Email being sent to all LMS Organisation Owners

Debate directly related to English Chess Federation matters.
User avatar
John Upham
Posts: 7179
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:29 am
Location: Cove, Hampshire, England.

Email being sent to all LMS Organisation Owners

Post by John Upham » Wed Nov 10, 2021 1:01 pm

Message from Steve Emmerton:


"This is a bulk email being sent to all LMS Organisation Owners

Can you please remind all members of your LMS Organisation that, when renewing their ECF Membership, they should RENEW - not take out a NEW membership. You should ONLY take out NEW membership if you have never been a member of the ECF in the past. If you are unable to remember your password when logging in then click on the Forgot Password link to re-set it. If you are unable to remember your Membership No you will need to contact the ECF office. If you take out NEW membership when you have previously held membership, the system will generate a second Membership No against your name and will cause problems within the rating system, which may cause your games not to get rated. Problems we are encountering include the Membership List contains your new (second) Membership No but with no grade code against it, and the Rating List contains your grade code but with no Membership No against it.
Thank you
Steve Emmerton
ECF LMS Administrator
"
British Chess News : britishchessnews.com
Twitter: @BritishChess
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/britishchess :D

Angus French
Posts: 2151
Joined: Thu May 15, 2008 1:37 am

Re: Email being sent to all LMS Organisation Owners

Post by Angus French » Wed Nov 10, 2021 2:13 pm

So there's an issue which arises when a person takes out a new membership (rather than renews an existing membership) *and* doesn't define their Grade (Rating) Code (or, presumably, defines it incorrectly) against the new membership?

Is this an issue which is peculiar to events which use the ECF LMS? Could it not also be a problem for events using other results systems?
Is there still a problem if a player is correctly identified by their Grade/Rating Ref in the ECF LMS?

User avatar
John Upham
Posts: 7179
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:29 am
Location: Cove, Hampshire, England.

Re: Email being sent to all LMS Organisation Owners

Post by John Upham » Wed Nov 10, 2021 2:35 pm

Angus French wrote:
Wed Nov 10, 2021 2:13 pm
So there's an issue with people who take out a new membership *and* don't define their Grade (Rating) Code (or, presumably, define it incorrectly) against the new membership?

Is this an issue which is peculiar to events which use the ECF LMS? Could it not also be a problem for events using other results systems?
Is there still a problem if a player is correctly identified by their Grade/Rating Ref in the ECF LMS?
My limited understanding is that some persons renewing are not easily finding their ECF membership code when renewing and are choosing to obtain a new membership code so breaking the link with their rating code.

It seems to me that this is caused by a flaw in the design for the ECF membership system provided by GO! Membership.

A sensible architect would have used a memorable email and password as a means of login authentication but GO! have attempted to be clever and use an unmemorable ECF membership code that most people have no desire to either remember or make a record of.

Had the ECF issued membership cards then the code could be looked up from there assuming the card could be found.

This problem is down to GO! membership but presumably the ECF Director of Membership signed off acceptance of use of the Membership code.

I imagine this lack of foresight is causing the ECF office a whole heap of unnecessary pain.
Last edited by John Upham on Wed Nov 10, 2021 4:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
British Chess News : britishchessnews.com
Twitter: @BritishChess
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/britishchess :D

Angus French
Posts: 2151
Joined: Thu May 15, 2008 1:37 am

Re: Email being sent to all LMS Organisation Owners

Post by Angus French » Wed Nov 10, 2021 3:26 pm

John, if what you say is correct then it sounds like the problem is with the membership system rather than the ECF LMS system... I just had a look at the GO! Membership system and tried the 'Forgot Password?' facility which told me 'A username is required. This is your member ID or username registered at sign-up. Your email address may have been used as your username.' I tried one of my email addresses: nothing. I tried another of my email addresses and received an email with reset instructions. So: email addresses do work... though I wonder what happens if the same email address has been used for more than one membership (could that be possible - e.g. if a club secretary signs up multiple players for membership and uses their own email address each time?).

Anyway, I'm wondering if there's a separate problem with the ECF LMS?

Also, I wonder: how much time does the ECF Office spend dealing with membership enquiries and admin?
Last edited by Angus French on Wed Nov 10, 2021 3:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Roger de Coverly
Posts: 21301
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:51 pm

Re: Email being sent to all LMS Organisation Owners

Post by Roger de Coverly » Wed Nov 10, 2021 3:40 pm

Angus French wrote:
Wed Nov 10, 2021 3:26 pm
John, if what you say is correct then it sounds like the problem is with the membership system rather than the ECF LMS system...
A feature that I think is new to the ECF rating system is that it now shows membership codes even where membership has expired. That's likely to make things much easier for reinstating lapsed memberships as it used to be simpler to create a new membership code than hunt down previous email addresses and passwords.

Even with a new code, I think all games would be rated as the ECF policy is or was to grade or rate every game. That doesn't mean they would be rated correctly. In some cases a rapidly improved player would get a more appropriate rating by coming back in as a new player.

Angus French
Posts: 2151
Joined: Thu May 15, 2008 1:37 am

Re: Email being sent to all LMS Organisation Owners

Post by Angus French » Wed Nov 10, 2021 3:43 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote:
Wed Nov 10, 2021 3:40 pm
A feature that I think is new to the ECF rating system is that it now shows membership codes even where membership has expired. That's likely to make things much easier for reinstating lapsed memberships as it used to be simpler to create a new membership code than hunt down previous email addresses and passwords.
It would have been helpful if the original ECF email had said that!

User avatar
John Upham
Posts: 7179
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:29 am
Location: Cove, Hampshire, England.

Re: Email being sent to all LMS Organisation Owners

Post by John Upham » Wed Nov 10, 2021 4:06 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote:
Wed Nov 10, 2021 3:40 pm
Angus French wrote:
Wed Nov 10, 2021 3:26 pm
John, if what you say is correct then it sounds like the problem is with the membership system rather than the ECF LMS system...
A feature that I think is new to the ECF rating system is that it now shows membership codes even where membership has expired. That's likely to make things much easier for reinstating lapsed memberships as it used to be simpler to create a new membership code than hunt down previous email addresses and passwords.

Even with a new code, I think all games would be rated as the ECF policy is or was to grade or rate every game. That doesn't mean they would be rated correctly. In some cases a rapidly improved player would get a more appropriate rating by coming back in as a new player.
I imagine that the rendering of the most recent but expired membership code with a strikethrough is a pragmatic attempt to alleviate this problem.
British Chess News : britishchessnews.com
Twitter: @BritishChess
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/britishchess :D

Reg Clucas
Posts: 602
Joined: Mon May 16, 2011 3:45 pm

Re: Email being sent to all LMS Organisation Owners

Post by Reg Clucas » Wed Nov 10, 2021 7:00 pm

Angus French wrote:
Wed Nov 10, 2021 2:13 pm

Is this an issue which is peculiar to events which use the ECF LMS?
Nothing to do with LMS. As John Upham has said, the Go Membership site makes it too easy for this to happen, but the problem existed with the previous membership system as well.