Best league websites and why

[griffeyin98]

I run the MTBL (Untitled Document) and think I have designed a pretty good site for out league and was curious what other commishes and players though of our site and of other sites they like and what features they think are good and bad.



I like my site because of a few things.

#1 it eliminates the front page which almost always becomes filled with stale news because it ends up being too much work for the commish to keep it active. and it seems GMs tend to just visit the forum and skip the front page altogether anyway.

#2 I've tried to get all the possible links and even post direct links for things like the draft and the statslab trading block.

#3 i like the "shoutbox" to allow people to interact, I think it leads to less posting on the board, but willing to live with that for the added interaction among more owners.

So what are the features you love and hate for a league site? What makes your site the best on the web?

So let's

[ukhotstove]

#1 I'm a bit split on this, I don't really hang around front pages of leagues unless it's the only place to read write ups. However when I go to a league site I would like to see a few pics, maybe even a list of past winners etc but nothing of great value so the middle ground in what you have done and a in depth front page would imo be best.

#2 I like the links just well read above.

#3 I was in the MTBL so used to the shoutbox which was a good addition, only problem I had with it was you couldn't really scroll past say 10 posts unless that was me but meant if it had been busy you couldn't catch up.

The Baseball Chronicle is probably one that ticks the boxes for me, gives you just enough info to spend a minute or two reading but not so in depth you'd need ten minutes to read it. I also like the history links to articles, nice touch.

[griffeyin98]

The Baseball Chronicle is a nice looking site

yeah, i've tried to mess with the shoutbox code, but had no luck yet in making it house more messages before deleting them

[rabbitzk749]

Cant get any better than the Computer Baseball League

I am in the MTBL and I like your forum. I would not call it a website though. I like the links at the top and the chat box is fine but I rarely use it since it does not hold many messages. Statslab is awesome and makes the page easy to navigate.

[ShoelessJ03]

Originally Posted by griffeyin98

#1 it eliminates the front page which almost always becomes filled with stale news because it ends up being too much work for the commish to keep it active. and it seems GMs tend to just visit the forum and skip the front page altogether anyway.

That all depends on how much you are into your own league. I know when I ran a league recently, I took a lot of pride in the front page and made sure to update it with every SIM. Sometimes more. This was fun for me and I enjoyed the immersion it brought with it.

[griffeyin98]

Originally Posted by rabbitzk749

Cant get any better than the Computer Baseball League

I am in the MTBL and I like your forum. I would not call it a website though. I like the links at the top and the chat box is fine but I rarely use it since it does not hold many messages. Statslab is awesome and makes the page easy to navigate.

I dropped the front page this season actually, just found it to not get used much in this league or in the other leagues I've been in. So I found a forum only site with links to anything a GM needs to be a better solution for the MTBL.

[GMGOD]

The SIMBL: "An Online League For The GM & By The GM"

Probably the most informative and most archive league website out there, the SIMBL.

Site is a digest for everything that you need to know present and past to learn the league and be up to date.

[fhomess]

I've seen a number of league sites in my days of helping people with StatsLab. I always love the aesthetics of any league that Mark Cooley is involved in.
Check out his British Baseball Society and the newly affiliated American Circuit

I have always liked the design of The FOBL as well.

I like the SIMBL home page a fair amount from a content and organization standpoint, but it's a bit dark for my taste.

[kq76]

I must be getting picky in my old age. I used to think sites like the ComputerBL and FOBL were the ____, but now I'm feeling like there's just too much to take in with them. If you're used to those sites then I imagine it's no problem, but when first visiting sites I like the ones that you're not bowled over with info, sites that you feel like you can just take a leisurely stroll through. Still, they look so nice that you're willing to take some time to take them in. That MTBL site isn't too bad in this respect, but it does have other issues.

