You were pounded for those comments, John.
And knowing you, probably rightly so
What has changed between now and then?
Time.
I'll speak for myself here.
I was willing to give the NFBC time to get their tech legs beneath them. It was a new idea and together we grew into a family of sorts.
I felt to berate the NFBC for technical glitches in its genesis was too early. Mistakes were bound to happen.
We went through the Fanball period and were at the least, promised better technology. Fanball had done this for years and even though there was a lot to dislike about Fanball, we did expect better tech.
We really never even got that.
Its been over 10 years now and technolgy is still the weak link of the NFBC.
The things that were talked about years ago are still the same things being talked of today.
FAAB, live scoring, and ease of the pages all could be enhanced.
With STATS, I expected everything to be streamlined. STATS, to me, meant an organization that was built on technology driven information delivered to many companies and countries every day.
It's not the case for us.
We are promised better tech and get some in drips and drabs, almost like the NFBC is the low man on the STATS totem pole and are thrown a bone every once in awhile.
The FAAB new page is nice, a slight improvement, but far from being the page most of us really want.
Yet, we are told that new FAAB fixes are over and 'live scoring' is the next fix.
I had a player in the 'drop player' slot last night. Refreshed, the page, and voila! That player was gone.
I'm glad I noticed, but wondered if that had happened other times.
Below is part of what STATS says they have to offer their customer:
'Data Delivery XML Data Feeds STATS offers “streaming XML” feeds to its clients for all data, including pitch-by-pitch and play-by-play updates, over a socket connection. These feeds deliver not just the most recent play as fast as possible, but also any cumulative statistics that have changed on the recent play, minimizing the need of our clients to store and database the information. The intuitive nature of XML (Extensible Markup Language) offers STATS’ clients extreme benefits in terms of both adaptability and ease of production. Real-Time Data As the industry pioneer, STATS virtually created the high tech sports information industry by developing sophisticated data gathering networks to deliver the most in-depth, innovative and timely sports information services in the world. As a result, fans enjoy more in-depth, interesting and accurate statistics on a ‘real-time’ basis. Moreover, our clients are more efficient because they can leverage resources that would have been used to manage a feed to other more profitable areas in their company due to STATS’ custom data feeds.'
STATS stands for 'Sports Team Analysis and Tracking Systems'
In a way, we're a STATS customer. Why aren't we getting this superlative service?
We've been with STATS for at least a couple of years now and still are not treated the way that STATS customers are.
We get drips and drabs, they get lightning fast.
Sorry if this comes off as a rant or even a Walla Walla type post...(I'll take the heat this time, John).
I'm just darned disappointed that we settle for what we get, instead of getting the best out of STATS.
And I know there is a best of STATS out there.
Sorry in advance, and like said, these are just my thoughts. Maybe I'm the only one feeling this way.
