MFL vs CBS for dynasty leagues need pros and cons from users

[Von]

MFL Con:

What is the deal with having to transfer the league site every year? I hate that!

That's the truth. It's a very strange thing from a software perspective IMO. (And I used to run a software company.)

The transfer in MFL is one of its best features. Unlike other sites where you can only see a few bits of past history, MFL allows you to go back to each year in full. Where you can see every aspect of the league at that time, including message board posts, full team player scores per game, and the records of the league only up to that year. With a simple click on a link I can go back to 2007 and see everything as it was, and not just a few charts and lists trying to give some past records/history.

I only play on MFL now. I have played in all the top name sites and nothing beats MFL. There is only one reason why someone would not like MFL and that is because they have no clue as to what all they can do and see... in others words they don't know how extensive it is. In fact you can customize MFL to look and "act" like any other site if you so desired. If you know HTML coding you can have MFL be anything. CBS's idea of customizing is moving around their pre-selected modules... whoopie-do.

Liking another site over MFL can only be loyalty, or fear of the unknown... or you just don't know MFL that well.

[joeday]

MFL Con:

What is the deal with having to transfer the league site every year? I hate that!

That's the truth. It's a very strange thing from a software perspective IMO. (And I used to run a software company.)

The transfer in MFL is one of its best features. Unlike other sites where you can only see a few bits of past history, MFL allows you to go back to each year in full. Where you can see every aspect of the league at that time, including message board posts, full team player scores per game, and the records of the league only up to that year. With a simple click on a link I can go back to 2007 and see everything as it was, and not just a few charts and lists trying to give some past records/history.

I only play on MFL now. I have played in all the top name sites and nothing beats MFL. There is only one reason why someone would not like MFL and that is because they have no clue as to what all they can do and see... in others words they don't know how extensive it is. In fact you can customize MFL to look and "act" like any other site if you so desired. If you know HTML coding you can have MFL be anything. CBS's idea of customizing is moving around their pre-selected modules... whoopie-do.

Liking another site over MFL can only be loyalty, or fear of the unknown... or you just don't know MFL that well.

RTS literally does all the things you mention about archiving past years (drafts, chats, transactions, etc) and you don't have to transfer every year (or wait for your commish to do it). I have leagues in both MFL (or as I call it MySpace for FF due to its layout) and am honestly trying to get out of the leagues I'm in that use MFL. And I am a HUGE fan of your condescending tone! Lol

[Von]

That's the truth. It's a very strange thing from a software perspective IMO. (And I used to run a software company.)

The transfer in MFL is one of its best features. Unlike other sites where you can only see a few bits of past history, MFL allows you to go back to each year in full. Where you can see every aspect of the league at that time, including message board posts, full team player scores per game, and the records of the league only up to that year. With a simple click on a link I can go back to 2007 and see everything as it was, and not just a few charts and lists trying to give some past records/history.

I only play on MFL now. I have played in all the top name sites and nothing beats MFL. There is only one reason why someone would not like MFL and that is because they have no clue as to what all they can do and see... in others words they don't know how extensive it is. In fact you can customize MFL to look and "act" like any other site if you so desired. If you know HTML coding you can have MFL be anything. CBS's idea of customizing is moving around their pre-selected modules... whoopie-do.

Liking another site over MFL can only be loyalty, or fear of the unknown... or you just don't know MFL that well.

RTS literally does all the things you mention about archiving past years (drafts, chats, transactions, etc) and you don't have to transfer every year (or wait for your commish to do it). I have leagues in both MFL (or as I call it MySpace for FF due to its layout) and am honestly trying to get out of the leagues I'm in that use MFL. And I am a HUGE fan of your condescending tone! Lol

Seeing as how MFL's layout can be set to any configuration, if it looked like 'MySpace' then that is how it was set up by the Commish. Don't blame the product for the actions or inactions of an individual.

RTS looks like is was designed for elementary level kids. But then again I can see the appeal of that to some...
And there is no customizing RTS pages, and to see anything (standings, rosters, etc) you have to go to a completely separate pages, with navigation via silly pop-ups! With MFL each team can customize the page as they wish, in not only module placement, but color, font, background, etc. RTS is for children (who want to spend a lot of time clicking the mouse).

[joeday]

The transfer in MFL is one of its best features. Unlike other sites where you can only see a few bits of past history, MFL allows you to go back to each year in full. Where you can see every aspect of the league at that time, including message board posts, full team player scores per game, and the records of the league only up to that year. With a simple click on a link I can go back to 2007 and see everything as it was, and not just a few charts and lists trying to give some past records/history.

I only play on MFL now. I have played in all the top name sites and nothing beats MFL. There is only one reason why someone would not like MFL and that is because they have no clue as to what all they can do and see... in others words they don't know how extensive it is. In fact you can customize MFL to look and "act" like any other site if you so desired. If you know HTML coding you can have MFL be anything. CBS's idea of customizing is moving around their pre-selected modules... whoopie-do.

