Greetings Pickwatch nation, whatever that even means. We just wanted to take a quick breather to highlight some of the changes we've made over the last few weeks, because when everything is flying around at 100mph, it can often be too hectic to even get half an hour to write one of these out and tell you guys where to fund stuff.

If you're thinking 'hey, it must be really fun tracking experts!' then think again. It's probably like being the Commissioner, only without the millions of dollars and prestige. And Bitches. We imagine. Basically we get lots of emails and tweets all day long telling us things that are bugging people.

That's why we're going to update the FAQ to represent some of the more common emails we get. These generally fall into 3 categories:

Q) 'Why are the picks not up? It's Tuesday morning!'

A) We're not really sure how to put this one. As one of our readers pointed out in the comments 'The moderators of this site would have to be mind-readers to post picks that haven't been made yet'. On the other hand, we definitely recognize that ATS picks need to be up earlier in the week, so we'll be making that more of a priority.

Q) 'Why are 's picks wrong?

A) There are two possible causes: Either we screwed up, or the experts changed their picks. And I'll be damned if I'll admit anything... Seriously, just let us know. We don't mind admitting that with this amount of data, and the pressure to get picks in 'on time' (particularly when guys pick at 7pm on Thursday) mistakes can be made. Pointing them out helps us and you.

Then there's the pool of experts that love to change picks and cause us nightmares. Either way, it's all good and we have installed a new system (big thanks to Pickwatch Tech, Graeme) that allows us to change any week's pick in seconds. I can confirm that last year, one pick out of line = 30mins work. Seriously. We nearly DIED for those picks.

Q) 'I can't remember my password!'

A) I'll be damned, as one of life's natural 'forgetters', if I'm going to criticize ANYONE for forgetting their password. By all means, this is absolutely fine, but we strongly suggest you firstly try a password reset. If you genuinely can't remember your username, we'll happily email it back to the address provided.

ANYHOO

Here's some good stuff we added since we 'went live' (we were dead before) in August:

  • Clutch Pickers - You wanted them back, we wanted them back. They're back. We forgot how much we missed them too, they're like our own baby that we created using MATHEMATICS, which is definitely the less enjoyable form of baby-making. Or so I'm led to believe.
  • Team-by-Team Stats - Over a third of experts have gotten 0 (zero) Carolina Panthers matchups correct this year. None. Yeah, that absolutely includes ourselves. How do we know? BECAUSE THEY'RE RIGHT HERE! - Check out the 'Team Stats' menu bar item.
  • 'Live' Updating - When we update the scores, the expert picks change, the tables change, and all of the stats update (with the exception of clutch pickers, which are mainpagedependent on the % so need to wait until the 'end' of the NFL week.
  • Green & Red Boxes - You can now see who picked each game correctly at a glance. This is also great for us as it allows us to audit experts quickly and easily. Plus if you squint... EXPERT PICKS IN 3D?!
  • Sortable Tablesarrow - This was a big one for us. Now, instead of us 'presenting' the data to you, we can just let you guys sort by what is important to you, be it name, network, weekly score or yearly score. This also means we aren't as reliant on the standings page as we once were to represent the best pickers. The plan is to roll this out into older data too at some point.
  • The Search Bar - I'm sure you've seen this bad boy by now. Stick in a name and you'll get only that expert's picks. You can also put in a network name ('FOX' for example. That's just one of the names) and it will only give you FOX experts. This is genuinely a cool little feature that I personally had never thought of, yet get a lot of use out of now that it's in.
  • MOAR EXPERTS !- 'MOAARRRRR!' they cried. 'MOAAAAAARRRRR EXPEEERTS!' 117 was a paltry figure, They wouldn't spit on 117. Well now that we have a little code that allows us to add experts straight in and add all of their picks retrospectively, we've added well known names and those you've requested such as Brendon Ayanbadejo, Microsoft Cortana and others. Please, please pipe up and tell us if there's someone else to go on these pages, and if possible, tell us where you found their picks.
  • User stats - This is our next focus, and we've started adding these to 'My Picks'. We know that overall, the User stats pages don't match up to the experts page and have alignment issues, a lack of info and maybe are a bit basic. The truth is, we want to make that part of the site better, but the experts take up 99% of our tech's time and resource. Imagine you were performing brain surgery and someone pointed out the guy had a broken leg. You'd rightly want to fix it, but the brain would be the power rankpriority. Basically what I'm saying is 'Don't worry, little Jimmy will walk again, but if we hadn't fixed his brain, it wouldn't matter because he'd have ran straight into that wall right there'.
  • Power Rankings Consensus - Check them out here. It's a guide to 10 media outlets and how they rank each NFL team every week, highlighting who ranks each team highest and lowest at a glance. We might change how this page looks in future as it's maybe not THAT easy to read. The point is, read it (or try), weep, get angry, maybe call Elliot Harrison of NFL.com bad names... I don't know. Whatever you feel. Just read them. Or try.
  • Text Based Tables - This was a source of some debate for us. It seemed a committed bunch of our readers REALLY wanted this, but when you look at the site, it's still 100% better than last year - it doesn't look like a kaleidoscope when you're on an acid trip for starters. Either way, our plan - as explained by Graeme - is to have all our weekly data downloadable as a .CSV file eventually. For now, there's a link above the table to the text version. Our plan is that eventually, you won't need to do that, because we'll provide the tools to analyse and manipulate the data on the site.text

Right now, that's all I can think of, but the truth is there'll be more. As you've probably gathered, we pay close attention to what you guys think, going out of our way to make sure that you can use the site for whatever you need. That's why we've changed our tables and how we display data according to your comments. Keep them coming, we always encourage that type of feedback.

We'll be back over the weekend to not only update the picks, but fill you in on where our next priorities lie. If there's something close to your heart or that you think would be a good addition, just let us know. Anything is possible, it's just a matter of time, effort and money...

oh.

Thanks

The Pickwatch Team