NEW DRAFT ROOM

[Yellow Ledbetters]

Apologies for my part in the derailment of the conversation Greg.

My two cents...a draft room is a draft room. The particular features are not of much importance to me.

[Yah Mule]

Okay, back to improvements we can all make to the software, etc. Points have all been made. Carry on the right way now.

Earlier, you talked about post draft projections being a possible addition down the road. I see the point that it could spur some conversation, but I hope it would be back burner until some of the more functionality concerns are addressed. I'm fairly certain most of the good players here disregard projections (besides their own) after they do a mock draft.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Okay, back to improvements we can all make to the software, etc. Points have all been made. Carry on the right way now.

Earlier, you talked about post draft projections being a possible addition down the road. I see the point that it could spur some conversation, but I hope it would be back burner until some of the more functionality concerns are addressed. I'm fairly certain most of the good players here disregard projections (besides their own) after they do a mock draft.

We will work with an industry partner to launch this feature, so no worries about it delaying any other improvements.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Okay, just an update on the new online draft room. Tom and I were testing the room out yesterday with our IT department and everything went smoothly. I really like the feel of this room the more I use it. We noticed a few cosmetic changes that need to be updated, but I think by this time next week there's a good chance we'll be converting over to this new online draft room. If not then, very soon after that.

Again, there will be one version of the draft room going forward: HTML, so you won't have to deal with the Flash technology any more. It's a normal draft room with similar functionality such as sorting by position, sorting by stat categories, and with a Search box. When the players come up in the Player Display window, you can see a picture of them to verify the right player, but we also have their NFBC ADP, Position Rank, and overall Rank. That will be linked to current NFBC ADPs. The Chat box can be expanded easily or reduced to nothing and even pops up as a separate window that you can put anywhere on your screen. It's very easy to see every post since the start of the draft with a scroll bar. The big sticker of the drafted player will appear for 3 seconds; not too long and hopefully not too short. Selecting players for your Que is very, very easy.

The top bar shows the next 12 picks on deck and you can add your own logo to the top to easily see when you are up next. The new live draft board will replace the old draft board, hopefully right away but if not very soon after our launch. Players with multiple player eligibility will have all positions listed in the Player Display box before you select the player so that there will be no confusion on where he qualifies for the upcoming season. And the stickers also show multiple positions.

It should be an easy transition to this draft room, but obviously the more you use it the more comfortable it will become. We'll provide more updates next week, but again the key is that we are moving off old Flash technology and onto HTML. That will allow us to more easily add features and update the draft room. But along with that we think we have some new features that improve what we had before. I'll provide more updates next week after we finish these final tweaks, but I'm excited for the growth of our online business and I think this draft room will help us with that continued growth. Thanks all and enjoy your upcoming drafts.

Oh, and if all of this wasn't enough, we are close to launching the NFFC site. Tom and I have ranked the player default list for 2015 NFFC drafts, updated all of the 2015 contests and we just have a few more tweaks to make. We'll be live for football drafts soon enough and we will have a new online draft room this off-season over there as well. Very exciting. By May, we'll have a total redesign of the NFFC home page and inside pages as we spruce up all of our sites in 2015.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Just a heads up that all of our final tweaks to the new Online Draft Room were completed this week and a final test run was a big success this afternoon. We'll have an update tomorrow on the launch of the new online draft room and with any luck we'll launch one or two pay leagues on this site. I'll know more tomorrow, but all looks good.

We'll keep the current online draft board for the time being. Hooking this draft room to the live draft board is a little trickier and we don't want to hold up online drafts for something that will suffice as is. But after the launch the goal is to add a new online draft board as well.

We're looking forward to this new online draft room.

As always, set your Draft Prep. It's well worth the time to do that and to have YOUR player default list flow into each and every one of your online drafts. Tweaking it after you first set it is easy and your latest Draft Prep will always follow you into your next online draft. That's the way to go.

[Baseball Furies]

Just a heads up that all of our final tweaks to the new Online Draft Room were completed this week and a final test run was a big success this afternoon. We'll have an update tomorrow on the launch of the new online draft room and with any luck we'll launch one or two pay leagues on this site. I'll know more tomorrow, but all looks good.

We'll keep the current online draft board for the time being. Hooking this draft room to the live draft board is a little trickier and we don't want to hold up online drafts for something that will suffice as is. But after the launch the goal is to add a new online draft board as well.

We're looking forward to this new online draft room.

As always, set your Draft Prep. It's well worth the time to do that and to have YOUR player default list flow into each and every one of your online drafts. Tweaking it after you first set it is easy and your latest Draft Prep will always follow you into your next online draft. That's the way to go.

