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Slo-Drafts are neat. For NFBC folks, they've replaced Mock Drafts for the most part. Mock drafts lack 15 drafters who have any money in the pot, so thoughts wane or some even leave after the first few rounds.
NFBC Slo-Drafts are 15 drafters with money in the pot and competition still stiff enough for a feel of the Main Event.
The 'pro's easily outweigh the con's. Informative and funny chat, the feel of baseball with cold window sills, the banter and 'beat downs' when some players are drafted.
I am lucky to be in a league now with Todd Zola, Dave Anthony, Mike Massotto, Jeff Kent, Paul Gromek, and eight other wonderful drafters. These guys all know the ropes. They've been there and done that.
But, and there's always a but, isn't there? There is a fella in the draft that we do not want to draft with again.
Here's why. The last three or four days have been the same, here is our schedule:
1pm, est,pick 10 is on the clock
2pm, est pick 10 is on the clock
3pm, est pick 10 is on the clock
4pm, est pick 10 is on the clock
5pm, est pick 10 is on the clock
6pm, est pick 10 is on the clock
7pm, est pick 10 is on the clock
8pm, est pick 10 is on the clock
Between 10:30-12:00 picks 10-15, 15-11 pick
12am, est pick 10 is on the clock
1am, est pick 10 is on the clock
Pick 10 then picks before going to bed
2am-11am, est picks 9-7 pick during the night
11am-1pm, est picks 6-1, 1-9 are made
And the whole process starts over...

Our draft is like a broken clock, it works twice a day.
Pick number 10 holds us hostage each day during prime hours. He's not sorry. He thinks it's 'his' time. He doesn't care how the other 14 feel. He didn't post anything when the draft started. Now, he'll say 'Now picking' or 'will draft now' or '5 minutes', which is worse, because they are lies. Yep, now he teases or taunts. He doesn't pick within his notes time, ever.
At the start he was met with name calls and taunts, now he is ignored.

There is a good side to this. It's made me appreciate the 13 other fellas in our draft. Without the 14 consciencious and respectful efforts of the drafters, the draft would be insufferable.We are pretty much resigned to the fact that we have a morning crew and an evening crew that make the majority of the picks. And we do get in two rounds a day, again, thanks to the efforts of the 14.
Pick #10 has been called, e-mailed, and tweeted by members of the draft, and, I've heard that Greg called him too.

It's turned out to be a nuisance, instead of a big deal.
At worst, we know that he hogs up prime drafting time.
At best, we all know when his time is up in the evening so most of us meet then .Same with the morning pick, we wait for the west coast guy to wake up, talk, make our picks.
Until it gets to pick #10.
We're making the best out of a less than good situation.

The good of the draft itself almost always overrides selfish individuals who want to get in the way of others fun.
That draft is a shiny, new red Corvette.
Pick number 10 is the bird poop on the hood.
The poop's noticed, but forgotten by the fun had in the Vette.

Wow. That is freaking brutal. I feel for you guys. That would really frustrate me. I'm fortunate to have 14 great owners in my current league and we'll probably be finished with Round 43 tonight and we started exactly 2 weeks ago. Everyone communicates if they will be away. It's a mutual respect for our valuable time.

PS - Thanks for the awareness here. I'll be sure to scrub the league lists to ensure I'm not stuck with the Road Block.

"The good of the draft itself almost always overrides selfish individuals who want to get in the way of others fun..


Hmmm,. Almost sounds almost like....



Has anyone ever seen doughboy's ears??

Red Sox Nation- wrote:Wow. That is freaking brutal. I feel for you guys. That would really frustrate me. I'm fortunate to have 14 great owners in my current league and we'll probably be finished with Round 43 tonight and we started exactly 2 weeks ago. Everyone communicates if they will be away. It's a mutual respect for our valuable time.

PS - Thanks for the awareness here. I'll be sure to scrub the league lists to ensure I'm not stuck with the Road Block.

I think thats the key. Communication. You can be away, take your eight hours, etc, but at least let everyone know.

