VHL is full of bots

[jRuutu 2,462]

 

New York Americans, 19 players in the system - all welfare earners or inactive. Every single one, I clicked through all of them. In the VHL roster, you can find four or five GMs and active users. The funny thing is that New York was not even the worst team in the league.  New York finished  6th in NA with 61 points. Los Angeles had 51 points.  Los Angeles has 15 players in the system, 13 of them are welfare earners or inactive. In the VHL roster, you can find 4 or 5 active users. Vancouver Wolves finished last in NA with 43 points.  Vancouver has 9 players in the system, and all of them are welfare earners or inactive. In the VHL roster, you can find maybe 3 active users.

 

After analyzing these three teams, I want to ask: who is making sure those who fight against multis are not creating multis themselves? Who is making sure these welfare users are not controlled by the league?
Go look at the rosters and prospect pools of these three teams. Look at the names. Who are these people? Quite a few show up, just to click a few buttons. Common to see that there is very little activity on the forum.  They do not read anything. They do not react to anything. Do they even follow the sims? It is odd to think so many enjoy the "community" but do not react to anything on the forum. Some might browse VHL without logging into their accounts, but you would think at some point they stumble on content that is just "too good" to not react to, maybe even comment. Still, so few do that. That is odd.

It is obvious that so many show up to click those few buttons after receiving ping from a GM in the Discord locker room. Is that not technically like controlling multiple users? The GM or assistant GM, directly or via a bot, has to remind the users to come in and click a few buttons.  That is one step away from the users just giving their login information away and the GM's login to push those buttons themselves.
Even if they are considered rebuilding or tanking teams, it is crazy to think that New York, LA, and Vancouver struggle to have 10 active players combined. Why are these teams in the league? Why do we have so many teams in the league? These welfare players should be in another league. These teams should be in another league.  They do not belong to VHL.

 

 

 

VHL should be a competitive league, where every team has a good chance to win and compete. Some teams are always better, but maybe it is time to ask for more if three teams on average have 4 active players. What kind of user experience is that? Can you imagine spending months and months earning TPE in a team that is going absolutely nowhere, NOWHERE. The icing on the cake is that your GM is playing in some other team, competing while you sit there next to an army of welfare users and maybe a few other active users.  

 

If you are a relatively new user, let me ask you this: why? Why would you join this experience now? The user experience is at the all-time low. Nobody reads anything. Nobody listens to anything. Nobody comments on anything. This league is full of bots.  You are far better off starting a TikTok channel right now. If you can't dance or speak. It does not matter. Starting the TikTok channel is still a better use of your time. I will bet anything that I own that you are able to have more discussion about hockey in your TikTok comments section than anywhere in VHL. On top of that, you will learn more about yourself on TikTok.  You will learn valuable skills. You will have a way better time than in VHL.  If you are an experienced user, maybe on your second or third player, time to call it a day. This will be your last player. Use what you have learned so far on something else. Start a graphics career. Get a writing job of some sort.  Whatever. It is time to leave.

 

 

 

If you want to be a GM in VHL, let me ask you this: why? Why would you want to GM a welfare team, you just want the prestige of being a GM and ignore the competing part completely? Do you think you will turn the team around? It's impossible. There are not enough truly active users.  This league is full of bots. You will get absolutely nowhere with welfare players. Anyone who says that is lying to you. Welfare players are useless. Welfare players are good for lazy general managers who only care about their own GM experience. They want it easy. They do not care about the league. If they cared about the league they would actively shame welfare players for being what they are - useless. General managers who say welfare players are useful are like the cryptocurrency promoters you see in every single cryptocurrency forum. They will push the cryptocurrency of their choice down your throat, hyping it up, making you believe it's a valuable and smart investment.  In reality, everything is a lie. All based on potential and what if. Just like welfare players.  You will hear these lines: "The welfare player could turn it around, I know plenty of examples. Welfare does not mean inactive user.  The welfare player is still a useful player, I know a team that did well with welfare player".  All lies. Useless. Terrible for the team. Terrible for the league.

I think the league should remove the welfare button from the portal and bring claiming welfare back to the forum. That way independent researchers, like myself, are able to collect data and facts about these users to analyze whether they are real people, or fake accounts created by the league to keep numbers up.  I want to see when these users claim welfare. I also want to make it illegal for GMs to send any type of reminders about TPE earning to their players, anywhere in any way. Who is going to police that? The moderators. For once, make them do some actual work.

