Fantasy Sports Arena 2015 Feedback thread **Mod warning post 121**

CSF

jive wrote: »

As mentioned by KevIRL on first page, "AUSTIN!!!" posts should be an automatic 1 week ban if the poster is obviously trolling.

The Austin rule

Permaban preferably.

The worst possible offence on this forum.

Neoulous

jive wrote: »

As mentioned by KevIRL on first page, "AUSTIN!!!" posts should be an automatic 1 week ban if the poster is obviously trolling.

The Austin rule

CSF wrote: »

Permaban preferably.

The worst possible offence on this forum.

I'm more a reader than a poster in here but I'm glad I didn't notice this one. Austin was my captain and I'd have reported this post had I seen it. Heavy penalty should be given to such offenders. The last thing I want to see is this place becoming a totalfpl chat like place.

Overall have no problem with the forum. A great place for valuable FPL info with a good camaraderie atmosphere.

A sticky linking to the game rules is a good idea.

Not sure I get the whole point about team line-ups. Ben Dinnery twitter and BBC website have all the info early enough, at least from my point of view.

Think that's about it. Fair play to the mods and all the contributors for making it an enjoyable forum to follow :cool:.

Smartguy

There is still a lot of people saying things like " i only got 80 points but if I had picked the right captain/not subbed Boyd etc etc, I would have 120 points." When the gw average is say 50, this is very annoying. I am exaggerating a bit here but it happens every week that someone complains about their score when it is actually a decent score.

Everyone has their own hard luck story and if people want to tell these, then a separate thread should be set up. I am pretty sure that the gambling and pokers forums have such hard luck threads.

AdpRo

KevIRL wrote: »

First and foremost, it has to be said the forum is well run and enjoyable to read, post and follow. A feedback thread is a good idea as well just to get the users thoughts out in the open.

Considering this we shouldn’t be looking to implement lots of hard and fast rules imo. If its broke don’t fix it, and the forum certainly isn’t broken. A lot of forums on Boards.ie have been destroyed by too many rules and it simply takes the fun out of things. This is supposed to be a game and the forum should be relaxed rules wise

Regarding threads. I don’t believe there are too many threads. There is the standard General thread, RMT thread and then the individual GW capt, transfers and matchday threads. A lot of FSA league threads granted, but that should be encouraged as its good community stuff. I also don’t have any issue with the timing of a thread being created. What difference does it make if a matchday thread is started at 5 past midnight or 5 past 9 in the morning, likewise with the transfers thread being started as soon as the new deadline has passed. The only stipulation around timing of threads being started should be that its on the matchday (for match day threads) or past the deadline (for transfers threads).

I would like to suggest that users on the forum add a simple indication to their sig to identify their FPL/UFPL team. It would be useful to be able to check others teams and performance to evaluate advice given. A FPL button exists on FISO for this, but would probably be too much to ask the site developers on Boards.ie to implement one but just a simple F:team ID number would work well. This doesn’t need to be mandatory but should be encouraged imo.

However, I also feel that users using others ranking to say their opinion isn’t valid shouldn’t be allowed and should be moderated heavily. An opinion or advice should be given, its up to others to take it up or not, no one should be subject to getting a response along the lines of ‘your rank is 1 million and therefore your advice is rubbish’. If you don’t agree argue the case its just a bit lazy relying on rank or past performance

Something which has crept in a little recently and needs to be stamped out quickly and strongly is posters deliberately posting misleading or fake calls during matchdays. Not genuine mistakes now, but for the laugh posting ‘AUSTIN!!!!!’ and then further down the post something please ‘please score’. This sort of thing should be an auto ban imo. It is rife on sites with chatboxes (totalfpl for example) and shouldn’t be allowed at all here. Genuine mistakes are different of course but the deliberate stuff should be stamped out.

