Thursday, February 28, 2013
Why This Game Is Dead
Over the past few weeks I've been reminded by many of you about things I posted on this site in the past. I think it's only fitting that I actually present this on this site - not only because this is the site that made me even remotely important in the ypool community almost a decade ago, but also because this was attached to Major League Pool, which is still regarded as one of the best interleagues ever. This list is only going to address problems interleagues have caused - not other game sites, the economy, people just moving on, etc. We can't fix those problems. And while it may be too late to fix THESE problems, somebody needs to actually step up and take people to task for contributing towards them. Without further ado, let's look at why this game isn't fun anymore:
#1: Instant Messenger Bans
This is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen. Obviously, the cause of this is... Well... A lot of people. This goes way back to the days of Pool Pals where they were widely suspected of using Skype during matches (even in MLP) - and more recently with a number of people. So someone decided it'd be a good idea to just cut out any instant messenger programs, period. Anything that could be used for voice chat without being detected in a recording is now prohibited. To be fair, it's a real concern. I sat in some Skype calls with Ant, Craig, Dante, Danielle, Nish, Brice etc. where coaching happened. Not in interleagues, mind you, just league games (New Era, to be specific. So... Not even real league games) but one can reasonably assume it happened. The problem with having zero tolerance and disqualifying people, is that people are being DQed for... Nothing. One can have Yahoo! Messenger open, have their buddy list as the lone window open, and even though that could be verified on the tape that player would still be disqualified. Take it from me, perhaps the king of taking people to Dairy Queen back in the day: That's taking it too far. The purpose of recording games is to prove that they were played legitimately. Unless there's a shred of evidence to suggest otherwise, players should be assumed to be playing fairly... Not the other way around.
In addition to the rule just making interleague admins out to be Gestapo-esque, it's not very intuitive. YM, Skype, Ventrillo, these are hardly the only forms of communication. This is 2013. Mobile phones have been around for literally decades. iPods, phones, other computers, it's so easy for somebody to get around this rule that it actually punishes more innocent players than it does cheaters. Do you know how we responded to those Pool Pals allegations in MLP? We investigated, told them they'd never play again in MLP if we caught them (back when being banned from an inter was actually a relevant penalty), and did not punish them because we didn't have proof. We knew there was a good chance that it happened, but we didn't act on it. We couldn't reasonably defend our position if we did, and punishing them may well have brought these types of rules around a lot sooner. I asked one interleague head admin why he has chosen to implement this rule. His answer was "i only ask not to have ym and skype open" ...That doesn't actually answer my question, but it follows along nicely to my next point.
#2: Copycat Rules
This is something that went on even when MLP was around. The difference is that people were copying MLP's rules, which actually made sense. Now they're copying... WPC's, or WPA's, or PRO's... And over time those rules have become more and more senseless. Back when ypool was actually fun, rules existed for specific reasons. They existed because without them, there was a problem that needed to be addressed and people needed guidelines for how to handle certain situations. People understood the spirit of the rule and, while that wasn't always the way it was enforced, it was enforced consistently. If an Admin made a ruling, or interpreted a rule a certain way, other Admins knew about it and we discussed it. If it turns out that ruling was wrong, we took steps to correct things if possible. It was a 7v7 interleague, not carry. The fixes were usually simple. If the ruling was reasonable, it became the precedent and was added into the rules for clarification or announced somewhere players and captains would see it. Today, Admins barely understand their own rules. You can see, constantly, when issues arise at a match there's a long pause while the Admin on duty goes to check the rules to see if that situation is covered. We understood our rules in MLP because WE wrote them and discussed them before every season. Sophie had each of us go through the rules and pick out errors, contradictions, concerns, things we wanted to see added, removed, clarified, etc. and we discussed them. We also had an all-star admin staff. Even the people who didn't get along very well were able to cooperate and have civil discussions. The end result was Major League Pool. I'd say it worked. I don't know what takes place during Admin meetings now. Based on the current products out there, I can safely assume: Not much of the above.
