FBTB Draft 7: C-C-C-COMBO!

[azoreg]

The gdocs spreadsheet was nice in that it was auto-updating.

Having your own personal cheat sheet of codes and pics would be better. I code, and I have been pondering how to do it, but a good solution does not spring to mind.

I exported my spreadsheet to perl, used to perl code to add a picture to every line, and then once it was back in the spreadsheet I added some spreadsheet code to change the background color of the line when each item was picked. It was nice, but I still spent most of my time entering each person's picks... with little time to think of my own.

Having something that worked automatically would mean having something that allows each person's computer to communicate, and interfaces with bricklink. Doable in perl... but I'm not sure how I could get perl running on each person's computer (at least I'm unsure how to do it for the people that run mac and windows).

The other alternative is to have a server that is running code serving web pages to all... Each person would log in, and then it would serve lists with embedded bricklink images to all. This seems the best option, but is beyond me. I think. I'll ponder it.

[thegremlin]

Sometimes, too much technology is a bad thing ...

I'm just making sure it wasn't the size of the draft (which I thought was great ... a tad long ... but great) that is what has everyone trying to fix the inventory tracking. I believe that only 1 item was not 'marked' as taken right away on the spreadsheet (but was bagged/hand checked off). Out of 260 lots, if that's all that was off on the spreadsheet, I'ld call that an 'A'.

** just my 2 cents worth ... and while I may be in the minority, I liked having 260 lots

[jennnifer]

One would think with the popularity of Fantasy sports that software already exists for this sort of thing? Our drafts are the same format but just for parts not players.

[azoreg]

Using the ImportRange() function in GoogleDocs, you could import data from one Google Spreadsheet to another.

Why is this interesting?

Well, Chief's master spreadsheet is updated as the draft goes on... If each draftee has their own google spreasheet with an ImportRange() function call to import Chief's spreadsheet, then that means that each person could have a spreadsheet with their priorities in one column, and the updated master spreadsheet data in the other columns, so everything you need would be in one place.

The only downside to this, is that each draftee would need to create their own google doc spreadsheet to work from. Not the easiest thing, but not hard.

[Chief]

I would love to continue investigating this. Anything to speed up the process and eliminate the amount of work before and/or during the draft is fine by me! I know very little about excel and coding, so I'm glad we can find better ways of doing this. My wishlist would definitely include part thumbnails, a master spreadsheet that can mark off parts on people's priority lists at the same time (while maintaining the privacy of their list!) and maybe we need to go back to numbering the lots with unique IDs (and hope that the problems we had before can be overcome,) because scrolling through that monster list was annooooying.

As an update for anyone reading who wasn't in the chat on Saturday, the next draft set is 8128 Cad Bane's Speeder, for roughly half off (I think i said $25 on Saturday, but I had neglected to include the shipping and tax we paid.) I will post the official draft price in a post later.

Thanks again to everyone who showed up and took part. 3 hours was a long haul, but almost everyone made it through unscathed. I appreciate the efforts made to be there on time and keeping up with everything going on. I think we need to stipulate that people need a solid internet connection if they are going to draft with us. I'm still glaring at you, murphquake.

[kjklock]

I was not able to participate in this last draft, but looking at the parts available in the next one has got me very excited. Do we know the dates for Draft 8 yet? I'd like to make my calendar as soon as possible.

[Chief]

Pencil in November 17th. It will be our last of the year before the crazy holiday rush. We've got one more set in the hopper for January 2013, then hopefully we find some clearances to take advantage of.

[onions]

The only downside to this, is that each draftee would need to create their own google doc spreadsheet to work from. Not the easiest thing, but not hard.

that is hardly a downside. if you can make it work, let us know as it would help eliminate the "already taken" situations. i had something working on my own test spreadsheet, but it was between sheets on the same book. if it can work between books, then that would be ideal.

[murphquake]

Chief, you're absolutely right, i'm just impressed you knew it was going to happen and took the pic the night before, yet didn't tell me in advance i was being a laggy schmuck ;-) I apologize again to the whole group, if I do the next one i'll go somewhere with good wifi, as running off mobile hotspot from my phone was an epic fail on Saturday (after working completely fine the night before... the weird part was I continued getting updates on the gdocs pages the whole time even after the chat failed for me, i was trying to avoid doing it from my tablet like i did last time, which wasn't too bad.

