Playwiser

Why do I need to provide my name during registration?: Your first name and the first letter of your last name combined with your nickname are displayed to team members. e.g. John S (BigJohn). This is the only reasonable way for teammates to know who is attending events etc. The nickname eliminates the potential for duplicates in the case of common name combinations. Your last name is never intentionally displayed on the site, it could however appear in the mail archives or in email sent by you to other players. You could however enter the just first letter of your last name at sign up if you wish. This only occurs if you send email to the team mailing list using your real name. Players with significant concern in this area should refrain from sending mail using the team mailing list features or configure their email program appropriately.
Will my email address be visible to others?: Your email address will never be visible to any other party on the web site other than to your Team Manager/s when they invite you to the team. Your email address will be displayed in email messages to members of your team when you send messages to individual players or the team. You are effectively sending them email from your own email address when sending messages from the web interface. This way the recipients can reply in a seamless way. Email message headers clearly identify Playwiser as the originator of these messages and that you are simply to be the recipient of the reply.
What is a PM (private message)?: This is a mechanism in the forums to send a message to someone that has posted a forum message without revealing your email address. You will need to use this feature to communicate with Playwiser members that are not on your team. All messages are created and sent via web forms on Playwiser. Players must have valid accounts, be logged in and answer a Captcha challenge to send these messages, this keeps spammers from using scripts to access this feature.
Why can’t I see phone numbers in the team roster display?: The phone list is only visible to team managers. Players have the option of selecting public display of their phone numbers in their profile, these would then be visible in the user’s public profile.
Does Playwiser sell or share email addresses or user information?: No. Email addresses and user names are never shared or sold to any other party and never will be. This information is only used for direct for provision of the Playwiser service. Playwiser will only ever contact you regarding use of the service.
Does Playwiser track usage of the system?: Playwiser does aggregate web site traffic statistics and analyze overall usage patterns to assist us in improving site design and usability. This information is so general in nature that it can't be attributed to the usage pattern of any individual user. Some actions are logged for the sole purpose of diagnosing specific application errors or failures or analysis of abuse incidents, no reporting will ever be based on this data.

General Usage

How do I know who the team managers are?

View the Team Roster and look for (mgr) beside members names.

Why is the event status page colour coded?

This helps players quickly visualize the projected attendance in terms of confirmed players and what sort of variability to expect. This is critical to teams where spares are involved or where there is a risk of default due to low player turnout etc.

I sent email to the mailing list and it bounced?

You are only permitted to send email to the list using the email address you use as a user ID on Playwiser. This prevents spammers from sending mail to your team. If you don’t have access to your regular email account, connect to Playwiser via the web and send a message using the send message to team feature. Messages can be a maximum or 40K bytes in size, exceeding this limit will cause the message to bounce also.

Is there a limit to the number of teams I can belong to?

What is the maximum size of an email message to the mailing list?

40K bytes, you will receive a non-delivery report if you send a larger message.

Can I send attachments to the mailing list?

Yes but the message size is limited to 40K bytes. Messages containing attachments with executable content or viruses are dropped.

Why is the sending of large attachments restricted?

The mailing list is intended primarily for text oriented communications and some players may read their email with cell phones or other portable devices so they may not wish to receive large messages. It is better to post large attachments to the Team Forum where the limit is 200K bytes, you can optionally send a message to the team mailing list to let them know about your posting.

I can’t see message attachments in the mailing list archive, why?

This is not supported, attachments should be posted to the Team Forum.

I sent an attachment to the team mailing list and the message was never delivered, why?

All email is filtered and messages containing executable attachments and/or viruses will not be delivered. No notification is sent due to the fact that the from address in most virus generated email is forged. This would cause notices to be delivered to someone other than the true originator, i.e. it would end up being a general annoyance to third parties. We recommend that you virus scan the attachment in question.

I tried to post an attachment to a forum and it was rejected, why?

Common executables are not accepted as attachments, this keeps viruses and other malware off of Playwiser. Attachments larger than 200K bytes are not accepted either.

Why am I prompted to enter funny characters (captcha challenges) on some forms even though I am already logged in?

Many features of Playwiser are email enabled, spammers could sign up and send spam messages via those forms using automated scripts. Although slightly inconvenient, these challenges minimize the possibility that you and other Playwiser users will receive unwanted communications. Playwiser is a powerful communications tool, significant effort has been put into making sure it is used only for intended purposes.

Where can I post items for sale or wanted?

