HOW TO: Run an On-Line Draft
by Nathan Noy
March Madness is upon us, and for those of us in roto/ fantasy baseball we
dont mean the NCAA Tournament. Its
finally draft season, and most of us anticipate this day more than we did Christmas as a
kid. This season, more than ever before,
there is growing interest in using the Internet to help conduct drafts or auctions. Whether your draft is in Boston and you
live in LA or your league was formed in college and everyone now lives in a
different city, the Internet my be an inexpensive solution to your draft day problems.
There is a common misconception that using the Internet to conduct a draft is quite
difficult. In fact, it couldnt be
easier. The following information details in
easy to follow steps how to set up an on-line draft using two of the big boys on the net:
Microsoft Network and Yahoo. I will describe
for each of them the steps both your league representative (most likely your league
commissioner) and your league members need to follow.
Before we jump right in it is important to examine what is often a very import
issue when considering the Internet as a means of running your draft: Firewalls. As most of you that use the Internet from work
know, a majority of companies in this country use a filter to restrict what information
can be sent from or sent to the company web servers.
This filter is most commonly known as a firewall. The main use of firewalls is to prevent employees
from using company time to view sites that are either inappropriate or would be considered
a waste of time. Unfortunately, this means
that most firewalls will severely limit ones access to any chat room since most
companies would clearly view a chat room as a serious waste of time. There are ways around the firewalls, however some
of them may get you fired. Consequently, I
would recommend doing the draft from home or any other place that does not restrict your
use of the Internet with a firewall.
Both Microsoft Network and Yahoo have their various pros and cons. The first problem with both is that you must have
either a Microsoft Network Passport or a Yahoo ID to use the chat room. These are easy to obtain and I will explain the
process as we go along. Remember that league
representatives must do their thing before the rest of the league can use the chat room,
so here we go:
IMPORTANT MSN NOTE: Although it is the easiest tool to use there is
one catch. You MUST have Microsofts
Internet Explorer (IE) to use their chat rooms, i.e., Netscape simply will not work. Therefore, if you do not already have IE you must
download it. It is free. Simply go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/ and
download the current version of IE. Be
advised that with a slow connection to the Internet this can take up to 4 hours.
(1) A Step-by-Step Guide
for the League Representative using MSN:
(A) Launch Microsofts Internet
Explorer.
(B) Go to http://communities.msn.com/home.
(C) Click on Create a Community.
(D) If you already have an
MSN ID then click on sign in; otherwise click on create a passport
ID.
i. If you select
create a passport ID then follow MSNs easy to follow steps and create
your passport ID.
(E) Once you have created your
community following
MSNs easy to follow steps, click on Invite friends and family
to join. Once there you
enter everyone in your leagues e-mail addresses.
They will then receive an easy to follow message from MSN on how to join
your community.
(F) Next confirm that everyone
in the league has successfully joined the MSN community.
(G) Finally on draft day, log in
to your community. Click on Chat Room and you are ready to go.
(2) A Step-by-Step Guide
for the other members of your league using MSN:
(A) Launch Microsofts Internet
Explorer.
(B) Log in to your e-mail
account and open the message that has arrived from MSN concerning the community created by
your League Representative.
i. If
you do not have an e-mail account go to www.hotmail.com
and sign up for a free one (note this will also create an MSN Passport ID for you).
(C) Click on Join
Now in your e-mail, this will launch you to the MSN site, once there you will be prompted
to either sign in or create a passport ID.
(D) If you already have an
MSN ID then click on sign in; otherwise click on create a passport
ID.
i. If you select
create a passport ID then follow MSNs easy to follow steps and create
your passport ID.
(E) Next let your League
Representative know that you have successfully joined the MSN community.
(F) Finally on draft day, log in
to your community. Click on Chat Room and you are ready to go.
IMPORTANT YAHOO NOTE: The main disadvantage to using Yahoo is the
fact that you MUST be logged in to their chat system before your League Representative can
invite you to the chat room. The process to
logging in to the chat system can be very confusing.
(3) A Step-by-Step Guide
for the League Representative using Yahoo:
(A) Launch either Microsofts
Internet Explorer or Netscape.
(B) Go to http://chat.yahoo.com/.
(C) If you have a Yahoo ID sign
in; otherwise click on Sign Up For Yahoo! Chat!
i. If you select Sign Up For Yahoo! Chat! follow
Yahoos easy to follow steps and create your Yahoo ID.
(D) Confirm that every
member of you league has obtained a Yahoo ID.
(E) Now comes the tricky part:
You must log in to the yahoo chat system.
a. Click
on complete room list.
b. Select any
room. I would suggest clicking on Y2K Problem since
it should be empty.
c. You
are now in the yahoo chat system.
(F) Once in the chat system select Edit your
Friend List.
a. At
this time you must add all league-member IDs to your list of friends using Yahoos
easy to follow steps.
(G) On draft day follow steps
A-E. Once you are in the chat system select
create a room from the bottom portion of the screen.
a. Once
there you will select a name for the room. Then
click on Create my Room.
b. You will
then be in your newly created room.
(H) Once you have created your room on
draft day the final step is to invite the other members of your league to join the room to
conduct the draft. Yahoo will automatically
notify you as each member of your friends list enters the yahoo chat system. As they enter, simply click on their username and
select invite. As soon as
everyone logs on it will be draft time.
(4) A Step-by-Step Guide for the other members of your league using
Yahoo:
(A) Launch either Microsofts
Internet Explorer or Netscape.
(B) Go to http://chat.yahoo.com/.
(C) If you have a Yahoo ID sign
in; otherwise click on Sign Up For Yahoo! Chat!
i. If you select Sign Up For Yahoo! Chat! follow
Yahoos easy to follow steps and create your Yahoo ID
(D) Next let your League
Representative know that you have successfully obtained a Yahoo ID.
(E) On draft day comes the
tricky part: You must log in to the yahoo chat system.
a. Click
on complete room list.
b. Select any
room. I would suggest clicking on Y2K Problem since
it should be empty.
c. You
are now in the yahoo chat system.
(F) At this point if you have
successfully informed your League Representative of your correct Yahoo ID you simply have
to wait for an invite to join the draft room.
Accept this invite and you are off and running.
Hopefully these have been easy to follow instructions that will
enable your on-line draft to go off without a hitch.
I would suggest that your league carry out a trial run to be
sure that everyone understands the process. If
you have any questions feel free to e-mail me at nnoy@drafthelp.com. I will do my best to help clarify the process for
you and the members of your league. Good luck
this season, and I hope that your March Madness is as enjoyable as mine.
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