Welcome To Our New NFBC Online Draft Room

[Yah Mule]

IMO, the new design is not as functional and less visually appealing as well. Here's a comparison of rosters from the new and old format. I just don't get all the dead space. You could comfortably fit three names in the area that is used for one. You can't even see your entire starting lineup without scrolling in the new format. This makes basic team management less efficient.

Like everyone else, I want to see auto one come back. If the hold up is they can't figure out how to auto for multiple picks, I recommend scrapping that aspect and just restoring auto one for this draft season. We're basically conditioning people not to use autopick right now.

oldnfbc.JPG (159.97 KiB) Viewed 7810 times

newnfbc.JPG (45.09 KiB) Viewed 7810 times

[Tom Kessenich]

Schedule of games will get added so no need to worry there. Still months to go before Opening Day so hopefully nobody is clamoring for Week 1 schedules just yet.

We can definitely talk to our tech people about the visual look of things. They've already made some changes in that regard based on suggestions we had. That's what's great about working with this support team - they not only work hard and care greatly about the product, but they act quickly when it comes to making improvements that will improve the game.

The functionality of the contest will remain and be improved upon as well. One thing to remember is ALL aspects of the game will be available on mobile devices. That not includes drafting but will include FAAB as well, two things we were never able to offer with STATS and things that will help the players immensely. So those advancements alone will be huge and Greg, Darik and I are very pleased with all the work the tech guys have done to help us move forward in those critical areas.

Keep the suggestions coming. Our tech people are hard at work to make sure all of our contests will finally be the industry standards going forward. They've done some fantastic things already (the FAAB setup is SIGNIFICANTLY improved compared to what we had with STATS, for example) and will continue working hard to improve our contests.

[Yah Mule]

I'm not concerned about schedules now, either. I just wish things could be tightened up a little on all pages. The roster grid is another example. More than twice as much space is being used to convey the same information. This requires more scrolling and it will be an issue if the FAAB pages are handled in the same way. If the extra space is a necessary concession for mobile functionality, then it's more understandable. Maybe it was done to help prevent people from fat fingering the wrong name. Anyway, just throwing my one cent out there. I've definitely seen improvements in other areas. Placeholder updates have been way quicker this year. Having the ability to keep money on account is so much more convenient.

[Tom Kessenich]

I'm not concerned about schedules now, either. I just wish things could be tightened up a little on all pages. The roster grid is another example. More than twice as much space is being used to convey the same information. This requires more scrolling and it will be an issue if the FAAB pages are handled in the same way. If the extra space is a necessary concession for mobile functionality, then it's more understandable. Maybe it was done to help prevent people from fat fingering the wrong name. Anyway, just throwing my one cent out there. I've definitely seen improvements in other areas. Placeholder updates have been way quicker this year. Having the ability to keep money on account is so much more convenient.

This is an important point. Thanks for reminding me. The fact we now have ALL aspects of our games available for mobile means there are things that will be done in terms of size amount and screen space etc. Obviously, a page will look different on a desktop compared to a laptop compared to an iPad compared to a phone and so on. In order to make all pages accessible for the phone that means taking into account how the pages will look on all devices.

So that's something our tech people are working on continually so that no matter what device you have, all pages and all aspects of our games are available to you which has never happened before in our history. So this is a huge step forward we're taking from a tech perspective, which is something Greg and I promised would occur when SportsHub brought us in.

And yes, the money on account option (something STATS refused to for us) is going to be an ENORMOUS plus for all of our players in all of our contests. We already saw in football how people were able to keep money on account that they won in the regular season and use it to sign up for our postseason contest. Going forward you'll be able to use that money to purchase teams in the NFBC, NFFC and/or the NFBKC but across the entire SportsHub platform which also includes CDM, DFS and other great games. This is something Greg and I begged STATS to provide for us and we're thrilled we now have a company that will do it and has already put it together. You guys are gonna love that. I promise.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Okay, the bug in the Selected Player box has been zapped. All players will show their position of eligibility there. Sorry about that. Again, position eligibility is correct throughout the draft room for all players, but we definitely were displaying it wrongly this past weekend in that one area. It's been fixed now.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Jim, just an FYI that the inside pages have not been styled yet. I told the IT guys earlier that we'll get to the Set Lineup and other lineup decision pages later, but the main goal was to get the Draft Room out in November, get the inside pages with the text they need and get working on FAAB. We're on pace with all of that. We'll get the Set Lineup page more in line with what we had before. If there was one thing we did right before it was that Set Lineup look. We need our stat provider to send over the MLB schedule to get each weekly game next to each player and then provide a tighter look and feel for that page.

