Devise

Jesus Reinhart was a beast. Congrats all around but obviously gotta give a shout out to @BOOM. VHL wouldn't of been the same, especially all those years ago without you dude.  everyone!

Today we induct some people who have waited for a while and some who have barely waited at all. Behold....
 
LW/D - Jerome Reinhart, S79-S86 
RS: 578 GP, 292 G, 492 A, 784 P, +170, 487 PIM, 919 HIT, 866 SB, 41 GW
As LW-  288 GP, 202 G, 257 A, 459 P, +207, 161 PIM, 444 HIT, 126 SB, 26 GW
As D- 290 GP, 90 G, 235 A, 325 P, -37, 326 PIM, 475 HIT, 740 SB, 15 GW
PO: 61 GP, 41 G, 65 A, 106 P, +32, 45 PIM, 74 HIT, 60 SB, 5 GW
As LW-  48 GP, 39 G, 57 A, 96 P, +37, 23 PIM, 50 HIT, 31 SB, 4 GW
As D- 13 GP, 2 G, 8 A, 10 P, -5, 22 PIM, 24 HIT, 29 SB, 1 GW
 
S79 Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy (Top Rookie)
S81 Daisuke Kanou Trophy (Playoff MVP)
S85 Scotty Campbell Trophy (Most Valuable)
S85 Alexander Valiq Trophy (Top Offensive Defenceman)
2x All-VHL First Team (S82, S85)
2x All-VHL Second Team (S81, S83)
Three Continental Cups (S80, S81, S82)
 
The first of the Reinharts to make the Hall of Fame, Jerome was on track for immortality in those first 4 seasons in Vancouver. And whilst the threepeat years will forever be tainted for some, players can only play in the eras they play in, and Jerome Reinhart was clearly one of the best of his era. The Kanou Trophy of S81 shattered the long-standing record of 36 points in a single postseason, and the regular seasons were spectacular as well. The move to defence halfway through his career was for many a foolish mistake that would derail his HOF bid, but like Matt Bailey and Chris Hylands before him, Reinhart adapted incredibly well and even had a rare MVP season from the back, proving himself to be a slamdunk first ballot HOFer. @MexicanCow123
 
 
D - Erik Killinger, S71-S78 
RS: 575 GP, 158 G, 432 A, 590 P, +25, 1,100 PIM, 1,643 HIT, 1,055 SB, 21 GW
PO: 34 GP, 10 G, 23 A, 33 P, -2, 72 PIM, 124 HIT, 80 SB, 1 GW
 
S77 Sterling Labatte Trophy (Top Defenceman)
S77 Jake Wylde Trophy (Top Defensive Defenceman)
1x All-VHL First Team (S77)
1x All-VHL Second Team (S75)
*rookie season spent as forward - 28 goals, 53 points
 
Due to the misfortune of having a similar sounding name to Wesley Kellinger, Erik Killinger already has a Hall of Fame article. Well that's handy at least. He didn't quite need to wait the 4 decades of so to get inducted like Kellinger did, but Killinger was one of the older heads on the ballot for a while now, with some thinking his chance may have passed. But at last, the moment of recognition has arrived. Killinger never quite had the dominant offensive season we like to see in our defencemen, but he was a very consistent blue-liner and in an era with extremely low offense that was still a notable feat. His overall body of work, playing for teams that didn't really contend, kept him getting votes and finally an induction for a player worthy of his article. @Peace
 
 
Voting Results
Jerome Reinhart - 9/10
Erik Killinger - 6/10
---
Kristof Welch - 2/10
Tui Sova - 2/10
Jakab Holik, John Merrick, Matty Socks, Lee Xin, Robin Galante Nilsson, Paul Atreides, Brendan Telker, Reylynn Reinhart, Papa Emeritus - 0/10
 
 
This season we are also back with a Builder induction! As said countless times before, the Builder section of the Hall of Fame is a mix of high ranking executive roles and those that through their presence over the years have made the VHL what it is. @BOOM is very much in the latter category, perhaps one of the finest examples of it. Never a GM, with a variety of VHLM AGM roles before they were really a thing, Boom was the OG locker room guest before it became the norm. Through his easy going and approachable attitude, Boom played a mentor role to many of the league's up and coming over the years, has guested on countless podcasts, and has remained a reliable source of support, as well as high quality graphics, for longer than most can remember. I have been fortunate enough myself to be on the same team as and GM Boom's players, along with plenty of friendly interactions of the years. Advantage summarised it best in his prediction that Boom will scoff at this induction with some typical Aussie humility but we will force this induction upon you regardless and you deserve it mate.
 
