Right so we've used FF for our dynasty league (this is our first season) and it's been a success, I wanted to use this site as I'm very familiar with it. However, there are a lot of members what want to move on because of the sites limitations so I was hoping to get honest answers about what you will be implementing for next season so we can decide.
1) Taxi Squads. I get that you say use IR but it just isn't the same and it makes the commish job difficult because they have to manually check everyone is using it correctly. Surely it can't be too difficult to implement this?
2) Add/Drop/Trade after season. We have to wait till after the Super Bowl until our league starts up again basically? I had no idea and its insane. A dynasty league is supposed to be a 365 day league & I know I can manually do things but it isn't the same. Will this be changed by next season?
Thanks so much for reaching out to us! I'm going to go into this a bit in depth and hopefully this can help you out a bit! We're glad you decided to join us at Flea! Bare with me, as this will be a lengthy post, but hopefully will assist you in the running of your league and give you a bit of insight as well!
But first, I will answer your 2nd questions first: That is correct. After the Super Bowl, the football portion of the site will be reopened for business. This is done so that it allows us to make website enhancements easier during this small portion of "down time" and fix any bugs that we may encounter. We can certainly put this issue on our agenda and discuss how we can streamline this "down time".
Now, onto the 1st question:
There is no option for a Taxi or PS roster, but the IR is more than an efficient substitute for this. I've had my dynasty league on here for 7 years and never had an issue with it. In my dynasty league, we have a rule where only rookies and players who on the IR in real life can be placed on IR, but once they are promoted from the IR they cannot go back down. If a player is on the IR illegally, we have a 3 hour window for them to be moved or else I go in and cut the player from the teams. This forces the owner's to take over responsibility of their IRs and monitor it themselves. It also makes other owners watch the IR of others as well because if a player gets cut, they can quickly add the player for themselves and benefit. It's actually a great way to do it.
If you've already got the veterans on the teams, then you should only have to use 6 rounds (or however many rounds you choose) for the rookies. After that, liked we discussed earlier, you can use the IR for just rookies and any players who are on the real life IR.
In my dynasty league, I do an OFFLINE, 6-round rookie draft for 12 teams. You should really look into this, my friend. It's super easy and makes the draft process a bigger event for the league.
1. Before I started the league, I decided to do a 6 round, offline rookie draft each year, and color-code the owners that way it's easier to read.
2. Once the leagues flip for the new season (after the Super Bowl), I go in and jot down the draft order into a Google Sheet or Excel File (I'll post an example of it below).
3. Once I've got the correct draft order in a spreadsheet, I then go into "Settings > Edit Rosters > These are complete rosters for the season". Doing this, will unlock Free Agency. It will also remove the "Draft" tab at the top, but that's okay because you've got a copy of it in a spreadsheet.
4. Once that is done, trades can immediately be done, if they would like. I set a date for my owners to start picking up free agents (usually the day after the league flips for the new season).
5. From this point up until our rookie draft, owners are allowed to trade draft picks for the current draft. However, since the current draft's draft picks won't show on the website (only the next 3 years will show), I tell the owners that if they trade a pick in the current draft, they'll need to let me know which ones, that way I can update the draft order on the spreadsheet accordingly. After each draft pick trade involving picks in the current draft where I have to update the spreadsheet, I then post a screenshot of the latest draft order on the message board. This way, everyone is always up to date on the latest draft order and there is no confusion. (I actually tweaked this a little , as I've now created a Facebook group for our league and everyone gets a notification when I post something there and it's easier to upload a screenshot of the draft order spreadsheet, take league votes, etc. It works incredibly well).
6. Upon completion of the NFL Draft, FleaFlicker will soon begin adding the rookies into the FA pool. Once they do this, yes, rookies can be added by anyone. However, I have a rule in place where owners are not allowed to pick up rookies from FA, as I would like to be the one that adds each player to each team (you can do this quickly in the "Edit Rosters" option in the settings).
7. Once the rookie draft begins, I call each owner to let them know they are on the clock. If they don't make a pick in exactly 1 hour, they get skipped, just like in the NFL, though that's never been an issue. Then, at some point while they are on the clock, they will call or text me their pick. I then post on the message board the Pick and the Round, and then what owner selected what player. Then, I update the spreadsheet and add the rookie's name next to the owner's name that drafted them. If there is a trade of picks during the draft, I post the trade on the Facebook group so all owners are aware, and then continue the draft until it's complete.
8. Once complete, the spreadsheet is fully filled out, and I will go into the Edit Rosters option in League Settings, and import each rookie that each team drafted. Only takes a couple minutes. I do this until all rookies drafted are on their teams.