The game can be frustrating, and sometimes on match threads posters can get frustrated with others posting about a good or bad score or the famous ‘happy enough with that’ after a good score. Collective chill pills need to be taken there lads. Its become a bit of an in joke on the forum now, embrace it

Agree fully about the FAQ, but problem is people still wont read it. But if someone (CSF) could just link to the thread every time someone asks a question that’s already answered as opposed to answering it again then that would be great.
One suggestion for the moderating team, I’ve noticed a few times that troll type posts are deleted, presumably the poster warned in private etc, but is it not better practise to deal with it on thread as it sets the example to follow

Agree with almost every point made above. Definitely think that more visible moderation will help educate people on what is acceptable and what is not and makes it clear what will not be tolerated.

Personally I do think a sub forum for all other fantasy sports would encourage more people to participate and get involved. If someone is playing fantasy games in baseball, golf, etc this forum is not really practical for them as any thread will get lost very quickly.

Another suggestion might be to create super threads for transfers and match days. not sure if this would work but it would cut down on the amount of threads being created for people who think there are too many, it works for the RMT, General threads so might work here as well. Alternatively I think each match day and transfer thread should be locked a couple of days after the GW ends.

All in all it's a great forum, by far the best of any I look at on boards, that is down to both the mods and all who contributes, there are not many changes needed. There is a little trolling etc but not near as much as other forums.

KevIRL

Smartguy wrote: »

There is still a lot of people saying things like " i only got 80 points but if I had picked the right captain/not subbed Boyd etc etc, I would have 120 points." When the gw average is say 50, this is very annoying. I am exaggerating a bit here but it happens every week that someone complains about their score when it is actually a decent score.

Everyone has their own hard luck story and if people want to tell these, then a separate thread should be set up. I am pretty sure that the gambling and pokers forums have such hard luck threads.

Is it really that annoying though? Or even all that frequent. I find its easy to ignore those sort of posts

kevinroche3333

Excellent forum that needs minimal changes.

This forum is capable of meeting the needs of the numerous users who have reletively straight forward questions.
Quoting the rules is plenty sufficient usually, but the poster may even have already found the relevant rule and cannot interpret it or trust their own interpretation and come asking their questions.
A simple FAQ (no strategy) with the rules and, more importantly, the regular scenarios could be easily linked to on the forum without sending users away from this forum.

I feel the FSA threads are maybe a bit too common. One for each league might be overkill. The majority of forum users have no use for these as they are a specialist area, though they are for the more regular users and so I dont feel strongly about it, just something that crept into my head as a possible way of reducing threads.

Smartguy

KevIRL wrote: »

Is it really that annoying though? Or even all that frequent. I find its easy to ignore those sort of posts

Different things bug different people as a lot of the things raised in this thread would not bother me in the slightest.

Some weeks are worse than others but the sob stories can be a bit much at times.

Ace2007

Like others have said, the forum is ran pretty well.

A few things bug me about threads,

1. Transfer thread opening at 11:30 on the dot before this GW has started,maybe wait until all games that GW are over or at least the Saturday games, so often the first few pages are about getting x player out even though he could score a hatrick today and folks mind changes come 5pm.

2. Number of different threads serving the same purpose, for example - rate my team thread - what exactly is this for - i see posts of folk putting up their team and looking for transfer suggestions. But then i look in say the Wild card thread or the transfers thread and the same questions are being asked.

3. The general FPL chat thread is only really used by a handful of posters - there have been a fair few threads recently that could easily have gone in there, going over last 2 weeks, i reckon there could be up to 8 threads that could have gone in there.

Regarding folk asking about the rules, it's not a big thing - i've seen regular posters asks far stupider questions but they don't get the same sort of reply that a newbie gets, equally not so long ago CSF even asked a question that was answerable my reading the rules.

Regardless of what others may think this forum is pretty much just a FF forum, people say for example that if others Fantasy games wanted to join they could - but there is just so many threads (21 threads bumped/started since 1st Jan) that a thread about darts/rugby would be just pushed to second page and go unnoticed. Like recently i found a link for a dart FF league buried in the FPL Chat thread.

CSF

To be fair, I did read the rules and posted the quote from the rules which was what I thought needed clarifying.

Not nearly the same as someone not being bothered to research how the game works and expecting the forum to educate them on the most basic mechanisms in the game.

OneColdHand

In general I think the forum is very well run, with some really excellent contributors.

