Rosters and Signatures

[Cincinnati Bengals (Chris)]

Hello all, I hope that you're settling in wonderfully. I just wanted to take the time to handle some administrivia in the early going in this league so that we don't have to suffer some of the same problems we did under previous regimes. I know if you are new, you might not understand the present or long-term consequences of these next few items, but try to stick with me and eventually it will make sense.

• Rosters- Each team needs to have posted their own roster on the site. Most of us did this as we switched over from the NFFL, but some teams being vacant and others not taking on the task mean that we still have some teams that need to re-post their roster on their own. This is something that each member can do with a simple copy and paste function by creating a new thread under their team's roster Board on the site and then copying the roster on hand over verbatim. After this is accomplished, PM a League Manager and we'll verify it and take care of the rest. The reason that we do this, as opposed to the last league where the creator of the site posted most of the rosters, is, that way right off when looking at another team's roster, there is no possible way to be confused as to whose roster page you're looking at. I've heard horror stories from many a GM about erroneous offers they've received in thinking that a player was on another team's roster is on their own. I've also experienced some of this first hand. This measure should drastically cut down on the instances of such problems.

• Signatures- For the same reason, and just to be courteous league members for ease of use of others, we will begin requiring that you paste your team's roster link into the signature of your profile. This is something you all can do as well without the help of LMs, and so I highly encourage you to do so in the meantime. What the signatures help to do is to cut down on the amount of time and clicks you need to search a given team's roster. All you have to do if everyone has their roster in their signature, is to click link for their roster at the end of any of the posts they make, or click their profile and click on the roster link at the bottom of the page. While it is perfectly acceptable to place other information, at your choosing (provided it's not quotes from Andrew about how good a player is or isn't on another team's roster and then posting head-to-head scores to, I don't know, show him up? Yeah, you really showed him!), in the signature, at a bare minimum, we need to include roster links in the signatures of our profiles. It not only stimulates trading, but it also cuts down on the click malaise that sites with as many categories and boards as we have experience. If you have an issue or concern about doing this (can't think of one myself, but I'll hear it), please contact me or one of the other LMs.

• Profile pictures- This one is entirely optional, but I highly recommend having one, as it helps to build a sense of participation, camaraderie and identity among league members. For example, Kevin and I (and I think a few others occasionally) played a game last year where we would highlight the best or worst performer in a given week by changing our profile pic to that player on a weekly basis. It's fun and it's a good way to break up some of the down time in this league. Plus, just like on Twitter (which you a perfectly welcome to link on your profile, or any other social media accounts, personal websites or contact information), the guys and gals with the eggs as their logo usually don't get the follows. The same is true of the blank avatars some of you find on your profile pages. Without sounding too Myspace-y, feel free to customize your profiles to your liking.

That's it. Hope you're enjoying everything. We will release the draft date tomorrow (well, today, but I haven't gone to bed yet), but expect it to be in the week following the actual NFL Draft.