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| Frequently Asked Questions | |
| Q. | Isn't this gambling? Isn't Office-Pools just like a sportsbook? |
| A. | No! Office-Pools.com is not running the pools. The pool administrators (basically whoever wants to create a pool), are the people running their respective pools. Office-Pools.com is only FACILITATING THE ADMINISTRATION of the pools. Office-Pools.com does not collect a percentage from any pools, and Office-Pools.com does not award any prizes. |
| Q. | Why is it some things don't display right? |
| A. | Office-Pools.com is best experienced with the Internet Explorer v5.0 or above. AOL & Netscape browsers should display properly as well, however WebTV customers may have problems in their displays of tables. If you are experiencing any problems in the nature of display, please first test with an IE browser. |
| Q. | What other pools will Office-Pools offer? |
| A. | We've been online since the fall of '98 providing NFL regular season and playoff pools. We currently offer NFL, College Football, NCAA Basketball, and NASCAR pools. In the future we are considering offering pools for PGA Golf as well. Please stay tuned to Office-Pools.com |
| Q. | Will I get SPAM by signing up on Office-Pools.com? |
| A. | Since our inception we have never sold our list, and we don't plan to. On rare occasions we've sent out distributions ourselves, but only about the site itself. |
| Q. | I forgot my login and/or password..... |
| A. | As long as you entered your email address properly when you first signed up in Office-Pools, you're all set. Just go to the Forgot Password page and enter your email address at the prompt. Your login and password will be emailed back to you. |
| Q. | I'm having trouble changing pools or logins... |
| A. | We've received feedback from some players who have had trouble selecting a different pool, or logging in as a different player. These problems are invariably due to corrupted cookies. Before you request help, we recommend that you purge your computer of all 'cookie' data related to Office-Pools.com and try duplicating the problem. The procedure for purging the cookie data is as follows:
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| Q. | What are 'Cookies'? And, why do I need to have Cookies enabled? |
| A. | Usage of 'Cookies' is the best method for "maintaining state" for internet/intranet sessions. Browsers are 'stateless' by design - that is, there is no remembered information on the server from one click to the next as you surf between links anywhere in the world. However, such a correlation between browser pages IS necessary when you log into a web site and engage 'active content' as Office-Pools.com delivers. The 'Cookies' technique is very common and also secure. Since we employ cookies, you cannot participate in Office-Pools without your 'cookies' enabled. |
| Q. | Are these FANTASY pools? |
| A. | No. Fantasy pools are fictional-based, where the pool participant poses as the coach/owner/manager of the team. They trade and play athletes in games. The athletes themselves are real athletes from their sport, and their actual statistics are used to determine win/loss (success/failure) in the fantasy league. Office-Pools facilitates 'ACTUAL' pools only. |
| Q. | How can I contact you for help? |
| A. | There are now over 100,000 people using Office-Pools.com, but still just the same two guys who started it taking care of it. It's a part time thing for us. That said, we DO want the site to provide a good experience for our customers. If you need to reach us please see the Contact Us page. |
| Q. | Why do my NCAA picks appear to be filled out even when I first enter the form? |
| A. | Although this may be slightly confusing, this is actually a special feature unique to Office-Pools.com. We present the pick sheets with the lowest seeded teams as defaults if you've yet to make your picks, because we feel that this makes it easier to complete the pick process. The caveat is that, you the player, need to understand, that your picks have not yet been submitted until you've clicked on the Submit button. To assist in this, we've provided you with the 'Your Picks Status' table: YOUR NCAA PICKS ARE NOT COMPLETE UNTIL ALL 5 PICK SHEETS SAY 'COMPLETE!' |
| Q. | Can I change my picks after the deadline? |
| A. | Only pool administrators can change historic picks, and only for their own pool members. |
| Q. | What happens if someone forgets to make their picks? |
| A. | Participants who fail to make their picks will not receive any picks or points by default. Pool administrators may decide to implement their own defaults by manually filling picks with our FixPicks feature. |
| Q. | When are the spreads entered? Will they change? Why are they negative? |
| A. | The point spreads will be entered on either the Tuesday night or Wednesday morning of a given round, in round-based leagues (Professional and College REGULAR-SEASON football). Our published availability of spreads is Wednesday noon. Although the spreads may fluctuate in Vegas, they will NOT change in Office-Pools once posted. The spreads are displayed in a negative number, as they are in some other sites, meaning that spread number should be subtracted from that team's points in order compare the scores. In other words, the team WITH the (negative) spread points is the favorite. |
| Q. | What if I have trouble entering my picks? |
| A. | We recommend that players make their picks early. As the deadlines approach for rounds, the traffic on our site naturally increases and this may impact response time. If you have trouble entering your picks, send them in an email message to your administrator. He or she can enter them for you even after the deadline. |
| Q. | Why are some of my picks missing from some tables or displays? |
| A. | In our NCAA bracket-style pick sheets, there are 5 pages you must visit to complete the process (all 4 divisions and the Finals). There is a table in each page advising you of your pick status: You MUST see a status of COMPLETE for ALL FIVE picks pages. |
| Q. | How can I make more than one set of picks? |
