BC Discussion & Feedback

[Wolflare]

BC Discussion & Feedback

This thread is essentially a remake of the "What do you want in CBC?" and CBC Improvement threads. You may discuss the forum BC here and offer feedback on it. You may ask for the community's advice on your own projects related to BC, such as an upcoming tournament. Attempts to increase activity may be planned here, as well as anything else related to BC. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact any of BC's moderators: Wolflare.

— Do not post anything not related to BC in this thread.
This thread is for discussion on the forum BC, not battling. Any posts not related to BC will be deleted. Use the PokéCommunity Questions & Feedback forum for topics concerning PC as a whole.

[krazzikk]

I was thinking we should make userbars/banners to promote CBC and find new people who are interested. Nica said she didn't think it would be effective enough to bother, but I want a second opinion

[Vrai]

I heard that PC has a new PS! server, but I can't find a link anywhere. Perhaps we should drop that somewhere (maybe instead of the old PO announcement?).

Also, this is a little nit-picky but you might want to change 'aesoft' where it's listed in the guides & help thread to 'Zarel', which is what his Smogon username is now.

[dragonomega]

Originally Posted by Vrai

I heard that PC has a new PS! server, but I can't find a link anywhere. Perhaps we should drop that somewhere (maybe instead of the old PO announcement?).

Also, this is a little nit-picky but you might want to change 'aesoft' where it's listed in the guides & help thread to 'Zarel', which is what his Smogon username is now.

I agree, we need an announcement or something. I had to ask Nica for the link.

Also if you're still looking; http://play.pokemonshowdown.com/~~ho...com:8000/lobby

[Wolflare]

I haven't made an announcement because the tiers and ladder don't work. And because the ladder doesn't work, registering won't either (PS requires one to have a rated battle before registering). For some reason, whenever one tries to play in a tier that doesn't allow "illegal Pokémon" (assuming it means unreleased stuff) like OU, it states that all Pokémon are illegal and thus banned. I've been trying to find a fix to the problem, but I really have no idea what's causing it. I tried making my own server to figure it out, but I'm having too many issues with that. My last resort was asking in Smogon's PS forum, and I think I'll do just that. Still, the tier "Hackmons" allows illegal Pokémon and can be used for now (doesn't have team preview though). Anyway, yeah it's just "http://play.pokemonshowdown.com/" with "~~home.brokenrevolution.com" at the end. For convenience, here's a short URL: tinyurl.com/pcbattleserver

I'm planning to make an announcement with a list of all the changes made to CBC including the PS server, but I've been holding out until the server is working properly.

Originally Posted by Vrai

Also, this is a little nit-picky but you might want to change 'aesoft' where it's listed in the guides & help thread to 'Zarel', which is what his Smogon username is now.

Yeah I knew about that, but I wasn't sure whether to change it because his website still says "aeosoft."

Originally Posted by krazzikk

I was thinking we should make userbars/banners to promote CBC and find new people who are interested. Nica said she didn't think it would be effective enough to bother, but I want a second opinion

Could work. It might not change anything until we do some stuff to improve activity (see: get the battle server working), so people actually have a reason to stay and be active.

[Spinosaurus]

I made a comment regarding "competitve battling" in one of Nica's blogs, and she told me to post this here. Edited it and took out some comments to make it more relevant to CBC as a whole and to get my point across.

Especially here in PC, where the competitive community isn't really competitive and the userbase are mostly children who don't buy the games for what I said above. I'm not saying it has to be full of trash talk and jerks, but PC lacks something very important - Strive for winning. The term competitive comes from competition, and PC just wants to have fun. This is why I don't feel like Competitive Battling Community is a good name for a section about battling, metagame or not, since most people who play do play it more casually rather than competitively. Calling anyone who plays the metagame a competitive player is pretty inaccurate.


Changing CBC to a section that's about the metagame or battling as a whole rather than competition is probably the best way to go. As of now people are intimidated not by the community but by their vision of the competitive aspect, because people do believe that the metagame is too hard for their own good. Making the section about general battling instead of the competitive aspect (which Pokemon honestly doesn't have that much of) will make people realize the community here isn't really really hungry for competition, and rather a community that just has enjoy the metagame and don't want to prioritize winning over having fun. If people believe that Pokemon doesn't have that much competition and the metagame can be fun to mess around with then they can and will give it a look, because understanding the mechanism of their favorite games is something I'm sure they'd be interested in doing.

Wolf mentioned this in another blog recently; removing the "competitive" in Competitive Battling Center and making the whole section about battling regardless of the metagame and playing it competitively or casually might also be the way to go. Maybe have a sub-forum purely for the metagame, even.

Just what I feel about it. I don't want to come back, but I definitely wouldn't mind helping the section if I can.

