CrabbyTabGuide GitHub

Settings reference#

Every tournament setting: where to change it, its default and what it does. Settings are stored as tournament preferences (Tournament.preferences, type TournamentPreferences in src/types/index.ts); the debate format is stored on the tournament itself. There are 167 preferences. This page lists all of them.

Where settings live#

Most settings are under Admin → Configuration in the sidebar (owners and admins only). It has six pages, at /{slug}/config/{page}:

Sidebar entry Page What it covers
Draw rules /config/draw Adjudicator allocation, team clashes, sides, two-team pairing, BP draw rules, byes
Round settings /config/rounds Number of preliminary rounds, feedback per round, points weight per round, deleting a round
Format and teams /config/format Format, speakers, reply speeches, team names, configuration file and rules presets
Scoring and ballots /config/scoring Score ranges, ballot rules, adjudicator feedback
Standings rules /config/standings Ranking precedence, extra columns, trimmed mean, eligibility
Public visibility /config/visibility Public pages, check-ins, language, public site options, search engines

Some settings sit on the page where they are used (Assistants, Email, Standings, Schedule, and others). They are listed under Not shown in the configuration pages.

Saving, checks and locks#

  • Each configuration page has a Save tournament settings button. It saves only the settings you changed on the page. Settings you did not touch stay as stored, and a default shown in the form is never written just because you saved.
  • Saving is refused, with a message, when:
    • substantive speakers is not a whole number of at least 1;
    • a speaker, reply (when reply speeches are on) or feedback (when feedback is on) minimum is not below its maximum, or one is empty;
    • the speaker score step is not above 0;
    • the minimum adjudicator score to vote is empty;
    • the Rényi order or BP position cost exponent is below 0 or empty;
    • a custom feedback question or a score criterion is invalid.
  • Every save (from these pages, other pages or the REST API's PATCH /preferences) is also checked against src/lib/setup/preferenceValidation.ts: each preference must have the right type, and an option must be one of its listed values. Ranges are given in the tables below.
  • Locks once ballots exist. After the first ballot is entered, the format, teams per room, substantive speakers, reply speeches, ballot mode (preliminary), "Ballots ask for speaker scores" and score criteria cannot change, because existing ballots would no longer fit. The elimination ballot mode locks once the first elimination ballot is entered.
  • Scoring changes after ballots. Changing score ranges, ghosts, margins, low-point wins, forfeits, bye results, winner declaration, aggregation, speech ranks, maximum margin, reply step or the reply-speaker rule after ballots exist raises a warning (a soft rule). Where team totals are affected, every entered ballot's totals are recalculated. See Ballots and results.
  • Saved here, live after upload. Saving changes your working copy. Public pages, private URLs and other devices only see the change after you upload to the cloud. After saving, a notice offers to upload and publish. See Public pages and releases.

Defaults and format presets#

The Default column is the value CrabbyTab uses when the setting has never been saved. The configuration pages show this value.

New tournaments do not always start with these defaults. The setup wizard writes its own values (see Tournament setup and formats):

Setting Wizard value
Speaker and reply score ranges By format: BP 50–100 (reply 25–50, unused); UADC and Australs 70–80, reply 35–40; WSDC 60–80, reply 30–40; custom two-team 68–84, reply 34–42; N teams per room 50–99. Step 1.
Team score includes ghosts On
Ballots submitted through private URLs The tab room confirms
Record motion vetoes On
Draw method (drawRule) Chosen in the wizard; always random for N teams per room
Public draw "Current round only" when the wizard's public information option is on
Participant data entry Private URLs, public forms, or tab staff only, as chosen (sets the private-URL and public-form switches)
Round robin Avoid same institution and avoid team history off; team seed column numeric

A rules preset (Tabbycat's preference presets) sets a bundle of these settings. You can pick one in the wizard or later on Format and teams → Configuration file and rules presets: Australs, British Parliamentary, Canadian Parliamentary, Australian Easters, NZ Easters (2 vs 2 Impromptu), Joynt Scroll (3 vs 3 Prepared), UADC, World Schools (WSDC), APDA, Karl Popper (Czechia), Public Speaking. Applying a preset shows every change before it is saved.

