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| 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.
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League_History, ASFL2_History, Website_History, Anniversary, ASFL2_Anniversary, League_Message_Board, ASFL2_Fantasy_Games, Website_Features, League_Features, Sign_Up |
| Newsletter #18 |
3:20 PM ET on 1/6/12 by Jay Soester |
Newsletter #18 is now available. It covers the five games available, the coming Keeper Leagues Fantasy Baseball season, what's in the works and a website milestone.
Please use this thread or email me with any questions about the newsletter.
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Newsletters, Games_Available, Fantasy_Golf, Fantasy_Tennis, NFL_Playoffs_Pickem, Fantasy_NFL_Playoffs, Premier_League_Pickem, ASFL2_Fantasy_Games, Unofficial_Games, AFL_Pickem, CFL_Pickem, Fantasy_F1, Bonus_Points, Keeper_Leagues_Fantasy_Baseball, Keeper_Leagues_Baseball_Drafts, ASFL2_Drafts_App, Keeper_Leagues_Bid_System, Super_Bowl_Pools, ASFL2_Money_Leagues, ASFL_History, League_History, ASFL2_History, Website_History |
| Ten Years |
11:59 PM ET on 1/2/12 by Jay Soester |
What were you doing ten years ago today? Turning 22? How bout 14? It was a Wednesday. AIM was still socially relevant, if not in its heyday. Facebook didn't come into existence until around 2 years later. MySpace didn't even exist. Were you watching Bill Guerin score a hat trick in a 6-3 Bruins defeat of the Hurricanes? Or watching Steve Spurrier's last game as Florida's head coach, a 56-23 Orange Bowl win over ACC champion Maryland with big games from Rex Grossman, Earnest Graham, Jabar Gaffney, Brock Berlin and Taylor Jacobs. Were you still in college?, watching your team beat Morris Brown 85-38 on the day your mom went back to prison? Or were you just being appointed interim President of Argentina by the Legislative Assembly?
Ten years ago Monday, I was a sophomore in high school plotting out the beginnings of a sim league. Tim had introduced me to sim leagues a few months before and I decided that it was the next step in my progression after 2+ years of running themed fantasy leagues. The American Simulation Football League soon had 12 teams with 12 coaches and plans to add the ability to create your own player and hire an assistant coach. After an admittedly disappointing first season, I went about adding to the member pool and decided to teach myself HTML over Spring Break to improve the free website of the time. Shortly thereafter it was decided to switch from running the league with a program whose name I no longer remember, to Madden 2002 (of which I still own two copies). After around a year and a half, and a few hundred emails, a sponsor was finally found to foot the $150 needed to purchase the domain (and hosting) that is still in use. If not for the original ASFL, this league might not exist, or at least the very least, would go by another name. I had to end the league's run on August 27th, 2004 with my first week of college. It took a considerable amount of work to run as it required roughly an hour per game, something impossible without two computers, plus all the time to manually calculate stats and create players. After my freshman year of college, I went about creating the ABL using OOTP which alleviated some of the time commitment from the original ASFL.
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| Happy Anniversary |
12:52 AM ET on 11/14/11 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 four years ago, I began putting together a website for an idea I had been floating around in my head for months- a return to my geocities roots in creating a themed fantasy league. Only this league wouldn't be about scoring within a single game, it would incorporate scores from all games to determine the winner. I consulted with Tim and, a few days later, asked around to those who had been a part of this website in the past with enough resulting interest to put the idea in motion. 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 Tim didn't realize the extent to which I meant "all" at the time.
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.
Thanks to all who have participated in our various games over the years and to all who interact with other members via the message board. Without your use of the website, the league couldn't exist. Hopefully I can continue to entertain everyone for the foreseeable future.
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| Farewell, SSSS |
11:58 PM ET on 11/12/11 by Jay Soester |
I created the original league that occupied this website, the American Simulation Football League on January 2nd, 2002. I was 14 at the time. Two others helped me create the league, one of which is still around (Tim Schneider), the other vanished a few months after the league began. Given the ages of those involved, the dynamic and culture of the league (and the second league on this website) was a bit different compared to the current environment.
Back then, there were only two points of interaction between league members, AIM (which members were required to have...and was actually, socially relevant at the time) and the league message board. Plenty of good-natured ribbing between those who cheered for rival teams and other inside jokes developed, with the Stupid Shit Said Section (SSSS) evolving from the general culture and camaraderie of the message board's membership.
The SSSS began when Tim posted a conversation he had had with another league member on AIM in which the other member proceeded to look like an idiot. Those type of threads would be prevalent on the SSSS through the end of the original ASFL and into the ABL era, but slowly the section evolved to include stupid humor from around the internet. Viral videos were posted, addicting games with dumb concepts, stupid news from around the world, and hilarious pranks from around the internet or even within the league.
With the league's culture having changed and the SSSS's use having dropped drastically, I've decided to retire the SSSS and merge all threads into the Free Range section on the league message board. But before I do, I wanted to bring back the best in a decade of stupid humor. I asked Tim to give me his favorite threads from the ABL message board and I've included my own favorites from the nearly ten year run as well. All external links open in a new window. If you're easily offended, I don't recommend most of them.
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