The Match Point System

ASM uses a match point algorithm to determine how close the match is between the lost and found animal (or similar shelter animal, which it will also check for).

Where the system compares two user defined pieces of text (eg. Distinguishing features), the system will represent the final score as the number of words from the lost animal field that appeared in the found animal field, expressed as a fraction of the total points available for that field.

For example, suppose I had a lost animal with ``white paws, bell'' for the distinguishing features. If there was a found animal with features ``white paws, torn ear and a bell'', that would constitute a 100% match on that particular field because every single word from the lost animal field appeared in the found animal field.

If I had a found animal with ``white paws, no collar'' for the distinguishing features, that would constitute a 66% match, because the match was 2/3 words.

By default, the system scores lost/found matches in this manner (all of these point values and how many points are required to appear can be changed in System->Options ):

• 5 points - Same Species
• 5 points - Same colour
• 5 points - Same age group
• 5 points - Same breed
• 5 points - proportional match based on words of Area Lost/Found (ie 5 points maximum for 100% match of all words in Area Lost being present in Area Found)
• 5 points - Postcode match
• 5 points - proportional match based on words of Distinguishing Features
• 5 points - Same Colour
• 5 points - Found within 2 weeks of being lost

It therefore follows that 45 points is a 100% overall match.

Because some of the found animal fields are not present for animals on the shelter, the following comparisons are used:

• Date Brought In is used as Date Found
• Original Owner address is used for area found
• Original Owner postcode is used for Postcode area found.