The one about Updating

[Will 4,604]

VHL Portal - Player Management System

For S61 seasons the VHL has handled updates through simple forum posts containing links and manual calculations of the update scale. While a straight-forward solution, forum updating has many drawbacks. One is that it's quite a 'clunky' system for new members to adapt to add they're forced to learn the update scale and proper formatting. Another is that by the time a player submits an update, an updater approves it, and finally the sim updater puts it in the sim - you have a lot of duplicated work that extends the time it takes to get updated in the sim. I looked at improving these two issues significantly as requirements if any new system was going to be worth it. 

 

Luckily, I think I have managed to solve those with a solution that both presents a much better user experience and drastically cuts down the overall amount of administrative work required to get updates into the sim. Now to keep this announcement short I'm only going to attempt to summarize all the new features and systems in this post - more 'instructional' guides can be found at How to Update with VHL Portal and How to Create a Player.

 

Player Management Area

The main hub of the updating system is the Player Management area - this page appears as PLAYER MGMT in the main menu bar. This page allows you to quickly submit and apply updates to the player linked to your account - if you don't have a player linked yet, you will see an appropriate message directing you on how to do so. To ensure people can only edit their own players, players must be verified as being yours by updaters/admins before you'll be able to edit the player. Of course, this step is only required once per career. 

 

Once your player is approved you'll have access to the full player management area. On the right you will see several options for claiming TPE - the top 4 buttons give you a quick and dirty way of claiming single-items without ever leaving the page while bulk claim lets you claim many different things across different weeks at once. 

 

Note: If you have a 2nd player, link one player the normal way and message @Beketov or myself to set your 2nd one. Once we set the 2nd player, you will see an additional button that allows you to switch between your players.

 

When you submit updates, they are sent to the Updater Approval Queue. The updaters will, as they have always done, check your links and verify that everything is correct. I should note, however, that I have built in a fair bit of validation before you're ever able to submit an update - for example you will be prevented from submitting a Point Task for multiple weeks or submitting an update that with push you over the weekly limit of 12 capped TPE for the week being claimed. Updaters can approve updates in a single click of a button and everything else is done automatically - this should translate to a significant decrease in the time it takes for your updates to be approved. 

 

Note: Experience claims don't count as TPE - but you still submit them through this system. Select the 'Experience' option under 'Claim Off-Season'. When an Experience claim is approved by updaters, the experience is applied to your player automatically - you do not have to apply it yourself, just have to submit the claim. 

 

Once updates are approved, the TPE is added straight into your Banked TPE balance which you will see on the left side of Player Management. You can then use the buttons to adjust your player attributes as you desire - the tool will show you whether or not you can afford to increase the attribute, the cost, and which attributes you've edited. The update scale is fully enforced automatically. Also - you can only decrease attributes WHILE you're editing them - once you save them they will be locked in and you will only be able to increase them. Simply save when you're done editing and they'll be saved and immediately updated on your portal player page, which you can also access on the left side of the player management screen along with 'Pending Updates', which shows you your outstanding unapproved updates and allows you to edit them before they're approved.

To be clear, when you save your ratings, they are immediately saved. There is no need for additional approval by updaters once the TPE itself is approved because the update scale is enforced automatically. 

 

Player List/Player Pages

- The player list is now found under LEAGUE >> PLAYERS

- The player list now has a searching feature to allow you to easily find players

- Player Page attributes are now drawn from the Player Management System rather than STHS

- Player Pages now feature an 'Update Log' to show a chronological record of updates submitted through the Player Management System

- Player Pages now show the User they player belongs to, TPE/Banked TPE, and season (if applicable for all 3)

- New forum player pages will not show attributes but rather a link to your portal player page (see below)

 

Create A Player

With updates being done on the Portal, there was a need for a solution to creating players in the portal's system that did not involve having to wait for an admin or simmer to manually create them - as to allow the new player to apply their starting TPE on the new updating system and get updating as quickly as possible. For that reason, Player Creation is now done through a form on the Portal (can be found under TOOLS >> CREATE PLAYER). 

 

Filling out the form does 3 things:

1. Triggers creation of your player on the Portal along with your appropriate starting TPE so that you can apply it in Player Management

2. Triggers a post on the forum with your basic player information for Higgins to enter into the sim as well as a link to your Portal Player Page

3. Automatically links your account to the new player and submits it for verification to the Updaters - again to verify that the player belongs to you and, in the case of re-creates, verify carryover amounts. 

 

That's a lot going on in the background, but from a members perspective filling out a small form is a pretty straightforward way of creating a new player.

