Aimee

@Spartan  we are done!

Thanks everyone for drafting and good luck! 

@Webberj is skipped. Please make your pick asap.

F Scotty Sundin

@Hoopydog

D - Faith Hope Love

@Webberj 

Also remember to tag Spartan ☺ 

Happy Monday Marlins! 

Answer 3 for 1 TPE or 6 for 2 TPE.

1. Now that the draft is a week old, how are you feeling about how Jacob did with drafting this season?

2. What is a goal you have for your player this season?

3. Is there a VHL member that you look up to?

4. Are you going welfare + or are you planning on creating content for the forum?

5. How often do you read or interact with the forum content?

6. What is your desktop/laptop background?

@Hoopydogis skipped. You can make your pick any time before your next go expires.

@Otaznik you're on the clock for 2 picks. 

G - Xavier Booberry

@Hoopydog

@Spartan , @ShawnGlade is skipped for a second time.

@JB123 is on the clock and will ping Spartan after your pick. 

F - Landon Wolanin

@Webberj

D - Jake Thunder 

@Hoopydog

@ShawnGlade is skipped

@Webberj is on the clock

@ShawnGlade is skipped.

@JB123 is on the clock.

16 hours ago, Daniel Janser said:

Being in the Aimkin Fan Club is as sound an investment as pre-founding 'Star Citizen'.

"No comment."

F - Vasile Lamb

@Webberj 

In the deep dark depths of a metal workshop sits an artist in leather with stained black hands, a charcoal pencil between his fingertips sliding against off-white paper. The outline of a statue comes into view in the glow of the forge and incandescent lighting. He grunts as the last strokes are made for a new statue in the works for the London United’s arena. One to be erected next to the already existing statue of Molly the Cat. Funded by the generous fans of Jesse Teno and their agent aimkin. Though this one of aimkin themselves, not of the goaltender. 

The fund was started by Chakravartin Dil of India @Dil, GM of the London United who is the acting president and founder of the aimkin fan club. The fan club was founded roughly five months ago, though there seemed to be little interest from the community and not much activity from the few existing members. All went quiet until early yesterday morning when Dil walked into the United’s locker room and announced that the fan club was looking for new members. Quite a surprise and not at the same time. Given the lack of interest, and Dil’s plans, he would need money from unsuspecting willing and happy fans and members. With a fee of only $1,739.00 a year, the membership would go towards paying for a giant aimkin statue outside of the arena. Why Dil chose the agent and not the player no one will ever know, as few seem brave enough to ever figure out why the pickle man says what he says half the time.

Jesse Teno was also surprised to find out that the statue was going up seeing as they have only had one year in the league and has yet to make any significant impact. “I mean I guess? Not sure why my agent is getting a statue but if Dil says it’s happening, then I guess it’s happening.” Teno walked off with a shrug and headed to the ice after Dil's address to the team.

After finding out about the announcement, aimkin commented on the generous gesture stating, “No promises that some of that won't go to line my pockets and eventually become a scandal that the VHL will cover up but then emails will come out and still nothing will happen despite public outrage.” We are sure that this quote is merely a joke and will not come up in a later report at all for any reason. 

Whatever Dil’s reasoning for the statue, we are sure that he has the best of intentions not only with the gesture of the statue but the money as well. Though it’s been rumored that the bank account for the fan club is a joint one with aimkin. Either way, we are hopeful that the membership numbers for the fan club will rise over the next season and that the statue will be unveiled sometime in the near future. We look forward to seeing what the artist has in store and just how giant Dil had in mind.

512 words for week ending 1/22/2023
 

The off season is coming to a close this week and Jesse Teno has returned to London. With a contract extension in hand, they are ready to start their first veteran season and to start their first official starting position in the VHL. 

“It’s a lot of pressure and it’s certainly going to mean a lot of the season will rely on me keeping it together. I just hope I don’t let the team down and that I can play well this season.”

Jesse headed from the plane to the practice facility to start of their official pre-season training. Despite playing all off season in Vermont, going up against the local kids and beer leagues doesn’t really prepare a person for VHL caliber players.

“Being home was nice, yea. Got to see the family and just play some hockey for fun. Also got to go skiing which I haven’t been able to do much of since I started playing professionally.”

160 words for week ending 1/22/2023
 

1. Quite often, actually. Especially the drama stirring ones lol

2. I don't believe I do. But I always forget where that list is.

3. Sadly, no. I was away visiting some friends this weekend.

4. I did!

5. VHLF! 

6. Being the starter! Yes! My chance to shine.

@Otaznik you're on the clock!

Happy drafting everyone!

1. @Otaznik

F - Daniel Janser

F - Saku Kotkakoivu

F - Alexandre Leduc

D - AirRig GoodBrandSun

D - Tavish Degroot

G - Brandt Fuhr

2. @Hoopydog

F - Ronan Lavalle

F - Nico Pearce

F - The Board Game Clue On Skates

D - Hammar Voss

D - Hari Singh Nalwa

G - Art Vendelay

3. @aimkin (GM)

F - Vasile Lamb

F - Landon Wolanin

F - Scotty Sundin

D - Jake Thunder

D - Faith Hope Love

G - Xavier Booberry

4. @Webberj

F - Brendan Marner

F - Girts Gavins

F - James Teekirque

D - Max Torq

D - Biggie Cheese

G - Cole Pearce

5. @ShawnGlade - DQ

F - Perry Laperriere

F - Igor Molotov 

F - Hulk Hogan 2

D - Mikhail Kovalchuk

D - AK92 Wit da Hoodie

G - Henry Tucker Jr

6. @JB123

F - Molly the Cat

F - Zach Kisslinger

F - Leandro Goncalves

D - Bo Johansson

D - Brian Payne

G - Oskar Lindbergh

3 minutes ago, Triller said:

It is a good suggestion for sure, one that may be hard to find users to facilitate it.  It takes awhile to create graphics and to come up with good writing ideas so to have the extra time to also "mentor" someone else would be hard.  If we pay the "mentor" enough TPE so they don't have to worry about their own work then we may have an issue where experienced writers and artists aren't posting to the forums as much or not at all.