Non-commercial posts of this nature may be made to the Public Forum. Posting of commercial items is not permitted, please contact Playwiser regarding your requirements in this area.

Looking for a team?

Select Join a Team from the menu, then select the area and sport you are interested in. A list of teams that match your criteria will be displayed. In the 'Registration' column you will see either a 'Join Team' link (just click on this link to join the team) or 'Restricted'. You can ask the team manager if you can join the 'restricted' team by clicking on the 'Request Invitation' link (a message will be sent to the team manager and they will either approve or deny your request to join the team).

Why does Playwiser send a confirmation code when I create an account?

This ensures that a valid email address has been entered and that it was you that signed up. You are prompted during first login to enter this code for account activation. This is called a Double Opt-In for mailing lists and it is a strong abuse prevention measure.

Why are there ads on Playwiser pages?

Playwiser is a free high value service to teams and players and this is the only way to fund its operation.

Who can update the schedule?

Only team managers can update the schedule. Your team managers are identified with (mgr) in the Team Roster, you can use the Send Message to Player feature to contact them and request a change or new event.

What is the Team Notice?

The Team Notice is displayed at the top of the Event Details page and it is used for important notices like coming or cancelled events. This can only be updated by team managers and the notice will be visible across all events until it is changed.

Why doesn’t Playwiser have a feature for league or team stats?

Statistics/results tend to be sport, team and league specific in nature and it’s impossible to cover all the bases with one tool. In most cases posting results to the Team Forum is sufficient. e.g. post ”Event Results - Event #3” or include the date instead of event number etc. This way you have complete freedom to post information that makes sense for your sport, even spreadsheets with complex results. If you need more sophisticated tools there are Internet sites that specialize in sport specific statistics tracking. You can use Playwiser to organize your team and link to an external stats sites or league sites from the Team Forum. Playwiser is a strong communications tool that is in many cases complementary to these other services and not intended as a replacement.

Why doesn’t Playwiser have league scheduling features?

Playwiser is a team communications tool targeted at reducing the management burden associated with managing individual teams. It is not a league management tool. League management presents a completely different set of challenges and there are many applications and Internet sites that specialize in that. Playwiser can be used for one or all of the teams in a league at the discretion of individual teams. It is a complementary service and it will not impact on overall league operation.

How do I add links to my forum posts?

Just cut and paste in a regular link like http://www.playwiser.com/ or www.playwiser.com and Playwiser takes care of the rest. You should separately describe the nature links of the links in your post. Team managers have additional formatting capabilities, see: How do I edit or format links?

How does My Next Event work?

My Next Event displays the next scheduled event within the next six months. Once an event starts, the next event displayed will be the following one, e.g. if your event starts at 7:00PM and it’s 7:01PM the following event will be displayed even if the current one is two hours long. If you are late going to an event and want to see the current status, click on the Event Calendar and then click on the desired event.

My Next Event is not displaying the next event correctly, why?

The next event display uses time zone information available to the web browser on your PC to determine the time offset from GMT/UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) in your location. If the time zone information is not properly set on your PC, the next event display timing will be off by the amount of the time zone error.

Why is My Next Event displayed first when I log in?

This is viewed as the most valuable feature of Playwiser. Players and coaches want to see who is showing up to the next event first and foremost.

Why must my browser support cookies and JavaScript?

Playwiser is a complex application and users must be authenticated to use much of its functionality or it would be open to significant abuse by spammers and such. The cookie is used to maintain your session and ensure that you are authorized to access the features of the service. JavaScript is used in many places to significantly enhance usability of the site.

Why does Playwiser place a cookie on my computer for persistent login?

The vast majority of users use the same computer to access the site and Playwiser uses this cookie to recognize returning users so they don't need to log in repeatedly. If you are using a shared or public computer you must Log Out when you are finished, this removes the cookie and ensures that nobody else will have access to your account.

What browsers are supported?

Most browsers will work with Playwiser. Testing has been performed with combinations of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Seamonkey and Opera on Windows and Linux platforms. Mobile browsers may have difficulties, there may be future enhancements to specifically support mobile devices.

How does event notification work?

