Another possibility. If you click "Settings" (top right), then click "RSS Feeds", you will be presented with the following options: Private documents in public feeds: Public RSS readers may allow others to search for your feeds and be able to see the document title and who changed what and when. Active Documents: Lists recent changes to documents appearing on your Active Documents list. Individual Documents: To see a document's feed, open a document and click the Collaborate tab. Then, click "View RSS feed of document changes" (on the right side). Tagged Documents: Lists recent changes to documents by tag.
I admire the effort some people are putting in to research all aspects of modifying the process. However, I share Ingromius despair at the amount of people who haven't voted yet and now I'm wondering if they're glancing at the thread and thinking it's become over complicated and are giving it a miss due to this. Edit: And I'd imagine these damn blank page loads aren't helping much either.
It's interesting that there are 4 leagues of 8 managers, of which there are still some unfilled slots, yet there are 36 "votes".
As stated this was a rush job - simply a matter of counting how many votes there are (14) and estimating, based on 4 leagues of 8 how many hadn't voted. Got my math wrong, (should be 18 ) but that "not voted" number can only be an estimate with some leavers and open spots anyway. Point is, there are certainly more than 14 active managers, so many of them must either not be monitoring the thread or not be interested enough to make a comment.
I vote for mandatory. II Hybrid Mandatory I had a nice comment awhile back but it got covered over immediately. More importantly, I am looking forward to the new season and keeping my fingers crossed for a decent draft position. Atleast I won't be tempted blow all the dough on Ronaldo again.
In light of being able to use timestamps in Google (in various ways; I would think that one way or some combination of ways would suit our needs), shouldn't the voting options be tweaked? After all, the idea is to have a transfer method that is reliable and simple. 5) Google Docs 1) Enter transfer in Google Doc; time stamp becomes official confirmation of transfer. 2) Make transfer on FPL site. One step eliminated (FPL forum). No need for penalties. No need to navigate pages and pages of Bigsoccer forum. One central data repository.
I am serious about conducting this year's draft using Google Docs. I'll take the time to cut and paste the various player information and sort it by teams by position, since the database gets frozen with the first pick. My thought on the fields I'll show are: Col 1. Blank: Used to identify the draft round/pick: 2-5 would indicate 2nd round pick 5. Col 2. Blank: Used to identify the team or manager who has drafted this player. Col 3. Team Name Col 4. Player Last Name (Use initials for multiple players with last name, aka Johnson, or Neville, etc.) Col 5. Player Position Col 6. Player Valuation Col 7. Player Points for 08-09 season, if applicable. Above the Draft Pool, I'll have Rosters for each team that gets filled in during the draft. I'll have Fields for the teams so you can cut and paste the row information into the team roster. At the bottom of the value column will be a running total so you can see how much of your 100 M you still have to spend on players remaining. After everyone experiences using Google Docs for the draft, and when we have 32 active managers participating in the draft, then would be a good time to finalize this idea of modifying the transfer policy. People would then be able to vote with an understanding of how easy/hard is it to use google docs. I am not, I repeat, NOT, going to suggest we use this same spreadsheet during the season and have someone update the database. My first try and cutting, pasting, and sorting had to be done by various positions and the various pages for each position. I think they offer a complete player database EXCEL spreadsheet on the FPL site at the beginning of the season, but I'm not sure about that. It sounds like some have figured out a way to have Google Docs do the timestamp. So the rosters can be kept up there and the trades made there, but one would still have to be checking the FPL site to get the player's latest valuation. The thought also occurs to me, and it is a risk of the old system as well, if you post a transfer, but used the database player valuation instead of the taxed valuation and you don't have enough funds for the proposed transaction. That's why I actually try the transfer on my FPL roster, but without submitting the transfer, to ensure I have the funds for the transfer and don't violate the too many players from one team rule.
I think that's an excellent idea, Hal. People currently uncomfortable with using google docs will not feel pressured in the draft slow phase, and should have a good handle on it before the draft fast phase.
