Resolved Issue with auto picks

[BIGLLC]

A more pressing issue is that nobody in any of the comps seems to have been given away teams as picks for failing to enter their picks. The "Allow set auto picks" option is selected:



What do we do there? Why do you think this might have happened?

 

[Bob]

I have no idea how you have your ALERT DATES set for your leagues, but the Admins that have had this issue is due to ALERT DATES not being set correctly. Once they sorted that out, everything worked fine.

Can you please post a screen shot of the DATE settings for the upcoming week?

Auto Picks only come into play AFTER a given user has been sent their 2ND REMINDER to make their picks (which is sent 24 hours BEFORE the Alert Date).

Reminder 1 is sent 48 hours BEFORE the ALERT DATE (to anyone that has not yet made their picks).

Reminder 2 is sent 24 hours BEFORE the ALERT DATE (to anyone that has not yet made their picks).

AUTO PICKS are made 24 hours BEFORE the ALERT DATE (to anyone that has not yet made their picks).

So for example, if you set the ALERT DATE to Friday at 6AM, the FIRST REMINDER will be sent out WED at 6AM and the 2nd reminder will be sent out THU at 6am (which at the same time, Auto Picks are made for anyone that receives their 2nd reminder for eligible pools)

My GUESS is that either the configuration is not set correctly OR you are expecting AUTO PICKS to kick in for scenarios that don't exist.

Note: There are also some Admins that think auto picks are AUTOMATIC FOR EVERYONE. That is not the case, they are designed for players that have not yet set ANY PICKS. If a player has set ANY picks, they won't receive reminders, nor will auto picks kickin (This is the same behavior as all major outlets "Pickem" software).

 

[BIGLLC]

I have no idea how you have your ALERT DATES set for your leagues, but the Admins that have had this issue is due to ALERT DATES not being set correctly. Once they sorted that out, everything worked fine.

Can you please post a screen shot of the DATE settings for the upcoming week?



My GUESS is that either the configuration is not set correctly OR you are expecting AUTO PICKS to kick in for scenarios that don't exist.

Note: There are also some Admins that think auto picks are AUTOMATIC FOR EVERYONE. That is not the case, they are designed for players that have not yet set ANY PICKS. If a player has set ANY picks, they won't receive reminders, nor will auto picks kickin (This is the same behavior as all major outlets "Pickem" software).

Does this mean that if they are in three comps, set picks for two of them, then the third won't get auto-picks?

 

[BIGLLC]

I have no idea how you have your ALERT DATES set for your leagues, but the Admins that have had this issue is due to ALERT DATES not being set correctly. Once they sorted that out, everything worked fine.

Can you please post a screen shot of the DATE settings for the upcoming week?

This is the week we have had issues with:



This is the upcoming week:



Note that we don't have a second tie breaker. That date seems to be populated automatically.

 

[Bob]

Does this mean that if they are in three comps, set picks for two of them, then the third won't get auto-picks?

No, each POOL is evaluated separately, as Auto Picks is a PER POOL option. The players picks in all 3 pools will be auto pick set as long as all 3 pools have the auto set picks option enabled AND the player has not made any picks in the respective pools.

If the player made picks in pools 1 and 2, but not in pool 3, only pool 3 will have auto picks made as like I've said dozens of times now, auto picks only kick in when the player has not set a single pick for a specific week in a specific pool that has auto picks enabled.

Auto picks work JUST FINE (as designed). All 2020 NFL season long, I purposely did not set my picks and 100% of the time (all 17 weeks), auto picks set my current weeks picks in ALL Pools that had auto picks enabled.

This is the week we have had issues with:

View attachment 6900

This is the upcoming week:

View attachment 6901

Why are you setting your ALERT DATE on WED? (which means the 1st reminder is sent on MONDAY and the 2nd is sent on TUE). The WEEK is not even OPEN until 17:00 and by setting the ALERT DATE to Wed at 12:00, that means that the 48 hour alert is NEVER SENT because the Week is not even OPEN yet.

I have a feeling that you THINK that the ALERT DATE means that the alerts are sent out on THAT date and then again 24 hours later (which is not the case).

Maybe for this week (and next), set the ALERT DATE to FRIDAY at 6AM, which means the 1st alert will be sent out on Wen (48 hour alert) and the 2nd on Thur (24 alert).

Then if you are participating in any of those leagues, DO NOT set your picks for the week (if you have already SET your picks for this upcoming week, you will have to wait until next week to see if your picks are getting set.

I just don't understand how certain features never work for you, but they do for everyone else lol

 

[BIGLLC]

Auto picks work JUST FINE (as designed).

Right now I have user reports that it doesn't. I'm trying to get to the bottom of these reports.

