Post by MSBNYY on Oct 1, 2008 7:03:15 GMT -5
Well, another year in the books, and after 7 seasons, I think this is it for me as commissioner. Not going to etch it in stone, but when something that used to be enjoyable gets extremely boring, it's time to move on.
I learned a long time ago that being commissioner in this league is a misnomer. There's no authority or decision making involved. It's Tom's league, period, so his word is law. There's really nothing wrong with that, given that the entire league accepts it. The commissioner job is more of an administrative position.
So when it comes to keeping people in line and policing, there's not much to do. But that's fine too.
It's really a fairly thankless position. The nominal amount of money is earned on draft day. But draft is the beginning. You have to keep track of everything, from payments, to payouts, to the daily grind of the session updates.
5 times a week, for 26 weeks, approximately 10 minutes a day, comes out to nearly 22 hours worth of time over a season. That does not include the final session update which is done on excel, to make sure there were no mistakes.
That also doesn't include emails about trades because people don't read emails from Yahoo.
Not to mention the occasions where I had to look at everyone's roster to make sure there wasn't cheating. This is not something I did every day, but when I did, that was more time. For whatever reason, people can't understand that you get one transaction per week, and that when someone comes on and off the DL, you need to follow that.
Collection of money is another part of this that is a pain in the neck. It shouldn't be that way, but it is. I should not have to ever chase anyone down for money. I've long been an advocate of paying 100% on draft day. While it's not a cheap league, it's not so expensive that you can't put the money away over a year. Most people pay fine, but not all. And then to expect instant results when someone is several WEEKS late is ridiculous. The real world doesn't work that way either. Either way, that's time.
So to hear a complaint about not being hands on enough is laughable.
None of this is new, but the problem is that the league got extremely boring. Maybe it has something to do with some people not wanting to post on this board to show how cool they are. But then again, that may cover one or two people. Others don't post on any board.
But the bottom line is for a league to be entertaining, it needs more than just draft day. People need to talk shit all year long, and not just bitching about things.
It hasn't been all bad obviously. I had the opportunity to see another league run with Uptown, and it was horrible. This league was MUCH better than that one.
You need activity and reason to be active. I still to this day do not understand the inability to let people run their own team and change their rosters daily. Something like that may be understandable without the internet, but in 2008, it's just ridiculous. It's also not changing, but it makes for a very boring league.
Evan proved this year that you can be virtually clueless as to the goings on in this league and still finish in the money. He had a decent draft, and looked at his team once a week, set his lineup, and didn't follow anything else. On TWO occasions, he won the session, and didn't know about it. I just handed him money and he was pleased. Maybe if there were some changes, there may have been more activity.
I think Tom may be doing the right thing by cleaning house a little. Too many people didn't do anything, and it's a good call to try to find new blood who will actually participate.
I also think he should probably take over the commissioner duties himself. I don't mean that in an insulting way, but the bottom line is that this way, the guy with all the power, actually can do everything he needs to do at his own pace, and the commissioner can make the necessary decisions he needs to make.
Like I said, it's not 100 percent certain that I'm done, but I would say more likely than not.
I learned a long time ago that being commissioner in this league is a misnomer. There's no authority or decision making involved. It's Tom's league, period, so his word is law. There's really nothing wrong with that, given that the entire league accepts it. The commissioner job is more of an administrative position.
So when it comes to keeping people in line and policing, there's not much to do. But that's fine too.
It's really a fairly thankless position. The nominal amount of money is earned on draft day. But draft is the beginning. You have to keep track of everything, from payments, to payouts, to the daily grind of the session updates.
5 times a week, for 26 weeks, approximately 10 minutes a day, comes out to nearly 22 hours worth of time over a season. That does not include the final session update which is done on excel, to make sure there were no mistakes.
That also doesn't include emails about trades because people don't read emails from Yahoo.
Not to mention the occasions where I had to look at everyone's roster to make sure there wasn't cheating. This is not something I did every day, but when I did, that was more time. For whatever reason, people can't understand that you get one transaction per week, and that when someone comes on and off the DL, you need to follow that.
Collection of money is another part of this that is a pain in the neck. It shouldn't be that way, but it is. I should not have to ever chase anyone down for money. I've long been an advocate of paying 100% on draft day. While it's not a cheap league, it's not so expensive that you can't put the money away over a year. Most people pay fine, but not all. And then to expect instant results when someone is several WEEKS late is ridiculous. The real world doesn't work that way either. Either way, that's time.
So to hear a complaint about not being hands on enough is laughable.
None of this is new, but the problem is that the league got extremely boring. Maybe it has something to do with some people not wanting to post on this board to show how cool they are. But then again, that may cover one or two people. Others don't post on any board.
But the bottom line is for a league to be entertaining, it needs more than just draft day. People need to talk shit all year long, and not just bitching about things.
It hasn't been all bad obviously. I had the opportunity to see another league run with Uptown, and it was horrible. This league was MUCH better than that one.
You need activity and reason to be active. I still to this day do not understand the inability to let people run their own team and change their rosters daily. Something like that may be understandable without the internet, but in 2008, it's just ridiculous. It's also not changing, but it makes for a very boring league.
Evan proved this year that you can be virtually clueless as to the goings on in this league and still finish in the money. He had a decent draft, and looked at his team once a week, set his lineup, and didn't follow anything else. On TWO occasions, he won the session, and didn't know about it. I just handed him money and he was pleased. Maybe if there were some changes, there may have been more activity.
I think Tom may be doing the right thing by cleaning house a little. Too many people didn't do anything, and it's a good call to try to find new blood who will actually participate.
I also think he should probably take over the commissioner duties himself. I don't mean that in an insulting way, but the bottom line is that this way, the guy with all the power, actually can do everything he needs to do at his own pace, and the commissioner can make the necessary decisions he needs to make.
Like I said, it's not 100 percent certain that I'm done, but I would say more likely than not.
