New HTML Draft Room Is Now Live

[Greg Ambrosius]

Okay, let's try this again. This time let's get it right.

We just activated the new HTML Draft Room for everyone involved in a Draft Champions League. The new HTML Draft Room is the first option on the left when you "Head To The Draft Room", with the Flash option now being on the right. If all goes well this week, we'll unveil the new draft room for Cutlines and Online Championship League drafts as well.

We're looking for feedback as far as functionality is concerned. You can post that feedback here or email me at [email protected]. Hopefully this allows folks to more easily make their DC picks on their iPhones, iPads and other smartphone devices, while still being easily accessible on desktop computers.

Notice that the Chat Room can pop out to its own window if you'd like. You can also now type 200 characters into any post.

The Draft History now shows the last 15 picks. The scroll at the top of the draft room also shows the next 15 teams in the draft.

It's very easy to add players to your Que and you can load in a lot of players there.

Each player has his current ADP listed in the Player Default List and in the Player Details box.

My Roster is easily scrollable to show your current picks.

All of the stat categories are sortable in each of the position listings.

There remains a link to the old HTML draft room at the bottom: Mobile Users - Click Here

Again, check out the new HTML Draft Room and provide feedback. This is the site design, so I'm really looking at feedback on functionality. Thanks all and good luck.

[simonscrew]

Did notice that I didn't see a link to my other teams. The only work around I found was to click on the "roster grid" on the top right and could navigate that way. Maybe I'm missing something.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Did notice that I didn't see a link to my other teams. The only work around I found was to click on the "roster grid" on the top right and could navigate that way. Maybe I'm missing something.

Correct, we took out that whole top area of the draft room that you see in Flash to make better use of the entire space. That seemed like wasted valuable space in Flash, but you are correct that it also eliminated the navigational bar. Now you need a separate window for your teams. I can ask if maybe a My Teams link can go up by the Help button.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[JohnP]

Looks nice. Couple of comments / questions:

1) My Roster

Is it possible to make the "my roster" box bigger? Possible to be able to "size" those boxes by dragging that dividing line between queue and roster boxes? If you put the team and position indicator for the players in the queue after the name instead of below it (as it is in the roster section and in draft history section), you could pick up a lot of space and have more room to view roster.

2) Pop-Out Chat

You need to click twice to pop out. Once to open. Second to pop out in a new window. That's all fine. My question is that you are still left with the black rectangular box that interferes with the rest of the screen depending on your size of screen. That black rectangular box should size smaller as you decrease your screen and tuck in nicely where it is supposed to be without interfering with the rest of the stuff?

[simonscrew]

Also just noticed when I refreshed the page it jumped to a different league I'm also drafting in. I'm currently in 3 live drafts and I had each draft playing on different pages. I'm using windows 10 and chrome.

[Captain Hook]

Most of this looks good BUT the player list is VERY SMALL - there should be a way to enlarge the number of players we can see at one time. LOOK at all the wasted space at the top of the page

Also to repeat an earlier request - if the chat room is popped out then we should be able to get rid of the small black box

[Greg Ambrosius]

Most of this looks good BUT the player list is VERY SMALL - there should be a way to enlarge the number of players we can see at one time. LOOK at all the wasted space at the top of the page

Also to repeat an earlier request - if the chat room is popped out then we should be able to get rid of the small black box

Correct, the player list shows 9 players. The Flash showed 17 players. I've talked with IT about it and a lot of it has to do with being set up for iPad, iPhones, etc. If you go even smaller with type to get more players in it will be impossible to see the type on those devices. But I agree, I wish we could get more than 9 players visible there, but if people are using the Draft Prep and loading in their own player default lists or the ADP list, hopefully we are taking the search for players chore away for you. But I hear this point and it's the point I also brought up.

If you pop the Chat out to a separate window it leaves the one black line that says Chat. You can't just have it disappear or if someone closes the separate window you still need to find the Chat link. I can ask, but it doesn't seem to be taking up that much space. But I'll ask.

Thanks for the feedback all.

[Captain Hook]

Mine shows THREE players before I have to scroll down (Google Chrome on Windows 8)

[Sack]

Had a chance to view the new room for about two rounds as our Auction/DC finished up.
Impressed - everything seems a bit larger and easier to read. Takes a bit to get familiar with
the new layout - but seems positive at first glance.

Nicely done.

[Dat Bum]

The new draft room looks great. I echo the same desire to see more available players and agree that there's some over-sized elements at the top of the draft room (The round by round scroll left to right could be condensed as could the player details of the currently highlighted player). There's some wiggle room left to right in a couple of the boxes as well. Otherwise, well done and thanks for the well thought out improvements.

One interesting element that I would enjoy would be the ability to enter in our own stats in our "My Roster" box and have our 10 categories automatically tallied for us. There would need to be a place to enter At Bats, R, HR, RBI, SB, IP, K's, W's, SV's, ER, and W+H. This one element would set the NFBC Draft Room far and above what anyone else has to offer and it would work perfectly for the slow draft set up. Otherwise, I'll just keep using my own spreadsheet for such purposes but it would be a cool feature to have right in the draft room.

[fwicker]

On an iPad I cannot see where I can search on a players name?

[DOUGHBOYS]

Doing two drafts at the same time is a hardship with the new room.
I Can't switch back and forth easily. Loads slowly.
Also, when refreshing the draft chat or even the draft room, it takes me to another draft.

