If it works, it works! I'll have about 12 games to assign next year (UPSL) so I wonder what I'll use! Nothing is ever so simple...
I don't know anyone who has quit because of the multiple websites. I had several referees reach out to me in the past 6 months to help set up their their Stackofficials and Assignr accounts (why some of them are being assigned for an MLS Next game instead of capable younger referees is a whole different thread). English is not their first language in every case and they did not reach out to the assignor because of the predictable excuses for not helping out and fear of looking incapable. To put it in perspective, they sought out the help of someone who is not tech savvy and was still able to assist. It's already been mentioned here that our state uses ZebraWeb for high school games where admittedly I needed assistance to maneuver since I got involved late in the game. My opinions did not go over well about the many issues about this site since they never seek or want our feedback. One of the local club travel programs uses their own site to assign where you do NOT get an email confirm that you've been assigned and have to log-in at least once a day to see if you have received any matches. Despite numerous requests to add it as a feature over the past 10 years, we've been ignored. However, no one left despite that inconvenience and the ones that did, left for other more serious grievances. Every competition and assignor is going to do what is best for them, not for us. Despite numbers being much lower compared to just 5 years ago, they have enough to go around and are not worried what is convenient for us.
I let my assignor know when I was available at least a week in advance including giving him my playing schedule so he could look up whether I was in town or not and what times probably worked. I then got a phone call early in the week letting me know what games I had the coming weekend. That often was left on an answering machine. I only called back if I couldn't do a game for some reason and that had better be within 24 hours.
Even after Arbiter existed, circa 2005-6 I would get adult assignments in NJ in the mail on a form where the 19 was scratched out so they could write "2006" instead. Of course it didn't help much when the post was slow or other the assignment for Saturday didn't come into Thursday afternoon with the tacit understanding that you were available, even if you said you weren't ahead of time. This coupled with the 720 am call you might get on a hang over Sunday saying there is an adult match for you that kicks off at 830 at a field that was 2 hours north that you've never been to. (GPS was only for rich folk at that time abs the maps weren't super accurate). You tell him that you won't be able to make it on time and the answer is "they'll wait for you, you're the referee." So you go, you get to the town but can't find the field, you drive around more, find a guy juggling a ball wearing a Brazil shirt, ask him, but apparently he doesn't play soccer... still haven't figured that one out... Then finally after driving seeing Around until 11am you call the assignor back who isn't answering your call at this point and tell him you couldn't find it and you're going home. Don't bother asking for gas money BTW, If you like refereeing and having knee healthy caps. We could go back to that...
Many years ago, before I became a soccer referee, I umpired baseball. Every two weeks on a Sunday we met at the fields to (1) get a check for the previous 2 weeks of games and (2) get games for the next two weeks. You brought a calendar and wrote the games on it. If you weren’t there you didn’t get games. And the assignor had a veto if you wanted a game he didn’t thing you were ready for.
I have used Zebraweb the last 3 years as a HS assignor. They won the contract by promising the moon and delivering none of what they promised. I know there are computer guys on this forum, but let me tell you, building an assigning platform to work across multiple sports is an absolute nightmare. The think I need is not needed by the the other 7 sports, and vice versa. Plus, outages, impossible scheduling uploads, and availability posting that leaves a lot to be desired is just the worst.
There was a feeling out to see if I wanted to work on and would be the right fit to work on Assignr about 2018. I said, "no" long before I would have been offered a job. It was going to be way too hard for something that wasn't my 8-5.
I have zebraweb, horizonref, assignr, arbiter, refquest and GO. I stopped updating my availability in at least one. So I didn't ever go to anybody and say I am quitting because of the assigning platform. I just stopped using it, therefore I basically stopped working those games because of the assigning platform.
I think by the time you find yourself working with multiple assignors, and/or multiple platforms, that's evidence of getting to a point where the admin stuff isn't what's going to keep you from reffing. Gripe, yeah, bail, no. Sure most kids and starter adults would balk, but if you are going beyond your town or up the ladder it just comes with the territory.
