[mnolanpd]

Hello,

Generally I do not post here, I just follow along. Like the poster above, I am in the ABL, and felt the need to respond to provide an alternate perspective, that may well help the OP understand some of the things he seems to seek understanding of. Like another post, the whole story is truly somewhere in the middle.

I want to start by addressing the particular items in the initial post...

We really appreciate a high export rate in our league and, despite your licensing exam that we wished you well on, as fellow GMs, our knowing that you're in the midst of a major life event means that we would have leniency in the high standards we have for managing your team--you were offered alternatives/help with regards to those standards, should you need, while you were going through that event. Thus, I really feel that we provided you support, wished you well with your life event, and left the decision to you on the level of intervention needed to help. There are probably other things we could have done, and we would be excited to discuss other ways to handle it, provided you approach that discussion with class.

Yes, you were removed around the All-star break and you had "managed your team", "made moves", etc, as you stated. BUT, you WERE removed for a reason. and a good reason, in my opinion.

Lastly, in your initial post, you state:
"This is why online leagues frankly get no support or love from Markus. It's because they're run by a bunch of socially inept losers with ZERO concept of how to actually be human beings. They put their entire lives and self worth into whether or not their team wins a fake baseball league. The online experience is generally bad. And it frankly gets the support from Markus that its users based on their often displayed actions deserve.

I'm specifically putting @USF on blast. What you did was absolutely crappy and utterly ridiculous.

You should be ashamed of yourself and although the league is well ran, there are too many super teams and too many terrible ones.

I'm sure many will read this and just guffaw and slap their knees but you know this is true. Most of you need new perspectives and need to learn how to interact with other people."

In the first paragraph, your anger for being removed from a league spills into criticizing developers and ALL online league commissioners. The 3 sentences thereafter you redirect your target to the commissioner of the ABL that is charged with recruiting, adding and removing GMs, etc. You admit that the league is well-ran (thanks, commish!), but that there is no parity. (Laughable, to me. There is some real and great parity in this league in terms of current talent levels and up and coming prospect talent levels.) In the final 2 sentences, you lament that surely you'll not be understood by the masses and you say that's not your fault, rather the masses fault--most of them "need new perspectives and need to learn how to interact with other people".

Now for my perspective on how this all went down...

You joined the ABL, and as I previously stated, you did manage your team in good faith. There was not a management issue with you--you did well in that area, you were active in social settings in working trades, staying on top of deadlines, and everything else that comes with being a GM in the ABL. I say great work for that! What isn't referenced, but is always stated in recruiting messages, is the type of person that 1 is. The "fit" in the group. In your first 14 days in the league, you stated multiple times publicly how we could be better. How we could change things to be better, and how you were disappointed in particular things. At each turn, we read your feedback, responded through discussion, and decided on a way forward. However, in each interaction with you, your tone was similar to this post. Your tone was that you knew better, that we weren't listening, although we responded kindly to your inquiries, and when other members chimed in on their opinion, you told them on multiple occasions that THEY were making a bigger deal out of something that wasn't. We genuinely weren't sure, at the end of the discussion, whether you heard us, understood us, or just said, "fine, I'm not getting anywhere, let's just move on". This happened on 2 separate occasions, 2 separate un-connected issues, and the communication pattern on both sides was the same during both. (You gave feedback, we responded, and you told us that we were making a big deal over something that wasn't a big deal) Over the course of 35 seasons, we have adjusted rules, processes, and so on just about every season. We're not resistant to change or new ideas. All of that is normal. Your feedback and opinions are normal and we are excited to hear it all. Seriously. But, the bottom line is...

We are a tightly-knit group. We like each other, we can be open, honest, and tough with each other about our feelings. But, not a single 1 of our GMs thinks they are better than the next. All of our GMs are understanding of other opinions and willing to discuss their opinions in a tough way, without lobbing insults either way.

Sometimes, it's just not a great fit socially, and that's all that happened here.

The last I would like to address is the termination message sent to you... You've said numerous times that it simply said, "we've decided to go in a different direction". Well, I have no doubt it was that succinct or close to that. Please consider for a moment if you went into work and after 1 week on the job, you demean your supervisor in front of the group... The supervisor HAS to respond in those cases, and in keeping with the analogy, he did. If you then walk into your job the next day, you do the same thing, and your supervisor say, "look, this just isn't going to work out." I think that if you're being objective about your situation and how you've found yourself in it, then that analogy should hit the mark pretty well.

Best of luck with your licensing exam and all future endeavors.