2018 Team Competition Tracker/Google Sheet Central

[Rob]

Barry wrote: "Rob wrote: "Virginie wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "@Virginie/Rob: Niki laid down The Law... Graphic novels are still 25% of the page count points... they aren't affected by the Kindle/Paperback/Har..."

Ha - I was joking :) I haven't read or watched Ranma 1/2 in like 20+ years. (My friend and I used to buy it on VHS if that is an indication of how long ago...Still it'd be fun to do.

[Anni]

Timelord Iain (Eeyawn) wrote: "You guys dunno what you're missing out on... I logged on to my email account to verify email, like Steam likes to complain about yearly, and stumbled into the Early Access 2019 Spreadsheet... went ..."

I really feel like missing out... :D

[Virginie]

Nah, we're just discussing formulas and ways to conquer to universe. Nothing interesting :p

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Virginie wrote: "Nah, we're just discussing formulas and ways to conquer to universe. Nothing interesting :p"

I think she meant she WANTS to miss out... I knew when I said that, all the math-phobes would shake their heads :D

[Virginie]

Timelord Iain (Eeyawn) wrote: "I think she meant she WANTS to miss out... I knew when I said that, all the math-phobes would shake their heads :D "

And the nerds would start drooling xD

[Anni]

Timelord Iain (Eeyawn) wrote: "Virginie wrote: "Nah, we're just discussing formulas and ways to conquer to universe. Nothing interesting :p"

I think she meant she WANTS to miss out... I knew when I said that, all the math-phobe..."

No, there was no sarcasm there :D I love spreedsheet-tinkering...

[Virginie]

Sir Anni wrote: "No, there was no sarcasm there :D I love spreedsheet-tinkering... "

Ah! I knew you were an (undercover) fellow Excell nerd :p

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

To get everyone properly scared, this morning I started writing custom scripts/functions, because Google Sheets didn't have the functionality necessary to make Virginie's life simple, with her cool new URLs that jump down to the row that begins each month in your trackers...

Nothing super complicated... it just grabs part of the URL for the current spreadsheet tab... Virginie & Rob have enough going on with the stats pages... I'm not trying to bloat this up or anything...

Most of the work we're doing is removing the tedium in adding everybody to the sheet, once teams are made... I think, once we're done, there won't be anything to do next year, other than adjust formulas, if there is a Year 3 competition...

This is what happens when Excel nerds are given 2 months instead of 2 days to play with a spreadsheet :D

[Virginie]

Yes! Like Iain said, we went a little insane with the spreadsheet...
On the bright side, you all get a super-cool scoresheet :p

[Anni]

I already saw it, believe me it's awesome ;)

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Virginie has been doing great, space-saving work... some of her functions get so long I, I don't want to try and parse them... the problem is a symptom of how spreadsheets work...

Similar to my own problems with trying to click out of a cell, and the Google takes it upon itself to copy that cell name into my current cell/formula for me, which I didn't want...

[Virginie]

Haha, I lost count of how many time that happened, and I had to hit Esc to undo all changes (therefore loosing all the work I did on that cell already) :p

[Jenna, I'd be free if not for Temper & Edgewalker]

I'm so excited to see the unveiled new and improved spreadsheet! Last year's was already so impressive :)

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Jenna wrote: "I'm so excited to see the unveiled new and improved spreadsheet! Last year's was already so impressive :)"

We can summarize it one word... Overkill...

I'm reminded of some TV show episode I saw a long time ago, where people went overboard for an unveiling... considering over 50% of last year's participants went all year with the generic sheet, with none of the Bells & Whistles...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

More detailed summary:

We merged the Scoreboard and Team Scoreboard with it's Milestones and Team-by-team stats...

We expanded the "Pages Read" tab into a comprehensive lists of player stats...

People will be able to enter book stats manually from their spreadsheet tab, or using a Google Form that should work better on phones/etc... the spreadsheet will add form entries together with individual tab inputs... but all form entries will be kept on a single Form Calculations sheet, which just copies everything over from the Responses sheet and does the math...

And Virginie added all her monthly stats & topline stats to the template for everyone to view, if they're so inclined...

Then we did a bunch of Quality of Life stuff, that people won't even notice...

It's a good thing we'll have 2 weeks for most people to get used to the spreadsheet, once we have everything ready... because it might look a bit more intimidating than it really is, at first glance...

[Jenna, I'd be free if not for Temper & Edgewalker]

This sounds beautiful <3 :)

[Virginie]

Jenna wrote: "I'm so excited to see the unveiled new and improved spreadsheet! Last year's was already so impressive :)"

Heh, I look forward to see what everyone thinks of our little Excel project :)

[Rob]

Virginie wrote: "Jenna wrote: "I'm so excited to see the unveiled new and improved spreadsheet! Last year's was already so impressive :)"

Heh, I look forward to see what everyone thinks of our little Excel project :)"
well if we're on the same team..hopefully something like..10,000 bonus points for Ravenclaw. (or house of your choice).

[Virginie]

Hahaha. Hopefully, yeah :)

[Saar The Book owl]

I hope it won't be too difficult, because Excell and me are not the best buddies;)

[Hailee]

Saar The Book owl wrote: "I hope it won't be too difficult, because Excell and me are not the best buddies;)"

Me too. My excel skills are limited to writing words and numbers into boxes. I'd go as far as saying not only are me and excel not friends we are outright enemies.

