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Make the Assistant Coach Forum Great? Ideas? (1 Viewer)

Joe Bryant

Joe Bryant

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I don't think the Assistant Coach Forum has ever been great, so I can't say "again". 

But I'd love to hear ideas from you guys on how we can make the Assistant Coach Forum better.

Here's the thing - we can't have team specific questions in the Shark Pool. One is fine. But once we start there, there's no end to the "Who do I start / keep / trade?" type questions. So we created the Assistant Coach Forum for those. 

But the problem obviously is lots of people don't like those types of questions there any more there than they do in the Shark Pool.

You guys have any (real) ideas on how to make the Assistant Coach Forum better? 

I'd love for it to be a place where you guys that are knowledgeable and have insight to share could use it to solidify your positions as experts. 

If you've got thoughts or ideas, let's hear it. Thanks.

J

 
While you probably can't "force" your staff writers to spend their time answering questions there, perhaps you can either encourage them to or even somehow work it into their assignments for the week.

Maybe assign two writers per day to spend an hour answering questions, one around noon and one in the evening.

 
I think Octo is touching on my thinking.  I am actually one who visits the AC forum daily and often posts my opinion.  There are a few others that do that as well but not very many of us.  My thinking is that if FBG is going to offer an AC forum that has any meaning they have to dedicate some resources to going in to that forum and actually providing something meaningful to it.

 
Andy Dufresne said:
Have an assistant coach thread in the Shark Pool?

One thread for redraft another for dynasty?
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That's an idea I hadn't thought of Andy. Keep talking there. Would it get too crazy trying to keep up with which question was being answered? 

I do think there's value in not having to leave a forum. It's why I've always been so opposed to fracturing forums.

Keep talking on this angle.

J

 
Dr. Octopus said:
While you probably can't "force" your staff writers to spend their time answering questions there, perhaps you can either encourage them to or even somehow work it into their assignments for the week.

Maybe assign two writers per day to spend an hour answering questions, one around noon and one in the evening.
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That's something we've talked about some Dr. Octopus and I hear you. But the goal is to highlight non staffers with this. I'd like this to be something you guys do. 

J

 
I feel like we could just eliminate it as a standalone forum, and make it a sub forum in the SP. Maybe even a couple subs for Redraft and Dyno

This would be sorta like Andys idea except less chaos trying to keep track of questions in a singular thread. Im not sure it would be as easy to follow as say, the trade thread, if it were in a single topic/thread type format

 
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Joe Bryant said:
That's an idea I hadn't thought of Andy. Keep talking there. Would it get too crazy trying to keep up with which question was being answered? 

I do think there's value in not having to leave a forum. It's why I've always been so opposed to fracturing forums.

Keep talking on this angle.

J
Click to expand...
Two ways to look at it/go about it. Most questions in the ACF are answered in a handful of responses. Sure that's a function of the lower traffic in that forum but for most questions I think it'd hold true.

Another option could be for the questioner to post the trade in successive posts and bold the first side in the first and  the second in the second - then people could use the like button to "vote" on which side/post they prefer. And not everyone would have to comment on the trade. 

 
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Andy Dufresne said:
Another option could be for the questioner to post the trade in successive posts and bold the first side in the first and  the second in the second - then people could use the like button to "vote" on which side/post they prefer. 
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This would be way better with actual polls. Not sure if the forum software allows polls within comments, but if it did that would be pretty great (for this and for other things).

 
Required posting format. 

I will go in there from time to time but I won't answer because the posts there are just horrendous. "Who should I trade to get AJ Green" 

Then you have to respond asking for the OP's team, the team to be traded with's roster, scoring system, etc. 

So many people don't post appropriately. The advice there isn't well thought out either. They respond just enough and then give you a link to their post.  I've given people advice in the past, even starting my own thread asking people to post trades, roster moves, etc in the Shark Pool I think about 10 years ago (Similar to what Bloom does each week). Worked pretty well. I got busy with life and couldn't give as much advice as what was asked so I didn't do it again after 1 or 2 seasons. 