[Yah Mule]

I have to refresh the screen to get the selections to advance.

[Bronx Yankees]

Having trouble moving guys up and down my queue on touch screens (iPhone and iPad). No problems doing this on desktop with a mouse. Strange.

Mike

[Greg Ambrosius]

Having trouble moving guys up and down my queue on touch screens (iPhone and iPad). No problems doing this on desktop with a mouse. Strange.

Mike

Okay, thanks for the feedback on the new HTML draft room and keep the suggestions coming. I've forwarded all of the points on this thread and we will go over all of this in our weekly meeting. If you're seeing anything else just let me know.

Also, I didn't realize we had a bug on the new draft board that was preventing the big sticker from popping up after every pick. We got that fixed last night and everything works fine now. If you're watching a 10-team Cutline draft, keep that draft board open and watch the picks pop in there. It will be like a TV show with all of those player images popping in every 20-30 seconds. Pretty cool. Enjoy.

[Steel Lugnuts]

In a 15 league DC, you can't see all the teams across the top of the screen, no big deal I suppose.

At least when I checked in to the new draft room using my phone, it did not remove the auto pick I had enabled.

[Greg Ambrosius]

In a 15 league DC, you can't see all the teams across the top of the screen, no big deal I suppose.

At least when I checked in to the new draft room using my phone, it did not remove the auto pick I had enabled.

The top banner that shows the next teams on the clock in the new HTML draft room does show 15 teams on a desktop. Let me know what device you're using and not seeing 15 teams in that top banner. Thanks.

[JohnP]

In a 15 league DC, you can't see all the teams across the top of the screen, no big deal I suppose.

At least when I checked in to the new draft room using my phone, it did not remove the auto pick I had enabled.

The top banner that shows the next teams on the clock in the new HTML draft room does show 15 teams on a desktop. Let me know what device you're using and not seeing 15 teams in that top banner. Thanks.

Depending what pick you are - 15 not enough. You can see 15 total teams but not all of the 15 teams so thus - can't see who is on auto, who isn't, etc. and no way to scroll to see them.

[Greg Ambrosius]

In a 15 league DC, you can't see all the teams across the top of the screen, no big deal I suppose.

At least when I checked in to the new draft room using my phone, it did not remove the auto pick I had enabled.

The top banner that shows the next teams on the clock in the new HTML draft room does show 15 teams on a desktop. Let me know what device you're using and not seeing 15 teams in that top banner. Thanks.

Depending what pick you are - 15 not enough. You can see 15 total teams but not all of the 15 teams so thus - can't see who is on auto, who isn't, etc. and no way to scroll to see them.

Yeah, I would like the ability to grab that bar and scroll to the right to see as many spots as possible. That being said, if you have the draft board open (which I think many do) you can certainly see very easily how many spots you are away from drafting again. But I agree, I'd love to see us be able to scroll to the right there. I hear ya.

[Steel Lugnuts]

Yeah, I think you see what I mean about the top banner not showing all the teams...I do love the separate buttons for the draft board and roster grid.

[Donnie Baseball]

I must say I prefer the old HTML option. The only real advantage of the new is that the chat board is easier to post longer message. Visually, I prefer the "boxing" of players and data as it is easier to read. The undraftedc players list is also easier to scroll and lists more players at a time. The new seems to have too much happening on the page. I very much hope the old HTML remains an option for mobile users. Thanks.

[Greg Ambrosius]

I must say I prefer the old HTML option. The only real advantage of the new is that the chat board is easier to post longer message. Visually, I prefer the "boxing" of players and data as it is easier to read. The undraftedc players list is also easier to scroll and lists more players at a time. The new seems to have too much happening on the page. I very much hope the old HTML remains an option for mobile users. Thanks.

It sure will, at least through this year. Enjoy any of the three options we have. No problem there.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Doing two drafts at the same time is a hardship with the new room.
I Can't switch back and forth easily. Loads slowly.
Also, when refreshing the draft chat or even the draft room, it takes me to another draft.

Dan, I've gotten feedback on this one and it's not caused by the new HTML draft room.

In Flash, you can't open two separate drafts as well. I do understand that the loading takes 5-10 seconds longer with the new HTML draft room, but even in Flash you have to go to two separate rooms.

If you want to do multiple drafts at once, the answer is to open one in Firefox and one in Google Chrome. Heck, open a third one in Safari. By using different browsers you can have multiple draft rooms open and draft multiple times. But again, this isn't a new issue. That's who you have to do in Flash and in our old HTML draft room. And I know our competitors recommend the same thing with their draft rooms.

Hope this helps.

[Greg Ambrosius]

On an iPad I cannot see where I can search on a players name?

Yes, the long vision with the new HTML draft room is to get out of Flash and into a fully implemented, updated HTML draft room. However, that doesn't mean we have everything perfected for drafting on the iPad and smartphones. Search is definitely there on the laptop version, but we need to keep adding features for these devices so that folks can eventually do all of their drafting that way. Not everything is there at this very moment. We know this is one item not on the iPad. We'll get it done, but it won't be an instant addition with everything we have going. But yes, we need to add that.

[KJ Duke]

Rather than compromising the primary draft room to make it "fit" better on mobile, it seems a better long-term path would be to create a separate mobile version of the draft room, or better yet an app-based version.