New Accounts on JudgeApps

Reference
1

I have been wanting to have a discussion about JudgeApps and the workflow for new user accounts.

Currently, there are 2,155 JudgeApps accounts in “pending” status. 1,847 are at least one month old, 1,635 are at least two months old, and so on. We receive an average of 16 new registrations per day.

In the days of yore, we used Judge Center to:

  • Verify that the DCI number existed
  • Verify that the DCI number matched the name
  • Verify that, if the user indicated they were L1 already, Judge Center agreed

For a short while after Judge Center went down, we sent a list of pending accounts to WotC, they looked up the judge level/DCI number/wizards account and sent that list back to us. We stopped doing this due to the extremely high workload.

The third point obviously is no longer relevant, since anyone without a JudgeApps account is uncertified. Instead, verification now serves to confirm that there is at least one L2 Judge somewhere in the world who agrees that this person should have a JudgeApps account.

Obviously we should do something about this situation.

Constraints:

  • We cannot get any information from WotC except through already-public means. For example, we /could/ use planeswalkerpoints.com (if it still works) but we /can’t/ query the Wizards account database directly
  • Any solution should /decrease/ the burden on the developers, account help team, and RCs, not /increase/ it
  • (Probably,) we can’t just get rid of the verification process and activate all accounts immediately. Despite the already very low bar for entry into JudgeApps, the community has previously had strong negative reactions to publication of information that is already available to all JudgeApps users. I think it’s unlikely that this has changed, and I won’t open the floodgates without clear consensus.

Brainstorming:

  • Allow all L1s to approve accounts
  • Allow all users to approve accounts
  • Remove the approval requirement
  • Verify something against planeswalkerpoints.com (lifetime > x? at least confirm that the DCI number is valid and active?)
  • Remove the approval requirement to log in, but jail unapproved accounts / jail uncertified accounts to have no access to judge list/map/maybe some other stuff?
2

One of the biggest issues seems to be the lack of communication (between applicants and L2s/RC). I wish we could have the list of names waiting for approval.

I like the “jail” approach – maybe (read only) access to the Official Announcements forum?

Verification against PWP.com would also be great, plus a link to that person’s PWP page?

Whatever we choose, there need to be terms of service any new (and old?) user agrees to.

3

Would it be possible to have a field when people sign up for a judgeapps account so if they do have a mentor judge already it sends them a notification that someone signed up with their name?

4

That can be done by going to:
Sunsetting Planeswalker Points<DCI#>

But is it enough? It’s does nothing more than prove that a potential user knows an active DCI number. You can get those from the pairings on any event.

5

I really like this one.

6

The main issue here is that we can’t do it without using the judge autocomplete API (where you start typing a name and we provide a dropdown list of matching users), which basically nullifies any security benefits from limiting access in the first place.

7

Yeah, I only mention it because it’s literally the only API I know of. It certainly doesn’t help very much.

8

Another idea:
As soon as a user signs up, an email is sent with further instructions (what we send over and over for account assistance: please contact an L2+ or RC).

If the account wasn’t approved within a month, you send it again with a warning that if this account isn’t approved within a week, it will be deleted (and we delete it after a week, if it isn’t approved, obviously).
This should come with the option for an RC to pause the deletion process, for cases in which the user couldn’t find an L2+ to help, and the reminder caused them to contact the RC, which has to investigate further.

1 Like
9

Alternatively:

Check box (yes/no) with the question do you have a mentor

If they check yes they get prompted to include the mentors DCI number - which would then be used to automatically give the judge a notification to approve the new account.

Means they have to have a) spoken with a judge enough that the judge will give them their dci number while still helping to keep the new accounts a bit more cleaned up

I understand that dci number wise its a bit more cumbersome for the user