The ScoutCast – Episode 195 – Zlatan

Fair play man. I think in a time like this it's the community elements that need to be preserved. Leave the RMTs and so on to the masses.

A heads up, I'm unlikely to be able to respond to any replies to this today until much later given that it's a Friday and it's always manic.

Ok

Evolution mate - fair play and congrats on living the dream - am well jealous 🙂

Thanks for the post, Mark. It makes a lot of sense... can you just make sure you bowl the 'casuals' a few 'googlies' and keep some of the seriously golden nuggets out of the limelight at times? I think you should keep JONTY at FFS headquarters at all times... not allowing any of his statistical nous to escape our clutches!

Congratulations Mate. I wish you all the best. We're just worried what's going to happen to us

I've grown to have no problems with FPL giving out so much info.

I'm personally disappointed that gems like

- What the Managers Say
- Scout Notes
- Carling Cup updates

are not present on this site anymore. My problem is with the dwindling quality on FFS. Happy to see that you're looking to address it.

Fair enough. I can't pretend to say I'd have done differently in your position. I'm sure you can appreciate my own, an others, frustration though. I've been part of this community for 5+ years now and remember stumbling across it by accident and loving that I had this secret little tool that nobody knew about.

Inevitably as popularity grows, the site was always going to become more well known. You were building something and the additions like the members area, etc, were fantastic. You still had to go to the site and find this info or dig it out for yourself/pay for membership.

It just feels like this season the focus has gone from the site and officialfpl is driving things with the info they're providing. Some articles have disappeared too like the scoutnotes and scoreboard. I see FPL as a game, and one that requires skill and research. FPL drip feeding useful info to the masses is taking that all away.

I don't know how much influence you have over that side of things, if any, but I certainly would put forward that they should be a bit more selective what they share as it's just too much at the moment. I'm not sure they'll particularly care mind.

Anyways I know you've put blood, sweat and tears into this site and built it up to the point where you now get paid as an expert on FPL. I mean what a dream job. I just hope in turn that doesn't bring the FFS house of cards tumbling down.

Best of luck either way though bud.

I don't think anyone on here seriously holds it against you or the team at all and everyone is pleased for you - the slight problem is that if a FF manager now wants to get the most information and tips on fantasy football they can, then this site is not the best place to do so as the content is just not as far reaching as previously. There are a lot more articles and analysis on the FPL site itself - so I think that's why people here are feeling a bit left behind.

Great reply, Mark and congratulations again.

The Scout and the Scout Surgery has been available in FPL for 2 years and was vastly ignored by most of the FFS community and the FPL players. They are now using Social Media as a means to engage with the user which is the right thing to do.

I am also really interested in seeing how FFS is going to pivot. My concern is that a lot of the good posters and statistical analysis will disappear and this forum will essentially turn into a mass RMT thread. We have already observed a recent decline which is worring. Maybe its just that the upturn in users means that the quantity of detailed posts are diluted. I dont know but ive not seen great posts like updates from Portsmouth Bubblejet or detailed analysis visualised in Tableau from The3rdturd in a long time.

As always, happy to help where possible.

KoL

Well done Mark.

I've wrote before that one day (soon) fantasy football will be as wedded to real life football as gambling is to horse racing...it will become one and the same thing for the public.

You are in at sharp end, right at the beginning, and I'm certain you'll be having to make many similar decisions in the future.

I'm quite jealous really that you've got yourself into this position.

Good luck however it all pans out.

Thanks for taking the time out to reply Mark.

I get the point that the Premier League are trying to employ a social media team to try and get more people involved in the game, but my question is that why are you providing them information which is based solely on the community's research (*cough cough* the Dembele theory)? Surely that encourages people on here to keep information based on their own research solely to themselves rather than post it on here and expect it to be made public to 3.7 million people with 1 tweet?

Honestly, I hadn't even noticed any of this bonus content on the fpl site and I reckon very few of the "casual" players will pay much attention to it. I will now just view it as bonus content to compliment what I get on here, the fpl site certainly doesn't provide the community feeling or the ability to fully research stats independently like what we get here. Congrats on your new role as an official fpl pundit Mark!

The girl on the video is much better looking than Granville. Don't blame you

I agree with what you're saying, its a public game who are we to tell people what they can and can't read. Just means we all have to up our game a bit. I for one welcome the challenge

Congratulations again on the success, I'm pleased to see you doing so well. 🙂

However, I wish we were told prior to buying membership that the major stats would be given in the new show and scoutcast. We paid for the stats, only for them then to given away for free. Whilst I appreciate the member's area gives far more than that, the most important stats and insights are now free, so it does devalue the membership.We really should have been told beforehand, as some may have reconsidered paying.

Anyway, great work on the show and FFS in general (And Total War, great games).

