Slow Drafts

[Gekko]

There are two extreme ways to look at the lack of positions corrected and place holders such as Tomas not being available to draft by name.

1. 'It's STATS, they should be on the ball. There should be few, if any, mistakes.'

2. 'It's the first week of December. We started earlier than ever before. Not everything will be right this soon.'

And even though they seem to be opposing views in how to look at the problem, both are correct.
What should be happening is that the mistakes are corrected as drafts are underway. Lessening as we go.
The whole world knows that Tomas was signed by Arizona and will be drafted.
NFBC folks know that VMart is 1B eligible, not Utility only. That Andrew Miller is a Yankee, not an Oriole.
The 'gimme's' should be correct, even at this time of year.
Patience can be shown for minor leaguers not yet drafted or smaller glitches.

Let's recap...
1. STATS had a chance to check every major league player "games played" in 2014 prior to "going live" with the draft room and draft board
2. Draft Champions leagues began back on Friday, November 14th.
3. REPEATEDLY, folks have posted that the draft board isn't showing the proper positions for some players
4. REPEATEDLY, folks have posted that the draft room is showing Tomas as 3B (should be OF)
5. Yet here were are on January 1st, almost 7 WEEKS after the "go live" date and the issues are still there!!!!?!?!?!?!?

I hate to keep beating a dead horse (STATS IT); however given the ease at which this could be fixed, this is one of the sorriest displays of STATS IT incompetence in recent memory. I'd hate to be in Greg/Tom's shoes...trying to attract new customers while STATS IT doing their best to make it look the IT team is comprised of high schoolers, wait check that, elementary students.

PLEASE GET THE FRIGG'N DRAFT BOARD UP TO SNUFF NOW

YOU GUYS (STATS IT), EITHER:
A) DON'T GET IT
B) DON'T CARE

7 WEEKS AND COUNTING...

[Deadheadz]

PLEASE GET THE FRIGG'N DRAFT BOARD UP TO SNUFF NOW

YOU GUYS (STATS IT), EITHER:
A) DON'T GET IT
B) DON'T CARE

7 WEEKS AND COUNTING...

Demand continues to be high despite the issues. If the demand dries up, you'd likely see the issues resolved more quickly. I'm willing to join in a boycott if you decide to lead the charge. But I'm skeptical it's possible to slow the number of registrations much since many (most?) of the people entering the DCs are not people who visit the message boards very often.

Any other ideas for "encouraging" STATS to clean up their act? This is one time where I can see the core NFBCers as having more pull than the masses.

It's up to you.

[Gekko]

I'm not going to boycott the NFBC because of this.

However, IF enough players get duped because the draft room or draft board have the wrong positions associated with players and it F's up their team construction, I'm sure those folks will speak with their wallets, ie, not sign up for future leagues

[Greg Ambrosius]

I'm not going to boycott the NFBC because of this.

However, IF enough players get duped because the draft room or draft board have the wrong positions associated with players and it F's up their team construction, I'm sure those folks will speak with their wallets, ie, not sign up for future leagues

Yasmany Tomas is wrong in the draft room; he is OF only eligible and he is listed as 3B. It has caused problems already and led to discontent. We need to change it ASAP to prevent any more problems. It's certainly not anything we want from the draft room and I'm certainly not ignoring it because nobody has complained. People have complained, they are upset, but I need help to change this.

It's obvious that the draft board has more players listed wrongly than ever before. I don't know what data base it is grabbing those from this year, but it's not the NFBC eligibility list, at least not completely. But the draft room is correctly grabbing it from the position eligibility list. Our goal was to have the new online draft room with the new online draft board ready soon to alleviate these latest issues. Hopefully that will happen soon enough so that we can all move on with a better online draft room and one with a corresponding draft board.

Nobody has to apologize for being upset about this. It's on our team for having the draft board not 100 percent correct in the first place. And the Tomas position has to be corrected before more drafts are run. We're asking. Sorry for any issues so far and I'll ask for these changes once again.

[Lunatic]

I am not signing up for anything until I read the issue has been resolved. I can't believe this issue is that difficult to correct.

