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Best FFB administrative site (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter jadams209
- Start date
tonystrong
Footballguy
Over the last three years, I've used Yahoo, ESPN, and RTSports in my various leagues. In my main league, we've been using RTSports since 2003 and that is my favorite. The main reason is that it is very user friendly and not as many advertisements as the other two (I didn't say no ads, just not as many. But it is a pay site). The biggest issue I have with them is that they don't have an option to combine RB/WR/TE in looking up statistics, you have to look at each position separately.
GoBears84
Footballguy
Search the forum for MyFantasyleague and you'll see it's reasonably priced ($70 if you register early) and has all the functionality you need. The draft room has been flawless. We moved two leagues from FanBall and we've never had any problems. The only know I have is that waivers are a bit difficult to figure out, but once you've done that, they easily transfer from year to year...
Futz
Footballguy
Ive used MFL on a number occasions and we left it in my main league last year. Its interface is really outdated and it has way too much content to find some basic things while surfing it. I love the amazing amount of content but I wont go back until they modernize it.
rocketsauce
Footballguy
I could not disagree with this more. I got a free league from CBS this year by signing up for a promotion last year. I started a league just to test run it, and when it hasn't been horribly inconvenient or straight up incapable of handling our settings or preferences, it has still been a navigation nightmare, and general hot mess. I'm still giving it a chance for this season, but as far as pre-season has went (Draft, Settings, general communication on the site) I am not only not impressed, but wouldn't even use it next year if it were free.
I prefer MFL above all others. It will cover 99% of your preferred settings, rules, etc and if you have a knowledgeable (or rich) commish, it will hands down be the most beautiful and useful service, and can be tailor made to exactly what you and your leaguemates prefer.
I don't know if Fleaflicker is free, but I have a casual league there and really enjoy it. I've never really enjoyed Yahoo, but haven't played there in 2 or 3 years. ESPN was okay when I used it most recently. Neither Yahoo or ESPN have ever been impressive enough for me to leave MFL and their $70 fee.
Agent575
Footballguy
CBS is a joke. Don't let them rob your league.
MFL is the best and the price is beyond fair (make sure to get early bird discount)
Yahoo and ESPN are free (and good for the price)
Heard good things about Fleaflicker but really never spent time with it.
RTS is fine but I put MFL wayyyyyy above them personally.
MFL is the best and the price is beyond fair (make sure to get early bird discount)
Yahoo and ESPN are free (and good for the price)
Heard good things about Fleaflicker but really never spent time with it.
RTS is fine but I put MFL wayyyyyy above them personally.
GregR
Footballguy
I'm a big proponent of MFL. Should probably ask them for a retainer or something. 
While their base appearance would score lower than other sites, the price and functionality so blow everyone else away it makes up for it. For the cost of one year of CBS, you could pretty much get a year of MFL plus pay someone like MFLaddons.com either for one of their premade makeovers, or to custom build a makeover for you. Which would include graphics customized to your league, etc.
And the MFLaddons is a one time purchase that keeps working in each new season, so after that you've got a site that looks as good as CBS, has more functionality, and costs 1/3 the price.
By the way, another reason I stay with MFL is I've noticed a lot more complaints about other sites not being able to handle early season bandwidth. It seems a regular occurrence for some places. I think I recall it at that level on MFL once about 10 years ago, but no major issues since. Occasionally a server is down for maintenance for a half hour or hour is about the most I generally see on them.
Oh, and also worth mentioning... you can get a $10 discount if you are a FBG subscriber. And the staff there will work with you to import your history from other sites. And another huge reason... I put in about 3 support tickets a year, normally enhancements or ticky tack stuff. I've received an actual typed reply from a person every time.
I won't say they are flawless, the live auction stuff is new and has had some issues, but overall, I think they blow away anyone else I've seen. I haven't used MFLaddons myself yet... am planning to but keep failing to get around to it.
While their base appearance would score lower than other sites, the price and functionality so blow everyone else away it makes up for it. For the cost of one year of CBS, you could pretty much get a year of MFL plus pay someone like MFLaddons.com either for one of their premade makeovers, or to custom build a makeover for you. Which would include graphics customized to your league, etc.
