Apologies, as my time on-forum has been limited recently. I've seen the recent discussion regarding abandoned teams and the debate on the Cameron trade so it seems like a timely opportunity to dig out the existing guidance on this in the 'how I Commish' note below.
The abandoned team scenario is the worst thing to deal with, as the fairest course of action is to actually take no action in-season, and the only effective punishment is to not invite offenders back. However, there may be a genuine reason as to why someone has left a team untouched for a while, so I'll try to understand this too (a good single-week example is if you happen to be at NFL Wembley and there's a late inactive - good luck getting a signal to make a change within the hour before kickoff!)
I don't think Phil's suggestion on a buy-in fix for this is workable though. These leagues are particularly price-sensitive, and the buy-in has to stay relatively low to give it a chance of attracting new managers who are curious to give it a go. However, even the hardcore players will balk at having to stump up a fee as suggested.
Dual-managers are a good option, but again only something we can use in a new season, unless someone is trying to address a potential issue up-front. Otherwise, the fix it creates will have the same effect as if I, as Commish, started tinkering with abandoned teams.
I appreciate the input on this and debate and will always listen to suggestions to try and make these leagues run better. It's been immensely satisfying to see how much people enjoy playing them, especially those giving it a go and getting hooked (yes, I'm looking at you Ironside!) but that doesn't mean that I'm not open to feedback.
Anyhow, here's the guidance from last season, which still stands until further notice.
Much as I hate formality in the league, there is prize money involved, so below are the general principles on my role as Commish, just for clarity and for the aid of the newbies. The over-riding principle is to apply common sense where I can and, if in serious doubt, I'll put things to a vote if absolutely necessary.
We've had two seasons without major incident of note, and I'm confident that we'll make it 3. However, where possible, I'd like to have things set down in advance, just in case I'm caught up in any controversy as a participant.
There are 3 main areas where I want to set out guidelines:
1) Trades
As last year, the trade veto is set to the Commish (i.e. me) having veto power, rather than a league vote as you may see in other leagues you play. This isn't a shot a world domination, just a means to make the league run more smoothly. If a trade gets put to the vote, it usually takes 2-3 days to be processed while the vote stays open, causing frustration if a trade takes place near game-time and doesn't happen that week (even worse if someone in the trade then gets injured before it processes and all hell breaks loose). Having it referred to me is purely a means to speed things up when trades are agreed between teams. Basically, if you're unhappy with a trade then get in touch ASAP and I'll review it, but we won't have an automatic 48-72hr voting period until it gets processed.
The general guideline is that I'm not going to police stupidity, hence 'bad'/uneven trades that you manage to agree are fine (and in some cases to be admired!) I'll only intervene if I suspect there's collusion, or if someone complains and I review and uphold the complaint (the review process generally being to ask the managers to justify it from their viewpoint). Provided there's a valid explanation from each manager as to why it benefits their team, then that should generally suffice. Consequently, I'd be surprised if I need to take any action on any trades during the season, so I don't expect this to actually have any material impact on the trade process.
I'll obviously try to get trades processed ASAP once notified, but please be mindful of the review process, especially close to gametime, as I can't always guarantee to be available. However, we've had no major issues to date and I intend for this to continue.
2) Abandoned Teams
Pretty much the only thing I ask of managers who join the league is that they continue to manage their teams to the end, no matter how badly they're doing. The reason for this is that the integrity of the league depends on everyone staying involved. This season is the first time I've been over-subscribed for the league (we've had one reserve who I couldn't accomodate this time around) so we now have the possibility of replacing managers in future seasons if they don't abide by these principles.
For clarity, all I'm talking about here is taking the 10 minutes each week to set your best available line-up and, in particular, to deal with players on bye weeks or with long-term injuries so that they're not sitting in your starting line up. I can live with occasional lapses, but am more concerned with persistent, sustained abandonment which will likely result in someone not being invited back next year.
However, in the event that a team does become abandoned, then the treatment I will adopt is to do nothing with their team in terms of changing it's line up. This is the fairest method available as the advantage/disadvantage to other managers is effectively random (i.e. I don't know at this point who will benefit from this, whereas any intervention at the time will have a clear outcome in terms of creating and advantage/disadvantage for someone, potentially myself).
The one exception is if someone maliciously abandons their team and dumps all the players back into the free agent pool (where the advantage of this would depend on the current waiver priority). In this case, I will intervene to return the abandoned team to it's previous state, before then treating as an abandoned team as above.
3) Unforeseen Events/Site Errors
I'm mentioning this one as the site sometimes creates some uncertainty as to how it will deal with something (e.g. league tie-breakers, or play-off seeding). Generally, if something of this nature arises, the principle I try to apply is to replicate how the real NFL works. If the site appears to be doing something contrary to this, and it has an impact on the integrity of the league in my opinion (i.e. a No1 seed being given a disadvantageous play-off draw due to a miscalculation by the site) then I will intervene as necessary to correct this. If so, I will always attempt to give notice of my intentions on the thread, so that objections can be raised in advance.
Ultimately, it's in my interests for you guys to continue to trust me to run this, otherwise it will fall apart going forward, so everything I do with this league is generally in it's best interests long-term. I hope this is obvious at the time, but am again stating this now in case it's not.
Right, enough of the formalites. Hope that's sufficient for everyone, but feel free to ask questions if anything is unclear.
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