#3: Complete Lack of Decorum (Basically, WPC)
Okay. Granted, these are not businesses. Interleagues are supposed to be fun for both players, captains, spectators, and those who volunteer (key word) to run them for the aforementioned parties. I want to direct your attention to the WPC rules page. There's an old, outdated announcement on the main page from December... 2011! It says "NO ALL STARS TELL PLAYOFFS ARE OVER" ...Go into the actual rules. See how they look like they were typed by an adult? That's because they were. They were easy on the eyes, and it was very clear that the person writing them was someone whose intelligence we could respect. And I don't want to turn this into me just bashing Steven and insulting his intelligence, because he's not an idiot. But what are we supposed to think when we go from "normal" rules text to:
ADMINS AND TEAM CAPTAINS AND CO CAPTAINS ONLY WHEN TEAM CAPTAIN ISNT THERE USING YIM WHILE PLAYING....BUT NO OTHER PROGRAMS RUNNING
THE REST OF THE PLAYERS YIMS AND TALKING PROGRAMS ARE BANNED.....IF NE TALKING PROGRAMS ARE UP WHILE PLAYING AUTO DQ
Read that. Then go read anything else, literally anywhere. Is the point made clearly? Sure. But it looks like a five year old wrote it. At some point, an Admin has to step up and say "hey, let me re-write this so it actually looks good and not just you ranting in all-caps and talking down to the players."
That isn't the only problem in this category. There's also the matter of how matches themselves are handled. This was highlighted during a recent PRO Playoff match between For The Win and Break And Run. During one of the games, a FTW player said "i hope this hits green", and Ant jokingly said "what 1 -_-" referring to the fact there were both the six and 14 balls on the table. BNR's Captain, Jordan, alleged that was coaching because he believed the player then changed his spin and made the correct shot. I didn't see the whole exchange, so I don't have all of the details. But Nish was the Admin/ref in charge. He ruled that it was not coaching. Obviously, there will be a protest (and the following will make me look like a hypocrite, because this is how I was "back in the day") but when the ref makes a ruling, you eventually accept it. It's reasonable to protest a little bit, but at least have the good sense to do it privately and not show him or her up at the table. If you have to, appeal to an Admin or, if the ref is an Admin, appeal to the Head Admin (if available) - if not, here's a novel idea... Try accepting it. Discuss it later, if it makes you feel better, but throwing a hissy fit and causing a scene in the open does not do anything positive for you, anybody else involved, and certainly not the game itself. Casual players from leagues that aren't nearly as competitive get turned off from interleagues when they see behavior like that.
Yes, I know breaking all of the above rules basically led to PFN winning a certain World Series match many years ago. And I was the one who specifically went against all of this in the process. But times change and contrary to popular belief, people do as well. For too long people have been allowed to walk all over refs and admins and the expectation is that they will just take it and let the drama flow. I remember the last PRO match I ever reffed. I told a player who had already won their game that I was going to handle the argument at the table. I told everybody that the discussion at the table was over, and if anybody wanted to continue they could send me messages on YM. Anybody who continued at the table would be booted and they would not be coming back, whether they were scheduled to play in the first five games or had carry games coming up (basically, they'd be DQed) - I did end up giving that punishment to a player who had already won despite specifically warning him multiple times. Nish came in and overturned that, but at least the guy shut up and played rather than adding to the drama. Disqualifying a player is not fun. But sometimes it has to be done to make a point. In that particular situation, I created an expectation that my rulings were to be respected. I had the trust of the PRO Admin Team to supervise that match and make sure it was played fairly and respectfully. While I did ultimately get overruled in that instance, the match continued without incident. It should also be noted, the disqualified player privately appealed to an Admin (Nish) without being an idiot in the lobby, like most people would today.