We have someone looking at the inside pages and agree with what you are saying. It will be there. Thanks.

[mdecav]

The star icon change on the Player tab to a star-in-a-box has made things worse on mobile. You now have four rows of player data instead of - what should be - one row.

[Greg Ambrosius]

The star icon change on the Player tab to a star-in-a-box has made things worse on mobile. You now have four rows of player data instead of - what should be - one row.

Nothing was changed in the draft room.

[mdecav]

The star icon change on the Player tab to a star-in-a-box has made things worse on mobile. You now have four rows of player data instead of - what should be - one row.

Nothing was changed in the draft room.

The icon has changed. I have the screenshots to show it but I can’t attach here on mobile.

[Greg Ambrosius]

The star icon change on the Player tab to a star-in-a-box has made things worse on mobile. You now have four rows of player data instead of - what should be - one row.

Nothing was changed in the draft room.

The icon has changed. I have the screenshots to show it but I can’t attach here on mobile.

Okay, I just found out what is going on. IT ran a fix for Android phones this morning that was designed to improve the Android performance. Unfortunately, it kicked the stats info down one more line like you said for certain players.

We are trying to address just the mobile device to improve performance and may have a solution that one of the guys will work on in the next day. That will cut out the extra line and still make it easier to click on the star. I'll update when that is done. Thanks for the heads up.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Just a heads up that you can now sign up for any Special Package involving the NFBC Cutline Championship and mix in set draft times with the 4-Hour draft when they fill offerings. That mix wasn't available before, but it is now. Good luck.

[Greg Ambrosius]

I didn't respond on the timeline for the addition of 1-Round Auto Pick for the new draft room because we still had a new acquisition unresolved at the time that would be giving us the game plan we needed for tackling this feature. It is now complete and we should be announcing that acquisition in the next week or two. It's a nice, nice addition to the SportsHub family that will bring a LOT of new users to our season-long platform.

Bottom line is that this acquisition will force us to add multi-round Ques and an average pick clock per user. We still have to plan this out and get a timeline as to when it will be added to the NFBC Draft Room, but we now have a clear idea of what has to be added for all of our draft products and when it has to be done. That includes Multi-Round Auto Pick and Average Pick per user time listings. We'll decide after the holidays after this deal is finalized if 1 Round Auto can be implemented first with the other additions coming later and announce that when we know the timeline.

But it's good news going forward for the Draft Champions format. I know it's not here yet and we still have a lot of work ahead of us, but we know these additions HAVE to be added and in place for a key drafting deadline. We're on it.

Keep those Draft Champions leagues moving and new tools will be coming to make the experience even better. Thanks all.

[Greg Ambrosius]

We also have fixed the issue with players being listed under every position that they qualify at in the NFBC. Marwin Gonzalez is now listed in the draft room under All Players, 1B, 2B, SS and OF. When you sort any of those positions he is showing up according to his ADP at all of those positions. That should make it much easier when sorting positions.

Enjoy.

[JohnP]

Congrats on the purchase or whatever that was. I just want the old tool of "auto one" back. Is it a real hard thing from a programming perspective to add that back? I think you are missing the boat by not getting that added pronto. it is such a basic and needed tool for these drafts. It increases the drafting pleasure significantly and drafts finish quicker. It's disappointing to hear that you aren't even going to decide on this until next year. Do you have an estimated time frame as to when this would get added - either separately (the basic auto 1) or in combo (the new fancy multiple round stuff)?

[Teufel Hunden]

Congrats on the purchase or whatever that was. I just want the old tool of "auto one" back. Is it a real hard thing from a programming perspective to add that back? I think you are missing the boat by not getting that added pronto. it is such a basic and needed tool for these drafts. It increases the drafting pleasure significantly and drafts finish quicker. It's disappointing to hear that you aren't even going to decide on this until next year. Do you have an estimated time frame as to when this would get added - either separately (the basic auto 1) or in combo (the new fancy multiple round stuff)?

