That being said, as we each grow up in our own separate ways, from the 20s into the 30s and onward into the 40s and 50s, the CKL has evolved along with us. This is the 12th season we've been playing fantasy football together, and from where I'm sitting, there's no end in sight.
However, I do have a concern.
With less free time for fantasy football, we've seen a decrease in message board activity over the last several seasons. This in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing. But looking at Wahoo League Baseball (the CKL's baseball-playing cousin), I'm seeing a league die from lack of conversation.
That's not the fate of the CKL. But it's also not hard to connect the dots from where we are right now, to the 14 of us backing off a little bit more season by season, to the point where we go quiet as a league. And if we go quiet, we die.
One of the clearly-stated CKL league pillars is ACTIVITY. To quote:
As a CKL coach, you are expected to be an active, vocal member of the league. This is measured by certain key baselines: attending the draft, managing your team and roster, posting on the league message boards and smack boards, voting in league polls, promptly responding to trade offers, commenting on your league brothers' blog posts, and generally making a point of staying involved. If your activity level ever drops to unsatisfactory levels, you will receive a warning. If you ever commit an egregious act of inactivity (failing to bench a player during his bye week, not attending the draft in any capacity, etc.), you are subject to removal from the league without warning. This is a serious fantasy football league, and we expect all of our coaches to be serious about maintaining competitive integrity through constant, unwavering activity.
Why am I bringing this up?
Well, first and foremost, I want everyone to know that I'm planning on making good on the threats when it comes to fielding a complete team. Starting a player on bye or a player who is injured and widely known to be missing the game has been met with leniency the last two years. No longer. Moving forward, unless you can explain the move ahead of time ("I'm starting this kicker on a bye week because he's the best kicker in the league and I don't want to drop him or anyone else on my roster to pick up a new one."), you will be run from the league for failing the minimum baseline requirements of participation. I am now a ZERO tolerance Commissioner when it comes to this.
Secondly, I want to simply remind everyone of what the commitment to being a CKL coach means. It means being active and participating in the overall league narrative via message board and smack board activity. It means replying to trade offers in a timely fashion -- no trade offer should reach the point of expiration, ever. And it means checking the CKL site regularly, as in, daily or as close to daily as humanly possible.
Finally, in the context of all of this, I want to present an idea:
Weekly Message Board Masters.
The concept is simple. There are 14 of us, and 13 weeks of the regular season. Count the entire postseason as the 14th "week," and we can divvy up the weeks of the season among the 14 of us.
So we have a draft for weeks. Then, when it's your week, you are responsible for starting ONE thread on the message board. It doesn't have to be about football, it can be anything you want to talk about.
This doesn't mean you shouldn't/can't start threads when it's not your week, it just means that each week we'll have a featured thread, started by that week's message board master.
We should also each make a concerted effort to participate in that thread, understanding that people go on vacation and get busy at work or home and may not find a ton of time for it.
So what do you think, guys? Weekly Message Board Masters... is it a go?
Why am I bringing this up?
Well, first and foremost, I want everyone to know that I'm planning on making good on the threats when it comes to fielding a complete team. Starting a player on bye or a player who is injured and widely known to be missing the game has been met with leniency the last two years. No longer. Moving forward, unless you can explain the move ahead of time ("I'm starting this kicker on a bye week because he's the best kicker in the league and I don't want to drop him or anyone else on my roster to pick up a new one."), you will be run from the league for failing the minimum baseline requirements of participation. I am now a ZERO tolerance Commissioner when it comes to this.
Secondly, I want to simply remind everyone of what the commitment to being a CKL coach means. It means being active and participating in the overall league narrative via message board and smack board activity. It means replying to trade offers in a timely fashion -- no trade offer should reach the point of expiration, ever. And it means checking the CKL site regularly, as in, daily or as close to daily as humanly possible.
Finally, in the context of all of this, I want to present an idea:
Weekly Message Board Masters.
The concept is simple. There are 14 of us, and 13 weeks of the regular season. Count the entire postseason as the 14th "week," and we can divvy up the weeks of the season among the 14 of us.
So we have a draft for weeks. Then, when it's your week, you are responsible for starting ONE thread on the message board. It doesn't have to be about football, it can be anything you want to talk about.
This doesn't mean you shouldn't/can't start threads when it's not your week, it just means that each week we'll have a featured thread, started by that week's message board master.
We should also each make a concerted effort to participate in that thread, understanding that people go on vacation and get busy at work or home and may not find a ton of time for it.
So what do you think, guys? Weekly Message Board Masters... is it a go?
