Help Us Build FanLax

FanLax wouldn't be FanLax without you. For this reason and more, we value your feedback. Please let us know what you like, what you don't like, and what you would like to see improved.
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admin
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Help Us Build FanLax

Post by admin »

For the past year, we've used FanLax as a Fantasy Lacrosse website and forum. But the only reason FanLax has been a Fantasy Lacrosse website and forum is because the Fantasy Lacrosse coaches have been the only lacrosse fans telling us what to do. Now it's your turn. Just tell us...

What do you want? Make it general, make it specific. But most importantly, tell us what you want.
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Re: Help Us Build FanLax

Post by admin »

Some FanLax Thoughts

(A) FanLax is for the Fan of Lacrosse - FanLax is for lacrosse fans that are, to be kind, obsessive about this game. Obviously all lacrosse fans are welcome. But the strange lacrosse fan should be running this website/forum. e.g. I've been running a Fantasy Lacrosse League since Mikey Powell was a senior. Any way you slice it, I'm strange. And I feel comfortable saying this because I've seen your posts and... So are you.
(B) FanLax is Yours - For the past seven months, the only reason FanLax has been a Fantasy Lacrosse website and forum is because the Fantasy Lacrosse coaches have been the only lacrosse fans telling me what to do. But make no mistake, this is your website and forum. Just tell us... What do you want?
(C) Continuous Improvement - Lastly, there's no reason to recreate LaxPower. For sure we should take the best stuff from LaxPower, other lacrosse websites, and from everywhere. But in terms of creating a website/forum that fulfills our unique needs, I'm confident that we can do better than any other lacrosse website. So... Tell us what you want. Ideas, thoughts, random thoughts, post them so we can discuss them.
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Re: Help Us Build FanLax

Post by admin »

by Kramerica.Inc on Tue Jul 31, 2018 1:09 pm... Matt has said before he's willing to make it what we want. So that is nice.
100% true. tell me what you want and I'll (do my best to) do it.
Postby HooDat on Tue Jul 31, 2018 3:36 pm... so what is the signal that it is time to get in the life boat for good? Hate to lose the history.
I felt the same way about the Fantasy Lacrosse history. I had the majority of the information because the league is run with spreadsheets but... I wanted to be able to type "Brendan Mundorf" and see every comment about him from whatever many years a go he played and... Obviously that would be lost. Which is why i moved the league before this past season. (I wish I moved it sooner.) this way, at least I'll be able to type "joe robertson" and similar names going forward and be able to find discussions about them.

One more thought, i just want to be able to search the posts. i.e. They don't need to be pretty. so, in some cases, (e.g. some of the Drafts), I just did a huge copy and paste. It's ugly but it's better than nothing. Feel free to do the same with your own posts. (I think there may be some legal issues with copy and pasting other people's posts. but you (and LaxPower) own your own posts.
Postby HooDat on Tue Jul 31, 2018 3:36 pm... I tried signing up, not sure how long it takes to get verified, but I am sure he is getting slammed from LP folks looking for a port in that last storm....
I'm not. Confirming Registrations is easy. It's just a click. I was away in VT for a week and... I had no idea a bunch of people were going to register. :)
Postby CU77 on Tue Jul 31, 2018 4:27 pm... As for when to move … I doubt we'll have consensus on that. In practice, I expect people to stay here at LP unless/until it disappears or otherwise becomes non-functional.
The only reason i see to move is the Joe Robertson comment above. better sooner than later so we'll have what we're typing right now. With this said, whatever. It's the off season. I think it's a better idea to chat here and start building what we want for the upcoming season.
Postby the previous Moderator on Tue Jul 31, 2018 4:43 pm... I also registered and can verify, after you sign up, you need an approval from Matt before you can login or post. He may have done it quickly for you but I waited almost a day for him to verify my registration. Totally understandable BTW. It is the way most of these forums work - here at LP we always have done self-activation but that is why registration is turned off here because you cannot deal with spammers with that method.
the previous Moderator is spot on. I just left the registration alone and I got 100+ Russian spammers with links to porn. Had to delete them one at a time and then... Started using this Registration Process. in time, I'm sure we can change it. But, for now, it avoids a major time drain having to delete these spam accounts.
Postby dislaxxic on Tue Jul 31, 2018 4:52 pm... sure wish there was some way for a back-end "port" or copy, of selected threads to the FanLax forum...which is WAY beyond my permissions level OR technical ability...
I feel the same. All I came up with were big copy-and-pastes as mentioned above. If there's a legal way to do this, it'd be great. maybe this is something Active would be open to donating, selling, providing (at some point).
Postby wahoomurf on Wed Aug 01, 2018 4:08 pm... Wonder if any LP folks, other than the 2 mentioned, signed up on that other site?...
65 registered. which is great by me. Big numbers means very little to me. Keeping the active users connected so I won't be the strangest lacrosse fan i know means a lot to me.
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Re: Help Us Build FanLax