Here is a screenshot of an example of what last year's draft looked like upon completion. This is also the spreadsheet that I was referring to. Keeps everything neat and organized, and I also am able to keep it for historical purposes. As you can see at the bottom, I also have tabs where I can go back and look at previous years' drafts if need be.
So unless im missing something there is no way to have "free agents" unlocked for Add/Drops and be able to have the draft picks for the next draft tradeable at the same time? From what i have experimented with on here i have two choices, either open up the add/drops which takes away the next draft picks from being able to be traded on the site or keep the Add/Drops locked but be able to view/trade the next years picks.
Yes, that would be correct. However, you can either copy down the draft order "offline", as I do for my dynasty league as I showed Jonny above, or you could go into Settings > Edit Rosters > These are complete rosters for the season. This would take away the "Draft" tab at the top, but it would open FA for your owners. Then, whenever you needed to see the draft order for reference or have the picks show up again, just go back to the Edit Rosters settings and choose "These are complete rosters but still draft this season".
A 3rd option, would be to have any owner tell you who they want to pick up, then you go into Edit Rosters and import the player to said team manually. That is a little more tedious, but it will get the job done if necessary.
The reason this occurs, is because when you activate the league for the new season, the site recognizes that no draft for that league has been performed yet. So, by default, the system essentially says to itself "Hey, this league has yet to draft, so the Commish probably doesn't want people to be able to add whomever they want until a draft has been performed".
Chris, are there plans to change these limitations? I love Flea Flicker but shutting down waivers until after the Super Bowl and not being able to include this year's draft picks in trades are 2 pretty big issues for a dynasty league.
I can definitely bring this up at our next meeting and put it on the agenda for review. Running a dynasty myself, I understand how it could be an inconvenience at times. Until then, hopefully the solutions I outlined above will be helpful in circumventing the issue.
Please let us know if you need anything else and have a great weekend!
I have to agree this is a BIG issue for my league as everyone uses different software on their computers and trying to do things offline is not a good option for us. We would love to see flea flicker be able to resolve this particular issue. We will be playing here again this upcoming season. However league discussions are taking place about what to do in the future if we have to go through this again in the next "offseason" I would like to thank you Chris for your timely responses that has gone a long way in helping.
I'm looking at moving our Dynasty League (going into our 3rd year) over from Yahoo due to the offseason limitations Yahoo has.
Having set up the league on here for the coming season I'm going to agree with the other comments that not being able to have both the free agent pick ups/waivers and the current year draft picks available at the same time seems like a major hurdle. I definitely appreciate you providing some of the work arounds you use in your Dynasty League. I was really hoping your site could cater to basic dynasty leagues needs and avoid having to track things offline though.
Hopefully you can get the team to resolve this as it seems it would be appreciated by everyone running Dynasty leagues on here.
We are looking at the possibility of allowing this in the future. It's on our agenda and is being discussed. Until then, the best way to avoid offline procedures, is to just switch back and forth between "These are complete rosters but still draft this season" and "These are complete rosters for the season".
These two options can be found in Settings > Edit Rosters. This way, you can quickly and effortlessly avoid any and all offline procedures and still do the exact same thing you'd want done, until a permanent fix is implemented.
Here is a screenshot of those options under "Edit Rosters".
As stated previously above, "These are complete rosters for the season" will remove the draft tab and draft picks for the current season and thus, open free agency. But, if you need to quickly go back and have the picks available for viewing (along with the draft tab), then just go back to these settings and choose "These are complete rosters but still draft this season".
sorry for necro-ing the topic, if i do the switch, "complete Rosters" for a few months and then swap back to "complete rosters but still draft" - it would still keep the draft order taht was there, as well as still have all the details of previously traded picks - and of course would allow me to schedule a draft later?
eg. "complete rosters for the season" during Feb - day before NFL Draft - then i sawp to "These are complete rosters but still draft this season" and i can then schedule a draft?
Jonny_EaglesMon 1/4/16 8:19 AM
Right so we've used FF for our dynasty league (this is our first season) and it's been a success, I wanted to use this site as I'm very familiar with it. However, there are a lot of members what want to move on because of the sites limitations so I was hoping to get honest answers about what you will be implementing for next season so we can decide.
1) Taxi Squads. I get that you say use IR but it just isn't the same and it makes the commish job difficult because they have to manually check everyone is using it correctly. Surely it can't be too difficult to implement this?