I manage the Rat Face Villans and I vote for #3. I don't know about other folks, but the google docs app is blocked from my workplace so there would definitely be a delay between making a transfer and posting the transfer on google docs for transfers executed during business hours. I would prefer not to be barred from making transfers until I could post on the google docs. However, as a courtesy to other managers, and to see if the promised time saving benefits of the google docs approach are possible, I'm willling to try the google docs methods under the "no penalty" option.
Also note that that if a mandatory google docs method is implemented for the draft, there will be a draft stoppage every time the draft gets to me during central time zone business hours. To avoid this delay, I would be willing to submit my picks via e-mail or bigsoccer draft thread for someone else to post, is possible.
Thanks for being flexible. I think that should work. But we also have to get a way to update you with the other picks. I may ask that the managers who pick before you, download the Excel Draft Worksheet and forward it to you for you to make your moves and send it back to them to upload. As the overall Draft Administrator, I may also require I have shared access privileges for each draft so I can do the same in a pinch.
I vote for this: 2) Hybrid Method--Mandatory 1) Enter transfer on FPL league message board; time stamp becomes official confirmation of transfer. 2) Make transfer on your FPL team page. 3) Update Google Doc team spreadsheet. 4) Penalty for neglecting spreadsheet (TBD) And each league should be able to choose for itself.
Stop And Think I don't know why this Google Docs is being promoted so much - and now for the draft? If that doc page is down, we're scuppered. At least if the FPL site is stalling, you can't transer anyway.
This is horrendous and is going to change what was a fun game among friends, that didn't really take up too much time to keep up with, into bureaucratic hell.
Getting Google Docs Off My Chest Just one more thing about this Google Docs balonely - it's sterile. The only reason for posting trades in Big Soccer is to engage in a little banter with other managers throughout the season. As I hardly have the time for that, I make my commentary (if any) in the official FPL transfer thread. When I'm travelling (which I do a lot), if I can't access the Premier League site, I can't trade. I've accepted that over the years. But, in the future (if some people get their way) what if I can access the FPL site but not Google Docs? Are you trying to say I shouldn't be able to make the transfer? This is totally against the spirit of the game.
Re: Getting Google Docs Off My Chest I'm not sure why you quoted me twice about your "bureaucratic hell". The current vote-leading method is Hybrid/Mandatory, which has the most steps of all the options and it includes Google Docs/penalties. I didn't nominate that option, and I didn't vote for that option. Since timestamps can apparently be used in Google Docs, I suggested a 5th voting option that would be the simplest of all the options. You may have legitimate arguments against Google Docs, but please don't associate me with "bureaucratic hell".
Two seperate quotes. Highlighting different things, I guess. I'm not associating you with 'beauracratic hell', just the process.
Hal just sent me links to his 'Google Docs'. Unfortunately, the thing took so long to load I just closed the browser and never got to see it. This experience has just confirmed what I so dreaded.... Google Docs will not be happening for me.
For 1-800's concerns This will be a trial for the Google Docs. Also, those without access should pm someone on BigSoccer or email someone. I think the banter on the Big Soccer forum is the best part of the league. I think it should continue. Again, after the trial year for Google Docs, we can get into whether it killed the "Game." I think the forums combined with the cups were what kept active managers going all season. For the Record: Small Rocks In Season Thread: Did not exist Very Small Rocks In Season Thread: 365 replies Sand In Season Thread: 365 replies Dust League In Season Thread: 303 replies Dust League In season Tranfer Thread: 286 replies If you just look at the threads, lots of credit has to go to Sutton Slippers for making a separate thread for Dust League in Season transfer. It let the veterans appraised of what the newbies did and also kept active a solid league. I also think that the active managers who posted and/or ran cups was the real success of the competition. It does seem that some of the leagues had a discussion maybe somewhere else but was not really part of the forum. However, it was the Very Small Rocks league active participants promoting the Google Docs and they held up more than 25% of forum and cup participation so I trust what they promote to be succesful.