MassSkinsFan

It's kinker time!

ATDHE.net has it.

It just stopped working. Ugh.

I'm spending more time refreshing than watching the game on Veetle. This sucks!

After you install it, make sure to close your browser and re-open it.

Thanks - trying that now.

It didn't help. It keeps hanging up. Any other ideas, or other feeds? Sorry - any help you can give will be appreciated.

The Veetle link is not working - anyone else having problems? Any suggestions?

Yes please.

I am done with data entry and cutting/pasting.

Zskins has the data file for review. Once it is good to go, he takes over.

:point2sky

First of all - what are we going to use to search with? Has anybody figured that out? I believe the original search function was written in code by Blade, but I don't know what language he used. I mean, we could use any language we want, by I haven't written a program in 25 years. So I was hoping somebody could figure that out.

Or are we going to use spreadsheet functions?

As far as where to host this from, I don't think we can do it on ES, there's too much **** going on right now. So yeah, it would have to be a stand alone site outside of ES - at least for now.

I'll hand the data over to Zskins. He's got a plan for programming. He's also planning on hosting outside ES - I just wanted to confirm.

Thanks

Another update:

• I have successfully transcribed player stats (Rushing, Receiving, Passing only) for 2006-2009 - the data from Zskins went only up to 2005
  
• I also got the years played data together by cutting/pasting roster pages from the online db and Zskins, and from a reputable source for 2006-2009
  
• Unfortunately the roster pages show combined names, and it is necessary to match player names to their unique ID number (key) from the player name table, for the 3600 or so entries in the roster table; this must be done by data entry. I've done 2800 so far, and should be through the remaining 800 or so by next week
  
• I still have to go through the player list for anyone who joined the Skins between 2006 and 2009 and get birthdate, birthplace, height, weight, HS info (from the same reputable source). I don't have an estimate on this, but let's say another week or so
  

So, in about 2-3 weeks I should have updated data tables.

Is the intent to make this a stand-alone site outside of ES?

PS - I am going to work on the Phase II tasks I mentioned above. This will happen after I hand in the updated data tables. As you pointed out MTH it's a labor of love, and I'd love to see complete stats if we can make them available.

Hail

Just wanted to update folks on progress.

I finished moving data from redskinsdb.com over to an Excel file, for everything except roster lists. I forgot about those entirely, but now realize you need them in order to calculcate players' total years of service and span of time with team (e.g. first/last year as a Skin). So, I'm working on that move now, but running into a few problems since redskinsdb.com is currently offline (service unavailable). Zskins has some html pages with roster info that I was able to use, but I'm still missing 31 rosters. Hopefully the site will come back online soon. If not, it may slow me down as cutting/pasting from html pages is only good if the formats are the same. We'll see.

I am now done adding player stats for the 06-09 guys. But, I need to go back and add player info (DOB, Birthplace, H/W, etc.) for anyone who joined us after 2005. That will require data entry. Yuck.

A thought about stats: In the old db, stats were limited to rushing, receiving and passing. I'm hoping to "top up" the data set to include 06-09 players/stats, then make that available. I call that Phase I and that is nearing completion - projected finish in a month to a month and a half.

I'd like to consider adding other stats such as PR, KR, defensive, etc. It could be quite an undertaking, but it would be better to have complete stats I think. Let's call that Phase IIa. Additionally, there are "freak stats" like Pete Kendall having one reception in 2008 - I think those are cool and am thinking about adding them in Phase IIb.

Before I start on Phase II I'd like to know who will view this (or who used it in the past) and whether or not the extra work of adding those stats categories is something worth doing. MTH do you have any idea if people were happy with limited rush/catch/throw stats, or if they pined for more?

Thanks.

Excellent work. Glad to hear good progress is being made. Thank-you.

No problem! I guess I'm fanatic about this.

A couple members are supposedly working on it, but I haven't heard anything lately...

I finished the initial transcription of data from the site into an Excel file yesterday, and I'm now double-checking it and correcting errors/omissions. I should finish that by the end of next week. At that point the dataset will include all the info from redskinsdb.com and will have corrections to some erroneous data that was on the site (e.g. players listed at height 5' 12", missing info for Portis and Sellers, etc.).

I've contacted zskins about how he envisions adding the players and data for 2006-2009.

We should make more progress soon.

2. I built a patio in our backyard with my brother in law. Now, by built a patio, I mean that we leveled a space in the backyard, laid down sand, and then laid stones on top, with sand in between. It actually looks really nice, the sand packed in well. Of course, he did all the leveling because he was outside working before I woke up, I mostly laid stones. We keep it swept and pick the weeds, but the patio is a little lopsided here and there from shifting sand, and I haven't bothered to fix it.

At least you put sand in between everything and kept it swept and weed-free. I did the same thing (though I did it on my own - talk about aches and pains afterwards!), with crappier results. After our kitchen reno destroyed our backyard we just got pros to re-do it.

I think that's enough embarassment for now. On the other hand, I'm really good at putting together desks from IKEA or baby furniture, and I can change lightbulbs.

You can read directions then, which is a huge deal. I have found that when I have friends who screw up projects, it's generally because they dove in without reading directions. That's fine if you've done something a bunch of times, but not if you've never done it. That's why those books kick ass - they lay it all out in steps.

Any tips advice for a guy just starting to navigate this home improvement stuff would be appreciated.

Forehead,

I'm not as handy as most of the guys in this thread, but I've learned over the years to take care of some of the more common problems in my 120 year old house, including plaster refinishing, masonry spot-work (tuck-pointing), refinishing/rehanging doors, replacing light fixtures and switches, etc.

