mellotron_breakfast (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mellotron_breakfast) wrote2010-05-25 12:40 am
mellotron_breakfast) wrote2010-05-25 12:40 am
Baseball & CyberNations
Two recurring topics. In this case, an observation of hitting and one particular pitcher in light of some prior comments I've made, followed by a discussion of possible recruits putting me on the spot.
Hitting and pitching
The first item is the still-going home run tally of the Jays. While they prove the ability to score by other means--hits with runners on base, walks--the home run bats remain hot. I remember yawning a bit at Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, wondering who these guys are and not surprised that they struggled at first, but... Bautista is/was tied for the league HR lead with Paul Konerko before tonight's game. Encarnacion was out for a bit, and when he came back, six of his seven comeback hits went over the fence including three in a single game.
Pitching worries me more, but I take back what I said about Brett Cecil. He may have come from the minors, but he has done awesomely on the road. Terrible at home, though, that needs to change.
Dana Eveland is out of the rotation. The team took advantage of a day off to continue through the rotation on a regular pace without immediately replacing him, which could mean they're waiting another week for Jesse Litsch who is due to return.
That leaves Brandon Morrow as the crappy fifth starter, and a couple of different pitchers may be available to replace him if he continues to struggle.
Trials of Recruitment
On some days I max out the number of messages I'm allowed to send, or nearly max out the amount of server actions (example: 1492 of 1500 actions), just pumping out invites. I use no script, but I tend to copy & paste the same message with minor modifications if someone looks really interesting or gives me a reason to change things. For example, one guy's nation was called Ancelstierre. How cool is that?
Challenges include keeping track of who already got an invite, and what time period Magister might have covered--he recruits as well and we do not want to "spam" people with multiple sales pitches for the same alliance. One annoys some users enough.
Once a day, I get an instant response from a possible recruit who happens to be on. When I used Prodigy's message, which is simply "Welcome to CN, if you need help with anything send a message as I would be happy to assist you", the answer was expected. "Thanks for not sending me something dripping with sale, I'll let you know if I need anything". No further contact.
Today I got put on the spot to make a sales pitch, as the guy's eyes bugged at TDO's $3m signing bonus. He said it was between TDO and tLW. I'm not allowed to advertise that we have the same thing, but I shouldn't have to; with the tech deals we advertise, you would get $3m every 10 days for each single tech deal you're concurrently doing, which could really be $6m or $9m every 10 days. Signing bonuses are a bit lame if that's all you have to offer; you can buy someone's entry but if it's just for the money, long term you get a bunch of inactive and disinterested people not engaged with the community.
Believe me, a $6m bonus didn't get me to be more than a silent Google Docs completer for United Purple Nations who never posted on the forums or paid attention, but being with a bunch of fun and interesting people has got me active to the point of being elected for office in a smaller alliance. I would not have cared to do that in any of the other groups in which I have previously sat.
He eventually went to TDO. They are "extremely neutral", refusing to sign mutual defense pacts with anybody because of what happened to them in one of the wars. They are also bigger.
Too bad. I couldn't tell him, but he would have a $3m signing bonus here as well.
Hitting and pitching
The first item is the still-going home run tally of the Jays. While they prove the ability to score by other means--hits with runners on base, walks--the home run bats remain hot. I remember yawning a bit at Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, wondering who these guys are and not surprised that they struggled at first, but... Bautista is/was tied for the league HR lead with Paul Konerko before tonight's game. Encarnacion was out for a bit, and when he came back, six of his seven comeback hits went over the fence including three in a single game.
Pitching worries me more, but I take back what I said about Brett Cecil. He may have come from the minors, but he has done awesomely on the road. Terrible at home, though, that needs to change.
Dana Eveland is out of the rotation. The team took advantage of a day off to continue through the rotation on a regular pace without immediately replacing him, which could mean they're waiting another week for Jesse Litsch who is due to return.
That leaves Brandon Morrow as the crappy fifth starter, and a couple of different pitchers may be available to replace him if he continues to struggle.
Trials of Recruitment
On some days I max out the number of messages I'm allowed to send, or nearly max out the amount of server actions (example: 1492 of 1500 actions), just pumping out invites. I use no script, but I tend to copy & paste the same message with minor modifications if someone looks really interesting or gives me a reason to change things. For example, one guy's nation was called Ancelstierre. How cool is that?
Challenges include keeping track of who already got an invite, and what time period Magister might have covered--he recruits as well and we do not want to "spam" people with multiple sales pitches for the same alliance. One annoys some users enough.
Once a day, I get an instant response from a possible recruit who happens to be on. When I used Prodigy's message, which is simply "Welcome to CN, if you need help with anything send a message as I would be happy to assist you", the answer was expected. "Thanks for not sending me something dripping with sale, I'll let you know if I need anything". No further contact.
Today I got put on the spot to make a sales pitch, as the guy's eyes bugged at TDO's $3m signing bonus. He said it was between TDO and tLW. I'm not allowed to advertise that we have the same thing, but I shouldn't have to; with the tech deals we advertise, you would get $3m every 10 days for each single tech deal you're concurrently doing, which could really be $6m or $9m every 10 days. Signing bonuses are a bit lame if that's all you have to offer; you can buy someone's entry but if it's just for the money, long term you get a bunch of inactive and disinterested people not engaged with the community.
Believe me, a $6m bonus didn't get me to be more than a silent Google Docs completer for United Purple Nations who never posted on the forums or paid attention, but being with a bunch of fun and interesting people has got me active to the point of being elected for office in a smaller alliance. I would not have cared to do that in any of the other groups in which I have previously sat.
He eventually went to TDO. They are "extremely neutral", refusing to sign mutual defense pacts with anybody because of what happened to them in one of the wars. They are also bigger.
Too bad. I couldn't tell him, but he would have a $3m signing bonus here as well.