No Shows - The Great Debate

[DJ]

My 2 cents...I do not host ops like Rick does. I / We have mini ops / skirms at our farm. We frequently offer food and other amenities. It is a major pain when people say they are coming, and plans and money are expended only to have 25-50% flake out. Its always great to have 200 extra Hebrew Nationals residing in your freezer. Rick, you plans look good, a year suspension is fine, it will keep the "I wanna be first on the post" crowd a bit more circumspect. Perhaps people will think a bit more long term before jumping on the band wagon. When word gets out re the harsh consequences of being a flake, Said flakiness will diminish. An education process. Carry on.

[CommieHunter]

The thing with the 1 year suspension is that it's easy to get around. Pre-pay and you're back in for that event. You're just forcing the guy who's a known flake to put his money where his mouth is.

[Ivan Daylovich™]

I just can't see how people can look 2 months out and know for a fact that nothing will come up the week or two before that makes them not be able to come.

Priorities. Airsoft is one of the highest priorities on my weekends. If friends ask if I wanna do whatever on the weekend that a game is planned I say that I am busy. If something does come up that is more important than airsoft it takes very little effort to post saying that something came up and I have to bail. Not a big deal.

I don't host OPs only skirms. As i see this doesn't affect skirms at all. I can't recall the last time I saw a roster for a skirm. People just post that they will be there (Some don't even post, just show up), off-topic comments are made, then game. There can't be no-shows if there is no roster. Also pre-pay obviously doesn't work with free skirms. And lastly I agree that age limits should be left to the event organizer/field host.


Also are no-shows the real problem, or is it not having as many people as you wanted for your game?
This is not a rhetorical question. As I said before I only host skirms and can work with any decent number of players, so I am unaware of how it is for you OP hosters.

[DJ]

Also are no-shows the real problem, or is it not having as many people as you wanted for your game?
This is not a rhetorical question. As I said before I only host skirms and can work with any decent number of players, so I am unaware of how it is for you OP hosters.

For informal skirms I don't think it is such an issue. Its when logistics are present, that the no show issue comes into play. Some of the scenarios that get run, flop if there are not enough people to make them happen. Ivan you are fortunate to have land at your ready disposal, Same for me. When it involves a pay for type field like sniperz den etc... it becomes more of an issue and could really start eating into the $$$.


Totally off the current subject, any current word re the status of Warpaint?

[Ivan Daylovich™]

But that is exactly my train of thought. All the problems you mentioned are caused by not enough people attending. To reword my question: How are No-shows worse than people just not attending?

[phiz]

I would suggest 13+ age limit if they are accompanied by a responsible adult that is also playing. Drop offs are a terrible idea for so many reasons, but some of the younger players are completely airsoft functional (Vega comes to mind).

For informal skirms, it should be up to the host, "RSVP optional", meaning no consequences. "RSVP required", meaning don't flake.

Prepay is totally reasonable.

[wake.joe]

Why? What are you going to do? Ban them from future games?

[DJ]

But that is exactly my train of thought. All the problems you mentioned are caused by not enough people attending. To reword my question: How are No-shows worse than people just not attending?

Its when you plan for something that has a cost associated with it ( in my case food) people indicate they are coming, and then just don't bother to show up. Your pretty much in the clear with your own property and no associated costs.

I still have some of the food supplies from Holy wars, Where a massive no show occurred. I was only helping out on that one, but it really cut into the profits (or lack thereof)

[Transition]

Why? What are you going to do? Ban them from future games?

please actually read before posting in the future.

[Evil Zergling137]

I swore off prepay with end of lies. If you want to do prepay I believe the only reason to do that would be to cover the marginal cost of preparing for an additional person to attend. If you would spend $50 more on prep for a game that had 120 people attend instead of 110 then a $5 deposit is justified.

I don't think prepay would fix any other issues.

I think the only way to predict actual turnout is to identify the factors that cause people to sign up and not show. I suspect that turnout is fairly predictable. People that register individually are more likely to go than people who throw a +10 at the end of their registration etc. Changes in weather. Distance, number of other games that month, etc, etc, etc.

Even if you take what you are talking about to its limit and you have 50 people signed up for a team instead of 100 and 20 people that can't sign up that will end up showing (70 will show in either case) then all that you have really done is do some of the prep work that commanders should be doing.

I don't have a compelling reason to think that shaming will result in more attendance - just less people going.

[Jason Bourne]

A friend of mine was teaching a class too which several people said they would come..., but only five would show up. When pre-pay was required.... thirty people started showing up.

Just thought I would point out an example of where pre-pay worked really well.

[Variable]

Just a couple points.
-What event promoters do is their own business. If they want to operate a certain way, that's their deal.
-Personally I don't think publicly shaming no-shows accomplishes a whole helluva lot. A PM works well enough to get the point across.
-Prepay makes it easier for promoters to put money INTO the op, rather than gambling that they'll make their money back. Field deposits, insurance, props, gas, etc. Then again its different if the promoter is trying to make a profit, versus just trying to break even.
-I only host free or low cost stuff done on a shoe string. So ya know... take this with a grain of salt.

[Stray]

Now is there acceptions for these? Like I got on a lot of peoples bad sides since my team and I had left LOW3. But then again I had a legit reasons. But my team didn't? want to play without me so they dropped put too. Does that still stand in the drop out category?

[Ivan Daylovich™]

Are there exceptions. Also no one is going to blame you for leaving due to an injury (you twisted your ankle, right?), but I think that brings up a decent question. What of those that show up but leave early?

[Stray]

Are there exceptions. Also no one is going to blame you for leaving due to an injury (you twisted your ankle, right?), but I think that brings up a decent question. What of those that show up but leave early?

No had a fracture plus my M4 went M.I.A. didn't help the cause any. Both my own fault though.