I do owe you, Ryan, a special thanks for going out of your way to email me and see what happened, just as I finally got in the chat, at that point I had pretty much decided to throw in the towel and forfeit my share of the draft, which I would have had no problem with, it's just part of the cost of doing business. I would have emailed you first but I had resorted to reboots an battery pulls on the phone before finally getting it up (was using the phone wifi the whole time on the tablet too, IDK WTF is with my laptop and this thing, it will work great for a week then fail when i actually need it, instead of just wiki-hopping for hours and surfing BL =-)

one small suggestion, in the draft instructions to the paid participants it wouldn't hurt to have explicit instructions for how to join the room and change your name, i had only done it once before and ended up asking like 4 or 5 times to get back in (sorry about putting #8, still not sure when I moved up to unlucky #7) because I am just not that familiar with all the chat tricks

Jennifer, I was actually thinking the exact same thing when I read someone post about maybe drafting for pick order in a previous post, it was what got me thinking on that track. I don't have any experience with fantasy leagues and i've done more drafting on here than in person so I was just throwing it out there...

It would be nice to have a page where you have the lots in rows of thumbnails with a little details section, can put in your own notes or color code or whatever, but when it's your turn, and only then, you get to pick your lot and it's locked in... seemed to me a lot like a fantasy league or such draft... maybe someone will come up with a workable solution... gdocs is nice as it live updates but i can't imagine that spreadsheet was anything but a huge PITA to make (Chief?)

Personally the method I used was to go through the whole spreadsheet and first knock off lots that didn't interest me for any reason... i easily killed off half the list with priority "0" picks... I then went through and ID'd things that I felt were in my top 3 tiers of priority, with a few asterisks for stuff I really liked. I'd given the parts lists on BL a thorough study in the weeks leading up, and used it extensively making my picks, as well as opening my 2nd 7930 and building it and considering each part on BL as I went. I will say right now I'm borderline giddy about the quality of the stuff I got, obviously a few of us had no interest in the minifigs, which let us pick parts early on, but you can definitely tell by the pick order that people had totally different priorities in what they picked. As I got to a point where I was running out of lots I'd prioritized i made a new list, going through what was left and writing them down... I kept my priority numbers going, getting as deep as 6th picks, but some of that stuff will not hurt at all... I think I was the first or second to pick stickers, way before the end of the draft, mostly for the little pink cartoon on the one side of the BHAG, which is ironic since I picked a sticker lot as the last lot (someone had taken the Lime green flippers so I figured the Yellow ones were going to get taken too =-)

To sum up: this was another great draft experience for me, despite my tech-epic-fails, and only because of the quality of the people, both running it, the holy triumvirate of
Chief &
Mrs. Chief &
Onions.
, and of course because of the great people participating, all of you made this fun and enjoyable, so THANK YOU, one and all!
-bill

[azoreg]

I have not seen any PMs about postage. Should we expect a PM or email about postage to mail our picks? (I am in no rush, I was just wondering what to expect and when.)

[Chief]

With a couple of embarrassing exceptions, I usually have those out within a few days of the draft

[Chief]

Followup instructions began going out this afternoon. If you don't have yours yet, it will be in your PM inbox soon.
Twbooth is the only one who hasn't gotten instructions yet, because his package maxed out my poor little kitchen scale

[kjklock]

When can we expect the official announcement on Draft 8?

[noahtom]

Yay! Got my parts in the mail yesterday! A big thanks to Ace and Mr.& Mrs. Chief

[Chief]

I haven't heard from very many people. I'm assuming if Hawaii boy here ^ got his, everyone else should have, too.

[twbooth]

Yes, I got mine in the mail on Monday or Tuesday. Thank you, Chief! I'm looking forward to the draft this weekend!

[azoreg]

Yes... I got mine. My toddler was very happy with his divers, and Daddy was happy with everything else. :-)

[murphquake]

Mine came earlier in the week, all lovely :-)

[buriedbybricks]

Mine came today and it was a great surprise because I had totally forgotten what I'd be getting.

Looking forward to possibly being in for one next summer!