HULA musings (don't worry, GenHE fans...we are moving Tuesday)

[gonores]

It’s nice to watch HULA take shape. I think we have a real good base for a learning tool here, but it’s time to start making some judgment calls on this. I would really appreciate any and all comments on these topics or any other HULA topics.

Allow me to clarify something before I get any farther. I was very hands-off when it came to problems with TPC. I told everyone to go to support, and I think that might have put some players off from coming to me about other HULA problems. I read every single HULA post, and I read every single PM, and I reply to every PM that needs a reply. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, raise beefs, etc.

1. I am leaning heavily toward moving HULA-related stuff to John’s forum. This appears to be the only fair way to resolve this situation. Take a look around the General Forum….not a lot of good threads have gone up this month (except for the DR posts, which, however, are also getting lower responses). Mason and 2+2 in general shouldn’t need to put up with it, be it in the GHE or the HU/SH forum. Unless there are objections, we will start posting on John’s site in Week 3 (starting Tuesday).

2. OK. It’s honesty time. HOW FREAKIN HARD IS IT TO GET THESE MATCHES SCHEDULED? The thing that worried me most about this league is starting to happen. Technically, Week 3 should start today, but only about half the total matches for Week 2 have been played. There are some of people here who are really active and are clearly doing their part to make HULA tick, but there are a lot of players that just aren’t putting any effort in to this….and I mean ANY. It’s not that hard, people. PM your opponent, set a time, play a match. What can I/we do to make this any easier for you? If it comes down to me having to babysit players and PMing them on my own to make sure we get all our matches in, I will not run the league next season.

Here is my proposal for Week 2. Somewhere in the pile of preseason HULA posts, I am pretty sure I said the burden of scheduling lies on the lower-ranked opponent (and if I didn’t, I will now). I am doing this because I am stereotyping the lower picks as newer to the forum, less frequent visitors, and all-in-all less reliable than top picks. The implicit argument is that more often than not, it’s going to be the lower-ranked player’s fault that the match did not take off more often than not. Week 3 will start at Midnight Central time on Tuesday. At that time, all unreported matches (this means that I know nothing about the match or who is at fault) will go to the higher-ranked player. Do me a favor, go to Simon’s site, and make sure that your score has been reported.

If it so happens that you are the lower-ranked player and you can’t get a hold of your opponent, please either contact me or post it here. Oh yeah, and make sure to PM your opponent again and again, with read receipts.

3. This whole substitute thing driving me crazy too. We’ve had to look for subs in a few cases over the past two weeks, and it sucks. None of them have replied to PMs. Even if we do make it happen, we have to go through the entire headache of getting them on to TPC (and explaining that they don’t need to pay to get on the tables). I, along with the other commishes, are going to rack our brains to come up with a solution for this, but anyone else is welcome to comment on it.

I may come up with some other stuff, but as I am writing this, I have noted that ToT (BTW, thank you for piping up about your concerns…HULA would be a way more bumpy ride without you) is firing questions in the Week 2 thread, and I am not sure how long it will take me to get the rest of my thoughts on paper, so I am posting this right now.

Thanks,

Doug

[Simon Diamond]

First up, good job with HULA so far. It is not easy running any league, and this one is no exception.

OK. It’s honesty time. HOW FREAKIN HARD IS IT TO GET THESE MATCHES SCHEDULED? The thing that worried me most about this league is starting to happen. Technically, Week 3 should start today, but only about half the total matches for Week 2 have been played. There are some of people here who are really active and are clearly doing their part to make HULA tick, but there are a lot of players that just aren’t putting any effort in to this….and I mean ANY.

I run a snooker league. I run a competition once a month, usually about 6-8 guys in it - they always take forever to finish.

We are talking about 5-6 matches usually, yet people are incapable of organising matches - so I sympaphise with you. I couldn't think of any reasonable suggestion for awarding unresolved matches, so your system may be the only way.

It's a shame though, somebody defaulting their match could in theory cost their team - something which is totally unfair on the rest of the team that made the effort to show up.

Not a nice headache you have got on your hands is it? [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Simon

[Nick B.]

Since there is a home and away team. You could have the home team pm their opponent with times during the week they are free and have the away team respond with the most convenient. I don't know if this would be better than having the lower ranking person pm, but it is an option.

[gonores]

The problem there is that H&A teams were completely arbitrarily assigned. It just shifts responsibilty from my reasoning to randomness.

D

[rusty JEDI]

[ QUOTE ]
Here is my proposal for Week 2. Somewhere in the pile of preseason HULA posts, I am pretty sure I said the burden of scheduling lies on the lower-ranked opponent (and if I didn’t, I will now). I am doing this because I am stereotyping the lower picks as newer to the forum, less frequent visitors, and all-in-all less reliable than top picks. The implicit argument is that more often than not, it’s going to be the lower-ranked player’s fault that the match did not take off more often than not. Week 3 will start at Midnight Central time on Tuesday. At that time, all unreported matches (this means that I know nothing about the match or who is at fault) will go to the higher-ranked player. Do me a favor, go to Simon’s site, and make sure that your score has been reported.


[/ QUOTE ]

It would be nice for the team captains to at least know what is going on. I think that if for some reason your PM's arent being returned, please notify the team Captain. N1stunnor could not get a hold of his guy, and i was able to find a permanent replacement. If stunnor had not let me know, the matches would definetly have gone unplayed.

In the case of getting substitutes, maybe we could just have someone from your own team cover you for that week. To make sure that the best players arent playing all the matches then maybe you can only do it once until everyone has subbed once through your own teams list.

Thanks

rJ

[gonores]

That needs to be handled from captain to captain. I dragged a few of the captains into this, so I don't want to aggravate them with the inane tasks of micromanaging the team if they don't want it.

Doug

[Simon Diamond]

At that time, all unreported matches (this means that I know nothing about the match or who is at fault) will go to the higher-ranked player.

When you say higher-ranked player, are you referring to the draft positions? If you are, there could be a scenario where undrafted players do not arrange their match - the whole of Team Canada is undrafted.

I know you don't need more crap, but I couldn't help but notice this.

Simon

[gonores]

Jeez....Team Canada....do we need any more evidence that they are the special ed. siblings of the US? Always causing problems.....

They have been ranked by number of posts, so that means the late rounders still fall into the stereotype of more unreliable. TC's first rounder will be on par with other first rounders. If two players of the same rank (1st rder vs. 1st rder) play, consider TC to have the responsibility. They will be considered the last pick of each round.

Doug

[jasonHoldEm]

Doug (and everyone else involved)

Thanks for all your hard work. I ran a couple tournaments and it was a serious pain in the a$$ I couldn't imagine trying to run a league.

Anyways, one thing I learned from the tournaments I ran...players will follow a leader that makes decisions. Don't worry about trying to get everyone's opinion or input, do whatever is for the greater good (and sometimes the greater good is whatever makes it easiest for you). Be a fearless dictator. We all appreciate your hard work and effort, so go ahead and make executive decisions as necessary...no one is going to mind (or they will get over it).

Thanks again,
Jason

[Simon Diamond]

no one is going to mind (or they will get over it).

And the ones who do mind and can't get over it are not worth the effort anyway.

Simon