Draw rules#

/config/draw. See Rounds and draws and Adjudicator allocation.

Adjudicator allocation and panel rules#

Setting Key Default Effect
Adjudicator allocation strategy adjudicatorPanelStrategy Preset 1 (crabbytab_v1) Preset 1: current CrabbyTab strength ranking. Panel average (panel_average): matches each voting panel's average strength to the debate's priority; the strongest member chairs. Tabbycat voting (tabbycat_voting): solo chairs in top rooms, panels of three below. Tabbycat consensus (tabbycat_consensus): spreads voters evenly. The two Tabbycat strategies ignore the panel size setting.
Allocate preformed panels as a unit usePreformedPanels Off Auto-allocation places each preformed panel (Allocation → Preformed panels) whole, higher importance into higher-priority debates, skipping unavailable members. Other debates are filled normally.
Placing preformed panels (shown when the above is on) preformedPanelPlacement Optimised (optimise) Optimised: match panels to debates by importance, conflicts and history. By room rank (direct): panel ranked 1 goes to the debate ranked 1, and so on, with no optimisation; conflicts are still reported.
Minimum adjudicator score to vote minAdjScoreToVote 1.5 Only adjudicators at or above this score are given voting seats. Any number.
Adjudicator conflict penalty adjConflictPenalty 1,000,000 Allocator cost per conflict. ≥ 0.
Adjudicator history penalty adjHistoryPenalty 10,000 Allocator cost for an adjudicator seeing a team again. ≥ 0.
Importance mismatch penalty importanceMismatchPenalty 10,000,000 Cost of a priority mismatch when placing preformed panels. ≥ 0.
Skip adjudicator check-ins skipAdjCheckins Off All adjudicators are available in every round.
No panellist adjudicators noPanellistAdjs Off Hides panellist positions and does not allocate them.
No trainee adjudicators noTraineeAdjs Off Hides trainee positions and does not allocate them.

Team conflicts and clashes#

These apply to two-team draws. BP power-paired draws ignore institutions and history, as Tabbycat and WUDC rules do.

Setting Key Default Effect
Avoid same institution avoidSameInstitution On Try not to pair teams from the same institution.
Avoid team history avoidTeamHistory On Try to avoid rematches, including in later random rounds.
Team institution penalty teamInstitutionPenalty 200 Cost of a same-institution room for one-up-one-down and minimum-cost conflict avoidance. ≥ 0. Tabbycat's default is 1.
Team history penalty teamHistoryPenalty 1000 Cost per previous meeting. ≥ 0.
Previously saw pull-up penalty previouslySawPullupPenalty 0 Minimum-cost only: a room mixing brackets costs this much per earlier debate either team had with a pull-up. ≥ 0.

Side allocations and balancing#

Setting Key Default Effect
Side allocations method sideAllocationRule Balanced Balanced: in two-team draws the team that has been affirmative more often goes negative (ties at random); in BP, positions minimise the position cost. Random. Preallocated (two-team): sides set per round on the Draw page. Chosen on the ballot (manual_ballot, two-team only): the draw pairs teams without sides and each ballot records who took which side.
Sides in elimination rounds eliminationSideRule By seed By seed: the higher seed takes the first side (affirmative, or OG in BP) and sides are final. Random, confirmed later (Tabbycat's behaviour): sides drawn with the draw's seed; in two-team formats each ballot records the sides.
Maximum number of times per side maxTimesPerSide 5 Used only by minimum-cost pairing with a side balance penalty: pairings that put a team on one side more often than this are avoided. It never blocks a draw; a team past it is reported as a warning. 0 turns it off. Not used for BP. Whole number ≥ 0.
Maximum allowed side imbalance maxAllowedSideImbalance 0 (no limit) Hard limit on the gap between a team's most- and least-used sides. A draw that would break it fails with an error. Whole number ≥ 0.
Side balance penalty sideBalancePenalty 0 Minimum-cost only (two-team, balanced sides): cost when both teams lean to the same side. ≥ 0.
Pairing deviation penalty pairingDeviationPenalty 0 Minimum-cost only: weight for straying from the pairing method. At 0 the method only breaks ties between equally clash-free pairings. ≥ 0.