Why are you setting your ALERT DATE on WED? (which means the 1st reminder is sent on MONDAY and the 2nd is sent on TUE). The WEEK is not even OPEN until 17:00 and by setting the ALERT DATE to Wed at 12:00, that means that the 48 hour alert is NEVER SENT because the Week is not even OPEN yet.

OK mate.

The alert date isn't the alert date? An alert is NEVER sent on that date? Rather 24 hrs and 48 hrs before? I have been operating on the belief that the Alert Date setting is the alert date. First alert goes out 24 hrs before that date, 2nd alert goes out on that date. This is incorrect?

So:
If my alert date is set to the 3rd, a message is sent out on the 1st and 2nd? Never ever the 3rd?

Week 1:
Start date for Week 1 is 20th February. Alert date is 17th March. There should have been NO issues with these dates, even if Alert Date means "Alerts go out 24 and 48 hours BEFORE this date".

Week 1 is the week we seem to have issues with. How can I check for users why they didn't get their Away picks?


Week 2:
What will happen, given the ALERT DATE doesn't match the START DATE right now?

Right now we are at 3PM on Tuesday, so should I set the alert to, say, 5PM on Thursday, given the first match of the round is at 6:20PM Thursday? That will give us a reminder on Tuesday and Wednesday, yes?

 

[BIGLLC]

Auto picks work JUST FINE (as designed).

How can I check whether a user made any manual picks at all on a particular pool? I have users saying "I forgot to tip week one, but I got no Away team picks." Happy for you to email so I can go over it with my developer.

 

[Bob]

The alert date isn't the alert date? An alert is NEVER sent on that date? Rather 24 hrs and 48 hrs before?

Yes, that is how it has always been. Its simply a point in time in which the SYSTEM uses for triggering various tasks, such as the Reminders System and the Auto Picks system.

I have plans to revamp the "reminder" system as some license holders want more control over the actual date/time that each reminder is sent out (and they want it sent out to all players, not just players that have not set their picks yet).

There will be 2 reminder data inputs "Reminder 1 date" and "Reminder 2 date". So if you want to send out reminder 1 on Wed at 6am, that is the exact date/time that the Reminder 1 alert will be sent to everyone. If you want to send out reminder 2 on Fri at 6am, that is exactly when reminder 2 will be sent out.

I also plan to revamp the Auto Picks System at the same time. It will most likely have its own date for finer control and to completely separate it from the Reminders System. I HOPE to be able to make it a bit more aggressive in that even IF a player has set 1 or more picks, if the system finds a game (match) that the player has not yet set, it will attempt to set that to the away team. Currently, if a player has made at least 1 pick, they don't qualify for auto picks.

Anyway... please TEST over the next 2 weeks (this week is probably already too late, but NEXT week, you should be able to see first hand if auto picks set away teams for YOUR PLAYER (that is in a pool with auto picks enabled AND you've not set any picks yet).

Make sure the ALERT Date is set to Fri (early AM is best). That will tell the system to send out the First Reminder on Wed (at the Alert Date time) and then Second Reminder on Thu (at the Alert Date time) and during the Processing of the 2nd Alert Reminder, that is also when the Auto Picks process kicks in, so you will be able to check your picks and they should set to the away team (as long as you've NOT set your picks).

How can I check whether a user made any manual picks at all on a particular pool?

You'de have to query the PICKS table (xf_xa_pkm_pick). That tables stores EACH PICK that a player makes. You can query that table by user_id, pool_id and week_id and if there are ANY results, that player has made a pick (and you can look at the results and see which games (via game_id) that they made a pick on (team_id tells you which team of that particular game they picked).

I have users saying "I forgot to tip week one, but I got no Away team picks." Happy for you to email so I can go over it with my developer.

I think that I will add into the Pool >> Players interface, a picks log (just a date/time that they submitted picks for a given week). That way when they say that they didn't submit a single pick, you can look it up and say, yes you did at 10:04 AM, Tuesday the 2nd of March.

 

[BIGLLC]

It's 10AM Wednesday now, so I will set it to 12PM Friday and see how we go.

 

[Bob]

I highly doubt anything is going to work THIS WEEK because you already messed up this week by setting the Alert Date to Wed, which means Reminders would have processed Monday and Tuesday Mornings. Changing the Alert date AFTER THE FACT will not RESET anything that has already been marked as processed for THIS week, so please understand that this week might already be a lost cause.

You have a chance NOW, to properly set the Alert Date for NEXT WEEK. Don't want until NEXT WEEK to change next week's alert date, do it now before you forget (in fact, change all future weeks alert dates now).

 

[BIGLLC]

That's only 6 different leagues...