Liking another site over MFL can only be loyalty, or fear of the unknown... or you just don't know MFL that well.

RTS literally does all the things you mention about archiving past years (drafts, chats, transactions, etc) and you don't have to transfer every year (or wait for your commish to do it). I have leagues in both MFL (or as I call it MySpace for FF due to its layout) and am honestly trying to get out of the leagues I'm in that use MFL. And I am a HUGE fan of your condescending tone! Lol

Seeing as how MFL's layout can be set to any configuration, if it looked like 'MySpace' then that is how it was set up by the Commish. Don't blame the product for the actions or inactions of an individual.

RTS looks like is was designed for elementary level kids. But then again I can see the appeal of that to some...
And there is no customizing RTS pages, and to see anything (standings, rosters, etc) you have to go to a completely separate pages, with navigation via silly pop-ups! With MFL each team can customize the page as they wish, in not only module placement, but color, font, background, etc. RTS is for children (who want to spend a lot of time clicking the mouse).

wow, can't get enough of that condescending tone from the new guy lol

sidenote...3 different leagues, 3 different commishes (I was in a 4th MFL lg with a 4th different commish) and all 4 of them looked like crap. And yes, those 3 clicks to get to the archive in RTS is just terrible...it wears me out.

[bonscott]

I'll not try to be condescending but if an MFL site looks like crap it's because the commish didn't spend 10 minutes doing minimal customization. There are over 20 different templates to choose from, many of which drastically change the look of the site. And you can design (if you know a little HTML/CSS) or pay for a custom template and I think you'd be hard pressed to even know the site is an MFL site.

None of this is to say RTS is crap at all, I don't really know. But MFL only looks like crap because the commish allows it to.

Here are some random MFL sites I've found. I make no claim that any or all look "good" but you can easily see how different an MFL site can look if people care to do it.

http://www14.myfantasyleague.com/2013/home/74432#0 (this is a pretty "basic" out of the box site)
http://www18.myfantasyleague.com/2013/home/47794#0
http://www29.myfantasyleague.com/2013/home/79052
http://football26.myfantasyleague.com/2012/home/29706#0
http://www5.myfantasyleague.com/2013/home/47005#0
http://football19.myfantasyleague.com/2013/home/41238#0
http://www8.myfantasyleague.com/2013/home/29182#0

Anyway, just a selection to show the great variety you can achieve.

Also there is a very large 3rd party community that make all sorts of custom modules. For example someone last year completely redesigned the live scoreboard which can replace the default MFL scoreboard and it's mobile friendly as well. Same guys designed a "what if the playoffs started today" projections module a few years ago. If you can think of it, ask and someone will program it for you. Heck, you can take the publicly available XML feeds from your league and completely design your own site totally outside the MFL ecosystem if you wanted to.

For me in choosing a site to use it's content/stats, flexibility, supporting of my rules, ease of use and customer support that top the list. What it looks like I really don't care. My own sites look more like the basic layout as I found none of my owners cared for all the fancy stuff I spent time doing and just wanted the stats. Thus I just go with the basics with just a bit of tweaking.

In the end, there is no right or wrong answer. I just wanted to point out that an MFL site doesn't need to look like crap unless that's how the commish wants it to look. :cheers:

[joeday]

I'll not try to be condescending but if an MFL site looks like crap it's because the commish didn't spend 10 minutes doing minimal customization. There are over 20 different templates to choose from, many of which drastically change the look of the site. And you can design (if you know a little HTML/CSS) or pay for a custom template and I think you'd be hard pressed to even know the site is an MFL site.

None of this is to say RTS is crap at all, I don't really know. But MFL only looks like crap because the commish allows it to.

Here are some random MFL sites I've found. I make no claim that any or all look "good" but you can easily see how different an MFL site can look if people care to do it.

http://www14.myfantasyleague.com/2013/home/74432#0 (this is a pretty "basic" out of the box site)
http://www18.myfantasyleague.com/2013/home/47794#0
http://www29.myfantasyleague.com/2013/home/79052
http://football26.myfantasyleague.com/2012/home/29706#0
http://www5.myfantasyleague.com/2013/home/47005#0
http://football19.myfantasyleague.com/2013/home/41238#0
http://www8.myfantasyleague.com/2013/home/29182#0

Anyway, just a selection to show the great variety you can achieve.

Also there is a very large 3rd party community that make all sorts of custom modules. For example someone last year completely redesigned the live scoreboard which can replace the default MFL scoreboard and it's mobile friendly as well. Same guys designed a "what if the playoffs started today" projections module a few years ago. If you can think of it, ask and someone will program it for you. Heck, you can take the publicly available XML feeds from your league and completely design your own site totally outside the MFL ecosystem if you wanted to.

