Ridecamp: [RC] Horse and Rider records in the On-line Archives

In response to the post from Tom Sites concerning the 
accuracy of the archives - the following might help.

First - the archives start with Dec 1984.  If you rode 
before Dec 1984 - it will not show up in the on-line records.

Second - we don't have any records at all in the AERC 
archives of foreign rides or FEI rides before Dec 1995.
It's intended as an AERC listing.

Third - if you were not a member of the AERC - and Tom was 
not until 1987 - the records prior to joining will not show 
up under your AERC listing in the archives.

Fourth - we don't list any LD results from 1984 to Dec 1995.
Not because they are not important but the accuracy was so 
low that we didn't want to display them.

Last - Did Not Finish is not listed in the archives so 
completion rates for horse/rider are always 100% in those years.

Records from Dec 1995 on should be very accurate.

That said - there are inaccuracies and missing portions in 
the data for the endurance rides listed from 1985 to 1995. 
Russ Humphrey, Bob Morris, and I spent a year trying to get 
the data out of the old software that the office used until 
1995.  It was written in 1984 by Joe Long in a computer 
language that no one on earth today understands - including 
Joe - I believe.

We had to make guesses on which fields meant what - where 
records stopped, and so on.  It was a lot of work for 
volunteers.

We know there are some rides that are incomplete - some with 
duplicate entries - some with the wrong horse.  My guess is 
that the data we've managed to extract is 97% accurate in 
the later years - 1990 and on.  Less accurate in the 1985 to 
1989 period - perhaps 93%.

We've also made a decision not to correct the data even if 
someone tells us exactly what the changes are.  We would 
have to do it all manually and there's just so many hours in 
the day after work, family, riding, and volunteer work for 
the AERC.  Data from 1995 on is corrected by the AERC office.

We've tried to be as accurate as we can on the archives and 
present the membership with a useful and interesting 
database.  We get about 1.5 million page views a year with 
roughly 20,000 individual sessions per month.  Now - at 10 
PM in California - there are 35 people looking at the AERC 
information.

So we know there are problems with the older data - and as 
Tom Sites says - take it with "a grain of salt".  But we 
still think it's a pretty useful tool. And completely 
accurate after 1995.

Mike




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