[Wolflare]

Like I said in Kip's blog, CBC has always been about battling in general, competitive or not. See the forum description: "This forum is designed for all of your Pokémon battling needs! The main forum is meant for discussions, battle requests, battle logs, and other threads related to battling. Look to the sub-forums for events and team help." It's just that casual battlers are almost nonexistent it seems, or they're intimidated by the complexity of competitive Pokémon so they avoid CBC at all costs. I think removing "competitive" from the forum name would be a good choice to make.

Also, it's kind of funny because I play competitive battling purely for fun rather than winning. I'm entertained by a good battle regardless of whether I win or lose. I guess that makes me a casual battler then? Thing is, CBC has never really been "competitive" in the sense of battling to win (most of our members are too scared to join a tournament!), so the name change makes even more sense. Besides, most people go to Smogon if they want to be best Pokémon trainer in the world.

[Fire Flyy]

Originally Posted by Spinosaurus

I made a comment regarding "competitve battling" in one of Nica's blogs, and she told me to post this here. Edited it and took out some comments to make it more relevant to CBC as a whole and to get my point across.



Wolf mentioned this in another blog recently; removing the "competitive" in Competitive Battling Center and making the whole section about battling regardless of the metagame and playing it competitively or casually might also be the way to go. Maybe have a sub-forum purely for the metagame, even.

Just what I feel about it. I don't want to come back, but I definitely wouldn't mind helping the section if I can.

probably hypocritical to quote this post seeing as to how I've quit or at least gone on a long break until I have the free time and drive to play again, but this is exactly right. No one has really shown any motive to actually practice, get better, actively ladder, sign up for smogon tutoring etc, to try and enhance your skills so that youre a more valuable asset to the competitive section and dont remain stagnant. obviously we want to have fun but it would be better if we all motivated each other to get better so there was a higher level of competition

[Forever]

Well on the other side...

There's about a few of us left. If we wanted to... we could all set out to improve and become like the next DA or whatever so newer people do want to battle and compete. Like just because we aren't competitive now doesn't mean we can't put in effort now to change that and actually make it a worthwhile competitive community n___n; I guess it just depends if those of us are willing to, really...

Idk fun competition isn't impossible to have both sides of the world. We just need to get better to make it something new members want to aspire to be.

[Alexial357]

I rather like the fact that we're not crazy competitive. It makes community tournaments more casual (whenever they actually pan out -- possibly a side effect of being too casual? :/). But I do like knowing that a member's value in the community isn't solely dependent on their rank or position in battling.

Have we ever tried to do a super watered down tutoring program? Like, more experienced members just following up on recent RMT post / new members via VM? Because that kind of individualized attention may keep new people active.

[Forever]

I know this is unrelated to the current discussion here, but I think it's kinda died down, and this is quite relative sorta... somewhat. Anyway, I know the revival rule does exist in this forum and so on, but wouldn't it be better for the main CBC forum to not have the revival rule? It's meant to be discussion based, and generally CBC isn't the most active of forums, so it could benefit from having no revival rules and threads like Vrai's NU thread, or Pokedra's UU thread wouldn't die off and they could have much more activity, and if the introduction/opening post discussing the tier (at least for Vrai's) could either be edited, or locked and remade, depending on how the tier is going at the time. As for discussion threads, they could just remain there and other users come back and comment on them whenever they want.

[Wolflare]

I don't think we're very competitive because most of us don't battle at all (perhaps this can change when the GT tournament is up?). I do agree that we should strive to improve our battling skills though. Anyway, this name change won't change much, other than making the forum name less misleading. Also, remember that introducing more people into battling (regardless if it's competitive or not) may mean more competitive battlers, depending on who they are (i.e. not the GRR COMPETITIVE type). They might get interested in competitive battling if they like casual. Anywayyy...

I went with the forum default on the revival rule. Isn't it being removed from the forum globally though? Still, I agree that it should be removed, but I'll wait until higher staff makes a decision (if they're discussing it). I'm pretty sure I said something in the rules about being able to revive metagame discussions...I probably deleted it by accident.

[Forever]

Originally Posted by Wolflare

I don't think we're very competitive because most of us don't battle at all (perhaps this can change when the GT tournament is up?). I do agree that we should strive to improve our battling skills though. Anyway, this name change won't change much, other than making the forum name less misleading. Also, remember that introducing more people into battling (regardless if it's competitive or not) may mean more competitive battlers, depending on who they are (i.e. not the GRR COMPETITIVE type). They might get interested in competitive battling if they like casual. Anywayyy...

