When you are in a forum draft, there are certain rules of etiquette that should be adhered to. Failure to follow these simple rules often cause unnecessary hissy-fits by all those involved.

(1) Never disappear for days
This is the most obvious rule. Yes, we all know you have very important things to do and this is just a silly game. Guess what, most everybody else has other things of importance to do also. Yet, somehow we all find the 5-10 minutes needed to post a pick (out of respect for the rest of the league). By you ignoring this rule, and then claiming you had other more important things to do, you are implying you are better than everybody else, your time is more valuable and everybody else needs to chill and wait for you. Don't be that person.

(2) If the delay is unavoidable - let others know
There have been times where I may be on an airplane or in an area without internet service. I will know this in advance and let my league mates know, By communicating this, I've found that the backlash isn't nearly severe if you are a little tardy making your pick.

(3) When possible, send a proxy of picks
I know that this isn't convenient for every type of draft, but even if you send a few players to a league member to post for you, the others in the draft are more appreciative of your effort and they will be more forgiving if you end up being late with the next pick after that.

(4) Contact a friend or relative who plays on this site to communicate for you
Sometimes, a family and/or medical emergency prohibits you from following rules 1-3 above. In this case, a quick text message to a friend or relative to post something on your behalf is appreciated. calhoop got snowed in in the mountains for a week (lost electricity). He was able to charge his phone using his car charger and text me picks for a couple of drafts he was in. Imagine if he just stopped communicating for a week. How do you think the others in the league would have reacted?

(5) Don't disappear
Did I mention this already? It's the most obvious rule. It basic human decency. Don't be a rude selfish asswipe who thinks his time is more valuable than everybody else's.

Love this.

1 & 2 are key. There's almost no backlash at all if you say "sorry guys, I can't pick for 12 hours." The wait can be frustrating, but what annoys people most is making time to check in regularly, only to find out nothing has moved. If I know you're not making your pick today, I know I don't need to check in, so there's no frustration.

Also, an apology goes a long way. I've gotten distracted before and left a league waiting, and apologized on my return. Getting defensive and accusing everyone else of having no life only adds fuel to the fire.

The bottom line is, even if it's just a game, when you agree to join a league, you're accountable to the 23 other owners.

All great points, schwarze, but alas the owners who should read this, won't.

And even if they did read it, well, it's not as if they're going to have an epiphany and become more thoughtful: "Hey, my rude selfish asswipe behavior is very annoying to others. I'd better cut it out!"

As I see it, the real problem in prog leagues is finding recruits to take over teams. If that weren't so hard, you'd see two things:

1. Commishes not being so tolerant of crappy owners, and simply booting them from leagues.

2. Crappy owners, seeing there might be consequences, improving their behavior.

By the way, I'm in no way criticizing commishes for tolerating crappy owners. I know they're stuck between a rock and a hard place.

i would like to see a standard where commissioners come down hard on cheaters and tankers because they feel morally compelled to and think it is their job and dont want to be crappy to the honest owners.

i see little evidence of this.

also i have been a longtime propenent of the 18 hour rule..you get 18 hours on non scheduled draft time to draft after the prior pick or the commisioner picks for you.
i am happy to say that the great ljmed employed this ( he did 24 hour im not picky ) and it was a mucher faster draft.

Can we pin this to the top of every draft thread?

In addition, the debate always comes up on how much of the draft (if any) should be untimed. There always seems to be one or two that want to abuse the untimed portion and make everyone wait. Even if we give the offender the benefit of the doubt to say that they are working on multiple trade offers for their pick, some sort of update and apology for the delay is only common courtesy. Even then, there should be some limit to "untimed". I like the 24-hour per person limit that was suggested above.

Even 24 hours can stretch things out a lot, but some limit on untimed picks is necessary. We recently had an owner wait until his pick was up, post that it was available for trade, and then not return to make his pick for 12 hours.

i like 18 hours.....as far as i know LJ was the first to do it...and after mentioning it in forums many times today is the first time anyone ever responded favorably to it...it should become the norm...it is a hula hoop.

As I only play in progressives, may I add:

--When drafting off the clock, sitemail the next three owners...like you're usually asked to do. If you can't, ask if someone can do it for you.

--In multiseason leagues, please post what year the player you're drafting is from. Maybe it's just me, but I hate flipping through my notes looking for some obscure middle infielder with one WIS season that you drafted to eliminate him from my list.

Luckily, I'm in leagues with really good owners and commissioners.

and also in dual league progs it is nice to give the position and year of cut players.

Since trades have been mentioned, perhaps what needs to happen is that there should be a general agreement that trades involving the active pick won't be accepted/offered if it's been longer than a certain length of time... you need to think, fine, you want to wait to see if someone will offer, no one wants your pick or they would've offered already, past a certain point...

The good owners have contingencies in place. I (and I know other owners) will often have 2-3 trades worked out that are conditional upon a certain player still being available when the pick comes up. If the pick comes up and that player is still on the board, deal is already worked out, done. No time lost. There's really no excuse to wait until it's your pick to start shopping it.

Very well said schwarze. This post should be pinned, and should be posted at the top of every single league that incorporate a draft.

(6) Don't complain if you get skipped after violating rules 1-5 above, or if you don't like the pick someone posted for you during your absence. Just as there are more important things in life than checking this website and posting your draft pick promptly, there are more important things than getting bent out of shape over missing the player you wanted. Corollary: Don't complain about anything that traces back to your own mistake, like seeing a player drafted who you meant to include as your own keeper. Yes, sometimes common sense and courtesy suggests that everyone should know Barry Bonds is supposed to be a keeper. Most owners will let you correct that mistake. But if you left him off your keeper list, you are the one who caused the problem.

What about draft etiquette for commissioners? Some situations seem like a lose-lose, and I wonder what others think about the best way to proceed:

- If an owner misses a pick and gets skipped, how many other picks should you allow before making a pick for that owner yourself? There's always the dilemma that soon after you post that pick, the owner will show up and want a completely different player.

- If you overlook someone on a keeper list and accidentally list a player as available, how do you handle it when that player gets drafted? If it is noticed immediately, it can be easy to resolve. But if the player gets drafted and then several other picks are made before anyone points out the mistake, it can get messy.

- How often do you NEED to update the available players list? Of course frequent updates are best, but at what point would you need to pause a draft in order to catch up? I think if the commish gets more than ~15 picks behind, it starts to be a problem. If the commish can't at least update things after every round, the draft probably should have a delay. Then again, people want to keep a draft moving...