Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to reply to my Q&A form from the other week.
As the Scout General Manager, it is really important to me that we act on the views of our Members and that we strive to make changes based on the demands of the audience.
The things you love
The feedback that you provided highlighted a lot of the fantastic things that are going on here at Scout.
Praise for the editorial articles on site was overwhelming. It is clear that what Neale, Tom, Marc and the rest of the team are doing is hitting all the right notes.
I think the articles are brilliantly structured, and I love their consistent attention to detail whilst also being genuinely enjoyable to read and often funny. When I need a break from work, FFS is my place!
Editorial content (quality of writing some of the best around IMO), fixture ticker, RMT, RMT surgery with Tom, (love the transfer planner on the app too).
Tom’s Surgery on a (normally) Friday afternoon and Neale’s team updates on the Thursday/Friday with the rolling press conferences.
There was also a lot of love for the content creators that we work with, the app, Captain Sensible and the Season Ticker.
Answering your questions
I had a number of great questions on my form. I have tried to answer these here but feel free to get in touch if you would like to discuss things more.
You are absolutely right: there is really limited content available around many of the other games. Over on our sister site, Fantasy Football Community, we strive to cover as many of the popular games as possible. We historically haven’t covered the WSL game but it is something that our Community and Partnership Manager, Tom, is really passionate about. If there’s demand, we can certainly look to add this to our offering for the new season.
The upvote system helps us to manage the Hot Topics for the site. I absolutely understand your frustrations here. The comments section is something that we as a team are looking at. We would like to make changes here to make it a better user experience and so if you have ideas on this area, feel free to drop me an email and we can discuss!
Why does the website still have a message saying the “Members Area v2 is nearly here” – hasn’t this been live for two years now?
Why do all the links from the homepage still direct to the old Members Area? I tend to still use this simply because that’s where the links take me. Also, I prefer the look and feel of the old fixture ticker, but wouldn’t it be easier to have one area to maintain?
There were a few questions on this area, so I have grouped them together.
The Beta Members Area was a project that we worked on a couple of seasons ago and we have been tinkering with ever since. We, however, have never been truly happy with the new version of the site and so even as a staff we tend to use the old one. This clearly tells us something and we have been working to rectify that in development.
You are absolutely right: it will be a lot easier to maintain just one. But the way the tech works means there have been some obstacles to making that happen. However, we are in the process of running some big updates to the Members Area. Some of these will be available for the start of the new season, others will come in during the course of the campaign. This season will be a big year for the Members Area and the user experience there. For the new season, there will just be one Members Area and all links will take you to the same place. I think you will really like the look and feel of the new ticker! Watch this space!
We are always up for new ideas!
We already have the Head-to-Head Leagues on site, which some users may be unaware of. We’ll detail how to join for the new season in the next two months.
Yes absolutely. The speed of the site and the load times on some parts of the Members Area is something that the Tech Team are working on currently. I have fed this back directly to the team so that they can have a look at these pages specifically.
The price you pay when you sign up will be your price for the life of the Premium Membership. We want to reward the loyalty of our Members who join and stay part of the fantastic community that we have built. Over the course of your Membership, it will only get better value for money as we add new tools and resources, as well as additional games and content!
Thank you! My team is an incredible group of people who work tirelessly to improve the content and user experience onsite. Whilst negativity can be frustrating, we try to channel it in a positive way. People pay money for a service and so have the right to give feedback, which we like to work on. I do encourage that they do this via the support email (support@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk), as that way it will be seen by the right people and we can work on making a fix. In the comments section, especially in the busy periods, things can be missed.
This is a great question! There is a balance to be had between the clickbait articles which hit the algorithm and would help us grow, and the deep-dive articles which we all love on Scout. We have a plan and are meeting as a team for a further planning week in June to ensure that we can successfully maintain who we are, and not just compete but be the very best offering, as we have always been.
Things you would love to see
This was the part of the form that I was most looking forward to seeing.
As a team, we have created a long list of things that we would like for the new season. Some of these suggestions are features that Reece and Dan have been busy building in dev for a couple of months now.
Others are new videos, articles, and resources that the different teams are planning for the new season. However, the user experience is something that every day we are striving to improve and as far as we can, we will endeavour to turn your wishes into reality.
The great news is that a lot of things on the wish list are things that we are already working on. I have added all of your ideas to a sheet, which as a team we will discuss at our meeting in June. You should see many of these things appearing on Scout for the new campaign!
Thank you
Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to reply to my Q&A. This is something that I am planning to run bi-monthly throughout the year. This is so that we can ensure that we are getting things right.
I am always happy to chat about your ideas or answer any questions that you may have at other times, though, so please do get in touch at support@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk!
