[satchel]

Originally Posted by BruceM

And there's absolutely nothing wrong with "gauging interest" threads either.

You are wrong sir, there are many severe problems with "gauging interest" threads. They are a pox upon this forum.

1. They clutter up our Online Leagues subforum. "Gauging interest" threads bury actual, concrete leagues' launch announcement and recruitment threads. A Commish expends the time, labor, and money that it takes to found and operate a league. Then that Commish enters the "free market" (which this forum largely comprises), to compete with other leagues for owners. (The "economics" of online leagues runs on the principle of supply and demand.) A constructed, functioning league is a serious investment of resources. Only those who have made that investment have the right to freely use the real estate of this Online Leagues subforum. If there is no requirement or qualification for advertising leagues here, nothing prevents this subforum from being over-run by threads without substance. An "idea" for a league is just a fantasy; it is a dream. Those of us who have made a real-world investment should not have our vital recruiting threads pushed down to the bottom of the screen, or off of the front page, so other people can discuss abstract proposals and stroke each others' egos.
2. Multiple "proposal" and "gauging interest threads hurt the credibility of actual constructed leagues. This is a venue for conducting business. It is not a place where people have the license to make false promises of things to come. People are forbidden from coming on this subforum and impersonating a Commissioner, by posing as one by acting as the proprieter of an entity that does not yet exist. That damages the trust that owners should be able to have, in this community's Commissioners. Someone offering involvement in an imaginary, "proposed" league, or asking people to emotionally invest in an idea by "gauging their interest" is in a position where they are probably going to end up abusing those peoples' trust. That diminishes the whole online league dynamic, therefore it will not be allowed.
3. If there is no price for discussing leaguex here, then there is no mechanism to prevent surplus of bogus league proposals from drowning the legitimate, vital posts in this forum. That is what almost all of these "proposals" and "gauging interest" theads are: bogus wastes of time that intolerably tax the intangible currency of trust and commitment exchanged by online league Commissioners and owners. They damage this community and pollute its healthy functioning. It does not belong here.
4. As those of us, who are veterans of the online leagues community know, those threads are unnecessary. Like we have recently discussed: If you build it, they will come.