ASFL2 News - Tag Search (Features- 59 Items)

Friday Website Downtime

1:32 AM ET on 7/4/15 by Jay Soester

Let me begin by apologizing for the website downtime on Friday. It was down for somewhere around eight hours.

I've honored all picks that were emailed to me. I've credited those who would normally make a pick in MLB Day-to-Day Pickem with a pass for Friday if they did not make a pick. There didn't seem to be any issues in CFL Pickem. If you need to make a pick and the website isn't cooperating at any point in time, you can always email your pick to commish@theasfl.com.

Why was the website down?
The hosting company created a technical ticket for me on June 29th out of the blue saying there was a folder with too many files in it. A fairly reasonable request, but the folder and files were created over five years ago when I was a beta tester for OOTP9 & OOTPX, I had no reason to expect any issue. It's not the first time they've made a request for me to change something about the website and I'm sure it won't be the last. The server for this website is shared among many websites and the hosting company felt the size of the folder was degrading the server's performance in this instance.

When the hosting company creates technical tickets, their system automatically sends an email. Unfortunately, I've been having issues with the means I typically access the email address they sent the ticket to for the past week. That rendered me completely unaware of the issue until the website was down. As soon as I saw the issue, I rectified it and notified them of the fix. The hosting company told me the website would be back up within an hour or at worst in a few hours. I followed up with three every other hour from that point for six hours until the website came back around 6:20 PM ET, over eight hours after I fixed the issue.

You can also follow updates whenever the site is down via @asfl2 on Twitter. Hopefully that will be increasingly rare going forward.

Sections: Main

Tags: ASFL2_Website, Website_Features, League_Website, League_Message_Board, Website_Errors, MLB_Day-to-Day_Pickem, ASFL2_Fantasy_Games, CFL_Pickem

Newsletter #24

12:03 AM ET on 6/25/15 by Jay Soester

Newsletter #24 is now out. It covers the seven games available plus the three football money leagues and the potential for money league pools with the pickem games in the fall. I also mentioned my planned/hoped website improvements.

Sections: Main, Fantasy Games, Money Leagues

Tags: Newsletters, Games_Available, Fantasy_Golf, Fantasy_NASCAR, Fantasy_Football, MLB_Day-to-Day_Pickem, CFL_Pickem, NASL_Pickem, Fantasy_Formula_1, ASFL2_Fantasy_Games, Premier_League_Pickem, NFL_Pickem, NFL_Locks, College_Football_Pickem, ASFL2_Money_Leagues, Money_Leagues_Fantasy_Football, Money_Leagues_Pools, Game_Features, Features, Website_Features, ASFL2_Website, League_Website, League_Info

New Features: Day-to-Day Pickem Scores & Starters

12:33 PM ET on 5/15/15 by Jay Soester

Two new features have been added to MLB Day-to-Day Pickem

The Probable Starters page will now automatically update every four hours or so and include the pitcher's win-loss record and ERA. The probables will extend out a week from the current day, when known.

New Feature #2 is the game scores on the front page and schedule pages will update every 15 minutes with the current score and inning of the game. This may cause some issues with the scoring calculations as games progress, but I'll work out the kinks over the next week. If you're interested in having me keep things the way they are for a more "live scoring" feel to MLB Day-to-Day Pickem, let me know in the game thread.

Thank you to everyone that has helped me update the probables and scores manually in the past. The old methods will still be there if something needs to be fixed.

There is one more minor feature being worked on for the game before I move on to adding similar features to our other Pickem games. If you notice anything strange happening, please let me know.

Sections: Main, Fantasy Games

Tags: MLB_Day-to-Day_Pickem, ASFL2_Fantasy_Games, Game_Features, Features, Website_Features

New Feature: Email Reminder Links

10:44 PM ET on 4/27/15 by Jay Soester

I've fixed the email reminder script for Fantasy Games which feature it to include a link back to the game and, when applicable, a link to make each individual game pick.

The improvement applies to MLB Day-to-Day Pickem, NASL Pickem, Premier League Pickem, CFB Pickem, NFL Pickem, CFL Pickem, and NFL Locks. Please let me know if there are any problems.

Sections: Main, Fantasy Games

Tags: ASFL2_Website, Website_Features, League_Website, ASFL2_Fantasy_Games, MLB_Day-to-Day_Pickem, NASL_Pickem, Premier_League_Pickem, College_Football_Pickem, NFL_Pickem, NFL_Locks, CFL_Pickem, Game_Features, Features, League_Info

Malware Warnings

11:07 PM ET on 7/27/14 by Jay Soester

I've been working for a few days to get the Malware warnings from Firefox and Chrome to be resolved.

