FAQ

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This section contains answers to frequently asked questions – it should be your first place to consult when something goes wrong. Odds are, you're not the first person to have the problem. It's divided up into loose genres of questions.

Account Issues

I forgot my password!

Click the "Login" link in the upper right, then follow the link for "Forget your password?" You will be taken to a page that will walk you through resetting your password.

I didn't get the Password Reset email

Check your spam folder - sometimes, it ends up there.

I'm a new coach at a school, and I don't have access to our school's current account. How do I get access?

Email us at help@tabroom.com. Please don't create a new school unless you're sure your school has never registered on Tabroom before.

How do I stop getting emails?

Log in, then go to your "Profile" at the top of the page and check the box for "No Emails."

I'm not receiving texts at the tournament!

First, verify your phone number is correct in your profile. Next, you'll need to ensure you are properly linked to your schools student/judge entry. Often, the coach/director of the program just hasn't approved your linking request yet. If you're linked and have the right number, but you're still not getting texts, then odds are you're on Verizon - they sometimes block Tabroom texts as spam. We're working on it.

Registration

How do I register students for a tournament?

First, add students to your Student Roster. Then, from the list of tournaments in your circuit, click the Entry link next to the tournament you want to register for.If you don't see the tournament you want to register for, make sure your school is in the correct Circuit. For a detailed walkthrough, see Registration.

I don't see the tournament I want to register for in the list.

Make sure your school is in the same Circuit as the tournament you want to register. You can find out what circuit a tournament is in by viewing the master calendar on the front page of Tabroom (click the logo to get there). Then, make sure your school has joined that circuit by clicking on your username/email in the upper right, and then using the small "Circuits" tab to view the list of circuits your institutions is currently part of.

I need to drop my entire entry to a tournament.

Click on the "Entry" button next to the tournament in your list of upcoming tournament registrations, and then click the red link on the sidebar for "Drop Entire Entry."

I'm supposed to use online "On-Site Registration" - where do I go?

Log in, then find the tournament in your list of "Existing tournament registrations." If On-Site registration is open for that tournament, you'll see a big button for "Confirm Onsite." Note that if you have any entry/judge changes, you'll need to communicate those directly to the tournament.

How do I link to my NSDA roster for autopointing?

You need to first link your Tabroom school to your NSDA Points Application account, then either import new students from your NSDA roster, or link up existing students. You'll use the "NSDA Points" section of the sidebar from your Student Roster. For more information, see School Administration.

Results

Where do I find results for previous tournaments?

If you're looking for results from a tournament you didn't attend, use the Results menu on the homepage. If you're looking for your entire school's results, click the Results tab from your main account dashboard. If you're a student looking for your personal results, click "Past Pairings & Results" on the sidebar.

Where do I view my online ballots/RFD's?

Follow the instructions above for finding your personal results, then click the "RFD & Comments" button next to the round you're looking for. If there is no button for a round, that's because there's no ballot/RFD available.

How can speakers view their own online ballots/RFDS?

First, they must register for their own Tabroom.com account: check the How To Sign Up link at left. Second, they must be linked to their entry record on your roster. You can either link them yourself by clicking the Students tab when you first log in, and then the name of the speaker, and entering the email address they used to sign up for Tabroom in the "Link to a Tabroom.com Login" box at the top. You can also un-link students here, if say a student's record were linked to the wrong account.

They can also request a link themselves, if they click "Link your account to a student" under the "Your Account" menu at right when they first log in. That will help them search for their name and school and request a link. You will have to approve this link for them to see their own results; when your Students tab (when you first log in) turns red, that means there are pending requests for you to approve.

Once their account is linked to their record, then logging in will reveal their competitive history and clicking on individual rounds at tournaments will show them RFDs and Comments if the judges entered any.

Why are there no public results for a particular tournament?

If you're looking at the public results site for a tournament and there's nothing there, odds are that the tournament director hasn't published the results yet. Drop them an email. Or, the tournament wasn't hosted on Tabroom.

The results for X tournament are wrong, can you fix it?

Contact the director of the tournament in question and ask them to fix it - we don't know anything about what happened at particular tournaments.

Judging

How do I "link" my account for online ballots?

If the coach/director of your program added you to the judge roster using your tabroom account, then you should already be linked. If not, you just need to log-in and click "Link your account to a jduge" on the sidebar, and then follow the instructions for locating your judge entry at the tournament you're attending. Your request will then need to be approved by the tournament staff.