I think what's daunting is how much crazy volume goes in there. It's hard to keep up. You can ask a question in the AM and it is on page 2-3 by the afternoon. 

Maybe a few running threads based on league type, scoring system, etc. You can have a thread for trades in PPR leagues, non-ppr leagues, dynasty leagues, etc. It's a running thread so everyone goes to the same thread, scoring system is assumed because of the thread they are in, so advice can be more thought out. And people are going there to post their own stuff so they are likely to respond to others. 
 

 
Andy Dufresne said:
Two ways to look at it/go about it. Most questions in the ACF are answered in a handful of responses. Sure that's a function of the lower traffic in that forum but for most questions I think it'd hold true.

Another option could be for the questioner to post the trade in successive posts and bold the first side in the first and  the second in the second - then people could use the like button to "vote" on which side/post they prefer. And not everyone would have to comment on the trade. 
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I guess this would only work for trades already on the table. 

 
Part of the issue is that very few people frequent the ACF, so you might as well post at a library or a cemetery and would get just as many responses.

IMO, it probably makes sense to set up master threads for the types of threads in the ACF . . for example:

WDIS?
Trade consideration evaluation
Is this collusion?
Would you rather have PLAYER X or PLAYER Y?
Team specific roster moves
Free agency / waiver wire pick ups

That way, you could keep similar topics contained in the same thread. On the positive, more people would probably read the questions. On the negative, too many questions in the same thread might get a lot of questions ignored.

 
I like the above idea.  Having a few threads that people could easily search and then post in the correct thread would allow people to focus their questions.  Still not sure how you get people to actually respond, but at least you'll know what you're getting when you click on the thread.

 
Pwingles said:
I feel like we could just eliminate it as a standalone forum, and make it a sub forum in the SP. Maybe even a couple subs for Redraft and Dyno

This would be sorta like Andys idea except less chaos trying to keep track of questions in a singular thread. Im not sure it would be as easy to follow as say, the trade thread, if it were in a single topic/thread type format
Click to expand...
One advantage of the Assistant Coach forum is that topics stay there for a while.  Topics here can easily be overlooked and pushed back to where they are not seen and commented on.  If you just had one Dynasty and Redraft thread here, then it could end up like the Dynasty trade thread where topics just get piled on top of each other and the people asking their questions may not get the answers they are looking for, or any advice at all.  As someone who uses and likes the Assistant Coach forum, I am not sure eliminating it as a standalone forum is the best idea.  But if there is a way to draw more people to that forum it would certainly be a positive.

 
For weekly start/sit discussions, each week could be its own thread.  That will help to clear out that one, which I imagine will get the most use in-season.

 
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aaj1997 said:
One advantage of the Assistant Coach forum is that topics stay there for a while.  Topics here can easily be overlooked and pushed back to where they are not seen and commented on.  If you just had one Dynasty and Redraft thread here, then it could end up like the Dynasty trade thread where topics just get piled on top of each other and the people asking their questions may not get the answers they are looking for, or any advice at all.  As someone who uses and likes the Assistant Coach forum, I am not sure eliminating it as a standalone forum is the best idea.  But if there is a way to draw more people to that forum it would certainly be a positive.
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I always found the issue with the AC forum during the season was that there were way too many threads posted and not enough people actually posting to them.  If you started a thread and it didn't get responded to within an hour it was already pushed to the second page and never seen again unless you bumped it.

 
Joe Bryant said:
That's something we've talked about some Dr. Octopus and I hear you. But the goal is to highlight non staffers with this. I'd like this to be something you guys do. 

J
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Use non-staff. People who are always available and who get good "respect ratings" (volume and quality) can be upgraded to "staff-like" Staff-Like = Whatever you want that to be.

But this way, you throw someone a bone by doing that horrific chore AND you might uncover a savant in that whole rating, WDIS. what should i do? realm.

And that my friend is $$$.

