Thoughts On The Job Changes + Most Improved Player

[Tagger 2,722]

The VHL made a number of job changes recently so I'll give my thoughts on the ones I found most interesting (for the most part because I used to hold these roles):

 

The updater job has moved up to four TPE. In general, I am more than fine with a pay raise for an updater. During my time as an updater, there were weeks where the amount of words I was writing in PMs for denials/edits would have been more than enough to see me hit the TPE cap twice over through the usual PT means, so the pay has always seemed small for those who approach the work with the right attitude. But I think that's the key, this is fine for those who are claiming it and are doing the work that they are claiming to do.

 

One of the problems I had with the job were that there were a few instances where I felt updaters were not doing nearly enough to warrant the 3 TPE (and by that I mean ridiculously low update counts), yet still claiming it anyway. I remember one such instance where I had to tell an updater to start updating or have his claim denied because his combined pay for the month (which had been approved by other updaters) was sitting at exactly 3 TPE per claim processed, which is evidently not enough to warrant the pay as a singular claim can be done extremely quickly.

 

So I guess what I would like to see with the jobs where it makes sense to do so (so not jobs like Commissioner and Developer for example which focus on an overarching impact rather than a weekly basis) is people only being allowed to claim their job pay once they've done the job and there is evidence to prove they have done so rather than just being able to claim it whenever the week starts. This is something that we introduced for the VSN when it was clear there was rampant abuse of the claiming system (one such example saw a user claim 11 weeks of the pay with only one article produced during that period) and it's been incredibly effective in stopping this stuff and it is a pretty easy thing to monitor for most jobs (e.g. Fantasy Zone could be monitored with posts of new threads/awarding of TPE, same with Trivia, Recruitment Team can provide links to recruitment based threads like reddit posts, etc.).

 

Speaking of the Recruitment Team, their pay has seen the biggest hit of them all, going down to 6 TPE. I think this is something I'm more behind now than I would have been before, but I think part of that has to do with the fact that I've not personally seen as much activity in these fields in comparison to when I was part of the same crew. Also, while recruitment should continue to be a focus even through this peak period in the VHL's lifespan, it's definitely not as desperately required as it was when we first started offering 12 TPE out specifically for recruitment work, so I can see why the pay would go down at this time.

 

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On another note, the VHL just posted up it's awards for the season and, predictably, Prague Phantoms Brick Wahl took home a boatload of individual awards. Deservedly so, the season that Wahl had was better than any other player and all of the awards that were received based on this individual season were merited. However, I personally don't believe that Wahl was the right candidate for the Dustin Funk trophy, the one which is awarded to the player who has shown the most improvement. While it cannot be denied this is Wahl's best season to date, it isn't like this is the first time that they've put up an exemplary season in regards to the other goalies in the league. In Season 66 for example, Wahl had the highest save percentage in the league and while no award was taken home that season, it still proved that he was already capable of being the best. 

 

Compare that with the climb of Erik Summers, a player who, while he took home the top rookie trophy last season, didn't make that much of an impact in the league as a whole, registering only the 33rd most points for a defenseman. Fast forward to this season and Summers has skyrocketed up the ranks to post the best defenseman points tally of the season and the joint-most assists in the league along with a very impressive +/- of 25. While it's readily apparent that Wahl had the best season, in my eyes, the player that has displayed the greatest improvement against what they had previously shown is Erik Summers.

 

My other gripe was that Keven Foreskin was even on the ballot for this award when there were much more deserving candidates. Foreskin did achieve a career best 65 points this season, but that's not really a considerable improvement over his 58 point season two seasons prior. Compare this to the Seattle duo of Scott Greene and Ambrose Stark, who broke their career best point totals by 18 and 21 respectively to take them from good starters to league best forwards. Funnily enough, Foreskin wasn't even the best candidate on his own team as winger Owen Nolan produced an 18 point improvement over his career best to catapult into eighth in points out of all skaters. 

 

Speaking personally though, this also marks the first VHL award that I've received a nomination and a subsequent vote for to round off what I feel has been a very strong sophomore season for Encarnacion. Heading into the season, I felt like this was the only award I stood any chance of winning, but I didn't feel like I was going to improve by as much as I did given my status as a second line defenseman. 

 

But finally, thanks to the VHL for providing me with content to write about given I've struggled immensely to come up with topics over the past few months.

 

1019 words

 

Using for two weeks (W/E 5/17 and 5/24 barring circumstances)

Edited May 16, 2020 by Tagger

[Beketov 8,693]

16 minutes ago, Tagger said:

One of the problems I had with the job were that there were a few instances where I felt updaters were not doing nearly enough to warrant the 3 TPE (and by that I mean ridiculously low update counts), yet still claiming it anyway. I remember one such instance where I had to tell an updater to start updating or have his claim denied because his combined pay for the month (which had been approved by other updaters) was sitting at exactly 3 TPE per claim processed, which is evidently not enough to warrant the pay as a singular claim can be done extremely quickly.

 

So I guess what I would like to see with the jobs where it makes sense to do so (so not jobs like Commissioner and Developer for example which focus on an overarching impact rather than a weekly basis) is people only being allowed to claim their job pay once they've done the job and there is evidence to prove they have done so rather than just being able to claim it whenever the week starts. This is something that we introduced for the VSN when it was clear there was rampant abuse of the claiming system (one such example saw a user claim 11 weeks of the pay with only one article produced during that period) and it's been incredibly effective in stopping this stuff and it is a pretty easy thing to monitor for most jobs (e.g. Fantasy Zone could be monitored with posts of new threads/awarding of TPE, same with Trivia, Recruitment Team can provide links to recruitment based threads like reddit posts, etc.).

Because of not needing to work with the graders as much anymore we’ve actually set @DollarAndADream the task of auditing updaters every so often to make sure the work is getting done evenly across all and no one is slacking. We’re working on systems to monitor other jobs.

[Victor 10,598]

The Funk was an interesting one this season for sure. I do believe there was no standout skater and Wahl did have quite clearly his best season even if it was after a solid career. I think improving from OK to the best player in the league is still a valid reason to win it.

[Tagger 2,722]

42 minutes ago, Victor said:

 I think improving from OK to the best player in the league is still a valid reason to win it.

 

I guess my point is that, in my eyes, Wahl has already had seasons where he's been considerably more than OK, in fact among the league best. If they had only been OK, then I would have seen more of the argument towards it. 

[Victor 10,598]

59 minutes ago, Tagger said:

 

I guess my point is that, in my eyes, Wahl has already had seasons where he's been considerably more than OK, in fact among the league best. If they had only been OK, then I would have seen more of the argument towards it. 

I don't Wahl had a single All-VHL appearance until this season so in theory never a top 2 goalie in the league. Also seemed to be on the decline in S70 so bounced back in a big way. And I'd argue even if Wahl was in fact among the best in one of those Calgary seasons, the numbers themselves weren't that impressive ergo it was just being good in a bad goaltending year.

 

I think it's definitely not a traditional winner of the Funk I'll give you that, but given how low most skaters' point improvements were, the traditional metrics probably were likelier to be overlooked in S71 compared to most seasons.