Posted by jibe on 12/19/2014 12:57:00 PM (view original):
I don't think there really is any easy solution for HBD. But what is tried and true to what does work is polling owners well before the season ends on who will return or not and getting a classified ad up and running by the end of the regular season. Far too many worlds roll over and a week later they are just getting an ad up. I have also read many a coaches chat where almost a week after rollover has occured that the commish will state something like, " I want to give the old owners another 2 or 3 days to reup before I get an ad up". Guess what dude? I and 25 others want to get playing again and you have yet to post a classified.
Also having a firm MWR is a good thing to abide by. For those owners that don't want one they have public worlds that they can play in.
But interest in HBD is waning. It is for me as well. I will be running 2 or 3 teams in the coming year as opposed to the 5 I ran this past year.
This?
I won't blame commishes for failure but there are few easy steps to follow(and they're not time consuming):
1. treat everyone fairly
2. put the best interests of the world first
3. find out who's staying/leaving sooner rather than later
4. start recruiting early even if you don't know if you have openings
5. remove absentee owners promptly
6. enforce rules evenly(or create rules that the world wants)
7. vet new owners. Check their record, ask someone you recognize about them in a world they're in, etc, etc
None of this takes a great deal of time. And you'll find that the commishes of the "good" worlds do every one of these. And, if you don't have that sort of time, pass it on to someone who does.