I have a sincere request.

There is someone (or maybe multiple people) who has/have been sending out mass invites to join tournaments. Presumably to everyone in their huge friend list. By huge, I mean 200+ people. To whoever is doing this, please please please stop sending mass invites.

For example, in this tournament http://www.wargear.net/tournaments/view/2335 (Open at the time of writing), a rough estimate tells me that there are 450 odd users invited to join.

The mass invites cause a lot of trouble.

• It makes opening the tournament page very very slow. I've lost track of the number of times I have had my browser hang while trying to load the page of an open tournament with the massive invites.
• In addition, the huge length of invitees means that the chat is not accessible till the tournament starts. You can't discuss anything with your teammates.
• Huge invitee list means that no one is going to be motivated to scroll down to see if someone has asked Team X to be left open for a desired teammate(s). As a result, people will join such teams. 

And sending out these mass invites achieves nothing. I've seen people invited who haven't logged on for years. Found a player invited to the tournament mentioned above who hasn't logged on for over 6 years! Surely, inviting that person isn't going to achieve anything.

By all means, do invite people to make a tournament start fast. That is needed. But maybe stick to sending out invites by the dozens, instead of the 100s.

\rant

I didn't know it was possible. How do you send a "mass" invite?

BTW, if you want to fill a tournament with say 32 entrants on anything less than one of the 10 most popular boards, you pretty much need to invite a few hundred.

I have the same problem (browser hangs and slow load times on giant invite list tourneys).  When I look at the load times, I think the problem is everyone's player images.  At the very least, maybe Tom could change the code for the invite page so that it doesn't load player images for the invitee list, only the joined players.

M57 wrote:

I didn't know it was possible. How do you send a "mass" invite?

BTW, if you want to fill a tournament with say 32 entrants on anything less than one of the 10 most popular boards, you pretty much need to invite a few hundred.

1. Through your friends list. If you have those many people on your friends list. Select "Invite Friends". Check the top most box, next to "Player Name", and then select "Invite Players".

2. I'm not so sure that inviting so many people will help fill the tournament. Invites only make a difference for a few users.

I usually try to invite active players. Players who I've seen around playing on that board, or players who tend to play lots of tournaments in general. But most players ignore invites. i.e. neither accept, nor decline. It seems to me that they either have email notifications for that turned off, or they ignore WG emails due to the volume of them. Further, on WG, there is no way to know you have been invited to a tournament unless you visit the Tournaments page. Having an invitation there doesn't help much, since there are just a handful of open tournament anyway.

Further, I'm pretty sure that inviting someone who hasn't logged on since 2011 won't help will any tournament. I just randomly checked out 5 players whose names I didn't know from those invited to the tournament I mentioned above. And it proved my point. 5/5 were absolutely useless invites:

http://www.wargear.net/players/info/TrizOz  ; Last login 2013

http://www.wargear.net/players/info/ml10 Last login 2014

http://www.wargear.net/players/info/jejuesl Last login 2012

http://www.wargear.net/players/info/zdisabled_bbc28de4 Banned

http://www.wargear.net/players/info/zdisabled_bd0bea75 Banned

Overall, my guess would be that over 80% of the people invited don't log on anymore. Surely that doesn't help fill tournaments.

BorisTheFrugal wrote:

I have the same problem (browser hangs and slow load times on giant invite list tourneys).  When I look at the load times, I think the problem is everyone's player images.  At the very least, maybe Tom could change the code for the invite page so that it doesn't load player images for the invitee list, only the joined players.

Yeah, I too suspect that player images could be the reason. If so, your suggested solution would be great.

Another possible technical solution (that works even if the problem is not the player images), is to have another tab for players invites. Main page should then only have joined players.

Till we get a technical solution, the short term solution would be to stop sending the mass invites. To repeat what I said earlier, send invites by the dozens instead of the 100s.

It's mentioned who invites you when you're invited to a tournament. My first try would be to approach that person directly and ask if a friends list update is possible. Removed all the zdisabled ones should at least be fairly simple and hardly risk depleting tournament entries.

Pratik wrote:

M57 wrote:

I didn't know it was possible. How do you send a "mass" invite?

BTW, if you want to fill a tournament with say 32 entrants on anything less than one of the 10 most popular boards, you pretty much need to invite a few hundred.

 

1. Through your friends list. If you have those many people on your friends list. Select "Invite Friends". Check the top most box, next to "Player Name", and then select "Invite Players".

I don't think you're allowed to have more than 15 or 20 friends (last I tried).

M57 wrote:

I don't think you're allowed to have more than 15 or 20 friends (last I tried).

That certainly isn't the case (anymore?). I just went on a friend adding spree to verify. Reached 32 without any problems, before removing all the new additions.

And I would guess that this isn't the case for a very very long time.

Pratik wrote:

I'm not so sure that inviting so many people will help fill the tournament. Invites only make a difference for a few users.

I disagree. I suspect invites make a big difference. In my experience, if you don't invite anyone - almost no one joins.

I usually try to invite active players.

I use the Rankings page to find the most recently  active players, and invite the first few pages.

M57 wrote:

Pratik wrote:

I'm not so sure that inviting so many people will help fill the tournament. Invites only make a difference for a few users.

I disagree. I suspect invites make a big difference. In my experience, if you don't invite anyone - almost no one joins.

I usually try to invite active players.

I use the Rankings page to find the most recently  active players, and invite the first few pages.

Your point holds without contradicting mine.

Invites are important for a tournament to fill, but only for a handful of users (say 50 or so). Beyond those, any invites do not help at all. 

Pratik wrote:

M57 wrote:

Pratik wrote:

I'm not so sure that inviting so many people will help fill the tournament. Invites only make a difference for a few users.

I disagree. I suspect invites make a big difference. In my experience, if you don't invite anyone - almost no one joins.

I usually try to invite active players.

I use the Rankings page to find the most recently  active players, and invite the first few pages.

 

Your point holds without contradicting mine.

Invites are important for a tournament to fill, but only for a handful of users (say 50 or so). Beyond those, any invites do not help at all. 

Right, if only I knew who those 50 are... It's not the same 50, is it? Best bet is to get the message out.  I get a lot of junk mail that I throw out on a regular basis - nice glossy magazines.  I don't know how they stay in business, but some number cruncher out there decided that the return is worth the waste.

Besides, new members are more likely to join a tournament if they've been "invited."

FWIW, I like when others invite me to join; i give those a much more thorough look. Also, in regards to responding to the invite: I accept/decline the ones i know the immediate answer to (if I'm gong to play or not). the others i leave unresponded to in order to bring me back upon subsequent visits to look at it again. This typically gets used in two instances: 1 - for team games waiting for a decent partner to have an open spot or 2 - if i'm on the fence and the tourney needs that last couple to join to get it started (if it fills before i get back to look, my decision has been made for me). 

weathertop wrote:

FWIW, I like when others invite me to join; i give those a much more thorough look. Also, in regards to responding to the invite: I accept/decline the ones i know the immediate answer to (if I'm gong to play or not). the others i leave unresponded to in order to bring me back upon subsequent visits to look at it again. This typically gets used in two instances: 1 - for team games waiting for a decent partner to have an open spot or 2 - if i'm on the fence and the tourney needs that last couple to join to get it started (if it fills before i get back to look, my decision has been made for me). 

 Which is why I reserve my invites for people like you. 

Anyway, given the way things have been going in the past two weeks, since this thread was made, it seems that the only solution is a technical one.