Anything less than “good conditions” needs some explanation. Good versus Fair is subjective, of course. Would just like to know why only Fair instead of Good before driving to course.
Hi @gaffer73, obviously at the moment, there’s a text field where players can note anything relevant to their conditions update. The options also list some suggestions to help people. So you should be able to see what you want to see if the player is being diligent.
What do you have in mind for a practical improvement?
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On the course overview page is the area for good/fair/caution conditions. If you choose Good conditions, should be fine to tap Save without adding Additional Details. Would propose that if you choose Fair or Caution, that you cannot tap Save unless you’ve provided Additional Details.
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It seems fairly reasonable to require some additional context for Fair/Caution conditions at this point. It would probably be even better to provide some quick-selections for the most common scenarios like muddy or snowy conditions, etc.
Are there any other related ideas to help improve the usefulness of Conditions?
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Some courses I play are only enjoyable if the fairways have been mown. An option for ‘overgrown fairways’ or ‘long grass’ etc seems like a common enough problem.
And if we are to believe /r/discgolf, then ‘wedding ceremony’ or ‘photo shoot’ are daily problems! 
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A feature to keep the last explanation by default would be good, so it could show as updated recently, without losing the info.
Also, a way to look at all updates written for the last day or two would help, to check the history, and see if anything has been lost.
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I wrote this up and then found that a course condition history thread had already been started.
In brief:
I would love to be able to see a course condition “history”.
Details:
After the recent hurricane the condition of the courses in the Southeast range from completely unplayable to wholly undamaged. The course condition ratings get updated regularly, but many people don’t take the time to write a description of their rating which can be frustrating and misleading. I find that people’s perception of caution/fair/good is highly variable, and you can sometimes see all three options reported in as short of a window as a single day. Some people report “caution” for downed trees that don’t actually affect course playability. Some mark the course as “good” when there is waist high grass everywhere that hasn’t been mowed all season. Some might give a “fair” description if OB isn’t marked. I’ve seen fair/good reports on courses with downed power lines present. It might be beneficial to allow players to review the last few condition reports to get a better picture of actual course conditions. If I could look back and see that 3 people in the last week have responded that holes 4,7, and 9 are completely unplayable, I may decide to play another course. If 5 of the last 7 people reported debris and fallen limbs but note that the course is fully playable, I might choose to play the course.
This request comes in part because I often see that people’s reports who take the time to write a brief description are almost immediately replaced by the green, yellow, or red indicator without a written description. Written condition reports are much more valuable to someone choosing where to play. A log of the written descriptions and/or a percentage of good/fair/caution reports could be useful.
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Hey Cory,
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts here. We can definitely see the value in this, and have thought through a few ways to improve course conditions including exposing course condition changes overtime to either Course Ambassadors (and maybe players). This isn’t on the near-term roadmap, but we’ll absolutely keep this in mind.
Our thoughts go out to you and all others affected by the recent storms in NC. Sending you all positive disc golf vibes 
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- I agree with Scott’s idea and recommend adding and making it mandatory to select at least one of the following quick-selection check boxes when setting the course condions as “Fair” or “Caution”.
- Snow
- Ice
- Mud
- Puddles/Flooding
- Overgrown
- Leaves
- Mosquitos/Bugs
- Other (Please Explain)
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There are several threads about Course Conditions History, including the following one, which I started. In summary, due to differing user opinions on how to rate conditions or amount of detail added, it would be very useful to have a condition history to see multiple people’s feedback, especially when conditions may be questionable. There would be limits on number of days and/or entries that would be visible in the history.
Course Conditions History -
It could be helpful to have the option to add one or more photos to a course condition update, as a picture is worth 1000 words. These photos could show specific issues, such ice, flooding, overgrown fairways, etc. They would be visible as long as the condition note is visible, so just until the next update now, or longer if course condition history is added.
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It could be helpful to have an option to “confirm” the latest course condition update, rather than override it, especially if the last update included a detailed description (and possibly photos, per suggestion above). Then the timestamp of the course conditions could be updated to the time they were last confirmed, and there is less chance of overriding a detailed update with one with no details. The user could be prompted:
Latest course conditions: …rating, details, etc.
“Confirm” or “Update”
Thanks in advance for your consideration of these update suggestions!
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Thank you so much for sharing these ideas, Chris! We really appreciate the examples and thoughtful organization of your suggestions. I can see the value in each piece you’ve mentioned here, and we will be happy to keep you posted on any developments in this regard!
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No problem David! I really appreciate your consideration of these suggestions. Thank you as well for offering to keep me in the loop on any potential updates along these lines!
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