Yup, the lack of Auto 1 makes auto function nearly useless for most of the early portions of draft. As a result I will do less drafts. Wonder how many others feel the same way?

[Outlaw]

Not doing any drafts until Auto 1 is fixed... They should go back to 8 hour clock until it is fixed then or offer 8 hour drafts. From programming perspective, this is not rocket science. Not for nothing, but the new site, ADP lists, draft-room are clunky and clumsy and visually horrible on a Computer, can only imagine what it is like a smart phone.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Not doing any drafts until Auto 1 is fixed... They should go back to 8 hour clock until it is fixed then or offer 8 hour drafts. From programming perspective, this is not rocket science. Not for nothing, but the new site, ADP lists, draft-room are clunky and clumsy and visually horrible on a Computer, can only imagine what it is like a smart phone.

I don't mind the many requests on top of John's to get 1 Round Auto, but Mike you haven't even had a draft on the new site yet. You did an email draft that I entered the results in for. The 4-Hour time period is working well and drafts are moving along well. And I said it before, inside pages will add styling later.

I understand the requests for 1 Round Auto. Having a tool on the previous site that isn't included in the new software feels like a takeaway and we understand. It will be added and more. But in every draft you can see 2-4 owners using the Auto feature, so some owners are still using the Auto Pick feature. Without 1 Round Auto, though, teams at the ends are not using it. Having 1 Round Auto would alleviate that. We get it. It will be added, but yes not until the early part of January.

[Teufel Hunden]

I am currently doing three DC drafts. Here are the numbers I have:

Draft one, 204 picks so far, 4 made on auto, 1.9%
Draft two, 184 picks so far, 10 made on auto, 5.4%
Draft three, 89 picks so far, 5 made on auto, 5.6%

Total, 477 picks, 19 on auto, 3.9%

Obviously in the later rounds owners will be more willing to go full auto. But 3.9% tells me it is hardly used at all.

[DOUGHBOYS]

I understand the requests for 1 Round Auto. Having a tool on the previous site that isn't included in the new software feels like a takeaway and we understand. It will be added and more. But in every draft you can see 2-4 owners using the Auto feature, so some owners are still using the Auto Pick feature.

Sure, auto is being used. Some drafters don't want to hold up a draft.
Others, asking other drafters to not go past them in the next round if putting on auto for the current round.
We are coping.
We have no choice.

[Darik B]

All,

Darik Buchar here. I want to add my two cents to this thread. I think it's time. Some of you might recognize me as a former player here, some may not. In any event, I can no longer play as I am on the other side now. I am very involved with Greg & Tom and the NFBC/NFFC, but I also have various cross-duties amongst other SportsHub "entities"...some game/product-based, and some also financial.

Let me preface that the following is not an excuse. You might not even accept it as a viable explanation. But I will tell you that it is the truth.

First, as a former player, I completely understand the continued requests for Auto-1. It's something we SHOULD have had from the get-go. We know it; that was a mistake. As a (former) drafter, I get it as much as anyone else...it flat-out sucks not to have it available. Greg, Tom, and I pursue its completion pretty much every waking second of our workdays right now . But, it is coming...

Here's the rub: while NFBC/NFFC is a huge part of the Sportshub family, it is just that: only a part. Much like an arm or a leg to a human body. Important, but not the be-all-end-all. I won't bore you with all the details here, but there are a million-and-one things happening right now; be it with LeagueSafe, CDM, NFBC, Fanball Daily, Daily Drafts, wallet integration, prize payments, etc...

Our IT guys are fantastic; I vouch personally for every single one of them. They blow the STATS team away. They care. They love sports. They get it. They get us. That being said, there are times they get pulled completely away from NFFC/NFBC for projects deemed more important (i.e. higher priority) in the SportsHub family tree, at time for days. It's simply the way things are in our chaotic world at this point. I know this because I am pulled the same ways and to the same "other projects" that they are. Sometimes it's for pure financial reasons. And the decisions are not ours to make. So while "infuriating customers" with incomplete draft rooms right now doesn't make us at the NFBC feel great (of course it doesn't...you guys all know that), there has to be a balancing act company-wide. Hopefully, that is something we can all understand. Yes, it's frustrating at times, but also a necessary evil right now.

