Thursday, August 07, 2008

Sources of Info

Just in case you missed it, SuperJohnnyMac recently forwarded around a lengthy outline of how to find out about Ultimate Frisbee ....

Hey all,

A number of people who have come into the sport over the last year or
two tend to get all their information through friends about what's
happening. This is fine, but you may missing out on some interesting or
important news, announcements or information.

The purpose of this email is just to let you know about the information
pathways available. Please read below if you are not familiar with these.
There are a wide range of options for different interests; however, there are a couple of things that are relevant for everyone.

MOST CRUCIAL INFO
All players must ensure their email address is correct in the AFDA database, and know how to log in to the AFDA site.
No one can do this for you. It is vital to make sure that you're able to register for competitions, and that you're getting necessary information for your leagues/tournaments .

To do this, go to www.afda.com and log in.
- If you don't know your login details, go to the left menu Help -> Forgotten Password. Enter your AFDA number (or search for your name if you don't know it) and your password will be sent to the email account that you registered when you joined the AFDA.
- If this doesn't work, the email address that you have registered into the system is probably not your current one. Use the "Wrong Email Address" section of that same page to set up a new email address. Once this has happened, you will then need to use the Forgotten Password option to get your password for the site.

Congrats! You now have your login details. Make sure you record them for future reference - you'll need them to sign up for many competitions.
Once you have signed in, go to Membership -> Edit My Details and ensure that everything is current and correct.

ALSO VERY IMPORTANT
It's highly, highly recommended that all Ultimate players in SE Qld join the Brisbane Ultimate email group.
This is a general announcement list to let you know about upcoming events. It averages less than 1 email per day, and you can unsubscribe at any time. It's the single best way to find out about new leagues, tournaments and other events.

To join, simply send a blank email to buda-ultimate- subscribe@ yahoogroups. com
A confirmation email will be sent to you, to which you just need to hit "Reply" and then "Send".

You're now on the group - welcome aboard. You can unsubscribe at any time by sending a blank email to buda-ultimate- unsubscribe@ yahoogroups. com


MORE OPTIONS

INTRODUCTION

There's 3 general categories: Yahoogroups, email lists, and websites.
1. Yahoogroups are typically open lists for a particular
topic/club/competit ion. Some are for announcements, some for discussion.
2. Email lists are generally for a specific competition and only include
participants in that particular competition. The main one is the AFDA
registration system, used for many leagues/tournaments (where you log in
to the Australian Ultimate website with your membership number). UQ
Ultimate also uses a list for their league.
3. I imagine you all know what a website is...

Yahoogroups have traditionally been the major method of communication,
though some competition directors are starting to use the AFDA
registration system more to ensure that all players receive necessary
information. Websites, as usual, are used for a slightly different
purpose.




*** 1. YAHOOGROUPS ****

WHAT ARE THEY?

The web address for a given group is
sports.groups. yahoo.com/ group/GROUPNAME
You will need a Yahoo ID to use the web features of a given group.
To subscribe to a given email group, send a blank email to
GROUPNAME-subscribe @yahoogroups. com

For example, for the buda-ultimate group:
Web: sports.groups. yahoo.com/ group/buda- ultimate
Email subscription: buda-ultimate- subscribe@ yahoogroups. com

You can set up each Yahoogroup to either send you every email
individually, a daily digest (1 email per day containing all messages),
or not to send you email (but enable you to access the messages on the
website).
You may also unsubscribe from a Yahoogroup at any time by going to the
home page and selecting "Edit Membership" -> "Leave Group"; or by
sending a blank email to GROUPNAME-unsubscri be@yahoogroups. com

--- FOR ALL REGULAR SE QLD PLAYERS ---

Brisbane Ultimate announcements: buda-ultimate
This group is for announcements on Brisbane Ultimate. It is not a
general discussion list, so traffic is low (average <1 style="font-weight: bold;"> Queensland Ultimate announcements: qld-ultimate
Similarly, this is an announcement list for Queensland Ultimate. Traffic
is low, once again (<1 style="font-weight: bold;"> --- SPECIFIC LEAGUES/AREAS ---

