NO ACCESS TO LIVE DRAFT-AGAIN

[bernieh]

Dammit.

There's hardly any words any more about this Live Draft thing, are there?

This is ultimately my responsibility and I've let you down time and time again. I will not shy away from admitting that.

I do want to tell you what happened, though, because I'm pretty mad as well, and this is the honest truth: we have a sysadmin who [i:0d72b8303d]turned off Live Drafts that last time without telling me[/i:0d72b8303d], causing it to fail. I turned it back on so that the rescheduled draft would run the following night, which it did, and I sent the sysadmin an email asking him why he did that. I never received a response, but I neglected to follow-up - that was my tragic mistake - because [i:0d72b8303d]he did it again this past Monday[/i:0d72b8303d], causing tonight's draft to fail. That's the honest truth.

I've told you this mostly because I'm mad at him - but I don't need you to believe me or expect you to be mad at anybody else but me because [b:0d72b8303d]yes, this is ultimately my responsibility[/b:0d72b8303d]. It is my responsibility and as far as the Live Draft goes, I've failed you over and over again. If, Petrosian, you want to call into question my diligence or my competence, fine. I don't have a leg to stand on when it comes to the Live Draft so I will accept it.

So where do we go from here? While what I said last time does still apply - "it does work fairly reliably" (before last time we hadn't had any problems with the Live Draft for how long, 6 months, more?) - when there is a problem, it's a big mess. Your night's ruined and then so is mine; everybody loses. So I'm afraid we have to seriously consider just shutting down this existing Live Draft feature altogether - put it out of its misery before it does any more damage - until we are able to develop a brand new one, this time designed for SOM.

The existing Live Draft feature was a shoehorn job that TSN and I rushed to re-purpose from their regular fantasy baseball games; it used to have a team of programmers and customer service reps supporting it but for years it's just been me doing all of it. It's hard and expensive to maintain (sure, you can say I'm not competent enough to maintain it, I won't argue), it's not ideally suited for SOM, and it won't run on our new platform at Strat-O-Matic.com. I'm happy for whatever enjoyment you did get out of it, but otherwise I'm ready to chalk it up as an overall blight on our record, and given our impending move, it's an appropriate time to euthanize it.

But as for right now... I'll be happy to help you reschedule this Live Draft for this weekend, or any time in the near future, and it will [i:0d72b8303d]probably[/i:0d72b8303d] run fine, just like it did for the last re-do, just like it's been running for a long time now without any problems. But after that? We only have a month-plus before the transition to Strat-O-Matic.com; despite the fact that the chances that we have another fiasco are quite low for the few Live Drafts you might have between now and then, I don't think it's worth risking your frustration. Maybe we can work something out where if you desperately want to do one, we can schedule it in advance and I can personally babysit it. We'll see.

The good news is that [b:0d72b8303d]we are hiring a programmer to work on a new Live Draft app, specifically for Strat-O-Matic.com.[/b:0d72b8303d] One that's more suited for this game, and one that's easier to maintain. It won't be ready until some time after the switchover, but [i:0d72b8303d]the hire has been made and it is his top priority for after the move[/i:0d72b8303d]. This is an example of the commitment that SOM has to SOM Online and their enthusiasm to invest in its future. SOM is aware of the problems we've had with the Live Draft - I'll even send them this thread so they can see your latest grievance - and they are taking the time and the investments to do it right this time, to make your experience better and my job easier.

You're all getting an extra credit in addition to whatever we can do with your current team in this league, and I'll help you with the latter.

[TRW]

I would rather disband this particular league.

I do not trust the live draft app. I played in a live draft about a month ago. I lost the connection to the app for a couple of rounds. I thought it was my pc at the time, but in light of the recent issues regarding the app in this thread, I think it was probably the app.

If anyone wants to live draft on Diamond Dope, I would take a team. Then per my previous suggestion we would set up draft cards in 200m and draft that way.

[Badjam]

I am available to draft all day Saturday or Sunday after 9:00pm. I don't want to draft on DD because it takes longer and you have to constantly hit refresh to follow each pick. Plus if I want to do a 200mil league I will just join a auto draft league.

[unesid]

I can do Saturday or Sunday night at 9:00. If those two options are not viable, I would like to disband the league.

[The Last Druid]

I can do anytime except today --I'm on call all day and have to deal with any mental health crisis that arises in our county. Sunday night would be fine.

[TRW]

I am not sure if I am available tonight. I won't know until after 6-7pm.

I am probably not available tomorrow night.

[Badjam]

Last time this happened, Bernie said he could insert replacement managers if we can get 9 or 10 of us to agree on a time. We would just need to find a few guys to be on standby just in case.

[N Texas Widowmakers]

[quote:572d4a7212="Badjam"]Last time this happened, Bernie said he could insert replacement managers if we can get 9 or 10 of us to agree on a time. We would just need to find a few guys to be on standby just in case.[/quote:572d4a7212]

If you need replacement managers I'm available anytime. Last week I purchased a team as instructed and fell to third place on the waiting list due to puirchasing a team first.

Ric

[TRW]

[quote:10f8bd558a="Badjam"]Last time this happened, Bernie said he could insert replacement managers if we can get 9 or 10 of us to agree on a time. We would just need to find a few guys to be on standby just in case.[/quote:10f8bd558a]


Then he should just disband the league. I don't see the point in keeping the league intact. Petro is unavailable today, I am 99% sure I am unavailable tomorrow.

I am not sure what the purpose is to keep the league intact. There may be other owners who may not read Bernie's response. It's easy to start a new league and join if the time suits your schedule. I just don't see the point in keeping credits locked up for a couple of days.

JMO, but if I were Bernie, I would make the Live Draft app free for the last month of it's existence. Then make a statement "Play at your own risk".

[unesid]

Another vote for disbanding the league. Should someone email Bernie?