When events are scheduled the Team Manager specifies whether notification emails are to be sent and how many days ahead of the event they should be sent. The notices contain response information so players can reply to the message and indicate their attendance. These responses automatically update the My Next Event/Event Details page. Improperly formatted responses are silently discarded to prevent abuse so users are advised to carefully fill in their responses. All notices are sent out between midnight and 5:00AM the specified number of days before the event. (Canda Eastern time, GMT -0500 winter, GMT -0400 summer) In cases where the number of days of advance notification exceeds the time until the next event, the notice will go out during the next notification cycle. When an event is scheduled with little notice, e.g. less than two days then ”Send Immediate Notification” should be selected when scheduling the event.

Player and Non-Player, what is the difference?

The only difference between Players and Non-Players is that attendance of Non-Players is not tracked and they do not appear on the Event Details page. This keeps the player attendance information from becoming cluttered. Non-Players would typically be parents, coaches, friends or fans that wish to receive event notices and communicate with the group.

How do I ensure that mail from Playwiser is not blocked or placed in junk mail folders?

In Hotmail click on ”Mail” followed by ”Options” in the top right corner of your screen. Next select the ”Safe List” link, enter ”@playwiser.com” and click ”Add”. In other mail services you may need to add Playwiser email addresses as contacts. These are the only email addresses used by Playwsier to contact you:

poll@playwiser.com (Event Notifications)
TeamName@playwiser.com (Team Mailing List - substitute your team’s name)
listmgr-bounce@playwiser.com (Mail Bounce Handler - used for all administrative messages)
TeamName-bounce@playwiser.com (Mail Bounce Handler - substitute your team’s name)

Why are some email addresses not allowed for sign up? (Email Forwarding)

Occasionally email addresses contain special characters like apostrophes. While they are technically legal in email addresses, they present significant handling issues and security risks in web applications. In other cases, mail services may be blocked because high rates of message non-delivery have been experienced. You can continue to use these addresses and enjoy most of the functionality of Playwiser by following these steps. Sign up for a free Gmail account to use as your Playwiser user ID/email address. Next, set up your Gmail account to forward all messages to your existing email address. To do this log into Gmail, click ”Settings” (top right), click ”Forwarding and POP” (center), select ”Forward a copy of incoming mail to”, enter your other email address and click ”Save Changes”. It is best to leave the ”keep Gmail’s copy in inbox" option selected. By keeping a copy of the messages on Gmail you will be able to determine if there are forwarding or non-delivery issues. Playwiser is not able to troubleshoot non-delivery issues between external services. The only Playwiser usage restriction is that you will not be able to send or reply to the team mailing list from the non-Gmail account, you must either use the Playwiser "Send Message to Team" feature or your Gmail account to do this (spam protection feature).

What does the term sticky mean in the forums?

Team Managers can sticky frequently referenced topics in the Team Forums so they always appear at the top of the page. Normally topics with the most recent posts are displayed first.

Send Message to Player, how does it work?

Each selected recipient will receive a personalized email message from your email address so they can reply directly to you. i.e. the system sends five individual messages if five recipients are chosen. This is a privacy and spam prevention measure that ensures that the email address of a recipient is not exposed to another recipient. The messages also look more personal in nature than blind carbon copy (BCC) distributions.

Team Management

Who can be a Team Manager?: The initial creator of a team is a manager by default. Any manager can appoint any number of other players as team managers by following the Change Player Status link. In small friendly groups, everybody could be a manager if it is desirable to have everyone view the roster/phone list and be able post team notices etc.
What is the difference between Open and Restricted registration?: With an Open team, any Playwiser user can sign themselves up to your team. With Restricted teams, all players are added by email invitation only from the team manager(s). Most teams will want Restricted registration to control who signs up to their team and to prevent any abuse by spammers that might sign up to the team to send spam to the team mailing list.
What happens if your Team Manager is gone and nobody else was appointed?: You must Contact Playwiser
The event status page permits players to bring extra players or show up late and we don’t allow that.: Playwiser has been designed to be extremely flexible, supporting the broadest possible range of sports and group activities, from pickup to highly organized teams. The Team Forum allows you to post and sticky rules and guidelines for your group. It is normally sufficient to post that information and let the group know about it by using the Send Message to Team feature.
Is there a limit to the size of my team?: No although some display features may not be well suited displaying very large numbers of users, that is not the focus of Playwiser. The team roster or event status pages may get truncated, your browser may permit you to scroll on those pages though by dragging the mouse pointer up and down the page. If you encounter this situation please Contact Playwiser with the details.
Is there a limit to the number of teams I can create?: No.
Where can I post team documents like rules or tournament information?: These should be posted to the Team Forum. You can also post links to other sites for maps, weather or other useful information. The Team Manager can ”sticky” the most important document and link posts so they are always presented as the first items in the forum.
Looking for players?: Post a message to the public forum, there is a section specifically for that. Always remember to include your location and sport in the subject line.
How do I create my own team?: The process is quite simple and only takes a few minutes but a small amount of planning is recommended. Team creation and all aspects of team management can be found in the Team Manager Guide.
How do I edit or format links?: The Team Manager will likely want to create a stickied Team Forum posting that contains a list of useful links for the team, e.g. weather, league sites, statistics sites etc. When creating an initial list just cut and paste in all the site links, one per line. If you are a manager and know how to code HTML you can edit the post afterwards and click on the ”Edit HTML Post” link on the edit page to perform additional formatting of links or text, ensure that the resulting page displays correctly and that the links work. It you have no experience in this area, keep things simple, just describe the links for your players using the regular edit box.
How do I record money collection?: Team Managers have the option of clicking on player names in the event details pages and selecting Paid (regular players do not have this option). The comments field next to that player will then indicate Paid, this will be visible to the entire team. This can be done for any event. For seasonal fees, simply schedule an event for the due date and indicate the payment details.