For me in choosing a site to use it's content/stats, flexibility, supporting of my rules, ease of use and customer support that top the list. What it looks like I really don't care. My own sites look more like the basic layout as I found none of my owners cared for all the fancy stuff I spent time doing and just wanted the stats. Thus I just go with the basics with just a bit of tweaking.

In the end, there is no right or wrong answer. I just wanted to point out that an MFL site doesn't need to look like crap unless that's how the commish wants it to look. :cheers:

I will admit that they look better than the ones I am in to a certain extent, but maybe its just my utilitarian nature. I like a site that gives me what I need. I don't need bells and whistles. Just preference. I do appreciate your post and your non douchey response. I will say those all of those took forever to load. Not sure if I hit a bad connection though.

[bonscott]

No problem. I actually thought you wanted to see more "fancy" sites. If the more basic utilitarian look is what you like then the basic MFL should be up your alley. My personal MFL sites don't have much in the way of pictures or images other then a picture on my weekly article and team helmets. Mine is more like the first link. The commish can create a tab and put whatever modules they want on it pretty quickly.

Tabs I have:
Main/Home - Weekly league article, league chat, summary of message board posts, league polls, owner activity, this weeks league calender and a babe of the day.
GameDay - Everything you need for gameday like live scoring, matchup charts, schedule, nfl scores, game previews, game recaps, monday night needs report, etc.
GM's Office - Your team page with your roster, your bye weeks, your draft picks, your player news, your trophy case, weekly results chart
Standings and Pools - League standings, total points, power rankings, the 3 side pool games summaries
Scouting Dept - Everything you need to research players like latest news, top 30 per position, player search
Trades and Transactions - Trade summary of your outstanding offers, waiver wire order (or blind bidding summary), trade bait
Playoffs - Playoff brackets and the 3rd party "what if" app
History - Summary of various league records (back to 1999 for us) with links to more details reports.

So an owner can pretty much do everything right on the homepage with just a click to a tab and rarely needs to go into the menu system unless they want more details reports or info not available as a homepage module.

It should only take a commish maybe 20 minutes to set something like that up, it's all point and click and idiot proof. No programming knowledge needed.

[joeday]

No problem. I actually thought you wanted to see more "fancy" sites. If the more basic utilitarian look is what you like then the basic MFL should be up your alley. My personal MFL sites don't have much in the way of pictures or images other then a picture on my weekly article and team helmets. Mine is more like the first link. The commish can create a tab and put whatever modules they want on it pretty quickly.

Tabs I have:
Main/Home - Weekly league article, league chat, summary of message board posts, league polls, owner activity, this weeks league calender and a babe of the day.
GameDay - Everything you need for gameday like live scoring, matchup charts, schedule, nfl scores, game previews, game recaps, monday night needs report, etc.
GM's Office - Your team page with your roster, your bye weeks, your draft picks, your player news, your trophy case, weekly results chart
Standings and Pools - League standings, total points, power rankings, the 3 side pool games summaries
Scouting Dept - Everything you need to research players like latest news, top 30 per position, player search
Trades and Transactions - Trade summary of your outstanding offers, waiver wire order (or blind bidding summary), trade bait
Playoffs - Playoff brackets and the 3rd party "what if" app
History - Summary of various league records (back to 1999 for us) with links to more details reports.

So an owner can pretty much do everything right on the homepage with just a click to a tab and rarely needs to go into the menu system unless they want more details reports or info not available as a homepage module.

It should only take a commish maybe 20 minutes to set something like that up, it's all point and click and idiot proof. No programming knowledge needed.

I've just always preferred RTS. Easy to use as the commish or just a team owner. Just my opinion though...I know I'm in the minority on this forum.

[Von]

I'll not try to be condescending but if an MFL site looks like crap it's because the commish didn't spend 10 minutes doing minimal customization. There are over 20 different templates to choose from, many of which drastically change the look of the site. And you can design (if you know a little HTML/CSS) or pay for a custom template and I think you'd be hard pressed to even know the site is an MFL site.

None of this is to say RTS is crap at all, I don't really know. But MFL only looks like crap because the commish allows it to.

Here are some random MFL sites I've found. I make no claim that any or all look "good" but you can easily see how different an MFL site can look if people care to do it.

http://www14.myfantasyleague.com/2013/home/74432#0 (this is a pretty "basic" out of the box site)
http://www18.myfantasyleague.com/2013/home/47794#0
http://www29.myfantasyleague.com/2013/home/79052
http://football26.myfantasyleague.com/2012/home/29706#0
http://www5.myfantasyleague.com/2013/home/47005#0
http://football19.myfantasyleague.com/2013/home/41238#0
http://www8.myfantasyleague.com/2013/home/29182#0

Anyway, just a selection to show the great variety you can achieve.

