Believe it or not, people have signed up under different names every year since 2004. Some people did it to protect their identity from local leagues, from people within the contest they knew, or mainly because they were doing multiple leagues and didn't want their results published for all to see. There are several people who do this, so don't think this is just one or two people. And their main reason for doing this is to play in multiple NFBC leagues without folks scouting down their draft results before the Main Event. I know that folks are worried about owners knowing THEIR previous draft results, but I've never had anyone tell me they were entering multiple leagues for scouting reasons. They are entering multiple leagues because 1) they think they can win multiple leagues; and 2) they are preparing for the Main Events.
Tom and I have never prevented the aliases or owners signing up under new accounts. We understand that without this option, many people will limit their NFBC leagues to the Main Events. We also know that no other contest lists all of the signups like we do and thus WE ARE AT FAULT in some way because we are revealing every single signup. We chose to do that originally as a way of showing exactly how many signups we have for each contest and it's possible that going forward we could do that with just the counters we are adding to the Registration pages now and not every single name. Look for those counters soon.
Still, it's nice to know who is in each league, so I think the signup lists will continue. However, for the early Slow Drafts and satellite leagues and Online Championships, I think it's not unreasonable to understand why some people don't want their names known when digging for those sleepers. The word gets out in a hurry.
Okay, so how do we handle the issue of aliases and the fact that many veteran NFBC owners want to do multiple leagues without every pick being known to the masses? It's a serious issue and not as easy as choosing black or white. There's a middle ground here that we'll try to reach.
Instead of aliases, I would like to list that spot as ANONYMOUS on the signup lists and everyone will know ahead of time that someone is competing without their name being known. If you don't want to compete in that league or event or time slot because of that, we'll remove you. Or you don't have to sign up for that league knowing someone could be in it anonymously. This allows us to be transparent without preventing some folks from playing in more leagues than they could without this.
Now to be clear: If a person signs up under his own login, he can change the team name but within the league his real name will be on the Owner's List. So it's very possible that someone will be listed as ANONYMOUS on the NFBC Message Boards, but once everyone enters the online draft room the league members will know who he is. If someone signs up under a totally different account, then that's who is listed on the signup page. In that instance, they would be listed as ANONYMOUS on the Message Boards and possibly Joe Smith in the draft room. It's how far the owner wants to take it that decides how they are listed in the online draft room.
This is our plan for 2012 on the NFFC Signup Lists. Everyone will make their choice on whether to play in those specific contests or not on those specific dates as they see fit. I do not believe this has hampered our competition in the past and I don't see it benefitting or hurting anyone going forward. We have more and more people playing more and more contests and for some they are protective of their sleeper picks. For others, they don't mind if others see who they are targeting. Some people do mind, though. And again, I've never heard another owner say they are scouting others. Heck, the biggest concern we had last year was about an anonymous owner who eventually landed in Las Vegas League 4, and that was the league where the overall champion came from, and it wasn't this anonymous owner!!
Lindy won it all from there.I'm interested in your feedback and I hope you understand the position from all sides: Ours, the owners who want to remain anonymous, and the owners who don't want to compete with anonymous owners. We hope to satisfy everyone (which I know is impossible). Thanks for understanding our position going forward and good luck all.