[Sack]

Every League Luny is just upset because the Buffalo Bill head coach quit.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Okay, Tom and I have updated all of the rosters that had Placeholders. It looks like we have all of the missing players in the default list that you have picked thus far. If we're missing anyone just email me at [email protected] and we'll get them added. Also, if you have a team with a Placeholder that still hasn't been updated, also email me at [email protected] and I'll get it updated. We thought we had everyone, but it's possible that we missed a team or two. Even if you're in a league that is still going on now and have a Placeholder, let us know and we can update it immediately.

Thanks for your patience on these international players and the minor-leaguers who were missing from the early drafts. I know it can be frustrating at times, but hopefully we're good to go the rest of the way. Thanks all.

[JohnP]

Okay, Tom and I have updated all of the rosters that had Placeholders. It looks like we have all of the missing players in the default list that you have picked thus far. If we're missing anyone just email me at [email protected] and we'll get them added. Also, if you have a team with a Placeholder that still hasn't been updated, also email me at [email protected] and I'll get it updated. We thought we had everyone, but it's possible that we missed a team or two. Even if you're in a league that is still going on now and have a Placeholder, let us know and we can update it immediately.

Thanks for your patience on these international players and the minor-leaguers who were missing from the early drafts. I know it can be frustrating at times, but hopefully we're good to go the rest of the way. Thanks all.

Good! Thanks. When do you expect new draft room to go live? Is it being thoroughly tested as to not have a whole new set of issues to deal with ? What will be the key features / upgrades with the new draft room?

[Greg Ambrosius]

Okay, Tom and I have updated all of the rosters that had Placeholders. It looks like we have all of the missing players in the default list that you have picked thus far. If we're missing anyone just email me at [email protected] and we'll get them added. Also, if you have a team with a Placeholder that still hasn't been updated, also email me at [email protected] and I'll get it updated. We thought we had everyone, but it's possible that we missed a team or two. Even if you're in a league that is still going on now and have a Placeholder, let us know and we can update it immediately.

Thanks for your patience on these international players and the minor-leaguers who were missing from the early drafts. I know it can be frustrating at times, but hopefully we're good to go the rest of the way. Thanks all.

Good! Thanks. When do you expect new draft room to go live? Is it being thoroughly tested as to not have a whole new set of issues to deal with ? What will be the key features / upgrades with the new draft room?

It will be thoroughly tested as we always do it here, which will take a little extra time as we work out everything before going live. That's the key. The main thing is that we are going off Flash and having the technology that is needed to get us on all devices so that down the road we can do everything on all devices. You'll see a modern draft room with pictures of players so that there's no confusion on who you're picking and more. Let's get this live first and then we can talk about additional features once we're going. I'm excited about the new look for all of our online drafts in all sports and the move away from Flash.

[KJ Duke]

If I saw a picture of John Brown and Jaron Brown before the season started, I wouldn't have known the difference.
FULL PLAYER NAMES, no abbreviations, that should be the first test !

[Greg Ambrosius]

If I saw a picture of John Brown and Jaron Brown before the season started, I wouldn't have known the difference.
FULL PLAYER NAMES, no abbreviations, that should be the first test !

You are correct sir!! And the football online draft software is already built for 2015, so we should be ready there for the Brown test right away. What has Brown done for you?!!!

Sorry about that. I think there was a bit of a difference between the two this year, too.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Thanks for the additional minor-leaguers that we may have missed. Those have just been added and we've updated the remaining rosters that had some of these guys on them. The player default list should be void of any Placeholders needed for players that have already been picked. If you need a Placeholder going forward, please send the name of the player to me at [email protected]. If you can't find that player then you are picking someone that nobody else has picked so far in the DCs!!

Good luck all and thanks again for the missing players.

[Yah Mule]

Good! Thanks. When do you expect new draft room to go live? Is it being thoroughly tested as to not have a whole new set of issues to deal with ? What will be the key features / upgrades with the new draft room?

It will be thoroughly tested as we always do it here, which will take a little extra time as we work out everything before going live. That's the key. The main thing is that we are going off Flash and having the technology that is needed to get us on all devices so that down the road we can do everything on all devices. You'll see a modern draft room with pictures of players so that there's no confusion on who you're picking and more. Let's get this live first and then we can talk about additional features once we're going. I'm excited about the new look for all of our online drafts in all sports and the move away from Flash.