One minor thing that probably annoys only me, but I'm going mention it anyway: I find comments on specific bets that people have placed very annoying. For example: 'Get in Costa, have a tenner on him at 3/1 anytime scorer.' I think these comments are completely irrelevant to FPL, and if general football chat isn't allowed, I don't think these type of comments should be allowed either.

I should distinguish these comments from those that are often posted that outline general odds for things sure as anytime scorer, or cleat sheet odds. These are relevant, and are often posted in relation to picking a captain, or deciding which defenders to pick. I have no problem with these, and often use them myself!

dahat

Isn't that nit picking really?

Odds form a part of a FF decision as you said and if you land a little bet using the same thought process why not mention it on a post?

Moderation of something g that small would be a nightmare as well

OneColdHand

dahat wrote: »

Isn't that nit picking really?

Yes it's completely nit picking! As I said in my post, it probably only annoys me. So nothing is done about it, that's fine with me, I'll get over it!

Nody

I've tried to roughly summarize the main points raised so far and potential solutions proposed (once again this is not a promise anything will be implemented but simply to structure it a bit):

Problem: Threads / posts on how the game works covered by FAQ for it
Solution: Sticky and/or infraction

Problem: Make competitions (i.e. the leagues, draft league) more visible
Solution: Sub forums, tags

Problem: To many threads serving the same purpose
Solution: Superthreads on a topic, add sig with their FPL/UFPL team

Problem: People claiming someone’s opinion is not valid due to ranking
Solution: Infraction (already applicable under personal attack?)

Problem: Posting misleading or fake calls (i.e. Austin!!! – Please score)
Solution: Automatic ban

Problem: Editing in the teams to the first post of the match day thread
Solution: OP to add it with in 24h, Mod added

Problem: Early Matchday / Transfer threads being created
Solution: Come up with acceptable margin & report anything outside it to be locked

CSF

Nody wrote: »

I've tried to roughly summarize the main points raised so far and potential solutions proposed (once again this is not a promise anything will be implemented but simply to structure it a bit):

Problem: Threads / posts on how the game works covered by FAQ for it
Solution: Sticky and/or infraction

Problem: Make competitions (i.e. the leagues, draft league) more visible
Solution: Sub forums, tags

Problem: To many threads serving the same purpose
Solution: Superthreads on a topic, add sig with their FPL/UFPL team

Problem: People claiming someone’s opinion is not valid due to ranking
Solution: Infraction (already applicable under personal attack?)

Problem: Posting misleading or fake calls (i.e. Austin!!! – Please score)
Solution: Automatic ban

Problem: Editing in the teams to the first post of the match day thread
Solution: OP to add it with in 24h, Mod added

Problem: Early Matchday / Transfer threads being created
Solution: Come up with acceptable margin & report anything outside it to be locked

Looks about right yeah.

lassykk

I must say this is a great forum and one I read extensively.

I rarely comment here as I don't feel I have much to add that someone else hasn't already covered but I agree with most of the points already raised.

The main point I would like implemented is for people to include their team name in some manner but one issue with them being included in signatures is that people on mobile won't see it. I use the mobile site extensively especially on match days when I wouldn't be at home/work.

Now to be fair it's not a big issue for me as I read so many of the threads I know who are the stronger players and I look out for their comments.

I must admit the early opening of threads, etc don't really concern me but I do generally jump to at least Sat at 5pm in the GW Transfer thread to avoid early predictions!

Mr.Prodston

While I see the logic behind including the team id somewhere eg signature (something I have never used and have had switched off since day 1). I don't think it really fits with boards. It's a public forum and I don't want every passer by to have almost instant access to my name, which is linked to our fantasy team.

Anyone who spends a bit of time in the forum can figure it out through the leagues we're in and that level, once removed, from public is fine. I would be very uncomfortable with forcing/positively encouraging posters to include the ID if they don't want to. It also encourages people to become more active in the forum.