Congratulations Peace, Cow, and Boom!

As someone who's had a lot to say about moderation before, I think I'm kinda obligated to go through this critically (as in, not "I am going to be critical of everything" but "I'd like to try to analyze to create informed opinions"). I'll try to keep this helpful.
 
 
 
I'm going to call attention to the last line because I feel like it's very much a leading question--and if the objective is to lead, it's certainly worked. "Do those opinions [bigotry and hate] stand"? You might as well have just straight-up asked if we're homophobic. Of course the response from everyone is going to be "I don't stand for bigotry and hate," and I can say pretty confidently that no one in this group does. I certainly don't.
 
We don't have to "legally allow a permit for a Neo-Nazi rally" and I don't think any reasonable free-speech argument as it applies to a private Internet community would include that. But I don't think we need a hard set of rules about what you are and are not allowed to think. I am, on principle, fully against ANY political agenda (even if I agree with it) becoming the "official stance" of the forum. I absolutely do not mean that we should allow hate speech on our own platform--I think that's much more "common sense" than "political" unless you're absolutely insane--and I don't know where the idea came from that we ever would. At the same time, we'll sometimes have things like the "no politics" Discord rule being ignored if people are agreeing on a more progressive stance. I'm reasonably progressive myself and agree with some of that stuff--but there's a question of consistency that calls the integrity of our mods into question there. Enforcing "no politics" on that end isn't favoring a right-wing worldview--it's just being consistent.
 
So on the surface level--yes, I am for an inclusive community and against derogatory posts in the space that we manage. No shit.
 
I'm mostly curious what this point aims to accomplish because it can't just be talking about "allowing hate"--we already don't do that and I know there's no way you're considering doing that. If I just confirm that I'd rather not have people dropping derogatory shit on the forum, what policy change does that lead to? Is the goal of asking for confirmation of the more obvious point just a vector for something entirely different and possibly controversial? "Do you want hate speech?" might be an entirely different question from "here's the policy change; do you agree with it?"
 
 
 
 
I believe the mod team has improved quite a bit in this regard over the past year or so. Some of the issues I had previously with mods in general that aren't there to as much of an extent include:
Announcing punishments by just referring to "Code of Conduct" with no further transparency Baiting people on Discord/unnecessarily flexing mod powers  Talking down to people/acting immune to criticism Favoritism/allowing things for friends but not for others/cracking down harder on "people we don't like" Overmoderation of Discord channels/coming into harmless conversations to force them into other places and contributing nothing otherwise--I've seen new members get moderated into the help channel and then not be helped by the mod, and I once basically said "shut up, I manage this community" when this happened once in M GM chat and do not apologize for it  
In general, I've been perfectly fine with the vast majority of actual punishments as of late. When something happens, I see the logic behind it and agree with the move being made. All I would say is that we should keep these improvements in mind and make sure we don't fall back into older ways.
 
 
 
I mean, see my response to #1 for this--what policy does this affect and how? My gut instinct is "reactive" because I really do believe it's easier than we make it to just...take care of people acting in hateful ways. On the other hand, I don't think whatever "proactive initiatives throughout the year" that we have currently make us unnecessarily "woke" or whatever. We're an inclusive community as it stands and there's nothing wrong with that.
 
I've always been more reactive when managing my own servers--on a small handful of occasions, I've told people to shut up and cleared up a situation in DMs (I realize this isn't always possible from a mod standpoint), and once I had to report someone for something particularly serious. I think that's something that works in most cases, and of course exceptions apply.
 
But in general, proactive in regard to what? I feel like I can't really develop an opinion here without better context.
 
 
 
 
I mean...the good is that a lot of what I've made a big deal out of in the past has been addressed on at least some level. I really do appreciate this.
 
I feel like there's some potential bad here in that some of these questions seem like a springboard to more aggressive moderation. If I, without further information, say that a) I don't want hate speech in the VHL, and b) I like a "proactive" approach, does that mean that I'm going to start seeing punishments I strongly disagree with again because those perfectly fine statements led to a not-fine policy that really has nothing to do with the statements?
 