#4: Tap Games, Slow Play
I won't go on a long-winded rant like I did for #3. I will simply point out that these long tap games send casual players who have better things to do with their time away from interleagues with a negative perception of them. These long, half-hour games are basically strategic decisions to give people who have no other obligations a competitive advantage over others. In a carry format, that advantage is even greater. People have lives, and expecting them to stay at a match for three hours is ridiculous. At least in an interleague like UIC or WPC, a player can play and leave. But when you have to sit there and watch other games while you wait to play again, it's just dumb. While "elite" players may have a negative opinion of casuals and think they don't matter, they DO matter. Magic: the Gathering, for example, is popular not just because of the pro players at the top, but because Wizards of the Coast actually cares about the casual players who may never actually pay $40 to enter a Grand Prix tournament or may not do anything more than open a few booster packs and play at Friday Night Magic in the middle of nowhere, Iowa with some friends and a deck that could never win at a high level of competitive play. Casual ypoolers used to be excited to play for their league in interleagues. Now, the two largest leagues (Extreme Cues and X8B) don't even play in them. There are fewer and fewer casual players as well, because ultimately who cares about playing in a league if that's the only worthwhile competition there is? When the only prize is a few ladderbux playing the same people over and over again, it's just not worth it. At least with interleagues, you could play different people and be part of a team. A team chosen by (ideally) somebody very important in that league to help get a win. When you lose those players, leagued quickly decay and you see situations like we have now where you have to be part of multiple leagues if you want to play any kind of organized pool and not deal with random lobby trolls or wait for your friends to be online.
The other half of this is slow play. Andy, basically. I understand some shots are important. Whole multi-month-long seasons could hinge on certain shots. That does not justify taking 2, 3, 4, 5 minutes or even longer on that shot... Or worse, multiple shots. Joe is the only Admin I know of who has ever given a warning and a game loss for slow play. It was in an irrelevant interleague that I don't even remember the name of. I think he gave those penalties to Ant. I remember that he was chastised for it by numerous people. Currently, a search for "slow" or "stall" yields no results on any interleague rules page I have looked at. It existed in MLP, despite never being enforced (though it should have been.) It's actually one of the reasons I stopped volunteering to ref matches for interleagues. They wouldn't let me give timers because "he's moving the stick", or warn players that they need to shoot or they will be penalized for slow play. It's my firm belief that as an Interleague Admin, you have a responsibility to all of the players to ensure the matches move at a reasonable pace. And allowing players to sit there and take forever on a shot is doing a disservice to a lot of people who just want to play. The common joke with shots like that is that they're getting advice or "two-screening" ... That's a very real concern, isn't it? I worry more about that than I do somebody possibly being on voice chat on YM with a buddy getting coached. Not only does "two-screening" give you an unfair advantage, it slows the match down significantly.
So How Do We Fix This?
Maybe it's too late to fix these problems. Maybe they only exist in my head and aren't actually real problems to many of you playing and running interleagues. But I've seen this game thrive and die, I've taken feedback from many different people and seen others express their displeasure with interleagues and pool in general. The first problem I listed is very easy to fix. Penalize players who cheat or negatively impact the game, and not those who are playing fairly. This notion of being presumed guilty until proved otherwise is not healthy for the game at all. Stopping people from "fishing" for DQs is another thing. Nish did this in the HH-DS match earlier this week. HH waited until a DS player was shooting the eightball to bring up the fact his playing ID was not the same as his name on the DS ladder. First of all, that shouldn't be a DQ anyways. It has no effect on the game. There's no negative impact whatsoever. I HATED giving out that penalty, but yes I absolutely did fish for it as a Captain. It was wrong then, it still is now. And I take responsibility for my part in this. Nish ruled that while yes, it was technically mentioned before the game finished, he wasn't going to allow HH to exploit that rule. HH protested for the whole match, Pete later found out and upheld Nish's ruling. Maybe they're smarter than I give them credit for... ;) If a player is missing half their game on the recording, obviously DQ them. If they are ineligible by way of not being active enough, DQ them. But if it's an ID discrepancy, they're on YM, irrelevant things like that... Come on. Be reasonable.