Greg, I would volunteer for beta testing if you wanted to go that route.

[Deadheadz]

Greg, I would volunteer for beta testing if you wanted to go that route.

Me too.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Okay, Yasmany Tomas is now listed as OF in the draft room. All position eligibilities in the draft room are correct and they align with our position eligibility list. Sorry about Tomas, but the D-Backs listed him at 3B and thus it automatically put him there in the STATS data base. It wasn't an easy change just for our contest within the company's data base, but it's done now.

The draft board is not an easy fix for a number of reasons, but again the goal is to get the new one up quickly. I'll give you an update there when we have it.

Again, these are the players who are listed wrong on the draft board; they have UT designations when they should be:

Victor Martinez-1b
Nelson Cruz- OF
Billy Butler- 1B
Carlos Beltran- OF
Kendrys Morales- 1B
CJ Cron- 1B
Delmon Young- OF

Thanks all and good luck going forward.

[sek729]

In a brutal draft right now. The first 20 or so rounds were decent, not great, but the last 20 have been pretty brutal.

Alternative draft idea: Give everybody a set amount of time for their entire 50 rounds (36-48 hours per person?). If you run out of that clock, you have 1 minute/pick for the rest of your picks.

Would encourage people who are attentive to their teams to sign up for that kind of league and discourage these people who think it's their god given right to only log in once or twice a day and use up their 8 hours on every pick, while the rest of the league is doing their job to ensure the draft gets finished by the All-Star Break.

[mbendar16]

Alternative draft idea: Give everybody a set amount of time for their entire 50 rounds (36-48 hours per person?). If you run out of that clock, you have 1 minute/pick for the rest of your picks.

The problem with this idea is that the clock has to stop for sleep, or else someone that picks timely and has the clock hit them every night could be stuck with having to make multiple 1 minute clocks during the tail end of a draft.

These DC drafts, despite them not being perfect, are too popular to change the formats. I am a good example of being a pretty timely drafter, and because I can't log in as much as I used to during the day, have decided to not sign up for any of these drafts this season out of respect for other players. Most won't do that and they will take the clock they need, not always just as disrespect, but for work or other legitimate reasons. The fact is that if someone goes on the chat room on day 1 of the draft and says they can't draft during the day because of work, it is possible that people will still complain that they are too slow and should find a way to log in during the day.

[Greg Ambrosius]

We stopped calling these Slow Drafts several years ago because they gave a bad vibe to these drafts. And this year I must admit the early drafters have been downright AWESOME. Not every draft is perfect and not every drafter is PERFECT, but the speed of these early drafts have been amazing. Here's a few examples:

2 drafts started yesterday at 1 pm ET and less than 24 hours later they are in Rounds 8 and 9.

The DC that started 2 days ago is in Round 16.

The one that started on New Year's Eve is in Round 22.

The one that started 7 days ago is in Round 38.

Good job all and keep up the nice pace.

[Deadheadz]

New rule for 2016 NFBC season: if you timeout in round 1, you stay on auto pick for the next 49.

Just be sure you queued me up right.
Hopefully our AWOL drafter is safe and healthy.


.

[Brian Jenner]

Alternative draft idea: Give everybody a set amount of time for their entire 50 rounds (36-48 hours per person?). If you run out of that clock, you have 1 minute/pick for the rest of your picks.

The problem with this idea is that the clock has to stop for sleep, or else someone that picks timely and has the clock hit them every night could be stuck with having to make multiple 1 minute clocks during the tail end of a draft.

Is it not possible to have the clock pause between certain hours? I haven't done an NFBC slow draft but to me it makes a whole lot more sense to limit the time to 48 hours per team with the clock stopping at Midnight EST and re-starting at 10AM EST. Even if it was 100 hours per team, that means even the worst drafter could only kill at most 2 hours per pick on average which is 4 times faster.

[Deadheadz]

Is it not possible to have the clock pause between certain hours? I haven't done an NFBC slow draft but to me it makes a whole lot more sense to limit the time to 48 hours per team with the clock stopping at Midnight EST and re-starting at 10AM EST. Even if it was 100 hours per team, that means even the worst drafter could only kill at most 2 hours per pick on average which is 4 times faster.