SQ! sq is my own term for lol, does anybody really lol?
'sq' means snickering quietly, cuz that's what we really do when we see something funny.
Unfortunately, if the NFBC had a Science Officer it wouldn't be me. That role has to be Zola's

WTF? How can you guys stand it??? Sounds like this guy needs to be avoided like the Plague.

Gekko wrote:WTF? How can you guys stand it??? Sounds like this guy needs to be avoided like the Plague.

It's amazing, but we've gotten used to it.
This may sound lame, but this story is so much like 'The Grinch'
It's like he wants to ruin our fun, but we haven't let him. Christmas, or our draft in this case is the important thing.

Heard he is gonna sign up as Anonymous next time

question...if u see this guy signed up for future slow drafts, can you put out a signal to let the rest of us know?

Gekko wrote:question...if u see this guy signed up for future slow drafts, can you put out a signal to let the rest of us know?

Here is the signal..

He's been on the clock for 4 1/2 hours and just posted that he'll be off the phone in 15-20 minutes.
I don't even know what that means.
Has he been on the phone the whole time?
Is it Shandler on the other end?
He can't be on the phone and pick too?
???
Just his way of getting attention, I guess.
The folks down in Whoville ignore him...

He is the number 10 pick in Draft 5.
He is the number 9 pick in Draft 6.

I have to give him credit. He followed through and picked. The evening crew gets to go on early tonight.

If this guy signs up for another league, anonymous or not, I think that league needs to come with a warning from Greg. There are rules and there are unwritten rules. This guy could be the end to slow drafts if he is allowed to not only persist, but participate in future drafts.

All you have to do is multiply 8 hours by the 750 picks in a slow draft (which is 6000 hours, or 250 days) to realize that slow drafts cannot tolerate these kinds of drafters. He is gaming the system and taking advantage of Greg Ambrosius and the goodwill of everyone else in the draft.

If a slow draft is designed to be completed in a reasonable time frame - say 3 weeks at the worst - that is appx 500 hours. That means that each team should take, on average, no more than 40 minutes per pick over the course of the draft.

I think it would be reasonable to incorporate something into the rules which states:

"While each participant has 8 hours for an individual pick, everyone is expected to average no worse than 2 hours per pick over the course of the draft". In a 50-round draft that is more than a 60-day pace. "If anyone falls significantly behind this pace, management has the right (although no obligation) to make draft picks on behalf of that participant in any or every remaining round once 2 hours of the 8-hour clock for that pick has expired, by selecting the highest default-ranked available player. Entry fees will under no circumstances be refunded".

So far, he's been sick, had problems and thinks it's his heart, had an extremely busy day, given rides to daughter, put daughter to bed, been on the phone, and he tells us all this AFTER a pick. Never before. At the beginning when he used the sick and heart thing, we had empathy. Since then, felt it was just a 'Doggy ate my homework' thing.
We pleaded for some 'heads ups'.
No reply.

Just somebody to avoid and a 'heads up for y'all.

DOUGHBOYS wrote:So far, he's been sick, had problems and thinks it's his heart, had an extremely busy day, given rides to daughter, put daughter to bed, been on the phone, and he tells us all this AFTER a pick. Never before. At the beginning when he used the sick and heart thing, we had empathy. Since then, felt it was just a 'Doggy ate my homework' thing.
We pleaded for some 'heads ups'.
No reply.

Just somebody to avoid and a 'heads up for y'all.

It only takes one to screw things up. Perfect format, a lot of fun but sometimes and exercise in futility.

This year in football there was a guy who drafted near the end. He took all ten hours for each pick (coming and going) from rounds 20-30 (only 30 rounds in football). He was waiting on pre-season info and said it was his right. Could be the same guy. I sympathize with you guys, sure does kill a great format.

KJ Duke wrote:If this guy signs up for another league, anonymous or not, I think that league needs to come with a warning from Greg. There are rules and there are unwritten rules. This guy could be the end to slow drafts if he is allowed to not only persist, but participate in future drafts.

