A Devise Retrospective [Reviewed]

[Devise 4,475]

A Devise Retrospective 

 

Presented in More than 3 Paragraphs 

 

 

 

I have been in the VHL for a while now. Maybe not the longest, but long enough that even some of the best charms the VHL has to offer slowly begin to warm their welcome. I've seen members come and go, even members I considered good friends. (I'm looking at you  @Jericho) My first player was in Season 24, it's crazy to think that was over 20 seasons ago, and in real world time like it's been something like 4 years now. I remember when I was first starting out, the VHL was an overwhelming intriguing nightmare. I had no idea who all these people were, I was just getting back into the sport of hockey as it was. But despite severe newbie level posts, I eventually settled into a role doing player store something I've now returned do and begin a podcast series called the Pajodcast. Through that, I met friends on the league, some of whom I have seen in actual person.(other than Jericho I met @Advantage and @Phil) 

 

One of the biggest hurdles for me in my current day VHL career is motivation. I care about this place, which is a silly thing to say since it's just a forum. But I care about it enough that when we lost sites some time ago and had to switch I was one of the many now older names here who helped migrate us over, put in work, took many orders from @sterling as we got this thing back up and running. But I have to say the VHL is probably the most inactive I have ever seen it. Not just in terms of how many players we have or is welfare hurting or any of that stuff. The biggest thing I notice is just a lack of posts. Threads that used to see daily/weekly posts sit dormant for months. Less and less people use this site to talk. Chat isn't an influence to that since nobody see's it. Probably the biggest influence to that is the lives the majority of us lead, especially now that a lot of the members here have gotten so much older. 

 

It made me really start to contemplate what made the VHL so fun for me when I started. I think the biggest thing was just the "newness" to the experience. I'd never created a player, I'd never GM"d a team, I'd never had a league job, how long would my podcast run could I reach 100 (our last edition was like 110+ somewhere). Then we expanded teams. Suddenly I felt rejuvenated. I wanted to set some type of milestone, so other than the decent GM runs I had I was able to help both expansion teams win, marking my only real major league achievement. There are still things for me to achieve here, and it's why I still make players, still experiment with builds and the like. But after so much time and so much done a lot of the luster has gone out if you will. I don't have an answer to change that. I think new, fresh, and exciting ideas are always welcome in the league and whenever we have a good one it boosts me up a bit. I still get some joy out of doing research and stat related things something I know I'm not the only one who does. But ultimately, I've discovered what made me such a VHL lifer was the people responsible for showing me what the league had to offer, and the people I was able to enjoy my time with. It's probably one of the biggest things lacking. We have pockets of members here who still "group" together but the reality is the grouping often only happens for team reasons, and it results in a lot of group related bias. (I'm looking at you @eaglesfan036 you lovable SOB you!)

 

See I probably got luckier than a lot of new members here. Sure I put in the work, made some first impressions with  my podcast. But I was learning how to enjoy and engage in the league by some big names. Other than friends I mentioned, @diamond_ace,  @Streetlight, @Victor, @Squinty, @Koradek all played big roles in my development in the league. Jason was a member of our early Skype sessions and poker games, and having conversations with him and ADV about the league quickly immersed me in it. Koradek was actually my first ever VHLM GM, and I was on a mostly inactive team. He attempted to keep me somewhat engaged, and at least offered advice on the inner workings of the league. Streetlight was my first "real" GM. I was drafted to Riga with my first player, however that team had several early shaky GM changes after awful decisions before I found my way to NY where Street not only showed me the ropes but groomed me to take over the GM role when he was done. Squinty and Victor both had huge pedigrees when I first played on teams with them, and their LR presences and just the atmosphere they helped foster is another key factor in what made me realize I wanted to be "one of the boys." 

 

But how much is this stuff happening now I wonder? How many members come in, and have so many prime names encourage them, push them, and in the end allow them to not only contribute in their small bubbles but in the league as a whole? It's easy to say "create a media spot" but a big reason so many new members create just random stuff about their own players is due to creative complications. Who are they in this league? Are they just a person who post a media spot and nothing else? I wish I had a point to this media spot I really do. I wish I could sum it all up with some grand gesture of a glorious idea that helps stir activity, or gets some gears moving. But honestly I simply haven't done a media spot in a while, was going to do this as a Fan590 until I realized I typed too much and decided what the hell. The only parting message I can leave the 2-3 people who read all of this with is that the VHL can be a very engaging and fun place. It really can. There are times when calling it a "community" versus a forum where people post would not just be appropriate but it would be required. I'd love to see that community aspect of the VHL really come back to life. The only lessons I've learned from my times here is that this community only operates when people have initiative to post. Not just media spots, or point tasks, or log in to claim welfare. But discussions, thoughts. There are still a few people sharing things in those off topic threads and a lot of them have become prime destinations. Just look at the Health and Fitness Motivation thread, among others. 

[Victor 10,829]

Could have been condensed to 3 paragraphs imo.

 

 

 

 

 

This Media Spot also touches on serious subjects which are so real I don't want to feel sad by discussing them. So denial woopee

[Victor 10,829]

Actually nah fuck it, slightly more serious post

 

 

 

Before you ask, I have no idea why the dates are switched to Russian. It infiltrates my whole laptop, even fucking Google Maps. For those uninitiated, so everyone except @Gooningitup it says Jan 14, July 14, and so on.

 

Anyway. I found that neat little graph among other stuff in the admin CP once and have monitored it since on a semi-regular basis. And well, while it's not exactly perfect viewing, it's not as bad as I thought it'd be. Honestly, I also feel there's less posts than before but the stats suggest that's a lie. I guess there's no peak caused by some mega argument or whatnot and we're overall worse than we were just before and after the S40 draft, but I'd say we're closer to top VHL activity than rock bottom. Which is positive.