OK so we're done for - no automatic tips as we advertised. That's a big hole in the comps.

I don't know why the system would allow those dates in the first place without at least a warning.

How do we set tips manually? I'm happy to get an email so I can go over it today with my developer.

And it still worries me because week 1 should not have had a problem.

The start date for week one was a month before the Alert date.

you already messed up this week

And there are two schools of thought on this...

 

[Bob]

OK so we're done for - no automatic tips as we advertised.

I highly doubt anything is going to work THIS WEEK because you already messed up this week by setting the Alert Date to Wed, which means Reminders would have processed Monday and Tuesday Mornings. Changing the Alert date AFTER THE FACT will not RESET anything that has already been marked as processed for THIS week, so please understand that this week might already be a lost cause.

As expected... so like I said.. NEXT WEEK would be the first week that you would have correctly set the Alert Date (which hopefully you have already done).

How do we set automatic tips manually?

There is no feature in Pickem to set other players picks (and there never will be). With that said, I have seen at least 1 addon that allows you to log in as another member, so that might be an option for you (as you could log in as Member X and set Member X's picks for them). If its only a hand full of players, that would be fairly easy. Not sure that I'd go that far to help LAZY players out tho (just my opinion, I hate pampering lazy players).

And it still worries me because week 1 should not have had a problem.

The start date for week one was a month before the Alert date.

Auto Picks have been in Pickem now for 2 years, its not some brand new feature. I've enabled Auto Picks the past 2 full seasons (2019 NFL season and 2020 NFL Season), 100's of Pools, 10's of 1000's of players and not a single issue with reminders or auto picks.

The only other site that was having this exact issue was due to them doing the same thing as you did, in-correctly setting the ALERT DATE and once I explained to them how it works, then changed it and never had a problem since.

I can't reproduce the issue that you are having. I've ran several simulations today and 100% of the time, test users received their reminders and 100% of the time, auto picks were made.

I am more than happy to do some troubleshooting on your site (in-box me credentials for Admin CP access and phpMyAdmin access). I'd also be more than happy to discuss (in private) this with your "developer".

If there is some weird EDGE CASE BUG, the only way to find it at the moment is by performing troubleshooting on the site where its happening. I can't FIX something that I can't reproduce and that nobody else is having issues with.

Anyway, if you want my help troubleshooting this any further, I will require access to your site and maybe the DB (which you can send my credentials via conversation). Its up to you. If you'd rather troubleshoot this further on your own with your developer, that's up to you. If you'd like me to chat with your Developer, that's fine as well (altho, he or she would need access to this site or xenforo.com)... I'm available either way

 

[BIGLLC]

There is no feature in Pickem to set other players picks

This is about setting missed tips from previous rounds. Not the current round.

I've run this comp in 2019 and 2020 and auto tips worked fine.

We will see how it goes this week with auto tips. If it doesn't run them then we will need to dig in further.

Start date for this week is Monday 29th at 12:00 (GMT+10). Alert date is April 1st at 12:00. So in about 22 hours we will see if the first reminder runs.

 

[BIGLLC]

I have run the pickem cron as it seems to only run once per day.

I got the alert:



But the comp I left without any tips did not get automatic away picks:



You can see from the Bombers Saints game that nobody else would have either.

 

[BIGLLC]

This seems to only run once per day at 5 past midnight. Is this the source of our alert timing issues?

How do we make it run more frequently?

 

[BIGLLC]

AH! My bad. Auto picks are set on Second Reminder.

Ignore those last two posts

 

[Bob]

AH! My bad. Auto picks are set on Second Reminder.

Ignore those last two posts

lol.. I was in BED, so I hadn't even read anything until just now. Its GOOD that you got the 1st reminder tho, so lets see if today you get the 2nd reminder AND auto picks kicks in for that pool.

 

[BIGLLC]

First reminder due in 10 minutes, but as the cron doesn't run until midnight I don't think anything is going to happen.

Have I got the entirely wrong idea about cron entries?

If I have a date set for reminders at 1PM, and the cron doesn't run until 5 past midnight, at what time will the reminder be sent out and auto picks be set?

 

[BIGLLC]

Weird. I ran the Survivor cron manually and the newly eliminated players are all just sitting in week 3 with red X's

BigFooty Knock-da-f-out Tipping 2021 - Week 3

None appear in the "Eliminated" list:

BigFooty Knock-da-f-out Tipping 2021 - Eliminated

 

[BIGLLC]

Alerts did not run at the proper time as set via Alert Date.

I ran the cron manually:



So that's good.

Still have the issue that the cron runs at midnight when alerts are set to the middle of the day, and so will never go out on time.