bigAL

1 hour ago, Shindigs said:

Okay, so I can give something on the side of @Moon at least. As I think it was yesterday or the day before that I asked (as a 1st gen) without knowing anything about this "Anti-E" bias, if it was possible to just stop applying points at 199 to stay in the M for one more season. My reason for it would have been very simple: Loyalty. Miami gave me a shot at basically unlimited minutes and any and all opportunities my player could ever ask for. But for the vast majority of this season, the fact of the matter is that as a 1st gen I won't be able to give them the kind of performance I want to. If I just max earn a full season then end up in the E the next season it will feel like I didn't "pay my dues" to my first team. Which doesn't really sit right with me personally. But it quickly became apparently that doing so and just hoarding TPE wasn't allowed. Which basically means that any ambitious 1st gen on a non-contending team will just be trade bait at some point in their first season. Uprooting them right as they start making connections in the locker room, which honestly kinda sucks.

I totally get, I really do. First gens build a connection with their first GM and first team. You always remember your first, they say. Your first LR is your entire experience and impression of the VHL. The M GMs are fantastic at their jobs, and that shows when players don’t want to leave. I regretted going up to the VHL because friggin DLamb stayed down the extra season, came up at 400 TPE, and won Rookie of the Year. Now everyone will get to the bigs at 400, which is nice, but I did have the same moral dilemma you’re having right now. 
 

Unfortunately, the structure of the league just isn’t built for the career minor leaguer. We need people to graduate the M when they’re ready to make space for new recruits and recreates. And then we need them to graduate the E to make space for the slower earners, inactives, or next-season-VHLers. 
 

I dunno how well versed you are in sim leagues, but I am determined that no one should ever stop earning TPE. In the EFL, my GM told me to just stop once I got to 199 so I wouldn’t go over and have to move up. I completely went inactive at that point. Sitting and waiting in the LR sounds like fun, but it’s really not sustainable from a retention standpoint. 
 

I know it’s all personal choice, and if you choose to stop at 199 I can’t stop you, and I can tell you it’s still a lot of fun to be a loyal VHL player (or a cut throat mercenary going to free agency at every chance) but you don’t have to believe me. Just do what’s best for you, and please for the love of Simon T, don’t ever turn down an opportunity for TPE. 

22 minutes ago, Alex_J32 said:

LMAO, I went to moose and goose the other night @bigAL!

Da Mooooooose an Gooooooose, the Americans howl at that one

40 minutes ago, Red said:

many wishing he'd just do normal shit for once

me

On 12/4/2021 at 11:32 PM, Beketov said:

Yes and no. His stuff basically parses the full PbP that STHS analyzes and it looks for key things and then kinda translates them to usable stats. I think in theory we might be able to have those on the portal but I’m not sure as the portal pulls it’s data directly from the database. There’s also a risk that those stats aren’t the most accurate because the PbP may list something in a way that we assume means stat X but it might not actually be. I do suppose this would be even across the league but still.

Paging @Dil, his giveaways and takeaways project was fascinating last season. 

4 hours ago, Moon said:

do something to help this as we are continuously losing players cause they have to play in the E and this isn't good if we want to up our retention rate.

I think a good retention rate for the community as a whole means that people graduate from the M and move onto the VHLE and the VHL. The M is the filter that weeds out the players who aren’t going to stick around anyways. If a member is to become a dedicated part of our community, they must pass the “test” of the VHLM. If they stay in the M for more than their one or two full seasons, they probably aren’t earning at a rate conducive to long term, sustainable activity. Clicking and presser every week (welfare+) should get you beyond the M in that time. 
 

Unfortunately, retention in the M does not equal retention as a whole. The job of the M is to prepare members for life in the broader VHL structure. 
 

The goal of the M is (should be) to get players out of there as quickly as they are able to do so. 

29 minutes ago, Doomsday said:

 

This would be a perfect way to use the VSN correspondence, IMO. Could get a real good write-up showing the thought processes that went into some decisions for award winners without spilling each and every bean. 

Love it. It's always so difficult to figure out how to properly use the VSN resources. Great idea, let's make it happen.

13 minutes ago, samx said:

All I have to say is Alex is too big brain for my understanding.

Honestly, yes @Alex_J32 was big braining me so much that I had to add him to BoG so all of us governors could put our brains together and try to get to his level.

Personally, I'm with Gus and FTI - it's super important to be able to justify your votes, that extra layer of accountability forces you to think deeper and more seriously when you're voting. As a whole BoG though, I do see all the pitfalls and dangers with releasing ballots and names. I always like to believe the best of people, but we know it'll be an utter shitshow if we release awards votings.