 
Hawkeye21 said:
I always found the issue with the AC forum during the season was that there were way too many threads posted and not enough people actually posting to them.  If you started a thread and it didn't get responded to within an hour it was already pushed to the second page and never seen again unless you bumped it.
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That is a valid point.  I personally use more often in the off-season (for Dynasty) so I was not thinking about in season.

 
aaj1997 said:
One advantage of the Assistant Coach forum is that topics stay there for a while.  Topics here can easily be overlooked and pushed back to where they are not seen and commented on.  If you just had one Dynasty and Redraft thread here, then it could end up like the Dynasty trade thread where topics just get piled on top of each other and the people asking their questions may not get the answers they are looking for, or any advice at all.  As someone who uses and likes the Assistant Coach forum, I am not sure eliminating it as a standalone forum is the best idea.  But if there is a way to draw more people to that forum it would certainly be a positive.
Click to expand...
im basically saying move the AC from a standalone section and basically sticky an AC Dyno and AC redraft sub area to the top of the SP. You enter it, and the threads are individual like they were but its just at the top of the SP forum.

 
Pwingles said:
im basically saying move the AC from a standalone section and basically sticky an AC Dyno and AC redraft sub area to the top of the SP. You enter it, and the threads are individual like they were but its just at the top of the SP forum.
Click to expand...
Got it, sounds like a good idea to me.

 
Joe Bryant said:
That's an idea I hadn't thought of Andy. Keep talking there. Would it get too crazy trying to keep up with which question was being answered? 

I do think there's value in not having to leave a forum. It's why I've always been so opposed to fracturing forums.

Keep talking on this angle.

J
Click to expand...
Please do not do this, making it one thread in the pool.  The reason the answers are short over there is the ego's are not over there.  Once you get into the pool guys will argue a point for 3 to 4 pages.  It would be an epic disaster. 

 
Would be great if there was some way to streamline the process, say one page of polls where I could just go down the questions clicking the answer I like best and voting on all of them at once.  The time spent going in and out of threads adds up when there are 50+ posts on a Sunday morning.

Crowdsourcing these would be marvelous but requires people to take time to answer them...anything to speed that up is good.  There used to be a weekly contest of this sort:  20-25 "who scores more this week" choices, and it was much easier to answer all those in one quick pass than to answer 20 threads in the AC.

No idea if that's even remotely feasible with the technology...just brainstorming.

 
Related to some of the ideas above, core problems in my mind is volume (tons to wade through, hard to find relevance to questions you might have about trading/starting specific players) and it's like pulling teeth to get a response and even then, the quality of responses aren't there -- the incentive seems to be to just give any answer (often without thought or justification) just to get a return answer on a question (the dreaded "Start X. Answer mine?).

I like some of the ideas above of better organizing by league type, question type (trade v start) etc. would help with the first issue.

To take Dope's idea one step further, gamify the experience. People who add quality and quantity (you need both together) in answering get badges or respect ratings, so over time, true gurus and respected voices in the forum get recognized. Go a step further and actually incent the right answers with rewards. Essentially, think of the best kind of response and environment you want in that forum, and put incentives behind it to drive that behavior.

Honestly, features like Wisdom of the Crowd to me is much better and more acccurate/trustworthy -- if you had a good critical mass incentivized to answer, any WDIS question is pretty much answered by direct (or where there isn't critical mass, proxy) comparisons. I think it's proven that volume crowdsourcing tends to be more accurate over a handful of independent replies -- you may lose some of the color behind the "why" you start, but adding a notes field for people to opt in text context and pulling those into the analysis (maybe even a voting function so the highest voted text additions show up in the analysis) could solve for that as well.

 
If there were one thread here, I am more likely to go through the thread and respond to various help questions.  But I never click on the ACF forum.

 
Study the ask sigmund thread each week.

I often read it sometime just for his answers, and he does a great job of answering each one.  The discourse is very civil and appreciative.

If  we could have a few FBG writers roaming, each day of the week maybe one of them can grab a day and create there own sticky thread.

Sigmund is very responsive on game days, especially sundays.  