Two-team bracket pairing and conflict avoidance#

Setting Key Default Options
Pairing method pairingMethod Fold Fold (1 v 10, 2 v 9), Slide (1 v 6, 2 v 7), Adjacent (1 v 2, 3 v 4), Fold top room then adjacent, Random within bracket
Conflict avoidance method conflictAvoidance One-up-one-down One-up-one-down (swap with the room above or below); Minimum-cost matching (pull-ups chosen first); Minimum-cost matching including pull-ups (min_cost_with_pullups: matches the whole field at once and chooses who is pulled up, between adjacent brackets only; ignores intermediate brackets and the pull-up restriction); Off. Random rounds avoid clashes unless this is off.
Odd bracket resolution method oddBracketMethod Pull up the top team (pullup_top) Intermediate brackets with bubble-up-bubble-down; Intermediate brackets; Intermediate brackets 1 / 2 (preallocated sides); Pull up the top / bottom / middle / a random team; Pull up the lowest draw strength by rank; Pull up the least pulled-up, then lowest draw strength by rank. The two draw-strength methods need minimum-cost matching including pull-ups. Tabbycat's default is intermediate brackets with bubble-up-bubble-down.
Pull-up restriction pullupRestriction No restriction Fewest pull-ups so far; Lowest draw strength (speaks); Lowest draw strength (wins, using opponents' points as Tabbycat). Only for the pull-up methods; no effect on intermediate brackets, min-cost including pull-ups, or BP.
Pull-up penalty pullupPenalty 0 BP: added once per previous pull-up when a team is placed above its bracket, so teams pulled up less often are preferred (set high, e.g. 100000, to outweigh position costs). Two-team min-cost including pull-ups: multiplied by the team's place in the odd-bracket order. ≥ 0.

British Parliamentary (BP) draw rules#

Power-paired BP rounds assign every team to a room and position in one Hungarian assignment, as Tabbycat does.

Setting Key Default Effect
BP pull-up distribution bpPullupDistribution Anywhere in bracket Anywhere (WUDC-compliant), top room(s) or bottom room(s) of the bracket.
BP position cost bpPositionCost Rényi entropy Rényi entropy; sum of squared deviations; simple (times already in the position).
Rényi order (BP) renyiOrder 1.0 α for Rényi entropy (1 Shannon, 0 Hartley, 2 collision). ≥ 0.
BP position cost exponent bpPositionCostExponent 4.0 The position cost is raised to this power; higher values prefer fixing a few large imbalances. ≥ 0.
BP assignment method bpAssignmentMethod Hungarian with preshuffling Hungarian with preshuffling (WUDC-compliant; random among equally good draws); Hungarian without preshuffling (ties by standings order, same draw for every seed; not WUDC-compliant); Random positions within brackets.

Scheduling and byes#

Setting Key Default Effect
Bye team results byeTeamResults Treat bye teams as absent Or Award a win (no speaker scores) to a team that was available but sat out.
Bye team selection method byeTeamSelectionMethod Don't choose bye teams With a field that does not divide evenly: lowest ranked team or random team gets the bye.

Round settings#

/config/rounds. These act at once (no Save button) and change rounds, not preferences.

Control Effect
Number of preliminary rounds (0–20) + Update round count Lowering it cancels the extra rounds; their ballots are kept and they come back if you raise the count. Elimination rounds are not affected.
Feedback by round A switch per round (Round.feedbackEnabled) overriding the tournament feedback setting. An elimination round without its own value follows Collect feedback in elimination rounds.
Points weight by round Team points earned in a round are multiplied by its weight (Round.weight, default 1, whole number ≥ 0). Wins, speaks and who-beat-whom are not weighted.
Delete an individual round After confirmation, permanently deletes the round, its debates and ballots, and its motion assignments.

Format and teams#

/config/format. See Tournament setup and formats.