All you have to do is multiply 8 hours by the 750 picks in a slow draft (which is 6000 hours, or 250 days) to realize that slow drafts cannot tolerate these kinds of drafters. He is gaming the system and taking advantage of Greg Ambrosius and the goodwill of everyone else in the draft.

Exactly what I thought from the outset & why I started the Slow Draft Protocol thread. The 1st guy in our draft was out of country and had connection problems, which is why he timed out in 1st rd. Since then he's been top notch, just like the other 13. This other guy is the problem. My thinking was if everyone took his approach we wouldn't be done til Easter. (KJ did the math cuz he's a smart guy, I was just takin that shit of the top of me head) Now I don't expect everyone to be QuickDraw McGraw like me, but this dude took at least 4 hrs (I was at work, don't know the exact time) today and that was a record low time for him! He has taken 7 hrs a few times in this draft. I'd be interested in knowing the # of hours he's actually been on the clock thus far in this draft. If I had to hazard a guess it'd be 3 days, 72 hrs.

I'm not gonna say I told ya so, but I think it's fair to say that I was not the person w/ unreasonable expectations here.

KJ Duke wrote:If this guy signs up for another league, anonymous or not, I think that league needs to come with a warning from Greg. There are rules and there are unwritten rules. This guy could be the end to slow drafts if he is allowed to not only persist, but participate in future drafts.

All you have to do is multiply 8 hours by the 750 picks in a slow draft (which is 6000 hours, or 250 days) to realize that slow drafts cannot tolerate these kinds of drafters. He is gaming the system and taking advantage of Greg Ambrosius and the goodwill of everyone else in the draft.

exactly. be a shame if a couple bad apples ruin a good thing.

NorCalAtlFan wrote:

KJ Duke wrote:If this guy signs up for another league, anonymous or not, I think that league needs to come with a warning from Greg. There are rules and there are unwritten rules. This guy could be the end to slow drafts if he is allowed to not only persist, but participate in future drafts.

All you have to do is multiply 8 hours by the 750 picks in a slow draft (which is 6000 hours, or 250 days) to realize that slow drafts cannot tolerate these kinds of drafters. He is gaming the system and taking advantage of Greg Ambrosius and the goodwill of everyone else in the draft.

exactly. be a shame if a couple bad apples ruin a good thing.

If I thought Dan calling him out every day in a different thread in his very own forum was going to change Marcel's mind I'd applaud him. But it's not. I've talked with Marcel and told him to make sure he lets everyone know when he can make a pick and he understands where I'm coming from and where you guys are coming from. And he's also in a Slow Draft in January and taking his time.

Now, that being said and knowing everyone's situation, as a game operator my job is to create and develop the contests, give you the tools to draft fairly in them and run your teams fairly during the year, and give you the playgrounds. The Slow Drafts are YOUR creations. I think we have something VERY special here that will produce a record number of Slow Draft leagues in baseball and I trust an ungodly number in football this year. I love these and I TOTALLY agree with the previous post this week that these have replaced mock draft rooms for serious players.

Again, THIS IS YOUR CONTEST. You are all grown men and women. Find a workable solution. If you need me to contact an owner to politely talk to him again, I will. I talk to everyone. I'll talk again if needed. He's been called an a---- because he doesn't chat. He's been called an a---- because he chats to say he's busy. Again, I GET IT. No need to post again to say, "yeah, but Greg....." or create a new thread. THIS IS YOUR SLOW DRAFT. Find a solution for this one example (trust me, every other league seems to be doing just fine but this baby is prominent in our newly created forum) and let's move on. There's a stain on this whole concept when it's not the concept's fault; it's the players involved. It might just be one and from his perspective it might be 14. But solve it because as a game operator I'm excited and the rules are in place for these to run smoothly. This thread looks like the end of Slow Drafts is upon us.

There is player's protocol. I get it. We can ask for it. But contact me if it's not happening and I'll stress it again to that player. To kill this concept over what some call is one bad apple (or one bad example) is foolish and not wise if you love the NFBC. Solve it like grown men and let's move on.