Where do I go to vote on an online ballot?

First, ensure your account is properly linked. Then, log in (or click your email address in the upper right) - you should see a list of current and upcoming ballots to fill out. Make sure to click "Start Round" as soon as you find out you're judging so the tabroom knows you're there.

Prefs

Where do I go to fill out prefs?

Once prefs are open for a tournament, access your entry by finding the tournament in your list of "Existing Tournament Registrations" and clicking "Entry." Then, go to the Prefs tab for that tournament and select an entry from the sidebar to access their pref sheet.

I'm a student, and I want to fill out my own prefs

For students to be able to fill out their own pref sheets, the coach/director at the school must first have checked the option in their school Settings for "Entries may enter their own prefs." Then, a student can access any active pref sheets from the sidebar after logging in.

Running A Tournament - General

What circuit should I put my tournament in?

Up to you. You can also put your tournament in multiple circuits. High school tournaments that aren't part of a particular local circuit/league should use the National Circuit (US HS). College policy tournaments are almost all in the NDT-CEDA circuit. If you have a local league that wants to run its tournaments on Tabroom and you don't currently have a separate circuit, drop us an email.

Why are the ballots (paper or online) showing up blank/missing points/etc.?

This is because you either haven't set a Tiebreak set for the round in question on the Schedule, or the Tiebreak set you used doesn't contain the thing that's missing (i.e. Ranks/Points aren't a part of the tiebreak set). If you're just missing speaker points, make sure you've entered minimum/maximum speaker points in the Event settings.

Should I use Online Ballots?

Overall, Online Ballots are awesome, and you should use them if you think you can. Online ballots tend to work the best for Varsity CX and LD, and worst for PF and IE events, due to the relative difference in judge experience level at most tournaments. Your decision about whether to try them out for a particular event depends on the size of your event/judge pool, as well as considerations about site management - if you don't have someone who can check on a distant building to see if judges with online ballots showed up but just forgot to click "Start," then you may end up pushing more ballots than necessary and creating a headache for yourself.

What do I do if the internet crashes?

In practice, this is rarely much of a concern - Tabroom runs hundreds of tournaments a year, and we very, very rarely hear about internet-related issues. But, if you do have a disaster, you have a number of options. First, you can take a laptop and go somewhere else with internet, like a coffee shop - many tournaments on Tabroom have been tabbed entirely remotely. Second, you can tab the tournament using your phone or tablet - it's actually more doable than it sounds. Lastly, if you make periodic backups of your tournament data using the Entries - Data menu, you can always pull your tournament into TRPC or the CAT and tab it offline.

How do I give someone else (e.g. tab staff) access to my tournament?

Go to Settings - Tournament - Access and add them by the their Tabroom account. You can choose what level of access they should have and whether to also list them as a contact.

I'm entering ballots, and the numbers I enter keep changing.

Read the instructions at the bottom of the ballot entry screen for an explanation of what keyboard shortcuts to use. How you enter points changes depending on which point "increment" you've chosen, e.g. half or tenth points. For example, when using tenth points, you only input the last two digits, so a 28.2 is entered as "82."

How many Timeslots should I use?

Generally speaking, most people find it easiest to use a separate timeslot for each round of each event, even if the times are identical. This facilitates making changes to a single event without affecting anything else. This can result in a large number of time blocks on your schedule - that's okay, it will help you keep things more organized.

I made changes to my tournament website in Settings - Website, but the changes aren't showing up.

Just give it a few minutes - it usually takes a little while for the cache to get cleared out your changes to appear live.

All the options under the Schemats menu are appearing blank!

You forgot to set an abbreviation for the events in Settings - Events. - The Schemats menu uses your event abbreviations, so if you didn't enter one, they'll show up blank.

How do I remove a fee/fine from a school?

Access the school's info page by going to Entries - Schools, then go to the "Money" tab for that school. Find the fee/fine you want to remove and click "Forgive & Forget."

How do I configure my tournament for NSDA Autopointing?

If a school has entered your tournament who's roster is linked to an NSDA account, you'll see additional options in the Event Settings. On the "Main" tab of each event's settings, you'll see an option for "NSDA Points" - choose the appropriate NSDA event type for each of your tournament events, and your tournament's results will be automatically posted for NSDA points.

Running A Tournament - Entries

How do I swap partners/students for an entry?

Go to the entry's info sheet under Entries - Events, then use the "Swap Students" box on the sidebar.

How do I drop a team once the tournament has started?