I went with the forum default on the revival rule. Isn't it being removed from the forum globally though? Still, I agree that it should be removed, but I'll wait until higher staff makes a decision (if they're discussing it). I'm pretty sure I said something in the rules about being able to revive metagame discussions...I probably deleted it by accident.

Well, what would the name change be anyway? The Battling Center? PokeCommunity Battling Center? Something doesn't quite fit with either of them. XD;

Andddd about revivals! I just asked someone and they said hstaff aren't really discussing it, so you can just do it yourself. n_n

[krazzikk]

One problem I have noticed is that the community isn't exactly the warmest, and welcoming group of people and people who aren't "the regulars" seem to be ignored. I'm not here to troll around and say everyone is horrible (in other words be rude) but I think it would be beneficial if the community tried to be more welcoming and warm. If the community isn't welcoming and pleasing to be around then the majority of people aren't going to stay. And I think all sections , and even IRC channels should take a look at their community and be responsible and try to fix these problems. And trust me, I'm new to PC, I'm even newer to CBC and I have seen multiple cases of this. Is it because you guys think my questions/comments aren't important enough? Please don't take this the wrong way!

[Forever]

Originally Posted by krazzikk

One problem I have notice is that the community isn't exactly the warmest, and welcoming group of people and people who aren't "the regulars" seem to be ignored. I'm not here to troll around and say everyone is horrible (in other words be rude) but I think it would be beneficial if the community tried to be more welcoming and warm. If the community isn't welcoming and pleasing to be around then the majority of people aren't going to stay. And I think all sections , and even IRC channels should take a look at their community and be responsible and try to fix these problems. And trust me, I'm new to PC, I'm even newer to CBC and I have seen multiple cases of this. Is it because you guys think my questions/comments aren't important enough? Please don't take this the wrong way!:nervous:

I really kinda disagree. It was... not really welcoming/warm about two months back, but now honestly I think it's just inactivity if anything (the questions not important thing, if you were ignored). For example in RMTs, or replying to threads, Alexial and I usually have "n_n" (I NOTICED IT IN ONE POST OKAY) and generally when most people reply they seem to be accepting of feedback for the most part. I'm not really sure though what you do mean, can you give examples of recent cases? Because really... it was a lot worse two months back. Also generally most people who post don't really post again, or have an interest getting involved in this community, so idk. I really haven't noticed anything for a while, tbh, and I definitely noticed it a while back.

[krazzikk]

Well, I'll take back what I said about being "warm/friendly" because most people are friendly! I'm not calling anyone rude

I am mostly referring to this thread. An example would be the first post of this new thread. And if you look at the old thread, I don't get quoted, or addressed to, at all

Or perhaps you want an example from somewhere else; #ThePokeCommunity...

[Forever]

Originally Posted by krazzikk

Well, I'll take back what I said about being "warm/friendly" because most people are friendly! I'm not calling anyone rude :P

I am mostly referring to this thread. An example would be the first post of this new thread. I don't get quoted, or addressed to.

Or perhaps you want an example from somewhere else; #ThePokeCommunity...

http://www.pokecommunity.com/showpos...55&postcount=5

Wolf did quote you though :( And CBC is irrelvant to #tpc unfortunately. Older thread is just maybe because you didn't have anything else that anyone else didn't already say, I think?

[krazzikk]

Omg, I feel special and guilty at the same time for saying nobody ever replies to me. I don't remember seeing that post at all :<

I'm not just directing this to CBC. I'm directing it to all of the PokeCommunity

I mean maybe I'm just being completely negative, and the community isn't as bad as I think when it comes to that. Or maybe I just have too high expectations. I like to speak my mind :3

[Fire Flyy]

Originally Posted by krazzikk

One problem I have noticed is that the community isn't exactly the warmest, and welcoming group of people and people who aren't "the regulars" seem to be ignored. I'm not here to troll around and say everyone is horrible (in other words be rude) but I think it would be beneficial if the community tried to be more welcoming and warm. If the community isn't welcoming and pleasing to be around then the majority of people aren't going to stay. And I think all sections , and even IRC channels should take a look at their community and be responsible and try to fix these problems. And trust me, I'm new to PC, I'm even newer to CBC and I have seen multiple cases of this. Is it because you guys think my questions/comments aren't important enough? Please don't take this the wrong way!

requility is right....this seems like a post you would see about a year ago, I'm kind of curious as to what people in specific arent welcoming, since its only nica wolf alexial and a few others and theyre all welcoming. good luck getting integrated into the community, though.

Also battling buddies center 4 new name

[Vrai]

Originally Posted by Alexial357

I rather like the fact that we're not crazy competitive. It makes community tournaments more casual (whenever they actually pan out -- possibly a side effect of being too casual? :/). But I do like knowing that a member's value in the community isn't solely dependent on their rank or position in battling.