Greg, please don't take this personally (which unfortunately I feel that you will), but could you please just do us all a favor and have the next post on the "NEW DRAFT ROOM" be that it's up and running flawlessly for on line drafts (and in every other facet for that matter), and when the first draft changeover will be? These posts get more and more ludicrous all the time. I swear that NASA has tested new missile guidance systems that didn't take this long and with as much over-promising and under-delivering in the process. Enough already!. We all know that you and Tom want it to happen and so do about 99% of us, but when you make statements about "luck" and the "trickiness" of this process and how a whopping total of "one or two pay leagues" hope to be run on this site once it's done, and then quickly segue into how people should "set their draft prep" so that everything can flow into their next on line drafts, etc., a massive collective eye roll from your loyal customer base ripples across the country. JUST TELL US WHEN IT"S DONE AND COMPLETE WITH NO FURTHER ACTION REQUIRED! Thank you.

[rockitsauce]

I will try to write coherently so Dough understands me

Of course I'm taking part in the FD deal so I figure may as well do one of those DC's to get in on that Overall cash. I woulda loved to have done a quick one like Joe did w/ the fellas (even tho it was Shark wk) but I am concerned that I would hold up the draft b/c of a crazy schedule.

So it's do a slow one or one of them that gets done in one nt. I swore off slow one's ever since the 1st one I did (the infamous Marcel Lge) so that leaves one of those Express deals.

Cool. Tom sets me up. All good. I see a thread about a new draft room & figure I better check it out if I'm gonna be drafting soon. The only draft I've done is KJ Contract Lge in early Jan.

So I get here and I see this -

Trash talk is pointless. Jump in the Feb 27th DC Express and settle it there.

You have got to be kidding me. I just joined the draft that DJ Yella is challenging me to bring it, don't sing it ???

Oh HELL YEAH I'M YOUR HUCKLEBERRY

well hello johnny yella ringo

Val-Kilmer-Tombstone.jpg (22.63 KiB) Viewed 6649 times

[DOUGHBOYS]

Insomnia for me. Made me smile when I got up.
Got every word, David!

[Greg Ambrosius]

Just a heads up that all of our final tweaks to the new Online Draft Room were completed this week and a final test run was a big success this afternoon. We'll have an update tomorrow on the launch of the new online draft room and with any luck we'll launch one or two pay leagues on this site. I'll know more tomorrow, but all looks good.

We'll keep the current online draft board for the time being. Hooking this draft room to the live draft board is a little trickier and we don't want to hold up online drafts for something that will suffice as is. But after the launch the goal is to add a new online draft board as well.

We're looking forward to this new online draft room.

As always, set your Draft Prep. It's well worth the time to do that and to have YOUR player default list flow into each and every one of your online drafts. Tweaking it after you first set it is easy and your latest Draft Prep will always follow you into your next online draft. That's the way to go.

Greg, please don't take this personally (which unfortunately I feel that you will), but could you please just do us all a favor and have the next post on the "NEW DRAFT ROOM" be that it's up and running flawlessly for on line drafts (and in every other facet for that matter), and when the first draft changeover will be? These posts get more and more ludicrous all the time. I swear that NASA has tested new missile guidance systems that didn't take this long and with as much over-promising and under-delivering in the process. Enough already!. We all know that you and Tom want it to happen and so do about 99% of us, but when you make statements about "luck" and the "trickiness" of this process and how a whopping total of "one or two pay leagues" hope to be run on this site once it's done, and then quickly segue into how people should "set their draft prep" so that everything can flow into their next on line drafts, etc., a massive collective eye roll from your loyal customer base ripples across the country. JUST TELL US WHEN IT"S DONE AND COMPLETE WITH NO FURTHER ACTION REQUIRED! Thank you.

:

Don't worry Mikey, I don't take anything you say to me or about me seriously. I know your intentions are well. Just so you know, there are two private leagues that want to use the new online draft room (you're in one of them) and have asked to start their drafts when the room is available. This was as much an update for those 30 owners as for everyone, but you're right I'm stupid for communicating these updates. I'll try not to do that again.

For those other 30 owners, I'm meeting with IT shortly and we'll see if we can get the Mia league started soon in the new online draft room and we'll definitely get KJ's All-Star League on Monday on there. That's the goal...without me insinuating it here.

[DOUGHBOYS]

Iconic and ironic that Mikey gets the first pick in the new drafting room!!!

[Bronx Yankees]

Iconic and ironic that Mikey gets the first pick in the new drafting room!!!

It just proves that Mia is easier to bribe than Greg. Now maybe if Mikey were to send Greg some Hershey bars and Barbie dolls ....

Mike

[Baseball Furies]

Just a heads up that all of our final tweaks to the new Online Draft Room were completed this week and a final test run was a big success this afternoon. We'll have an update tomorrow on the launch of the new online draft room and with any luck we'll launch one or two pay leagues on this site. I'll know more tomorrow, but all looks good.