Go to the entry's info page under Entries - Events, then click the "Drop" button. Don't delete the entry completely - that way, if they return to the tournament later, you can just click "Un-Drop."

I changed the style for entry codes, but some schools had already registered, and they're still showing up with the old style.

You need to "Recode" the event. Go to Entries - Data, and use the Codes & Names section of the sidebar to regenerate tall your entry/judge/school codes according to your currently selected options.

How do I deal with byes, double wins, double losses, etc.?

If the bye is scheduled (i.e. the last place team in an odd-numbered field), you use the "Debate-wide bye" - no debate is scheduled, and the entry gets a win and average points. This will be done automatically if the bye is assigned by the auto-pairing function. Most other situations, you enter byes/forfeits on the ballot entry screen.

If one entry no-shows/forfeits, give the winner a "bye" (don't check the Win button) and blank (average) speaker points, and the loser a forfeit and zeros for speaker points.

For a double bye, use the "Enable panel-wide bye" link.

For a double forfeit, don't use the panel-wide bye. Instead, click the forfeit box for both entries, and give zeros to all speakers.

How do I deal with Mavericks?

You can choose how a maverick's points are dealt with in Settings - Events - Tabulation and set the mode under "Mavericks get." If you need to drop a single student, access the entry's info sheet under Entries - Events and then use the "Swap Students" box on the sidebar to replace the dropped student with the "No Partner/Maverick" entry. If the person who dropped ends up coming back, just do the same thing in reverse.

How do I publish a list of clearing teams?

From the Schemats menu, choose the event and round you want to publish the list for, check the box on the sidebar for "Alphabetical list on web" and click Go.

How do I publish the elim bracket?

After you have paired the first elim, a bracket will automatically be generated in Results - Web Publish. Just flip the switch under Published to "On."

Running A Tournament - Judges/MPJ

How do I enable MPJ?

Go to Settings - Judges - <Judge Group> - Ratings, and select a "Pref Method." Then, if necessary, configure your tiers on the "MPJ Tiers" tab.

How do I view an entry's pref sheet?

Locate the entry in the Entries - Events menu, then click the "Pref Sheet" link on the sidebar.

What do the MPJ Placement Weights mean?

For a full explanation, see the section on MPJ Placement Weights.

Can I use leftover judges from one judge group in an event assigned to a different judge group, such as using leftover Varsity judges in a separate JV judge group?

Not really. If you use a single judge group for both Varsity and JV, then pair Varsity first, JV will only use the leftover judges from the judge group. But if you used two separate judge groups, you'll have to manually move judges from one group to the other if you want to use them in a different event/division.

How do I drop a judge?

The vast majority of the time, once a tournaemnt is underway you don't want to "Drop" the judge - just locate their info sheet in Entries - Judges and make them "Inactive." That way, you can always make them active again if they end up showing back up, and it preserves their history at the tournament.

How do I see all judges that aren't linked?

Go to Entries - Judges, then under "All Judges" click "All CSV." That will download a spreadsheet with all the judge info - anybody without info in the email column means they're not linked.

How do I let registrants mark certain judges as unavailable for a day/round?

You need to configure "Part-Timer" blocks in the judge group settings. You can choose whether to create a block for each day, each round, AM/PM, or any other unit of time that makes sense for your tournament. Make sure you name each block something like "NO Round 1" or "NO Saturday," otherwise people will get confused and mark a judge as unavailable for all the times they ARE available.

How do I publish a list of judges judging in the next elim (e.g. the night before elims)?

Go to Paneling - Judges - Pools and locate the appropriate judge pool (make sure to populate it with the judges you want published first), then check the box for "Publish." You can also publish a pool of "Standby" judges that should be available to take pushed ballots.

How do I configure a judge burden method to require additional rounds for more teams?

Use the "Rounds owed per entry" burden method, but enter a decimal instead of a whole number. So for example, at a 7 round tournament, you could enter 3.4, which means the first team will require 3 (since 3.4 rounds down to 3), but a second team will require 7 (since 3.4 + 3.4 = 6.8, which rounds to 7).

Running A Tournament - Results

Why aren't my tournament's results showing up?

First, make sure you set each round's "Full Results" to public on the schematic. Then, go to Results - Web Publish, and make sure you have generated any results sets you want to make public, and that each is set to Published = On.

Where do I get results/speaker awards for the award assembly?

Go to Results - Reports and generate any result set you plan to hand out awards for.