American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

Gentlemen <salute>

I wish to pose a question to those, who, within the Club, (ACWGC: CSA & Union) may be in a position to answer the following question, unequivocally.

Who was responsible for creating and maintaining the Original (Old) 'Department of Records until it was superseded and replaced by the 'New DOR'.

I shall upon receiving your responses likely (possibly) revert with one or two follow-up questions, whereupon I shall post, notwithstanding the responses received, a more fulsome and detailed explanation for my initial query.

My thanks, sirs, for your patience and consideration of my 'initial' question.

_________________
Karl McE
General
2nd Brigade
2nd (Gator Alley) Division
Army of Tennessee





Make my enemy brave and strong, so that if defeated, I will not be ashamed.

Hmm, no-one seems able or willing to answer so, in the interests of further discussion, I will venture the answer.

It was before my time, but a man called Don Adams created the old DoR and I believe this thread (https://www.wargame.ch/board/acwgc/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7272) shows when the first version of it came into being. From other threads it seems it went through several updates and improvements from that time. He left the Club about five years later. He deleted many of his posts before he went but given the responses of others you can find indications of why he left. I believe the Club owes him a debt of gratitude for providing us with a game registration system that lasted for about twenty years. A very long time in the life of internet/computer things.

The old DoR was managed and maintained (in the main) by Ernie Sands when the new DoR was established. I always found Ernie very helpful in fixing things when I made a mistake or needed to change an entry for various reasons.
Equally, Blake has always been helpful in explaining the current DoR when I have had questions about it.

_________________
Paul Swanson
Lieutenant-General
First Division
First Corps
Army of Northern Virginia

I thank you sir for the information, and indeed history, provided, I had never heard of Don Adams until now !

I am confident there are a number of members, within the Club, who are well able to answer my question, perhaps they have just not seen my post yet.

The two names that I had in mind were that of Ernie Sands, as you noted, and indeed Scott Ludwig, although I never truly understood their role in the background of managing/maintaining the Old DOR within the ACWGC. Nonetheless, as you also noted, a wonderful job was done in keeping the original DOR up and running throughout its long life. As Ernie Sands named was raised by you, his name is relevant to my question, I shall pose the remainder of my original question on my original post, of yesterday.

I thank you sir, once again, for your input.

_________________
Karl McE
General
2nd Brigade
2nd (Gator Alley) Division
Army of Tennessee





Make my enemy brave and strong, so that if defeated, I will not be ashamed.

Gentlemen <salute>

Following on from my post of yesterday regarding this matter I now wish to explain the reasoning for my initial query and with some supporting relevant material in that regard.

I joined the ACWGC in early 2022, nigh on 4 years ago, at this time. At the same time I also joined the NWC, The Napoleonic Wargaming Club. I have throughout that time remained an active member of both clubs, mustering, monthly/quarterly as required, and hence retaining active membership of both clubs. I focused my entire attention upon the ACWGC over the past 4 years and have seen the many changes in that time and indeed being involved in many of them, as AC of the AoT, for some two and a half years of my 4 years of service. I therefore have some understanding, although limited, of the inner workings of both the Club, its administration and the Old DOR. The membership of both clubs, the ACWGC & NWC, doubtless fluctuated over the years and for which I have no current data. Notwithstanding all of this, the current membership of the NWC is, I believe, somewhat greater than that of the ACWGC.

My question is therefore: Why did the Old DOR at the ACWGC die, as it did, and require the implementation of the NEW DOR, when the DOR at the NWC has continued to function, insofar as I am aware, in it's original, if doubtless updated & upgraded format, over the past 4 years. The website support and administration of the original DOR's, both ACWGC & NWC, may very well have been conducted by the same individuals ?

As I noted above, the number of members of both clubs varied somewhat over time, with the NWC possibly having a very slightly higher headcount than that of the ACWGC at any given time, but nothing that would have, I believe, caused any undue stress upon the DOR systems as they existed over the years. Whilst I am not familiar with the NWC DOR, as I was with the Old DOR at the ACWGC, I am curious as to why two systems, (Database Systems in some form ) generally alike, but with nuanced differences also, possibly managed and maintained by the same people, one should expire whilst the other continues to function.

_________________
Karl McE
General
2nd Brigade
2nd (Gator Alley) Division
Army of Tennessee





Make my enemy brave and strong, so that if defeated, I will not be ashamed.

Hi Karl. I wanted to see if anyone would give a response before offering my own, and I think you've put enough effort into the genuine curiosity of your question that it warrants at least some response. Please excuse some generalities when it comes to names as I want this to be an objective response.

The two big reasons for the new DoR (in my opinion) are technology and accessibility. First, the older DoR used older programming. There were fewer and fewer people that had the coding knowledge required to make changes and edits. This was a situation that was not addressed for years because "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," but it was apparent the club would eventually need something more modern for unforeseen issues and changes years, or hopefully decades, in the future.

The second issue was perhaps the most pressing and the primary reason behind the change. We are a free club with no pooled financial resources and no legal status to have ownership of a website. Every website and program we use is at the good graces of a club member, who is usually paying for it out of their own pocket. This situation understandably led to the older DoR having a "keeper of keys," which is not a problem in the short or medium turn, but can cause issues in the long. As people age or drop from the club, this includes those that are keepers of keys or owners of assets. When the DoR went down, we were unable to get a hold of one of those keepers, which started the discussions about if we need a new DoR for both reasons I have listed above. After a few more server issues, being unable to get more people admin access, and the dating of the coding and programming, it was decided to make a new DoR to meet the current needs of the club.

The current DoR is run by a member and overseen by the president of the club. It is more modern and provides a wealth of new information. I feel that perhaps we still need to address the issue of having multiple "keepers of keys" for the future, and it's possible that's already been addressed, but this member has selflessly given countless hours and assets to the club (websites, youtube, creative and fun tournaments, etc) so I have no doubts that if that need arises in the future, it will be properly handled.

_________________
General Michael E. F. Barycki
4th Bde, 5th Div, XV Corps, Army of the Tennessee
http://www.civilwartees.com/

Hello Michael,

Thank you kindly for that very in-depth and detailed reply, much appreciated indeed.

I understand and indeed agree with much that you outlined and most especially with regard to the 'member' who has dedicated such time, effort and likely cost in pursuit of the New DOR. Having multiple 'Keepers of Keys' or at least a number of dedicated members to provide back-up etc is indeed a key matter, which insofar as I am aware, has never been addressed or made public since its inception, if so. The only other matter arising around the New DOR vis a vis the old one is that of security & confidentiality, there is none in the New DOR, anybody anywhere can access the data contained therein. To what end one might ask ? and indeed it is a valid question, but the fact remains, in my humble opinion, the New DOR should be secured and password protected to registered ACWGC members solely.

_________________
Karl McE
General
2nd Brigade
2nd (Gator Alley) Division
Army of Tennessee





Make my enemy brave and strong, so that if defeated, I will not be ashamed.