Now that the Tourney Bracket Control is out the door, I've shifted my focus to the Tourney Pool Manager.

We have a pretty good idea of exactly what we want to do, but there are a few things still up in the air. Anyway,?we do have a few obvious things we're doing. Let's list out the new features we've settled on:

• We're implementing the new Tourney Bracket Control. As a part of that, we upgraded to ASP.NET 2.0.
• New scoring options. Last year, we added a "underdog" mode - where the TPM would multiply the round's value by the seed. Or you could just go with the round's value. This year, it's much, much more flexible. For each round, you can assign a round value, and then a seeding bonus. You can select to multiply by seed, or you can add the seed. Each round can be different! Ultimate flexibility!
• On the heels of the new scoring, we're also going to change the way our scoring engine saves results. Before, it was stored in the database, based on your licenses. We had some issues with that if the site was accessible from an alternate URL - the results could get calculated for a URL you didn't license, resulting in only 5 entries being scored, even if you bought 100 licenses. This year, the scoring is cached in memory by URL, so as long as you are coming from the valid URL, you'll see all results.
• A?new design. Much?nicer! And more flexible. We're using ASP.NET's Themes, so you can just create your own skin, and point the Tourney Pool Manager to use the new skin.
• A user page - yes, this means multiple entries per user! You can register once, and submit as many brackets as you want, and track them all in one place - a "Me" page.
• Edit your bracket - Not quite as sure about picking IUPUI to the Final Four? Now you can edit your picks up until the first game starts. We've had numerous requests for this one!
• RSS for standings. You have to have RSS, right?
• Better administration. Upload your custom header directly from the software. An HTML editor for the email message, confirmation message, and?the homepage message.

Interested? Want to give it a test run? Well, starting next week, we're running a beta for the Accenture Match Play golf tournament that starts on February 20th. We did this last year, and we are going to repeat it this year, as it went over very well. It gives us a great idea of how things are going for us, because the tournament is a 64 golfer tournament. Sound familiar? Once I get it up and running (we're to a point where it could be put out there), I'll post about it, and we'll get it on the web site. We're still determining what the prize will be, but we're hoping to offer something again this year.

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