I'm not preaching, just saying we can solve this and all of it. Even Anonymous.

As one of the "other guys" in the 14, I have a few observations. This comes from a perspective of one the many not famous (as opposed to infamous) players who struggle in these leagues and occasionally manage to scrape together a winning team but truly love the format. First, I have to say that I have had the same range of emotions that Dan describes--empathy, followed by disappointment and anger, etc. especially as I am Pick 11. BUT as I look back on the last week, I've also had the best time I've had in the NFBC--where else can you just "hang" with other people who are just as crazy as to be drafting baseball teams in December? By necessity, we have "talked" much more (and drafted a little less). I'm normally not a "chatty" guy, but I have done more of this than ever.

I agree with Greg that the format is also great for football. BUT GREG, YOU NEED TO HAVE REAL-TIME SCORING FOR THOSE FOOTBALL LEAGUES. This was a huge dissatisfier this year, and I have to say that it will absolutely discourage me from playing in those leagues next year. Yes, I can program it into excel, but I don't have the live stats feed programmed that you guys do.

We had a team time out in first round of Slow #7. However, he went on the clock around 10:15 PM (EST) and timed out this AM at 6:15. Maybe I should get a life as I was online at both ends of this default pick. In the second round he was prompt.

JRubenstein wrote:As one of the "other guys" in the 14, I have a few observations. This comes from a perspective of one the many not famous (as opposed to infamous) players who struggle in these leagues and occasionally manage to scrape together a winning team but truly love the format. First, I have to say that I have had the same range of emotions that Dan describes--empathy, followed by disappointment and anger, etc. especially as I am Pick 11. BUT as I look back on the last week, I've also had the best time I've had in the NFBC--where else can you just "hang" with other people who are just as crazy as to be drafting baseball teams in December? By necessity, we have "talked" much more (and drafted a little less). I'm normally not a "chatty" guy, but I have done more of this than ever.

I agree with Greg that the format is also great for football. BUT GREG, YOU NEED TO HAVE REAL-TIME SCORING FOR THOSE FOOTBALL LEAGUES. This was a huge dissatisfier this year, and I have to say that it will absolutely discourage me from playing in those leagues next year. Yes, I can program it into excel, but I don't have the live stats feed programmed that you guys do.

Good post Jeff. I agree, these are like social networking chat rooms along with live drafts. Enjoy.

Adding the live scoring totals the way folks want them in the Draft Champions formats for the NFFC is a top priority. I will push to get this done because we have everything in place to make it happen. It just needs to be programmed that way and with everything else we had going this year we didn't get to it. I sure hope we can add it in 2012 NFFC.

Head 2 Head wrote:We had a team time out in first round of Slow #7. However, he went on the clock around 10:15 PM (EST) and timed out this AM at 6:15. Maybe I should get a life as I was online at both ends of this default pick. In the second round he was prompt.

If anyone times out in Round 1 it's obvious they somehow missed the email that the league started. Please contact me when that happens. I don't want anyone getting auto-picked in the first round. We do send out reminders of the draft starting to everyone, but it's possible that it goes to Spam or is missed by that owner. Again, if this happens again early in the draft there's obviously a miscommunication and we should stop the draft and get that owner in the draft room. Thanks.

Just as an update and I'll do it here for the hell of it:

We started Slow Drafts on Wednesday night, Dec. 21st. So basically we are 16 days into drafting and the first 4 leagues that went off then are in the following rounds:

Round 45
Round 43
Round 36
Round 34

Another league started a few days later and is in Round 28

Two leagues that went off shortly after each other and is involved in this thread are in:

Round 20
Round 17

Now, first of all, I'm proud of how fast some of these leagues are moving, even without the Round 1 Que. Those first two drafts will be done in under 3 weeks and the other two will be done around 21 days. The league in question started after the other one and is basically on the same time frame. Not quite as fast as some would like, but not in peril of not finishing before Opening Day, either.

Good job all and let me know if any league needs a slight push, but for the most part so far so good.