Comments on Fleaflicker live drafts? (1 Viewer)

[gliz]

Hey all,

Fleaflicker offers a few perks in their settings/scoring that Yahoo does not, so I would like to use their site for a new private league I am starting.

My only concern is the draft room functionality. Nobody wants to start a new league and have the wheels fall off during the draft, forcing busy people to reschedule, etc. Yahoo is a known entity, while Fleaflicker is a leap of faith at this time.

All the Fleaflicker draft commentary I come across in forums, both on Fleaflicker and elsewhere, consists of complaints about how the draft failed some way or another. Of course, it's the nature of things that people post when things go wrong, so I'm specifically seeking out commentary from those who have had good experiences.

TL; DR: Have you live-drafted on Fleaflicker? Were there technical problems, or was it smooth?

Thanks in advance for any comments!

 

[BillyJoeBob]

I have done several and had no technical difficulties. The interface is very old and boring, but generally worked.

The only issues we experienced during our drafts was related to the auto draftging functionality if an owner was not there. The options are limited and confusing, compared to ESPN which is the only other site I use. The recommended setting drafts based off team needs and will do crazy things like drafting DBs over Gurley in rookie drafts because your team is short DBs. The other option will follow your draft list directly, which works better but requires the user to change to this setting. No middle ground, these are the options.

In summary, ok for live drafting, but autodrafts will tend to disappoint. Which I guess is fairly common with most sites.

 

[Zyphros]

Probably doesn't answer your question but I was considering moving my league to fleaflicker over yahoo but there is just too much hassle figuring out the scoring system right, moving rosters, and the fact everyone would have to use an unfamiliar platform. We stuck with yahoo and they are getting better at opening the rosters earlier and earlier. Never used fleaflicker for an actual draft though.

 

[Pwingles]

Probably doesn't answer your question but I was considering moving my league to fleaflicker over yahoo but there is just too much hassle figuring out the scoring system right, moving rosters, and the fact everyone would have to use an unfamiliar platform. We stuck with yahoo and they are getting better at opening the rosters earlier and earlier. Never used fleaflicker for an actual draft though.

Two of the leagues im in are hosted by FF, their draft software is lacking. We just live draft and manually add players. Kind of annoying they dont offer the ability to let the commish pick for a team during an online draft.

Say someone couldnt make the draft while it was live but could make some picks via phone or text, cant do it. They would have to re order their draft list several rounds deep to get anything close to what they might want

 

[thunderguns]

I did an online "slow draft" on FleaFlicker not long ago. Site functioned fine--only pain in the neck was there is no "pre-select" feature supported by the site. Taking away the ability to pre-select picks a round or two ahead really slowed the draft down.

 

[thriftyrocker]

Fleaflicker offers to import leagues for you if you email them the info. You could always draft using a different place and then send them a link. Although it's kind of like asking someone for a favor.

I've done both live and "e-mail" (i.e., slow) drafts on Fleaflicker and not had a problem.

There's a "Mock Draft" button on the main page. You could easily test drive it.

 

[gliz]

I have done several and had no technical difficulties. The interface is very old and boring, but generally worked.

The only issues we experienced during our drafts was related to the auto draftging functionality if an owner was not there. The options are limited and confusing, compared to ESPN which is the only other site I use. The recommended setting drafts based off team needs and will do crazy things like drafting DBs over Gurley in rookie drafts because your team is short DBs. The other option will follow your draft list directly, which works better but requires the user to change to this setting. No middle ground, these are the options.

In summary, ok for live drafting, but autodrafts will tend to disappoint. Which I guess is fairly common with most sites.

Thanks for that take. Everybody plans to draft live, with maybe one exception if a work schedule rears its ugly head.

 

[gliz]

Probably doesn't answer your question but I was considering moving my league to fleaflicker over yahoo but there is just too much hassle figuring out the scoring system right, moving rosters, and the fact everyone would have to use an unfamiliar platform. We stuck with yahoo and they are getting better at opening the rosters earlier and earlier. Never used fleaflicker for an actual draft though.

If it were not for the extra customization options in Fleaflicker's scoring and settings, I would be fine using Yahoo for this league. The futzing around with the settings is part of the impetus for me.

 

[gliz]

Probably doesn't answer your question but I was considering moving my league to fleaflicker over yahoo but there is just too much hassle figuring out the scoring system right, moving rosters, and the fact everyone would have to use an unfamiliar platform. We stuck with yahoo and they are getting better at opening the rosters earlier and earlier. Never used fleaflicker for an actual draft though.

Two of the leagues im in are hosted by FF, their draft software is lacking. We just live draft and manually add players.Kind of annoying they dont offer the ability to let the commish pick for a team during an online draft.

Say someone couldnt make the draft while it was live but could make some picks via phone or text, cant do it. They would have to re order their draft list several rounds deep to get anything close to what they might want

This should not be an issue for us, but in case your league is not aware, I did see the following in the Fleaflicker Owner's Manual:

Can the commissioner select a player for another owner?Yes, the commissioner can select a player for the owner on the clock by going to the players section and clicking Commish Draft

 

[gliz]

I did an online "slow draft" on FleaFlicker not long ago. Site functioned fine--only pain in the neck was there is no "pre-select" feature supported by the site. Taking away the ability to pre-select picks a round or two ahead really slowed the draft down.

Thanks. I'm okay with this. Everybody relishes the draft and taking a bit longer won't bother anybody too much.

 

[gliz]

Fleaflicker offers to import leagues for you if you email them the info. You could always draft using a different place and then send them a link. Although it's kind of like asking someone for a favor.

I've done both live and "e-mail" (i.e., slow) drafts on Fleaflicker and not had a problem.

There's a "Mock Draft" button on the main page. You could easily test drive it.

I have considered setting up a backup draft league on Yahoo. If Fleaflicker goes bonkers during the draft, we could just use the Yahoo site to draft and then move the rosters. I don't know if I'm just being paranoid about the Fleaflicker site, or if this represents good planning on my part.

 

[Pwingles]

Probably doesn't answer your question but I was considering moving my league to fleaflicker over yahoo but there is just too much hassle figuring out the scoring system right, moving rosters, and the fact everyone would have to use an unfamiliar platform. We stuck with yahoo and they are getting better at opening the rosters earlier and earlier. Never used fleaflicker for an actual draft though.

Two of the leagues im in are hosted by FF, their draft software is lacking. We just live draft and manually add players.Kind of annoying they dont offer the ability to let the commish pick for a team during an online draft.

Say someone couldnt make the draft while it was live but could make some picks via phone or text, cant do it. They would have to re order their draft list several rounds deep to get anything close to what they might want

This should not be an issue for us, but in case your league is not aware, I did see the following in the Fleaflicker Owner's Manual: Can the commissioner select a player for another owner?Yes, the commissioner can select a player for the owner on the clock by going to the players section and clicking Commish Draft

Ha, well shoot

 

[Vanilla Guerrilla]

Draft went fine for my league the last two years. The only issue was that you may want people to log in and test it before hand. I think that there was a program that needed to be updated or have an add on (maybe flash player) downloaded. We had about 1/3 to 1/2 of the group have an issue because they didn't test it on their device they were drafting with ahead of time. A couple people tested it on a desktop, but actually drfted from a laptop or tablet. The draft was delayed about a half an hour while people figured out their issues.