We had to reschedule our draft. SIte kept crashing on Monday...... Big disappointmentHaving problems off and on all day today and between that and off and on connectivity issues I have seen/heard with them, getting nervous about this happening on draft day. Anyone use this this year, and what was your experience (or others you've heard)? Thx
Our auction worked ok last year and our auction is next week. This doesn't make me feel good... looks like the site down right now as well. Is there any other service that hosts auctions? An in person auction isn't possible for us and I really don't want to go back to snake drafts.We had to reschedule our draft. SIte kept crashing on Monday...... Big disappointmentHaving problems off and on all day today and between that and off and on connectivity issues I have seen/heard with them, getting nervous about this happening on draft day. Anyone use this this year, and what was your experience (or others you've heard)? Thx
Did one there Sunday night without any problems............Having problems off and on all day today and between that and off and on connectivity issues I have seen/heard with them, getting nervous about this happening on draft day. Anyone use this this year, and what was your experience (or others you've heard)? Thx
I am going to create an ESPN league which has a similar auction service and have ready as our backup site. Features aren't nearly as good (eg cannot pause the draft any time you want and not even sure if you can "un-do" picks if necessary for whatever reason - also cannot do "serpantine" draft order), but so far as I know it is at least reliable, and it's free. Not disregarding FA.com, but we cannot just pick another day, we HAVE to do it on schedule. Also there's always chat rooms (MFL leagues have them built in) or teleconf. Again hardly ideal but you know it'll work at least.PS site working for me now but EXTREMELY slow.Our auction worked ok last year and our auction is next week. This doesn't make me feel good... looks like the site down right now as well. Is there any other service that hosts auctions? An in person auction isn't possible for us and I really don't want to go back to snake drafts.
FWIW it's somewhat better today but still slow. If this is due to traffic, wtfo, trim down avail bandwidth for free mocks and provide for paying customers. If it's this bad mid-week, I shudder to think what'll happen over upcoming weekends.pollardsvision said:last year, we had the site crash while trying to do our auction.we quickly set up a free mock auction and had everyone in the league join before anyone else. the free mock worked just fine when the auction we paid for was completely useless an hour earlier.
Doesn't have some of the features as I mentioned above (and I could live w/o the player pics as they are nominated) but I have done a number of auctions mocks on ESPN and have yet to experience (or even hear of) a draft room hanging, crashing, gettting dropped off, etc - and frankly I'll trade features for reliability every time. In most respects they are similar though.How does ESPN compare in terms of the quality of the auction tool? That is my main draw to FA. Not there aren't some things they could still improve on. Though giving you the ability to type in player salaries when pre-entering instead of having to use those stupid arrow keys at least fixed my biggest complaint about last year.
we had an 8pm auction slated for last night.No one could even access FA's home page from 7pm-8:30-ish.We FINALLY all got into the auction app around 9:15pm.Then the commish hit the "Start Auction" button and IT DIDN'T WORK!So, we all left the auction and all tried starting it up again, and it still didn't work.Then, we tried to set up a free mock draft and it kept crashing the web browserwhen the commish tried to confirm the free mock.So...3 hours of wasted time and no auction results to speak of.I think we're going to try ESPN tonight but not all owners can make it tonight.FA is now dead to us in our league.Anyone have any luck getting to the site last night or this morning?It's been down for me this whole time. It's very distressing. If any FA.com people post here, PLEASE give updates.Does anyone remember the support email address?
the only thing i can think of that FA offers in terms of quality that ESPN does not is the ability to customize the budget. with ESPN, you can only use a $200 budget as far as i know. with ESPN, commish's can pause the draft, undo picks, reset the draft, and adjust the bid/nomination times.you can also pre-enter player salaries (without having to use arrow keys).unless a league must have a budget that's not $200, i think ESPN is just a better, free version of FA that will likely have fewer technical difficulties.that said, i've only used ESPN for random leagues for practice so far. FA has always worked perfectly for similar free mocks and the problems only came when using a paid-for auction. i've got 3 custom auctions coming up with ESPN (during high traffic times). i'll report back if there are any problems.How does ESPN compare in terms of the quality of the auction tool? That is my main draw to FA. Not there aren't some things they could still improve on. Though giving you the ability to type in player salaries when pre-entering instead of having to use those stupid arrow keys at least fixed my biggest complaint about last year.