Abuse Prevention

What happens if someone signs up to an ”open” team and starts sending spam?: Unfortunately this can never be completely avoided unless you run a ”restricted” group. As a first step the Team Manager should remove the user from the group. If the user persists, contact Playwiser and the user’s account will be suspended. Playwiser has zero tolerance for use of its services for distribution of Unsolicited Commercial Email (spam). You could opt to switch your group to ”restricted” so that players must be invited to join.
What spam control measures are in place?: Playwiser was designed and built from the ground up with significant abuse and spam control features, they are built into nearly every aspect of the system. Significant detail is provided in the Team Manager Guide in the Spam Controls section.
How are mailing list opt-in and unsubscribe actions handled?: Playwiser is a service designed to enable communication between members of sports teams or clubs. It is not a commercial bulk email delivery service. Playwiser does not provide email accounts to the general public. Users must sign up using an existing email address. Playwiser does not promote any of its services using bulk email. User accounts are Double Opt-In. In addition to this, players must accept web based invitations to individual teams before they become part of team mailing lists. They can reject any of these invitations. A player can quit a team by logging in and using the Quit Team link. They will be immediately removed from the related mailing list. They can select Cancel Account to remove themselves from all team mailing lists, remove their account and receive no further communications from Playwiser. This is immediate. They can also contact Playwiser regarding any issues related to this by following the Contact Playwiser link on the main page. No account is required to do this. Playwiser is voluntarily compliant with all provisions of the US Federal Trade Commission's CAN-SPAM Act even though the service is hosted in Canada. Playwiser utilizes current industry best practices for running mail and mailing list services. Significant technical detail is provided in the Team Manager Guide Spam Controls section.

Terms of Use - Key Points

Detailed Version

Sending of unsolicited team invitations is prohibited.: Sending unsolicited invitations to unknown third parties to join a Playwiser team is strictly prohibited. This may be considered spam and could damage the reputation of Playwiser. This may result in removal of the offending team and manager accounts.
Sending or posting unsolicited commercial email or spam is prohibited.: Use of Playwiser to send unsolicited commercial email (spam) or posting of such messages to forums will result in suspension of your user ID.
Posting or emailing of objectionable content is prohibited.: Playwiser is designed for all age groups, as such posting of content that is adult oriented, sexual, illegal, vulgar, hate oriented, threatening or otherwise socially unacceptable is not allowed. Such content may be removed by Playwiser staff at its sole discretion. Playwiser users are responsible for the actual content of their emails and posts, Playwiser staff do not systematically review any of this material. Users are advised to report abuse to Playwiser via the Contact Playwiser form.
Are there availability guarantees?: No, Playwiser is a free service and there are no availability guarantees. The service should not be used for any commercial purpose and users assume all risks related to any sort of system failure or unavailability. Playwiser shall not be liable for any third party loss related to any errors, data loss or inability to access this free service. Playwiser is run on commercial grade infrastructure in a Class A data centre with multihomed Internet connectivity. High levels of availability are expected and are the norm. The system maintenance window runs from 0600 to 1000 Sundays (Canada Eastern Time: GMT -0500 winter, GMT -0400 summer).

Contents

Privacy

General Usage

Team Management

Abuse Prevention

Terms of Use - Key Points