NFBC Message Boards

Well, it's been 5+ years since we unveiled the NFBC web site with this all American look!! STATS got us up and running in November of 2003 and we've held this look for 5+ years for the NFBC and the NFFC. I've looked the same way for 30+ years, so as you can see I'm slow to change!!



That being said, with our partnership with NBC Sports/Rotoworld.com it was time for a new look and we finally got together with STATS this off-season to create a new look and feel for the NFBC. We'll unveil that Friday and maybe even earlier. You will see right away that our partnership with NBC Sports is for real because the new site has their stamp all over it. I'm excited about the new look, but more importantly hopefully all of our various contests will be better organized now.



Since 2004, we've added something to the NFBC each year and we just added a link here or there for your information. By 2008, it was a jumble of links that weren't separated in any logical order and the satellite league offerings were all lumped together. Heck, some links weren't even added like for the Draft Champions League format as word-of-mouth was the way to spread the rules. That shouldn't have been done and it can't be done going forward, not with all of the offerings we now have.



So on Friday we'll have everything from video of what the events look like to testimonials to past winners photos, to a list of defending league champs, to links and explanations for every NFBC offering, REgistration links for all of our offerings and price ranges (which is there now), and even a space for the NFBC Hall of Fame. We only have five years of competition in the books and I believe you need 10 years of data to enter the MLB Hall of Fame, so we're not even close to inducting anyone here yet. But the space has been set aside and we can have fun with that feature during the next five years!!



Thanks to Rick Wolf at Rotoworld.com because he's the brains and push behind this effort. Zachary Williams of STATS has taken this upon himself to make this site look great and we owe him a ton of credit. It's an awesome look and the functionality is now there for Tom and I to update anything on the site ourselves, something that hasn't been available in the past. We will be able to program countdowns for every available event and the system will countdown for us every time a signup comes in. Features like that are cool and will create more timeliness for the main event, auction leagues, online championship and satellite leagues that we didn't have before.



So it's all good. Tom and I are adding text to each link on the site now and will be doing that all day, so enjoy the boards by yourselves. We will meet our Friday deadline to have this live as it's been several months of work to get this right. After we've tweaked everything here, we can duplicate this for the NFFC site, but give us a few weeks for that to happen.



Good luck all and get ready for the new look and feel in two days.

Hey Stache,

Are we going to see the video of how you came to the Sandoval decision? I searched youtube and couldn't find it.

Originally posted by Corkedbats:

Hey Stache,

Are we going to see the video of how you came to the Sandoval decision? I searched youtube and couldn't find it. What a dopey comment.

As I just stated on the Hall of Fame thread, tomorrow we will unveil our new NFBC look for the web site as STATS is putting the finishing touches on it now. The key with the new design is to give Tom and me more administrative capabilities to make text changes immediately, whether that be for the front page, the leagues you've chosen, or creating a countdown for any live event or satellite league. We now are capable of going into any of your files and immediately making any change you need to your signup page or contact info.



In the past, Tom and I would get changes from NFBC members via phone or e-mail and then pass all of this information to our accounting department and to STATS to make the change. Now Tom and I can do everything and the changes immediately go to the STATS pages and to accounting without changing hands with anyone else. To be truthful, our past process has been so labor intensive that even though this seems like more work for me and Tom it will be much, much easier for us. Anytime the two of us can have more control in our hands the better the end result will be.



The new site also has links everywhere to the rules, the prizes and the registration page. Tom and I can add leagues immediately, delete full leagues, put on the home page how many spots are left in the next satellite league, etc. The site should be better organized and if it's not we'll change it quickly. STATS has done a lot of work to this point, but again the goal is to have them do less work after this with Tom and I making most of the needed changes.



Give us some feedback tomorrow when you see the site and feel free to provide new suggestions to make things easier. Next step is to clean up our MY TEAMS pages and allow folks to learn more about every players' past NFBC performances, personal info they want to provide and more. We also need pulldown links for each year and sport because some folks have so many NFBC and NFFC leagues that it's hard to find anything. The next step will improve that.



Give us another day and we'll have the new look live.

is there an ETA?

Originally posted by Gordon Gekko II:

is there an ETA? I just checked all the links and told STATS to tweak a few things and then the switch will be turned on. We're missing a few photos that should go to the History of the NFBC page and the NFBC Hall of Fame page and even a few photos on the NFBC PAST WINNERS photo rotation, but for the most part it's all there. We added three links to every single event (Rules, Prizes, Sign Up Now) which took a lot of time yesterday, but it all looks like they work and are ready to roll.



