Timing Companies

Anyway you look at it, it is worse than just a few years ago. If I navigate to the live results one way, it works like this. If I get there a different way, it works differently. While I was checking in on D2 girls, I wanted to go back and see team results for the D3 races. There was no obvious way to find them. I just had to be satisfied with D2 only. Until later. I honestly care about 1/4 as much about individual results as I do team. It doesn't have to even be live. Just easily accessible and not by luck by how you happen to get to the results page.
 
Milesplit is just not well designed from a software perspective. So it is hard to get things to work consistently well, particularly with mobile devices. Actually, maybe it is not fair to say it’s not well designed. It is just out of date, and it wasn’t really designed to do everything it is doing now. They really would be better off scrapping it and doing a complete recoding of the site.
 
mathking said:
Milesplit is just not well designed from a software perspective. So it is hard to get things to work consistently well, particularly with mobile devices. Actually, maybe it is not fair to say it’s not well designed. It is just out of date, and it wasn’t really designed to do everything it is doing now. They really would be better off scrapping it and doing a complete recoding of the site.
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Maybe put less time into producing things like merged District and merged Regionals that are meaningless. It's like my kids have purposefully screwed it up so they can make fun of me trying to figure it out.
 
I'm curious, is this actually a problem with Milesplit? Or is it cell providers?

Over the past several years, and I swear it's getting worse as more 5G goes in, I have been unable to use cellular data when there are large groups of people in places where it is not common to have large groups of people. Football games, track meets, cross country meets...I can't pull up any webpages on my phone, whether it's Milesplit or ESPN.
 
I really appreciate Milesplit- But I have always hoped for a Milesplit App- The page is not friendly on your phone- and I hope they develop one soon, especially since we do pay for a subscription.
 
Altor said:
I'm curious, is this actually a problem with Milesplit? Or is it cell providers?

Over the past several years, and I swear it's getting worse as more 5G goes in, I have been unable to use cellular data when there are large groups of people in places where it is not common to have large groups of people. Football games, track meets, cross country meets...I can't pull up any webpages on my phone, whether it's Milesplit or ESPN.
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I think it is Milesplit and not having live team scoring is a big step back from finishtiming's old site.
 
Altor said:
I'm curious, is this actually a problem with Milesplit? Or is it cell providers?

Over the past several years, and I swear it's getting worse as more 5G goes in, I have been unable to use cellular data when there are large groups of people in places where it is not common to have large groups of people. Football games, track meets, cross country meets...I can't pull up any webpages on my phone, whether it's Milesplit or ESPN.
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Not being able to pull up data can be a problem with providers/proximity to cell towers. (For example, at the indoor state meet.) But the clunky, hard to navigate site is because the website's design is not good with mobile devices.
 
CC Track Fan said:
I think it is Milesplit and not having live team scoring is a big step back from finishtiming's old site.
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There will be live team scoring for state meet as we use it a little differently due to splits. The only downfall is that it is a separate page. I have been asking for it to all be on one page all year but they seem to not be making that a priority.

On the cell service, yes cell service is getting worse in all the areas we have been in this year. We will be using starlink service for the state meet just so we have service.
 
Runningfast said:
Mike and the Finishtiming crew are fantastic. Always friendly and willing to accomodate coaches' requests. Always able to quickly and efffectively address any issues that do arise during a meet. When we've traveled to out-of-state meets, I've always said that we've been spoiled over the years by how good Finishtiming is at the job.

With that being said, NOTHING about the move to the milesplit platform has improved the experience for coaches doing entries or coaches/fans viewing results.
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I agree this is not a Finish Timing problem. This is an OHSAA problem of mandating the use of Milesplit. Milesplit is convoluted for the sake of making themselves look more professional than what they actually are. I am all for free market and the OHSAA getting sponsorship dollars from someone, but when you have something that worked well for many years (BAUMSPAGE) why leave. I hope that the OHSAA reevaluates the Milesplit contract when it is up. I have heard the complaint from coaches and meet managers and think that this product is unacceptable.
 
Reading all the comments regarding this topic, this is another in a long line of situations where one company tries to be all things to all people. Just like governments, it is IMPOSSIBLE to be such. MileSplit should go back to becoming a more perfect clearing house for athletic performances - not a meet management database. I subscribe for the clearing house, not for being a meet manager. Leave that to timing companies.
 
