Preseason ratings were up, no?i think it might have to do with the sports lockouts affecting the way we all feel about sports. as a long time lurker and more fantasy football fan than football fan, i was preparing myself for a fall without fantasy football.the whirlwind offseason/training camp couldn't have helped either. there was a lack of build up and curiosity into fantasy football. the moms and fake fans like me just weren't sucked in by labor agreement talks. should be interesting to see if mnf and super bowl ratings are down this year as well.
I agree with this...there is such a wealth of information out there that one really doesn't need to prepare much anymore. Now while I'm a junkie and love the conversation, my preparation simply doesn't give me the advantage it used to.Is it the reason traffic is down...? I don't know about that, but FF information is a commodity now.one thing i've noticed over the last couple of seasons, and maybe i'm not alone...fantasy football isn't, well, hard.i used to break out multiple magazines, scour the web for info and cheatsheets, do a ton of prep beforehand. but for whatever reason, i don't even think i need to do that anymore. just give me a list of players at the draft, lemme check a news source once a day, and i will win. i have no idea how or when FF suddenly got "easy" but it just feels that way to me. i used to LIVE on this board in the off-season. i think i've checked it 4x this year (counting right now). now fantasy baseball, THAT is hard. you have to keep up and immerse yourself in that one to be successful. but i digress.
Twitter and other sources of information have grown as well. There is a good chance that cuts into traffic. I used to come on these boards and see news about players. Now, there is rarely a piece of news posted here that I haven't already seen on Twitter.I agree with this...there is such a wealth of information out there that one really doesn't need to prepare much anymore. Now while I'm a junkie and love the conversation, my preparation simply doesn't give me the advantage it used to.Is it the reason traffic is down...? I don't know about that, but FF information is a commodity now.one thing i've noticed over the last couple of seasons, and maybe i'm not alone...fantasy football isn't, well, hard.i used to break out multiple magazines, scour the web for info and cheatsheets, do a ton of prep beforehand. but for whatever reason, i don't even think i need to do that anymore. just give me a list of players at the draft, lemme check a news source once a day, and i will win. i have no idea how or when FF suddenly got "easy" but it just feels that way to me. i used to LIVE on this board in the off-season. i think i've checked it 4x this year (counting right now). now fantasy baseball, THAT is hard. you have to keep up and immerse yourself in that one to be successful. but i digress.
i dont get this. I would argue that its actually getting harder, due to the fact there is so much info readily available, instantly, to anyone. This levels the playing field more, imo.my leagues have a mixture of guys that research and guys that wing it. I usually do pretty good. But, winning a league always takes a fair amount of luck. I've seen people "luck" into winning leagues because of injury, surprise breakouts, teams peaking in FF playoffs, etc......If its getting easier, you must be playing FF with guys who really wing it.one thing i've noticed over the last couple of seasons, and maybe i'm not alone...fantasy football isn't, well, hard.i used to break out multiple magazines, scour the web for info and cheatsheets, do a ton of prep beforehand. but for whatever reason, i don't even think i need to do that anymore. just give me a list of players at the draft, lemme check a news source once a day, and i will win. i have no idea how or when FF suddenly got "easy" but it just feels that way to me. i used to LIVE on this board in the off-season. i think i've checked it 4x this year (counting right now). now fantasy baseball, THAT is hard. you have to keep up and immerse yourself in that one to be successful. but i digress.
:knowsstuff:Apparently the Shark Pool has jumped the shark.I hear the hawk nest is the place to be nowadays.
1) Your accumulated knowledge is working for you now. You already have a good understanding of the teams and situations so all you need to do is check this year's changes to adjust your draft boards accordingly. It's far different than trying to grasp the width and breadth of the NFL when you were first getting into it. Example: an experienced fantasy owner doesn't need to spend much time divining which Carolina WR is going to start across from Steve Smith because an experienced fantasy owner is going to know that position is probably going to be worthless no matter who it is.2) A lot of the news we see is actually pretty insignificant noise. And it's so redundant. Unless you are trying to work trades based on some hot tip and fear the opportunity will evaporate, you can kinda sit back and wait for the one news story on what "did happen" instead of chewing your fingernails at the one hundred blurbs that speculated on "what might happen".3) The average fantasy player is probably getting older. That means we aren't all college kids anymore with lots of discretionary time on our hands. Efficiency and shortcuts are more important to us these days.4) The smart guys like the FBG's have figured out how to do the distillation work for us and have us pay them so we can save time and still win. Of course, that only works if the info is good, but the thing I love about FBG's is the information clearinghouse function it serves.one thing i've noticed over the last couple of seasons, and maybe i'm not alone...fantasy football isn't, well, hard.i used to break out multiple magazines, scour the web for info and cheatsheets, do a ton of prep beforehand. but for whatever reason, i don't even think i need to do that anymore. just give me a list of players at the draft, lemme check a news source once a day, and i will win. i have no idea how or when FF suddenly got "easy" but it just feels that way to me. i used to LIVE on this board in the off-season. i think i've checked it 4x this year (counting right now). now fantasy baseball, THAT is hard. you have to keep up and immerse yourself in that one to be successful. but i digress.
