The Prediction League
By Phil ~ June 23rd, 2009. Filed under: Work.
I spent the weekend updating the Prediction League on Harriers Online to the latest (paid for) version from Prediction Football.
The original idea was to merge it with the previous version from last season but the db was throwing up continual errors so I gave that up as a bad job. So I opened up a new db on Tsohost and installed it. I encountered no real problems except the weird one of the old one picking up the different username I had chosen for my admin.
This new one took a bit longer to set up the style sheet and once I got it looking good I asked a couple of users from last time out to take a look. Harry211 wasn’t too keen on the amount of green in it so I dumped that one and went for a more whiter look.
The new version also includes a load of flags scrolling along the top. I wasn’t too keen on that so I exchanged them for team logos instead and then had to redo them all because although I had kept to a uniform height the width of each gif was all over the place. I sorted that by using a consistent background size and pasting the smaller logos into that. It was all looking good again so last night I launched it onto an expectant world.
When I first mentioned earlier in the year that I was upgrading it someone suggested that it would be good to have a small charge made for participating and that could then be handed back as a prize for the top forecaster at the end of the season. So that’s just what I did. £5 entry fee for everyone and with twenty people entering that meant a £50 prize for the winner. Sounded good to me.
Just one problem. I get the impression that not everyone feels the need to part with any money now. I emailed all 300 of the forum users last night and also the users of last seasons Prediction League and so far – 24 hours later – not one person has signed up and that includes the person that first suggested charging for it. In fact he’s already been on Supareds asking if another League will be running next season and so giving the impression that he won’t be joining mine again.
I’ll give it a week to see what occurs. It looks like I’ll be dropping the entry fee then.
All that hard work wasted!!