Monday night league (BUML?): yufl_intermediate
This stems from the days when the Monday night league was called YUFL,
and was aimed at intermediate standard... This is primarily an
announcement list for the Monday night league, though it also receives
some announcements about other Brisbane events. It remains low traffic
(<1 style="font-weight: bold;"> Women's league (Tuesday nights): wufl
An announcement list for the women's league on Tuesday nights. It also
receives some general announcements and other information relevant to
Brisbane women's Ultimate. This list is low traffic (<1 style="font-weight: bold;"> Brisbane Premier League (Thursday nights): dog-cup
From the days when the league was called the Dog Cup... This is an
announcement list for the BPL. However, this league has been using the
AFDA registration system to communicate in recent seasons, and this list
is mainly general Brisbane announcements and information relevant to
men's or higher level Ultimate. Low traffic (<1 style="font-weight: bold;"> Gold Coast: bond_ultimate
This list was originally just for Bond Uni, but now seems to be the
primary list for Gold Coast Ultimate (including the current Gold Coast
Ultimate League). Low traffic (<1 style="font-weight: bold;"> Byron Bay: byron_ultimate
They're not quite Queensland, but they're nearby and we consider them
ours :-) Ultimate in and around Byron has been solid over the last few
years, playing locally, sending teams to tournaments, and also holding a
tournament or two. General chat list, low traffic.


--- SE QLD CLUBS ---

Firestorm: firestorm-ultimate
Firestorm is Brisbane's representative men's Ultimate club, playing at
national level. If you want to know what's going on with the club or are
interested in playing some higher level Ultimate, feel free to join and
see what's happening. Low traffic out of season, moderate traffic as the
open/women's season comes around.

UQ: uq_ultimate
UQ is one of most established Ultimate clubs in Australia, running its
own league, entering club teams in all other Brisbane leagues, and the
reigning Australian University champion. They use a specific email list
for their league, but this list is for general club announcements (also
receives some general Brisbane announcements) . Low traffic (<1 style="font-weight: bold;"> QUT: qut-ultimate
QUT have been active on the Ultimate scene for the last few years,
competing in local leagues and also at university championship level.
This list is for general club announcements (and occasionally receives
general Brisbane announcements) . Low traffic (<1 style="font-weight: bold;"> --- OTHER LISTS OF INTEREST ---

Australian Ultimate announcement list: aus-ultimate
Like buda-ultimate and qld-ultimate, a general announcement but this
time it's Australia-wide. Information on all sorts of things, from major
tournaments to updates on the Australian teams touring North America in
the lead-up to Worlds in August. Usually low traffic.

Australian Youth Ultimate: aus-youth
General stuff related to youth Ultimate (under 19). Low traffic.

QUDA administration: quda-admin
For reasonable discussion on administrative things in Queensland
frisbee. Low traffic.

Australian Unis: afda-unis
Pretty quiet these days, but might be fired back up in the lead-up to
AUG. Low traffic.




*** 2. EMAIL LISTS ****

Some competitions will use a specific email list to communicate to all
participants. The most common example is the AFDA competition
registration system (at www.afda.com) , as used by BPL, Halibut, etc.
This involves players registering online, and the competition manager
can then contact players in that competition.

The most important thing to say here is: *ensure your email address in
the AFDA database is correct*. If it's wrong, you won't be getting info
that you need.




*** 3. WEBSITES ****

There are a few websites that may help you keep track of Ultimate at
various levels.

Australian Flying Disc Association
www.afda.com
This is the website of our national sporting organisation, our governing
body. It has all sorts of information, from info about what's happening
in each state, to resources on frisbee administration, to the history of
Ultimate in Australia, to all policies governing our sport, etc etc etc.
More importantly for most people, this is where you access the online
registration system, and it also has a tournament calendar about what's
coming up in Australia.

Queensland Ultimate Disc Association
www.quda.org
Kinda like the AFDA of Queensland.. . QUDA administrates, organises and
builds the sport in Queensland. Lots of info here as well.

Brisbane Ultimate Blog
brisbaneultimatedis c.blogspot. com
Not an official site by any means, but an excellent blog run by JdR, one
of our experienced hands in QUDA. A witty, informative and entertaining
read (you can pay me later, JdR), it's a really good site for getting a
more relaxed and colourful look at what's happening around the place.

Ultitalk
www.ultitalk. com
Finally, Ultitalk is a forum site for Ultimate around the world, but
it's essentially turned into a discussion forum for a bunch of Aussie
frisbee players. Sometimes interesting, sometimes not... Like any forum
site, really.




++++++++++++ +++++++++ +++++++++ ++++++++


Whew.
Well, I hope that was worth it for at least a few people.
If I've missed anything, my apologies. Let me know and will try to add
it to the list.

Cheers all. Hope that you are now better informed about this crazy sport
:-)

John

P.S. Apologies for inbox-filling to all older denizens who've known this stuff for years and are on all the lists they need already...

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