| A. | Our PickSet feature allows a given player to maintain up to 3 completely separate sets of predictions (PickSets as we call them) for every league. The PickSets can be used to play multiple entries in a single pool, or to allow a single player to play in multiple pools. (Note - until September 15, 1999 we allowed a single PickSet to be used in as many pools as desired. To give the pool administrators greater flexibility in running their pools we now limit players to using each PickSet just once per league, per season. In other words, for a given league in a given season, a player can play up to 3 different sets of picks.) There is a special help page for PickSets. |
| Q. | How are ties treated in spread pools? |
| A. | In "spread" based pools, the favorite team must BEAT the spread. If the favorite only matches the spread, then it's considered a loss. In other words, tie goes to the underdog. |
| Q. | I'm a pool administrator. The scores in my pool won't update, even when I push the update button! |
| A. | The scores should normally update on their own the first time someone looks at them when they're out of date. But sometimes players leave the page before the update is complete. To completely refresh your scores be sure to update BOTH the ROUND scores and the OVERALL TOTAL scores, on those two scoring pages. |
| Q. | I'm an administrator. Can I restore my pool from a previous season with all the same members? |
| A. | No. This is a feature that we offered in previous years, but caused us many problems coordinating the picks, deadlines, rounds, and pool members. In place of the 'Restore Pool' feature, we've provided a new feature to aid you in the INVITE process after you've created your new pool. In the 'INVITE NEW PLAYERS' page, you'll find an option to 'Get addresses from this pool:'. Simply specify the pool name of your previous pool, and the 'TO' area of the message will populate with those email addresses. |
| Q. | I'm an administrator. Can I extend my regular-season NFL pool into the playoffs? |
| A. | Yes. There are several options open to Pool Administrators in terms of converting/extending their NFL Regular-Season pools into the playoffs. Here are the scenarios:
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| Q. | Why are the NFL Playoff pools Round-by-Round style instead of Bracket-Style? |
| A. | We originally wanted to do the NFL playoff pools in a Bracket-Style picksheet, much the same as our College Basketball picksheet. However, in the NFL playoffs, the teams are re-seeded after the Wildcard round so that the highest seeded teams play the lowest seeded teams. This presents a potential problem. In a 'straight' bracket (single-elimination tourney), such as the College Basketball championships, you can be assured that the winner of the first game will play the winner of the game immediately underneath it in the bracket (and so on). However, in the NFL playoffs, because of the re-seeding, that is not necessarily the case. For these reasons, we've decided to offer NFL playoff pools ONLY in Round-by-Round style. |
| Q. | I'm having problems with my NFL Playoffs Pick Sheet... |
| A. | The Playoffs picksheets are a little bit different in that we don't know what all of the teams are until shortly before the games are actually played.Therefore, you cannot make your picks in advance of the announcementof the teams. |
| Q. | Can I play in more than one pool? |
| A. | Yes. All you have to do is join them. In fact, you can join up to three pools in each league, using different PickSets as described above. Simply toggle between pools with the CHANGE POOL option in the POOLS menu. |
| Q. | How can players make picks who don't have WEB access? |
| A. | Traditionally, when a pool administrator invites a player who doesn't have access to the web, the administrator will enter the picks for them. Simply create the account with the "Sign-Up-To-Play" process, and then use our FixPicks feature to record their picks. |
| Q. | I'm an administrator. How can I keep track of my pool members? |
| A. | We've gone to great lengths to assist the Pool Administrators in running their pools. Look for the Manage Pool Members function on the Pool Admin Menu. Here you have 3 configurable checkboxes and a comment field to track your players. |
| Q. | I'm an administrator. How can I communicate with my pool members? |
| A. | Special for the administrators, we've provided several features to communicate with their pool players. First, the Admin Login Message facility allows admins to keep their pool members collectively posted on an ongoing basis. All pool members will see that message on the 'Default/Home' page when they're logged in. Second, the Pool Rules page allows admins to publish any pool-specific rules to their players, such as prize distributions, etc. Third, in the OP Live! section of our web site, if you choose to send a pop-up or email message, and if you are the administrator, you'll be given a special option to send your message to all pool members, or only to pool members with a certain status (see "Manage Pool Members"). Beyond that, the administrator of course, has all the standard messaging features available to him/her, such as electronic discussions. |
| Q. | I've been running a pool with spreadsheets and just found out about Office-Pools.com. Can I merge my pool in mid-season? |
| A. | Yes. Our feature which allows administrators to 'Fix' their pool members' picks will help an administrator fold their pool into Office-Pools.com in mid-season. Here are the steps:
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| Q. | I want to jab my fellow pool members... How can I send a pop-up message to him/her? |
| A. | In the OP Live! section of our web site (dark blue track), you'll find a number of features designed specifically for razzing your fellow pool members. Aside from the electronic discussion (messageboard), and the live chat, you can send a pop-up or email message, by choosing the Send A Message option. You can also find their name in the See Pool Members option on the Pools menu (blue track), and choose the "Send OP Message" option next to their name. |