Also there is a very large 3rd party community that make all sorts of custom modules. For example someone last year completely redesigned the live scoreboard which can replace the default MFL scoreboard and it's mobile friendly as well. Same guys designed a "what if the playoffs started today" projections module a few years ago. If you can think of it, ask and someone will program it for you. Heck, you can take the publicly available XML feeds from your league and completely design your own site totally outside the MFL ecosystem if you wanted to.

For me in choosing a site to use it's content/stats, flexibility, supporting of my rules, ease of use and customer support that top the list. What it looks like I really don't care. My own sites look more like the basic layout as I found none of my owners cared for all the fancy stuff I spent time doing and just wanted the stats. Thus I just go with the basics with just a bit of tweaking.

In the end, there is no right or wrong answer. I just wanted to point out that an MFL site doesn't need to look like crap unless that's how the commish wants it to look. :cheers:

Some nice examples of MFL leagues...

But what makes MFL even better is that the Owners are not stuck with what the Commish creates... each Owner can create their league pages to look like whatever they want. Therefore a single league of twelve Owners can have twelve different looks. It depends on which Owner's page you are logged into. Vistors to the league only see the Commish's design and set-up... but all the Owners could be looking at completely different pages when they go to the league. The Commish only needs to allow customization... and most do to begin with. Only the control-freak commissioners prevent the Owners from changing his format for themselves.

[bonscott]

Only the control-freak commissioners prevent the Owners from changing his format for themselves.

That would be me. I don't allow owner customization in any of my leagues. Main reason is that I need to make sure that all owners have the same information and if I post some important info they all need to see it. If they customize it's very possible they won't see it and then I'll not hear the end of their bitching because they missed some deadline or a vote or something. So they see what I give them. :uzi: They can always ask for a module or something if they feel something is missing and I'll add it.

[Howat]

Newbs have ahard time gwtting used to mfl but its by far the best site if you are doing anything other than a redraft with no IDP. Espn is free and just as good as CBS if you want that commercial feel.

[lostcause]

CBS is far more expensive than mfl and has continued to raise fees almost every year. We stayed with cbs for years due to the group chat feature, but finally buckled when we were giving out almost 40% of the league fees to the website. It's around $150-175 a year, depending on when you buy it. That's just absurd.

[bonscott]

Honestly, I'd go with a free option like Yahoo or ESPN before paying that much for CBS...and you'll have more ads on CBS then on the free sites!

[brad_hickey]

Other posters have already expressed the pros and cons of the various sites well. I agree with one poster that CBS' fees are simply ridiculous and that MFL offers, what has been in my experience, a solid set of options and tools that work well in a dynasty setting. I've really enjoyed it!

[Chris_R]

No problem. I actually thought you wanted to see more "fancy" sites. If the more basic utilitarian look is what you like then the basic MFL should be up your alley. My personal MFL sites don't have much in the way of pictures or images other then a picture on my weekly article and team helmets. Mine is more like the first link. The commish can create a tab and put whatever modules they want on it pretty quickly.

Tabs I have:
Main/Home - Weekly league article, league chat, summary of message board posts, league polls, owner activity, this weeks league calender and a babe of the day.
GameDay - Everything you need for gameday like live scoring, matchup charts, schedule, nfl scores, game previews, game recaps, monday night needs report, etc.
GM's Office - Your team page with your roster, your bye weeks, your draft picks, your player news, your trophy case, weekly results chart
Standings and Pools - League standings, total points, power rankings, the 3 side pool games summaries
Scouting Dept - Everything you need to research players like latest news, top 30 per position, player search
Trades and Transactions - Trade summary of your outstanding offers, waiver wire order (or blind bidding summary), trade bait
Playoffs - Playoff brackets and the 3rd party "what if" app
History - Summary of various league records (back to 1999 for us) with links to more details reports.

So an owner can pretty much do everything right on the homepage with just a click to a tab and rarely needs to go into the menu system unless they want more details reports or info not available as a homepage module.

It should only take a commish maybe 20 minutes to set something like that up, it's all point and click and idiot proof. No programming knowledge needed.

I've just always preferred RTS. Easy to use as the commish or just a team owner. Just my opinion though...I know I'm in the minority on this forum.

How long did it take for you to get used to RTS when you first started? I have been a primary flea user, but don't mind new sites. But when I used RTS it was like I was lost in a maze and I couldn't figure anything out. Simple things like seeing how many starting spots I had or picking up a FA seemed really confusing to me. Now granted I was a newb to them but it certainly wasn't something I could hop right into. After 1 year of it, I think we all changed back to flea and if we didn't change I was gonna drop that team. Just ended up being way more hassle, but that was just me. I usually grade most these places off of how easy it is to navigate if it's your first time using it not an experienced user.