MAC Tool gone?

[deeswright]

It’s been a good service up to this past season. Ray. But, it makes no sense to roll out a product when it isn’t ready. I hope you at least provide people with some sort of discount next season for this mishap on your part. Otherwise, I will need to look for a new service

[mexipat]

I just wish someone in charge would explain why they decided to launch a new site during draft season when we needed it the most and whether they now believe it was a bad idea. As it stands right now, I won't be renewing in October but an explanation would help indicate they understand our frustration. My theory is it was a decision made without Ray's input as he understands the importance of draft season.

[RAY@HQ]

If you go back and read the mega-thread about new site issues, I think I've addressed that multiple times. But to recap:

- the decision was not made above us. The go-live was our call. Our target was actually earlier in the offseason rather than later. If we had hit even mid-January rather than early February, I think that would have made a huge difference. Ironically, that delay wasn't even due to technical issues... the delays were actually in getting the contracts signed, the tech team got started much later into the fall than we were originally planning.
- If we hadn't launched when we did (first days of Feb), we would have waited until after Opening Day. But then all of the cleanup/stabilization work that went on in Feb/March would have been pushed back accordingly, and we wouldn't be in the position we are now, where the new web site is roughly (pick a number) 92% functional now, and we have what should be smooth sailing ahead.
- if we wanted to wait for a low-impact time to launch, it probably would have been the All Star Break.... ie, right about now. But as bumpy as it's been to get to this point, I don't think we would have been well served to wait until now to go live, and still have a less-painful but still impactful settling period to go through, and also not have fully exercised the draft-season tools the way we did in Feb/March.

Are there things we could/should have done better/differently in this process? For sure. I think I've been fairly up front about those things here, but I understand not everyone reads every thread. To restate a couple of the big ones:
- we clearly underestimated the attachment to MACK, and how LeagueSync in its current form is not a 1:1 replacement.
- in retrospect, even though it would have been confusing, it might have been a good idea to have the old site available in parallel to the new one for a while, just to provide a transition period, and a failsafe for features that weren't working yet on the new site.

I don't say this to minimize to minimize anyone's frustration: I fully realize the draft-season experience was rough. (I was on the receiving end of all of the posts and emails, after all.) But I'm choosing to look forward, and I'm REALLY happy with where we are now. We're still ticking things off the punch-list, but the site's working great... it looks great on your phone, the tools are working well, we've got a plan to address the MACK/LeagueSync issues that I think you'll all respond well to. Really, it's full steam ahead from here. Again, I appreciate that the ride to get to this point has been rougher than expected. But I'm glad we're here now, and if we had delayed the launch, we wouldn't be as far along as we are now. Is that the glass-half-full take? Sure, I'll admit to that. But it's honestly how I feel.

[circle360]

It’s been a good service up to this past season. Ray. But, it makes no sense to roll out a product when it isn’t ready. I hope you at least provide people with some sort of discount next season for this mishap on your part. Otherwise, I will need to look for a new service

Ive seen this posted a few times

It makes no sense to roll out a product when it isnt ready


companies / sites etc cant find issues until a roll out

WBD spent a ton of money and advertising on
MAX

. Max crashed the morning of it's launch day

And no offense to Ray and HQ. But I'm pretty sure WBD spent million more on that rollout

As for the discount


I never used Mack


But what's to prevent me from saying . I used Mack and I should get the discount as well

So you have a ton of people getting a discount for something they didn't use

[aikman72]

I honestly dont think people realize the affect and poor planning until October when its time to process renewals.

[Kstan]

..... the decision was not made above us. The go-live was our call. Our target was actually earlier in the offseason rather than later. If we had hit even mid-January rather than early February, I think that would have made a huge difference. Ironically, that delay wasn't even due to technical issues... the delays were actually in getting the contracts signed, the tech team got started much later into the fall than we were originally planning.

This scenario happened multiple times in my career in I.T. A project is proposed, the tech team does an initial project plan and timeline and everyone has buy in. But then details outside of the tech team control kick in .. legal doesnt have the same urgency as the tech team to complete their pieces, the vendor has made promises that they cant keep, finance waffles etc .... major tech upgrades are not done in a silo, it takes the whole organization.

And you know who gets the short straw? The tech team every time!

I really appreciate the changes and improvements to the stie. Better Player Search, huge upgrade in historical content search for Player content, modern web pages that allow data table scrolling inline, Player hyperlinks that open a new tab EVERY TIME, multi device support keeping the same look and feel. And during all of this, the written content has stayed top notch!

Keep the upgrades coming Ray!

[circle360]

I honestly dont think people realize the affect and poor planning until October when its time to process renewals.