Communication is absolutely critical. Anytime a change is made, it needs to be communicated to ALL Admins and Captains, and players also need to be directed to those changes somehow. Just posting on the shoutbox "THIS RULE HAS CHANGED MAKE SURE U READ IT" is not enough. Each Captain needs to be told, specifically, "rule 7.1 has changed, and this is what it means" and if you post that explanation in your page's announcement section for players to see, even better. The reason you need to communicate with Captains is because they are responsible for their team. If you tell me a rule has changed, and explain it to me, I will absolutely let each and every one of my players know about it and make sure they all understand it. Will all Captains do that? Probably not. But at least you explained it to them, and you announced it in a respectable way on your main page. If they complain about it, explain to them that you posted a notice about the change, and even went to each Captain so they could explain it to their team. It would also help to take a moment before a match (especially in UIC and WPC, where they're all played simultaneously) to remind players that the rules have changed and give a brief explanation of what the changes mean.
Another thing: If you are an Admin at a match, make the match report yourself. If I recall, PRO has the refs fill out match reports and get results to the Admins. A lot of interleagues do this. UIC and WPC (and others, I'm sure) have Captains fill out a match report and post them in a forum. And if a team forgets to, they get called out in the interleague shoutbox by the admin(s) in charge of stats because it's somehow too hard to just message the captains and ask "hey, who played?" Do you know how much effort that is? I will lay out the steps:
1: Contact the Captains
2: Get a list of matches
3: Verify with profiles/interleague page reports
4: Update stats
If that is too much work for someone who is an interleague Admin, that person needs to consider stepping aside so somebody better suited for the role can take over. If a team routinely forgets to post results, sure. Give them a private talking-to about it, and perhaps penalize them by not having their games counted in the future if they continue to forget... But don't complain about it in the open. That's just poor form. You are volunteering your time for this, sure. But people are also committing their time to your interleague. This is basic customer service. It's not that hard.
There are numerous other problems, I'm sure. This may or may not be a popular post. I get that. But these are things that I feel needed to be said. It needs to be mentioned that these things are not good for interleagues, even though many interleague admins today believe they are. There is an announcement I read before every basketball game at the local high school where I'm the Public Address Announcer. It refers to sportsmanship. Part of that announcement reads: "Mutual respect, fair play, and good sportsmanship will provide the foundation for a great game this evening." That's true in sports, and any competition. And even beginning to implement those ideals in ypool could go a long way in taking this game off life support and at least making it a little more viable than it currently is in the long run.
If you have any thoughts on this long rant, first of all thanks for actually reading it. Second, let me know. I'll try to fix the comments section on here. And the font... I made the mistake of pasting something directly from a page and it screwed everything up for the rest of the post. But I'll work on fixing those. In the meantime... Stay classy.
#1: Instant Messenger Bans
This is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen. Obviously, the cause of this is... Well... A lot of people. This goes way back to the days of Pool Pals where they were widely suspected of using Skype during matches (even in MLP) - and more recently with a number of people. So someone decided it'd be a good idea to just cut out any instant messenger programs, period. Anything that could be used for voice chat without being detected in a recording is now prohibited. To be fair, it's a real concern. I sat in some Skype calls with Ant, Craig, Dante, Danielle, Nish, Brice etc. where coaching happened. Not in interleagues, mind you, just league games (New Era, to be specific. So... Not even real league games) but one can reasonably assume it happened. The problem with having zero tolerance and disqualifying people, is that people are being DQed for... Nothing. One can have Yahoo! Messenger open, have their buddy list as the lone window open, and even though that could be verified on the tape that player would still be disqualified. Take it from me, perhaps the king of taking people to Dairy Queen back in the day: That's taking it too far. The purpose of recording games is to prove that they were played legitimately. Unless there's a shred of evidence to suggest otherwise, players should be assumed to be playing fairly... Not the other way around.
In addition to the rule just making interleague admins out to be Gestapo-esque, it's not very intuitive. YM, Skype, Ventrillo, these are hardly the only forms of communication. This is 2013. Mobile phones have been around for literally decades. iPods, phones, other computers, it's so easy for somebody to get around this rule that it actually punishes more innocent players than it does cheaters. Do you know how we responded to those Pool Pals allegations in MLP? We investigated, told them they'd never play again in MLP if we caught them (back when being banned from an inter was actually a relevant penalty), and did not punish them because we didn't have proof. We knew there was a good chance that it happened, but we didn't act on it. We couldn't reasonably defend our position if we did, and punishing them may well have brought these types of rules around a lot sooner. I asked one interleague head admin why he has chosen to implement this rule. His answer was "i only ask not to have ym and skype open" ...That doesn't actually answer my question, but it follows along nicely to my next point.
