Stirring up some interest

[JoeMontana]

Just inherited some web space and I've been thinking about exercising my two passions (web design and UFL) and putting together a site promoting UFL. I think this program deserves to be as popular as possible.

Couple of things, really, Ben, would I be "stepping on your toes" if I put something out there, considering you've already got a site up? Also, considering Larry put this out as a free program, would it be a problem if I put the files up for download or would it be better if I linked to them? I've got intentions of making any money from advertising or from the program itself, I just want to get it to as many people as possible and maybe stir up some interest on this forum.

Scotty

[steelerman]

I have started my website of a league I have created myself just for simulation enjoyment then last night I came up on this as I was looking for simulation ideas. Can I mention the UFL on my website?
I have enjoyed pro sports simulation for many years, well for about 37 years to be exact. Yes, the wife thinks I am crazy, ha!
I have put together a league of my own and I have downloaded UFL. Tonight I will have more time to really get into it. I have one question so far. I have 24 teams but need two conferences and two divisions to each conference. How do I set this up? My first try failed. I could make it a full 32 team league. Any suggestions?

[Benjamin]

Joe:

Are you saying that you WANT to make a profit off of UFL? I assume that you meant to say "I've got NO intentions of making money..."

If your site is non-profit, you are welcome to promote UFL and post the UFL files for download. That is not a problem; UFL needs all the promotion it can get. However, if you intend to make a profit through advertising, etc., I would have to ask Larry if it's OK to have his work hosted on a for-profit site that he would not receive proceeds from.

steelerfan:

1. You can absolutely mention UFL on your website! What is the website address???

2. There are 5 supported league configurations:

8 Teams/2 Divisions
16 Teams/4 Divisions
24 Teams/6 Divisions
30 Teams/6 Divisions
32 Teams/8 Divisions

You cannot make a 24 team league with only 2 divisions per conference. If you want a 24 team league, you must have 3 divisons per conference. My personal favorite is the 32 team/8 division setup.

[JoeMontana]

Joe:

Are you saying that you WANT to make a profit off of UFL? I assume that you meant to say "I've got NO intentions of making money..."

Yes, as typos go, that was rather a key word to leave out!

I have _NO_ intentions of making money, just spreading the gospel. I maintain this is too good a program to go unrecognised.

Hey Steelerfan, welcome to the forum. Nice to see a new face around here, it doesn't get a lot of activity, although hopefully we can change that. When I put my site up, would you mind if I link to yours too?

[JoeMontana]

I have enjoyed pro sports simulation for many years, well for about 37 years to be exact. Yes, the wife thinks I am crazy, ha!

I feel your pain. I too have a long-suffering wife who doesn't quite understand my passion for simmed sports, particularly text-based simmed sports!

[Benjamin]

Go for it, Joe! Let me know what the address is when you get the site up.

I also find it diffcult to convey the greatness of text-based football to others!

[steelerman]

I have enjoyed simming sports for years, actually since 1967 when I was 6 years old.

[Benjamin]

steerlman, how did you simulate sports before computers? I'm curious!

[steelerman]

Well, back in the dark ages, , I used it all. I played alot of electric football. I even invented ways of simming by using a system and using dice. Dice became a big part of simming for me. I played a lot of the APBA Basketball board game back in the early 70's. I still have some of the NBA player cards from that game. I guess I need to sit down and make a list of all the ways I played seasons. It was a lot of writing involved as well. I developed a dice game with a list of results of each roll and played to continue the old USFL. I played a USFL season every year using various means for results from the mid 80's through 1991.I also enjoyed the old ABA as well back in the 70's.
Now, with two children and a wife, my time is limited as you can imagine. I was a late bloomer as they say. I am 44 and my children are 4 and 8 years old so you can imagine why it is 9 pm at night before I can even get on the computer. I am still in the process of choosing a web host for my site. I am trying some free ones first to determine which is best for me. I would be interested in receiving any info from you all on the best webhost to use. I am using my time on getting that ready before actually starting play, however, I did play one exhibition game on the UFL this weekend and really enjoyed it. I can tell that this is definitely what I am looking for in text football. I plan on starting my league and website for my enjoyment and then see where that goes from there. I have already included, on the site, that it will be featuring the UFL as the simulation method. I definitely plan on promoting this. However, my website design ability is not professional at all but maybe it will come out okay. I will let you know how it comes out. I will tell you that I am in the midst of finalizing my helmets and the team logos now which can be time consuming but may bring realism to the whole project.

[JoeMontana]

Now, with two children and a wife, my time is limited as you can imagine. I was a late bloomer as they say. I am 44 and my children are 4 and 8 years old so you can imagine why it is 9 pm at night before I can even get on the computer. I am still in the process of choosing a web host for my site. I am trying some free ones first to determine which is best for me. I would be interested in receiving any info from you all on the best webhost to use. I am using my time on getting that ready before actually starting play, however, I did play one exhibition game on the UFL this weekend and really enjoyed it. I can tell that this is definitely what I am looking for in text football. I plan on starting my league and website for my enjoyment and then see where that goes from there. I have already included, on the site, that it will be featuring the UFL as the simulation method. I definitely plan on promoting this. However, my website design ability is not professional at all but maybe it will come out okay. I will let you know how it comes out. I will tell you that I am in the midst of finalizing my helmets and the team logos now which can be time consuming but may bring realism to the whole project.

I'm in a similar situation to yours, Kevin. I'm 34 this year, married with kids at 7 and 4. Did you ever use Statis Pro cards? (Sorry, Ben, you'll have to forgive us old-timers!)
As for the web site, 50megs.com is ad-supported (though you won't see any for the first seven days), but it's free and good for a first site. I'm using that just now, and if the site works out and gets enough traffic I might move it to an ad-free site (there are a few good ones out there which give you space conditional to posting a minimum amount on forums). If you need any help or advice, give me a yell.
And, yes, I've got helmets and logos for my league too, although a few of them are "borrowed" from old leagues like the USFL, WLAF, WFL, etc.

[Benjamin]

steelerman, you certainly had to be creative back then. I have simmed football using coin flips before, but dice would have been a better method.

As for webhosts, I don't know who to recommend. Joe's 50megs host looks like a good place to start. All of my websites I host myself on a server in my bedroom. (But self-hosting is much more difficult and time consuming than going through an established webhost, and I wouldn't recommend it for your first website.) Before I hosted the sites myself, I used Geocities.

Also, don't worry at all about the design. My websites would look old if they were being viewed in the mid 1990s!

[steelerman]

Guys, I am still tweaking the site. Every time I finish something, I think of something else I need to do. I think this weekend, I may just halt work on the site and play a few exhibition games and set up the league completely on the UFL manager. More later.