There are ways to get around the warnings:

Chrome:
1) Click the "Advanced" link next to the "Go Back" Button.
2) Click "Proceed at your own risk"

FireFox:
1) Click "ignore this warning" in the bottom right of the alert box.

The issue is caused by the ad network on the website (Smowtion). Unfortunately, they seem to bee on the verge of going under and haven't been much help. I've been removing the ads page-by-page as best I can and will continue to do so. Please do not click on any ad that looks remotely suspicious.

I apologize for the issue and would like to reiterate that I would never knowingly put forth malware. This website is solely designed for fantasy sports, sports talk and community discussion. I have no intention of developing or releasing any sort of software at this time.

I'm currently appealing the distinction with google. Once it is overturned, the warnings should disappear entirely.

Sections: Main

Tags: ASFL2_Website, Website_Features, League_Message_Board, League_Website, Website_Errors

Newsletter #21

3:55 AM ET on 1/5/13 by Jay Soester

Newsletter #21 is now available. It covers the new league survey, the six games available, our first Super Bowl Pools, updating game results, and it has an update about the NHL lockout situation. Please use this thread or with any questions about the newsletter.

Sections: Main, Fantasy Games, Keeper Leagues, Money Leagues

Tags: Newsletters, Review_Survey, League_Survey, Website_Features, League_Features, ASFL2_Website, ASFL2_Fantasy_Games, Unofficial_Games, ASFL2_Membership, Sign_Up, Unofficial_Games, Bonus_Points, ASFL2_News, Rules, Games_Available, Fantasy_Golf, NFL_Playoffs_Pickem, Fantasy_NFL_Playoffs, Fantasy_Hockey, Premier_League_Pickem, Fantasy_Tennis, League_Message_Board, Keeper_Leagues_Fantasy_Hockey, Game_Results, Money_Leagues_Super_Bowl_Pools, Randomized_Super_Bowl_Pool

2013 League Survey

2:32 AM ET on 1/3/13 by Jay Soester

In a throw back to the earlier days of the league, I've put together a survey that I hope everyone will participate in. I've set up a database to catch the submissions to make determining the results (and subsequently, announcing them) a lot easier.

The sections with a light blue header and the section titled, "Membership Levels" are incredibly important (and the mini-section in between).

You can submit the survey again after the first time, simply use the same password. If you have any questions feel free to reply to this thread.

I pray to get a newsletter out Thursday before it's too late for Fantasy Golf, but I'm not remotely optimistic.

The first deadline of the Fantasy Golf season is 5 AM on Friday (roughly 26.5 hours away as I type this). If you're not already in one of our groups, please join: ID- 829/Password- 123456. Don't forget about NFL Playoffs Pickem and Fantasy NFL Playoffs as well.

Sections: Main, Fantasy Games, ASASFL, Money Leagues

Tags: Review_Survey, League_Survey, Website_Features, League_Features, ASFL2_Website, ASFL2_Fantasy_Games, Unofficial_Games, ASFL2_Membership, Sign_Up, Unofficial_Games, Bonus_Points, ASFL2_News, Rules, Newsletters, Games_Available, Fantasy_Golf, NFL_Playoffs_Pickem, Fantasy_NFL_Playoffs

Happy Fifth Anniversary

11:56 PM ET on 11/14/12 by Jay Soester

You may have noticed that I'm listed in the "Happy Anniversary" box on the right side of the page.

On this day five years ago, I began work on creating a league that had been bouncing around in my head for a few months after having to give up on the ABL due to time constraints. My idea was designed to not require as much time, but potentially involve as many people. I originally got into crappy geocities website making with themed fantasy leagues across the draft sports. I was going to return to that and include every game Yahoo! offered. After consulting with those who used the website in the past I decided to run with the idea. A sign up form was together by the end of the day, rules sorted out within the next few days and unofficial games ready within two weeks. I'm sure most I consulted didn't realize the extent to which I meant "all" at the time.

I soon realized I could add to the list of games by including games on the league message board (the Standings & Playoffs Pickem games) in an effort to get people to use the league website more regularly than just to check the game and overall standings. After a few seasons, I realized in order to make anything out of the league I was going to have to move every game onto the website from Yahoo! and after figuring out the language I need to learn to make that possible, I've been working at it ever since.

Last season I had this to say in the anniversary article, "The website has improved exponentially each season from that point forward. I hope to continue that trend through the next four years with all games on the website within the next 5-10." I have a hard time believing that first sentence continued this past season. Beyond College Football Pickem, CFL Pickem & and a method to make it easier to keep bonus points updated behind the scenes (which I've been trying to find the time to fix the front end of for months now), there hasn't been much progress too much progress.