#2: Copycat Rules
This is something that went on even when MLP was around. The difference is that people were copying MLP's rules, which actually made sense. Now they're copying... WPC's, or WPA's, or PRO's... And over time those rules have become more and more senseless. Back when ypool was actually fun, rules existed for specific reasons. They existed because without them, there was a problem that needed to be addressed and people needed guidelines for how to handle certain situations. People understood the spirit of the rule and, while that wasn't always the way it was enforced, it was enforced consistently. If an Admin made a ruling, or interpreted a rule a certain way, other Admins knew about it and we discussed it. If it turns out that ruling was wrong, we took steps to correct things if possible. It was a 7v7 interleague, not carry. The fixes were usually simple. If the ruling was reasonable, it became the precedent and was added into the rules for clarification or announced somewhere players and captains would see it. Today, Admins barely understand their own rules. You can see, constantly, when issues arise at a match there's a long pause while the Admin on duty goes to check the rules to see if that situation is covered. We understood our rules in MLP because WE wrote them and discussed them before every season. Sophie had each of us go through the rules and pick out errors, contradictions, concerns, things we wanted to see added, removed, clarified, etc. and we discussed them. We also had an all-star admin staff. Even the people who didn't get along very well were able to cooperate and have civil discussions. The end result was Major League Pool. I'd say it worked. I don't know what takes place during Admin meetings now. Based on the current products out there, I can safely assume: Not much of the above.
#3: Complete Lack of Decorum (Basically, WPC)
Okay. Granted, these are not businesses. Interleagues are supposed to be fun for both players, captains, spectators, and those who volunteer (key word) to run them for the aforementioned parties. I want to direct your attention to the WPC rules page. There's an old, outdated announcement on the main page from December... 2011! It says "NO ALL STARS TELL PLAYOFFS ARE OVER" ...Go into the actual rules. See how they look like they were typed by an adult? That's because they were. They were easy on the eyes, and it was very clear that the person writing them was someone whose intelligence we could respect. And I don't want to turn this into me just bashing Steven and insulting his intelligence, because he's not an idiot. But what are we supposed to think when we go from "normal" rules text to:
ADMINS AND TEAM CAPTAINS AND CO CAPTAINS ONLY WHEN TEAM CAPTAIN ISNT THERE USING YIM WHILE PLAYING....BUT NO OTHER PROGRAMS RUNNING
THE REST OF THE PLAYERS YIMS AND TALKING PROGRAMS ARE BANNED.....IF NE TALKING PROGRAMS ARE UP WHILE PLAYING AUTO DQ
Read that. Then go read anything else, literally anywhere. Is the point made clearly? Sure. But it looks like a five year old wrote it. At some point, an Admin has to step up and say "hey, let me re-write this so it actually looks good and not just you ranting in all-caps and talking down to the players."
That isn't the only problem in this category. There's also the matter of how matches themselves are handled. This was highlighted during a recent PRO Playoff match between For The Win and Break And Run. During one of the games, a FTW player said "i hope this hits green", and Ant jokingly said "what 1 -_-" referring to the fact there were both the six and 14 balls on the table. BNR's Captain, Jordan, alleged that was coaching because he believed the player then changed his spin and made the correct shot. I didn't see the whole exchange, so I don't have all of the details. But Nish was the Admin/ref in charge. He ruled that it was not coaching. Obviously, there will be a protest (and the following will make me look like a hypocrite, because this is how I was "back in the day") but when the ref makes a ruling, you eventually accept it. It's reasonable to protest a little bit, but at least have the good sense to do it privately and not show him or her up at the table. If you have to, appeal to an Admin or, if the ref is an Admin, appeal to the Head Admin (if available) - if not, here's a novel idea... Try accepting it. Discuss it later, if it makes you feel better, but throwing a hissy fit and causing a scene in the open does not do anything positive for you, anybody else involved, and certainly not the game itself. Casual players from leagues that aren't nearly as competitive get turned off from interleagues when they see behavior like that.