 
To close, I'll add that I like the fact that we have a CoC, but I don't necessarily like all of what it's done. I think lots of people here--mods and non-mods--take it way too seriously. I've seen mods say "well, this not-OK thing isn't against the CoC, so therefore this person [who we conveniently like] who's acting shitty is doing so within the rules", and I've also seen people who aren't mods try to pick apart every little comment to try to find some little thing they can say is against the CoC. I still believe that the Hogan punishment from a while ago (even if maybe justified overall) was an example of this--"he posted memes in Discord" is not something that should ever appear in the ban thread, and it's clear that someone went down the entire list and checked off every little thing that ever happened. The CoC SHOULD exist and it SHOULD serve as a set of general guidelines for how to conduct oneself within the community--but it should remain a Code of Conduct and not a Code of Law. Sometimes I feel like all that matters is whether something is objectively in line with the all-powerful 🤩 Code of Conduct 🤩 that we're not allowed to question. Honestly, if it were up to me, we wouldn't reference the CoC at all in punishments because an actual punishment should be justified enough to speak for itself. 
 
 
I hope this is helpful.

I'll echo a bit of what Gus said, but I think he covered everything with a lot of depth. I don't think there's ever been tolerance for hate speech, slurs, the various -isms and all that. That shouldn't really change. What we should be mindful of is that people can have various different perspectives, political or not, that shouldn't lead to them getting railed against for being within the minority as long as there is respectful discussion.
 
I'd probably point to abortion being a fairly recent incident back during the overturning of Roe v Wade, and the incidents that occurred then. Being anti-abortion is not being hateful, nor should people who hold those opinions be discriminated against despite the majority of us likely dissenting with them. If someone is openly mocking, insulting, harassing someone for their identity - that should absolutely be moderated and handled. People can disagree on hot topic issues while still being relatively respectful to other people.
 
A notable example I recall is when Fishy came out as transgender on the forum, and Gorlab commented something about "I don't believe in transgerism" or "I don't care for it" but then also said "I support you as a person and doing what makes you comfortable." Or something along those lines, not going to claim it's an exact quote. But I recall Fishy being fine with that - people can dissent with various issues without being an asshole. Not everyone will agree with everything and that's fine within the realm of being respectful - and since I know that will get pushback from Fong/mods, I define being respectful as not openly mocking, insulting, belittling, harassing, etc. the other person over their point. The basic ground rules for any sort of productive discourse in society.
 
I like this write-up a lot.
 
I absolutely hated the way the AJ situation was handled. I sent all evidence to Fong, who also received other information in prior days leading up to Dack's ban, and there was no decision to investigate AJ for rule breaking. I do not understand how helping someone ban evade is not within the mod umbrella, but the situation is open for public criticism and humiliation from members of the mod team after the punishment is deferred to VHLM Commissioners. Add in that the thread was locked by moderators for little valid reason and that I was brushed off when asked for clarification - it did not seem like a moderation team that was working as intended, and I know there are mods who agree with that sentiment.
 
Would probably also say that I think some favoritism instances can be a bit clear. Jruutu was openly hated by mods and I think his punishments and treatment was excessive for his limited conduct infractions. Hogan's retroactive punishment was also head-scratching especially when there were recent staff members who had some slurs in their discord post history in gen chat. I also recall little being done to address people who abuse the incident reporting form, although this is very dated - back to the Horcrux/Kachur incident when members such as myself would get constantly reported and there was never a public punishment for repeated baseless accusations. Before Kachur was exposed, there seemed to be a lot of desire to adopt the general concerns being brought by "Horcrux" into the CoC as we know it now, and much more tolerance for his/her behavior then that wouldn't be accepted from most other members of the community.
 
Lastly I think there could be more room for improvement in situations that mods personally disagree with. We expect all members of the community to follow our set conduct rules, there shouldn't be any avenue to allow hateful or harmful speech regardless of personal morals as that opens a massive can of worms.
 
I will conclude with some positives by saying that I think Fong generally handles moderation topics well when someone issues a complaint or there is a victim in a situation. Most of the time I think the moderation team makes the right judgement call and have gotten better at accepting feedback and constructive criticism as a whole and then turning those into change for the better. I appreciate the procedural approach being taken and hope it continues. 

This as a default for me as well. There's lots of havens out there for people to think and say what they want. We are under no obligation for that to be in our spaces, affecting members ability to simply exist in our league. Rule changes for more "free speech" in these instances are rarely about equity and more about enabling assholes anyway. We aren't telling anyone what to think only to show common decency and manners. 

Glad to have you in Malmo @Devise!!

@JoshSo I know the portal web pages were designed with like, logical game lengths in mind. But uhh yeah you kinda have to click on the full game to know the result of this one, too much for the portal page to show.  