So what about a compromise? FTI, Gus, ADV, someone who does feel comfortable sharing their ballot could do so on behalf of the whole BoG. Scotty can write one of his famously in-depth articles about how he voted Duncan Idaho for the Boulet for these reasons, and the arguments against Idaho from the other voters were those reasons. It'd provide just a peek into the discussion around award, which is really all we want to give away. People genuinely think we're either a) a cabal bent on upending democracy and giving all the awards to blues (Dood deserved Boulet last season!!11!1!!) or, b) a completely disengaged and incompetent electorate that doesn't put any thought or energy into awards voting. Sharing a ballot or two WITH some analysis of the general BoG discussions would be the perfect level of sharing I think.

December to March is the prime podcasting season for our boi bigAL, and one quick look at the calendar says it's time to get talking again.

None of my podcast appearances have published yet, so I need to do my own point task for this week. Here's 30 mins of updates around the league, including:

- The Podcasting Tournament (courtesy of my humble hero Berocka)

- The Moderation Quality Control Assessement (courtesy of my intellectual idol Gustav)

- The Recruit & Retain Reassessment (courtesy of my big brained brother Alex_J)

- The Holiday Charity Auction 

Not tagging people cause shrug emoji

Someone should learn how to make a spotify playlist that auto adds episodes from all our different feeds.

Sziastok, hallo!

https://anchor.fm/bigal4/episodes/Its-podcasting-season--baby-e1b91sb 

1 minute ago, Juice said:

@dlamb Lamb Juice podcast part 2?

Do we have to record a new one this week, or is it Oscars style where we nominate the best episodes over the past year?

15 hours ago, Beketov said:

Like I said, not a security camera but simply a set of keys. GM’s would still handle everything themselves but if there’s a specific complaint that comes forward it could be easily and efficiently investigated

This. 
 

I don’t want your server. Gus specifically messaged me out of the blue, caught me by surprise, and felt like he had to invite me into his LR. Sure, cool, now I see why. 
 

But I don’t want your server. I don’t care. I’ve got enough going on in discord. I’ve got it muted, I don’t go in there. That’s your place, I’m not a part of it, stay in my lane. 
 

BUT, I visit those LRs when I’m pinged. When we have a problem happening, it’s often in the team servers. The mods need to be able to see the context of those problems, instead of seeing cherry picked screenshots only. No one wants to or gets paid enough to moderate teams LRs. If you need us, we need to be available. That’s it. 
 

The only other time I visit LRs that aren’t mine is to do research during the hiring process. When I hired WJC GMs, I’d check their activity in their team server because that’s so much more indicative of managerial potential than an interview. That’s it. 
 

Ownership is meaningless. GMs have absolute autonomy to do good with their servers. When things go badly, ie: when someone complains, we can be there to help assist the GM in solving the problems. You’re still the owner, but staff can also be owners; it’s not a zero sum game. 

PRESIDENTS CHOICE CANDY CANE ICE CREAM. It’s a delicious vanilla with candy canes in it, only available in the winter, and so damn good. I’ll stock up in December and get through to Feb.

There is no bad time of the day or year for ice cream.
 

Potentially unpopular opinion: ice cream cones are absolutely terrible and you should always order from a bowl. Cones taste like cardboard and that is not the lasting taste I want in my mouth after eating some delicious dairy dessert. 

Review: 

- Your gorlab podcast is legendary. I go back and listen to it every now and then. Enter that into the competition and it’ll do a full Silence of the Lambs sweep of the awards show.

- Guys, Eno breaks every rule every season. Ever heard of the Louth Rule? It should be the Rama Rule.

- Jardy did bring podcasts back. You guys led the last generation of podcasting and then stopped for a year. But, the mythical One and A Half Aussies is back, with a whole generation of new members who weren't around last time it was live. Get going again and show all these new podcasters who the real legends are.

- Berocka: The first thing you did in the BoG was search your own name? I can see the headline already: “Egotistical maniac campaigns for best community member award”. Also later Boot saying "I'm not a big campaigner..." and Berocka sitting there so quietly hoping we'd just move past that.

- Is leaving 13L of mead in your car for seven months the proper viking way of brewing honey beer?

- Welcome to the FINAL episode of 1.5 Aussies, where our two daddies argue about who does all the work and who the real creator of the show is.

- Your partner paid me to spam refresh on your episode forum posts to boost your view count and your self-esteem.

- Man Berocka, your take on the social environment online is spot on and I love the way you put it. “You assume everyone you meet online is like you" AND ”People always assume the best of people they know, and assume the worst of the people they don’t.” That's perfect, and exactly sums up how to tackle the latest CoC situations. You really have to get to know the people around you to learn their differences and understand their experiences. Shit Berocka, you’re on fire today.

