Offseason Point Task - 25th Anniversary Special

[iseedoug]

I like these point tasks, as they give a nice chance to reflect on the league. I have been in the league since March 2018, just insane. I have made lots of friends and had tons of fun with some really historical teams and moments. I wish I had the time to be as involved in the LR and forums as much as I used to be, but I am still having fun. And the plan is to recreate again after Dougie Smalls hits the 11 or 12 season mark. I may be a Hall of Very Good player creator forever, but again, I still have a ton of fun.

As always, these types of tasks are my chance to shout out @nunccoepi, we did lots of cool stuff, turned teams from losers to championships in literal single seasons. I hope we can go into the HOF together. I know there are lots of cool kids GMing now-a-days, but I really feel like Nunc and I did things that had not been done before and made more blockbuster trades than anyone. Also as always, shout out to the OGs in the SJS franchise (@ckroyal92 and the gang), the S11, S12, S13 seasons and LRs were the best. Also shoutout to my partner @mabb, who I need to get to recreate again (she has all her updater money still!). It was fun to have you in the league!

Switching gears a bit; in real life, I am a professor who does work on social networks, online communities, etc. And this league always pops up in my mind as the rare, great example of a solid, supportive, and healthy online community. I, and others in my research community, often see the many, many harms from online social networks and communities. Manuscript after manuscript describing the progression of hate speech, conspiracy theories, and disinformation, all due to the structure of current social networks and online communities (mostly due to the business model of running ads, but I won’t get into that). Yet, this league is not that. In fact, it's what social networks promised to be, but failed. It is organically ran and moderated (and does a great job doing so), supportive of members from all walks of life, and provides a real community. Sure we have had our ups and downs, but we have created a sustainable and health community. A community that can deal with problems and improve. And it always amazes me that this thing still runs. One day I will include the ISFL as an example in an academic paper for this reason.