Have we ever tried to do a super watered down tutoring program? Like, more experienced members just following up on recent RMT post / new members via VM? Because that kind of individualized attention may keep new people active.

As an old fogey, I'd like to give my viewpoints on tutoring schemes. I have attempted to run them for various facets of the site at various times and with completely different ideas of how to run them, and all of them failed some way or another. The point is this: if people don't have a reason to belong to PC CBC, they will not stay. And the main flaw with CBC - what's the draw? Why should people be interested in coming here and participate in this forum?

There's not much you can offer people that's better than what Smogon can provide (and as much as you don't want to think about it, Smogon is indeed a direct competitor to the battling forum here). Tutoring? Smogon has that system down pat. RMTs? All of the experience and many, many of the best raters are found across the pond. What is it that PC has to offer that other competitive battling forums do not? Smogon has its reputation, size, and general strong presence; Nugget Bridge has complete and total dominance over the VGC metagames and has nearly all of the top minds working for them over there; even smaller forums like PokeBeach and Serebii have their own draws that keep people competitively interested.

I guess my point is this: until people have a reason to believe that CBC is worth coming to and staying at (be it for the community, or whatever you guys choose to work on), it will be very difficult to achieve and maintain activity here. I really hate to say it, but right now CBC just looks like another one of those spin-off competitive forums that have nothing to offer aside from a different group of people that peruse them. Baby steps first, I know, but just something to think about.

[Wolflare]

I agree. In the past, I figured unique events like Community Night could differentiate us from the crowd. I suppose it could still work since I haven't put much effort into doing that, but it's not very likely. Thing is, what exactly can we do that hasn't been done? We could try specializing in a type of battling (casual? older generations? heavily modded/modified metagame? Battle Subway?). We tried making our metagame, and that was a disaster. We might be most successful with casual battling since PC isn't very competitive. Then there's the battle wiki we had a year or two back, but I can't say whether the admins would agree to reviving it. Then there's the fact that PC isn't geared towards battling to begin with, but if Serebii and PokéBeach are successful, I guess we can be.

[Anti]

What's up, y'all?

I think Vrai is pretty much right. I always saw PC's niche as being a "warmer Smogon" - less competitive, more community-oriented, etc. When I think back to when PC "worked," it was pretty much that. On the flipside, the battling scene can't be so casual as to hardly exist, which is basically what ended up happening except for a few people. And the community kind of fell apart too. So nothing was left. Frown!

Anyway, best of luck guys. I think the forum recovering will take awhile no matter what initiative ultimately ends up coming into play. Over time, it can work. PC's core strengths still exist. So there's that.

My only other point is that as much as I like talking it out in threads like this, I think at some point you just have to stop thinking and start doing. Not like the two are mutually exclusive, but building a community and battling again is very much something that happens from just doing the things this forum is for - battling (first and foremost) and socializing!

Best of luck, guys.

[Forever]

I think the community itself should just concentrate on a tier in general for a while and become better specialised in it rather than trying to compensate for everything battling. I mean like, p much almost everyone left now plays NU, and only the ones who aren't as involved in what the community is/was play OU and just that, basically. I know back ages ago it was agreed that NU would be one of the main ones but honestly, if none of the regulars and only those who just post an RMT play OU then isn't it better to just have more of an emphasis on something else which can bring the community together, people don't complain about, and yeah... like, going away from OU as the main tier would be different but there's enough there that OU can still exist but for the actual community to form and for discussion and things to happen, it needs to be something we all like and generally think is pretty balanced. Like we aren't Smogon so therefore we don't strictly have to cater to OU specifically, but with all the complaints about it, younger battlers interested in competitive would be better off with a tier that's easier to play and isn't completely broken or the same teams over and over and over and over. Might be bias but if the emphasis continues to be placed on OU I don't know how many regulars will stay here when they can just go to Smogon for their OU needs because basically everything there is covered, and therefore they won't stay here as a regular because none of the regulars really care about OU as much, while for NU not necessarily everything is covered (apparently). Vote NU.

Also any word on why the server is down? :(

[Lapras*]

I think it might be a good idea to try, though it's not really like there are a lot of people here right noww. I'm currently learning NU and maybe having a "nonstandard" tier as our main might help differentiate us from other sites like, if you want OU go to smogon but if you want NU try PC? Idk it might be worth a shot to try focusing on it.

[Wolflare]

I don't see how focusing on NU makes us any different from Smogon. They have a larger community that plays the tier, owns the tier, and therefore makes it easier to make a difference on the metagame (helping decide bans, starting trends, etc.) if one participates there. The same applies to using any of Smogon's BW tiers. Unless we come up with something that makes us different from Smogon's NU community, I don't see this working any better than the way we are now.