Task 1 – Option 6.
The best “championship week” in sim leagues is back, and I couldn’t be more excited to talk about an ISFL topic for 800 words. This time, I want to focus on something I’ve been very involved with on this site: media. As many know, I’ve been the media head for like 3 real life years now. In that time, media was a mess of nonsense, and it was never getting graded very quickly. Graders were getting paid slave wages (seriously, it was a lot of work for a measly four million dollars a season, when you could just record an hour podcast for the same moolah). After lots of fights with the prior Head Offices, finally the current one came around to their senses and made it much better. On top of that, we expanded the team to more than enough graders that all media gets graded (save for podcasts occasionally) at a very reasonable pace.
As the Reddit drafts caused this league to BALLOON, we were ready for it. And it was awesome. New players and people constantly putting media articles in to make money and enhance that draft stock. It wasn’t even that long ago, but I’d call that the “heyday” of ISFL media.
So, what’s the problem now? I mean let’s be honest, we still get a good chunk of media during the season. But I don’t know if things are properly overflowing like they used to be. Part of this could be related to the less than we’re used to rookie classes coming in as of late. More recreates means more people with cash. But honestly, the issue in my incredibly informed opinion on media is that everyone literally just waits on 1.5x media weeks. Or the occasional 2x media week, depending on how if I can make that happen or not. (The Head Office in the past determined that we should only do 1.5x and not 2x, for the record). We used to always have draft week media doubled as a way to highlight the new players and get them hyped about being in the league. Let’s face it, one of the coolest things for a brand new player is to see them hyped up by others. Plus, mock draft articles are just the best ones, hands down. Anyway, the decision to make the bonus week only 1.5x, according to HO, was to stop everyone from sitting on articles and releasing them all when the 2x came out. But, to a whole new generation of ISFLers, 1.5x is the norm. So now we find ourselves sitting on articles again for the slightly bigger payout.
History, as they say, repeats itself yet again. As Media Head, I’ve racked my brain trying to think of the right solution to encourage more media throughout the season. The answer is *NOT* going down to 1.25x. That is just awful. I think going to a higher “per word” formula may help, but that doesn’t encourage longer articles. The current Head Office has proposed various “media contests” but the truth is that most of the league doesn’t give a shit about that. You get the same few people battling for some extra cash and it’s just never the turnout you expect it or hope for it to be. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good idea in theory, but most of the general ISFL public just doesn’t participate in it. Or care who wins. They’d all rather just have the safety that is the guaranteed pay out of 1.5 or 2x.
Another option would be just to up the word count and remove any “media” events altogether. That way people will never be able to wait around for the media multiplier that would never be coming. It means a more steady stream of media, more than likely. But is that what we want for the league? The media events are pretty fun and people *do* like the content they produce. It inspires new articles, player backstories, and even fun new podcasts to listen to.
Which means the idea that having the “requested” articles could be a good one too. But again, if people don’t know anything about the topics asked for, they get discouraged and they don’t do anything at all. I know this because I get DMs from ISFLers all of the time asking about what else they can do to make some more cash.
One last idea I had was to make certain articles worth more in a given week. Like fantasy predictions one week when we’re drafting, season predictions into the first week of simming, etc. But really all that does is the same thing of sitting on articles and waiting to post them for more cash.
The truth is, I don’t know what the answer really is. It’s frustrating and I don’t think any one answer will be the best. Everything will have its flaws. But I do look forward to figuring out the answer someday. All I know is that ISFL media is the best in the sim leagues, and I hope we can get some more inspired articles in the near future. (861)
The best “championship week” in sim leagues is back, and I couldn’t be more excited to talk about an ISFL topic for 800 words. This time, I want to focus on something I’ve been very involved with on this site: media. As many know, I’ve been the media head for like 3 real life years now. In that time, media was a mess of nonsense, and it was never getting graded very quickly. Graders were getting paid slave wages (seriously, it was a lot of work for a measly four million dollars a season, when you could just record an hour podcast for the same moolah). After lots of fights with the prior Head Offices, finally the current one came around to their senses and made it much better. On top of that, we expanded the team to more than enough graders that all media gets graded (save for podcasts occasionally) at a very reasonable pace.
As the Reddit drafts caused this league to BALLOON, we were ready for it. And it was awesome. New players and people constantly putting media articles in to make money and enhance that draft stock. It wasn’t even that long ago, but I’d call that the “heyday” of ISFL media.
So, what’s the problem now? I mean let’s be honest, we still get a good chunk of media during the season. But I don’t know if things are properly overflowing like they used to be. Part of this could be related to the less than we’re used to rookie classes coming in as of late. More recreates means more people with cash. But honestly, the issue in my incredibly informed opinion on media is that everyone literally just waits on 1.5x media weeks. Or the occasional 2x media week, depending on how if I can make that happen or not. (The Head Office in the past determined that we should only do 1.5x and not 2x, for the record). We used to always have draft week media doubled as a way to highlight the new players and get them hyped about being in the league. Let’s face it, one of the coolest things for a brand new player is to see them hyped up by others. Plus, mock draft articles are just the best ones, hands down. Anyway, the decision to make the bonus week only 1.5x, according to HO, was to stop everyone from sitting on articles and releasing them all when the 2x came out. But, to a whole new generation of ISFLers, 1.5x is the norm. So now we find ourselves sitting on articles again for the slightly bigger payout.
History, as they say, repeats itself yet again. As Media Head, I’ve racked my brain trying to think of the right solution to encourage more media throughout the season. The answer is *NOT* going down to 1.25x. That is just awful. I think going to a higher “per word” formula may help, but that doesn’t encourage longer articles. The current Head Office has proposed various “media contests” but the truth is that most of the league doesn’t give a shit about that. You get the same few people battling for some extra cash and it’s just never the turnout you expect it or hope for it to be. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good idea in theory, but most of the general ISFL public just doesn’t participate in it. Or care who wins. They’d all rather just have the safety that is the guaranteed pay out of 1.5 or 2x.
Another option would be just to up the word count and remove any “media” events altogether. That way people will never be able to wait around for the media multiplier that would never be coming. It means a more steady stream of media, more than likely. But is that what we want for the league? The media events are pretty fun and people *do* like the content they produce. It inspires new articles, player backstories, and even fun new podcasts to listen to.
Which means the idea that having the “requested” articles could be a good one too. But again, if people don’t know anything about the topics asked for, they get discouraged and they don’t do anything at all. I know this because I get DMs from ISFLers all of the time asking about what else they can do to make some more cash.
One last idea I had was to make certain articles worth more in a given week. Like fantasy predictions one week when we’re drafting, season predictions into the first week of simming, etc. But really all that does is the same thing of sitting on articles and waiting to post them for more cash.
The truth is, I don’t know what the answer really is. It’s frustrating and I don’t think any one answer will be the best. Everything will have its flaws. But I do look forward to figuring out the answer someday. All I know is that ISFL media is the best in the sim leagues, and I hope we can get some more inspired articles in the near future. (861)
![[Image: tTMB4jP.jpg]](https://imgur.com/tTMB4jP.jpg)