 

Personally I don't mind since it means less for me to catch up on when I log on. On a selfish note, it's a shame, but what can you do? I'd say we're a really good draft or some seismic announcement away from very healthy levels of activity again.

[Gooningitup 1,290]

School for many i feel may play a role, from his chart seems activity spikes during that time.

 

I think part of it might be the auto retirement, i realize it keeps things fresh and teams on there toes, but to me its a huge turn off for my activity. GM has returned that spark, but media can be hard for me to do. And for many working on 450 articles for 6 TPE a week, just for your player to retire 8 seasons(about a year real life) is a hard pill to swallow for many. 

 

Ive been trying though to kinda see if i can create something to spark the league abit. Some fun articles, and stuff to get things going. Seems serious debate still can draw people in 

[Gooningitup 1,290]

41 minutes ago, Victor said:

Actually nah fuck it, slightly more serious post

 

 

 

Before you ask, I have no idea why the dates are switched to Russian. It infiltrates my whole laptop, even fucking Google Maps. For those uninitiated, so everyone except @Gooningitup it says Jan 14, July 14, and so on.

 

Anyway. I found that neat little graph among other stuff in the admin CP once and have monitored it since on a semi-regular basis. And well, while it's not exactly perfect viewing, it's not as bad as I thought it'd be. Honestly, I also feel there's less posts than before but the stats suggest that's a lie. I guess there's no peak caused by some mega argument or whatnot and we're overall worse than we were just before and after the S40 draft, but I'd say we're closer to top VHL activity than rock bottom. Which is positive.

 

Personally I don't mind since it means less for me to catch up on when I log on. On a selfish note, it's a shame, but what can you do? I'd say we're a really good draft or some seismic announcement away from very healthy levels of activity again.

 

Haha i had to buy a new laptop for this site, because my keyboard for my computer is in russian 

[BOOM 8,649]

Since boobies were banned, the VHL has suffered.

[Will 4,660]

2 hours ago, Victor said:

Personally I don't mind since it means less for me to catch up on when I log on. On a selfish note, it's a shame, but what can you do? I'd say we're a really good draft or some seismic announcement away from very healthy levels of activity again.

 

I'll provide you with some of my own secret statistics to make you feel better:

 

(range is only past 10 hours or so) (fuck windows 8)

 

[Phil 5,111]

2 hours ago, Mr. Power said:

There are still a few people sharing things in those off topic threads and a lot of them have become prime destinations. Just look at the Health and Fitness Motivation thread, among others. 

 

You put my thoughts into words brilliantly in this spot and that was the very reason I've really tried to keep the Health Thread going. Hopefully I can keep contributing to the community to keep awesome members like you engaged enough to always stick around. I know I have a go at Chat being the reason for less board activity whenever I can but I know that's not the reason. We are at an all-time low in activity since I've been here (S17) but I do believe threads like that should and will help us engage old and new members alike, hopefully creating a bigger group and not a bigger gap between old and new members. 

 

It was in the soccer (football) thread during S17 that I had my first VHL interaction with Tyler Owens, and then Kendrick, Victor, Shawn etc... the off-topic discussions roped me into the community and the drive to better my player was just the cherry on top. I hope we can one day return to that. 

[Phil 5,111]

And it was fucking awesome sharing a pint with you in Toronto, btw.

[eaglesfan036 4,593]

good read denise.

 

Probably is we have kept trying to have mega amazing recruitment drives with tpe offerings and stuff but the problem is we aren't getting many members, though our large influx of people from the shl recently thanks to "join vhl" has helped

[Frank 5,055]

@Victor you bitch fight me lets start a big argument you cunt.  

Edited April 19, 2016 by Frank

[Victor 10,829]

4 hours ago, Frank said:

@Victor you bitch fight me lets start a big argument you cunt.  

Nah fuck off slut

[TheLastOlympian07 2,388]

7 hours ago, Phil said:

 

You put my thoughts into words brilliantly in this spot and that was the very reason I've really tried to keep the Health Thread going. Hopefully I can keep contributing to the community to keep awesome members like you engaged enough to always stick around. I know I have a go at Chat being the reason for less board activity whenever I can but I know that's not the reason. We are at an all-time low in activity since I've been here (S17) but I do believe threads like that should and will help us engage old and new members alike, hopefully creating a bigger group and not a bigger gap between old and new members. 

 

It was in the soccer (football) thread during S17 that I had my first VHL interaction with Tyler Owens, and then Kendrick, Victor, Shawn etc... the off-topic discussions roped me into the community and the drive to better my player was just the cherry on top. I hope we can one day return to that. 

i see my name 

[NotAVHLM-GM 1,858]

So many paragraphs Devise, you must be sick. But I do understand where you are coming from with this post. Life might just be keeping me busy, but I've seen a trend with my own activity, ready to just quit sim leagues in general and I think I might not be alone in this. The new-wow-spark-factor has gone and it has become just one of the regularities in our live. 

We like this place, it's why we come here and make and update our players, but for most of us, we have so much going on that it usually stops there. I stayed around since somehow I care about this league and care about it's members. But for me it's also a struggle to keep up with everything and I don't interact as much as I used to do. 

Life is keeping us busy, but I hope to see activity not plumbing due to this. Let's hope we can keep everything going strong for the next several years. If Pajodcast can make 110+ episodes, the league should aim for that many seasons. Let's work on that

[JPL 151]

Reviewed! Man this Media spot was such a downer and I'm a newer member on VHL even though most people know me from SHL. Nice job writing a media spot that made me feel emotional about a sim league.