Maybe a different writer can be available on mondays for weekend hot takes,

Tuesday's for free agents pickups,

Wednesday's for trades,

Thursday/friday for weekend plays

and of course the weekly Sigmund thread for  wdis, etc..,

a Dr. Jean injury thread would be very helpful, if he can pop in to address ongoing injuries.

thanks for asking.

 
mphtrilogy said:
Study the ask sigmund thread each week.

I often read it sometime just for his answers, and he does a great job of answering each one.  The discourse is very civil and appreciative.
Click to expand...
That Sigmund Sunday thread is exactly right.

When I posted above I was thinking along those lines...why does the Sigmund Sunday thread work? Its quick responses from a valued resource.

I could envision a non-staffer doing a similar thing...not that this would happen because i'm horrifically inconsistent, but something like a Dope's Week 7 Q&A thread.

I, theoretically would answer questions in that thread based upon the Assistant Coach guidelines. Nothing in depth, just bang bang bang. In return, I would ask the user to give a like if my advice turned out to be the right advice. I wonder if the board software is smart enough to do a query to catch likes between a certain time in a certain forum or not.

Anyway, that's my idea.

 
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maybe if there was a point system for answering those assistant coach questions and then those points could be used for questions to staff members.

 
Some good ideas in here. The problem is people *see spoiler* but you can't fix that so you have to fix the system.

After reading (stealing) everyone else's ideas, the best option to me is the polls idea. Building on that... No threads to click on even, just a scrolling list polls. Maybe just a WDIS thread then one for Potential Trades/Offers and so on. Have the poll starter be required to enter the necessary information (required starters, team roster(s), scoring, etc.) and then obviously the poll options. That's probably a lot of work for the web site person though. 

It's a bit of a "chicken or egg" problem for me. As the asker you can post post a novel about you're league and team then get a couple one word answers and no or poor response when you ask for a further explanation. 

As a responder, you get a vague question with no context, do your best to discuss and respond then have a response that comes in after with little substance that gets a "Thanks!" while my post floats of into the nothingness. I understand this is selfish of me but hopping to a different sub forum to answer a question that the poster didn't put much effort into then to get ignored seems like a waste of time. 
 
While there are a lot of diehards in here this time of year as the season approaches there are a ton of "seasonal" posters that want advice but don't know that there are specific forums to use. Sure there's a "rate my team" thread but people will still post in the pool or AC. 

I'm sure you all have a friend who has a computer problem and rather than do a simple google search and figuring it out the first thinks they do is call someone. I think we have a good handful of people do this. Any forum/subforum you make has to stand out from page 1, or they will take the path of least resistance. 

Sometimes I see trade posts in the AC that are a month old and someone decides to add their 2 cents, bumping a post that is likely moot. Trades usually happen in about a week, right? Either you work something out or you don't, it's not like you are negotiating for a month. I routinely see people giving advice for a question a few weeks old, and a lot can change in between. Then that post sits at the top of the page because someone came through and added a 1 word comment to 12 posts.  Maybe posts >3 weeks with at least 3 replies get archived to clean it up a bit? As someone who visits and gives advice regularly (for whatever it's worth, I'm just a guy that loves fantasy and will take a stance) it would be great if there was some kind of bonus for participating, but I'm sure you'd have a lot of people take advantage in the wrong way. 

 
Andy Dufresne said:
Have an assistant coach thread in the Shark Pool?

One thread for redraft another for dynasty?
Click to expand...
This pin a thread for team advice for that thread only in the SP, I know I would check that since it is convenient to see most recent posts from my phone, it will also help see the recent activity to know to enter the thread for others. Not to throw shade, but I am surprised this has not been done before now thinking about it. If someone were to start the thread, I'm sure a mod would pin it. 

 
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Also, The Shark Pool is a great free resource for the general public.

but why can't pay subscribers, have a sub forum with the FBG staff chiming in frequently as well?  This would add a whole new level of content and value on a daily basis knowing the FBG was jumping in and out of that forum.