VHL, the beautiful garden of the past is now full of weeds. What used to be fertile ground is now covered in rainbow-colored concrete. What used to be a pretty lake where you were able to catch fish is now a graveyard full of computer parts removed from old welfare users. What used to be a park where ideas and thoughts were discussed is now a public toilet where users, like myself, talk about nothing to nobody.

 

1000 words

 

22. 8 - 28.8

29.8 - 4.9

 

Edited August 22, 2022 by jRuutu

[jRuutu 2,462]

29.8 - 4.9

[Frank 5,178]

In Vancouver it starts at the top, where the GM is also a bot. 

[Bojovnik 487]

This article feels like it was written by an AI program. 

[nurx 914]

yes hello I am nurx and I am controlled by the league thank you

[v.2 1,401]

abolish the E

[Gustav 6,395]

This is actually a really interesting thing to write about, and IMO not the least bit controversy-stirring. I kinda wrote about this myself a while ago back when practice facility was put on the portal.

 

When I was a GM that season, we had loads and loads of players creating, never accepting a contract from anyone, and ONLY clicking the practice facility button on the portal every week. No welfare, no posts, no nothing--try to message them on the forum, and they never see it. It's likely that they never even knew the forum existed to begin with and somehow just ended up on the portal only; I don't know how. The number of people doing that went down with time, but I wonder how much it keeps up today because I really haven't tracked it since then. There is a difference between clicking the free buttons and checking the forum and the sims anyway from time to time and just...never even being aware that there's life outside the portal.

 

At which point I'd claim expansion conspiracy, but Beav is no longer commish.

[ThePerfectNut 563]

If VHL used NHL 22 for sims instead even tho it’s a lot more work

[thadthrasher 1,692]

9 hours ago, Gustav said:

somehow just ended up on the portal only; I don't know how.

So, on this, is there anyway to maybe get forum notifications to appear on the portal?

 

Id imagine that some new users who only want to do welfare/pf know that they have to do it on the portal. They may bookmark the portal and only log into it to keep claiming welfare/pf. If they are set on doing that for their career they may never dawn the doors of the forum again. So, if possible, we add a notification bell, or tab, or something into the portal? Again, not sure if it’s possible or not.

 

@Dil

[Dil 1,758]

3 minutes ago, thadthrasher said:

So, on this, is there anyway to maybe get forum notifications to appear on the portal?

 

Id imagine that some new users who only want to do welfare/pf know that they have to do it on the portal. They may bookmark the portal and only log into it to keep claiming welfare/pf. If they are set on doing that for their career they may never dawn the doors of the forum again. So, if possible, we add a notification bell, or tab, or something into the portal? Again, not sure if it’s possible or not.

 

@Dil

Not possible, we’ve looked into it plenty in the past to get it to go on the portal or as mobile push notifications through the app, but the resources the forums software provides us to access notifications are heavily lacking

[thadthrasher 1,692]

38 minutes ago, Dil said:

Not possible, we’ve looked into it plenty in the past to get it to go on the portal or as mobile push notifications through the app, but the resources the forums software provides us to access notifications are heavily lacking

That's a real shame. 

[ctots 400]

Here's my pitch to drive more of those 'clicker' accounts to the forum - make the 'Home' link on the portal link back to the forums instead of the home page of the portal. Really cement in the design that the home of the league is the forums so that people don't get 'stuck' in the portal.

 

"But ctots, there's a forum button right there!", you say.

 

Here's my rebuttal: if you didn't know the forum was important, what motivation would you have to click that button?

[JardyB10 4,865]

I agree with Christopher, and while recruitment and dil are in this thread, I think there should be more prompts to go to the forum from the portal in general, especially during character creation.

[Dom 1,445]

I say we infest the portal with popups that open the forum. Have them close the forum 20 times for a button! 

[a_Ferk 764]

Man what did welfare users do to you

[NSG 498]

I knew right when I looked at the title that this was a Ruutu article

[Achilles 91]

On 8/25/2022 at 11:42 AM, ctots said:

Here's my pitch to drive more of those 'clicker' accounts to the forum - make the 'Home' link on the portal link back to the forums instead of the home page of the portal. Really cement in the design that the home of the league is the forums so that people don't get 'stuck' in the portal.

 

"But ctots, there's a forum button right there!", you say.

