Warning: RANT

Being a commissioner is a thankless job.  Seriously. You do everything you can to accommodate people's schedule, likes, and dislikes, and at the end of the day they still hang you in effigy!  I've noticed this has had an interesting effect on a number of people. Of the many leagues I participate in, almost all the commissioners become less active over time, some dramatically so.

And I know exactly how they feel.

Take the issue of abandoned teams.  Some commissioners just ignore them and everyone knows they get a bye week when they play such a team.  Sounds fair right?  Gee, I don't know.  I mean if you faced-off against this team in Week 3 when they were still paying attention and they beat you, how do you feel about the team who's tied with you for 4th place getting a bye in Week 13 right before the playoffs? Not so fair now huh? But let's say you want to be a good commissioner and set good lineups for everyone, do you even have the time?  Do you know how time-consuming it is to set starting line-ups for inactive teams?  Oh, and BTW, do you also do waiver wire pick-ups for them? Hmmm?  Because on top of the investment in time, there's the headache of having someone else in your league accuse you of making ONE team stronger because that team is playing your rival (?!), or.........of picking up players who could have helped out other teams that are competing against you.  It is a never-ending cycle of complaints, invectives, and imagined slights and conspiracies.

The obvious solution is for all the teams to be active throughout the entire year.  But that is the Holy Grail of FF Commissioners, and about as common as a virgin bride. Oh I know what you're thinking, this doesn't happen in pay leagues. Wrong!
 Talk to commissioners of pay leagues and they'll tell you it happens all the time. And in pay leagues it can also be worse because the guy who paid his money feels entitled to do whatever he wants with his team, even if it means leaving injured players in his line-up.

Now let's say you decide that you won't tolerate inactive teams.  Good for you!  Now how do you decide which line-ups to tinker with and which to leave alone, and when? The answer's not as obvious as it might seem.  Let's say a manager's been inactive for 2 weeks.  Is that enough time for you to change their line-up? 3 weeks? 4?  Better yet, let's say a manager's been inactive for 4 weeks but went 3-1 in that stretch.  Now do you change the line-up? 

Again, the guy who just joined a league gets to enjoy his hobby and take care of just his team, the commissioner on the other hand, has to worry about all this stuff!

Of all the leagues I participate in, I think only one truly does not have this problem. And that is the result of constantly culling the bad owners from the league and working hard to try to keep the good ones coming back year in and year out. Okay, maybe two leagues, but the second one also has a lot of repeat/veteran managers.  I just hope I hang in there long enough for the third league to come around.