Hi Mark,

I have no objection whatsoever to you giving data or any input/insight on the Fantasy Premier League page/feed, if we want fantasy premier league to blow up to the levels it is with the NFL in America, this sort of collaboration and mainstream broadcasting is essential.
If I had not paid for membership, I would not be writing this post.
Unfortunately, I am a member.

While offering a product to a customer, you advertise certain benefits and features. When its a subscription and a renewal is offered, it is reasonable to assume that those same features would still be existent in the product. This is where my gripe is.

The ICT index being gone from the members table annoys me, its the first thing I looked forward to viewing after a GW. Its gone, without any prior intimation from your end. This is a deal breaker for me. I feel ripped off tbh. I don't mind it being viewable on the FPL page also, but why is it not here when I paid for it??
In addition, its clear that the number of members article is also far less due to the attention you're giving the FPL game.

I've been a member of this site since 2008 and credit a lot of my fpl success towards it, but I feel the communication on your end towards these changes has been left wanting.

Wishing you and the team all the success

Utkarsh

Sound logic. All the best. Grumblers gonna grumble.....

I think certain posters need to catch themselves on.

1/ People are unhappy with information being made more easily available. Surely a good thing. Keeps people interested longer and makes mini-leagues more competitive. People are unhappy that they have lost the advantage of knowing about this site - but that never made you a FF expert. A lot of people are kidding themselves that they do hours of statistical analysis, really a small number do and the rest follow.

2/ People complaining about the 'quality' of the posts (poncy and condescending). Some long term members are cliquey, if you don't have an avatar your can't possibly have anything worthwhile to say, you must be a 'casual', yet a long term member posts something similar and it sparks a debate.

3/ Too many rate my teams. Always been the case in the early season. I don't see why it is a problem and enjoy reading them myself.

4/ It says in the faq that if you are not happy then drop an email and they will sort you out a refund.

5/ People complaining about the lack of scout notes. So the people complaining about information being spoon fed want to be spoon fed (but don't share it with the great unwashed!).

Well played Mark, doing a show about fantasy football with AC Jimbo and a pretty lady - living the dream!

Big gripe is the ICT index being removed from the members area with no warning or explanation that it's gone. I don't really care that it's on the main site now but why can't it still be in the members area too? This has been brought up on countless posts but it's been radio silence from FFS. I guess they got their membership fee for the year so it doesn't really matter.

Great post. I made my encouragement for you known here last week:

http://www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk/2016/08/19/the-community-round-up-157/?hc_page=3#hc_comment_13851413

If you are serious about looking for FFS to pivot, I would encourage you to check out both fangraphs (MLB) and football outsiders (NFL) -- their evolutions over the last decade or so are interesting examples of how diehard communities transformed themselves. This site already looks much better than theirs, so design wise you have a leg up.

In essence, they have become almost like citizen scientists whose insights are taken seriously as essential reading by the teams themselves - the diehards revel in their engagement in the debates on the site not only because of the topics, but because they know that the site's writers will then use the best conclusions going forward and they have some sense of themselves as serious aficionados of the game itself.

Your articles might need to become more interactive, where a writer then revisits the discussion a few pages or hours later to keep it going and to highlight what the community has discussed. You could keep it housed here since it doesn't really work as a short bite to be driven to the masses through FPL.

The bigger challenge for you is how much non-FPL community spirit you can maintain. Movie recommendations, birth announcements, and especially some of the random social discussions in the Deadzone bring posters together and might also make them trust in each other's football opinions. I am not on social media and pretty much only spend significant time on sports sites, so no idea how you do that. But you need to keep the ragtag bunch of diehards here if you want to continue to present FFS as anything close to an expert site with elevated discussion about the matches themselves -- they need to want to share with each other for anyone in the public domain to read. You might want to trawl through some pages of the Deadzone in years past (haven't been on much the last few weeks) to see what the day zone could look like -- great indepth discussions as well as a sharp sense of humor and community. Definitely a great rogues' pub instead of a noisy dance club.

Congratulations Mark! 😀

I really don't feel that you being a part of the PL panel and supplying information to the masses is like backstabbing the FFS community like it's made out to be.

Like many have pointed out, it's absolutely the right decision from a business point of view.

We, the FFS community who had all these secret info before this season now need to man up and face the new challenge. Don't really get why such an outcry.

We have to raise the bar as the competition will be fierce now than it has been ever before.

I for one am ready for it and loving it.

The better the competition, the more sweeter is the victory.

People are selfish and want everything to themselves. Personally I am enjoying the twitter updates and the q&a sessions, had a couple of questions answered myself and really enjoy the videos online.