Thanks for the feedback. Hopefully they change the auction amount, as my league is $500 and it wouldn't really be feasible to do it with a $200 cap.Also, what all positions do they support? In particular, do they have the ability to have CB, S, DE, and DT separate or do they force you to lump them together as DL and DB? Also, do they have any kind of team offense or head coach category? Or punters? (FA does have the different IDP positions, doesn't have punters, but does have head coaches buried in the kicker list).the only thing i can think of that FA offers in terms of quality that ESPN does not is the ability to customize the budget. with ESPN, you can only use a $200 budget as far as i know. with ESPN, commish's can pause the draft, undo picks, reset the draft, and adjust the bid/nomination times.you can also pre-enter player salaries (without having to use arrow keys).unless a league must have a budget that's not $200, i think ESPN is just a better, free version of FA that will likely have fewer technical difficulties.that said, i've only used ESPN for random leagues for practice so far. FA has always worked perfectly for similar free mocks and the problems only came when using a paid-for auction. i've got 3 custom auctions coming up with ESPN (during high traffic times). i'll report back if there are any problems.How does ESPN compare in terms of the quality of the auction tool? That is my main draw to FA. Not there aren't some things they could still improve on. Though giving you the ability to type in player salaries when pre-entering instead of having to use those stupid arrow keys at least fixed my biggest complaint about last year.
had my 1st custom auction on ESPN yesterday. for the most part, everything went well. some of the players were a bit hard to find (a couple QBs in the "IR-eligible" list instead of the QB list), but not a big deal. (if it helps anyone, owen daniels is absolutely buried on the espn TE list. almost impossible to find)most importantly, it didn't crash.i'm pretty sure you can do head coaches and specific IDP positions (CB,S, DE,DT, ILB,OLB). don't think so on the punters and team offenses.RE: someone asking about pausing length. you can pause it for as long as you want.Thanks for the feedback. Hopefully they change the auction amount, as my league is $500 and it wouldn't really be feasible to do it with a $200 cap.Also, what all positions do they support? In particular, do they have the ability to have CB, S, DE, and DT separate or do they force you to lump them together as DL and DB? Also, do they have any kind of team offense or head coach category? Or punters? (FA does have the different IDP positions, doesn't have punters, but does have head coaches buried in the kicker list).the only thing i can think of that FA offers in terms of quality that ESPN does not is the ability to customize the budget. with ESPN, you can only use a $200 budget as far as i know. with ESPN, commish's can pause the draft, undo picks, reset the draft, and adjust the bid/nomination times.you can also pre-enter player salaries (without having to use arrow keys).unless a league must have a budget that's not $200, i think ESPN is just a better, free version of FA that will likely have fewer technical difficulties.that said, i've only used ESPN for random leagues for practice so far. FA has always worked perfectly for similar free mocks and the problems only came when using a paid-for auction. i've got 3 custom auctions coming up with ESPN (during high traffic times). i'll report back if there are any problems.How does ESPN compare in terms of the quality of the auction tool? That is my main draw to FA. Not there aren't some things they could still improve on. Though giving you the ability to type in player salaries when pre-entering instead of having to use those stupid arrow keys at least fixed my biggest complaint about last year.
hope that fixes it for them. hope thoss kids get the book thrown at them.you can pause for as long as you want on espn.i don't think you can reverse the nomination order, but i haven't really investigated either.First FA.com problem is fixed FYI, at least it's working fine for me. Got an email from them saying they had some kids figure out a way to clog the servers with spam email. Isn't that cute - tee hee, giggle Re ESPN, can you pause it any time, is there max on how long etc? Also I don't think you can have it nominate in reverse order which matters to us (I wouldn't know since nobody answered my email asking about it - big surprise, cust support is non-existant).
I've got nothing. Is there any reason to use these guys if ESPN has a free auction tool? I'm going to set mine up right now.jezz.. can anyone log in right now?
Nope. Here's what they said yesterdaylease accept our sincerest apologies for the technical difficulties we are having. We are doing our best to resolve the situation, but it would be best if you can try to find another day to reconvene. I realize that is much more easily said than done, but I have to be realistic as to the chances of us fixing this problem today.We will obviously refund your fee. If you can find another time to do this, please email support to get a free promo code. If you are willing to give us another chance, we will be happy to give you free auctions then as well.Again, we are very, very sorry for these technical problems. We will do our best to get back to you as soon as possible, but it will likely take longer than usual for obvious reasons. Thank you.jezz.. can anyone log in right now?
I got a similar email this morning.I think I'll have my league try for tonight on Fantasyauctioneer.com and if that doesn't work use a Chat Room.If anyone has a better idea, i'd open for suggestions. ESPN won't let me create a league for tonight and owners are all over the place schedule wise...I hope things work out tonight.I can only imagine how long the auction will take in a chat room.Nope. Here's what they said yesterdaylease accept our sincerest apologies for the technical difficulties we are having. We are doing our best to resolve the situation, but it would be best if you can try to find another day to reconvene. I realize that is much more easily said than done, but I have to be realistic as to the chances of us fixing this problem today.We will obviously refund your fee. If you can find another time to do this, please email support to get a free promo code. If you are willing to give us another chance, we will be happy to give you free auctions then as well.Again, we are very, very sorry for these technical problems. We will do our best to get back to you as soon as possible, but it will likely take longer than usual for obvious reasons. Thank you.jezz.. can anyone log in right now?