Hello everyone,
 
Not gonna bother with a members tag on this, if you see it then great, you will be rewarded for that. If you don’t then…. Well why am I writing this because if you don’t see it how can you read this part?
 
Anyway, today marks 5717 days (that’s 15 years, 7 months, and 26 days if you’re curious) since the VHL opened its doors. What a random number you might say, why does that matter? Well if I do the math, and I have, I was born 5717 days before the start of the VHL. Given that I joined on day one and have been here ever since that means today marks the official day that I have been in the VHL just as long as I was outside of it. Is that a stupid thing to celebrate? Probably but that won’t stop me; so please let me indulge in a bit of sentimentality for a moment.
 
When the VHL started I had not yet completed high school, I had never had a girlfriend, hell I had never kissed a girl. I was a lonely nerd turning to the internet to find something to do; and I found it. The VHL was not my first sim league, wasn’t even the first one I joined ran by the people who ran it, but it was the first that felt different and felt like it had a good chance of surviving which so few at that point had done. I found a community here. I cannot honestly say that everything went perfectly or that my start in the VHL was without fault; I very nearly left for good within 2 months, but I stayed. I have now not only finished high school but university and going on 10 years working post-schooling. I have now not only had a steady relationship but a wife and two children, a life. All the while the VHL has been there, constantly evolving with the times sure but present. Over 5 years ago I took up the mantel of commissioner. I did it not because I thought I was necessarily the best person for the job but because I thought the league needed something, it was in trouble and I didn’t want to see it fail. I like to think that in these 5 years of growth I have at least stalled that failure.
 
5717 days likely means nothing to any of you, just as that paragraph likely means nothing to any of you, but it means something to me. This league, this place, this community has been a standard in my life for longer than most anything else. I’m not going anywhere right now, that’s not what this is, but I did want to mark the occasion because this league does mean a lot to me.
 
So if you’ve made it this far feel free to take 5 uncapped TPE for your troubles, on me. I’m not sure the insane total I’ve had over the years (probably over 10k by now) so 5 for everyone that I bored with this story should suffice as a thank you for being my weird extended internet family.

Hi there, a lot of you probably already know but figured I’d make a post about it anyways: due to being very busy with real life things for the foreseeable future and not having any real time/motivation to do VHL things I’ve resigned from my jobs.
 
Ill still be around until the end of the season and/or till a new gm is hired
 
ok bye love you 

OK then

Player Information
Username: Advantage
Player Name: Victor Jensen
Recruited From: Returning
Age: 20
Position: C
Height: 73 in.
Weight: 192 lbs.
Birthplace: Norway

Player Page
@VHLM GM

INDEX

Sorry it was late but the index is indeed here. @VHLE GM You all should know the drill but if not, lines get sent to the portal and are input into STHS before each sim. If there are any roster or player issues just let me know. As always, if you acquire a player and the index has yet to reflect this, you can always put a bot in it's place and send me a DM with your line notes. Looking forward to another good season here everyone.  

INDEX

Sorry it was late but the index is indeed here. @VHLE GM You all should know the drill but if not, lines get sent to the portal and are input into STHS before each sim. If there are any roster or player issues just let me know. As always, if you acquire a player and the index has yet to reflect this, you can always put a bot in it's place and send me a DM with your line notes. Looking forward to another good season here everyone.  

INDEX

Sorry it was late but the index is indeed here. @VHLE GM You all should know the drill but if not, lines get sent to the portal and are input into STHS before each sim. If there are any roster or player issues just let me know. As always, if you acquire a player and the index has yet to reflect this, you can always put a bot in it's place and send me a DM with your line notes. Looking forward to another good season here everyone.  

Sad to see @Devise go, as cap issues meant that we couldn't afford you in net as a backup. Wishing you the best of luck in Malmo!
 
Cheers on the talks @KaleebtheMighty, good luck this season.

Thanks @Spartan  for the talks!
 
@Devise glad to have you join the Nighthawks! Excited to see you in net for us!