Luckily for us it sounds like the Spreadsheet team are doing all the hard work so we don't have to. ;-)

[Anni]

Saar The Book owl wrote: "I hope it won't be too difficult, because Excell and me are not the best buddies;)"

Don't worry it won't. Also there will be the form Rob presented a while ago. You just fill out the form and all the points will be magically added to your sheet :)

[Saar The Book owl]

Glad that there are Excell - experts out there ;) I can add things and pimp it a little bit up, but don't ask me anything about formulas. Everything goes blank then.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Saar The Book owl wrote: "Glad that there are Excell - experts out there ;) I can add things and pimp it a little bit up, but don't ask me anything about formulas. Everything goes blank then."

Computer stuff is generally about being a Google expert... there is generally an online resource to help you, and a million forums where people have had the same problem you're having, before... it's just knowing how to find it... and then cobble together their answer to fit your needs...

[Kathrine]

My skills in Excel go about as far as adding pretty colors. I guess you can say I don't... excel... at it

[Scott , Karsa Orlong]

Coming from a database background Excel and I have a love/hate relationship. I love dumping info out for others into Excel because it's quick and easy, but hate having to use its conditional formatting when I would rather do it in SQL and then dump the data into a BI tool. Excel is cumbersome for me but is the perfect tool for the scoreboard. I appreciate you guys taking care of this. It would try my patience. Those of you who decorated your pages last year did a great job. I can't wait to see what people will come up with this year.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Scott wrote: "Coming from a database background Excel and I have a love/hate relationship. I love dumping info out for others into Excel because it's quick and easy, but hate having to use its conditional format..."

There's a default blue color scheme, this year... but with the basics of Virginie's color schemes & formulas baked into everyone's sheet this year, customizing each sheet should be less effort...

[Niki Hawkes, I made it past GOTM... barely]

@kathrine preach lol.

[Yanique, Thread Master]

Where's the sheet? I'm tired of all the teasers!!! Let me see this work of art you guys have developed!

[[deleted user]]

I'm starting to think looking at the developer tools will help me with my coding stuff. I've been looking at some online. I'm doing html but it would at least be interesting to look

[Virginie]

The sheet is almost ready! We still have a few things to finalize (locking some cells so you guys don't mess everything up for example xD), and then we'll share the link :D

[Jenna, I'd be free if not for Temper & Edgewalker]

Virginie wrote: "The sheet is almost ready! We still have a few things to finalize (locking some cells so you guys don't mess everything up for example xD), and then we'll share the link :D"

Also, hold up because there will be a last minute member change! :)

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Slytherpuff wrote: "I'm starting to think looking at the developer tools will help me with my coding stuff. I've been looking at some online. I'm doing html but it would at least be interesting to look"

Putting in the effort is important... and building up a resume of small easy programs that build into bigger, more complex programs... regardless of the type of coding we're talking about...

[Margret, Caladan Brood Face]

We’re so lucky to have such brilliant folks working on this. I have no real life job skills, mine pretty much have zero transferability 😂

[Virginie]

Jenna wrote: "Also, hold up because there will be a last minute member change! :)"

Yup, so that Julia ends up in the same team as her dad, right? :)

[Jenna, I'd be free if not for Temper & Edgewalker]

Virginie wrote: "Jenna wrote: "Also, hold up because there will be a last minute member change! :)"

Yup, so that Julia ends up in the same team as her dad, right? :)"

Yes :)

[Margret, Caladan Brood Face]

Yes, I’m just waiting for Scott to reply and confirm my offer

[Jenna, I'd be free if not for Temper & Edgewalker]

Margret wrote: "We’re so lucky to have such brilliant folks working on this. I have no real life job skills, mine pretty much have zero transferability 😂"

This is so true! We love all of you Excel geniuses <3

[Virginie]

Margret wrote: "Yes, I’m just waiting for Scott to reply and confirm my offer"

This feels like you're trading Pokemons... :O

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Yanique wrote: "Where's the sheet? I'm tired of all the teasers!!! Let me see this work of art you guys have developed!"

There's going to be a slight turnaround time... we only got confirmation on all the formulas this morning... and once they're finalized in the Template, we can make 51 copies of the Template, name them, assign teams, and color-code...

It should be ready soon (I'm 100% PR here, Rob & Virginie have been playing with the spreadsheet while I goof off writing up commentary about the draft)... half of what I just described looks like it's been done already...

[Rob]

We would like to have a primer ready and are toying with an audio instructions podcast ;) but not likely.

[Scott , Karsa Orlong]

Margret wrote: "Yes, I’m just waiting for Scott to reply and confirm my offer"

Rejected.

[Scott , Karsa Orlong]

So we ended up swapping Julia to Margret's team to keep her with Rob and I get Choko in return.

[Anni]

Oh no :(

[Margret, Caladan Brood Face]

No worries Anni, Julia is a titan when it comes to reading

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Virginie wrote: "Margret wrote: "Yes, I’m just waiting for Scott to reply and confirm my offer"

This feels like you're trading Pokemons... :O"

Or sports players... Rob always makes Fantasy Football references... that was kinda my inspiration for the commentating...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Rob wrote: "We would like to have a primer ready and are toying with an audio instructions podcast ;) but not likely."

That's news to me...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Scott wrote: "So we ended up swapping Julia to Margret's team to keep her with Rob and I get Choko in return."

Looking at the numbers, that was gonna be my suggestion :)

The closest person to Rob in points was Jessica, I think, and she read 50% more pages, which matters more in 2019...

[Virginie]

Scott wrote: "So we ended up swapping Julia to Margret's team to keep her with Rob and I get Choko in return."

Spreasheet changed! :)

[Anni]

Margret wrote: "No worries Anni, Julia is a titan when it comes to reading"

I know, I know... I don't want to sound ungrateful, I had just hoped for a team a little more active/ talkative... And now we have two members that aren't even in the group :/