Debate format and team structure#

Setting Key Default Effect
Parliamentary format format (on the tournament) From the wizard BP; Asian Parliamentary (UADC); Australs; World Schools (WSDC); N teams per room. Choosing BP sets 4 teams, 2 speakers, no reply; UADC/Australs/WSDC set 2 teams, 3 speakers, reply on; N teams per room sets 6 teams, 1 speaker, no reply. The custom two-team format (from the wizard or a DebateXML import) is not offered here. Locked once ballots exist.
Teams per room (N teams per room only) teamsInDebate 4 (BP), 2 (two-team), 6 (N teams) Any whole number except 2 and 4. For BP and two-team formats it is fixed by the format. Locked once ballots exist; a configuration file or preset cannot change it once a draw exists.
Substantive speakers per team substantiveSpeakers 2 (BP), 3 (others) The field allows 1–5; validation accepts 1–10 (the API can store up to 10).
Enable reply speech scoring replyScoresEnabled Off when unset (set by the format) Adds a reply speech per team.

Team names#

Setting Key Default Effect
Teams with a reference show teamNameDisplay Long name For teams with a reference ("1", "A"): Long = institution name + reference ("Victoria 1"); Short = institution code + reference ("VUW 1"). Saved with Save and rename, separately from the main Save button.

The card also offers Update team names (after renaming an institution) and Convert existing names (Tabbycat's convertteamnames), both with a preview.

Configuration file and rules presets#

Not a setting: Export settings downloads the preferences as a JSON file; Load settings from a file… and Rules preset show a preview of every change before applying it. Settings that are locked (ballots entered, or teams per room once a draw exists) are listed and left unchanged. Tournament state never travels: the current round, release switches, released break categories and the schedule. See CSV formats and data-import-export.md.

Scoring and ballots#

/config/scoring. See Ballots and results.

Speaker scoring parameters#

Setting Key Default Effect
Minimum speaker score minSpeakerScore 68 Lowest substantive score accepted. Must be below the maximum.
Maximum speaker score maxSpeakerScore 84 Highest substantive score.
Score step increment stepSpeakerScore 1 Allowed increments, e.g. 1, 0.5 or 0.25. Must be above 0.
Minimum reply score (reply on) minReplyScore 34 Must be below the maximum.
Maximum reply score (reply on) maxReplyScore 42

Ballot rules and options#

Setting Key Default Effect
Ballot introduction/explanation ballotIntroExplanation Empty Text shown above the ballot form, e.g. the speaker scale. Up to 20,000 characters.
Margin includes dissenters marginIncludesDissenters Off Voting ballots: dissenting adjudicators count towards the winning margin. Needed for voting ballots in N-teams-per-room tournaments.
Team score includes ghosts teamScoreIncludesGhosts Off when unset (new tournaments: on) Duplicate (iron-person) speeches count towards the team total.
Require double-entry ballot verification ballotDoubleEntry Off A ballot only counts once a second person has checked it.
How ballots are checked (double entry on) ballotCheckMode Review Review: the checker compares with the paper ballot and confirms. Blind: the checker re-enters without seeing the first entry.
Ballots per debate, preliminary rounds (not BP) ballotMode Consensus Consensus: one ballot per panel. Voting: one sheet per voting adjudicator; majority decides, recorded speaker scores are the majority's average, the chair breaks a tied panel. BP is always consensus. Locked once ballots exist.
Ballots per debate, elimination rounds (not BP) eliminationBallotMode Same as preliminary rounds Consensus or voting for elimination rounds. Locked once an elimination ballot exists.
Record motion vetoes enableMotionVetoes Off when unset (new tournaments: on) Ballots record each team's veto; vetoes appear in motion statistics.
Allow forfeits (two-team only) enableForfeits Off A debate can be recorded as a forfeit: the other team wins, no speaker scores.
Allow motion reuse enableMotionReuse On Motions can be reused across rounds (the round's motion panel offers other rounds' motions and a copy from the previous round). Tabbycat's default is off.
Deciding the winner winnersInBallots From the scores (none) From the scores: higher total wins; totals may not tie. Declared, as a check (high-points): the declared winner must have the higher total. Declared, to break ties (tied-points). Declared, overriding the scores (low-points): low-point wins allowed. In BP these control how ranks and totals relate. Replaces the older allowLowPointWins.
Ballots ask for speaker scores speakersInBallots Always Always; preliminary rounds only; never. Results-only debates count for points and wins but not speaks, margins or the speaker tab. Locked once ballots exist.
Speech ranks speakerRanks Do not rank speeches Rank every speech independently of scores (any), or ranks must follow the scores (high-points). Consensus ballots only; adds the "Speech ranks (sum)" speaker metric. Replies are not ranked.
Panel score aggregation (voting, two-team) scoreAggregation Mean Mean or median (even panels: mean rounded up) of a speech's scores. Team totals are always the mean.
Maximum margin (two-team) maximumMargin 0 (no limit) Largest winning margin on one scoresheet. ≥ 0.
Reply score step (two-team, reply on) stepReplyScore Half the speaker score step E.g. 1 or 0.5. Must be above 0.
Reply speaker must have given a substantive speech (two-team, reply on) requireSubstantiveForReply On The last substantive speaker can never reply.
Side names (two-team) sideNames Affirmative, Negative Also Government/Opposition, Proposition/Opposition, Pro/Con, Appellant/Respondent, Team 1/Team 2, Plaintiff/Prosecution/Defense. Used on ballots, the draw, printing and public pages. BP positions are not renamed.
Record motions on ballots enableMotions On Off: ballots and printed scoresheets do not ask for the motion or vetoes.
Score criteria scoreCriteria None Optional list (up to 20) of criteria with name (≤ 20 characters), speeches (all, substantive, reply), weight, min, max, step and required. Adjudicators score each criterion and the speech score is the weighted sum (e.g. WSDC Style/Content/Strategy). Locked once ballots exist.

