Hello Sean,
Feature on barcodes in this week's parkrunnews - it explains that they cannot be scanned from your phone:
Article by Tom Williams of parkrun:
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In the early days of parkrun, when you crossed the finish line you were given a metal disc with your position on and you took that to someone sitting at a laptop who was able to type in your name, find you on the system and credit you with the correct finish position. Forgetting the fact that we were often sat in a field in the rain and cold with a soaking wet laptop this system worked pretty well, at first.
If you’ve ever asked someone for their name and date of birth 30 seconds after they’ve crossed a parkrun finish line you’ll know that it’s not as simple as most people think. Multiply that by more than one person a second during peak minutes and you can see where mistakes start to creep in. Adding to this problem of course is the rapidly increasing numbers of registered parkrunners, when we only had a few thousand there was probably only one John Smith, as we approach half a million (and 33 John Smiths FYI) not only are there many namesakes but it’s not unknown for their home runs to be the same (I’m not the only Tom Williams registered with Leeds parkrun) and even birthdays.
The issue this presents to our volunteers is that with every mistaken identity there is a disproportionate increase in admin required to correct that mistake. We get emails from runners who’ve either been credited when they hadn’t run, or not credited when they had and for some local volunteer teams this previously built up to a day’s work every single week just trying to clean up results. Although some volunteers are happy to spend this additional time, it certainly impacts on their non-parkrun life and creates expectations on all of our event teams which we don’t believe is fair. I should also point out that even the most dedicated volunteers eventually grow weary of the ever increasing admin. In the summer of 2009 we introduced the barcode system with the aim that this would eradicate mistaken identities and dramatically reduce the amount of time our volunteers had to spend sat in front of a computer screen.
At first bringing a barcode was optional but despite our best attempts at increasing non-barcode queues, and decreasing barcode queues, people still largely failed to bring them. In the name of honesty I should put my hand up here and say that I was one of those forgetful bunch. As a result the problem wasn’t fixed, and as a result of that we decided in January 2010 to make barcodes compulsory. This, amazingly, made some people very angry! All we are asking in return for 50 odd free runs every year (which incidentally you can still have without a barcode), plus the Club t-shirts when you complete a number of runs, plus the Sweatshop Monthly Prize if you’re fortunate enough to be awarded it, plus all the amazing benefits associated with being part of our wonderful family, is that you print out a small piece of paper and bring it with you on a Saturday morning. I’d also like to suggest that we are probably unique in the World of organised sporting events that if you forget, can’t be bothered, or don’t want to bring a barcode then you are still welcome to take part in pretty much the same way as any other parkrunner. You just won’t get a time. I should also add that whereas you just need to bring a piece of paper, the volunteers have to get up early and stand in a freezing cold park for a couple of hours.
So, if you do forget your barcode, as I myself have done on more than one occasion, then yes you will have to wait seven more days for your 10, 50, 100 or 250 t-shirt, or come back next week to have a crack at your PB but please take a mom
