Scoring and tabulation

What this is for

Let’s say it plainly first: your judges can stay on paper. They
mark their sheets, or call scores into a headset, the way they do
today. What changes is the desk. Instead of an adding machine and a
highlighter, the tab desk is one laptop: the desk types each judge’s
scores as routines finish, the math happens instantly and identically
every time, standings build themselves for the awards area, and the
totals flow into results without retyping.

That’s tabulator mode, and this page is it. Judges can also score on
their own tablet or phone through a link, with the scores arriving
here on their own — see
Judge scoring devices. The two ways of
getting numbers in coexist routine by routine, so you can start with
paper and add devices when you’re ready.

The Show Day tab has three lenses, switched at the top of the page —
and it remembers which one you were on:

• Schedule — the program itself. See Show Day.
• Results — the results rows: totals, award levels, placements,
  special awards. What the paper says, typed in. See
  Results and awards.
• Tabulator — this page: per-judge, per-criterion score entry that
  computes those totals for you.

Before you score: a rubric and a panel

Two pieces of setup, both on the Tabulator lens, both a few minutes.

Rubrics

A rubric is your judging sheet, translated: what each judge scores,
out of how much, at what weight. Click Rubrics and create one —
each criterion gets a name, a max score, and a weight.

A judge’s total is the weighted sum of their criteria, and the form
shows the ceiling as you build: one judge scores out of 100. Weight
is a plain multiplier — leave it at 1 for a straight sum, which is
what most sheets are.

Start from a common 100-point rubric prefills the classic split —
Technique 40, Performance 30, Choreography 20, Overall impression
10 — as a starting point, not a standard. Every producer’s sheet
differs; edit it until it’s yours. If you run more than one brand, a
rubric can belong to one brand or all of them.

Panels

A panel is who’s judging, on what rubric, for which part of the show.
Click Panels, name it (Main stage panel), pick its Scope —
the whole event, or one block of the day — and its Rubric.

Then seat the judges. The picker lists the people with a judge
booking on this event’s Faculty tab — panels are seated from real
bookings, not typed names. No judge bookings yet? The empty state says
exactly that: book your judges on the Faculty tab first. See
the event tabs. A
star marks one judge as head judge if you use one.

Each seat also carries a Create device link button — that’s how a
judge scores on their own tablet instead of paper. See
Judge scoring devices.

The same protect-the-history rules apply here: once a panel has scores,
its rubric can’t be swapped (create a second panel instead), a judge
with scores can’t be unseated, and the panel itself refuses deletion —
deleting it would erase the scores.

The score grid

Pick your panel and the lens becomes the desk. Along the top, four
tiles keep the day’s pulse: Fully scored, In progress,
Not scored, and Locked.

Under them, the routine strip — every routine in the panel’s
scope, in running order, each chip colored by its state. Click a chip
and its grid opens: one row per judge, one column per criterion,
plus a deduction and a note per judge.

• Type what the paper says, decimals included — half-points land
  exactly.
• Deductions are entered as positive numbers (2 or 0.5) and
  subtracted once from the panel total.
• The running total updates as you type, showing the arithmetic:
  raw, minus deductions, equals adjusted.
• Save, then the arrows (or the strip) move you to the next
  routine. A scratched routine refuses scores — it didn’t dance.

The math, in one breath: each judge’s total is their weighted criteria
sum; the panel total is the sum of the judges — not the average —
so three judges on a 100-point rubric read on the familiar 300 scale.

A judge stepped out for a routine? Score the judges you have — the
totals compute from what exists, and the missing judge is named
wherever that total shows, so a partial number can never masquerade as
a complete one.

Locking a routine

When a routine’s scores are checked against the paper, lock it.
The grid freezes — nothing can change those numbers by accident during
the rush of the day.

Unlocking is admin-only, behind a confirmation. Paper is
authoritative and mistakes happen — so re-opening a locked routine is
possible, but it’s a deliberate act by the person who answers for the
numbers, not a stray click at the desk.

Writing to results: a proposal, never an overwrite

Write to results — per routine from the grid, or Write all to
results from the standings card — carries the computed totals onto
the Results lens. The word that matters is proposal:

• Raw and adjusted totals are written, stamped as computed —
  that’s what proposing totals means, and the confirmation says so.
• A hand-typed award level is never overwritten. Where a result’s
  award level is still empty, your most specific matching award ladder
  suggests one from the total; where you’ve typed one, it stands. Two
  ladders tied for the match? Nothing is suggested — ambiguity
  proposes nothing.
• Placements and divisions are never touched. Ranks come from the
  Results lens’s own propose-overalls step,
  and stay editable there.
• Routines with missing judge scores are computed from what exists,
  and the warning names the judge.

Everything on Results stays editable after the write. The paper is
authoritative; the tabulator saves the desk from retyping it — it
never outranks it.

Live standings

The bottom of the lens is the Live standings card: every scored
routine grouped by division, ranked highest first, with raw and
adjusted totals. A routine computed from a partial panel says
(partial) right on its row. Ties share a rank and the next rank
skips — 1, 2, 2, 4.

Standings are computed from the desk’s scores as they land — open
the same page on a second logged-in laptop in the awards area and it
refreshes itself within seconds of each save. And the standings rank
with exactly the same math the results proposal uses, so the screen in
the back room and the totals you eventually write can never disagree.

Honest limits

• Typing at the desk is always available. Judges on paper, judges
  on tablets, or both in the same session — the grid takes scores
  either way. Judge scoring devices covers
  the tablet side, including what it needs from your venue network.
• One desk is the design. Two machines can’t type the same routine
  at once — the second save is refused, not merged.
• The standings screen is yours, not the public’s. It lives on the
  Show Day tab behind a login — there’s no public scoreboard. Publishing
  from the Results lens shows placements and award levels only; raw
  and adjusted totals are never published.
• No audio critiques yet. Judges’ notes are typed text on the
  grid; recorded critiques are a later chapter.

Where to go next

• Results and awards — where the proposed
  totals land, and everything the desk doesn’t decide
• Show Day — the numbered program these scores hang off
• Set up your first event
  — the Faculty tab where judges are booked
• Scholarships — recording what winners
  are promised on stage