Maintaining Player Privacy during the Registration Process

Old college threads.
Locked
User avatar
ThisIsMyUsername
Auron
Posts: 1005
Joined: Wed Jul 15, 2009 11:36 am
Location: New York, NY

Maintaining Player Privacy during the Registration Process

Post by ThisIsMyUsername »

Recently, a player expressed discomfort with how e-mail addresses and/or other contact information are frequently publicly exposed during the registration process for tournaments—open tournaments in particular. This worry is not purely speculative. People can (and, in some cases, have) obtained contact information this way for unsavory uses. This prompted me to think about practices I personally might implement. But I thought I would use this as an opportunity to invite community reflection on the best practices we might establish going forward. I’ll start with the three that I know we can do, and then ask for advice on something I do not know how best to improve.

The first is something that I’ve tried to do, but have occasionally forgotten. This is to bcc everyone in the logistics e-mail rather than e-mailing them individually,

The second is something I should have done when running a singles tournament, which is not to have people sign up via spreadsheet, but rather to have people register using Google Forms, and use the spreadsheet only to publicly show who has registered, without displaying any contact information. (This is already a norm for closed tournaments.)

The third is something that I haven’t seen done, but which we might consider, and that is to include in such Google Forms a written assurance from the TD / owner of the form that addresses submitted by a player will not be forwarded to any third parties without the player’s permission.

Now, the more difficult case: open team formation. This is often involves putting your name in a spreadsheet when you lack one or more teammates, to express a willingness to join or form a team. I think this is generally a quite positive practice. Certainly, I have played on many enjoyable teams that likely would not have been formed by other means. Such spreadsheets have been particularly helpful for those less established in the circuit, who are often less confident at navigating the networking-like aspects of team formation.

Can we preserve this general practice while protecting privacy? Some of us ask that players PM us rather than e-mailing us. (I don’t fully understand why this is better, but I’m aware that many feel that it is.) But if we wish to be open to newer players, it seems counterproductive to require that those seeking teammates make a forums account. It would be obviously unreasonable to ask TDs to function as intermediaries. What further improvements, then, could we implement? If we continue to use spreadsheets, we could explicitly label the contact information column something like “Contact Information (optional, list whatever medium you prefer).” Is that sufficient? Suggestions about this are most welcome.

On a related note to my third point above, one of my interlocutors on this subject suggested including misuse of contact information as one of the enumerated transgressions mentioned in codes of conduct—that is, to make it one of the categories of misdeed players agree not to perform when registering to play a tournament. I have experienced codes of conduct only as a player and moderator, never as a TD or as an author of such a code. I therefore don’t feel prepared to weigh in on this idea, although I am open to it, but I invite further comment on this matter.
John Lawrence
Yale University '12
King's College London '13
University of Chicago '20

“I am not absentminded. It is the presence of mind that makes me unaware of everything else.” - G.K. Chesterton
reindeer
Wakka
Posts: 188
Joined: Sun May 03, 2009 7:10 pm

Re: Maintaining Player Privacy during the Registration Process

Post by reindeer »

I think John raises good points here and hope that his post generates some productive discussion! I like the reminder that Google Forms can be used for singles tournaments, when only the TD needs the contact information. I’d extend this to moderator signups as well—I have signed up to staff many tournaments on public spreadsheets and it would be great to get to keep my email address private in these cases.
ThisIsMyUsername wrote: Tue Mar 09, 2021 11:51 am On a related note to my third point above, one of my interlocutors on this subject suggested including misuse of contact information as one of the enumerated transgressions mentioned in codes of conduct—that is, to make it one of the categories of misdeed players agree not to perform when registering to play a tournament.
I agree that the open team formation case is clearly the hardest, since these players do sometimes need to get in touch with people they don’t know already. I think possibly I may have been this “interlocutor”, but if not, I agree with them! In general, I don’t think it’s possible to build systems that both allow quizbowl to exist (or any activity requiring interpersonal interaction, really) and also make all forms of misconduct structurally impossible. It’s good to make logistical choices that promote safer environments when we can, like the use of forms rather than public signups for staff & individual players. But when that isn’t possible, as perhaps in the team formation case, we also need community-level norms and expectations and consequences that discourage and respond to misconduct.
Olivia M
TJ, MIT, Harvard, ACF
User avatar
meebles127
Tidus
Posts: 572
Joined: Mon Nov 20, 2017 9:27 am
Location: Charlottesville, Virginia

Re: Maintaining Player Privacy during the Registration Process

Post by meebles127 »

This is a great post and I think a lot could be learned from the discussion surrounding it.