Adjudicator feedback#

See Feedback.

Setting Key Default Effect
Enable adjudicator feedback submission feedbackEnabled On Turns feedback (and its sidebar entry) on. The settings below show only when it is on.
Minimum feedback score feedbackMinScore 1 Must be below the maximum.
Maximum feedback score feedbackMaxScore 10
Feedback score step feedbackScoreStep 1 E.g. 0.5 for half points. Must be above 0.
Important feedback threshold feedbackImportantThreshold 2 Feedback this far from the adjudicator's base score is listed as important. ≥ 0.
Feedback introduction feedbackIntroduction Empty Shown above every feedback form in the private portals. Up to 2,000 characters in the field.
Show unexpected feedback showUnexpectedFeedback On Lists submissions no feedback path expected (marked ?) in feedback progress.
Custom feedback questions: Team feedback teamFeedbackQuestions None Questions teams answer. Types: short text, long text, whole number box, decimal number box, integer scale, number in range, yes/no, checkbox, select one, select many. A question needs a label; select types need options; scales need min < max.
Custom feedback questions: Adjudicator feedback adjudicatorFeedbackQuestions None Questions adjudicators answer about each other.
Feedback paths (preliminary, or all rounds) feedbackPaths Teams on the chair; chair on panellists and trainees; panellists and trainees on the chair Teams give feedback on: the chair only; the orallist; any voting adjudicator allowed (orallist expected); any adjudicator allowed (orallist expected); every voting adjudicator; every adjudicator; nobody. Plus switches for chair on panellists, chair on trainees, panellists on chair, trainees on chair, panellists on each other, every adjudicator on every other, and feedback on teams (never counted in adjudicator scores). The paths decide what portals offer, what progress expects and which forms are printed.
Collect feedback in elimination rounds feedbackInEliminationRounds On Default for elimination rounds' feedback switch (Round settings).
Use different paths in elimination rounds eliminationFeedbackPaths Off (same paths) When ticked, a second set of paths for elimination rounds.

Standings rules#

/config/standings. Metric definitions and format defaults: Standings and metrics. The precedence also drives power-pairing brackets and break qualification (Breaks and eliminations).