Post by WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus »

I wonder what Russian porn is? Probably involves vodka.

Seriously, one thing I’ve learned about in the past few years is the Internet Archive, also known as the Wayback Machine. That might help people find old info once LP goes Tango Uniform.
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Re: Help Us Build FanLax

Post by admin »

HHS '64 wrote:
Cooter wrote:It would nicer to have a site that was run by a number of diehard lacrosse fans with the emphasis on Lacrosse - like laxpower originally was.
:clap: :clap: :clap: I could not agree more.
Cooter and HHS, as do I. I could not agree more. My thinking with relation to this issue and FanLax is three-fold:

One, LaxPower was social media before social media. Ye Ole Forum pre-dates Facebook. If my memory serves me right, LaxPower tried HockeyPower and another and... It didn't work. Lacrosse is unique. And this uniqueness stems from... the Lacrosse Fans/Forum Members.

Two, The people who create the content/posts for FanLax should be the "owners" of FanLax. If content is king, which it is, then the creators of this content should be acknowledged for their contribution, steer the boat, etc.

Three, This current situation can't happen again. Innumerable people have been creating great content for LaxPower for almost two decades simply because they love the game. The motives of these people cannot be questioned. These are the people who should own FanLax and we can trust not to let this situation happen again.

With the recent happenings, I'm going to change FanLax.com from Fantasy Lacrosse to Fans of Lacrosse. I'll keep you updated with relation to the website as well as the administration of the website. And, before, during, and after, please give feedback. I feel like I have a good idea of what you all want but it'd be much easier to know for sure if you explicitly tell me.
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Re: Help Us Build FanLax

Post by Dip&Dunk »

Data point of one but hopefully a way to create discussion....

What is your product?
1. Lacrosse information.
2. Sense of community.
3.

Who is your customer?

(and you can be more than one)
1. Lacrosse fans that want to talk lacrosse.
2. Team fans that want to know and talk about their teams.
3. Lacrosse players.
4. Lacrosse parents (ones that do not fall into #1 or #2).
5.

Competition SWOT
1. LAXPOWER
Strengths: forum, rankings, for a while: where you could find out about rules, print magazine
Weaknesses: no sustainable business model, technology passed them by, completely dependent on customer inputs for interest, print magazine
Opportunities: lax is growing market usually associated with attractive market base, tech savy customers, fairly steep initial learning curve for lax player parents
Threat: inside lacrosse, other social media outlets

2. inside lacrosse:
Strengths: slick(er) GUI, basically has cornered market, creates content/not as user dependent
Weaknesses: forum weak, if your not a top (player/team/league...) very little coverage, user submitted data tends to be time late/incomplete
Opportunities: See above
Threat: limited sense of community, the more you know...the more you know their user submitted data is time late or incorrect

What is the compelling reason to visit your site?