The lack of progress was mostly due to an unforeseen series of events in my personal life leading to the Help Needed thread. On top of what was originally posted, I've since come back from a weekend attending a wedding with my ex in the greater NYC area (as joyous as it sounds) to discover I was burglarized, with my laptop being the primary item taken. I also had about $10,000 conned out of my be a family member who used his father's death and funeral as the ruse to get the money. And lastly, I've seen my aunt taken a turn for the worse in the last month, though she has bounced back some in the last week or so. All of that has taken up time I otherwise needed to work on new features or money I could have used to invest in some improvements and/or someone to help carry the workload. I've had to take up a lot of overtime in my day job (which, oddly enough, today is the one year anniversary of) to help try to recover some of the money that was taken until I can otherwise receive it, which may not happen for months yet if not longer.

While my ultimate goals for the league haven't changed, the timetable may have to. Once I've earned back a decent chunk of the money that was stolen, I hope to register the website as a company of some kind. From there, I hope to be able to hire and/or invest. Currently, I'm lucky if the league breaks even from month-to-month as the ad revenue has steadily decreased and was never much to begin with (an average of about $5/month last year) and I don't have the time to invest in putting together Money Leagues for the draft games. As a result, I may look into beginning to charge membership fees as early as the 2014-2015 season (two from now and beginning 13.5 months from now, at the earliest). It wouldn't be much ($5, $10 at most until all games are on the website), could be alleviated by earning bonus points (X amount would be worth $Y off your membership fee), would vary by the amount of games you participate in (including a free level), and would result in concrete prizes for overall rank and/or Champions League result.

I hope to put together a league survey closer to the start of the new season covering everything from potential membership fees to improving games already on the website to thoughts on moving games to the website that are still on Yahoo! and to improving activity across the league.

Thanks to everyone participating, without you we couldn't have made it this far.

Sections: Main

Tags: League_History, ASFL2_History, Website_History, Anniversary, ASFL2_Anniversary, League_Message_Board, ASFL2_Fantasy_Games, Website_Features, League_Features, Sign_Up

Euro 2012 Pickem Available

2:29 AM ET on 5/30/12 by Jay Soester

Euro 2012 Pickem is now available. No idea what Euro 2012 is? It's the championship between national teams in Europe; essentially the World Cup of Europe.

You haven't heard a whole lot from me (other than the usual updates) in the past 2-4 weeks because I've been busting ass to get this done. The tournament begins at noon ET on Friday, June 8th. All pre-tournament entries are due by 11:57 AM ET that day.

The game is in the same mold as World Cup Pickem, but with game score picks (a la Premier League Pickem) made during the tournament after a pre-tournament entry.

The scoring for the pre-tournament entries mirrors that of World Cup Pickem, aside from the knockout rounds being one round shorter. The scoring for the in-tournament game score picks is the same as for Premier League Pickem, but with a perfect game in the knockout rounds also requiring a correct PK winner where applicable.

If you have any questions feel free to reply to the game thread. Hopefully the rule page can be of service as well, it features the bonus points breakdown. At least 26 bonus points will be available; I may add a simple picks made bonus as well.

I'll begin work on moving CFL Pickem from the message board to the website in the next few days.

Sections: Main, Fantasy Games

Tags: Games_Available, Euro_2012_Pickem, ASFL2_Fantasy_Games, Unofficial_Games, Bonus_Points, Soccer_Talk, Euro_2012_Talk, CFL_Pickem, Website_Features

NHL & NBA Playoffs Assignment

11:26 PM ET on 4/24/12 by Jay Soester

I'm looking for some help on an NHL & NBA Playoffs Assignment that's designed to help me test things out before setting up an NHL and/or NBA Playoffs Fantasy Game on the league website as soon as possible. The first draft for the assignment took place on April 12th, a day after the NHL playoffs began. I'm looking for at least six members to help me set up a draft prior to the NBA playoffs beginning and prior to the NHL's second round starting.

You can participate by sending a list of at least 60 (NBA) or 108 (NHL) players (making sure to account for any players that haven't been guaranteed of being in the playoffs or next round yet) or by replying with a draft time that works for you. While I'm not optimistic that my schedule will work to sort out a live draft in the next few days, I'm hopeful six other members can pair up at a given time. I'll also need help setting up a basketball excel file similar to the one for the NHL game that has relevant player stats for all players that can be drafted. Giving a list and/or participating in a live draft is worth at least 3 BP while helping with the file can be worth five or more.

For more information please read the first post of the thread and the most recent. If you have any questions, please reply to the thread.

Sections: Main

Tags: Assignments, Bonus_Points, NHL_Playoffs_Talk, NBA_Playoffs_Talk, NHL_Talk, NBA_Talk, ASFL2_Fantasy_Games, ASFL2_Testing, League_Features, ASFL2_Drafts