Editorial: Forum Reactions, Player Categories, and Youth
3-5-2024
This month's release offers no revolutionary developments, but it does have plenty of helpful updates for forum users, youth managers, Supporters, and transfer market addicts. In short, it has something for everyone.
One of the more visible things you may notice in the update is that the Hattrick forums now offer a quicker way to react to posts other than replying to them. Our forum reactions are a set of emojis, such as thumbs-ups or smileys, that will help single out posts that the community loves. We have also added the option to run forum polls with the result hidden until the poll ends - helpful for votes such as the Hattrick Gala awards.
Moving on to youth, you can now decide beforehand if you want to leave a series when it ends. We will also decrease the delays in creating new matches after the season. As soon as a league is full, matches will be created for the new season. If no one leaves, they will be created around 3 hours after the last round is finished.
Please note that this change will only go live one week from now, as we want to give youth leagues ending soon time to prepare.
When searching for a youth series to join from the mobile app, you can now use a filter to see only leagues that you are eligible to join. This filter already exists on the web but is now available in the app as well.
Supporters are getting a big boost to their bookmark supply - we are doubling the number of bookmarks that can be saved for each category. We are also making it possible to remove old players from the Hall of Fame. This is, of course, a decision that should ever be made lightly! Generally, your club's legacy and heroes should be revered rather than forgotten. Remember this! But over the years, many Supporters have asked for this option to fix mistakes made, and we figured most of you are responsible enough to handle such freedoms.
You will also notice a new way to search for prospects on the transfer search pages, now using player categories as a preset for the skill filter. If you, for example, choose to search for a "Wing Back," the search form will auto-populate the Defending, Winger, and Playmaking skills. This may not be useful for veteran managers, so we ensured the old way is still the default. The entire system can also be turned off in Settings if you prefer to never see it. Still, this is an excellent help for new managers, and one that helps explain what skills matter for each position in a subtle way.
We will also use this thinking on the transfer search results and current bids pages. You can see a gray Recommended Position icon next to all the players. Like the green Player Category icon Supporters can manually set for a player, this gray one indicates the recommended position for a player's particular skills. These icons use the same formulas as the star ratings for players. They can be a powerful help in getting an idea about a player quickly and visually. But players can always play outside their category without any penalties, and the Recommended Position may change as skills develop. If you are a Supporter and manually set categories for your players, it is always the one you choose that will be visible.
Thank you as always and see you again in April!