We'll keep the current online draft board for the time being. Hooking this draft room to the live draft board is a little trickier and we don't want to hold up online drafts for something that will suffice as is. But after the launch the goal is to add a new online draft board as well.

We're looking forward to this new online draft room.

As always, set your Draft Prep. It's well worth the time to do that and to have YOUR player default list flow into each and every one of your online drafts. Tweaking it after you first set it is easy and your latest Draft Prep will always follow you into your next online draft. That's the way to go.

Greg, please don't take this personally (which unfortunately I feel that you will), but could you please just do us all a favor and have the next post on the "NEW DRAFT ROOM" be that it's up and running flawlessly for on line drafts (and in every other facet for that matter), and when the first draft changeover will be? These posts get more and more ludicrous all the time. I swear that NASA has tested new missile guidance systems that didn't take this long and with as much over-promising and under-delivering in the process. Enough already!. We all know that you and Tom want it to happen and so do about 99% of us, but when you make statements about "luck" and the "trickiness" of this process and how a whopping total of "one or two pay leagues" hope to be run on this site once it's done, and then quickly segue into how people should "set their draft prep" so that everything can flow into their next on line drafts, etc., a massive collective eye roll from your loyal customer base ripples across the country. JUST TELL US WHEN IT"S DONE AND COMPLETE WITH NO FURTHER ACTION REQUIRED! Thank you.

:

Don't worry Mikey, I don't take anything you say to me or about me seriously. I know your intentions are well. Just so you know, there are two private leagues that want to use the new online draft room (you're in one of them) and have asked to start their drafts when the room is available. This was as much an update for those 30 owners as for everyone, but you're right I'm stupid for communicating these updates. I'll try not to do that again.

For those other 30 owners, I'm meeting with IT shortly and we'll see if we can get the Mia league started soon in the new online draft room and we'll definitely get KJ's All-Star League on Monday on there. That's the goal...without me insinuating it here.

Oh great to hear that we now have yet another definitive goal! Looking forward to starting the MIa in the NEW DRAFT ROOM sometime early next year. Yes, that was sarcasm, And stupidity was never mentioned or insinuated, Greg, in my post about the NEW DRAFT ROOM. Now when it comes to your statements about not taking anything I say to you seriously, that's when things took a turn into the realm of the stupid. Perhaps next year I'll try again. I'm done for this year. Looking forward to starting the Mia on Saturday in A draft room of some sort.

[Baseball Furies]

Iconic and ironic that Mikey gets the first pick in the new drafting room!!!

Hey, I never looked at it that way, Dough. Imagine that. Me of all people, who represents all that is good and right that Greg and Tom love about the NFBC, gets the first pick ever in the NEW DRAFT ROOM. Perhaps the room will be padded.

[Captain Hook]

Greg I am hopeful that the basics of the draft room didn't change, because I am pretty disappointed with the "draft rankings" - go to the C page and it only lists a dozen or so catchers - so you click the "next 100 players" and only a few of those are catchers, so rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat - HOPEFULLY all the names we need are still in the draft room

Since the league is drafting Sunday and already filled WHY isn't there access to the draft room?

[rockitsauce]

Greg, I am in the draft room for this Express DC tonight and I have both options - Flash & HTML

I'm pretty sure in past I used the Flash, is the HTML better ?

[Greg Ambrosius]

Greg I am hopeful that the basics of the draft room didn't change, because I am pretty disappointed with the "draft rankings" - go to the C page and it only lists a dozen or so catchers - so you click the "next 100 players" and only a few of those are catchers, so rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat - HOPEFULLY all the names we need are still in the draft room

Since the league is drafting Sunday and already filled WHY isn't there access to the draft room?

Perry, feel free to call me so that I can walk you through the Draft Prep and make your life easier before posting. Go to All to show all of the players and at the bottom of the Top 200 is a link that says Add Next 100 Players. You can do this to get 600, 700 players listed if you want. Then go to Catchers and you'll have all the catchers you need to rank. You just left it at Top 200 and thus had only 12 catchers. Play around with this for awhile and hopefully you'll like it.

This is the Draft Prep tool to allow you to rank players that will flow into your private draft room. It's a feature a lot of other sites don't offer. It has nothing to do with the new draft room as this room just like the current one will display our player default list or the one you set here. Nothing will change with this Draft Prep tool.

In the case of the league you're working on for Todd, just move all of the players from the four teams you have to the top of each position list and you're good to go. Again, to see all of the players load hundreds into the All file.

Our draft room opens at midnight the day of the draft. In most cases that's 19-20 hours beforehand. Anything you need in the draft room can be done in the Draft Prep tool, which is open all the time for you.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Greg, I am in the draft room for this Express DC tonight and I have both options - Flash & HTML

I'm pretty sure in past I used the Flash, is the HTML better ?

