114 openings in 27 worlds between seasons at this point
Seven worlds have waited two or more weeks to fill.
One of the worlds rolled over six weeks ago.


Discuss.

Good worlds fill relatively quickly.   Other worlds don't.

Discussion over.

Discussion re-opened.

I will admit that the problem feeds on itself.    A world rolls and has 5 openings.  No one has done anything to bring in one owner, let alone five, until this happens.   A couple of people gets antsy and now there are 7 openings.    Potential owners see 7 openings and think "WTF is wrong with that world?" and move on.    World eventually decides to go public.   They get a bunch of one and dones and roll with 9 openings because a couple of LT owners say "Screw this."   And it continues on. 

My worlds roll and fill quickly.

I don't see a problem.

THREAD CLOSED

As has been said- private, it's a commish/owners issue.  If they did their job (starting at the top with commish), they'd fill quickly, and be a desirable place to be.  Public- I blame the owners in that world.  Most of the public worlds that have large amount of holes have a large amount of turnover- which keeps the cycle going.  But why did it get there?  Were bad trades being ignored?  Were tanking/inactive owners not being recruited to be replaced?  If you have 10 LT owners in a public league and they take turns finding quick replacements, those bad teams aren't as undesirable, and you fill quicker.  Not saying that's their job, just saying they could help the league they're in, and it would move along quicker.

My blame to WIS- the fact that there isn't some automated system in place to advertise and fill inactive teams mid-season and to replace owners under the tanking line.  (What I envision is a page very similar to the open worlds signup page, where it tells you how may owners are available to replace, and you just click your way in like buying a new team.  Maybe a limit per week or something, but I would love to see it).  If there was a page I could go to right now, and quickly replace inactive/tanking owners in public worlds alone, it would keep those worlds better, and give newbie type owners more chances to learn for free.

My opinion: public worlds should be seen only as a "training ground" for new players to get their feet wet and learn the game.  After a couple of seasons in a public world, THEN you look for a solid private world (with a good track record and responsible commish) for the long term.

Anybody who decides to stay long term in a public world shouldn't have any expectations of stability and competitiveness.  It's great if they get it, but they also shouldn't complain if they don't.

You can't expect much in a public world.   After all, there's no screening process for new owners.    And, regardless of what people say, most are selfish.   If a divisionmate gets 6 wins over an abandoned team, we want our wins against that unmanned team.   

But he makes a good point.  You can't throw all the blame at a commish.   I can scream all day about a horrible trade, a trade that may violate league rules, but, if the owners don't veto, all I did was scream all day.  The owners have to take some ownership/pride in their world to make it work.

http://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?TopicID=436372&ThreadID=9407670#l_9407670

Not happening now, but that is what's missing.

You have leagues that fill, no sweat. That is your core HBD player and well commished league. And there are enough to fit your taste, whether you like/don't like MWR, whether you like/don't like caps on IFA/trades, etc etc.

The existing problem now is, how do you get from the new guy who wants a good experience to well commished league nirvana? Someone(s) needs to be willing to be that guy who commishes a league(s), accepts newbs, and directs the experience to be a positive one.

And I don't mean "oh, our well established league accepts newbs". Even a well intentioned league who does that, and has owners that are willing to help and direct, in the end you have the experience that the newb doesn't, and will bend that newb over the table to get a good record.

Not sure how that solves the problem but congrats on tooting your own horn.

Part of the problem is that it's a niche' market.   Everyone here, excluding me, is somewhat nerdly.    Nerds and sport-based games aren't that compatible.  Throw in the fact that nerds like to figure something out quickly and move on only makes it worse.  Either they figure it out and move on or don't figure it out quickly and get frustrated.    I've never been a "CONTRACT THOSE CRAPPY WORLDS" guy because I think that just further dilutes the customer base.   I'd be ****** if WifS said "MikeT23, we've decided that users can only commish one league.  Which one are you dropping?" so there's no reason to believe anyone would be happy if WifS told them they were shutting down a world they've been in since 2009.   But, that said, someone needs to figure out how to shave 20 worlds off the list WITHOUT alienating customers.   So here we are.  Someone figure it out.

GO!!!!

You guys already mentioned that one of the things that helps to kill a league are abandoned teams, and of course that's correct. But one thing that WIS has done to hinder a commish is not allowing a user to have more than of these 'replacement teams'. I've seen ads in the classified section sit there for days looking for a replacement owner, and I know for sure that a replacement whore like myself or tec or would take that team if we could. I just don't think that WIS takes the time to truly understand the ramifications of many of their decisions, or lack of decisions.
Of course I don't think that WIS takes much time to do much of anything related to HBD anymore, anyway.

Well, if we want to gripe about WifS and what they should/shouldn't do, here's one.

Three teams were/are eligible to roll today.    Diamondbacks rolled first with 7 openings.   Musial has 6 non-asterisked teams.   Moonlight Graham has zero openings.    Now, if you were manning the rollover button, which world goes first?    That's even smart financially.