1. To be honest, I joined the VHL because of a bonus you get in another sim league by doing a VHL PT. However, I'm now max earning with my new player and trying to become more active here because the community is amazing. I don't even know much hockey but this is still a great place. I also like it here because of the graphics community, which is a pretty cool niche to have in a simulated hockey website.
2. For the most part no. I'm fairly active in the graphics discussion channel, but other than that, I never talk there. I don't talk in the other channels, specifically the general chat, because it's always so busy and it's hard to have a conversation without talking to 5+ people at once. I prefer to stay in my team's LR. That being said, it's also a great thing how active the league discord server is for those who participate. It's a quick and easy way for the members to communicate and talk to each other.
3. I am from the USA and I do not see any existence of an anti-American sentiment. I haven't heard of anyone who left because of this so-called issue other than one user who we'll not name, so in my opinion there isn't really a problem. That being said, we shouldn't suppress those who feel like they are being discriminated against in any way. Doing the opposite of this would slow the great progressive movement we've seen in the VHL in the past year. Specifically regarding the topic of anti-Americanism in the VHL though, it has not been approached professionally by anyone who has felt this way.
4. Pushing for forum activity is a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, I wholeheartedly like forum communication more than Discord communication. When I first joined a sim league about 2 years ago, I didn't join Discord for the first four months and I enjoyed being exclusively forum. I also see why the commissioners would be pushing for this kind of thing. It can seem like a whole chunk of VHL history is being removed because most conversations are held elsewhere. However, the means to achieve this is a bit tricky. For one, you can't exactly make someone do something without incentivizing it. People seem to enjoy Discord more so they will use it more unless there's a reason to talk on the forums. That's another thing, despite the preferences of some people, Discord works better for the vast majority of the league. It's definitely too integrated within the league to remove even parts of it without negatively impacting the userbase. That's what the commissioners tried to do, remove an integrated part of discord to promote forum activity and it failed. I personally agree with what they are trying to do, but it is in no way, shape, or form beneficial for the health of the VHL
5. Well this depends on what you're asking. Is it a fantasy league, like the one where you take stats and give point values, or is it a fantasy league, where people create and adapt an imaginary league? I definitely can say it isn't the former. But this is essentially a fake league that offers an RPG hockey experience. I would say it can be classified as a fantasy.
You can use whatever you'd like in your paper. Good luck fishy!