When Will and I ran the Internet Charity Tournament last year, we requested that writers confirm their packets by inserting their email address into a column on the spreadsheet. We had a few people reach out to us who were concerned about having their personal information displayed publicly in that manner so we granted them exceptions. When I ran Festivus a few months ago, I decided that instead of having people sign-up on a spreadsheet on their own, I would use a google form to collect packet information and contact information. I copied the packet information into a publicly viewable spreadsheet and left contact information in the original spreadsheet that only I had access to. If I were to ever run an event like ICT again, and I wanted people to confirm their sign-ups, I think I would institute a 2nd google form to serve the same function while keeping contact information private.

Perhaps when it comes to open tournaments, there could be a Google Form for free-agent sign-up, then if you fill out the form you gain access to the spreadsheet with the rest of the free agents looking for teammates? In the form, you could include a statement that by filling out the form and gaining access to other people's information, you agree to not share that information in any way whatsoever. This way, free agents can contact other free agents, while keeping their contact information semi-private

Note: If you, personally, are concerned about your email address being publicly available, I would check your User Control Panel to see if you have your email set to be publicly available to other forums users.
Em Gunter
Club President, University of Virginia
Tournament Director, 2023 Chicago Open
Assistant Tournament Director, 2022 and 2023 ACF Nationals

Author of: My Guide to High School Outreach and So You Want to Buy a Buzzer System

"That's got to be one of the most useful skills anyone has ever gotten from quizbowl." -John Lawrence
User avatar
AKKOLADE
Sin
Posts: 15773
Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2003 8:08 am

Re: Maintaining Player Privacy during the Registration Process

Post by AKKOLADE »

A secondary email address used solely for public facing things like sign up forms would be useful, as well.
Fred Morlan
University of Kentucky CoP, 2017
International Quiz Bowl Tournaments, CEO, co-owner
former PACE member, president, etc.
former hsqbrank manager, former NAQT writer & subject editor, former hsqb Administrator/Chief Administrator
User avatar
LeoLaw
Lulu
Posts: 42
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2017 10:16 pm

Re: Maintaining Player Privacy during the Registration Process

Post by LeoLaw »

It seem to me that there are three issues here, TDs sending out logistic emails, talking to free agents about potentially teaming up, and the misuse of the informations by the TDs. The first one is easily solved by simply using bcc to send the logistic emails as mentioned in the original post. I think the second problem can be solved by having alternative ways of contact on the team formation sheet, like posting a Discord handle instead of email for example? I think most QBers have Discord nowadays because of online tournaments. I think updating the code of conduct for the third point sounds good but I have only experienced the Code of conduct as a player.
Leo
New College of Florida '19
University of Florida ‘25
User avatar
meebles127
Tidus
Posts: 572
Joined: Mon Nov 20, 2017 9:27 am
Location: Charlottesville, Virginia

Re: Maintaining Player Privacy during the Registration Process

Post by meebles127 »

AKKOLADE wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 8:20 am A secondary email address used solely for public facing things like sign up forms would be useful, as well.
You could even set up email forwarding so you know when emails arrive in that account and you don't have to constantly check it for emails.
Em Gunter
Club President, University of Virginia
Tournament Director, 2023 Chicago Open
Assistant Tournament Director, 2022 and 2023 ACF Nationals

Author of: My Guide to High School Outreach and So You Want to Buy a Buzzer System

"That's got to be one of the most useful skills anyone has ever gotten from quizbowl." -John Lawrence
Locked