Most of what I know I learned from these two books:

Home Improvement for Dummies

Home Maintenance for Dummies

I also have a buddy who has done a lot of electrical work, so I do call him from time to time if the wiring gets complicated and I need someone to keep me from electrocuting myself.

The three critical factors for me have been:

1. Patience
   
2. Giving myself plenty of time (I always underestimate)
   
3. Cleaning up at the end of a session (keeps my wife very happy)
   

Good luck and have fun!!!

Cool, man. I was wondering how you guys were doing. I noticed redskinsdb is back online.

Keep up the good work.

Thx - will do!

Just out of curiousity. What good is it putting it in an MS Access Database? You can't link to it from ExtremeSkins? It would have to be MySQL or the likes and a web form of some sort to query the db?

Just asking.

zskins would be the one to answer, but based on my experience, since MS Access is compatible with SQL, there really shouldn't be an issue.

I am closing in on the 500 mark now. This is fun stuff.

Interesting - the pirate site was up last night, but it was down this morning. Been down all day. I wonder if the webmaster read this thread and pulled it?

It expired I think. zskins has a backup plan though, and the inputting continues. I'm at the 250-player mark now.

I can PM you my email is you want to take this conversation off of this thread.

Sounds good - I'll send mine to you.

I got through the A names tonight. 47 players in just under 2 hours. All the basic player info on one sheet, and separate sheets for rushing, receiving and passing stats. Not too bad, but it's going to take a while especially since I can't do this every night. But I'll keep going.

Main sheet has these fields:

• Number
  
• FirstName
  
• MidName
  
• LastName
  
• JuniorEtc
  
• Nickname
  
• Season# (the number of seasons with Skins)
  
• SeasonSpan (e.g. 1993-1999)
  
• Positions
  
• Height
  
• Weight
  
• Born
  
• BirthPlace
  
• HS
  
• College
  

Are these fields good?

One interesting thing is that the original tables must have not only the first, middle, last and nickname fields, but also a "familiar" name field. In some cases, someone's name on the player list (by alpha) shows for instance "Jim" but on the individual player page it shows "James" and then there is a whole different nickname like "Froggy." Go figure. Is it worth setting up another field for the familiar name? So far I've put the familiar name in the nickname field unless there is a pre-existing nickname.

You are right. I will be setting up a relational DB with many tables. But I can do that during the import. You don't need to worry about that on the spreadsheet.

I noticed that Kicker and the like were missing stats too. Looks like the guy never updated those. We will need to do that.

Take a look at the headings from each player in each position and that will give you your headings for the columns. Not all rows will be populated for each player. But at least that will give me all the fields to be imported into the DB.

Crazy no. Extreme yes.

OK - I'll enter player info for a few first then share.

I've done some relational db building/normalization which is why I worry about this stuff. If we can get the data shells right I think the data entry, though long and tedious, will go a lot better.

It's too bad we can't just find their back-end tables and copy those, then update the stats sections.

No that was just the sample I was showing as to how to lay down the info in the Excel spreadsheet as to how the import won't work if the info laid down in a different manner in the spread sheet.

I would need all the info first, last, middle the whole nine yard so to speak. For the stats we only need to worry about is their Skins stats.

It looks to me like the stats would need to be in a separate table, linked through a common index like the first and last names. Does this sound right to you?

Also, there seems to be limited stats info - I didn't see any for a random selection of D players or K/P, just for O guys. I could always find missing stats via interweb.

I can try to mock up a quick Excel sheet and enter info for a few players. Then I could share that with you to see if I'm on the right track. Or, you could specify the fields you want in an Excel file and send me that for me to populate. What do you think? Too crazy?

I mean just have the data in columns and rows that can be imported into a DB.

The data should look like this in Excel:

Jersey FirstName LastName HighSchool College Stats

------------------------------------------------

11 Patrick Ramsey Ruston (LA) Tulane

I have it on my domain and you can even go to redskinsdb.com and get the data off of that website as well.

Are those the only field you'll need? Also, after college in your list above I see "Stats" is that a typo?

I noticed in the individual player pages that there is a full name - for this list you'd only want first and last, correct?

If someone can compile the data in Excel spreadsheet I can import it into a DB. I just don't have time to do both.

You don't mean compile in a compile-the-front-end-of-the-database sort of way right? If you mean you need someone to type the data into Excel and then double-check it, I can do that.

The 1600 static pages are available on your domain right?

Hey MSF (the newer MSF) - my understanding, as I've posted earlier, is that the team wasn't particularly interested in adding custom hacks to their commercial software package - the reason being, it can cause instability at some point in the future, and also there is the risk of data loss during upgrades. Hacks are risky, and the team didn't want to take the risk. Can't really blame them.

That's my understanding.

Thanks MTH. It's understandable but sad. Based on a few of the earlier posts I'm curious to see if someone else tries to pick this up and run with it.

Thanks for the article MTH and to the Original 7 who made it happen, and the other staff who keep it going. This is an important link to me, especially being a long-time fan far from DC.

Just out of curiosity and ignorance, how was it that the player db couldn't be made to fit into the new vB? And am I right to think vB is Visual Basic code?

Seems to me that the data sit in the back end and the code tells the front end how to play with the data. Couldn't that be retrofitted to be compatible?

Was it a case of shedding an onerous task at a certain point in time? God knows that was a mammoth endeavor, and it looks like a pretty awesome db. Kudos on putting it together in the first place. It's just a shame that something so awesome (and I mean that in the strictest sense of the word) is no longer available through ES.