Throwscoach said:
I agree this is not a Finish Timing problem. This is an OHSAA problem of mandating the use of Milesplit. Milesplit is convoluted for the sake of making themselves look more professional than what they actually are. I am all for free market and the OHSAA getting sponsorship dollars from someone, but when you have something that worked well for many years (BAUMSPAGE) why leave. I hope that the OHSAA reevaluates the Milesplit contract when it is up. I have heard the complaint from coaches and meet managers and think that this product is unacceptable.
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While I have used both systems (baums, milesplit, etc.) I actually prefer milesplit from a timing perspective and what I can do with entries and such. I have used it as a coach (when they are late getting entries in) and I find it much easier to enter than others. Plus the ability to bring in the best times rather than guessing (or lying) about times makes seeding much more fare. If coaches would use more of the features that are actually there they would be surprised as to what you can do with the system. I mean you have your own team page that you can do pretty much whatever you want with and have a place for people to see your schedule, roster, coaches, etc (rankings if paid subscription).
Now also, there are lots of improvements that can be made also and I have been working with them on those. Now that they also own directathletics there are features that can be brought in and make both systems better. The live results is a major work in progress and worked much better for track than it has for xc. The only reason I went away from our old system was costs. The per meet cost to use our old one was quite costly although I loved it and it could do so much more. I am hoping that milesplit will get theirs this far.
 
Finishtiming said:
While I have used both systems (baums, milesplit, etc.) I actually prefer milesplit from a timing perspective and what I can do with entries and such. I have used it as a coach (when they are late getting entries in) and I find it much easier to enter than others. Plus the ability to bring in the best times rather than guessing (or lying) about times makes seeding much more fare. If coaches would use more of the features that are actually there they would be surprised as to what you can do with the system. I mean you have your own team page that you can do pretty much whatever you want with and have a place for people to see your schedule, roster, coaches, etc (rankings if paid subscription).
Now also, there are lots of improvements that can be made also and I have been working with them on those. Now that they also own directathletics there are features that can be brought in and make both systems better. The live results is a major work in progress and worked much better for track than it has for xc. The only reason I went away from our old system was costs. The per meet cost to use our old one was quite costly although I loved it and it could do so much more. I am hoping that milesplit will get theirs this far.
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Why is it different track to CC. We would be losing it even more if it were track and at large qualifiers were not known. If track gets this bad, it will not be fun.

Also, as a coach, track entries are "in theory" better with Milesplit, but more issues entering in the District both years so far. Corrections had to be made.
 
Finishtiming said:
While I have used both systems (baums, milesplit, etc.) I actually prefer milesplit from a timing perspective and what I can do with entries and such. I have used it as a coach (when they are late getting entries in) and I find it much easier to enter than others. Plus the ability to bring in the best times rather than guessing (or lying) about times makes seeding much more fare. If coaches would use more of the features that are actually there they would be surprised as to what you can do with the system. I mean you have your own team page that you can do pretty much whatever you want with and have a place for people to see your schedule, roster, coaches, etc (rankings if paid subscription).
Now also, there are lots of improvements that can be made also and I have been working with them on those. Now that they also own directathletics there are features that can be brought in and make both systems better. The live results is a major work in progress and worked much better for track than it has for xc. The only reason I went away from our old system was costs. The per meet cost to use our old one was quite costly although I loved it and it could do so much more. I am hoping that milesplit will get theirs this far.
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Thanks for the transparency. I appreciate feedback and honesty.

I actually thought the regional race was excellent at Troy. Although not instant results- I prefer the delay and waiting game because now we know that every finisher is being double-checked by a certified finishtiming official. I saw no mistakes in the results after the results were posted because of this process.

It was quite fun to watch the athletes being entered on the live stream to know as a coach where the teams stood.
 
psycho_dad said:
Why is it different track to CC. We would be losing it even more if it were track and at large qualifiers were not known. If track gets this bad, it will not be fun.

Also, as a coach, track entries are "in theory" better with Milesplit, but more issues entering in the District both years so far. Corrections had to be made.
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We used the live results for all of track season last year and for track it was no different than what we had before (that is what I was saying about being different from track to cc). As far as entries, I had less late entries with milesplit than I ever had with baums and that is fact from past experience. Plus I had better seeding with all of our meets all year since times were verified times and not guesses. Not sure what issues you had entering the district and maybe it was because in sw ohio all the coaches there had been using it all year (and the previous year) and were used to it.
 
