Sheduling penalties

[Meeds]

Hello guys

What do you think about penalizing people when they post really poor scheduling ? I have noticed that when you do your scheduling with people following this scheduling the game is much more easy.

I made a poll :) (I voted for penalizing after 5 warnings)
1 point less after 5 warnings in the ranking is not much when you earn minimum 5 points per game. And maybe at least people will start caring about posting good scheduling.

[FML|Renaud]

First

[FML|WorpeX]

We already have scheduling penalties. :D

3.20e Failure to Schedule

If a player fails to contact his opponents or admins for scheduling after 3 days time, that player forfeits his right to schedule for that match. The other players in the match are then free to schedule without this player and a replacement player may be found. No points will be awarded to the forfeiting player if a sub is chosen. If a player fails to schedule for two consecutive rounds without contacting the admins, they will be removed from the current season, and barred from the next season as well.

[Meeds]

But people don't really care and can still play, look at my last game here :
http://ffamasters.net/index.php?topic=1658

zTsoso posted his schedule 7 days after and Scrapper still didn't post anything, we might sub Scrapper so he would be penalized. But zTsoso confirmed so he will play, even if he failed to schedule before the 3 days time

[FML|WorpeX]

The penalty isn't very strictly enforced, it is true.

[Meeds]

I am proposing the removal of 1 single tiny point, after a big number of 5 warnings, I even think no-one will actually ever get this removal of points. But at least they will fear it, and so post correctly, and so makes every scheduling easier, and by the way will also ease admin work because today admins have to check every scheduling post and yell at people who doesn't schedule correctly.

[FML|Mage]

I've got mixed feelings on this.  I actually proposed something like this to the other admins because I think it's completely ridiculous that scheduling is such a hassle.  It really can't be that hard to post a schedule can it?  The answer is, apparently it can be because only 50% of the players schedule properly.  I think if we implemented this that it would just have two outcomes.  1) Players wouldn't care, 2) It'd create arguments.  After all, we'd have to make some judgement calls on it.  For instance, if someone posts in the first three days but just posts a single time they can play then doesn't reply for a bit should they be penalized?  What about if they do the full schedule but not in EST?  It get's down to a lot of things that can be controversial.

That's why we created the 3 day rule.  It's hard and fast, but it also gives players the opportunity to play the game if they forgot to schedule, they just don't get a say in it.  If they can't play, well they then get a penalty somewhere between 5-25 points. 

In the end though, it comes down to we want our league to be fun.  If we make the league more effort and super strict less players will be inclined to play in it.  Does it mean more work for us a lot of the time, yeah it does.  Does it mean that occasionally matches end up being a bit chaotic, yeah it does.  However it also means we've been able to have seasons with 40 players in them, and lots of new faces.

Touch on new faces, FFL is a special case this year.  It's designed primarily for just new players, and boy has that been a lot of work to try and organize.  The mentality of scheduling for FML is completely different from scheduling for solo where you just have your manager tell you when to show up.  It takes a lot of habit breaking.  It's part of the reason that I have been so lenient on FFL players, and tried to correct them.  It is there primarily to try and get players started on that process.  It also helps the admins out though because it gives us a sneak preview of what players are like as schedulers which may help us make tough decisions for FML.  We will always take responsive and community oriented over pure skill for FML, just because that's how we are run.  So if we have a decision between several replacement players, you can be sure we're going to heavily weigh what their scheduling is like.

That being said, scheduling is far from perfect and it's a lot more work than I'd like.  So I like the idea of players coming up with ways that might help us improve it.

[Meeds]

Thank you Mage for your detailed reply, I appreciate. I guess you are right, all it will lead to is people not understanding loosing 1 point. And might leave FML because of that.

[rsm!]

i think not posting in 3 days and the other 3 are able to schedule the game is good enough. Now I would argue I am one of the better people about scheduling, but If I got a point removed for scheduling issues I would instantly lose interest in playing even If I was in first by 50 points. Certain people are extremely down syndrome when it comes to scheduling though (Russia)