FANLAX needs to be THE site to visit to get <insert> about lacrosse

Suggestions:
(observed from LAXPOWER) Predictions, post game analysis, announcements, commitments, rules (there has got to be a better way of getting lacrosse rules then having to buy the book/pay for download)


secondary markets:
FANLAX twitter feed
FANLAX stats support (think moneyball for lax....customers: coaches)
FANLAX tounry support
FANLAX recruiting support
FANLAX referee support
FANLAX social programs in support of Lax
FANLAX merch
FANLAX........
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Re: Help Us Build FanLax

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DipandDunk: Thank you. I put pen to paper yesterday which speaks to a lot of this but you hit on lots that I did not think about. Specifically, the "support" aspect. Again, thank you. But most of all, thank you for engaging. Pen to paper has a place but discussions are critical. With this said...

Lax info and community. Both. The community informs the info and the info informs the community.

Customers are lovers and aspiring lovers of lacrosse. Whether your favorite player is Rabil or your 10 year-old son, lovers of the game, the community, the culture. (I hesitate to say the latter two because it moves into lax bro territory but I think they're relevant. For example, I don't think t-shirts saying, Dude, Upper Corner! are relevant. I do think sixpackman's poems are relevant.)

LaxPower and Inside Lacrosse... LaxPower is very data-centric. Though the Forum is LaxPower's greatest asset, you'd never know it. Take away the Forum and you have... Data. Larry was and is a data guy. Inside Lacrosse is very people/personality-centric. Of course IL will share records, scores, boxscores, etc. But their focus is on what Shack Stanwick (with a large, high-resolution, close-up pic of Shack) thinks about this data. And Shack thinks, Albany looks great! Fields looks great! and numerous other bland, obvious statements. From where I'm sitting, I think FanLax, like LaxPower, should be built on data, on analytical, demonstrable, objective information and explained by knowledgeable, passionate, subjective, hopefully entertaining personalities. If Shack wants to be candid, great. Otherwise, I'd take WhollyMoly's (he was awesome) thoughts ten out of ten times. Data AND personalities. LaxPower is data with a forum backstage. My proposition is to switch this. Put, metaphorically, the Forum on the homepage and move the data to the background. Still great data, still accessible, just not front and center. Anyway, i have more thoughts but thats the gist.

Why visit the site... To be informed, to be entertained. With this said, every business is honest, every school puts the student first, etc. And we all know it's rarely true. Similarly, every info-based website provides smart, engaging content. And it's rarely true. We want this statement to be true. You visit FanLax to get smart, engaging content. This content could be a piece that makes you say, That's spot on or a meme that makes you laugh but, in all cases, the user recognizes that FanLax "gets it". Smart and engaging.

Suggestions/functionality... I want to come back to this. I think this is a big decision.

Secondary Markets... in 2018, I'd argue that these are primary markets. I.e. having a website and forum where we stable and discuss content matters. But the content being posted via Social Media and discussed at the relevant social media asset is equally important. LaxPower never got this.

Support... Great thought. I want to think more about it. Should be easily integratable.
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Re: Help Us Build FanLax

Post by sguy9 »

Any chance of creating a diii chat too? Since we all know where the best lacrosse is being played....
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Re: Help Us Build FanLax

Post by dislaxxic »

Got very used to using the "Spell Check" functionality over at LP, (unlike many posters) which showed up as a button below to the left of "PREVIEW" in the Post A Reply or Edit screen.

Can we add that utility here??

..
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Re: Help Us Build FanLax

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sguy9 wrote:Any chance of creating a diii chat too? Since we all know where the best lacrosse is being played....
You're not the first to ask, though the others didn't ask publicly, and... Yes. D3, D2 as well as women, girls, etc.
Spell Check
Yes. But it'll have to wait 8 days.
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Re: Help Us Build FanLax

Post by FannOLax »

Yes, I'd love a D3 board, please. Have posted on both D1 and D3 LP boards. Which, I guess, means FanLax should probably have a D2 board and perhaps others. Many thanks!
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Re: Help Us Build FanLax

Post by 44WeWantMore »

dislaxxic wrote:Got very used to using the "Spell Check" functionality over at LP, (unlike many posters) which showed up as a button below to the left of "PREVIEW" in the Post A Reply or Edit screen.