Yes, I know breaking all of the above rules basically led to PFN winning a certain World Series match many years ago. And I was the one who specifically went against all of this in the process. But times change and contrary to popular belief, people do as well. For too long people have been allowed to walk all over refs and admins and the expectation is that they will just take it and let the drama flow. I remember the last PRO match I ever reffed. I told a player who had already won their game that I was going to handle the argument at the table. I told everybody that the discussion at the table was over, and if anybody wanted to continue they could send me messages on YM. Anybody who continued at the table would be booted and they would not be coming back, whether they were scheduled to play in the first five games or had carry games coming up (basically, they'd be DQed) - I did end up giving that punishment to a player who had already won despite specifically warning him multiple times. Nish came in and overturned that, but at least the guy shut up and played rather than adding to the drama. Disqualifying a player is not fun. But sometimes it has to be done to make a point. In that particular situation, I created an expectation that my rulings were to be respected. I had the trust of the PRO Admin Team to supervise that match and make sure it was played fairly and respectfully. While I did ultimately get overruled in that instance, the match continued without incident. It should also be noted, the disqualified player privately appealed to an Admin (Nish) without being an idiot in the lobby, like most people would today.
#4: Tap Games, Slow Play
I won't go on a long-winded rant like I did for #3. I will simply point out that these long tap games send casual players who have better things to do with their time away from interleagues with a negative perception of them. These long, half-hour games are basically strategic decisions to give people who have no other obligations a competitive advantage over others. In a carry format, that advantage is even greater. People have lives, and expecting them to stay at a match for three hours is ridiculous. At least in an interleague like UIC or WPC, a player can play and leave. But when you have to sit there and watch other games while you wait to play again, it's just dumb. While "elite" players may have a negative opinion of casuals and think they don't matter, they DO matter. Magic: the Gathering, for example, is popular not just because of the pro players at the top, but because Wizards of the Coast actually cares about the casual players who may never actually pay $40 to enter a Grand Prix tournament or may not do anything more than open a few booster packs and play at Friday Night Magic in the middle of nowhere, Iowa with some friends and a deck that could never win at a high level of competitive play. Casual ypoolers used to be excited to play for their league in interleagues. Now, the two largest leagues (Extreme Cues and X8B) don't even play in them. There are fewer and fewer casual players as well, because ultimately who cares about playing in a league if that's the only worthwhile competition there is? When the only prize is a few ladderbux playing the same people over and over again, it's just not worth it. At least with interleagues, you could play different people and be part of a team. A team chosen by (ideally) somebody very important in that league to help get a win. When you lose those players, leagued quickly decay and you see situations like we have now where you have to be part of multiple leagues if you want to play any kind of organized pool and not deal with random lobby trolls or wait for your friends to be online.
The other half of this is slow play. Andy, basically. I understand some shots are important. Whole multi-month-long seasons could hinge on certain shots. That does not justify taking 2, 3, 4, 5 minutes or even longer on that shot... Or worse, multiple shots. Joe is the only Admin I know of who has ever given a warning and a game loss for slow play. It was in an irrelevant interleague that I don't even remember the name of. I think he gave those penalties to Ant. I remember that he was chastised for it by numerous people. Currently, a search for "slow" or "stall" yields no results on any interleague rules page I have looked at. It existed in MLP, despite never being enforced (though it should have been.) It's actually one of the reasons I stopped volunteering to ref matches for interleagues. They wouldn't let me give timers because "he's moving the stick", or warn players that they need to shoot or they will be penalized for slow play. It's my firm belief that as an Interleague Admin, you have a responsibility to all of the players to ensure the matches move at a reasonable pace. And allowing players to sit there and take forever on a shot is doing a disservice to a lot of people who just want to play. The common joke with shots like that is that they're getting advice or "two-screening" ... That's a very real concern, isn't it? I worry more about that than I do somebody possibly being on voice chat on YM with a buddy getting coached. Not only does "two-screening" give you an unfair advantage, it slows the match down significantly.