- How great is it that I make up literally 12% of your listenership? Gimme some raffle tickets for that.

- “Next week we have bigAL on the podcast, although I guess I haven’t run it past him yet…” LOVE to hear about my bookings for the first time live on the show and not from my booking agent! 

And now:

FROM THE REAL FEED?! ONE AND A HALF IS BAAAAAACK!!!

You're practicing for the charity auction eh? I was so pumped to win your lootbag last year. Welcome back!

12 minutes ago, MubbleFubbles said:

As for me, people may have noticed I’ve been doing Draftee TPE Visualizers for the Season 81 and 82 draft classes. For the drive, I’ll be willing to make a visualizer for the winning bidders choice of draft class

Can you do historical seasons? I’m sure @dlamb would want to flex his S73 dominance

13 minutes ago, Horcrux said:

Shucks. i dont know what else i can do haha

Bid on something  

Podcasts are so hawt right now. I’ll make you FIVE different intros for your show or segments. 
 

My voice isn’t free anymore you free-loading bum @JardyB10

Wow, it's December already. Wild eh?

For those that are new here, Christmas is a special time at the VHL. There's lots of fun games and uncapped opportunities floating around, but what really makes it special are the good deeds we do for others. 

Last year, our VHL Holiday Bonanza was a biggie. My favourite part of that was the Charity Auction, and that's going to start right now. Take a look at last year's sub-forum to get an idea of what that's all about. Essentially, members offer up whatever they can or want to offer to others, and the rest of us bet real world money (okay, just Canadian dollars, but still). The highest bid at the end of the week, wins! 

In this thread, please post your suggestions for both charities to donate to and things you're willing to auction off.

Charities:

- Broader is better. We're a highly diverse community, and so donating to the Oshawa SPCA is less meaningful to everyone than an organization that's Canada or US wide.

- Timeliness is nice. There's a lot of shit happening in the world right this second, so something relevant to this day and time is meaningful.

- Geography doesn't (really) matter. Last year, we aimed for one charity in Canada and another in the US. Share whatever you think we should donate to, regardless of where it is.

- There's no bad ideas in brainstorming, but the staff team will have the final say on which we choose.
 

Auction items:

- We had an awesomely creative auction last year, check out the subforum for ideas for this year. It's okay to repeat things.

- Staff will have the final say on which volunteered items make it to the auction. We will not select things like muting poor @Dil for the rest of his life. Could you imagine if he didn't take that like a champ and disappeared forever? I wouldn't blame him.

- As always, everything must be SFW.

Donations:

- When you bid on an auction item, you are agreeing to pay that amount in full.

- You can donate to the League (which will forward it onto our chosen charity) OR you can donate to a charity of your choosing, and post the receipt as proof.

- @Beketov had a great idea: one place that's very in need around this time of year is the blood banks. If you donate blood, you will get up to $10 in donation credit. 

Other Holiday events:

Last year was wild, there was so much going on. Big ups to our man @Quik for putting that together. 

One highlight last year was the Marbles, Trivia, and Fundraising Twitch Stream run by our very own streammaster@Esso2264 . He's generously agreed to donate his time again for an evening of good fun and fundraising. We'll finalize details closer to the date, but we're planning around the weekend of December 18/19.

Once we get the items for the charity auction sorted, we'll set fundraising goals and share the corresponding rewards for hitting each goal. 

So, happy holidays! I know we're smack-dab in the middle of Hanukkah, Christmas is right around the corner, Winter Solstice is coming up, it's an exciting time. This month, more than ever, we need something to celebrate.

edit: yeah, y’know what? This is worth a @Members tag. 

On 11/30/2021 at 4:29 AM, JardyB10 said:

Halifax 21st Press Conference

3 Questions Answered = 1 Capped TPE

6 Questions Answered = 2 Capped TPE

Please answer in full sentences

Week Ending December 5th, 2021

 

 

1. As of this writing, we are 12 games into the season and our team is off to a much rougher than expected start! What are some things the team or management can do to right this ship? Pun intended, obviously.

 

2. As a team we're performing below expectations, but looking at your individual stats, how do you feel you're performing personally?

 

3. For those of you who are new to the VHL, how has your experience been in the first week or two so far? For those of you aren't new to the league, what WERE your first impressions of the league back in the day?

 

4. Describe the type of player you are, or are striving to become!

 

5. Today I was (and probably still am) suffering from some kind of stomach flu/bug/food poisoning/maybe I'm dying. What are some things you like to do to make life a little easier on yourself on a sick day?