 

I do like the idea of showing people the ropes.  It might be a good video to make?  An experienced writer or artist can record a tutorial talking about their writing process or an artist can record themselves working on a graphic and submit it for TPE but to also have it marked as a tutorial.  Could help new people figure out what programs they can use and how to use them.

 

I have done this before for start up companies learning the Unreal Engine for cinematics but the only thing is that they take longer than you'd think to plan out and record.

Knowing how the VHL works I doubt it would actually result in a paid job but I think if we could get enough people to help, it might not mean too much work for any one "mentor". I also don't foresee there being a flood of help requests so it might be easily manageable by a fair sized team. 

2 minutes ago, Pifferfish said:

To clarify @aimkinmy suggestion here is like 2 Graphics people and 2 writers make a new VSN or something under that same umbrella, that hires 4-6 first gens to help them produce content. Then after the season those "interns" move onto the regular VSN potentially or just hopefully continue working on content on their own.

I think that would be really cool. Definitely would encourage new people to write. 

So I think I have seen it mentioned here and there that forum content has its highs and lows. Usually it goes up with new members or when big things happen like season endings, theme weeks, or holiday events. But I wonder if part of it is due to people not having confidence in their skills. For example, until I actually gave it a try, I thought that I would never be capable of producing any graphic works for the forum. And yet, I have gone on to create about half a dozen. Have I improved? Meh, a little bit from my first one for sure. But do I have the time and energy to figure out how to get better? Not really though I wish I did. 

I also think the same goes for writing. It could be because we have a fair amount of high school and college age members, or a high population of people whose first language isn’t English. This could cause them to struggle with an English-centered forum. But I think there are members who wish that they could produce content though worry about their writing skills or perhaps just don’t think they have anything to write about; especially to get to 500 words every week for a media spot.

So I have a proposal with two options:

I propose that the VHL creates either 1) a job or 2) a supervised volunteer position of members who are skilled at graphics and writing to help other members come up with ideas, beta read articles, and help edit them. I know that we have a review system based on the content and writing so I have a point to address that as well.

1. The VHL has a content problem most of the season in relation to how many members it has. I’m not assuming that every welfare + player is even interested in producing, but perhaps a few more might be interested in trying or go back to writing and graphics if they had someone who they could go to for advice or help.

2. The job or volunteer position could be a buddy system where the members get grouped up for an extended period of time, or it could be a dropbox situation where whoever is available at the time could work on it and leave feedback.

3. For graphics specifically, whoever holds the position would not only give feedback or advice, but could actively try and teach other members how to use specific features in whichever program is being used or even just give little art lessons to help someone understand composition and basic layouts. Obviously I’m not a big graphics person so I’m sure someone else could come up with a better system than I could.
For writing, I don’t expect someone to fully edit a media spot or any other content. The editing and advice would be more suggestions and fixes of basic grammar. I also think that coming up with ideas is one of the hardest parts of writing long form content and I believe that that is where experienced VHL writers could really assist those who struggle. 

4. In order to avoid any issues with the review system, no editing would be a full overhaul as stated above. For example; if I picked a ,com article to edit and I noticed a significant lack of punctuation, instead of going in and putting in every comma or period, I would suggest that the writer go back and put some in in order to make it a bit easier to read. I know that this is sometimes a point in reviews but I think it’s better to help someone improve than to give someone easy review fodder like lack of punctuation.

Obviously this is my first proposal or anything of this nature so it’s possible that I just made myself look like an idiot and I’m sure that the idea of it being a job is going to get me laughed out of the building. But I do think that it’s something worth seeing if people would be interested in. I know I would happily lend a hand to anyone struggling to create content.

698 words for week ending 1/15/2023
 

Transaction ID: 1CX46243KB863235A

$1 million

5 Uncapped TPE

Doubles Week

WEEEEEE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, MY FRIIEEEEEEENDS!

1. We are the S86 Founders Cup Winners! How the hell are you all feeling??

2. How do you feel about your playoff performance?

3. If you're leaving us for the E, where are you going??? If you're not, are you excited to be sticking around???

4. What is your favorite accomplishment from this season?

5. What are you working on during the off season?

6. If you could rename any VHLM team, who would it be and to what?

It’s officially the off season and Jesse Teno has been hard at work both training and enjoying the winter season. Though, skiing in Vermont has been terrible as of late with the warm weather and rain. They were able to get in a few days but for the most part Jesse has been seen shopping around town or hanging out at the Northshire Bookstore.

For New Years, Jesse and their family went to a party at the Bromley Lounge to celebrate and ring in the year with the community. Jesse’s fiance failed to make them do karaoke but she serenaded the room herself.

Otherwise, Jesse has been spotted at the local Riley Rink taking shots from anyone who was on the ice. Kids of all ages and even some beer leagues stopped by to hang out and play a few pick up games. Jesse also met with the office management to continue working on their foundation. 

156 words for week ending 1/15/2023
 

As someone who has been creating pressers for the last 2 seasons, I'd say it's hard to keep making pressers especially when you're out of the playoffs or during the off season. Start and end of the season are the easiest and holidays or vhl events allow for the easy few here or there. But otherwise you're asking the same general questions every season. So I think a lack of creative juices for questions is definitely something that would turn a lot of people away from writing them.