So How Do We Fix This?
Maybe it's too late to fix these problems. Maybe they only exist in my head and aren't actually real problems to many of you playing and running interleagues. But I've seen this game thrive and die, I've taken feedback from many different people and seen others express their displeasure with interleagues and pool in general. The first problem I listed is very easy to fix. Penalize players who cheat or negatively impact the game, and not those who are playing fairly. This notion of being presumed guilty until proved otherwise is not healthy for the game at all. Stopping people from "fishing" for DQs is another thing. Nish did this in the HH-DS match earlier this week. HH waited until a DS player was shooting the eightball to bring up the fact his playing ID was not the same as his name on the DS ladder. First of all, that shouldn't be a DQ anyways. It has no effect on the game. There's no negative impact whatsoever. I HATED giving out that penalty, but yes I absolutely did fish for it as a Captain. It was wrong then, it still is now. And I take responsibility for my part in this. Nish ruled that while yes, it was technically mentioned before the game finished, he wasn't going to allow HH to exploit that rule. HH protested for the whole match, Pete later found out and upheld Nish's ruling. Maybe they're smarter than I give them credit for... ;) If a player is missing half their game on the recording, obviously DQ them. If they are ineligible by way of not being active enough, DQ them. But if it's an ID discrepancy, they're on YM, irrelevant things like that... Come on. Be reasonable.
Communication is absolutely critical. Anytime a change is made, it needs to be communicated to ALL Admins and Captains, and players also need to be directed to those changes somehow. Just posting on the shoutbox "THIS RULE HAS CHANGED MAKE SURE U READ IT" is not enough. Each Captain needs to be told, specifically, "rule 7.1 has changed, and this is what it means" and if you post that explanation in your page's announcement section for players to see, even better. The reason you need to communicate with Captains is because they are responsible for their team. If you tell me a rule has changed, and explain it to me, I will absolutely let each and every one of my players know about it and make sure they all understand it. Will all Captains do that? Probably not. But at least you explained it to them, and you announced it in a respectable way on your main page. If they complain about it, explain to them that you posted a notice about the change, and even went to each Captain so they could explain it to their team. It would also help to take a moment before a match (especially in UIC and WPC, where they're all played simultaneously) to remind players that the rules have changed and give a brief explanation of what the changes mean.
Another thing: If you are an Admin at a match, make the match report yourself. If I recall, PRO has the refs fill out match reports and get results to the Admins. A lot of interleagues do this. UIC and WPC (and others, I'm sure) have Captains fill out a match report and post them in a forum. And if a team forgets to, they get called out in the interleague shoutbox by the admin(s) in charge of stats because it's somehow too hard to just message the captains and ask "hey, who played?" Do you know how much effort that is? I will lay out the steps:
1: Contact the Captains
2: Get a list of matches
3: Verify with profiles/interleague page reports
4: Update stats
If that is too much work for someone who is an interleague Admin, that person needs to consider stepping aside so somebody better suited for the role can take over. If a team routinely forgets to post results, sure. Give them a private talking-to about it, and perhaps penalize them by not having their games counted in the future if they continue to forget... But don't complain about it in the open. That's just poor form. You are volunteering your time for this, sure. But people are also committing their time to your interleague. This is basic customer service. It's not that hard.
There are numerous other problems, I'm sure. This may or may not be a popular post. I get that. But these are things that I feel needed to be said. It needs to be mentioned that these things are not good for interleagues, even though many interleague admins today believe they are. There is an announcement I read before every basketball game at the local high school where I'm the Public Address Announcer. It refers to sportsmanship. Part of that announcement reads: "Mutual respect, fair play, and good sportsmanship will provide the foundation for a great game this evening." That's true in sports, and any competition. And even beginning to implement those ideals in ypool could go a long way in taking this game off life support and at least making it a little more viable than it currently is in the long run.
If you have any thoughts on this long rant, first of all thanks for actually reading it. Second, let me know. I'll try to fix the comments section on here. And the font... I made the mistake of pasting something directly from a page and it screwed everything up for the rest of the post. But I'll work on fixing those. In the meantime... Stay classy.