 

Sim Updating

This is perhaps the most important benefit of this system. Instead of being an hour-long job to update one league in the sim, Higgins and myself will now be able to update the sim ratings with the portal ratings in a matter of 1-2 minutes. Simply put, you as the player use the Player Management system to update your ratings and we, the simmers, can download those updated ratings at anytime we want and load them into STHS. The result should be significantly more frequent and accurate sim updates. 

 

Conclusion

This was a long announcement. I probably went into more detail than needed, despite the wall of text I think this is a straight forward system and I think we'll get used to it quickly. 

 

ALSO - FREE TPE: To give you a chance to test out the system, you will earn 3 uncapped TPE for linking your player up. In Player Management, click 'Claim Other', select 'Other' for the type and something like "Linked Player" in the description. 

 

Lastly, I'd like to thank all of the forum updater's past and present for doing what was quite a shitty job, @Velevra for being the faithful sim updater all these seasons, and @Quik, @Beaviss, and @Beketov for helping with the ideas behind this, the testing and the implementation. 

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

FIrst!

[Beketov 8,642]

6 minutes ago, Will said:

for example you will be prevented from submitting a Point Task for multiple weeks

I would like to add a minor note about this as well.

 

It has been decided that the system allowing longer MS’ to be claimed over multiple weeks is being removed. Not only would it cause issues with the new updating system but it offered no real advantages to the league; it simply caused fewer topics to be posted and a potentially unfair advantage to MS writers. There’s no issue if you’d like to write 1 long MS and break it into many different parts, as has always been allowed, but we are returning to a system of 1 post = 1 PT.

 

If you have any outstanding claims prior to this announcement they can still be used. To avoid conflicts within the portal simply reply to the original MS, stating the week you are claiming for, and link to that.

[Will 4,604]

One more thing to note:

All active players have had their ratings brought up to date in the Portal system along with their updated total TPE and banked TPE amounts. If you had any TPE applied to partial attributes, it was added back to your Banked TPE (because the portal system doesn't allow you to do partial attributes). 

 

Because we had to manually take some of this information off the forum and enter it into the Portal to get the system started, I'd encourage everyone to check over their ratings on the Portal and make sure they match up with their most recent ratings on the forum. 

[Quik 4,113]

Ayyyyy

 

Great job on this @Will, should help a ton with sim updates, which has been a complaint for nearly 11 years now! lol  

 

Also, someone should bulk tag the league so everyone sees this. I’m on mobile so I can’t copy the post I made in the pre-announcement haha

[Gooningitup 1,290]

@Will @Beketov how will i claim job pay as there is no like offical link?

[Beketov 8,642]

2 minutes ago, Quik said:

Ayyyyy

 

Great job on this @Will, should help a ton with sim updates, which has been a complaint for nearly 11 years now! lol  

 

Also, someone should bulk tag the league so everyone sees this. I’m on mobile so I can’t copy the post I made in the pre-announcement haha

 

Spoiler

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I also moved that “announcement” to league discussion just to make sure people are looking at the correct info.

[Beketov 8,642]

Just now, Gooningitup said:

@Will @Beketov how will i claim job pay as there is no like offical link?

When you switch the dropdown and select “job pay” then the link box becomes “job title”. You just need to fill in the title, you don’t need an actual link. Links are only used for the content that requires them.

[Will 4,604]

21 minutes ago, Will said:

ALSO - FREE TPE: To give you a chance to test out the system, you will earn 3 uncapped TPE for linking your player up. In Player Management, click 'Claim Other', select 'Other' for the type and something like "Linked Player" in the description. 

 

 

@Quik @Fire Hakstol @Gooningitup, anyone who missed this before i added it, FREE TPE! 

[Victor 10,536]

Absolute scenes.

[Hybrid1486 577]

50 minutes ago, Beketov said:

I would like to add a minor note about this as well.

 

It has been decided that the system allowing longer MS’ to be claimed over multiple weeks is being removed. Not only would it cause issues with the new updating system but it offered no real advantages to the league; it simply caused fewer topics to be posted and a potentially unfair advantage to MS writers. There’s no issue if you’d like to write 1 long MS and break it into many different parts, as has always been allowed, but we are returning to a system of 1 post = 1 PT.

Welfare, here I come

[Spade18 1,302]

Awesome!

 

Good job Blue Team!

[Beketov 8,642]

4 minutes ago, Hybrid1486 said:

Welfare, here I come

Just post multiple parts.

[Hybrid1486 577]

Just now, Beketov said:

Just post multiple parts.

Things that I write don't tend to have clean breaking points where I can split it up, but honestly I might've drifted to welfare regardless at some point...the work that goes into writing isn't usually worth the one extra point.

[Beketov 8,642]

1 minute ago, Hybrid1486 said:

Things that I write don't tend to have clean breaking points where I can split it up

No one ever said it needed to be clean haha.