 

Here's my rebuttal: if you didn't know the forum was important, what motivation would you have to click that button?

agreed. it took me a bit to learn the site. seemed complicated at first.

[CrookedAnt 78]

Man's doing lord's work with this gah darn detective work, and y'all out here slandering him oh g' danger, man.

 

real talk, seems like a serious problem, but also a necessary one. there isn't enough active users likely to field full rosters. 

[Triller 1,647]

As a newer member to the VHL, I have noticed that unless you really dig into the forums to find the information on the point tasks or threads on player builds or even just how all of this works, quality posts aren't usually highlighted to make players want to be active.  You can sort by most reactions and all that but I've noticed that just because it has reactions and replies doesn't mean it is good, just that the poster is more well known around the forums.  Seeing that would lower the excitement to engage for newer players.  This obviously doesn't include pinned topics which even still, are only found under their main forum.

 

Even those that do point tasks with graphics or media spots are VERY likely to just post for the points and that is the extent of the engagement since they don't see much else from it.  No reason to engage further or to even check out others posts.  A weekly, community highlight would probably help to show some of the cool stuff that is created in the forums and might increase engagement.  Highlight those that aren't just swimming in reputation already but show new players that they are part of a community rather than watching one.

 

Not directly addressing the "bots" claim lol but something that may help show off the forums.

[Achilles 91]

also I would like to put my opinion on something here. I signed up last week. I am technically new. After I created my player, I had no idea teams offered me contracts. I see many new players who sign up and do not reply to contracts due to it being confusing and no guide for them. It took me about 30-40 minutes if I remember correctly, to actually figure out I got offered contracts. I think, the recruiting team needs to get involved in this with the owners and make the guiding system much easier for newer players. somethign as simple as an inbox message that you got offered a contract.

[Spartan 4,375]

There's a lot of chatter in here about getting people more aware of the forums once they create. I'll just chip in and say that there is a system in development that aims to solve most of the concerns in this thread such as new folks being unaware of forums, new creates being unaware of contract offers, or new users being without guidance immediately after creation. Once that is ready for implementation, I hope we'll see more new members sticking with the league instead of just going AWOL right after creation.

[Achilles 91]

2 hours ago, Spartan said:

There's a lot of chatter in here about getting people more aware of the forums once they create. I'll just chip in and say that there is a system in development that aims to solve most of the concerns in this thread such as new folks being unaware of forums, new creates being unaware of contract offers, or new users being without guidance immediately after creation. Once that is ready for implementation, I hope we'll see more new members sticking with the league instead of just going AWOL right after creation.

that would be solid. I was jus telling my experience and I want this site build.

[Squids McKenzie 51]

4 hours ago, Spartan said:

There's a lot of chatter in here about getting people more aware of the forums once they create. I'll just chip in and say that there is a system in development that aims to solve most of the concerns in this thread such as new folks being unaware of forums, new creates being unaware of contract offers, or new users being without guidance immediately after creation. Once that is ready for implementation, I hope we'll see more new members sticking with the league instead of just going AWOL right after creation.

That would be huge. Tbh as a pretty new person I bookmarked the “How to Get TPE” post Ricer posted. I use the links in there to get to Media spots and graphics and the bread and butter of the forum. The forum isn’t great for new people — no shade to whoever set this up, I’m not a web designer and I know this stuff isn’t easy — as It’s daunting and filled with nested content within nested content.

[Spartan 4,375]

2 minutes ago, Squids McKenzie said:

That would be huge. Tbh as a pretty new person I bookmarked the “How to Get TPE” post Ricer posted. I use the links in there to get to Media spots and graphics and the bread and butter of the forum. The forum isn’t great for new people — no shade to whoever set this up, I’m not a web designer and I know this stuff isn’t easy — as It’s daunting and filled with nested content within nested content.

I'm not sure if the forums itself has been set up poorly, but rather that there's just so much content and information that it's impossible for anyone to look at it in one go and think "ok, I can identify everything that is important and remember how to get there in the future." I'm not sure what the introductory forum PM contains or what other guides new players are directed to when they join the forum/create, but it will be partially revamped soon

[Ricer13 2,794]

@jRuutuSolid article my guy! Anyone calling this a “Ruutu” article clearly doesn’t understand this is a real issue and that you put some real work in before presenting this to us. 

 

I have heard this matter is being worked on and we should see something in the near future being implemented.