I haven't actually experienced it as a user because there aren't any adult games on it so I've left everything set as blocked and haven't set the emails to be put in my main inbox so I don't actually read them but I think I saw something about an appology for not being able to filter email recipients by any thing but the assigning group so all of MLS Next would get requests for a set in Virginia (although maybe I'm thinking about one of my college platforms).
My first year officiating, we had an "old school" guy that would call us in one of the leagues to give you the assignments. No email. I had to pull over the car to write my games down. Based on what I see many years later, it was not necessarily a bad thing since the personal touch that existed between assignors and referees is nowhere as close to what it was back then.
My first year, the high school assignor had diligently entered all of the games into their computer. The day before the meeting where the assignments were to be handed out (for the first two weeks), the hard drive crashed. At the end of the meeting, we just lined up and the assignor and her husband told you where to go. It was totally random. No consideration of what you could handle or where the schools were. That's how I ended up as R1 on a varsity boys dual between two teams both ranked in the top 10 in the state. I had never even seen a dual done before and it was my second high school game. My dual partner was upset because he felt he should be R1 instead of R2. "I have 16 years experience and I should have that assignment." Dude, don't you remember that the assignments were completely random? All three goals were scored in the last five minutes of the game. But, to my amazement, it didn't turn into a cluster. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
"Everything will kill you so choose something fun." Ps...I kinda like your saying more better than mine!
A long time friend, with whom I went to high school, died about five years ago. Heart attack, first thing in the morning, in bed with his wife, who was about 20 years younger. I'll let you connect the dots.
I started reffing in 2009, so not exactly the dark ages. My son and I got certified together. Our local club assignor called me on the phone several times a week to hash out our schedules. He probably had about 20 games on his weekly schedule and both of his kids reffed a lot of those games. And I was totally thinking that he really needed to modernize his process. After a couple of seasons, he quit. I was at our clubs board meeting (as a coach) when this was announced. Pres says, so now we need to find a new assignor. And everyone in the room turns to look at me. I guess I had been a bit to vociferous about this cool new reffing gig I was having fun with. My first thought was hell no, that's way too much work. Then I thought, well, my boys will get lots of games. So I semi-reluctantly agreed. And then when I took the assignor course, they told us that you can't assign family members. I relayed that info to my club and they told me not too worry about it. Just cover the games..... I used email and spreadsheets for years. Still do for all my back end record keeping. A few years ago, I started using an app called Central Assign, which is a homegrown app developed by our state board. It's not the greatest, but all the refs and all the venues in the state are in it, so that is convenient. As far as I know, most of the "busy" assignors in our state us it. Some single club assignors still do it the old way.
In my area, it doesn’t matter who R1 and R2 are on a game. Our assignor says that when he assigns people to games, he doesn’t even look at who he puts in what position. The game you get is based on your ability but in a dual, the positions are random since each has equal authority on the field.
True, but, in Oregon, R1 is always on the bench side and teams have to both be on the same side of the field. R1, then, is typically the more experienced referee, as determined by the assignor. They ger to deal with subs and the coaches. This year, for the first time in my career, I did not due a single varsity dual. We had enough referees this year that, at least in my association, there were no varsity duals. JV and JV2 were all duals, however.
If I were in Oregon and smart, I would want to side opposite the coaches all day. Less work dealing with subs and less BS dealing with coaches.
Not anywhere as impressive as DefRef, but I recapped my 2023 experience. 97 games, 26 cautions, no send offs, 2 games cancelled (after arriving at the site), 1 KFTPM game, 2 mercy rule games (high school, ended early.), no 4O U-16 and below, 7 referee, 3 AR U-17 - 19 2 referee, 2 AR adult amateur 14 referee, 13 AR plus 4 AR for open first division college 3 referee, 17 AR high school varsity 9 referee, 7 AR high school JV duals 14 high school JV2 duals 2 track & field, 40 meet days of which 7 were national collegiate championships. signed off, as head official, for two national records.