Whilst this is fantastic community it is a small minority of the overall players. Fantasy football is growing, there is a huge market out there of casual players who are chomping at the bit for something different. Some just don't have the time or want the effort of reading through big articles so the twitter and the videos are great for them as well as the more die hard players. I am actually enjoying it very much, I have made many new friends via the twitter updates

It makes perfect sense for you to work more closely with the official site, as you said if it wasn't you then it would be somebody else. Fantasy football is becoming bigger by the day, it would honestly be silly of you to not accept the new role.

Good luck and enjoy

I think this hot topic is monumental post in terms of the FFS community going forward. I am a massive fan of this community and so happy for marks success and agree FFS should partner with FPL. I am dissapointed there are articles on fpl scout section that are not here. I see no reason why that information is not also posted here even if that means extensive links and advertisement to the fpl scout section. I have no problem casual getting more information will only improve the competition although I am concerned of increased template team which I feel probably is the worst point of the game lucky mainly kicks in after January

Don't apologise lad, we can't be greedy. Been beating up on my mates for years and happy to see them rise to a new level. I'm taking this season as a chance to drag others up, and the more completion the better. Most exciting fpl season ever for me, with no more "casuals".

The history of top fantasy websites is that they get acquired: cf. RotoWorld (acquired by NBC); STATS (acquired by News Corp) in the US on the back of the growth in fantasy baseball & (American) football. I would not be surprised to see FFS acquired by a major sports channel (ESPN?) or even the Premier League itself (not crazy, as FFS promotes the FPL game). These links with PL and others will be key to capturing the value created by Mark et al.

I really think youre going into way too much depth for that audience. Telegraph FF have a similar feed and they just tweet things like "is Benteke on your shopping list?" and "whats your prediction for X game?" This would fulfil your contract without alienating this Community. No need to post stats that others are paying for or "Capoue may play deeper due to a new signing"

Only one way to solve this issue .. Mark needs to complete a company acquisition and buy fantasy premier league. Don't be tight mark we know you have the cash we posting gold on here for years

Like everyone else, I feel.

I like the community and it is nice to have a place where we can talk. It feels against the spirit somehow if the best bits are broadcast to people not involved in the process; but isn't that what the hot topics are, or were? The point of the hot topics I think was to summarize important posts and information for those that didn't have the time to get involved. The hot topics rarely foster the genuine conversation I think they are intended to. I take the new availability as an extension of what hot topics are intended to do, which is only unfortunate if there is no longer an advantage to being on FFS.

The idea of a members only chat seems good, and I would love it, but the negative effect on the non-member chat might be huge. Non-member chat might turn (even more) into RMTs. Still, a members only chat would be helpful if the FFS readership grows, which it may, and very quickly if integration with FPL continues. The more exclusive chat would then be nice, and a decent revenue stream for site-related improvements.

Honestly, I use the site for the discussion mostly, but haven't found it as useful in the past, largely because I've found it harder to find the same posters, which makes me trust advice less. Nevertheless I will always check in, as this is a place to talk about fantasy football.

Mark, I know you and the team will figure it out, keep going!

Thought I'd add my two cents:

Like many of the other peeps have already mentioned, I feel like the sites quality has dimished this season, very little community articles and informative hot-topics have seemed to crop up so far (the ones that have, have been good of course). When I saw the ICT index on FPL, I didn't feel like paying this years membership was worth it. Like GB has said, people might have been more hesistant to pay if they knew what was happening. Like the others have said, alot of the regular articles seem to have dissapeared too,

Having said that, massive congratulations on full-time FPL work, that really is the dream. Very happy for you Mark, just don't forget us here at FFS

Have to say well done to Mark on such a success in FFS, it has come a long way, as has FPL. I have definitely noticed a change in content this season but at the same time this is still a community, so if people think certain things are missing then why not offer yourself to fill the gap you see instead of complaining.
Make suggestions, do research and post your findings, offer advice, submit articles etc. The quality of sites like this are the result of the community that is associated with it.
FFS is still miles ahead of anything else we just need to keep pushing it forward

I'm late to this party, but what I can't quite accept is that we have had our posts deleted, repeatedly, for posting stats that could have been (but weren't) from the member area, but now you are giving these same stats out for free and the paying members should just accept it. The stats analysis used to be for members only, for a reason: it was the reason we paid for the membership.

I don't mind at all that you get more followers, join forces with FPLofficial or whatever, etc. My point is not that this should stay "our secret". My point is that I pay you money to get that data put in a neat useful statistical form, and so I expect that you only give it against a payment, but this season I've been finding the Member Area changed to significantly worse from before (no ICT index and a dysfunctional Ticker), while you offer the most important findings neatly summarised and free for everybody. In both way, the membership has lost its value: we get a worse product, and main parts of it are available for free.

At least you could make the Member Area back the way it was, the Season Ticker in particular.

dont you think youre giving a bit too much...let them do some thinking too dont u think.