Other than Sigmund and MT I don't see much of the staff in the Shark Pool. 

 
I vote for a thread with a set format. IE, if you post your trade offer, make sure to put league format, your team, and the other person's team.  If you just say, what should I give up for X player, no one knows since we don't know what we're dealing with. It's a lot easier when we know what players the trade target has as well.

 
For those of you asking for the FBGs staff to have threads where they answer questions on who to start and trade values you need to remember that they have a service for that already that requires a fee.  They are not going to offer all of that in the public forum for free as it would take away from their subscribers.  They need to make money to keep this site going.

 
So that it is easier to navigate, break out thread categories such as Trades, Who do I Start, Collusion, 

i don't think there is enough traffic but another way to make topics easier to find would be to separate threads by QB, RB, TE,

 
If posts

Dr. Dan said:
Required posting format. 

I will go in there from time to time but I won't answer because the posts there are just horrendous. "Who should I trade to get AJ Green"
Click to expand...
This is the biggest problem with AC.  People don't give any league details, scoring rules, current rosters, or opponents' rosters - how are we supposed to answer most of these? 

Hawkeye21 said:
I always found the issue with the AC forum during the season was that there were way too many threads posted and not enough people actually posting to them.  If you started a thread and it didn't get responded to within an hour it was already pushed to the second page and never seen again unless you bumped it.
Click to expand...
And this is why one thread will never work.  If they are scrolling past page 1 of a dedicated forum, how fast will they get pushed off page 1 of a consolidated thread, when one post might get 3-4 responses?  It's going to turn into nothing but a bumpwar.

 
Hankmoody said:
If posts

This is the biggest problem with AC.  People don't give any league details, scoring rules, current rosters, or opponents' rosters - how are we supposed to answer most of these? 

And this is why one thread will never work.  If they are scrolling past page 1 of a dedicated forum, how fast will they get pushed off page 1 of a consolidated thread, when one post might get 3-4 responses?  It's going to turn into nothing but a bumpwar.
Click to expand...
Threads that need to be remained seen should be sticky threads then.

 
Hawkeye21 said:
Threads that need to be remained seen should be sticky threads then.
Click to expand...
That's not the point.  With as many responses as will be on one single thread, I can create a new WDIS start post at noon and if it doesn't get a response in 30 minutes it's on page 3.  Just like the Dynasty Trade thread, how easy is it for one trade to get blown right off page 1 and no one ever sees it?  Now multiply that x the number of people that want specific advice.  People will have to bump (or even worse re-post) just to get eyes on their post.   Who is going to go 2-3 pages deep looking for advice posts they haven't responded to?

 
Hawkeye21 said:
Threads that need to be remained seen should be sticky threads then.
Click to expand...
Yeah that's not really what he's saying. If you have 50 people posting questions all at once, you run into the same problem as your post may be on page 2 with no responses but the thread is on page 5. No one will see your post

 
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Mavis said:
I do notice you sure did go out of your way to complain, while I just try to go out of my way to help. Relax, its May 3rd.
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Oh give it a rest man.  You claim to be a "go-getter".  So are the 500 people that post their WDIS questions in the Shark Pool.  The point is this is Joe's forum and Joe is trying to help everyone out and make things better.  Let him do it and stop pushing the issue yourself.

 
Ramblin Wreck said:
Oh give it a rest man.  You claim to be a "go-getter".  So are the 500 people that post their WDIS questions in the Shark Pool.  The point is this is Joe's forum and Joe is trying to help everyone out and make things better.  Let him do it and stop pushing the issue yourself.
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You are one angry dude on a fantasy football forum.  Look what you are getting upset about. Sad. 

 
Mavis said:
You are one angry dude on a fantasy football forum.  Look what you are getting upset about. Sad. 
Click to expand...
:lmao:  I'm not upset but nice accusation from a guy that's been here 6 weeks and already on several people's ignore list.  Carry on man sorry to interfere Joe can deal with your nonsense.

 
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