And the MFLaddons is a one time purchase that keeps working in each new season, so after that you've got a site that looks as good as CBS, has more functionality, and costs 1/3 the price.
By the way, another reason I stay with MFL is I've noticed a lot more complaints about other sites not being able to handle early season bandwidth. It seems a regular occurrence for some places. I think I recall it at that level on MFL once about 10 years ago, but no major issues since. Occasionally a server is down for maintenance for a half hour or hour is about the most I generally see on them.
Oh, and also worth mentioning... you can get a $10 discount if you are a FBG subscriber. And the staff there will work with you to import your history from other sites. And another huge reason... I put in about 3 support tickets a year, normally enhancements or ticky tack stuff. I've received an actual typed reply from a person every time.
I won't say they are flawless, the live auction stuff is new and has had some issues, but overall, I think they blow away anyone else I've seen. I haven't used MFLaddons myself yet... am planning to but keep failing to get around to it.
CalBear
Footballguy
It surprises me that MFL hasn't gotten it together to pay someone to build a good UI. Putting a different skin on a crappy UI doesn't make it a good UI.I'm a big proponent of MFL. Should probably ask them for a retainer or something.
While their base appearance would score lower than other sites, the price and functionality so blow everyone else away it makes up for it. For the cost of one year of CBS, you could pretty much get a year of MFL plus pay someone like MFLaddons.com either for one of their premade makeovers, or to custom build a makeover for you. Which would include graphics customized to your league, etc.
But outside of UI, MFL is well above the competition in terms of functionality available, especially data access tools. This year I bought FanDraft, which was able to import our teams and keepers from MFL; then, after we use it to do our auction, it can upload the rosters right back to MFL, where FBG can import them into MyFBG, etc. Our auction has a lot of special requirements, and none of the web site draft tools can handle them all. With MFL you can use a third-party tool that integrates with the site.
Gottabesweet
Footballguy
MFL's live scoring still take like 5 minutes to update? CBS' updates a second after a play
Short Corner
Footballguy
How does this change anything with how you run your team/league? Hardly worth the $120 difference IMO.
NFL.com handles all of our specs and is free.
Gottabesweet
Footballguy
Never said it did there's plenty of other reasons why id rather spend the money. MFL sites look like a high schooler created them in HTML class. You get what you pay for I guess
Short Corner
Footballguy
GregR
Footballguy
Everyone has a different priority. I really don't care about glitzy appearance if I can't have the league work the way I'd like. And I don't just run simple leagues, I need the depth of features.
NFL.com is a great example of my frustration when it comes to appearance over substance. Compared to ESPN it is a much more modern, fancy looking site. One which often utterly sucks to use. It takes longer to load. The pages you spend 90% of your time using (like boxscores, player stats, play by play) you can't jump straight to... instead they are buried behind glitzy looking graphics that look great but that don't give me the info I went there to get.
I do like some things about CBS. I haven't used the FF interface in awhile but do some other stuff there like the FBG staff pick'em league that Will bases his article off of. I love the drag and drop for sorting player names and such. I'd love to have that on MFL and agree MFL should upgrade their UI. But it's not worth the extra cost, the lack of support, and the lack of some features I use.
NFL.com is a great example of my frustration when it comes to appearance over substance. Compared to ESPN it is a much more modern, fancy looking site. One which often utterly sucks to use. It takes longer to load. The pages you spend 90% of your time using (like boxscores, player stats, play by play) you can't jump straight to... instead they are buried behind glitzy looking graphics that look great but that don't give me the info I went there to get.
I do like some things about CBS. I haven't used the FF interface in awhile but do some other stuff there like the FBG staff pick'em league that Will bases his article off of. I love the drag and drop for sorting player names and such. I'd love to have that on MFL and agree MFL should upgrade their UI. But it's not worth the extra cost, the lack of support, and the lack of some features I use.
rocketsauce
Footballguy
High School: http://www23.myfantasyleague.com/2013/home/30850#0
High School: http://www24.myfantasyleague.com/2013/home/22851#0
High School: http://www17.myfantasyleague.com/2013/home/32643#0
Sure, the bare bones MFL look when you first create a league or sign in is...blah, boring, and downright ugly. MFL isn't for you if you aren't interested in full league customization as you see above. But if you are? Best fantasy experience out there.
