Smooth Tournament provides a site where you can run Tabbie online without installing it yourself.
This can be used first and foremost as a testing site for different versions of Tabbie. Also, because it offer you the option to create a private, password protected installation of any version of Tabbie you want, you can use it to run an actual tournament. Make sure to read the following very carefully though. Summary: know the risks, have a plan B and drop me some mails. If you do this you should be fine and can use Smooth Tournament to run your tournament smoothly.
Current Stability
If you plan to run an actual tournament on this site and your head is on the line, you better know what you're doing. The summary is: Though everything seems to work fine, and has worked fine in the past on multiple occasions, I'm giving no guarantees at all. Make sure you have a contingency plan, be it other tabbing software, a local installation of Tabbie, a local nerd who can get Tabbie up and running within ten minutes or an excel sheet and someone who knows how to operate it. Running Tabbie locally with an array of multiple versions and a database maintenance tool will give you near 100%; Smooth Tournament will not give you this yet.
Crashes
The server seems to be pretty stable; it has been running for half a year now without interruption. That being said, we don't pay for any guarantees, and neither can we offer you any.
Also, remember that your own internet connection may not be 100% stable.
Software limitations
It's not possible to directly edit the database (like it would be on your own installation) in case you want to create some workaround, or simply because you feel like such a hacker. By the same token it's not possible to import the backups.
Other issues and tips and requests
I strongly advise you to email me (moc.nevlehcsnav|saalk#moc.nevlehcsnav|saalk) in advance and create a relationship with me…. tell me what your tournament is about, how many teams etc. I will probably be able to give you some tips on the most current state of affairs surrounding Tabbie and the Smooth Tournament availabilty. Also, you want me to be aware of your tournament so that I, for example, don't start maintaining the site during it. Also, I'll be much more prone to give you a quick answer in any emergency situation if I know who you are and think you're a nice person. Besides that I'm very interested in the people/tournament actually using both Tabbie and Smooth Tournament, so that's nice for me. Specifically, if there's any smart things you found out about Tabbie (or even added to it) that could be useful for others….. be a nice person and share them with the world. Finally, please add your use of Tabbie (be it Smooth Tournament or not) to the [customers | list].
Future Plans
- I plan on adding an option to also import the backups that are created by Tabbie.
- I would love to host another installation of smooth tournament on another system. This would allow for a much higher level of stability. If you have a server running Linux/Apache/Php and want to contribute to the debating community contact me.
Support
Smooth Tournament is currently a free service, and will probably stay free. Creating it, however, costs money. If you're running a real tournament on the site, be a nice person and support us (yes, financially).
