Commissioner misery..

[Jpappas]

Jeff-

I know your busy...and without going to far into a deep discussion, i really don't know where else to go to get a comprehensive opinion, and I read do like hearing your insights.

With that said, I just took over, well, share commissioner responsibilities with another guy this year. He had twins and wasnt sure there would be enough time to dedicate to what needed to be done, so in I come to help.

With the lockout over and WK 1 in the books, I am getting an onslaught of emails, forum postings, and text messages complaining about how unfair the rules are in this shortened season.

Ever since we met a year ago, the league's GMs had an open line and ability to provide their opinion on anything rule wise that needed to be reconsidered. Without going into a full description of every rule, I guess I am asking you this...what is the best position to take when there is a flip flopping of "real" life rules with "fantasy" rules.

this is supposed to be for fun, and yes there will be miscues, but we are a week into the season, its my belief that it is unwise and not competatively fair to alter the rules because situations are providing to be a bit bumpy.

what do you think...

man I hope you check this, the amounts of coffee i have drank to research other leagues is borderline "abusive"

[angus]

Jeff-

I know your busy...and without going to far into a deep discussion, i really don't know where else to go to get a comprehensive opinion, and I read do like hearing your insights.

With that said, I just took over, well, share commissioner responsibilities with another guy this year. He had twins and wasnt sure there would be enough time to dedicate to what needed to be done, so in I come to help.

With the lockout over and WK 1 in the books, I am getting an onslaught of emails, forum postings, and text messages complaining about how unfair the rules are in this shortened season.

Ever since we met a year ago, the league's GMs had an open line and ability to provide their opinion on anything rule wise that needed to be reconsidered. Without going into a full description of every rule, I guess I am asking you this...what is the best position to take when there is a flip flopping of "real" life rules with "fantasy" rules.

this is supposed to be for fun, and yes there will be miscues, but we are a week into the season, its my belief that it is unwise and not competatively fair to alter the rules because situations are providing to be a bit bumpy.

what do you think...

man I hope you check this, the amounts of coffee i have drank to research other leagues is borderline "abusive"

Feel free to provide me more details.

At the end of the day, you have to trust your commissioner 100 percent. If you don't, problems will arise. So I would send a message to each league member (or at least the complainers) and ask if they believe you have the league's best interests in mind?

I have been in a keeper for 4-5 years now with Tim Lucarelli (used to write here) as the commish. I trust him unequivocally to make the right decisions for the good of the league. That trust has to be built, of course.

And at the end of the day fantasy sports are meant to be fun and an escape. If it becomes more than that, and it doesn't go away, I'd re-evaluate being in that league and look elsewhere. We have had a few bad apples in our league (and in others I am in) along the way, but they usually don't stick around if you have enough competent, reliable, and honest GMs in the league.

[Jpappas]

thanks jeff!

i know the specifics of every fantasy hockey league is different, as ours are probably pretty unique with their own facets.

Last year, with thanks from the dobber sites and reading your weekly columns, I made it a point to be as educated as possible. Now I know that educating doesn't always equal wins/championships, but when asked to help with a league and the way it is ran, lets just say I dont want to half-ass it.

10 of us started a auction draft/keeper league last year, and having it be the first for all of us there were admittedly issues with some rules that were made. Last years commish made it a point to hear out everyone's concerns and act on issues he believed were valid.

One of the areas of concern that came up was the ethics of changing settings once the league had been in motion. Some voiced concern, others just went with the flow.

This year, like I said before, the majority of responsibilities have been handed down to me. Again there was no objection to the sharing of power, just a push by both commissioners now to be in communication if and when a lock out happend.

Well we are one week in, and the time period between when waiver transactions are being approved and the validity of decisions that had been made months ago are becoming issues from GMs that hadn't paid until the eve before puck drop.

Concern-wise we are talking about 1 or 2 GMs. The biggest area of frustration is when arguements are made based on what NHL clubs do or have the ability to do when being compared to our fantasy rules.

This really is a "league identity" problem. There isn't a clear vision for what the league really is based on and that is from both the commissioner's side and the GM's side. I have mentioned numerous times that opinions are valued, but altering the type of game or GM's abilities once the competition has started is not only wrong but sort of unethical...sort of like that board game we played at a friends sleep over that no matter what we always lost.

Your opinion on this is invaluable to me really because of the hard work you've put into making cohesive content that is easy to understand and typically on par with current hockey trends.

Again, this is a busy time, i am totally sensitive to that being a teacher. It just helps hearing about successful practices that have worked for others.

[angus]

thanks jeff!

i know the specifics of every fantasy hockey league is different, as ours are probably pretty unique with their own facets.

Last year, with thanks from the dobber sites and reading your weekly columns, I made it a point to be as educated as possible. Now I know that educating doesn't always equal wins/championships, but when asked to help with a league and the way it is ran, lets just say I dont want to half-ass it.

10 of us started a auction draft/keeper league last year, and having it be the first for all of us there were admittedly issues with some rules that were made. Last years commish made it a point to hear out everyone's concerns and act on issues he believed were valid.

One of the areas of concern that came up was the ethics of changing settings once the league had been in motion. Some voiced concern, others just went with the flow.

This year, like I said before, the majority of responsibilities have been handed down to me. Again there was no objection to the sharing of power, just a push by both commissioners now to be in communication if and when a lock out happend.

Well we are one week in, and the time period between when waiver transactions are being approved and the validity of decisions that had been made months ago are becoming issues from GMs that hadn't paid until the eve before puck drop.

Concern-wise we are talking about 1 or 2 GMs. The biggest area of frustration is when arguements are made based on what NHL clubs do or have the ability to do when being compared to our fantasy rules.

This really is a "league identity" problem. There isn't a clear vision for what the league really is based on and that is from both the commissioner's side and the GM's side. I have mentioned numerous times that opinions are valued, but altering the type of game or GM's abilities once the competition has started is not only wrong but sort of unethical...sort of like that board game we played at a friends sleep over that no matter what we always lost.

Your opinion on this is invaluable to me really because of the hard work you've put into making cohesive content that is easy to understand and typically on par with current hockey trends.

Again, this is a busy time, i am totally sensitive to that being a teacher. It just helps hearing about successful practices that have worked for others.

If 1-2 GMs are the issue, discuss among the rest of the league whether they should be removed. No fun to have a league ruined by a minority.