Subscriber Content (1 Viewer)

[Saint]

I am starting this thread based on a post MOP had in the "Is FBG getting too big?" thread. Namely, a few questions came out in that thread that made me start thinking:

[*]Has the quality of the posts dropped over the years?

[*]Is it too much information?

[*]What exactly do I use? the forums? the tools?

I have been coming to this site since the early days of Black-eyed Joe. I may not post as much as many of the folks here, but I do try to read up and lurk on a ton of the items here. When I started thinking through, I came up with a list of why I pay for a subscription each and every year:

[*]FBG $35,000 Contest. The commentary with Doug Drinen and Ignoratio and everyone else is great throughout the season. Definitely one of the highlights.

[*]Draft Dominator. No it doesn't draft for you, but keeping track, projecting out, using the complementary features are pretty great assets in a draft.

[*]My FBG. Using that link for custom cheatsheets with Dodds/Bloom/Henry is fantastic. By linking to MFL, even more so.

[*]SOME Articles:

[*]I probably look at less than 25% of the content published from week to week. It's a lot of stuff and too much to take in. I look at some articles such as spotlight, perfect draft, etc, but I hate to say it, I do think the content quality has dropped.

[*]Trying to find the articles are getting harder and harder as their is so much commentary coming out, I am trying to weed through the stuff I don't want to find what I am looking for.

I would say I spend about 20% of my time using subscriber stuff and the other 80% is in the Forums. To be honest, I am not a supporter of creating a "Member Only" forum as I do enjoy hearing everyone's opinions on players, whether they are subscribers or not. There are some gem articles found in the SP forum each year. Of course there's a lot of BS too, but that comes with any forum. The sleeper articles, or RB/WR threads that folks start on who to avoid/start really make for some interesting discussion, as well as the individual team threads and the contest thread.

IMO, here are a few of my suggestions on maybe how FBG could improve even more:

[*]Consider improving the subscriber content page design. Is there a way to make the subscriber content more customizable? While I have been a subscriber for a long period, I don't play in redraft leagues or IDP leagues, I am usually in PPR leagues. With MFL, there is flexibility in setting up the home page to only display the items I am interested in. Maybe FBG could look into providing options to subscribers to turn on/off certain articles on their weekly content or preseason content to customize the content to them. I know for me, that would really help me out and help focus on only the content I need.

[*]I would like to see more mock-drafts by staff based on various league scoring types (such as redraft, survivor, PPR, IDP) and then have commentary on picks on why staff liked them over others.

[*]I enjoy the Perfect Draft articles and while this year has been abnormal, I do think there needs to be some more work in making sure articles do not contradict each other: In this case the "Eliminate the Suck" and "Perfect Draft"

All in all, I love this site, but I do think when you are trying to get so much content out, certain other things have to be pushed to the side. Unfortunately the things that have been pushed to the side are the things that made me start coming here all those years back. I'm not sure how FBG manages the articles that they publish, but I have to wonder if all the articles receive the same amount of attention or if it's only some key articles. If that's the case, it may make more sense to cut some other articles out to improve the key articles.

I don't mean to be negative, but I do think there are things that could be improved and as a long term subscriber I like to believe that I'm one of the folks that continue to contribute and support this FBG community that makes it great. So I figured I would put this post in the Shark Pool to see if maybe a few other folks have been thinking about ways that FBG could improve and become even better. I have been in business for 20 years and one thing I have learned is that the more feedback you can take and respond to, the better your product becomes. I am by no means saying the product is not good already, I am merely saying it could be improved even more.

David, Joe, Jason, I appreciate everything you guys do everyday and hopefully you'll take some of this and continue to improve this site year in and out.

 

[snellman]

You took the words right out of my mouth with your post and put it much better worded than I could have ever done.I remember when I started playing IDP, there was very little information anywhere. FBG has always been top notch when it comes to IDP info.