All of these great suggestions by you guys (and keep them coming, please) will get done. And will get done as soon as we can get them done. You have my word. And Greg's. And Tom's.

Again, this is not an excuse, maybe not even an acceptable explanation; but it is 100% transparent.

All I ask is that you keep an open mind and trust us to give you want you want/need. We are getting there.

Also, feel free to contact me much like you would Greg or Tom about any of this or anything esle. Info below:
[email protected]
(c) 651-895-0583

Thank you for your time, patience, and continued patronage. You guys (and gals) are the best!

Darik

[Outlaw]

Greg - my apologies, I guess I could have worded my 2 cents better. But we have been hearing the "IT is on it" for a few years. Everyone knows it was never Greg or Tom, they were not IT, as their roles were building a fair and fun game (which they have always done and done well) and trying to cover for various IT Departments over the years.

Now it was Stats fault according to some new guy. Sorry, but I never believed a company like Stats could not have made the fixes and small IT improvements in literally Days that many customers asked for, as they are a powerhouse Data Content provider company in the sports arena, they just chose not to, customers be damned. I get Fantasy was not their core direction and they got out, but If the new company really is that much better, we would not even be here again with the "IT fixes are coming" Mantra. They are a two yr old LLC - we shall see. It does seem once again though that priorities may lie elsewhere, like launching daily fantasy games....

Having come from and been in High Tech Security out here in VC land for many years, as I said, this stuff is not rocket science. I will note on the positive side, at least this new company is using HTTPS on the new web site; Stats left everyone exposed and quite frankly any poor mans hacker could have hacked all the Data there.

My whole point was, it should not be too hard to add the 8 hour option back for those that prefer that and there are folks that did like that format, including me. Being on the west coast and although not drafting a lot of drafts over last few years, no one likes being called out in the draft room for holding others up, not going fast enough, etc... and three time zones is problematic for your products/contests as articulated a lot the past 2 months here on the forums with the new 4 hr only option and clock problems. And yes I have seen the New Draft Room Greg, not impressed is all I will say. I personally liked the old one, just wished the website was secure. Same with the FAAB, lots of players liked the old version and still used it all of last year, hope it remains an option again this year.

Those that are here for the NFBC/NFFC products are here because of Greg and Tom and trust them; the new owners, we shall see.

Merry Christmas all!

[DOUGHBOYS]

No offense here, Darik.
But, we were told the same exact thing at STATS.
We were an arm or leg or foot, or something there too.
Like you, we get it.
We're just impatient and expected much more, much more quickly.
The expectations were great because, well, Greg said we should have high expectations.
They have not been met yet.
That is tough for us on this side.

[Ando]

Meh. Booshit. I'm in R1 of my 1st draft of '18. No Auto-One. I'll be in less drafts this year (I know, no one cares about that); it's one of the pillars a 50 round draft is built around. It saves an enormous amount of time. Have a more clear vision here, folks. Pissin' off your peeps and costing yourselves money. But, I get it; we're just a gnat on a horse's ass. We'll survive as we always do.

[thepats]

I have never complained about any NFBC issue but, for Pete's sake, fix Auto-1.
Management is proud of the new site. I don't care. I was fine with the old site and not as fine with the new one because there is no Auto-1.
I don't care about new acquisition delays or the ability to take some or none of my winnings out of my account. That does not affect my drafting experience. Auto-1 does. Please fix it.
I'm in my 2nd draft of the season. Moving very slowly because people won't go to bed on Auto. Please fix Auto-1.
This is clearly an IT issue. Somebody please tell the IT folks to drop whatever they are doing and fix Auto-1.

[Yah Mule]

I have never complained about any NFBC issue but, for Pete's sake, fix Auto-1.
Management is proud of the new site. I don't care. I was fine with the old site and not as fine with the new one because there is no Auto-1.
I don't care about new acquisition delays or the ability to take some or none of my winnings out of my account. That does not affect my drafting experience. Auto-1 does. Please fix it.
I'm in my 2nd draft of the season. Moving very slowly because people won't go to bed on Auto. Please fix Auto-1.
This is clearly an IT issue. Somebody please tell the IT folks to drop whatever they are doing and fix Auto-1.

Please fix auto one for this man.