I am, of course, the guy who currently administers our participation system. I’m also a league member who leverages that system quite heavily—though no longer always at the very top of the list, which is cool…but I digress. Reading the feedback caused lots of thoughts to swirl.
Things like:
- People are not posting things they think are fun because they aren’t sure it fits the concept of “Team News.”
- People are worried their creativity isn’t up to snuff.
- The “requirements” drive some folks more than others.
- The ways we communicate have expanded since the early days of the league
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First: A General Guideline. The most important word in the PPT system is Participation. It is my opinion that what we’re looking for is truly that—a community of people who create and give back to the environment with whatever skillsets you have.
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And now, my semi-random thoughts …
On Skills and Joy: While doing podcasts, it is not unusual for someone to bring up the fact that they feel unhappy with their own writing skills. I totally get it. There are many, many people for whom the act of putting their thoughts on the page is not particularly fun—or at least not nearly as fun as they sound inside their head. Add the fact that (leaving me out of the conversation here) there are several really GOOD writers creating content in our league, and you’ve got a situation where the act of writing also doesn’t feel good because we’re comparing ourselves to others.
I think the most important thing about being in an online league, however, should be about the raw enjoyment the league and your team brings to you. So in some ways, then, the writing requirement creates a dilemma. “I love the league and I love my team, but writing makes me uncomfortable, especially since I know I can get kicked out if I don’t do enough.”
If that resonates with you, then please know it’s not a new concern … nor is it a totally unusual one.
On TN Content/Length: I have seen differing opinions in this area over the nearly 20 seasons I’ve been in the league. Some focus on “at least two paragraphs.” Others on whether the time commitment was “worth” the two points. I am, however, the guy who counts these things, and so until I’m not the guy I suppose it’s my view that ends up driving this the most.
And here is my view…
What I care about the most is that you had fun, and that the content is relevant to your team or the league. For example, Randy—another board member—says he’s mostly interested in league-wide things. Cool. Post league-wide content in a TN, perhaps highlighting how it relates to the Bears. I’ll count it either way, though. Randy’s style is all about information. I love it.
Others have noted modern news and conversation is often done in tweet-sized packets. Cool. Go head and blast me off some “tweets” in the TN sections. (there are some fun fake sites out there that will do actual fake tweets and instas and whatnot that some of us are using…knock yourselves out). It might be useful to note that at one point the league gave PPT for actual tweets, but the service fell out of favor. Challenge me. If you get a fun, bite-sized bit of content, feel free to drop it as a TN. Or drop it as a TN and then add a small conversation around it…I don’t know.
My point there is, just have fun with it and I’ll figure out how to count it. Maybe I’ll look at it and say “hey, these four ‘tweet’ TNs add up to a full TN.” Or maybe, as I think Jeffry noted, you could do a “tweet” post and refresh it often…if it got busy, maybe a “tweet” post for every game month—which when added up becomes six TNs…or 12 TNs when spread over the year. No idea what we can come out with, but if you push me hard enough and consistently enough, we can look at wording the constitution differently to support it. So work in good faith and be creative. We’ll figure it out.
Another example: Mike Simon can write, but his obvious passion right now is graphic design. He’s posted a couple draft TNs that are very few words, but nice bits of graphic work. Yeah, I’ll count them. Why? Well … you know, they do say a picture is worth a thousand words, right?
We’ve added bits to allow podcasts about your team as TNs. Have fun. Grab a free anchor account and record some truly rough podcasts bitching about or exalting in the moment. Drop it in you section and make me figure out how to count it.
Shoeless is doing poetry, for cryin’ out loud. So, yeah…
Bottom line: in my opinion, your TN section is your own little slice of BBA heaven to have fun posting content about your team. If you aren’t sure something you have in mind fits, just do it. The worse that can happen is that I’ll discount the “two points.”
On Requirements: Yes, we say you need to hit six TN and twenty points. The twenty points are a rock-solid, easy item to grasp. Given the above conversation, the six TN are squishy. And, really, they always have been. I mean…it’s true that “even a boring TN is worth two points,” right? And it’s true that some TN go a short paragraph and others run for pages.
The litigious lawyers among us (I’m looking at you Shaw and Nathan) will say “six means six” and “TN means TN” and all that. But I am not a litigious lawyer. I am a system engineer who looks at the situation from a viewpoint that says the “requirements” are about staying in “Good standing” with the league, and that “good standing” comes from participation in ways that include—but go further than—exporting.
If a GM does nothing, and misses the requirements, then yes I am going to recommend to the GB and the Commissioner that the GM in question be put on a Bail Out plan, or, if they are already on a bailout plan, that GM might be on the way out. That’s fine. If you don’t have the time to participate, come back when you do.
But if a GM drops 40 “tweet” TNs and I (for whatever totally subjective reason) have assessed their TN value at “4 TN” then I’ll almost certainly suggest that GM is in good standing. Matt and the rest of the board are, as always, free to tell me I’m wrong and go about enacting sanctions, but past history has shown level heads have usually prevailed.
Bottom line: My view is that we need the requirements to be there so that we have a baseline to compare results against. But GMs should really focus on just having fun adding to the world around us, and let that fall where it may.
On Time Sinks: Participation right now is sky-high. Part of that is purely the heat of the moment (I’m writing this in the middle of the Covid-19 Pandemic), and part of it is that we’ve added several newer GMs who are either massively creative, retired and massively creative, and also familiar with newer forms of communication. Just scan the history of the PPT tracker (or my end of year status reports) and you’ll see that, while the Brewster has always been about participation, it has not always seen this level of rabid engagement.
The point here is that sometimes people have time, and other times they do not. My own history varies from as low as 7 TNs in a year, to has high as … well … really high.
Don’t sweat it.
Everyone is different. Sometimes, in fact, when life is hard it’s actually helpful to throw more time into your team. Sometimes it’s not. Don’t worry. Be happy. If life gets hard, do your best.
In these days where we have a lot of high-volume participation going on, I think it’s important to remember there is nothing wrong with simply hitting the “bare minimums.”
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So, there you are. The thoughts of the guy who counts the points. Maybe it will get me fired, eh? But if not, now you know!