🌏 Official Team Asia Roster 🌏
Congratulations to the following players who were selected for Team Asia! Please join us in the WJC Discord and make sure to let us know you're on Team Asia so you can join your fellow teammates in the locker room!
https://discord.gg/rgQUaTckkX
 
Left Wing
Jeffrey Bezos - @jsdeac
Vincent Laroche-Gagnier - @vincentlg2007
Tim Riggins - @Jayhawk
 
Center
Mac Atlas - @v.2
Jimi Jaks - @kelvi
Antonio Marchand - @Tapirman
 
Right Wing
Yaroslav Trunov - @qripll
Hannibal Barca - @DreMin15
Oreo McFleury - @JB123
 
Defense
Isamu Knievel - @TMGSosa
Edward Traverse - @Python_Starbuzz
Zach Whelan - @DontCallMeCarson
Reese McFleury - @Spaz
 
Goal Tending
Alexander Minion - @UnknownMinion
Ilya Bryzgalov - @Devise

INDEX
 
It's that time of the season again yet again, boy oh boy do these seasons ever blow by....anywho; PLAYOFFS. @VHLE GMDoing the tag since 5 of 8 GM's are in the playoffs and it's easier, sorry to the 3 of you whom didn't make it, better luck next season. You should know the drill GM's lines go in the portal, a reminder to make sure your sending lines in with this indexs league file, not the regular season one. I see a stagnant set of lines sitting in the portal that'll likely not work. We got Wildcard action starting off which is a Best of 3 between Istanbul and Oslo to see who moves on, all the other series will be a best of 7.
 
That is about it for me have a good playoffs everyone, let me know if you have any issues or concerns as always.  

INDEX
 
@VHLE GM Here just in time for tomorrows season start is our index. GM's should know the drill send your lines in via the portal and feel free to liberally use bots and send me notes in cases where players aren't in the lineup. With that in mind, rosters were what I saw on the roster pages today so if there are any start of season hiccups or players missing let me know. 

Schedule wise, we do have a bit of a change. While teams will still be playing the same number of games, with the addition of the Wildcard round (it happened last season too but the regular season index was not properly adjusted to reflect the change to the number of teams who qualify for the playoffs) all the teams needed to be lumped into one giant division and Conference to allow STHS to accommodate an uneven number of playoff teams. This means that all teams will play each other a minimum of 10 times, with each team playing their remaining two games randomly assigned. However the Wildcard round and stats will be included in the playoff index as was intended this season. 
 
Thanks for indulging my rambling, lets have another solid season best of luck to everyone.   

INDEX
 
@VHLE GM Here just in time for tomorrows season start is our index. GM's should know the drill send your lines in via the portal and feel free to liberally use bots and send me notes in cases where players aren't in the lineup. With that in mind, rosters were what I saw on the roster pages today so if there are any start of season hiccups or players missing let me know. 

Schedule wise, we do have a bit of a change. While teams will still be playing the same number of games, with the addition of the Wildcard round (it happened last season too but the regular season index was not properly adjusted to reflect the change to the number of teams who qualify for the playoffs) all the teams needed to be lumped into one giant division and Conference to allow STHS to accommodate an uneven number of playoff teams. This means that all teams will play each other a minimum of 10 times, with each team playing their remaining two games randomly assigned. However the Wildcard round and stats will be included in the playoff index as was intended this season. 
 
Thanks for indulging my rambling, lets have another solid season best of luck to everyone.   

INDEX
 
@VHLE GM Here just in time for tomorrows season start is our index. GM's should know the drill send your lines in via the portal and feel free to liberally use bots and send me notes in cases where players aren't in the lineup. With that in mind, rosters were what I saw on the roster pages today so if there are any start of season hiccups or players missing let me know. 

Schedule wise, we do have a bit of a change. While teams will still be playing the same number of games, with the addition of the Wildcard round (it happened last season too but the regular season index was not properly adjusted to reflect the change to the number of teams who qualify for the playoffs) all the teams needed to be lumped into one giant division and Conference to allow STHS to accommodate an uneven number of playoff teams. This means that all teams will play each other a minimum of 10 times, with each team playing their remaining two games randomly assigned. However the Wildcard round and stats will be included in the playoff index as was intended this season. 
 
Thanks for indulging my rambling, lets have another solid season best of luck to everyone.   

Just a quick note here so everyone is on the same page. The sim team for S86 will be as follows:
 
VHL: @MexicanCow123
VHLE: @Devise
VHLM: Myself
Backup: @Josh
 
Additionally the season had been set to start on Wednesday but we were looking at the schedule and realizing there’s really nothing left so we shoved that up a couple of days. Indexes will be up today or tomorrow with the season start scheduled for Monday.
 
@VHL GM @VHLE GM @VHLM GM

Bump. Need 3 more, spread the word tell your friends lets round up a few more faces. @JardyB10 You play Pallet play this! *runs* 

Is there a Wawa in Gotham? If not, we'll have to fix that.
 
I'm in, btw