State of the NAFtion

[sann0638]

I don't think that the obbllm part is crucial for now. I think priority should be put on the tournament pages.

Also the news should be more dynamic and should change more often.

also the coach locator could be enhanced, i may be the only one, but i would enjoy knowing where i can find a BB coach during my hollidays far away from where i live (i do a trip to new york end of july). Kind of a BBFacebook.

There are a blast of ideas we could use the website for, but what ithink is required is
1-a person in charge to focus the ideas about the website
2-a reactive developper which can work on it almost full time (making modifications here and there is not enough, i think this website need a full revamp)
3-a good communication about what is ongoing what will be done and when

I've snipped, but agree with all these points. Maybe #2 less, but #1 and #3 definitely!

It amuses me greatly that without block dice to sell, this thread can't even seem to decide on what the purpose of the organisation is anymore. In a roundabout way you're all just admitting that without the block dice to sell, NAF offers nothing that anyone would pay $15 for.

This is a bit negative, if we could keep it constructive that would be lovely!

[Elyoukey]

NAF is about IRL tournaments, and i think that it is the most important part.

Not according to the NAF front page:
[...].

Good point, but who ever read the f manual ?

joke appart, the idea to have a worldwide official league would be cool. So you could build up your team in your local league and bring it to play against anyone else in the world. Then yes obblm make sense for this.

[Glowworm]

This is a bit negative, if we could keep it constructive that would be lovely!

There's not a lot of positive going on.....

The website is dated
The STARS & QUILTS Are underused and there are better or more popular alternatives
The forum is overshadowed by TFF

These are all points made again and again by yourself and others in this thread.

I like being part of a "global" forum, but TBH I can get that here. I don't mind the " new" dice, they're free so that's ok by me.

How to fix things.........?? Whatever happens needs to happen quickly, 76 threads ( figuratively speaking) on " what shall we do?" Are just creating confusion, someone, NAF official? needs to step up and make a clear statement of intent:

Reduce fees?
NAF. Block dice?
NAF patch/ coin?
Track leagues?
All the above on a shiny new site?

Or maybe port all the rankings onto TFF, merge the 2 forums and call it TalkNAF.

But someone needs to make a positive statement soon, maybe the media officer?

[sann0638]

But someone needs to make a positive statement soon, maybe the media officer?

Shush you - I'm just the monkey, not the organ grinder.

[sann0638]

There's not a lot of positive going on.....

And you can be constructive without being positive, but that's maybe semantics.

[TheDoc]

Hi all,

I have had a read through (see scanned the posts) about the state of the NAF. I agree with a lot of them. The website needs a massive overhaul with
1) a more user friendly interface,
2) ability to see the results of each tourny by round,
3) better newsfeed and home page
4) not in bright red so I can get away looking at it at work!

One of my concerns is the search engine results not bringing the NAF site up when you search BB in the top 10 results you have to go to a 2nd page at least. This will have a definite hit on people being involved with the NAF and will see more people being attracted to Cyanide. As part of my job I do marketing and we have strict metrics on Click through and views that must be kept as they directly influence purchasing by customers. That is what we are trying to do here isn't it sell BB to more people? for this NAF will have to realise we are now selling a product (the bb hobby) to get people in. The potential to covert people from Cyanide to TT is huge and these are people that the NAF should be targeting

Freebies: I am with Nonumber on this. I liked the block dice and am hugely disappointed (like most of the members) that GW has pulled these. I would like to see an alternative to them brought in quickly if possible (plenty of dice makers out there and we could put in a custom design to get made). Minis are great but won't be useful to everybody.

[Darkson]

Hard to be constructive when it's the same old requests again and again (and again).
No disrespect to you Mike, I can see what you're trying to do, but let's be honest, a lot of this was "happening" last year, and at least as far as the average member can see, nothing's changed.

[sann0638]

I see your point Darkson, but I would rather any NAF-bashing was kept to another thread, I'd ideally like this one to be a wishlist.

[spubbbba]

NAF is about IRL tournaments, and i think that it is the most important part.

Not according to the NAF front page:

The NAF is an international association of players dedicated to Blood Bowl - Games Workshop's game of fantasy football. NAF's goal is to act as a central resource for Blood Bowl coaches the world over - offering news, contacts, discussion, sanctioned tournaments and international player rankings. Whether you're planning to run your own tournament, looking for a league, or just wanting to catch up on the latest from the world of Blood Bowl, NAF HQ aims to provide everything you'll need.

That doesn't look like it's goal is only tournaments. Yes, that's what it's been about so far, because the poor league players (who don't or can't attend tournaments) have been forgotten other than some outdated league trackers, a list of leagues that may or may not be up to date, and the occasional news article (which can take weeks to be ok'd).

That’s a good point, how many Bloodbowl players (or NAF members for that matter) actually attend tournaments? By the looks of it only a few tournaments outside the majors get over 50 coaches and it looks like those are often tourney regulars.

So if the NAF wants to represent the Bloodbowl community then it should be doing more for league and online players too.

[sann0638]

online players too.

Yikes, that's a whole other can of worms. I think NAF should be purely tabletop based, though some of the tactics will carry over. Some, but not all, as online teams get much more developed much more quickly, so team development advice is different.

[nicholasmr]

As a side note:
It actually isn't difficult for me to develop OBBLM compatibility for BB game data coming from software instead of manually typing in game results (as table top leagues do).
In this sense OBBLM could support both online "software" leagues and tabletop leagues, and offer the same advanced stats and visualizations to software leagues as table top leagues currently have.

Nicholas.

[Lychanthrope]

When I found BB and wanted to learn more I searched the internet and found NAF. I then found the coach locator, sent the coaches (2) a message through NAF, and one responded. He taught me the game. Was it easy? It wasn't hard. It did take time, monthes. The person didn't get on the site that often. The other coach who did not respond I later discovered didn't because it was an old e-mail. I am not sure the delays were a NAF problem, I admit I'm not on the site often. Free time is scarce and I find more info here then there. Since I'm in the US I find tourney info at Zlurpee.

[babass]

That's a part of the problem of the naf: This ongoing discussion about the NAF, is not happening on the officiel NAF forum, but here on tff forum...
That sounds strange to me, to have that merge of "activities" between to websites...

[antipixi]

I agree with a lot of what has been said about the site needing an update. A more flexible league section would be good and encourage me to potentially get my friends involved in league play again.

One thing that I would really like to see is the ability to submit rosters for tournaments through the site using STARS or other such tools.

Chris

[Glowworm]

One thing that I would really like to see is the ability to submit rosters for tournaments through the site using STARS or other such tools.

Now thats a good idea..