Should be anytime this morning. I'll make a post when Zach at STATS gives me the green light. I just sent him an e-mail with a few minor changes and I think he's making them now. It looks good, but better yet it's more user-friendly for me and Tom and information should be more available to anyone who now navigates our site. That wasn't the case recently as we added more events and rules and players, etc.



I'll post the exact ETA real soon.

Sorry for the delay on this. My little suggestions are taking a little longer to program than I thought. I see most of the changes being made, so I think we're close. I'll post again when I know when this new site will be live.

Okay, we're almost there. Definitely this afternoon.

Sorry for the delay, but I should have known this would take some time today. But I think we have the final link live and the final bug squashed, so we're going to do this before cocktail hour, I promise!!



Hang tight for a few more minutes as I think STATS is converting the background right now. With any luck, we'll have this new look soon. Sorry for the delay.

do i have time to run and get a pizza?

It looks live to me!!! Check it out:

http://www.fantasybaseballchampionship.com

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

It looks live to me!!! Check it out:

http://www.fantasybaseballchampionship.com Nice work Greg!



It went live the same moment we made the final pick in our 45 round Draft Champion Slow Draft league.

Originally posted by Raskol:

quote:Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

It looks live to me!!! Check it out:

http://www.fantasybaseballchampionship.com Nice work Greg!



It went live the same moment we made the final pick in our 45 round Draft Champion Slow Draft league. [/QUOTE]You guys are really done with that one?!! Amazing. You guys did 45 rounds in 9-10 days. That's great.



Yeah, I think this is a big improvement. Check out all of the pulldown links. We now have a more organized site with a lot of past history that just wasn't being used properly before. We also can add a lot to the NFBC Players link, the Resources link, the Learn More link, etc. This should allow us to stay more organized in the future.

The NFBC Message Boards will have the same background as the home page, but apparently this will take a little more time and we didn't want to hold up the launch because of this. Look for the black backgrounds next week on the message boards.

It looks great Greg. Nice job!

Nice Improvement Greg

Nice work Greg, the new site looks great!

agreed, much improved and having NBC up there looks sharp. Glad to see the banner ad go away, it was pretty cheesy...

Just got a chance to look everything over. Very well done, the improvement is like night and day.



One thing that continues to be quirky - when you login you are immediately whisked away to your "team page" - so once you login you no longer can peruse the NFBC home page. Seems like the "team page" should be a link on the home page after logging in, rather than an immediate re-direct.

Originally posted by KJ Duke:

Just got a chance to look everything over. Very well done, the improvement is like night and day.



One thing that continues to be quirky - when you login you are immediately whisked away to your "team page" - so once you login you no longer can peruse the NFBC home page. Seems like the "team page" should be a link on the home page after logging in, rather than an immediate re-direct. Agreed KJ. My issue arose when I was taken to my team page and then hit the Register for 2009 Link so I could register for my event(s) it took me back to the new home page, but logged me off. I then would try and register with my password and it kept tell me that I had to create a new username and password cause the ones I entered were already taken. It just taking me in a loop.

Originally posted by KJ Duke:

Just got a chance to look everything over. Very well done, the improvement is like night and day.



One thing that continues to be quirky - when you login you are immediately whisked away to your "team page" - so once you login you no longer can peruse the NFBC home page. Seems like the "team page" should be a link on the home page after logging in, rather than an immediate re-direct. Good point. That should be easy to solve. Maybe we should make that pop up separately so that you still have access to the home page, same that happens when you click on the Message Boards. Thanks for the input.

Greg,



The goodie bag page still has 2007 information (i.e. registration dates, 2007 magazines, et al). Same with Help for Hire. Might be confusing to the potential new customer.



[ January 17, 2009, 08:01 AM: Message edited by: Edwards Kings ]

Originally posted by Edwards Kings:

Greg,



The goodie bag page still has 2007 information (i.e. registration dates, 2007 magazines, et al). Same with Help for Hire. Might be confusing to the potential new customer. Yup, those two links need to be updated. Thanks for the heads up. We have covers of some of the magazines you'll be receiving done already and can add those jpgs. I just got the first cover of Fantasy Sports Magazine back from the printers and Bobby Jurney looks good on it holding that $100,000 check.

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

quote:Originally posted by Edwards Kings:

Greg,



The goodie bag page still has 2007 information (i.e. registration dates, 2007 magazines, et al). Same with Help for Hire. Might be confusing to the potential new customer. Yup, those two links need to be updated. Thanks for the heads up. We have covers of some of the magazines you'll be receiving done already and can add those jpgs. I just got the first cover of Fantasy Sports Magazine back from the printers and Bobby Jurney looks good on it holding that $100,000 check. [/QUOTE]Sweet!