Been using MFL probably 8 or 9 years now. I agree it could use an overhaul, BUT it is easy enough to set up, it archives from year to year (with a click to go back to any previous year), it keeps your scoring parameters from year to year, and it seldom crashes. Plus it can feed into FBG's DD (which I've not used for a couple years, but still...) It would be hard for me as 'site administrator' to switch. Oh, and you CAN set up any custom site look using either some of their templates, or by making your own (if you have the skill), so their 'facelift' may not even be a concern.
Hoss Style
Footballguy
We use CBS in our main league. With 16 teams all chipping in the cost is really a non factor. I'm not the Commish, though, and I have heard him curse more than a few times when they keep "updating" the site with new features, but from a regular owners perspective it's nice (as much as I hate to endores a big, corporate site). And once the Commish gets used to the updates he does say that it's pretty darn easy to use.
A lot of times it's not "cool" to like the big corporate entity but CBS does do well at most things. At CBS scores update almost instantly. Managing your team is effortless (although I'm not really a fan of their new drag-and-drop system). Add/Drops are seamless. I play another league that's auction style and it's smooth as well. Our league is IDP, 16 teams deep and has all kind of detailed, quirky scores and scoring-tier-based bonuses that CBS implements with ease. I know many hate it because of cost (which I can understand). Like I said, though, that's not an issue for us with 16 teams.
If I was starting a new league, honestly, I'd go with MFL to start with. Lower price and lots of the same features as other sites (and more than most). Any site, though, will take TIME to get used to working. A full season and you'll just start to get comfortable with it (if you're the Commish).
On the other hand, if you don't mind the expense, I'd try CBS instead. If you aren't happy then you've only got one season invested and you can move to MFL and compare the next season.
Hope that helps.
A lot of times it's not "cool" to like the big corporate entity but CBS does do well at most things. At CBS scores update almost instantly. Managing your team is effortless (although I'm not really a fan of their new drag-and-drop system). Add/Drops are seamless. I play another league that's auction style and it's smooth as well. Our league is IDP, 16 teams deep and has all kind of detailed, quirky scores and scoring-tier-based bonuses that CBS implements with ease. I know many hate it because of cost (which I can understand). Like I said, though, that's not an issue for us with 16 teams.
If I was starting a new league, honestly, I'd go with MFL to start with. Lower price and lots of the same features as other sites (and more than most). Any site, though, will take TIME to get used to working. A full season and you'll just start to get comfortable with it (if you're the Commish).
On the other hand, if you don't mind the expense, I'd try CBS instead. If you aren't happy then you've only got one season invested and you can move to MFL and compare the next season.
Hope that helps.
CalBear
Footballguy
I'm not talking about glitzy appearance, I'm talking about user interface; the things you need to do to actually use the site. On MFL it's not very good; until you figure out where they hide things and what their terms are for them, it's hard to get around. Finding a particular piece of information can be difficult. There's no good view of head-to-head live scoring (it's better on the phone than on the web site). These are functional issues.
I still choose MFL over any of the alternatives, but I would love them if they'd sink $50K into hiring someone who knows something about UI.
CalBear
Footballguy
Ive used CBS, MFL, and rtsports and for me from worst to first:
CBS the worst. Vastly overpriced compared to the competition. I was a commish for 3 years with CBS and everything ran ok except when you had an issue....then good luck getting any support. With FF time is almost always an issue when you have issues and all I kept getting was form letters and no help with the actual issue.
MFL is great and all and DOES blow RTsports out of the water with its bells and whistles but trying to fing the information you need there is rediculous sometimes. Im confident if I ever moved my main league there there would be mutiny because some of them just arent computer geeky enough to find stuff.
RTsports: less bells and whistles than MFL but it does all we need it to do. Its layed out in a logical way and nobody has issues with finding what they need. The waiver wire is easier to use than MFL. and lastly ( and probably most importantly, their customer service is second to none.