I see your point here

But ill say a few things

1) Its almost like a twitter mob mentality here. A bunch of people are posting the same thing in some form a bunch of times. So it actually seems like more people have issues
Ive said a few times. Since people like to use this line. Ive been a sub for over 25 years. In all that time. Ive never used the MACK Tool

2) Ive seen this in leagues I Commish. People have an issue with something in march. Then when I bring it up to them after the season. Asking if they want me to do a poll rule change. Most of the time I get - No it's not that big of a deal now

3) I remember people saying something similar after Ron sold HQ in like 2008 or 2009. Any issue that popped up. Must have been because of the new owner. When these issues might have popped up before. The same thing happened in like 2012 or 2013. When the site got revamped and sold to USAT. It was a process then and people complained as well. So basically, history repeating itself I guess

[aikman72]

Are you an apologist or do you work for Ray and HQ? This was by most accounts a failure. HQ caters to older players in a format that is slowly dying, so if they leave what happens? That might be your biggest concern, not the a large group has a legitimate issue. Whether you used MAC or not rolling this out when they did was about as bad a decision as can be made.

[circle360]

Are you an apologist or do you work for Ray and HQ? This was by most accounts a failure. HQ caters to older players in a format that is slowly dying, so if they leave what happens? That might be your biggest concern, not the a large group has a legitimate issue. Whether you used MAC or not rolling this out when they did was about as bad a decision as can be made.

As someone that has gone through numerous updates at work. Similar to something that happened here

I was giving my experience tied into HQ.

So sorry if you took offense

[Howie M]

I think respecting other posters enough to just let them air their concerns is a good way to go.

[mexipat]

I see your point here
But ill say a few things
1) Its almost like a twitter mob mentality here. A bunch of people are posting the same thing in some form a bunch of times. So it actually seems like more people have issues
Ive said a few times. Since people like to use this line. Ive been a sub for over 25 years. In all that time. Ive never used the MACK Tool

I don't use Mack either but that has nothing to do with my disappointment in this site during draft season.

[circle360]

I don't use Mack either but that has nothing to do with my disappointment in this site during draft season.

I totally understand that it took me a bit to find a few things etc in feb

but i was ok by the time my drafts came around.

I mainly use the CDG and rotolab and dont have different categories. Which I think was an issue - see QS etc



Hope this was ok to say btw howie

[FWDragon72]

This scenario happened multiple times in my career in I.T. A project is proposed, the tech team does an initial project plan and timeline and everyone has buy in. But then details outside of the tech team control kick in .. legal doesnt have the same urgency as the tech team to complete their pieces, the vendor has made promises that they cant keep, finance waffles etc .... major tech upgrades are not done in a silo, it takes the whole organization.

And you know who gets the short straw? The tech team every time!

I really appreciate the changes and improvements to the stie. Better Player Search, huge upgrade in historical content search for Player content, modern web pages that allow data table scrolling inline, Player hyperlinks that open a new tab EVERY TIME, multi device support keeping the same look and feel. And during all of this, the written content has stayed top notch!

Keep the upgrades coming Ray!

I second this post. I also spent several decades in IT, finishing my career in charge of entire projects or substantial portions of mega-projects. In my experience, it's the exception when everything goes according to the original plan and schedule. When things go south, tough trade-off decisions need to be made to minimize impacts to customers, suppliers, investors, and employees. Rarely is everyone satisfied with how an IT project rollout affects their interests, so some customers leave, some suppliers decide to stop providing goods or services, some investors get skittish and pull out, and some employees resign because of overwork, underappreciation, or disagreement with strategy.

I agree with Howie's comment that "I think respecting other posters enough to just let them air their concerns is a good way to go." However, similarly, I think respecting candid explanations from those on the project side about why things happened the way they did, and understanding they did the best job they could to choose between a pile of bad options, also is a good way to go." No matter which side of this issue you stand on, hopefully everyone tries to understand and respect the point of view of the other side.

[The Shadow]

The main thing I used MACK for was for quick analysis of all league free agents. I put them all into MACK teams after the draft, and I updated them weekly. I had instant access to our league's free agent pool, and the overlooked values or new callups with value stood out instantly. There was no need to search one name from a CDG, much less 50.

If League Synch ever has access to OnRoto, then it will at a few clicks list free agents, and that will be great, but I'm shocked that such a widely used site as OnRoto wasn't one of the first sites available. Sure, the office and anonymous leagues use Yahoo, ESPN, etc, but serious leagues (particularly ones with customized constitutions) use sites like OnRoto or its equivalent.

[Whistler]

Rotolab does all that