2) Add/Drop/Trade after season. We have to wait till after the Super Bowl until our league starts up again basically? I had no idea and its insane. A dynasty league is supposed to be a 365 day league & I know I can manually do things but it isn't the same. Will this be changed by next season?
Thanks guys.
Run_CMCWed 1/6/16 10:10 AM
Hey Jonny!,
Thanks so much for reaching out to us! I'm going to go into this a bit in depth and hopefully this can help you out a bit! We're glad you decided to join us at Flea! Bare with me, as this will be a lengthy post, but hopefully will assist you in the running of your league and give you a bit of insight as well!
But first, I will answer your 2nd questions first: That is correct. After the Super Bowl, the football portion of the site will be reopened for business. This is done so that it allows us to make website enhancements easier during this small portion of "down time" and fix any bugs that we may encounter. We can certainly put this issue on our agenda and discuss how we can streamline this "down time".
Now, onto the 1st question:
There is no option for a Taxi or PS roster, but the IR is more than an efficient substitute for this. I've had my dynasty league on here for 7 years and never had an issue with it. In my dynasty league, we have a rule where only rookies and players who on the IR in real life can be placed on IR, but once they are promoted from the IR they cannot go back down. If a player is on the IR illegally, we have a 3 hour window for them to be moved or else I go in and cut the player from the teams. This forces the owner's to take over responsibility of their IRs and monitor it themselves. It also makes other owners watch the IR of others as well because if a player gets cut, they can quickly add the player for themselves and benefit. It's actually a great way to do it.
If you've already got the veterans on the teams, then you should only have to use 6 rounds (or however many rounds you choose) for the rookies. After that, liked we discussed earlier, you can use the IR for just rookies and any players who are on the real life IR.
In my dynasty league, I do an OFFLINE, 6-round rookie draft for 12 teams. You should really look into this, my friend. It's super easy and makes the draft process a bigger event for the league.
1. Before I started the league, I decided to do a 6 round, offline rookie draft each year, and color-code the owners that way it's easier to read.
2. Once the leagues flip for the new season (after the Super Bowl), I go in and jot down the draft order into a Google Sheet or Excel File (I'll post an example of it below).
3. Once I've got the correct draft order in a spreadsheet, I then go into "Settings > Edit Rosters > These are complete rosters for the season". Doing this, will unlock Free Agency. It will also remove the "Draft" tab at the top, but that's okay because you've got a copy of it in a spreadsheet.
4. Once that is done, trades can immediately be done, if they would like. I set a date for my owners to start picking up free agents (usually the day after the league flips for the new season).
5. From this point up until our rookie draft, owners are allowed to trade draft picks for the current draft. However, since the current draft's draft picks won't show on the website (only the next 3 years will show), I tell the owners that if they trade a pick in the current draft, they'll need to let me know which ones, that way I can update the draft order on the spreadsheet accordingly. After each draft pick trade involving picks in the current draft where I have to update the spreadsheet, I then post a screenshot of the latest draft order on the message board. This way, everyone is always up to date on the latest draft order and there is no confusion. (I actually tweaked this a little , as I've now created a Facebook group for our league and everyone gets a notification when I post something there and it's easier to upload a screenshot of the draft order spreadsheet, take league votes, etc. It works incredibly well).
6. Upon completion of the NFL Draft, FleaFlicker will soon begin adding the rookies into the FA pool. Once they do this, yes, rookies can be added by anyone. However, I have a rule in place where owners are not allowed to pick up rookies from FA, as I would like to be the one that adds each player to each team (you can do this quickly in the "Edit Rosters" option in the settings).
7. Once the rookie draft begins, I call each owner to let them know they are on the clock. If they don't make a pick in exactly 1 hour, they get skipped, just like in the NFL, though that's never been an issue. Then, at some point while they are on the clock, they will call or text me their pick. I then post on the message board the Pick and the Round, and then what owner selected what player. Then, I update the spreadsheet and add the rookie's name next to the owner's name that drafted them. If there is a trade of picks during the draft, I post the trade on the Facebook group so all owners are aware, and then continue the draft until it's complete.
8. Once complete, the spreadsheet is fully filled out, and I will go into the Edit Rosters option in League Settings, and import each rookie that each team drafted. Only takes a couple minutes. I do this until all rookies drafted are on their teams.
Here is a screenshot of an example of what last year's draft looked like upon completion. This is also the spreadsheet that I was referring to. Keeps everything neat and organized, and I also am able to keep it for historical purposes. As you can see at the bottom, I also have tabs where I can go back and look at previous years' drafts if need be.
Thanks,
Chris
Jonny_EaglesThu 1/7/16 3:57 AM
Thanks Chris!
