Mildly Infuriating

An unmonitored qr code locked gate you say? Sounds like a job for a prybar, or chain cutters.

Then everyone can use the commons

Email your city. That’s unacceptable use of taxpayer dollars

That sounds like not open to the public.

I’m laughing at the city planner that meticulously set all this up in anticipation of the courts being so wildly popular they required a booking system.

All that work and they’re sitting mostly unused.

Did any of the information it’s requesting have to be valid? I doubt they were cross referencing it against anything. So go be John Doe, a 69 year old Female with a birthday of 1/1/1970.

Does your town still have a local paper or news channel? This would be perfect for the local “grind my gears” guy to chew on.

Gee I wonder why no one was using them 😅 thats fuckin dumb and an enormous headache even outside of privacy implications

Slip in when someone else goes for tennis. Super glue the latch to the gate open. Duct tape it for good measure. Gate looks closed but it's actually open. Tadaa.

Alternatively, smash that stupid fucking keypad with a big rock. 👍

Buy an angle grinder.

Did you complain directly to your local politicians? 'Cause they're the Ines who really need to hear this.

I, too, am sick and tired of the government forcing me to contract with various third party commercial entities, BTW. We need more people to complain if we want it to change.

Is there a guard present? Who is going to enforce lack of reservation when there are other courts clearly not in use?

I'd say f this sign and just play.

That's probably a carry over from systems built out for major cities and their park spaces. You would know in a second why it was necessary if you ever rolled over to an NYC park, hoping to play some tennis or handball, or whatever, only to find out that all the courts near you are being camped out by the same group of guys who are there so often, it seems like they live there. I could see if becoming the standard from major cities where it makes sense to make sure these resources can't be dominated by a handful of individuals who don't allow anyone else a turn, but then mindlessly carried over when installing them elsewhere in places where there isn't the same need.

Are there no other courts available to you? We live in a very rural area but we go to the highschool to play on the weekends/evenings. It's free and unlocked as opposed to the gym where we have to check in inside to get a key.

this is annoying to me because there are all sorts of things I have used spaces like tennis courts for that I would not want to reserve for. I have had dogs to do ball throwing excersise and off leash training. I have messe around with a sling. In both cases I would only use it if no one was otherwise using it and if someone showed up I would go. Its not something where reserving one court would work but was a way I could enjoy some of our park infrastructure that I otherwise would not use when it was not being utilized. I mean the tennis courts around me get use sometimes but often times no one is there. Im sure there are other oddball uses to having an eclosed outdoor caged area. The reservation thing is dumb unless the courts are so freakin popular they are always in use 5am to 9pm. Which I assume are the park hours. Ours are closed sundown to sunup which pretty much means if you are in them a cop can come by and tell you to leave but like plenty of folk have come out for star gazing but also you get people drinking or something.

Huh. What country does that?

But yeah, it's similar here. Back in the day, I'd just go to a museum, theme park, zoo, fair, adventure forest... In modern times you'd book online, have to arrive within some designated time slot, maybe create an account, pay online... You can try to just go there, but there's some chance it's packed or whatever and they don't let you in. And nobody wants to waste half an hour driving there, so everybody does the online reservation ordeal for all kinds of minor things.

The only problem, as I understood is the 3rd party service that requires excessive amount of personal data, right? The system of booking time slots on courts is absolutely normal both for clubs courts and public ones, and it is the only solution that works when you want to provide access to many people for something valuable such as court. Without it no one can have guaranteed access to courts … As for data, I suppose considering malicious actors that easily can destroy public good, at least name and phone is required.

I'm in the UK, we have a registration system for Tennis courts in my local park. It's to ensure it's only accessed by people who are supposed to be using it, not kids damaging the net for example. It is also to prevent people arguing or overstaying for ages when other people want to play or prevent private tennis coaches/business abusing it. It's particularly useful in busy times like the summer.

Check the privacy policy of the 3rd party company. They may need to match you up to local records to ensure you're entitled to use the tennis court as it's publicly funded? Or to ensure you're a real person and not someone wanting access to steal the net or something random for example. Collecting data is not an issue in itself unless their privacy policy means they can use your data for anything else or store it. If so then complain to your city.