Perhaps you could have a thread where people can put their history without the need for links/ID if they feel so inclined. We don't want to be overrun with stickies threads either though. Not that I have anything to hide and I think most would agree I'm very honest about my ups and downs but I would be firmly against anything like that becoming mandatory or close to mandatory.

iroced

Nody wrote: »

I've tried to roughly summarize the main points raised so far and potential solutions proposed (once again this is not a promise anything will be implemented but simply to structure it a bit):

1.
Problem: Threads / posts on how the game works covered by FAQ for it
Solution: Sticky and/or infraction

2.
Problem: Make competitions (i.e. the leagues, draft league) more visible
Solution: Sub forums, tags

3.
Problem: To many threads serving the same purpose
Solution: Superthreads on a topic, add sig with their FPL/UFPL team

4.
Problem: People claiming someone’s opinion is not valid due to ranking
Solution: Infraction (already applicable under personal attack?)

5.
Problem: Posting misleading or fake calls (i.e. Austin!!! – Please score)
Solution: Automatic ban

6.
Problem: Editing in the teams to the first post of the match day thread
Solution: OP to add it with in 24h, Mod added

7.
Problem: Early Matchday / Transfer threads being created
Solution: Come up with acceptable margin & report anything outside it to be locked

Very good summary Nody :cool:.
Since I haven't posted yet in here I'll start by commenting on each of these points. And add whatever I can think of afterwards...

1. FAQ is a good idea. Newcomers will have no excuse for asking basic questions (which can "pollute" threads). FAQ could consist of:

1. a link towards the game rules official page specifying that both "Frequently Asked Questions" & "Rules" tab shall be consulted. 99% of the answers you'd be seeking are there. It just requires a little effort and time.
   
   
2. a few FSA "nicestness" about popular misunderstandings of the official rules e.g. any saved transfer will be lost if you play your WC ; you can activate your WC anytime during the GW you chose to play it and yes it will wipe out all your previous, present and future transfers in this given GW ; the transparency of the current Bonus Points system could be addressed here too by posting the full detail of how it is calculated...
   
   
3. a few season updates on how the game is working/changing e.g. the price change system this year which doesn't include WC transfers anymore.
   
   
4. a few links to popular FPL related sites. I think this thread did/does exist but is probably buried in the umpteenth page so it may be wiser to include it in the overall FAQ sticky...
   It could be organised by category like price change predictions sites (FFF, FPLS, fiso, totalfpl), general info site (FFS, FFCheat...), FPL stats sites (FPL Discovery, FFF, FPL Statistico tool), useful twitters (Ben Dinnery FFS twitter, FPL official twitter...) etc...

2. Since FPL occupies 99% of discussions here, sub-forums for the other Fantasy related games would give a better visibility to them. FSA was created to gather most fantasy-related games so giving the non-FPL games more visibility sounds fair. I generally play some Fantasy Rugby and it's true that it can be a pain to scroll down the 1st page or have to go to the 2nd one of the FSA to find it...

I'm not sure the tags system would work here. We'd end up with the same amount of FPL related threads and the [FPL] tag will not make it that much easier to find the [6N] or [Autumn Tests] threads.
This leads me to 3.

3. This point is closely linked with 2. I think one of these solutions should be applied. If it's decided sub-forums are the way to go, I don't see it necessary to regroup the weekly threads into superthreads. Since we'd have a fully FPL-dedicated forum, the already existing superthreads would continue to be fed on a daily basis and the weekly ones will slowly make their way to the second page and beyond. A few threads (e.g. GK selection, Christmas preparation...) will continue to "suffer" from it and could be relegated to the second page but I don't see it as a major issue. Maybe to sort that out and avoid the creation/use of threads serving similar purposes, a sticky could be added (and updated from time to time by the mod) with a list of the long term active threads and what they are about if it's not obvious. That should prevent us from creating similar threads a few months apart and lead us to (better) post and discuss our matter in the most appropriate thread.

And If we don't go for sub-forums, superthreads could be created. I have to be honest and say that I'd largely prefer the first option. The GWs-dedicated threads work fine as they are IMO and if we could regroup the Transfers and Matchday ones we can not do it for the captain poll. I know it's a very minor detail but it is sometimes interesting to go back to the weekly threads from the previous seasons. Superthreads would impede that.

