Grim Up North

Whoever pinned this - THANKS!

Popular Spelling Mistakes and How to Present Certain Names the DDP Way Basically for a pick to be recognised by the DDP database every name needs entered in a uniform way. So every spelling variation away from this needs amended whether a simple spelling mistake or the fact that there are sometimes many variations of writing the same persons name. Qaboos etc last time was a classic where there were about 20 variations of entry and all needed converted to one name. Now I can't address the new names this year because that is sharing information from people's picks but I think it is reasonable to share the correct DDP way that matches the Database for some very popular historical picks as follows:- Prince Philip - note one L Queen Elizabeth II - not The Queen or Queen Elizabeth or Elizabeth Windsor Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI - this is one of those that has so many variations but this is what they all get changed to I'll add to this list as I start going through entries and remind myself - it's only the popular names that make a difference - each of you taking time to spell basic names correctly though does save me time on each entry. As above to do this for your entries means doing the checks 3 times, but if nobody does I'm doing 400 times. Names not being recognised, checking the databases for the correct spelling, finding the correct spelling, amending probably takes a similar amount of time to the changing of the format so again could be 30 seconds per team on average. Another 4 hours. I think with a little bit of cooperation we could take 10 hours out of the team entry process which would be massive for me. All terribly boring I know but thanks if you have taken the time to read and doing your best to help. Cheers, GUN

Additional Information and Best Way to Provide Lots of you provide lots of information - you are very proud of your picks or they are obscure and you want to make sure we know who they are and that we select the right John Smith. Some of the information provided on the picks is really interesting and on the theme teams is often what makes the theme team interesting and relevant - all part of the fun. So simply replicate all that information including duplicating the names and include the numbers 1 to 20, joker, if you want below the information in the format that I actually need to convert it to. That way I get what I need with little effort from you and yet the information that needs passed on and referred to sometimes is still present in your entry. We do use this information so it is useful and appreciated I just need the very basic data separated from it.

Format of Entry I need to turn all your entries into this format (names used for example purposes) Team Name: XYZ are going to Die in Next 12 Months Prince Philip John Smith Trevor Jones Ian Roberts Andrew Brown Colin Black Tony Collins Shirley Gray Anne Thrush Deborah Peters Sean Meakin David Higginson Lisa Purves Barbara Hall Simone Yates Frank Baker Barry Crowther Boris Decker Gary Hills Bethany Richardson Steven Morrison Leroy Hanover Ranjit Singh Points to Note No numbers - every single number I have to delete. No email links - every single link added beside a name I need to delete (see next post though). No extra information about who the picks are - every single additional piece of information added I need to delete.(see next post though). Don't put a heading in for Reserves - just leave a one line gap - again I just need to delete this. No Joker in brackets - the joker is the pick at the top of your list - why - because if you write joker I have to delete. Only then do I have the names in the format when the database will recognise them. Also if the entry is done on an excel spreadsheet this doesn't work that well either - the best format is simply the list of names as above in an email. If everyone submitted like that I reckon I would save about 4 hours (30 seconds an entry) and maybe double that. A small difference for each of you making a huge difference to me.

Hi everyone The DDP 2021 has launched and having been through the entry process last time I know the things that take me time where you lot can help. If you can all spend a little time following these instructions on your own entries (maximum 3 to deal with) then you can all save me time on the 4 to 500 entries I will have to input. Many of you provide a lot of helpful well intentioned detail in your entries with the plan that it makes my life easier but the reality is that because you have no insight to the process in actual fact it adds tasks that are unnecessary if you could present in a different way. Format Popular Misspells Additional Information and best way to Provide Ultimately (and I'm not after sympathy here) it took between 70 and 80 hours to input all the entries last year and if the DDP is to continue to find volunteers to do these tasks this process needs to become less time consuming - it may be that in the future we can find system process changes that will reduce the time required but they need to be free and right now we aren't there. So please have a read of the posts below and try and follow the advice. In each post I'll try and explain how the process works on my side so you understand why I am asking you to present your entry/check your spellings. Cheers, GUN PS For now I'm just going to post 3 more posts after this one to save the spaces for the explanations.

oh shit - 650 wrong emails - msc edited, I proof read - piss poor effort but I’m not sending them all again!

Okay my DDP 2021 Team is now with YoungWillz - hopefully the emails will go out some time today. Here we go again...

It's like you were both poised at the keyboard waiting for me to fuck up. That's what you get for trying to finalise your DDP team, sort out the entry email for the DDP and then deciding to enter the Advent Avalanche. I'll try Nick Hitchon then because it might help me find out if he is still alive or not.

Dai Davies

I'm not surprised he’s lying down if he’s that ill!

Wonder if Captain Morgan started out by walking round his back garden a few times?

You're about 3 months behind me Toasty

Yeah don't miss Bob Newhart

One name not mentioned on all the above lists is Peter Alliss - he should 100% return because he's obviously about to die. He commentated from home on the US Masters earlier this month and he sounded like absolute shit. Then they interviewed him before the start of the last round - sadly looked like he was in God's waiting room. Also during commentary he talked about something regarding the course design and said I shall ask Bobby Jones about that when I see him (Bobby Jones being dead). Plus he is 100% Death List worthy not like some of the other names mentioned in some of the above posts. For final evidence see photo below from the interview prior to final round (top photo) and from July 2019 (bottom photo). Lots of loss of weight around the areas of his face where you don't normally lose weight. He has the 'death look'.

So he'll now need two bottles of champagne for tonight. (wouldn't want to be his wife later).