Things to improve MockDraftCentral

Spyhunter · Post by **Spyhunter** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 10:39 am

Hi Geoffrey,

First of all, I really like your site, but using last year and watching it this year, it does seem like some fine tuning could make it even better.

1. Speed- even on my dual core, 1gig ram machine, the site feels sluggish. In comparison, the ESPN java applet 'snaps'.

2. Simplicity and clarity. The site really feels a little overly engineered with graphics (the left scrolling bar) which perhaps makes it slow?

3. Resizing. You can't change the size of the applet to take advantage of extra screen space if you have the resolution. Everything is fixed.

The ESPN java applet isn't perfect either, but it does do a very nice job with a clean user interface. I would try and combine the two to create the Uber system

Regards,

chris

Cherokee Nation · Post by **Cherokee Nation** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:29 pm

I would like to be able to type in the name of the player I am looking for and having the computer find the player for me rather than scrolling up and down as the time counts down on my turn

Geoffrey Stein · Post by **Geoffrey Stein** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:47 pm

Originally posted by Cherokee Nation:

I would like to be able to type in the name of the player I am looking for and having the computer find the player for me rather than scrolling up and down as the time counts down on my turn That's available.

It's the white box above the player names that says "search."

Potter · Post by **Potter** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:10 pm

Geoff,

After typing in a name, it isn't particularly intuitive to how to get back to the rankings.

Potter · Post by **Potter** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:13 pm

Touching on a point made above, the left scrolling bar automatically scrolls down to the current pick as it is made. When scrolling manually looking for something, and this occurs, I have to fight the urge not to go Walla Walla and turn the computer off.

Geoffrey Stein · Post by **Geoffrey Stein** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:19 pm

Originally posted by Potter:

Touching on a point made above, the left scrolling bar automatically scrolls down to the current pick as it is made. When scrolling manually looking for something, and this occurs, I have to fight the urge not to go Walla Walla and turn the computer off. The scrolls on the left aren't made so you can go back and watch the entire draft -- it's more to let the drafters know what has happened recently.

If you're looking for results from previous rounds, I suggest using the grid view feature which is very easy to navigate.

Geoffrey Stein · Post by **Geoffrey Stein** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 1:54 am

Originally posted by Potter:

Geoff,

After typing in a name, it isn't particularly intuitive to how to get back to the rankings. Just clear out the box and hit enter again.

cribgusto · Post by **cribgusto** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 7:25 am

Also, when you look at All Completed Drafts, and you narrow the selection down by # of teams or sport, when you use the link to see more results, the next page forgets your narrowing criteria.

Thus it is impossible to look at completed drafts given your criteria past the initial results page. (Using Firefox)

Is this a browser issue or a site issue?

Potter · Post by **Potter** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 8:19 am

Geoff I didn't say I didn't know how, but I'd bet that was not the first way most attempted to get the rankings back.

Spyhunter · Post by **Spyhunter** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 1:36 pm

On the Search note I agree it isn't intuitive, why not put the term like this so it is more obvious?

Any comments on my speed/simplify the look and feel feedback?

Spy

Geoffrey Stein · Post by **Geoffrey Stein** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 2:29 pm

Originally posted by Spyhunter:

On the Search note I agree it isn't intuitive, why not put the term like this so it is more obvious?

Any comments on my speed/simplify the look and feel feedback?

Spy A lot of that is technical and beyond my grasp of knowledge, but here's what I know:

-The design is here to stay -- it's highly unlikely that you'll ever see a dramatic change in the software design -- at least anytime soon.

-The sizing issue is something that will eventually be changed. When? I have no idea.

Bull Pen Pugs · Post by **Bull Pen Pugs** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 6:34 pm

Geoffrey, Sent you a Private Message, please check and get back when you can.

Thanks

Geoffrey Stein · Post by **Geoffrey Stein** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 4:23 am

Originally posted by Squeeze Play Runts:

Geoffrey, Sent you a Private Message, please check and get back when you can.

Thanks Response sent.

bjoak · Post by **bjoak** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 10:27 am

Setting up my rankings of players was maybe the most painful, painstaking experience of my life. Just having the option to look at them in alphabetical order rather than mdc rankings would be a huge improvement. Someone like Kouzmanoff it took me 10 minutes to find. He really could be ranked anywhere.

bucks66 · Post by **bucks66** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:28 am

I find it extremely easy to find any player by setting the position and clicking on team. For example, Kouzmanoff I simply set the position to 3B and then click on the team column. It puts them all in order by team. I agree that it is rather cumbersome to delete all of the search and then reset everything but it sure does make it easy to find them that way.

bjoak · Post by **bjoak** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 12:00 pm

I'm talking about setting up my player rankings, on the site, not during the draft. There is no way to sort the players.

Vander · Post by **Vander** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 12:18 pm

you can before the draft. Go to my up coming drafts, click on 1 of your drafts, go to pre rank players. I use the pre rank 500 that Geoff does, then I rearrange them the way I want. it takes a bit of time, but then you have your own template and can use it over and over. Remember to save your template of course. Hope this solves your problem.

