AMAZING GRACE's Yard

Hey Bob, no, I haven't been doing much baseball picking anywhere. I've (and do) checked out all the sites that you mentioned but not picking. How about you? Think that baseball would work here?

Thanks for the link. Good luck this season!

Yes, I have. Pretty much anything on the web, really.

Yes, I have. Pretty much anything on the web, really.

Thanks AG. Hey, if you want to keep up with offseason NFL stuff, you can also check out this great football site: www.nfl.com :-)

I'm going to watch as many games as I can this season. I can't say I'm a fan of AFL but I'm going to become one now. As for the site, thank you. Lots of great information. I'm going to spend lots of time on it this Saturday reading about the different teams.

and great job on getting the #1 spot on the leaderboard

Hi Bob. Blake and I were talking and he asked me what I thought about a daily leaderboard and said that it was your idea. Anyway, were you thinking of a daily board for basketball? considering they have so many games.

Thanks,I will check out faniq. Good luck with your picks hope to be on top with you this week!!

Bob, You guys are good. It's hard to keep up with you! I can't wait until next year to have a FULL season against you all. I really enjoy this site....Matthew

Congratulations on a GREAT week in NBA.... You are very very tough competition... You earned #1 this week; I gotta try harder ;)

yeah, i like it, i just so busy i don't log on often enough, but it is a great site....

Hey Bob, I thought I would send this note I wrote for Ralph over to you as well, so you know what is going on in relation to your points discussion.

We have been and are in discussion about many things. One of the issues that has come up is some sort of base score for choosing the winning team, yes, but there are issues with that. Some people will revert to picking all favorites by one point, just to get points for themselves, thinking that this is the goal of FanYard.

However, in essense, this is a very bad thing for FanYard, as our goal is to have accurate Yardsticks for games. Period. The most powerful argument against such awarding of points simply for picking the winning teams is that it could very well negatively affect that goal.

We want to reward those who are successful in picking close to outcomes, not for picking winners of games, and that is where the issue stands right now.

Blake

I like a scoring system like that; maybe not 100 but 50 points for picking the winner and then add the same scores we get now to that.... GOOD IDEA... have you mentioned it to Blake? I have found that its worse in football than basketball.... I have picked a lot of FB winners but missed the 10 point range on a lot of them.. I think FB is damn near unplayable with current scoring system.. IMHO

No I have not, but I will take a look now. thanks for the tip ;)

Hi Bob, yes, I checked out FanIQ. Kinda like MySpace for sports. I like the fact that you make picks daily as you pointed out. What I didn't like about the site is that it is too complicated to use. When I;m on the site I feel like I'm at a casino bombarded with info. I do like Fannation though. Easy to use and there are some really good writers.

Anyway, hope you are having a great New Years day!

May everbody on the Fanyard have a Happy New Year!

Ooh, I hope our Steelers play well on Sunday! We haven't done well starting at 4:15 all this season. Keeping my spirits high for the win. Oooh, I can't stand Ray Lewis either, so seeing his team go down is a beautiful thing.. (hehe)

Good job getting the #1 spot on the leaderboard this week.

It happens to me every NBA nite, at least one game where i am picking a team by 10 or so and they win by more than 20.......zero points........ drives me crazy.... I think 50 might be too big, i think we should try 20 point range at 5 points per point away from 100, that would be a 40 point total range....your thoughts? i have won two bowl picks; been on the right side but got zero points too....

Thanks again, Bob. That is a great idea, about the colors. I'll send it over to the developers right away and see what we can do.

Thanks Bob! I am actually going over the content on the site today to see what needs to be changed:-)

Happy Holidays to you....

Hey Bob, I sent an email about the scoring system to all FanYard members, but I realize that not everyone - in fact, not many - read emails:-) If you pick the right team and the exact score differential, you get 100 points. As your pick gets away from the actual winning margin (higher or lower than), you get ten points less per point away. In your example, picking a team by 20 and they win by 28, you'd get 20 points. Where the Yardstick was is irrelevant. This ensures that picks are where people actually think the outcome of the game will be, as opposed to trying to gain more points on the leaderboard. Ensuring the most accurate Yardstick is the key.