It's getting harder to find a unique advantage (an edge) which translates to more wins for you.But that's because it's gotten easier to locate good info thanks to the internet and the burgeoning fantasy marketplace.All the hard work you used to put in ferreting out the next big thing is now available to your league mates with no sweat from their brow for nothing more than a $25 yearly subscription to a fantasy football internet site.So it's gotten harder for you because the competitiveness is at an all time high. But it's even easier for them because the playing field is now level, which means luck plays an even greater role, and it cost them next to nothing to reach that equality.When the owners are otherwise equal, then luck pretty much makes up 100% of the difference between them. Whether you describe winning/losing by luck as an easy or hard thing probably depends on whether or not you are a glass half empty/glass half full type.So it's easier to win with less, but it's harder to find an edge.'Manster said:i dont get this. I would argue that its actually getting harder, due to the fact there is so much info readily available, instantly, to anyone. This levels the playing field more, imo.my leagues have a mixture of guys that research and guys that wing it. I usually do pretty good. But, winning a league always takes a fair amount of luck. I've seen people "luck" into winning leagues because of injury, surprise breakouts, teams peaking in FF playoffs, etc......If its getting easier, you must be playing FF with guys who really wing it.one thing i've noticed over the last couple of seasons, and maybe i'm not alone...fantasy football isn't, well, hard.i used to break out multiple magazines, scour the web for info and cheatsheets, do a ton of prep beforehand. but for whatever reason, i don't even think i need to do that anymore. just give me a list of players at the draft, lemme check a news source once a day, and i will win. i have no idea how or when FF suddenly got "easy" but it just feels that way to me. i used to LIVE on this board in the off-season. i think i've checked it 4x this year (counting right now). now fantasy baseball, THAT is hard. you have to keep up and immerse yourself in that one to be successful. but i digress.
One solution is to stop playing in the kind of standard setup leagues, cookie cutter leagues that all of the advice is aimed at.Not only can you come up with some different formats that are more fun and will require more strategic thinking, but they will test whether owners can really determine value for themselves....But that's because it's gotten easier to locate good info thanks to the internet and the burgeoning fantasy marketplace.All the hard work you used to put in ferreting out the next big thing is now available to your league mates with no sweat from their brow for nothing more than a $25 yearly subscription to a fantasy football internet site.So it's gotten harder for you because the competitiveness is at an all time high. But it's even easier for them because the playing field is now level, which means luck plays an even greater role, and it cost them next to nothing to reach that equality....
Twitter.
This is the direction in which I'm drifting. I've played traditional ff for 20 years, I'm starting to think about alternative structures now.One solution is to stop playing in the kind of standard setup leagues, cookie cutter leagues that all of the advice is aimed at.Not only can you come up with some different formats that are more fun and will require more strategic thinking, but they will test whether owners can really determine value for themselves....But that's because it's gotten easier to locate good info thanks to the internet and the burgeoning fantasy marketplace.All the hard work you used to put in ferreting out the next big thing is now available to your league mates with no sweat from their brow for nothing more than a $25 yearly subscription to a fantasy football internet site.So it's gotten harder for you because the competitiveness is at an all time high. But it's even easier for them because the playing field is now level, which means luck plays an even greater role, and it cost them next to nothing to reach that equality....
I wonder if this is true and, if so, if it's age-related?I think the use of message boards in general is less popular than they used to be.
What seems odd is the ridiculous number of views each thread has. There must be hit and run mentality around here.95 user(s) are browsing this forum
42 members, 52 guests, 1 anonymous users
Not bad for Sunday morning on labor day weekend
Same. The commish normally holds the draft to give enough time for people to make moves, and normally there are a flurry of trades. There have only been 2 so far this offseason, and one was my Mike Thomas for Jerome Harrison. I don't think Fantasy Football as a whole is down tho, it seems everybody nowadays has a team, even women are becoming more and more evolved. The Lockout has certainly effected things tho, because people had less time to get leagues together.TBH, Ive thought the same thing...My $$$ league is always rampant with smacktalk (both on the site and via txt etc), waiver moves, FA pickups...This year, nothing. Or very little of it anyways.Same group of guys basically for yeeeears, but still.. nothing.I dont think FF is fading at all, but perhaps the "prestige" or "novelty" of it is starting to tarnish a bit.
Lots of good posts in here. Twitter and facebook are definitely big factors. As is the above where people are quickly viewing and then moving on to something else.It's interesting though in that site traffic is up overall. In something a little unexpected, the lockout seems to have boosted interest. Although I'm not sure if boosted is the right word as much as it compacted interest. Where normally, interest is spread out over a long summer, this year, it was dead and then all of a sudden everything happened at once.What seems odd is the ridiculous number of views each thread has. There must be hit and run mentality around here.95 user(s) are browsing this forum
42 members, 52 guests, 1 anonymous users
Not bad for Sunday morning on labor day weekend
At the risk of kissin' backside J, thanks for a great site. This is an incredible site with very knowledgeable participants.Lots of good posts in here. Twitter and facebook are definitely big factors. As is the above where people are quickly viewing and then moving on to something else.It's interesting though in that site traffic is up overall. In something a little unexpected, the lockout seems to have boosted interest. Although I'm not sure if boosted is the right word as much as it compacted interest. Where normally, interest is spread out over a long summer, this year, it was dead and then all of a sudden everything happened at once.What seems odd is the ridiculous number of views each thread has. There must be hit and run mentality around here.95 user(s) are browsing this forum
42 members, 52 guests, 1 anonymous users
Not bad for Sunday morning on labor day weekend
Not really sure.
Bottom line though I think a smaller board might be a good thing. It may help us be able to focus more on real news and maybe have less "noise". We'll see.
To you guys contributing, thanks.![]()
J
This is VERY false I'm pretty sure. Message boards' share of "social" web is way, way down though, yes. But the pie is so much bigger that message boards are definitely still growing.I wonder if this is true and, if so, if it's age-related?I think the use of message boards in general is less popular than they used to be.