OK Todd, what's next?

Good question.

As most of you know, the forum is up and running. And if you didn't know, you do now.

As explained, we will continue to add functionality to the site. Most of it will just appear. The next major phase will be getting set up with a mechanism to accept payment for our paid subscribers. Gary and I are finalizing the exact nature of this content and will be making an announcement with respect to what, how much and when soon.

What is for certain is we will be offering a Draft Kit complete with player projections, player profiles, values and rankings along with a detailed outline of our projection and valuation methodology. We will also be writing several strategy essays and player pool analysis pieces. We will do our best to spread the wealth amongst all the most popular formats including auction, draft, mixed, single, points and head to head. We will also provide our annual NFBC primer, which actually transcends simply use for the NFBC competition. The Draft Kit will be released in phases, with the target date (read -- not set in stone) of February 1 for projections, profiles, values, rankings and the description of methodology. The projections will be updated at least once a week through the first week of April.

For those wondering, we will have a customizable automated value calculator with the kit, though I cannot promise it will handle anything more than the most common categories. Last year, I introduced a version for extra categories and non-conventional categories, but I did so without adequately beta-testing it and with all that is going on, I cannot promise it will be released in 2009. BUT -- along with the Draft Kit, we will include a set of customized values specific to your league. We won't provide these with every update, but we will do our best to make sure you are able to properly manage your keeper team by providing a set when you need to declare keepers and another set based on the projections updated nearest to your draft. I apologize to those that play leagues that use non-conventional categories, but at this point you are in the minority and presently it would be an inefficient use of time to spend on the multi-AVC. But like I said, trust me, we'll have you ready for your 10x10 league with K/9, BB/9 etc.

In-season, we will fluidly update the projections and provide year-to-date values.

All the rest of our content will be free, either in the form of a newsletter (details to follow), blog entries, forum discussion or articles that will likely be posted at our companion site, Creative Sports.

For the next few weeks, I will be as active as possible on the boards though blog entries will slow a bit as we will be pounding away at the Draft Kit. Once the season starts, blog entries will pick up.

With respect to the forum, please do not expect a response from Gary or myself for every post. We are hoping to build a community such that there is free discussion and everything posted gets answered. We'll do what we can, especially when it comes to the more theoretical or philosophical questions, but I just don't have the time to say whether I like Luke Scott better than Jose Guillen for your utility, though I would more than likely share HOW I would go about making a decision like that in general terms.

Now for a little surprise. The Draft Kit is not for me, it is for you. As such, we would like your input as to what you would like for content. I am not talking about a weekly article for the season, we just don't have the manpower for that. YET. I am talking about an essay that will help prepare you for your draft and/or auctions. I will start a thread in the forums and we will do what we can to cover your topic(s).