Maybe 35 points this week, BOB. We'll hafta check the weather:-)

Hi Bob, I think my favorite team would go something like this:

NFL = Colts, Browns
NHL = Montreal Canadiens
MLB = NY Yankees

Hey Bob, my friend Jay Hillman used to play football for the UCONN Huskies.

Hi Bob, I have put the percentages back in. We are still in the process of making sure this all works properly but we hope to have it "live" soon, once we are confident their are no bugs.

Hey Bob, the percentages, I believe are just not in the code yet. I want them in there as well. So, I can pretty much guarantee they will be incuded in the final product:-)

Hey Bob...same as Fumble said below here, on those sites. I like them all for what they offer. They all have their ups and very few downs, if any. They are just different, that is all, from what we are doing. I hope that, between everyone, we can plain give fans everything they desire. To that end, I shall endeavour.

Thanks for the sites. I've heard of ballhype. I think they are a husband and wife team and I will check them come baseball.

As for armchairgm, been there are well but I like Fannation better. Blake asked me if I have any ideas on how FY would work with Baseball as the yardstick wouldn't make sense so if you have any ideas on what FY could do that would be different than other pick'em sites, let him know as I know that they are working on it.

Thanks for the props! This is the first time since pre-season that I made it to the leaderboard top 10.

Hey Bob, the way picks are listed on the leaderboard with ties in points is that those with the highest accuracy are listed on top. Thus, Tracy is listed on top of the Week 14 leaderboard because, as she has made just the one pick that has been scored thus far, she has a 100% accuracy. Thanks for asking!

I know they have a couple of things in the works. 1. New scoring system, 2. New UI for making picks 3. more profile stuff, 4. team pages I believe. Also, I think Blake once mentioned to me something about Arena Football. I'd have to check my email but I think that is it.

I don't know how many people are taking the Pats by 28. But looking at the Yardstick and the pick %, the Yardstick being 3, the overall picks on the Pats being 70%, probably 300+ picks on the game, I would think not too many. I think most are scared after the Pats last game.

Sorry...Bob! I keep saying Grace...

There is no way as of yet to break down picks like you are asking about, Grace, but that kind of data analysis is something we are in discussion about placing somewhere on the site in the future.

Hey Grace...unfortunately, at the moment, there is no way to search for someone. Probably the best way would be to look at the activity feed for myself, or someone like Fumble here, and see if they have recently left that person a message.

Thats a good question. I have another bowser open to see the main page activity but you raise a good question. I also always look at the leaderboard but that's not good if someone just joined. I will talk to Blake about this. Good call.

Thanks for the idea, Grace! I believe we have something similar in the works in the development department. Hope you enjoyed the game last night. Wowzers.

The Steelers defense looked pretty good last night. Those Bengals are horrible, though. Should be a great game next week. Good luck!

I like to see the steelers beat the patriots on dec 9

Hi there. We have not decided as of yet what our plans for the summer are. Too far down the road to know just yet. As for the change to the scoring, there will be an email come out shortly, once everything is set. All I can say is to make your picks as close to what you think the actual outcome will be. If you think a team will win by 12, make your pick 12 and don't worry about the Yardstick or how many points you might get. Accuracy is the key.

yes it is considered a loss if you pick higher than the game outcome. BUT, this is changing. You would have to ask Blake for specifics but I understand that the points system is changing soon and it won't be considered a loss If my pick is higher than the outcome.

Fumble is the master of replies, lol. Now, as far as losing points, we don't work like betting. We giveth the points, but do not taketh away. You can get more or less points than someone else, but you won't lose what you are rewarded.

Hi Grace, as you call see, I am now following you. My picture should be in your people box. If you would like, you can now follow me and because we are following each other, we are friend (so to speak). You need to go to my Yard and click "follow" under my dog's picture.

And followers are people who are following you but you are not following. They get notified when you make a pick or comment on a game.

Also, following means that you are tracking someones actions on this site and are notified in your activity feed when they make picks or comments. Friends mean that the following is mutual.

Hi Grace. This site only launched this September so I don't know what Fanyard will be doing in the summer. They just added NBA and NCAAB so they might add other sports such as Arena Football and MLB.

Hey A.G., welcome to FanYard. Have fun making your picks, and any questions or suggestions about the site, please email me at blake@thefanyard.com or drop me a note on my Chalkboard. Enjoy the games!