Run_CMCThu 1/7/16 7:32 AM
My pleasure!
JohnCauthenThu 2/18/16 8:41 PM
Im posting this here first before i send a mail:
So unless im missing something there is no way to have "free agents" unlocked for Add/Drops and be able to have the draft picks for the next draft tradeable at the same time? From what i have experimented with on here i have two choices, either open up the add/drops which takes away the next draft picks from being able to be traded on the site or keep the Add/Drops locked but be able to view/trade the next years picks.
Run_CMCThu 2/18/16 8:55 PM
John,
Yes, that would be correct. However, you can either copy down the draft order "offline", as I do for my dynasty league as I showed Jonny above, or you could go into Settings > Edit Rosters > These are complete rosters for the season. This would take away the "Draft" tab at the top, but it would open FA for your owners. Then, whenever you needed to see the draft order for reference or have the picks show up again, just go back to the Edit Rosters settings and choose "These are complete rosters but still draft this season".
A 3rd option, would be to have any owner tell you who they want to pick up, then you go into Edit Rosters and import the player to said team manually. That is a little more tedious, but it will get the job done if necessary.
The reason this occurs, is because when you activate the league for the new season, the site recognizes that no draft for that league has been performed yet. So, by default, the system essentially says to itself "Hey, this league has yet to draft, so the Commish probably doesn't want people to be able to add whomever they want until a draft has been performed".
Hope this helped! Thanks for reaching out!
- Chris
ShaneCrosbySat 2/20/16 2:25 PM
Chris, are there plans to change these limitations? I love Flea Flicker but shutting down waivers until after the Super Bowl and not being able to include this year's draft picks in trades are 2 pretty big issues for a dynasty league.
Thanks,
Shane
Run_CMCSat 2/20/16 2:35 PM
Shane,
I can definitely bring this up at our next meeting and put it on the agenda for review. Running a dynasty myself, I understand how it could be an inconvenience at times. Until then, hopefully the solutions I outlined above will be helpful in circumventing the issue.
Please let us know if you need anything else and have a great weekend!
- Chris
JohnCauthenSat 2/20/16 5:31 PM
I have to agree this is a BIG issue for my league as everyone uses different software on their computers and trying to do things offline is not a good option for us. We would love to see flea flicker be able to resolve this particular issue. We will be playing here again this upcoming season. However league discussions are taking place about what to do in the future if we have to go through this again in the next "offseason" I would like to thank you Chris for your timely responses that has gone a long way in helping.
Run_CMCSat 2/20/16 5:56 PM
Not a problem at all, John!
Please let us know if there is anything else we can help you with!
DodgyOzzyFri 2/26/16 6:46 PM
Hi,
I'm looking at moving our Dynasty League (going into our 3rd year) over from Yahoo due to the offseason limitations Yahoo has.
Having set up the league on here for the coming season I'm going to agree with the other comments that not being able to have both the free agent pick ups/waivers and the current year draft picks available at the same time seems like a major hurdle. I definitely appreciate you providing some of the work arounds you use in your Dynasty League. I was really hoping your site could cater to basic dynasty leagues needs and avoid having to track things offline though.
Hopefully you can get the team to resolve this as it seems it would be appreciated by everyone running Dynasty leagues on here.
Thanks
Dylan
Run_CMCSat 2/27/16 7:32 AM
Dodgy, Thanks for reaching out!
We are looking at the possibility of allowing this in the future. It's on our agenda and is being discussed. Until then, the best way to avoid offline procedures, is to just switch back and forth between "These are complete rosters but still draft this season" and "These are complete rosters for the season".
These two options can be found in Settings > Edit Rosters. This way, you can quickly and effortlessly avoid any and all offline procedures and still do the exact same thing you'd want done, until a permanent fix is implemented.
Here is a screenshot of those options under "Edit Rosters".
Run_CMCSat 2/27/16 7:34 AM
As stated previously above, "These are complete rosters for the season" will remove the draft tab and draft picks for the current season and thus, open free agency. But, if you need to quickly go back and have the picks available for viewing (along with the draft tab), then just go back to these settings and choose "These are complete rosters but still draft this season".
Azor_AhaiTue 2/6/18 11:25 AM
sorry for necro-ing the topic, if i do the switch, "complete Rosters" for a few months and then swap back to "complete rosters but still draft" - it would still keep the draft order taht was there, as well as still have all the details of previously traded picks - and of course would allow me to schedule a draft later?
eg. "complete rosters for the season" during Feb - day before NFL Draft - then i sawp to "These are complete rosters but still draft this season" and i can then schedule a draft?