 

6. Do you watch/follow hockey in real life, and if so, who are your favourite teams and why? If not, then what sports (if any) do you prefer instead?

 

| @LumberChuck @NatIng14 @Ente2997 @PoignardLeclerc11 @Austin2997 @Horcrux @Brandon P @Timmy Turner @Gross Ross @KnightRiley @jasplunds @Morcar80 @SeanL17 @bigAL@lukechezzwoo @Crummer77 @Kairi @ScoreAGoalBudEh|
 

French AAGM Addendum:

 

1. suis-je (jardy) étant une bonne aga?
2. Qui est votre équipe VHLM préférée ?
3. Camarade chat est-il cool? (dites oui je fais ça pour jardy pour le plaisir je les lis)
4. quel est votre jeu préféré sur (Xbox Ps pc changer tout cela)
5. voulez-vous être dans le HoF?
6. Suis-je un méchant pour faire cette semaine conférence de presse à Français?

1(ah) Jardy est le plus bon AGM! Il est drole et intelligent, esp. a cote de Le Grande Manager Minion. 
 

Deux: J’aime les Marauders de Miami. Ils son mon equipe premiere quand j’arrive a le VHL (as AGM, Dood Qui Est Groovy jouer a Minnesota rip)

Trois: Je ne comprende pas. J’etudier francais kindergarten a 9e, and didn’t use a translator yet so I’m pretty damn impressed with myself. 
 

Cat: Aw man I miss gaming. In Canada, I had a laptop running Windows that could play the most basic of games (Isaac was the best, but also TableTop Sim Jeopardy and Star Wars BF2 were favs). That died (I think something inside melted trying to play Golf with Friends and I blame Josh and Rory). Now I’ve got a Mac that can barely run Microsoft Teams for work, yet alone an incompatible Steam game. Rip. That’s fine, I was always more a console guy before I joined the VHL and loved my Xbox. I had a 12 year Xbox Live account, holy shit! Game Pass was unreal because I don’t have the attention span to play any game enough to make it worth $100 CAD. Anyways that got left behind too. Now I’ve just got my Switch, which travels really well, but I don’t have a TV to play with my friends. The most gaming I get these days is Chess.com with my co-workers and the VHLers, and doing the New York Times crossword. 
 

5. Controversial opinion (that absolutely should not be followed by anyone outside Canada and/or under the age of 18): cannabis. Being sick is a lot of a mental struggle, and using cannabis helps me mentally get out of the shit to let my body do it’s thing and heal. I’m not the annoying prophet proclaiming the healing powers of the magical plant to anyone too polite to walk away, but if you ask, I’ll tell you how much legalization helped me manage my anxiety and depression or a stomach bug and overall blah sick day. 
 

6. I feel like there’s a rule against doing PTs en francais (or generally non-anglais) but as long as the presser comes out in English and the other languages are bonus, I’m game. Like many of our non native English speakers, I enjoy the opportunity to use a language I thought I had entirely forgotten. 

1 hour ago, Enorama said:

 

This. Poor Kastelic

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it every time - TPE IS ACTUALLY BAD

Review: That intro music is great, maybe you can use a song or something different in each one. I dunno about the actual speaking, I didn’t listen that far in. 8/10

The teacher in me wants a rubric. What makes a winning podcast??

You guys know me, I hate dwelling on the negatives and reasons not to do something, but here I am. I think, unfortunately, the last thing we need is more off-season spreadsheet hockey. There’s already a ton with the Lotto tourney, the WJC/WC, and honestly, as a commissioner for WJC and WC (and helping with Junior Showcase and being in Pro Am), it’s hard enough to get people excited about those things. I get it - if your player isn’t in it, you won’t give a shit. But the solution isn’t to create so much off-season hockey that every player is playing somewhere. Pro Am has so much overlap with the World Cup, because obviously managers are choosing the best players (though I do like that people have to explicitly sign up to play in that one). Juniors Showcase only worked because it hit a specific niche (undrafted VHLMers), and I could see that being a big asset. 

Otherwise, like Thad and Bek were saying I was saying, let’s do *other* things during the offseason. I said this somewhere else today (Nodesode?) that we are truly looking at scheduled social events, and just have to figure out logistics of who and how to run it. Let’s have a movie night. Let’s have a jackbox night. Let’s plan for a game of codenames. Let’s run a Pokémon battle tournament. Let’s do a gfx tournament. For real, if you have an idea, let me know and I’ll help you make it happen. But the blues, GMs, commissioners, mods, we can’t do it ourselves. 

Also, I see so many people shooting shit in gen chat that I’m not even sure it’s exclusively the sims that keep people around in-season?