If might chime in as one of these "newb" owners, it seems to me like a lot of us new players don't know the rules (and how can we know all the ins and outs as well as a vet owner?) and as cactus said, are gunshy about hitting that veto button. I joined Clarkson as my very first league and realized that I had taken over a team of one and dones for almost all 16 previous seasons. My team was worst in the league, and I really had no clue what I was doing. But I had a blast because I could build the team with my own new players, and cactus's blog was entertaining as hell. Anyways, I guess my point to all the vet owners out there who call Clarkson and others like it a "tard league" and whatnot, is that it seems like cultivating new owners is good for HBD on the whole. A lot of us n00b owners as we're called, join public leagues like this one because we don't know to look elsewhere, or because the private leagues we do see require lots of experience and don't accept new owners, etc... So I'm sure a lot new players who get taken advantage of tend to just say screw it and go spend their money elsewhere because there's no one there to veto because the good owners who do stick around find private leagues. I'm guessing this is part of what went on in Clarkson for years. I for one would like to help build Clarkson into a great world for newer players to join and learn and have fun, but not if I'm the only one. I mean, I am green, so maybe I'm wrong on all this, and there are tons of new owners who don't run into these issues, but seems like with a lot of private worlds needing new owners, HBD could use all the players it can get right?
Anyways, that's my two cents for what it's worth, I am loving HBD even with the drama I've encountered in Clarkson, and there are numerous vet owners willing to help us new guys out learning the game. Special thanks to tecwrg for his help as a mentor!