Since I'm on digest I haven't yet received any of the messages in this thread,
but this discussion was brought to my attention by someone else on the list.
So I'm responding a bit blind but I think it is important I say something soon
before this degrades into a typical Team.Net slam-fest.
MyAutoEvents.com is my website, developed 100% by me. It was built as a
*service* to the autocross community to provide a centralized source for event
listings and simplify the registration process by making online registration
available to *anyone*.
Tasha and Paula contacted me last summer to integrate MAE online registration
functionality into the SCCA website since it was evaluated to be the current
"best of breed" and integration of existing functionality would be more
effective (time and cost wise) than to develop something from scratch
themselves. The original goal was to have it in place before the 2002
Nationals, but with the National Office move it was delayed until now. The
good news is online registration is *now* a reality for SCCA Solo events! And
there was much rejoicing!!! (At least that is what I would expect.) But
there is always someone who can't see the good in anything and spouts off a
bunch of negative crap without doing their research or just *asking* what is
going on...
First the issue of privacy. Please see:
http://www.myautoevents.com/mae/html/privacy.htm (specifically "Information
Sharing and Disclosure")
This is the MyAutoEvents.com privacy statement. The link is on the top of the
registration page. Let me highlight a very important phrase in there... "
MyAutoEvents.com will not sell or rent your personally identifiable
information to anyone." Seems pretty straight forward to me.
There is no "opt out" option when registering for the service because there is
nothing for you to opt out of. MyAutoEvents does not sell mailing lists.
MyAutoEvents does not spam. It is all there in black and white - right there
for everyone to see (and I certainly wouldn't call 14pt Arial font "fine
print" <g>).
"Business partners and advertisers" with whom data is shared are specifically
the clubs and individuals listing events on the service and the credit card
processing service used to process payments. What good would a registration
service be if we couldn't share your registration details with the people
advertising the event or process your payment? It is a bunch of legal
mumbo-jumbo (technical term) to essentially say that only those that need to
have your data will get your data. That's it!
Second, why must an account be created to view an entry list? Remember all
the hullabaloo (that's another technical term) last year about the insurance
company that went online and cancelled individual's insurance based on their
names being in entry lists and event results? Even if it was only folklore,
there is a lot to be said about protecting this sort of information from those
that have no business seeing it. THAT'S why the entry list is password
protected (and results too if posted through the service). If you want to see
other people's personal information, you must identify yourself as well. If
you aren't willing to identify yourself, then you have no right to see this
information.
When you register for the service you must agree to the Terms of Service
(http://www.myautoevents.com/mae/html/tos.htm). This means that you are who
you say you are and includes not selling or reusing the information from the
site for any commercial purpose.
Also by password protecting entry and result pages, it keeps them from being
indexed by internet search engines (which can be either good or bad depending
on how accessible you want your own personal information to be).
The core message here is that the reason for account based access is to
PROTECT YOU and not the other way around!!!
Third... the issue of no announcement. Well, I *personally* asked Tasha NOT
to make an announcement until we had everything finalized. You'll note that
registration is currently only available for the Ft Myers events. This was a
test run. The plan was that if everything went smoothly (from a technical
standpoint), then we would roll out online registration for the remaining
events in concert with a public announcement. Paula called me last night and
asked me to roll out the registration pages for the remaining events. This
should happen within the week and I'd expect the official announcement to
follow shortly.
<blatant plug>
I invite any and all clubs looking for an effective online registration
solution for their automotive events to take a look at MyAutoEvents.com
(http://www.myautoevents.com).
Questions about the service can be directed to the following email address:
info@myautoevents.com
</blatant plug>
--
Steve Couture
President
MyAutoEvents.com
http://www.myautoevents.com
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