CBS the worst. Vastly overpriced compared to the competition. I was a commish for 3 years with CBS and everything ran ok except when you had an issue....then good luck getting any support. With FF time is almost always an issue when you have issues and all I kept getting was form letters and no help with the actual issue.
MFL is great and all and DOES blow RTsports out of the water with its bells and whistles but trying to fing the information you need there is rediculous sometimes. Im confident if I ever moved my main league there there would be mutiny because some of them just arent computer geeky enough to find stuff.
RTsports: less bells and whistles than MFL but it does all we need it to do. Its layed out in a logical way and nobody has issues with finding what they need. The waiver wire is easier to use than MFL. and lastly ( and probably most importantly, their customer service is second to none.
GoBears84
Footballguy
MFL uses the GameDay program. You can see head-2-head, top performers, just TD's, past weeks, actual games - all kinds of cool stuff. You can even have it announce touchdowns for you if you aren't following every one of your players on Sunday Ticket. Typically refreshes about 1 minute after each play.
Phantom Knight
Footballguy
Curious as to what specifically you don't like about Yahoo?
Last year there were huge problems with Stattracker but in previous seasons, I think it was fairly stable and accurate. It should handle most scoring rules. It handles redraft leagues quite well. It has poor, but improving keeper/tools (having a year round presence and more integrated league history would be very nice additions). In my opinion, Yahoo's player news/stats is a plus compared to many other league hosts including many that you have to pay for. Heck once you get into the season, the player news is much more up to date than FBG which, in theory, you pay FBG to keep up to date. Ironically? FBG is a great source for player news during the off-season, when they give away that info for free! Don't get me wrong, I love FBG and am a paid subscriber. But not a bad "add-on" for a completely free service from Yahoo.
Adam Harstad
Moderator
Fleaflicker is by far the best free league management site out there. I actually prefer it straight up over MFL (ignoring the cost difference), but I've never created a league that needed all the extra layers of customization MFL offered.
Phantom Knight
Footballguy
Different strokes for different folks, I guess. I am in my first Fleaflicker league this year. I prefer Yahoo hands down. though I do like the clean interface with Fleaflicker. As long as the league is fairly vanilla, I also prefer Yahoo to MFL.
Definitely agree that if you have really unique scoring, if you really want to customize your league, if you need access to league data to use in your own applications, MFL is the only answer.
Definitely agree that if you have really unique scoring, if you really want to customize your league, if you need access to league data to use in your own applications, MFL is the only answer.
Have used RTS and CBS in the past but have been on Yahoo for many years now. Its free and does what we need.
However, I'm looking to do some things differently related to scheduling/scoring. Does MFL or RTS offer the ability to do roto scoring or what I think is called "best ball" where the owner doesn't set a lineup. Instead the top players at a given position are used to determine their score each week.
While I like the head-to-head scoring and the smack talk that comes with it, I'm sick of losing with the second highest score for the week. My starting lineups have scored the 2nd most points in the league and yet my record is 5-5. The "best ball" option at least addresses the scenario where a player goes out after one play and you have his backup handcuffed...think Foster->Tate. Roto should result in the best teams being ranked accordingly. My work league had a guy win the SB simply because his team and his opponent got hot at the right time; they had the worst two records in the playoffs. One team in the consolation game outscored their total score.
Before I start digging around the various sites out there, I thought I'd ask for some recommendations here.
Thanks,
However, I'm looking to do some things differently related to scheduling/scoring. Does MFL or RTS offer the ability to do roto scoring or what I think is called "best ball" where the owner doesn't set a lineup. Instead the top players at a given position are used to determine their score each week.
While I like the head-to-head scoring and the smack talk that comes with it, I'm sick of losing with the second highest score for the week. My starting lineups have scored the 2nd most points in the league and yet my record is 5-5. The "best ball" option at least addresses the scenario where a player goes out after one play and you have his backup handcuffed...think Foster->Tate. Roto should result in the best teams being ranked accordingly. My work league had a guy win the SB simply because his team and his opponent got hot at the right time; they had the worst two records in the playoffs. One team in the consolation game outscored their total score.
Before I start digging around the various sites out there, I thought I'd ask for some recommendations here.
Thanks,