At 48 hours per team, the guy in the #3 hole of our draft would be down to only 20 hours left and we're just in round 14. And I'm hearing other leagues are worse. We have just one awol drafter while some leagues reportedly have 3-5 of them.

[mdecav]

To repeat a suggestion for 2016: move the time limit from eight to four hours, except for an eight hour window for sleep at the choice of the owner before the draft.

When an owner registers, there is a drop-down box with 24 choices: 12am - 8am EST, 1am - 9am EST, etc. if your time to pick lands during those hours, you get 8 hours to pick. Otherwise it's 4 hours. If you don't pick a window you have 4 hours regardless of when your pick comes up.

This can't be that hard to program.

The majority of owners typically are quick enough to get through their picks, but this safeguards against an owner or two who could take a long time during daylight hours.

[Deadheadz]

We heard from our slow manager.
He claims he was on auto and had no idea we were being delayed. We hear this a lot in every league.

Will the problem of "slow" slow drafts go away when (and IF) the long overdue HTML 5 Draft Room is available? Let's hope it does. Let's hope the new draft room comes sooner than later.

Personally, I'm going to keep my wallet closed until it does.

It's too frustrating.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Is it not possible to have the clock pause between certain hours? I haven't done an NFBC slow draft but to me it makes a whole lot more sense to limit the time to 48 hours per team with the clock stopping at Midnight EST and re-starting at 10AM EST. Even if it was 100 hours per team, that means even the worst drafter could only kill at most 2 hours per pick on average which is 4 times faster.

At 48 hours per team, the guy in the #3 hole of our draft would be down to only 20 hours left and we're just in round 14. And I'm hearing other leagues are worse. We have just one awol drafter while some leagues reportedly have 3-5 of them.

Chris, this league is in Round 16 and it started less than 3 days ago!!! I understand that you're upset with one drafter who isn't picking as fast as you'd like and maybe you'd be in Round 25 right now without him, but c'mon. As you just said to me, maybe you shouldn't do these 8-hour drafts anymore and I agree if 5-6 rounds a day isn't fast enough for you. I'm also hearing from drafters who are getting chastised by owners for not picking fast enough, saying they didn't realize they had to be on the clock all day long.

There is a happy middle point here and this league sure seems like it. 16+ rounds in 3 days is pretty good. And the reason the guy wasn't there quickly enough in Round 1 was because he works at night and was still sleeping when that league started, not knowing the league had started. He got right in and has been good since, until last night. So let's understand that no matter how we build the system, there is going to need to be patience from all 15 owners to make these work. Your league in January seems to be working pretty well.

[Greg Ambrosius]

We heard from our slow manager.
He claims he was on auto and had no idea we were being delayed. We hear this a lot in every league.

Will the problem of "slow" slow drafts go away when (and IF) the long overdue HTML 5 Draft Room is available? Let's hope it does. Let's hope the new draft room comes sooner than later.

Personally, I'm going to keep my wallet closed until it does.

It's too frustrating.

I don't doubt that the owner in question thought he was good to go, but we all know that everyone can see if someone is on Auto pick or not. This league is filled with savvy owners and it's obvious that one of you would have seen he was on Auto and the system wasn't making the pick for him. I would have heard right away from one of you. Obviously he thought he was on Auto and wasn't, at least that's what it seems to be.

You ask: Will slow slow drafts go away? I don't know if even your idea of a personal clock on every owner would be the solution since some owners still want it faster even when not all 15 owners are ready to complete these in 14 days or less. Having a Draft Champions League that continues over 21 days isn't a bad thing for a lot of our drafters and we'll gladly add 4-hour time limits for anyone who would rather have them set up that way.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: This year it sure seems like these DCs are going faster than ever before. I'll look again at all of the DCs going on right now without even knowing the answer:

Round 4 - 2 days ago
Round 16 - 3 days ago
Round 12 - 4 days ago
Round 23 - 6 days ago
Round 30 - 6 days ago
Round 44 - 7 days ago
Round 24 - 11 days ago
Round 45 - 14 days ago

If that time frame doesn't fit your needs or schedule, then let me know and we'll organize a DC league with 4 hours per pick. I'll start the signup thread now and soon we'll have that option on Registration. Thanks all.