4. Ok with the solution here. Having our FPL ID in our sig may be interesting though as long as any point is argumented, rankings is absolutely irrelevant to the debate.

5. OK with the solution here. Same issue than the "lol at xxx owners" which was well dealt with by Futureguy earlier on in the season.

6. Not sure I get this one. If it is to be edited within 24h what's the point? We can get this info easily and early enough from a few twitter accounts and from the BBC website.
In principle that'd be a nice little info at the start of the Matchday thread but in practice a nightmare to apply wouldn't it? The OP and/or the mods would be slaves to the team line-up official announcements ...

7. I have no pb with that. I don't think we ever had abusively early opened threads. The one from this GW is a genuine mistake from the OP. Nothing wrong about it. I understand that GW transfers threads are opened very early (I mean between the 12:45 Sat game and the Monday night one, so many games have to be played that you can change your mind 10 times about iyour transfers) but in the meantime price change can force your hand to move on a player as soon as Saturday eve and it's natural that FSA allows you to discuss it in the appropriate thread.

---

Not sure I have much to add. I'll just say again that this is a really nice place to discuss the game with a great camaraderie despite the high "competitiveness" we all put in it. I'll add that personally it allows me keeping practicing my English about a nice and fun matter .

Just one thing actually about the tags system. I think it's already mostly implemented but a [FSA] tag to all FSA competitions could make the forum even more clearer.

Finally I remember when we moved from the FPL superthread in the Soccer forum to this place, many were questioning the real interest of such a forum, that FPL was not worth more than a superthread and that a dedicated forum would quickly see its popularity and activity diminish and reduced to a couple of threads only. We had to "fight" to obtain it and the very existence of this feedback thread and all the questions raised in it just show that we made the right choice and the very little troubles we had to deal with is a credit to all the contributors and the mods. Whatever changes (or not) this thread will cause, I think our main focus is to keep this place as civil and enjoyable as it's been and is now.

CSF

The rankings thing is a touchy one, because I doubt I'm alone in that I would attach more weight to the opinions of someone who'd been in the top 5k 4 years in a row.

Of course you would, the same way you're going to trust the opinion of someone with a proven track record of success in any field over someone who you feel may be still learning the trade.

The problem creeps in when people start using it as a stick to beat people with on the forum. Ie. Why should I listen to you, you're 500000 in the world or 'who are you to have a go at me, I'm a regular top 10k finisher'. I did the latter once, apologised soon after, and really there should have been rules infracting me for doing so.

extra gravy

RE: the line ups. The Premier League's twitter page could be included as a link at the beginning of each match thread. They retweet each club's line up as soon as they are posted so it would be easy for posters to just go there 45 minutes before kick off and see the line ups for themselves. I think it's unfair to expect one person to go to the trouble of posting all the line ups every week.

I'd just like to add my appreciation for the forum, it's a fantastic tool and I'd honestly be lost without it at this stage!

CSF

extra gravy wrote: »

RE: the line ups. The Premier League's twitter page could be included as a link at the beginning of each match thread. They retweet each club's line up as soon as they are posted so it would be easy for posters to just go there 45 minutes before kick off and see the line ups for themselves. I think it's unfair to expect one person to go to the trouble of posting all the line ups every week.

I'd just like to add my appreciation for the forum, it's a fantastic tool and I'd honestly be lost without it at this stage!

Ideally everyone would just make a Twitter and follow the 20 clubs. Works a treat.

Ace2007

CSF wrote: »

Ideally everyone would just make a Twitter and follow the 20 clubs. Works a treat.

Sure this would work a treat - no need for a match day thread either - we could all just follow twitter:rolleyes:

extra gravy

Ace2007 wrote: »

Sure this would work a treat - no need for a match day thread either - we could all just follow twitter:rolleyes:

To be fair, you can't expect everything handed on a plate to you. It's not hard to go check Twitter/the rules or whatever else you want to find out. It's just pure laziness to come on here and expect all the work to be done for you by other posters.

