I'm responding here because I believe part of your post was directed at me. Please let me take the opportunity to lay out how PB operates to me.

1. I have never intended to personally attack you and have conveyed that both in private and public. I do disagree with you some times and have voiced displeasure with your decisions on occasion. I can truthfully say that I have never questioned your integrity or passion for the welfare and success of PB. You should be commended for the time and energy that you have put into this game over the years and I highly respect your opinion. Couple that with the fact that there have not been any financial dividends and the contributions you make are even more impressive. Unfortunately, however, with your position comes the responsibility of dealing with everyone involved in this game, for better or worse so to speak. As you say, it's part of the job.

2. When I use the phrase "product improvement" or "PB development" I'm not just talking about computer programming but all phases of this game including such things as communication, scheduling, revising and updating the manual and so forth and all of which I believe to be just as important for future owners as well-balanced UNM teams are, especially since many of these UNM teams have already been improved. I did not mean that you were wasting your time with UNM trades, but that a reduction of UNM trades might relieve the frustration level and allow more time for other aspects of PB.

3. There does seem to be a tendency to contradict yourself at times. I'm sure that a review of my posts over the years would reveal the same thing, that's just part of human nature. A recent case, for example, would be your rehash post below where in point No. 1 you say "the best way to improve UNM teams is to trade for young players with high ceilings and to disregard need and go for overall talent." This is followed by point No. 5 where you say "I do not trust most PB managers to do a good enough job of evaluating the needs of the UNM teams." So is it needs or talent driving the decision? I bring this up only to point out that there is some basis for criticism of inconsistency in your remarks. Personally, I attribute it to human nature and don't hold it against you (those of us in glass houses shouldn't throw stones).

4. My suggestions in regard to UNM trades was 3 basic points: 1) Keep Mike in charge 2) Limit UNM (no megadeals or superstars) and 3) Eliminate UNM trades in those leagues with only a couple of UNM teams. I was shooting for the middle ground between keep them and drop them. Whether those changes make sense or not to you, I can't control. My point to you was to expect shots to be taken when opening a question such as that. However, I think the number of positive remarks far outweighed the others. Over the past 3 seasons, I have made a total of 53 trades with my various teams with 11 of those being UNM trades. Many of my UNM trade offers have been shot down and probably most of them justifiably so. So the UNM trade process has worked for me but perhaps I'm willing to bend a little more than some other owners out there.

5. As far as this being the best SIM game out there I can't say. Nine years ago when looking for an online baseball game I found PB first and have never left or tried other games. I have read with interest the posts about Diamond Mind. Seems the game has fewer features than this one has. What I really haven't heard talked about is how the operation and timliness of DM works compared to PB, but only that PB features are better. I'll take their word for it. This is a very cool game, no doubt, but it does have serious flaws as we have been experiencing of late.

5. Finally, if PB were to shut down, even temporarily, after this coming season, than that would be a<