The good ole days

So josephkendall would seem to be an example of how good customer service can lead to customer loyalty.

About 2 years ago there was a series of things bad happening and I was ready to quit. Vented some of my frustration on the boards with full intent to walk away. Bernie reached out and addressed some of my concerns via email. It was because of that I stayed. If the current policy of only monitoring the boards to prevent criticism were in place back then we would probably both be gone. Wonder if there is a moral to those stories?

The question we hafta ask ourselves, is, do we, yes we, you, I, and everyone that frequents the boards, try to regain those glory days...

I suppose when all the dust is swept away my memory of what was along with a hope of it being that again some day is why I sign in and check the boards every day still.

Love the campfire stories of the good old days...

I still have some old excel spreadsheets that I assembled by hand, all cut and paste, with all the stats from each player from every season I could scavenge. Then Treyomo came up with the master list and shared with all, updated occasionally. Then Diamond Dope opened the keys to the kingdom for all.

Penngray (our first "Adrian") and his first live draft app, and the initial debate about whether that tool was better than using the boards for live drafts. Remember drafting on those boards? No notifications, so you had to check in constantly, but the banter was half the fun. Funny how things seem to be better when you have to put some effort and heart and soul into it. Not so special when the work is done for you.

Dobak was the first real "godfather" of the online game. Too bad he wandered off.

I was in some of Mister Leo's themes, I've got an old spread sheet called "Mr.Leo copycat".

My favorite theme was the 12 team theme. 12 of us owners committed to owning 12 teams, for each league we had a draft position of 1-12 (everyone had each position for one league). You got to draft your team, post it, and then the next owner drafted from the remaining players. The player pool was just right for that league, the dropoffs from the best players to the 12th best options was dramatic, but you could assemble a nice team in the later slots. I think I won close to 90 games with one of my lower draft slots, all defense and pitching.

I remember the Dream team leagues, PJ - those were a blast. They just aren't the same with such an expanded pool. There were others, like the Alphabet leagues, where the draft went alphabetically starting with a random letter, and each person had to select the appropriate last name. In draft banter, weasel was the term du jour - not sure who started it, but the back and forth was half the fun - Rick, rob, rjoh, pj, pbtr, pjmb, tkl, the list goes on....

My personal opinion, which will not be shared by most on this board - accept the game with its flaws but campaign behind the scenes for change. Post topics about the players, your leagues, real baseball stuff, thoughts on teams, theme leagues. Chatter in leagues. Is that letting SOM off the hook? Perhaps. But I'd rather enjoy the game as is and have a stronger community than constantly be marching to the castle walls with torches and pitchforks.

Couldn't have said it better myself, treyomo.

Not so special when the work is done for you.

This is true about so many things in life.

I still have some old excel spreadsheets that I assembled by hand

Back in 2001 and in ATG1 when it all started I entered all the data from a card in to a spreadsheet and then imported in to access where I would sort it by all kinds of wild themes to create teams off of. Was a lot of work, especially after most of the information was available via easier sources. I tried in vain to come up with a formula to place my own value on cards to identify those I thought were underpriced. Makes me appreciate the work bbrool does.

I think it is good to remind ourselves of this stuff. It is easy to forget some of what drew you in as you fight to get HAL to recognize your defensive relacements or other settings.

but the banter was half the fun

Suppose that is the real reason I am still around. If just the game of strat I could do that with the cdrom game. Then all of HAL's mistakes would be for my opponent. I remember when I used to use the cdrom autodraft to draft a team and then play out a season. Funny, did not seem to bother me a lot then how easy HAL was to beat. Now that HAL is managing my team all the flaws seem 10 times as bad.

"thats the way it was and we liked it" Dana Carvey as grumpy old man

i used to read all of the posts and would learn and laugh everyday. it seems that there is no more content, comment or comedy like there used to be. fewer theme leagues, fewer evaluations and fewer points of disagreement. so are we tired? or maybe just like a comfortable old marriage.

the posts light up when we have new sets and dies within a month. we all need to start new pages for discussion.

i will start with one tonight----personal favorite strat card of all time

I saw that thread. But here you say favorite strat card of all time. your thread says favorite online strat card.
I am having some difficulty locating the Derrick May card you mention.

I'm a comparative newcomer (2004) to online Strat, but I've played the board game in continuation leagues for years. I've always enjoyed the give-and-take of the forums and miss those days a lot. I also have a lot of respect for Bernie, who worked with me tirelessly to fix small programming problems and helped me recover from a lot of mistakes.

I miss a lot of those who are no longer with us but, fortunately for me, there are still many friends left in this game.

I get nostalgic, this post deserves a bump

Thanks for bumping PJ!! Great thread to read through and brought back many memories. Dream Team was awesome.

We did a theme where we all drafted the exact same teams in 2 leagues to see how the results would differ.

MunichMan, PJMB and myself did a league where we drafted all scrubs and then did a draft of the FA pool after the other 9 had their teams built.

The biggest regret I have is not making it to Vegas when Bobby invited everyone out.