I didn't get an email either. What I posted was on the front page yesterday. My draft is on the 30th, and have suggested to the commish to have a back up plan on ESPN. I have a feeling this could get ugly.I got no such email from FA.com and it ranged from kinda slow to so slow it never came up at all (let it spin as long as 20+ mins) yesterday. More than little concerned that this is going to be a mess this upcoming weekend.
Any interested in trying to mobilize a bunch of us to request more functionality in those regards, so next year hopefully ESPN will be as fully featured an option as FA? How do you give feedback there, is there an email address, or message board, or what?Got it thx. Yeah I am trying to plan for ESPN as backup too. 2 biggest drawbacks I see are no reverse order nominations and only can have $200 salary, but still beats the hell out of a chat room (I think). Thx all for info.
Maybe money. They're free, so I'm not sure what incentive there is for them to change things. Hopefully auction drafting gets more popular and someone else pops up with a decent service. It's unreal that FA is the only ballgame in town.Any interested in trying to mobilize a bunch of us to request more functionality in those regards, so next year hopefully ESPN will be as fully featured an option as FA? How do you give feedback there, is there an email address, or message board, or what?Got it thx. Yeah I am trying to plan for ESPN as backup too. 2 biggest drawbacks I see are no reverse order nominations and only can have $200 salary, but still beats the hell out of a chat room (I think). Thx all for info.
you can email or call. i'm sure it will be an option next year.i assume they are trying to keep it simple in their 1st season doing auctions. espn's general fantasy consumer base, i assume, is fairly new to auctions and probably wasn't looking for much customization. if they were trying to just steal FA's business, they probably just wanted to get something free going that won't have technical difficulties.Any interested in trying to mobilize a bunch of us to request more functionality in those regards, so next year hopefully ESPN will be as fully featured an option as FA? How do you give feedback there, is there an email address, or message board, or what?Got it thx. Yeah I am trying to plan for ESPN as backup too. 2 biggest drawbacks I see are no reverse order nominations and only can have $200 salary, but still beats the hell out of a chat room (I think). Thx all for info.
Well my auction just timed out for everyone in the middle of it, about 8 rounds in. We try to get back in and it just logs you out automatically.This is absolutely ridiculous.Any recommendations on how to finish an auction like this halfway through? Thank god I was tracking the draft in excel at the same time.did anyone get to auction this weekend?
what u mean it timed out... how long did it take?Well my auction just timed out for everyone in the middle of it, about 8 rounds in. We try to get back in and it just logs you out automatically.This is absolutely ridiculous.did anyone get to auction this weekend?
Any recommendations on how to finish an auction like this halfway through? Thank god I was tracking the draft in excel at the same time.
The auction software just stopped responding for everyone. We closed the browser, and re-logged in, but everytime we clicked Join, it said our connection timed and would not re-open the auction window.Here's the kicker. It autodrafted the remainder of the auction for everyone, and we're now showing up in the Completed Auctions listing. I dont know how this is fixable.what u mean it timed out... how long did it take?Well my auction just timed out for everyone in the middle of it, about 8 rounds in. We try to get back in and it just logs you out automatically.This is absolutely ridiculous.did anyone get to auction this weekend?
Any recommendations on how to finish an auction like this halfway through? Thank god I was tracking the draft in excel at the same time.
This is complete BS. They know they are having problems, yet let leagues attempt to draft, therefore screwing them up even more. They should just close shop until everything is fixed, and give refunds where appropriate.The auction software just stopped responding for everyone. We closed the browser, and re-logged in, but everytime we clicked Join, it said our connection timed and would not re-open the auction window.Here's the kicker. It autodrafted the remainder of the auction for everyone, and we're now showing up in the Completed Auctions listing. I dont know how this is fixable.what u mean it timed out... how long did it take?Well my auction just timed out for everyone in the middle of it, about 8 rounds in. We try to get back in and it just logs you out automatically.This is absolutely ridiculous.did anyone get to auction this weekend?
Any recommendations on how to finish an auction like this halfway through? Thank god I was tracking the draft in excel at the same time.
Here's my updateNo one in my league could get in to the auction at 840 pm est. Basically kept timing out. So, our backup (could not rechedule) was to use a chat room. We used Chatzy.com, just invited everybody in. As commish I was the auctioneer, we had a nomination order, i gave it approx 15 secs after last bid ..typed going 1, going 2, going 3, done. And if I typed done before a new bid, it was final.Finally started at 9pm, ended at 1:30 am. 4.5 Hrs. And, since I was keeping track of a lot of the stuff, I really could not focus on the auction myself.I sent fantasyauctioneer.com a request for refund, and we're going to talk over using espn next season. I will have to normalize keepers to get to a $200 league, and overlook some minor things, but at least I won't have to deal with this again.Last year our auction froze up at very first click, we had to go back to snake draft at MFL. George gave us a free pass for this year but now I dunno... Hope George can weigh in or we can get some success stories in the next few hours. Meantime I guess I'll set up the backup league on ESPN.