FBG $35,000 Contest. The commentary with Doug Drinen and Ignoratio and everyone else is great throughout the season. Definitely one of the highlights.Draft Dominator. No it doesn't draft for you, but keeping track, projecting out, using the complementary features are pretty great assets in a draft.My FBG. Using that link for custom cheatsheets with Dodds/Bloom/Henry is fantastic. By linking to MFL, even more so.SOME Articles:I probably look at less than 25% of the content published from week to week. It's a lot of stuff and too much to take in. I look at some articles such as spotlight, perfect draft, etc, but I hate to say it, I do think the content quality has dropped.Trying to find the articles are getting harder and harder as their is so much commentary coming out, I am trying to weed through the stuff I don't want to find what I am looking for.

These are also the features that I use the most along with Lineup Dominator. These features are so great and don't even seem to have scratched the surface for potential, which was the point of me starting the other thread. I have no idea how to code these items so I tip my hat to FBG for putting it out there for us, but would love to see it more customizeable.MFL is a great league site that gives so many different scoring options and lineup options and it would be great if My FBG and other programs gave those same options.I am sorry if this does not sound right, I am not very good with words.

 

[Tick]

The feature I would most like to have is configurable email options. I want to be able to mark a check box for each of the weekly features that I'd like to have emailed to me. This would help people bypass IT blocks at work and would help address the initial poster's issues pretty effectively. I have a set list of articles I really want each week, and they don't include some of the articles that are emailed to us by default.

 

[ShaqAttaq]

The feature I would most like to have is configurable email options. I want to be able to mark a check box for each of the weekly features that I'd like to have emailed to me. This would help people bypass IT blocks at work and would help address the initial poster's issues pretty effectively. I have a set list of articles I really want each week, and they don't include some of the articles that are emailed to us by default.

+1

 

[comfortably numb]

put me in the too much info camp.

I probably use 3% of what the site offers.

Just seems like too much info to process into something that involves so much luck.

The good thing is if you want any specific info, this is the site that can get you anything you want.

 

[Daywalker]

It's too much info for those who read it all the first few years they were on the site. New generation of people always entering the hobby and they are interested in all these articles like we once were.

FBG's are doing it about as well as you can.

 

[⚡DEADHEAD⚡]

The feature I would most like to have is configurable email options. I want to be able to mark a check box for each of the weekly features that I'd like to have emailed to me. This would help people bypass IT blocks at work and would help address the initial poster's issues pretty effectively. I have a set list of articles I really want each week, and they don't include some of the articles that are emailed to us by default.

+1

Hell yeah.

 

[krsone21]

Been a part of the forums for a very long time but just became a subscriber last year. I enjoy the content very much. One thing I would like to see which was mentioned by the OP was that I would like to make it more customizable to the articles and information I like the most. That way I can get past all the clutter that I don't use. Would make things so much simpler.

Good Job FBG and keep up the good work.

 

[glumpy]

It's too much info for those who read it all the first few years they were on the site. New generation of people always entering the hobby and they are interested in all these articles like we once were.FBG's are doing it about as well as you can.

Good point, but as another long time member I don't even consider that to be TMI. I treat this site like an encyclopedia, where you won't expect to use all the info in it but can find virtually anything of need. A bonus for me is that every time I look for something I trip across something else that's helpful. Interesting example last night. I've been looking real hard for justification for a drop-add that's available in my league. FBG's just wasn't giving me enough to pull the trigger. (not that it was lacking info--just that as close as they rank there wasn't anything to separate them). So I looked at about a dozen other fantasy football sites to see how they had the guys ranked. Sheeeesh. All were waaaay behind the times, with preseason info and outdated from what I already knew through FBG's. What this place does is give a one stop shop. You're not going to agree with all the opinions, and the more input you get the less you often use. No problems here--just being selective. A bonus of having so many members is something I've said for years--we get news both football and nonfootball related faster than CNN.