Vander · Post by **Vander** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 12:26 pm

1 more thing. There are probably some guys your interested in that are not listed in Geoff's top 500. I guess you just have to pick those guys out later. I don't know of a way to include them in your 500. BTW Kouzmanoff is there in Geoff's top 500.

bjoak · Post by **bjoak** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 12:59 pm

I don't know how I'm managing to be so unclear. Yes, I know how to pre-rank players. My issue is that it takes FORever to do it because you have to search through the rankings to find a guy. If they were in alphabetical order you'd go to K for Kuzmanoff and rank him how you like. Now you have to search through a list of 500 guys to find him because there is no way to divine where Geoff decided to rank him.

WOOF WHACKERS · Post by **WOOF WHACKERS** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:40 am

There is an alphabetical listing ... last time I checked

Cherokee Nation · Post by **Cherokee Nation** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 1:50 am

Drafted yesterday and want to give this feedback before I forget

1. It would help me greatly if there was a ding every time a player was selected so that I would know to turn my head slightly to the left, catch the player drafted and scratch him off my list. When it is my turn the mock draft tells me so with a voice, don't imagine having a ding when a player gets selected would be too difficult. Between scratching players off my list and making sure players I want are actually still available ( it's a multiple step process to check on a player by name, very time consuming and slow, jammed a lot when I employed, when the draft is flying ) I missed scratching off several drafted players. I know you can scroll up and see the list of players drafted, and I did that several times.. but that's an entire additional activity in a crazy busy draft that I'd have to employ constantly because I'm obviously not aware when I miss a player being drafted. A ding when a player is selected would help me greatly.

2. Your site kept jamming up, other people were talking about it, and I was listening to MLB 411 while drafting ( background noise )and it never jammed up. I got stuck with Andy Marte on a computer selection because one of the times your site jammed up it was my turn. It was the end of the draft so it wasn't a huge deal, but if it had happened in the first 25 rounds I would have become angry about losing my choice.

3. There should be some sort of automatic delay of 20 seconds or so between picks. At the main event a player is selected and there is a natural pause while that players card is found and he is added to the tote board. In yesterdays draft there were 6 and 7 picks in 15 seconds a few times, making it impossible for me to keep my sheet properly updated, causing me to miss that certain players had been drafted. I'm not interested in a speed draft...and that type of speed is totally unreasonable and gives the edge to computer heads over baseball people.

4. Why the hell did our group have to catch the other groups ? We had a problem before the draft with the commissioners...and then when we finally did start the main talk on the message board was to catch up to the other groups drafting, who now had a 15 minute head start on us. WHY ? Who gives a sh*t if we catch up to the other groups drafting....yet most of the people I was drafting with...after prodding from the commissioners became enthralled with the idea of catching the other drafts....WHY ? Why couldn't we just take our time and do a normal draft ? We didn't even get a break, drafting right through the site jamming up ( I read others posting that it was jamming for them too), leaving me with superstud Andy Marte.

5. Breaks should be mandatory. We didn't get a single break....we had to catch the other drafts...WHY ?

You asked for feedback. Here's my feedback fresh off Feb 20th draft

headhunters · Post by **headhunters** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 3:07 am

i totally agree. it seems that the satelites are geared toward speed. if you want to make it that way- have speed drafts. there should be a market for guys that want to at least be able to mark guys off their sheets. we have 40 or so satelites. have 4-5 for guys that want at least 20 seconds between picks and want to be able to organize themselves. if you are going to have a computer do your drafting there will still be 35 satelites for you to enter. just a suggestion for next year.

Dak · Post by **Dak** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 3:29 am

Agree 100% with Cherokee and headhunters! Cherokee's recommendations should be implemented IMMEDIATELY! Especially the "dings", "pauses" and breaks !!!!

Geoff - you may fix ASAP!!

Moneyball · Post by **Moneyball** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 3:39 am

I agree with Cherokee and Headhunters posts. There needs to be a way to slow this down just slightly. This isn't about seeing how fast you can draft a team, it's about drafting the best team possible. To do that, you need to be able to check players off your list, determine who you want to draft next (which you need to have at least 2 or 3 players ready), and during the course of a draft you need to make adjustments. It's almost impossible if draft picks are going off one after another with no delay in between. I don't draft until next month, but there were a few times last year I was going to pick up a player only to realize that player had been selected earlier. Then you're on the clock scrambling to draft someone else. Maybe after 15 rounds, there should be a 10 minute intermission, so people can regroup. We all put up some decent money to get in these drafts so we shouldn't have to feel rushed to get them finished just because they are online. Just my two cents.

Vander · Post by **Vander** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 3:57 am

Just a suggestion moneyball, but if your using the site make either a template of your own with your own list or at least put some players you are interested in in your que so you don't have to look for them on the clock. The template can be made anytime or filling in your que can be started 20 min before your draft. The template is obviously better. I didn't start using that till this year either and just was using the que.