First of all, the links at the top left I couldn't even see until I moved in my chair because their colour is so similar to the background colour. Tilting my monitor also works, but come on. Second, the text is too big for my tastes. I'm sure some people love big text, but if they do then they should adjust their browser setting for all sites. It seems to be trying to show off style-wise instead of making sure it's first and foremost functional. I find it to be like tabloid magazine-like in this respect, TMZ-like even, but even TMZ uses a conventional style. Third, it's very blog-like with the columns, vertical menu, articles; and I hate blogs. I'm sure it's exactly to some people's taste, but overall it's about as far from what I like as you can get. Sorry, I realize you probably put a lot of effort into it, but you might as well know sooner than later that it's not everyone's cup of tea.

I do totally agree with you that you might as well lose the front page as once you're in a league you probably make the forum your first stop every visit anyway, but the link you gave looks like a front page to me. Maybe they are, but those articles don't look like forum posts. And I agree links are good too although IMO many websites go overboard with links. I don't think you've gone overboard though. And finally, while I tend not to make much use of them myself, I do sometimes like to see what random stuff some people have to say in shoutboxes so I give a thumbs up to them. I don't see your shoutbox however.

[Cooleyvol]

Originally Posted by fhomess

I've seen a number of league sites in my days of helping people with StatsLab. I always love the aesthetics of any league that Mark Cooley is involved in.
Check out his British Baseball Society and the newly affiliated American Circuit

I have always liked the design of The FOBL as well.

I like the SIMBL home page a fair amount from a content and organization standpoint, but it's a bit dark for my taste.

WOW! Thanks, Frank.

BBS will be transitioning to the new template that the American Circuit is using this offseason. That template has been in the works now for a couple months and all leagues under the World Baseball Organization umbrella will be using it as they debut and we get closer to full Champions League possibilities in our promotion/relegation world.

I agree..........the FOBL is a timeless look. That site hasnt changed in years, yet its still talked about. Simon (from FOBL) has taught me a lot about CSS and how to make it work for you.

[tarmer]

Originally Posted by fhomess

I've seen a number of league sites in my days of helping people with StatsLab. I always love the aesthetics of any league that Mark Cooley is involved in.
Check out his British Baseball Society and the newly affiliated American Circuit

Nicely done Mark

[griffeyin98]

we actually added the front page back since I made this thread, but once again it's been neglected and hasn't had much of anything added to it since I remade it.

mtblonline.com - Index

This is our forum and will being going back to being our homepage again soon.

[Recte44]

Less is more. I actually made my homepage a WordPress page that has RSS feeds from the forum and some league Twitter feeds, along with dropdown menus.

BaseballRetrospective.com

At some point I do want to expand the site to become more of baseball writings, even outside of the MBBA that is within it.

If there are any ambitious writers out there that are interested in participating, let me know.

[LFC1892]

Originally Posted by fhomess

I've seen a number of league sites in my days of helping people with StatsLab. I always love the aesthetics of any league that Mark Cooley is involved in.
Check out his British Baseball Society and the newly affiliated American Circuit

+1 for both the BBS and American Circuit....extremely good looking Front Pages(and leagues )

[Cooleyvol]

Originally Posted by LFC1892

+1 for both the BBS and American Circuit....extremely good looking Front Pages(and leagues )

Thanks, bro. Our sites are proof positive that a site can look good and still basically update itself via RSS and include functions from the things that are available via statslab, etc. The BBS site will eventually move to the 'WBO template' the American Circuit is already using.

[griffeyin98]

British Baseball Society is the best looking OOTP site I've seen yet. Very Nice Work

[Cooleyvol]

Originally Posted by griffeyin98

British Baseball Society is the best looking OOTP site I've seen yet. Very Nice Work

Thanks so much..............makes me second guess moving the site to the American Circuit template.

[udbacker58]

Mark, like both but FWIW, I like the simplicity of the BBS site. Seems like it has all the same info, the only difference is the "bells and whistles" that can become overbearing, making things more difficult to find if you are not accustomed to the site.

But what the hell do I know? My homepage is about as basic as you can get