[center][b][u]Response to Stallion[/u][/b][/center]<br /><br />[quote author=ItalianStallion link=topic=173.msg1509#msg1509 date=1266648773]The thing is, people don&#039;t want to get stuck with someone for an entire two seasons if the team doesn&#039;t end up too well.&nbsp; Which is kind of long.&nbsp; IMO, a franchise player might be someone who can&#039;t get traded to another team for that season only.[/quote]<br /><br />Not sure if you&#039;ve actually read the rules, but that&#039;s exactly what a franchise player is. A franchise player and captain must AGREE to play on the same squad. This applies to a potential second season. For example, if you didn&#039;t want to play with Mantis &amp; BBC for the second season, you could simply not re-franchise with him.<br /><br />[quote author=ItalianStallion link=topic=173.msg1509#msg1509 date=1266648773]As for team balance, have people apply for a &quot;franchise status&quot;.&nbsp; The board will then assign players to be franchise players and have them be first picks no matter what.&nbsp; This ought to be based on how active the player is, and how well they play.&nbsp; And not only on skill alone.&nbsp; So there&#039;s no clowning around and picking someone because you like them, because that doesn&#039;t seem to work.[/quote]<br /><br />Why not just do away with franchising in this case and let the player base decide who deserves to go in the first round? Why should league administration have to rank players who, once it comes down to picks 7/8, may not be the best fit for those teams?<br /><br />[quote author=ItalianStallion link=topic=173.msg1509#msg1509 date=1266648773]Oh and server variety plz kthnx.[/quote]<br /><br />This rule change passed last week which goes into effect in Summer 2010 season might be of interest to you.<br /><br />[quote author=2/15/10 IDL Rule Change link=topic=171.msg1496#msg1496 date=1266278730]<br />All games must be played on official IDL servers, which are listed on the IDL site. Games played on other servers will not be recognized. The server hosting the game must be agreed upon at least 24 hours before the game is scheduled to take place, and all rounds of said game must be played on the same server. In the event of server disputes, or should no discussion take place, TotalTrash Chicago will be used. Should the hosting server become unavailable during a scheduled game time, that game will be postponed.[/quote]<br /><br />[center][u][b]Other Stuff[/b][/u][/center]<br /><br />The community is currently going through a changing of the guard so to speak and, thus far, it appears bleak to someone who has been here for a decent deal of time. However, I ask that you look around you and compare our current player base to the player base from even two years ago. You&#039;ll find that, despite outcry that we&#039;re losing players, we&#039;re likely right around the same amount of players. They&#039;re just different faces.<br /><br />I feel that the biggest problem facing the IDL right now is that new people aren&#039;t stepping into leadership roles. As strong personalities like Chaindude, Humanbones, and others begin to cycle out, it&#039;s up to new blood to take the reigns and step into positions to continue to lead the league in the right path. Of the eight captains that started this season, only one of them is a rookie captain (Ladna). Where&#039;s the fire in the belly that players used to have?<br /><br />So the question becomes, how do we inspire new leadership, how do we get players to step their game up? Strong personality will only serve to attract more new players to the league.<br /><br />Also, as an added note, it would be helpful to the cause if some of our veterans (some of which complain about these issues) didn&#039;t try their best to make newer players feel like shit in the off-seasons because they aren&#039;t superstars yet. New players should be encouraged, not driven away.