Not yet. Use Flash for this Express tonight. If anything changes beforehand I'll let you know, but Flash for tonight.

[Greg Ambrosius]

The new online draft room will go live starting with Monday's drafts. The Mia League and the KJ's Team Satellite League will kick off with the new online draft room at 1 pm ET. I think the Draft Champions Leagues that start at that time will transition over to that software as well, but I'm not positive.

I think current DCs will be able to use this HTML version as well once it goes live, but I'm not 100% positive of that. I'll find out and let you know.

Sorry for the delay, but we chose not to launch this on Thursday or Friday with the weekend coming up. Starting on Monday allows us to have all hands on deck with IT for all of these drafts and to help if needed. We look forward to the feedback on the new draft room and will gladly take any suggestions to improve it. Thanks all for your patience and good luck. GOODBYE FLASH TECHNOLOGY!!!

[Lunatic]

The new online draft room will go live starting with Monday's drafts. The Mia League and the KJ's Team Satellite League will kick off with the new online draft room at 1 pm ET. I think the Draft Champions Leagues that start at that time will transition over to that software as well, but I'm not positive.

I think current DCs will be able to use this HTML version as well once it goes live, but I'm not 100% positive of that. I'll find out and let you know.

Sorry for the delay, but we chose not to launch this on Thursday or Friday with the weekend coming up. Starting on Monday allows us to have all hands on deck with IT for all of these drafts and to help if needed. We look forward to the feedback on the new draft room and will gladly take any suggestions to improve it. Thanks all for your patience and good luck. GOODBYE FLASH TECHNOLOGY!!!

I know I have been a critic of all the announcements and subsequent delays in the launching of this new technology (see my quote at the bottom of my posts); I am hoping for the best and will be one of the first to applaud it's success. I have been waiting for this day since last year. Thank You Greg for your commitment to bring this to fruition!!!

[Greg Ambrosius]

The new online draft room will go live starting with Monday's drafts. The Mia League and the KJ's Team Satellite League will kick off with the new online draft room at 1 pm ET. I think the Draft Champions Leagues that start at that time will transition over to that software as well, but I'm not positive.

I think current DCs will be able to use this HTML version as well once it goes live, but I'm not 100% positive of that. I'll find out and let you know.

Sorry for the delay, but we chose not to launch this on Thursday or Friday with the weekend coming up. Starting on Monday allows us to have all hands on deck with IT for all of these drafts and to help if needed. We look forward to the feedback on the new draft room and will gladly take any suggestions to improve it. Thanks all for your patience and good luck. GOODBYE FLASH TECHNOLOGY!!!

I know I have been a critic of all the announcements and subsequent delays in the launching of this new technology (see my quote at the bottom of my posts); I am hoping for the best and will be one of the first to applaud it's success. I have been waiting for this day since last year. Thank You Greg for your commitment to bring this to fruition!!!

I thought that quote was always for our politicians, not for STATS!! Wow am I clueless!!

I agree that there should be frustration with all of the delays. We finished football too late to unveil for 2014 and the goal was to have this ready for NFBC 2015. While we wanted it done earlier for the Draft Champions Leagues, the goal was always to have it for the start of the Online Championship and Satellite Leagues on Feb. 15th. Now it's a March 2nd launch, but it's over-tested and ready to go. If it makes your job easier in the draft room and even speeds them up a little we'll all be happier. And we know that the Chat will be better, the draft board will be better (just not right away as we need to link the new one to it after the launch), the position eligibility will be right, and the photos will make sure you draft the right player. Give us the feedback once you start drafting and let's make the online experience as good as it can be. Thanks all.

[Lunatic]

That quote is for anyone and everyone, not specifically STATS; I use it all the time at work with the addicts.

[fozzie]

Greg, I'm prepping for the Team draft, but the Draft Room link still takes me to the same landing page with the same choices -- Flash or HTML. Is that as it should be?

[Greg Ambrosius]

Greg, I'm prepping for the Team draft, but the Draft Room link still takes me to the same landing page with the same choices -- Flash or HTML. Is that as it should be?

Yes. I'll let you know where the link to the new online draft room is located before 1 pm ET. You can still load your Que and everything else in the Flash draft room and it will save. But there will be a new link for the other room in the next hour or so. Stay ready.

[Tom Kessenich]

Everyone in KJ's Satellite league and the Mia league should be able to access the new draft room now. You should see a Draft Room *New* link under the draft navigation tab and that will take them to the new room. If you're in those leagues you can still access the old rooms via the traditional method if need-be.

[76erfan]

is there a way to see who is in the room with the new draft room?

Also Yasmany Tomas doesnt appear to be a draft option....ie he is a placeholder