[Goody]

The league in question. I was the founder and original commissioner of the league. I returned later as commissioner for a short while and also ran a team when it became defunct (at which point I was not acting as main commissioner...it changed hands based on availability and life events. But all parties involved were upstanding commissioners and well respected by the league)

Here is my take on it.

I spent a lot of time, over the course of my life coming up with the things that went into that league. The original league file was a the product of lots of hard work from me and the original owners. Over time...the concept became even more enriched by the hours and hours spend enriching the league by those who joined...quit...followed...rejoined...etc.

In my case...I would say any of the core group of contributors should have the rights to access the league file when it has become inactive for more than a year. But...who is to determine who is a "core member"? Only the founder can decide that.

I am honored you all waited and asked for my permission before proceeding. I would have been fine with JAttractive accessing the league file through his own means because I know him will enough and consider him a core member. (like say he emailed one of the other commissioners for the password and they gave it to him). That said, I might not have been ok with it if he had gotten an outside party (other than an ootp insider) to crack the code for him. Well, I would not have minded, but who's to know for sure that I didn't plan on restarting a new league with that same file? (I don't)

I am still toying with ideas and projects for another league. Whether I pull the trigger on that I will think over much more than I did the first time I started a league (it was not well planned out time and stability wise which is why many others had to step up to help the league keep going). But who's to say...without hearing it from me...that I wouldn't plan to use the original information for a new league?

From this situation...I feel most of it comes down to a judgement call by those entrusted to make it. You guys made the right choice in this case. You didn't know all the facts so you waited. Had I not shown up...I would hope you'd waited longer or tried to contact others who might know how to get ahold of me or make a decision on my behalf. (if you have the facts that they were a trusted co-commissioner)

This league hasn't been defunct since v5. That's just the last version he was able to locate. The league was open for about 7 or 8 years and has only been down about 2 years...I believe. If that adds anything.

There's a lot of special circumstances. This was a league with a lot of fictional imagination added in. I'm not sure what my stance would be if it was an MLB league with random computer generated names etc.