Setting Key Default Effect
Team ranking precedence chain teamStandingsPrecedence Format default (shown under the editor) Up to 8 metrics, most important first. Who-beat-whom may appear more than once. Metrics that do not fit the format are disabled.
Extra team metrics (displayed, not ranked on) teamStandingsExtra None Extra columns.
Speaker ranking precedence chain speakerStandingsPrecedence Default chain (shown under the editor) Up to 8 metrics. Team metrics count every debate of the speaker's team.
Extra speaker metrics (displayed, not ranked on) speakerStandingsExtra None Extra columns.
Speaker score trim (for speaks_trimmed_mean) speakerTrim 1 Scores dropped from each end for the trimmed mean (Tabbycat's high-low drop). With too few scores it is the plain average. Whole number ≥ 0.
Speeches a speaker may miss standingsMissedDebates -1 (no limit) A speaker who missed more preliminary rounds (with results) than this is listed on the speaker tab but not ranked.
Replies a speaker may miss standingsMissedReplies -1 (no limit) The same for the replies tab.

Public visibility#

/config/visibility. Nothing is public until it is also released (per round or per item). See Public pages and releases.

Public pages, check-ins and language#

Setting Key Default Effect
Public results and scores publicResults On Released results of non-silent rounds appear on public pages.
Public standings tab publicStandings On Team and speaker leaderboards on the public pages.
Public motions page publicMotions On Released motions and info slides appear publicly.
Public check-in counts publicCheckInStatus Off Publishes round totals only, no names.
Self check-in from private URLs allowSelfCheckIn Off Teams and adjudicators mark themselves available for the current round from their portal. See Private URLs and portals.
Check-in expiry (hours; 0 means never) checkInExpiresAfterHours 0 Timestamped check-ins older than this stop counting. ≥ 0.
Room check-in expiry (hours; 0 means never) venueCheckInExpiresAfterHours 0 Older room check-ins show as expired. ≥ 0.
Public pages and portals language publicLanguage Each viewer's browser language Default language for public pages and portals. Viewers can still pick their own. Machine-drafted languages are marked. See Languages and translations.

Tabbycat difference: Tabbycat's public pages default to off. CrabbyTab's four public switches default to on, because every item also needs an explicit release.

Draw and tabs#

Setting Key Default Effect
Public draw publicDrawMode All released rounds (Off if the older publicDraw is off) Off; current round only; all released rounds. Saving also keeps the older publicDraw switch in step.
Adjudicator tab shows adjudicatorTabShows Final (feedback-blended) score only Base score only (test); final only; base, final and per-round feedback (all). The tab itself is released on the Standings page.
Team tab: top N teamTabLimit 0 (all) Public tab shows only the top N ranks. With a limit, ranks below the cutoff cannot be worked out from published results. Whole number ≥ 0.
Speaker tab: top N speakerTabLimit 0 (all) As above.
Replies tab: top N repliesTabLimit 0 (all) As above.
Break page metrics publicBreakMetrics -1 (all) How many precedence metrics the public break page shows; 0 none.
Show break categories on the participants page publicBreakCategories Off Break eligibility on the public participants page.
Motions order publicMotionsOrder Earliest round first Or latest round first.
Show motions in results showMotionsInResults Off The released motion each debate used, on public results and record pages.

Names and anonymity#

Setting Key Default Effect
Team code names teamCodeNames Off Real names with code names as tooltips (all-tooltips); code names publicly, real names for staff (admin-tooltips-code); code names publicly, staff see both (admin-tooltips-real); code names everywhere. Code-name modes publish only the code name.
Speaker and adjudicator code names participantCodeNames Off Or code names on public pages. Code names are set in the participant directory.
Show team institutions showTeamInstitutions On
Show adjudicator institutions showAdjudicatorInstitutions On
Show which adjudicators are always trainees (unaccredited) showUnaccredited Off Adds an "Always trainee" column to adjudicator tables.
Show team emoji showEmoji On
Show speakers in the draw showSpeakersInDraw On
Show splitting adjudicators showSplittingAdjudicators Off Marks voting adjudicators whose sheet chose the losing team.

Below these are tools (not settings) to generate missing code names (emoji or speakers' last names) and assign missing emoji. Individual speakers and adjudicators are made anonymous in the participant directory.

