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Should WCA Bring Back Age Statistics?

Should WCA Bring Back Age vs Speed and Other Age Statistics?

  • Yes, it would be great to have age stats!

    Votes: 201 75.3%
  • No, I dislike the age stats (please specify why).

    Votes: 22 8.2%
  • I don't care.

    Votes: 44 16.5%

  • Total voters
    267

okayama

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May 9, 2010
Messages
548
Location
Hiroshima, Japan
WCA
2009OKAY01
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Is there no chance of revival of "Age vs. Speed" in WCA?
I heard from many competitors that the stat was quite nice to see,
for continuous motivation of speedcubing, especially for old ages.
I also strongly agree with the opinion.
Even if I'm not listed in the stat, the time with my age makes a
great target, and creates an emotional bridge for speedcubing.
(I like the list of oldest solvers, too)

If the stat will be not available forever, I'm worried that
not a few people will quit speedcubing too early, because
they feel just uninteresting and loose the motivation
for recording the time just becomes worse.
Sadly, I already heard voices saying such a thing several times.

In view of other sports, the scores by age groups or like the stat
seem to work well for encouraging continuous motivation.

I understand that the stat was deleted in accordance with the
WCA regulation 2d). However, I have never heard complaint
from the competitors in the list, and just heard that they are
proud of it. I heard from other competitors that they hope
they will get listed.

Therefore, I'd like to suggest an additional rule for Age vs. Speed
or such a stat. Like this:

2d+++) ADDITION
Competitors must agree that WCA may use their date of birth
for maintaining statistics.
 

Coolster01

Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2011
Messages
2,342
Location
Near Deetroit, Michigan, United States
WCA
2011SBAH01
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So, many are wanting to bring back age vs speed and the age stats. I agree that it was cool to look at and set goals. It would be OK as long as people confirm that they can let their birthdate be public. Here are okayama's thoughts:

Is there no chance of revival of "Age vs. Speed" in WCA?
I heard from many competitors that the stat was quite nice to see,
for continuous motivation of speedcubing, especially for old ages.
I also strongly agree with the opinion.
Even if I'm not listed in the stat, the time with my age makes a
great target, and creates an emotional bridge for speedcubing.
(I like the list of oldest solvers, too)

If the stat will be not available forever, I'm worried that
not a few people will quit speedcubing too early, because
they feel just uninteresting and loose the motivation
for recording the time just becomes worse.
Sadly, I already heard voices saying such a thing several times.

In view of other sports, the scores by age groups or like the stat
seem to work well for encouraging continuous motivation.

I understand that the stat was deleted in accordance with the
WCA regulation 2d). However, I have never heard complaint
from the competitors in the list, and just heard that they are
proud of it. I heard from other competitors that they hope
they will get listed.

Therefore, I'd like to suggest an additional rule for Age vs. Speed
or such a stat. Like this:

2d+++) ADDITION
Competitors must agree that WCA may use their date of birth
for maintaining statistics.
 
Last edited:

BrainOfSweden

Premium Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2011
Messages
285
Location
Västra Götaland, Sweden
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I fully agree with this. To make the stats accurate, they could list the age of everyone that agrees, but at the same time provide a list of how many people are cubing within an age group, maybe even how many reached sub-x, without giving the names or exact times (as that would allow for easy look-up of the names).
 

Stefan

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May 7, 2006
Messages
7,280
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2003POCH01
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It would be OK as long as people confirm that they can let their birthdate be public.

From December 2008 until January 2013, every competitor actually did that.

If you check the regulations history, you'll see that during that time we had these:

2d) All information (except: name, country, date of birth, gender, selected events and competition results) must be used for the competition only, and may only be given to other organisations/persons after permission from the competitor.

2a) Any person may be a competitor during a competition, if he:
2a1) accepts the WCA regulations;

But it was intentionally changed in the 2013 regulations, so I doubt that your argument will get accepted.
 
Last edited:

mDiPalma

Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2011
Messages
1,534
Birthdates are used for things like ID, credit cards, other security type things. And some people just don't want their ages made public for the world.

If that's the case, I'm pretty sure criminals would have a better time stealing birthdates off of the 1.1 billion Facebook users than the ~25,000 WCA speedcubers.
 

Stefan

Member
Joined
May 7, 2006
Messages
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WCA
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Why exactly did it get changed?

Not exactly sure, but the one reason I remember was that some Chinese kids apparently were forced to cube by their parents to get the youngest competitor record. Though the delegate I was told to ask if I wanted evidence for this being an issue, immediately replied and relativized it, ending with "So, maybe not so bad".

Anyway, if you want to know for sure about all reasons, I suggest to ask the WRC directly.
 
Last edited:

sneaklyfox

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Apr 10, 2012
Messages
2,846
Location
Ottawa, Canada
WCA
2013HUNG01
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If I told you my age (let's say 36 years and 123 days), you could compute my DOB.

I think he meant age in just years (rough). So two people of the same "age" could technically be 364 days apart if one was born Jan. 1 and the other Dec. 31. I think this would pretty much eliminate the thing about parents forcing their kids to cube. I think there already was some kid who did it when he was 2. Granted, this would give an advantage to the people born on Jan. 1, but it's not like you get any special recognition for it.
 

Stefan

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Joined
May 7, 2006
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WCA
2003POCH01
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I think he meant age in just years (rough).

36.337 years, then (though maybe your "rough" means this isn't allowed). No, I'm not making this up to be a pain in the ass, I'm bringing this up because in the end, ages *were* printed like that (though just with one decimal, i.e., like 36.3).

Granted, this would give an advantage to the people born on Jan. 1

It would probably make the Chinese stop using condoms near April 1st.

How about only oldest because youngest is bad because parents force whereas it's personal preference for oldest?

People can force their old parents, too.
 
Last edited:

CarlBrannen

Member
Joined
May 6, 2012
Messages
367
Location
Pullman, WA
WCA
2013BRAN01
Would just year and month (without date) be too much? And assume everyone was born on the first of the month. If this is too much then just year and assume everyone was born Jan. 1 of that year.

I agree.

Other sports (for example running) publish ages in 5-year increments as in "50+", "55+" ...

Trying to keep your birthday secret in today's world is going to be a little tough. It's listed on too many documents that are a matter of public record.

For example, your birth certificate is a matter of public record. For example, if you were born in California people can't obtain an "authorized" copy of your birth certificate but they can get an "informational" copy that has the same information but with the additional print "not valid for establishing identity" or something like that on it:
http://www.cdph.ca.gov/certlic/birthdeathmar/Pages/AthorizedCopyvsInformationalCopy.aspx

If you list people's age in terms of fractions as in 32.4 years, figuring out their exact birthday is a matter of watching how the fraction changes. With enough records, you'll be able to extract it. However, this is a lot of work, stealing identities is easier than that.
 
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