APAT Welsh Amateur Poker Championship - Live Update Feedback

[Matt D]

Welcome to Event #1 of Season 8! The Welsh Amateur Poker Championship, coming to you from a very sunny and absolutely buzzing Bristol!

For this event we"ll be concentrating mainly on Facebook updates (https://www.facebook.com/events/1525076157715676/) encouraging players to take part, posting updates of how they"re doing, stack sizes, perhaps the odd pic too Simply click "going" and get posting

We"ll also post our own (myself and Irish Tom) updates on that page too

Post all your comments, good luck wishes, chip requests etc. there too (or if you don"t have a facebook account, on this page instead).

[Sugar_Free]

FWIW I don"t think this experiment has worked. People posting on so many different threads (that"s when they get the right page) that there"s no way to keep up with everything. And if you go out and try to catch up later, well, good luck with that.

[Matt D]

Aye, fair enough. Would be interested to hear feedback from others whether they preferred the facebook method, or would prefer updates remain forum based.

[Scousebill]

Personally, I prefer the APAT Forum myself. I was a bit disappointed to not see the competition thread on here, even though I use Facebook a lot. It is a lot easier to stick to the one thread on this forum..

[ian.ski309]

I"ve found the FB updates very difficult to follow because dozens of people are posting individually all over the place rather than on the designated page which makes for very disjointed reading. There"s also the problem that if you are not actually FB "friends" with someone who is posting as an individual, you may well miss their post(s) altogether.

The main benefit of having a thread on the forum is that the reader gets all the information in a chronological order.

[Paulie_D]

I"ve found the FB updates very difficult to follow because dozens of people are posting individually all over the place rather than on the designated page which makes for very disjointed reading. There"s also the problem that if you are not actually FB "friends" with someone who is posting as an individual, you may well miss their post(s) altogether.

The main benefit of having a thread on the forum is that the reader gets all the information in a chronological order.

+1

[AMRN]

Whilst I understand the good reasons for using Facebook, I"ve of found it nigh on impossible to read this morning to get a gist of the play from yesterday. Tracking through a forum thread is so much better.  Discussed briefly with Tom last night and agreed with him that Facebook is the better vehicle, but this morning I have changed that view.

[Jon MW]

I think facebook should be used as an addition to the forum.

If the factual information was posted here - the starting entrants and seating, the bustouts, the chipcounts etc - and then mirrored on facebook, people would have a choice of where to interact with it socially and it would provide a permanent chronological record of the event.

It definitely just seems wrong that you can"t find the chipstacks and remaining players anywhere on the forum.

People would get used to using facebook if APAT stuck with only using it - but it really does seem that it would be better to supplement the coverage with facebook rather than just rely on it completely.

[Paulie_D]

Glad to see that Tom & Matt have made the decision to do Day 2 on the forum.

Having done a little of this in the past it is incredibly hard just keeping on top of things let alone running back to a laptop constantly to add forum, FB & Twitter posts on a regular and informative (and accurate) basis.

[Paulie_D]

I would also add that the forum supports the Tapatalk App (https://tapatalk.com/) so you can get a feed straight from the forum direct to your mobile device...and post updates and replies directly back into the thread too!

[AAroddersAA]

Anybody have any thoughts on the fact that Facebook reaches a wider audience? It is unlikely that many non apat members actually read the forum. If the idea is to reach out to the wider world I think Facebook is probably the way to go. Also will get more involvement from the players.

Maybe just have a thread on the forum that shows end of day chip stacks?

[Chipaccrual]

Glad to see that Tom & Matt have made the decision to do Day 2 on the forum.

Having done a little of this in the past it is incredibly hard just keeping on top of things let alone running back to a laptop constantly to add forum, FB & Twitter posts on a regular and informative (and accurate) basis.

I think you"d agree Paulie, it"s nigh on impossible to do an update justice on your own.  There"s so much going on at critical times, if Matt is the only one posting, then content is going to be missed.

I actually think that Facebook and Twitter are the main reasons why interaction between players and the update threads have deteriorated over the years.

I guess it"s a case of needing to embrace what the players are looking for from an update and go with it.  Never going to please everybody all of the time, but I think the costs associated with putting on a quality update are probably being better used elsewhere within the APAT budgets.

[Paulie_D]

Glad to see that Tom & Matt have made the decision to do Day 2 on the forum.

Having done a little of this in the past it is incredibly hard just keeping on top of things let alone running back to a laptop constantly to add forum, FB & Twitter posts on a regular and informative (and accurate) basis.

I think you"d agree Paulie, it"s nigh on impossible to do an update justice on your own.  There"s so much going on at critical times, if Matt is the only one posting, then content is going to be missed.

I do agree and I have a vested interest, as in the interests of full disclosure, I offered my services as an updater for several events this year. APAT are trying this approach first, I understand, judge whether they wish to continue with it.

I fully understand that the economics of having two compensated updaters onboard is a tricky one for APAT so the balance between giving the members what that want and what APAT is willing to afford is always going to be a delicate one.

I feel that FB is a limited tool as updates only go to people you choose to befriend rather than the wider APAT audience.

[IrishTom]

Whilst I understand the good reasons for using Facebook, I"ve of found it nigh on impossible to read this morning to get a gist of the play from yesterday. Tracking through a forum thread is so much better.  Discussed briefly with Tom last night and agreed with him that Facebook is the better vehicle, but this morning I have changed that view.

Yea me too Steve!  Well, for FB "event pages" anyway.

[IrishTom]

I do agree and I have a vested interest, as in the interests of full disclosure, I offered my services as an updater for several events this year. APAT are trying this approach first, I understand, judge whether they wish to continue with it.

I fully understand that the economics of having two compensated updaters onboard is a tricky one for APAT so the balance between giving the members what that want and what APAT is willing to afford is always going to be a delicate one.

I feel that FB is a limited tool as updates only go to people you choose to befriend rather than the wider APAT audience.

In the interests of full disclosure (although I"ve openly said it before) I am NOT a fan of the historical updates that APAT have provided via this website - or should I say, the mechanism by which they are delivered - however, I admit that today"s updates are so very much better via here than what we tried yesterday via a FB Event page.

As of right now, I"ve adopted the stance that FB is a MUST to advertise, promote and attract players to APAT and our events - and that"s what I plan to do throughout Season 8.

However, I"m sure there is a balance we can find that lies somewhere between what we are providing today (via APAT website/forum) and the (believed/perceived) benefits of using Facebook - overall, that may have to be a new (and/or updated) facility - which is what Des, Matt and myself have recently been discussing and investigating.