Public homepage#

Setting Key Default Effect
Search engines searchEngineIndexing Allow every public page to be indexed (all) Or only the public tab homepage (homepage-only), or no pages (none). Adds a noindex flag; search engines may ignore it, so it is not a privacy control. See Caching, indexing and performance.
Welcome message welcomeMessage Empty Plain text on the public Home tab, shown while the public homepage is empty.
Public homepage publicHomepage Empty Markdown for the public page's Home tab (at most 20,000 characters), with maths and YouTube embeds; HTML is removed.
Tournament staff tournamentStaff Empty Plain-text credits for convenors, adjudication core and tab team.

Not shown in the configuration pages#

These preferences are changed elsewhere, or have no control at all. "Default" is the value used when unset.

Set on other pages#

Setting (UI label) Key Default Where Effect
Data-entry staff access assistantAccess All areas Admin → Assistants All areas; results entry and draw display; results entry only; no access. See Staff and roles.
Ballot submissions from adjudicators through private URLs privateUrlBallots On Admin → Assistants Off: private URLs no longer accept ballots.
Feedback submissions through private URLs privateUrlFeedback On Admin → Assistants Off: private URLs no longer accept feedback.
Ballots submitted through private URLs privateBallotConfirmation The chair confirms (new tournaments: the tab room) Admin → Assistants Chair: a chair's ballot counts at once. Tab room: every private-URL ballot waits for confirmation.
Individual ballots from every voting adjudicator individualBallots Off Admin → Assistants Voting rounds: each voting adjudicator submits a sheet; the latest of each is merged. Two-team voting tournaments only.
Allow self-split ballots for solo adjudicators allowSelfSplitBallots Off Admin → Assistants A solo adjudicator on a voting ballot may record a 2:1 split (Karl Popper rules).
Public ballot form publicBallotForm Off Admin → Assistants (Public forms) Adjudicators enter ballots on a public page without a private URL; these always wait for confirmation.
Public feedback form publicFeedbackForm Off Admin → Assistants (Public forms) Feedback from a public page.
Require the tournament password publicFormsUsePassword Off Admin → Assistants (Public forms) Public forms need the tournament password (stored server-side as a hash, not in preferences).
Draw released / Team results / Motions released / Ballot confirmed / Ballot receipts notifyDrawReleased, notifyTeamPoints, notifyMotionsReleased, notifyBallotConfirmed, notifyBallotReceipt Off Public → Email Automatic emails. They take effect after the next cloud upload. See Email and notifications.
Team tab, Speaker tab, Speaker category tabs, Replies tab, All round results releaseTeamTab, releaseSpeakerTab, releaseSpeakerCategoryTabs, releaseRepliesTab, releaseAllResults Hidden (speaker category tabs follow the speaker tab when unset) Results → Standings (Public release panel) Public tabs over completed preliminary rounds; all results releases every completed round, silent and elimination included.
Participants list, Institutions list, Adjudication core, Breaking adjudicators publicParticipants, publicInstitutionsList, publicAdjudicatorCore, publicBreakingAdjudicators Hidden Standings (Public release panel) Public lists.
Adjudicator tab, Scoresheets, Scoresheets on team private URLs, Break category team tabs releaseAdjudicatorTab, releaseBallots, releasePrivateBallots, releaseBreakCategoryTabs Hidden Standings (Public release panel)
Team and adjudicator record pages publicRecordPages On Standings (Public release panel)
Pre-allocated sides, Elimination bracket, Diversity statistics, Motion veto statistics, Feedback progress publicSideAllocations, publicBracket, publicDiversity, publicVetoStatistics, publicFeedbackProgress Hidden Standings (Public release panel) Veto statistics also need Record motion vetoes.
Motion statistics motionTabReleased Follows Public motions page Standings (Public release panel)
{category} break releasedBreakCategoryIds None Standings (Public release panel) Which generated breaks are public. The panel also has Release the tab (Tabbycat's tab-release preset).
Set current round currentRoundId Latest publicly released draw Draw page The round public pages, the projector and portals treat as current. Never makes a draw public by itself.
Feedback weighting by source feedbackSourceWeights 1 for every pair Results → Feedback Multiplier per source (team, chair, panellist, trainee) and target (chair, panellist, trainee); ≥ 0.
Team seed column teamSeedMode Off Teams CSV import dialog Do not ask; numeric seed; seed title (Unseeded, Free, Half, Full seed). Also shapes the registration form.
Speaker categories speakerCategories None Setup → Speaker categories ESL, novice, etc.
Room categories venueCategories None Setup → Venues Category descriptions and display options. See Venues and constraints.
Record ranked motion preferences enableMotionPreferences Off Setup → Motions (Motion settings) Ballots record each team's ranked motion preferences.
Parallel preliminary panels: Rounds per slot preliminaryPanels 1 Setup → Schedule Preliminary rounds per schedule slot (Round 1 (A), Round 1 (B)…).
Preparation time (minutes) preparationTime Off Setup → Schedule Minutes from motion release to the round's start; blank turns it off (stored as -1).
Publish schedule publicSchedule Hidden Setup → Schedule Public schedule page and calendar feed.
Tournament schedule events scheduleEvents None Setup → Schedule Events with type, round, start and end.
Return scoresheets to / Ask adjudicators to circle each score's digits / Leave the motion blank on printed scoresheets ballotReturnLocation, ballotsConfirmDigits, ballotsHideMotions Empty / Off / Off Print ballots page (Print options) Empty or "TBA" hides the return location. See Printing and display.
Return feedback forms to feedbackReturnLocation Empty Print feedback page (Print options)

