**When I talk to our readers, a lot of people ask me 'What are you doing here?' and tell me they'll call the police if I don't leave them alone and/or put some clothes on.

That's fine, but deep down, I know that what they're really trying to say is 'What new features are upcoming on Pickwatch and what have you added recently?'**

Of course, it would be remiss of me to ignore these questions or indeed, the advice of local law enforcement officials who demand that I re-pants myself immediately, so here's a quick run down of what we've added lately and some of our plans for the future of Pickwatch...

Recent Updates:

Created 'Hot & Cold Pickers' page that tracks results over the last 5 weeks
Added 'Expert Consensus' to the overall standings on the back of reader requests
Added 'games played' column to overall standings to give better idea of performance
Added number of clutch games each week to clutch pickers
Added yellow text to denote game winners on weekly picks
Changed A-Z page to be a complete A-Z in surname order
Changed divisional picks to show overall hit % when picking team rather than overall season percentage
Notes at the bottom of most tables to denote discrepancies, known issues or errors by pickers' sites.
Added Facebook, Google+ and Twitter Share buttons to the bottom of pages
Added new Facebook account

Upcoming Features:

Playoff league including any analysts who pick Playoff games
New Pickwatch forum to discuss anything NFL related, request information or new features (this is almost ready to go)
End of season reviews
Addition of more experts
Adding 2012 to the archive section

The Future of Pickwatch

I've been in discussions with various people about the future of the site for some time now. We have grown at a rate that far outstrips any projections that we may have had at the start of the season, which in turn will enable us to look at bringing you a professional looking website that also remains clean and friendly, but adds new features and allows you to interact with our data.

At the heart of this change will be the move to a database-driven page that allows us all kinds of new functionality. I'm sure that most of them (frozen and sortable columns for example) are things that have been suggested at some point or another. They've always been on the list of things to do, but we put so much time and effort into collating our data that to devote time to these things during the season would be impossible.

More importantly, we want you and your picks. One thing we were disappointed to not be able to offer this season was the chance for you to add your own 'user picks'. In all our discussions with developers, this has been a key feature that we are insistent upon, and I'm pleased to say that we will have that ability next season - not to mention the ability to compare your picks with those of the experts, which so many of you have asked for.

Artists impression of development process

The list goes on and on, but we don't want to give too much away right now!

Suffice to say we are close to finalising a deal that will see Pickwatch change for the better next season, while retaining that independent ethos that allows us to call out the experts and praise them regardless of who they work for.

I know from reading some of your posts on various forums that your relationship with experts is decidedly love/hate, which we totally get and empathise with. There's nothing worse than hypocrisy (genocide, murder, arson, robbery... oh whatever you get the point...) and NFL talking heads often seem to have it by the bucket load. We'll continue pointing out those who deserve your scorn and also highlighting those guys who do a good job, whether their picks are correct or otherwise.

It's been a long season for me - made easier by the addition of Pickwatch Phil - but has it been worth it? Absolutely. I just want to take this opportunity to tell you that we will always be free, and we'll always listen to you above anyone. Our fans and readers are what makes Pickwatch punch above it's weight, and we appreciate every comment, every suggestion and every click of an advert that you take the time to throw our way.

Hopefully now we can continue that way beyond 2013 and help you make better choices every week.

For more information about our changes, please follow us on twitter at @pickwatch and keep an eye out for our beta testing in the offseason. We may do some of our testing around the 2014 NFL draft too, with draft-related prizes and the ability to compare yourselves with draft gurus such as Mike Mayock or Mel Kiper Jnr.