only the starters to keep time invested to a minimum. Also visiting media may have a roster just as I do. I already shared my rosters a couple of times over the weekend. |
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Jason Watson, Photographer
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Palo Alto | CA | USA | Posted: 11:12 PM on 09.27.10 |
->> I've now added a couple new features to the tool:
1) NASCAR -- Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck series are now available
2) Custom Rosters -- you can now cut and paste rosters into the tool and have it automatically spit out codes. This should be helpful for those that shoot high school and college sports that don't have easily automated rosters.
For example, if my alma mater, the University of Virginia is playing Johns Hopkins University in men's lacrosse, you can just cut and paste the rosters from:
http://www.virginiasports.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=17800&SPID=10601&S...
and
http://www.hopkinssports.com/sports/m-lacros/mtt/jhop-m-lacros-mtt.html
and set the appropriate settings/fields and you'll quickly have code replacements without having to type, edit, or do anything with Excel.
The same functionality is possible with various high school sports with rosters that are on MaxPreps.com and other sites that publish rosters.
As always, let me know if you have any questions, suggestions, etc.
Thanks! |
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Denny Medley, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Kansas City | MO | USA | Posted: 11:47 PM on 09.27.10 |
->> Jason,
That's awesome. Great improvements to the site, and thank you for being so quick to respond yesterday when I needed to get the rosters for Chiefs/49ers. You rock, dude... |
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Chris Proctor, Photographer
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Crete | IL | USA | Posted: 11:24 AM on 09.28.10 |
->> Jason,
The last addition is awesome, will work great for MiLB games. |
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Randy Sartin, Photographer, Assistant
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Knoxville | TN | USA | Posted: 7:44 PM on 09.28.10 |
->> Jason,
Well done, my first custom roster took a whole 90 seconds to create. |
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Louis Lopez, Photographer
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Fontana | CA | USA | Posted: 10:54 PM on 09.28.10 |
->> I purchased the 3 year subscription today. Appreciate the discount for SS members. The custom roster really put it over the top for me.
Thanks again. |
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Matt Pearce, Photographer
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haltom city | texas | usa | Posted: 4:56 PM on 09.30.10 |
->> Jason, before I sign up, you added NASCAR to the mix, a few questions:
1 - will you have their (major) sponsors included or any (minor) sponsors? IE: Jeff Gordon - Dupont (major) National Guard (minor)
2 - How about Indy or F1?
3 - NHRA?
Thank you |
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Greg Bartram, Photographer
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Dublin | OH | | Posted: 6:16 PM on 09.30.10 |
->> Dear Jason,
I've used your site since I first started having a need for it this year. I'm not a 'gimme for free' guy, and I had every intention of donating to you for your efforts.
I just hadn't done it yet.
Saw the new site.
Joined.
Thanks. I don't know how to do that, and you do, and you did it for me. Therefore, I gave you dough. Thanks.
Simple, really.
Love,
Greg |
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Jason Watson, Photographer
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Palo Alto | CA | USA | Posted: 11:12 PM on 09.30.10 |
->> Matt,
1) Yes, I'll see what I can do to optionally include the major and minor sponsors for NASCAR.
2) Indy / F1 - yes, this should be possible.
3) If I can find a reliable source of driver data, then perhaps.
In the meantime, options 2 and 3 can be generated using the Custom Roster function by cutting and pasting the roster from ESPN or your favorite source directly into the tool. |
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Smiley Pool, Photographer
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Houston | TX | USA | Posted: 1:37 AM on 10.01.10 |
| ->> Dude. The custom generator is rocking my world. Code replacements for a high school game in seconds. Greatness! |
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Pat Lovell, Photographer
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Bloomington | IN | US | Posted: 5:05 AM on 10.01.10 |
->> --->> Dude. The custom generator is rocking my world. Code replacements for a high school game in seconds. Greatness!
Yes, once I got the hang of it, I was generating NCAA soccer rosters in 60 seconds or less.
Thanks Jason! |
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