No control in the app#

Key Default Notes
drawRule Power paired Default draw type for new rounds: power paired, random or round robin (bracket is a legacy value treated as random). Set only by the setup wizard.
panelSizingMode Fixed Fixed or by priority. The Allocation page's panel sizing choice starts from this value but does not save it; it can only be stored by a configuration file or the API.
publicDraw On Older on/off switch, kept in step with Public draw (publicDrawMode).
allowLowPointWins Off Older switch, kept in step with Deciding the winner; still read when winnersInBallots is unset.
feedbackPath Two-way Older preset (chairs_to_panel, two_way, everyone); used only when feedbackPaths is unset.
feedbackQuestions None Older single question list; used only when the team or adjudicator list is unset.
repeatMatchupPenalty, institutionClashPenalty 1000 / 200 Older names; used only when the team history / institution penalties are unset.
preliminaryPanelsPerScheduleSlot — Deprecated, never read; a stored value is moved into preliminaryPanels.

Details#

  • Defaults in code. The values the configuration pages show for unsaved settings come from configFormDefaults in src/lib/setup/configForm.ts and getPublicSiteSettings in src/lib/publicFeatures.ts. Validation rules are in PREFERENCE_RULES (src/lib/setup/preferenceValidation.ts); text fields allow 20,000 characters (welcome message, staff credits, ballot introduction, feedback introduction) or 500 (return locations).
  • Tabbycat differences in defaults: team institution penalty 200 (Tabbycat 1); odd brackets pull up the top team (Tabbycat intermediate with bubble-up-bubble-down); motion reuse on (Tabbycat off); elimination sides by seed (Tabbycat random, available as an option); public switches on (Tabbycat off, but CrabbyTab also requires a release). BP ballots are always consensus, so Tabbycat's BP voting with margins including dissenters is not offered. See Comparison with Tabbycat and tabbycat-parity-plan.md.
  • Per-round settings live on the round rather than the tournament: draw type, feedback switch, points weight, silent round, preallocated sides, preformed panels and seed. See Rounds and draws and the Data model.
  • API. Preferences can also be read and changed through the REST API (PATCH /tournaments/{slug}/preferences, a partial update where null restores a default) with the same validation and the same save rules. See API and tokens.
  • In-repo references: draw-generation.md, adjudicator-allocation.md, results-and-ballots.md, standings-and-breaks.md, public-pages-and-notifications.md, staff-access.md, rounds-schedule-and-motions.md, tournament-rules-enforcement.md.

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