 

The system just doesn’t make a lot of sense. It doesn’t really encourage any extra activity, it just encourages people to post 1 thing and then disappear for a month.

[Hybrid1486 577]

Just now, Beketov said:

No one ever said it needed to be clean haha.

 

The system just doesn’t make a lot of sense. It doesn’t really encourage any extra activity, it just encourages people to post 1 thing and then disappear for a month.

I posted one for two weeks and I've been around...I just find it's easier to write one longer thing than it is to keep coming up with new topics week after week. Of course, things may have changed in the last couple years so idk. I'll be fine.

[Beketov 8,642]

Just now, Hybrid1486 said:

I posted one for two weeks and I've been around...I just find it's easier to write one longer thing than it is to keep coming up with new topics week after week. Of course, things may have changed in the last couple years so idk. I'll be fine.

Like I said, it’s completely fine if you don’t want to come up wih new topics, nothing wrong with multiple parts just as there never has been.

 

I don’t deny the system was helpful for some but overall I think it was a nuisance. Fewer people wanted to read 2000 word essays, resulting in less feedback and discussion plus we wound up with fewer topics in general. In addition to that the benefit wasn’t there for anyone else. An hour long podcast, for example, was still only 1 PT the same as a 20 minute one. Just didn’t make a lot of sense.

[Beaviss 4,949]

@Will @Beketov 

 

2nd Player: Beau Louth

 

great job with this guys all great changes!

[scoop 3,254]

29 minutes ago, Beketov said:

In addition to that the benefit wasn’t there for anyone else. An hour long podcast, for example, was still only 1 PT the same as a 20 minute one. Just didn’t make a lot of sense.

Just submit one half of a graphic one week, and the other half the next week!

 

[CowboyinAmerica 2,708]

1 hour ago, Beketov said:

I would like to add a minor note about this as well.

 

It has been decided that the system allowing longer MS’ to be claimed over multiple weeks is being removed. Not only would it cause issues with the new updating system but it offered no real advantages to the league; it simply caused fewer topics to be posted and a potentially unfair advantage to MS writers. There’s no issue if you’d like to write 1 long MS and break it into many different parts, as has always been allowed, but we are returning to a system of 1 post = 1 PT.

 

If you have any outstanding claims prior to this announcement they can still be used. To avoid conflicts within the portal simply reply to the original MS, stating the week you are claiming for, and link to that.

 

Yeah I'm a big fan of the new updating system, but think this is dumb. All you're doing is encouraging non-researched "I'm just trying to reach 500 words through word vomit" articles at best, actively pushing away people who like to write at worst.

[Beketov 8,642]

7 minutes ago, CowboyinAmerica said:

 

Yeah I'm a big fan of the new updating system, but think this is dumb. All you're doing is encouraging non-researched "I'm just trying to reach 500 words through word vomit" articles at best, actively pushing away people who like to write at worst.

I fail to see how having MS’ split into multiple parts automatically changes their content. People didn’t suddenly start writing longer content because this rule went into effect.

 

We’ll take public opinion into account for reviewing the change but for now it will stand. If you want multiple weeks of content just split it up.

[Guest DeathOnReddit]

Do I have to. 

[CowboyinAmerica 2,708]

Just now, Beketov said:

I fail to see how having MS’ split into multiple parts automatically changes their content. People didn’t suddenly start writing longer content because this rule went into effect.

 

That's absolutely not true for one, I personally wrote longer content for that exact reason. Second, if you're actually writing something worthwhile, that's a lot easier said than done. If I'm writing a power rankings, for instance, should I write the Top 5 then say "Well, if you want the rest, come back next week!" It makes no sense. If people are going to put in the work to actually have good content, they should be rewarded.

[Beketov 8,642]

Just now, CowboyinAmerica said:

 

That's absolutely not true for one, I personally wrote longer content for that exact reason. Second, if you're actually writing something worthwhile, that's a lot easier said than done. If I'm writing a power rankings, for instance, should I write the Top 5 then say "Well, if you want the rest, come back next week!" It makes no sense. If people are going to put in the work to actually have good content, they should be rewarded.

The reward is the same for the amount of work, I fail to see how we’re changing anything there. You weren’t being rewarded extra for writing more, you were just claiming it for a month instead of a week. Should my hour long podcast count for 3 weeks under that same logic?

 

Like I said, we’ll put a poll up regarding it and see public opinion but I know @Will and I both never cared for the rule. Given that it introduces validation issues for this removing it at his time made the most sense.

[CowboyinAmerica 2,708]

4 minutes ago, Beketov said:

Should my hour long podcast count for 3 weeks under that same logic?

 

Yes, tbh. Same way Boubabi gained 734865 TPE for doing graphics around the site. Quality work and time invested should be rewarded.