Finishtiming said:
We used the live results for all of track season last year and for track it was no different than what we had before (that is what I was saying about being different from track to cc). As far as entries, I had less late entries with milesplit than I ever had with baums and that is fact from past experience. Plus I had better seeding with all of our meets all year since times were verified times and not guesses. Not sure what issues you had entering the district and maybe it was because in sw ohio all the coaches there had been using it all year (and the previous year) and were used to it.
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in 2021 complete entries were left out of the district. Nearly every coach at ours had to go get kids into events day one. We were all there with print outs of our entries. No one knew why some entries were left out. When we entered a meet last year, our entries would double. We just had to make sure we didn't accidentally enter/edit the wrong entry. None of our league meet times counted for seeding the District. There are things I like better about it, when it worked. There should not be bugs.
 
Finishtiming said:
While I have used both systems (baums, milesplit, etc.) I actually prefer milesplit from a timing perspective and what I can do with entries and such. I have used it as a coach (when they are late getting entries in) and I find it much easier to enter than others. Plus the ability to bring in the best times rather than guessing (or lying) about times makes seeding much more fare. If coaches would use more of the features that are actually there they would be surprised as to what you can do with the system. I mean you have your own team page that you can do pretty much whatever you want with and have a place for people to see your schedule, roster, coaches, etc (rankings if paid subscription).
Now also, there are lots of improvements that can be made also and I have been working with them on those. Now that they also own directathletics there are features that can be brought in and make both systems better. The live results is a major work in progress and worked much better for track than it has for xc. The only reason I went away from our old system was costs. The per meet cost to use our old one was quite costly although I loved it and it could do so much more. I am hoping that milesplit will get theirs this far.
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My major complaint as a coach is the amount of time that it takes to get results posted on Milespilt during track season. I know for a fact that the first year the state mandated Milesplit to be used at the district level our meet manager sent Milesplit the results of day one and it took them until 3 PM Thursday to get around to posting them. Then when they were posted they were buried under other results. I know that this is not only my complaint but others too. Last year it was more of the same from Milesplit. As some one said this is what happens when one company tries to be a one stop shop, but can barely handle the job that they were originally created to handle.
 
I have used used Milesplit, Baumspage, Athletic.net and others and I can honestly say I find Athletic.net far, far easier to use from a coach perspective and a record keeping perspective than the other two. I also don't know any of the coaches I talk to regularly who think Milesplit is better (or even equal) for this.

From an easily gathering and parsing data honestly Baumspage was/is the easiest because the results are just plain text (because the results are essentially just links to documents), but it is really just two lines of code more to grab results from Athletic.net.

There is honestly not much difference for post season XC, since you are just picking for one race. Baumspage is my least favorite of the three for selecting a track lineup, but again I find Athletic.net far easier than Milesplit for picking lineups in track and field. This is particularly true for dual meets and making sure everyone is in an event and no one has too many (I don't mean more than four, I mean things like putting a kid in the 400 and 300H) events.

Athletic.net is definitely easier for creating and managing your own meets than Milesplit. It also has a more formal, less ad hoc process for managing name changes and other clarifications. I like their responsiveness for adding features, like finding out last year it allows you to reseed heats of events on the fly. This allows the clerk with an iPad to fill in open slots at the line. (I heard through the grapevine they may use this at the OSU indoor meets this year.) Athletic.net is also much easier for managing your team's performances for a season or over time.

Everyone has to make the right choice for themselves as to which platform(s) to use. And money clearly plays a roll. If one platform is free and the other charges a significant per meet fee, I can't fault someone for choosing the free platform. If one platform is willing to pay you to use it, it probably just makes sense to use that platform. I don't know the costs for the OHSAA using Milesplit for XC and outdoor TF, nor for the coaches' association for indoor TF, but if there is not a big financial incentive to use Milesplit, I have to wonder why we are using it? It might be nice if the financial incentives were more transparent.
 
^^^
I was asked by a Michigan coach to post results to Athletic.net because of their postseason requirements. Once they got me the right type of account to be able to do that, I found the site much more user friendly than Milesplit or DirectAthletics.
 
As a coach and timer at my school I've used milesplit's live results platform with HyTek and Lynx ever since they started it up 2 years ago I believe. We got to the point that we used milesplit entries for every dual meet we had even for middle school and high school along with our invites and it was simple. A few coaches had to learn how to enter everyone and we still had changes to make on meet day but it was awesome to give every single kid an official time and mark after the meet I just submit the results to milesplit and they were on there pretty much instantly. I even threw in lap splits for the distance races as a distance guy I love seeing that in the results. One of the big things to get results on milesplit is whoever is timing needs to have html results rather than PDFs if possible it seems.

I'm a stickler for the old html results for my record keeping (and printing) and I still go in and grab the html source results from milesplit even after they're imported into their style.
 
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