Can we add that utility here??

..
That way I can distinguish OCanada's posts.
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Re: Help Us Build FanLax

Post by 44WeWantMore »

Get the Power Rankings back? Even better, with a calculator so we can dial up and down the (IIRC) 10 goal max score differential?

Invite the pollsters back, encourage them to add comments to their poll, and do what is necessary to keep them there, even if that means ruthlessly police the peanut gallery.
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Re: Help Us Build FanLax

Post by admin »

Rankings... for sure. And I think we can improve on what we have. E.g. it's not uncommon for the national champion not to be #1. Similarly, the HS rankings, including #1, frequently does not make sense. I'm confident that we can do better. For the HS and D3 teams, we can create a better formula. For the D1 teams as well as the Top 10 or 20 for HS, D3, etc., we can do a better job of offering better "more subjective" polls. Making the formulaic Ranking adjustable is an interesting idea.

Along the same lines with relation to the pollsters, I very much want to move (the best of) the Forum from a buried section to the homepage. The data at LP was great. The Forum commentary was great. I'd like to see them better integrated with each other and the commentary to play a more prominent role.
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Re: Help Us Build FanLax

Post by Dip&Dunk »

Adding and expanding on to my previous post on support......

Many bird dogs (people/asst coaches/coaches doing talent evaluation at show cases/tourneys) have either paper forms or non lacrosse based software apps for athlete evaluation (team genius, skillshark, etc.) I am unaware of any lacrosse specific app (off hand ability, head up dodge, plays well without ball, hustles to box, etc.).

A “standard” app would have many benefits:

All evaluators using same criteria

All evaluators using common format

All evaluators using electronic app (ease of sharing, collating, searching, ranking, updating, etc.)

Ease of adding other info (GPA, interests, schedule, awards, offers, commitments, etc) by third parties into common database.

Market shaping:

(A) develop straw man / prototype with initial GUI for demo purposes
(B) get us lax buy in (can’t hurt but don’t sell the farm to get their stamp of approval)
(C) Id demo school(s) for one year trial run.
(D) conduct trial
(E) get feedback
(F) incorporate changes
(G) market etc.

The value is not the app. It is the data. Free download, usage but data becomes yours to use. (Aaaahhh, the dreaded fine print). Subscription services or report fee.

Next up: referee support
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Re: Help Us Build FanLax

Post by Matnum PI »

Dip&Dunk, that's a neat idea.
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Re: Help Us Build FanLax

Post by pcowlax »

It looks like that is it then. What a damn shame, so many enjoyable years bantering with and learning from so many great lacrosse fans. I too certainly hope many migrate here but (no disrespect to Matt) I doubt it will ever be able to match the heights of LP with hundreds of frequent posters, thousands of lurker, complete game scores and recruit listings. Regardless, lets help build it as best as we can.
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Re: Help Us Build FanLax

Post by seriously? »

Somebody should provide the link to US Lacrosse. They mentioned the demise of Laxpower this morning.

https://www.uslaxmagazine.com/fuel/dail ... -august-29
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Re: Help Us Build FanLax

Post by dislaxxic »

LP was not built in a day. The "LaxPower LifeBoat" thread was posted in numerous threads at the old site...my bet is that many lax fans find their way over here eventually. Too bad the sinking had to happen in the summer...the "off season" for most of the lacrosse world...but i think it'll re-constitute itself.

Posts made within this site will show up to a search bot, is that correct?? If so, GET POSTING folks, so that wheen the time comes - when the season(s) fire up in 2019, interested fans, players, refs and coaches can (hopefully) find their way here...

Meanwhile...

Image

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Re: Help Us Build FanLax

Post by admin »

I didn't forget your spellcheck. Just taking care of some other stuff first. But haven't forgotten you, dislax.
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