Ace2007

extra gravy wrote: »

To be fair, you can't expect everything handed on a plate to you. It's not hard to go check Twitter/the rules or whatever else you want to find out. It's just pure laziness to come on here and expect all the work to be done for you by other posters.

wow - calm down i always just check the teams on bbc, and to be honest i doubt others can't do this either, i could understand a gambling website being banned at work, but if you can get access to boards, you probably have access to bbc.

My tongue in cheek remark was because poster said should create twitter account for all teams and get the latest starting news there, i'm fairly sure team twitters also provide updates of all games too, so you'd get as much info from twitter as you would from a thread on here.

extra gravy

Ace2007 wrote: »

wow - calm down i always just check the teams on bbc, and to be honest i doubt others can't do this either, i could understand a gambling website being banned at work, but if you can get access to boards, you probably have access to bbc.

My tongue in cheek remark was because poster said should create twitter account for all teams and get the latest starting news there, i'm fairly sure team twitters also provide updates of all games too, so you'd get as much info from twitter as you would from a thread on here.

I wasn't calling you lazy, I was just saying that some posters can be! No offence intended

CSF

Ace2007 wrote: »

wow - calm down i always just check the teams on bbc, and to be honest i doubt others can't do this either, i could understand a gambling website being banned at work, but if you can get access to boards, you probably have access to bbc.

My tongue in cheek remark was because poster said should create twitter account for all teams and get the latest starting news there, i'm fairly sure team twitters also provide updates of all games too, so you'd get as much info from twitter as you would from a thread on here.

What are you talking about? Twitter is by far the best source for the teams. I was just saying it was the best not that it should be a compulsion.

PARlance

extra gravy wrote: »

To be fair, you can't expect everything handed on a plate to you. It's not hard to go check Twitter/the rules or whatever else you want to find out. It's just pure laziness to come on here and expect all the work to be done for you by other posters.

The main problem you'd have in the absence of posted team line ups is a host of "x,y,z doesn't start" posts followed by "where's your source" replies... Then you'd have another bunch of "does a,b or c start" posts.

While people are willing to provide the line ups then I'll be very grateful to have one post to reference. I follow the 20 clubs on twitter but posting one post would be a nightmare as I'm on my mobile 99% of the time.

CSF

PARlance wrote: »

The main problem you'd have in the absence of posted team line ups is a host of "x,y,z doesn't start" posts followed by "where's your source" replies... Then you'd have another bunch of "does a,b or c start" posts.

While people are willing to provide the line ups then I'll be very grateful to have one post to reference. I follow the 20 clubs on twitter but posting one post would be a nightmare as I'm on my mobile 99% of the time.

Just to clarify though, I wasn't suggesting people don't post the teams. Just that this forum is a secondary source of information which isn't really manned by any dedicated stats compiler moreso the good will of many, and there won't always be someone posting them, so people should have primary information sources.

Unfortunately that was picked up on and twisted by an overly aggressive poster looking for a row.

Copper_pipe

Would a Viber/ WhatsApp group or maybe a Group email be a bit of an overkill for the team news?

CSF

Copper_pipe wrote: »

Would a Viber/ WhatsApp group or maybe a Group email be a bit of an overkill for the team news?

Yeah probably

Ace2007

CSF wrote: »

Just to clarify though, I wasn't suggesting people don't post the teams. Just that this forum is a secondary source of information which isn't really manned by any dedicated stats compiler moreso the good will of many, and there won't always be someone posting them, so people should have primary information sources.

Unfortunately that was picked up on and twisted by an overly aggressive poster looking for a row.

I assume your talking about me here, i have no idea why you think i'm looking for a row, you stated that you believe people should create a twitter account and follow the 20 teams in order to get the team news.

I made a tongue in cheek remark that if people did this as suggested by you, that there would be then no need for a match day thread, as we would get all the information we needed, who got booked, scored/assisted etc from the twitter accounts.

I actually don't see the issues surrounding the way the teams are currently posted in the threads. if you want the team news faster than go to bbc/twitter or whatever but no need to change the thread or make more work for the OP (though it would probably see them opening later and later instead of earlier )