PC: Moving Forward

First and foremost, thank you for taking the time to read this thread.

As many of you are aware, the information that has come to light in the past few weeks has caused many staff to resign their posts on PokéCommunity. This has lead many to question the community's future. The potential loss of a community with over fifteen years of history is extremely frustrating and difficult for everyone involved, especially given the circumstances surrounding that loss. Those of us who are still interested in remaining on the staff team want to be open by discussing our plans with you, so we kindly ask you to read on.

A select group of us spent many hours every day deliberating the future of the PokéCommunity and whether or not it was possible to keep its legacy going. Over the last fifteen years, the PokéCommunity has fostered a wonderful forum home for people all around the world. We've made new friends, dabbled in creating fan games, chatted away the stress of less-than-stellar days, traded for our dream Pokémon, and overall experienced things that have helped us grow as people. Every single member that has joined over the years has helped shape the community into what it is today and none of us want to see everyone's efforts crumble because of one person. Hence our name: we are a community that has been carefully cultivated with each individual's contributions. After considerable discussion, we have decided that it's not fair to allow our shared history, created on a forum dear to so many people, to come to an end in such a way—not if there was anything that could be done to prevent it.

We want to say that we completely understand everyone's concerns and worries about the information currently circulating. We value member comfort and safety above all else. You can imagine the shock that the staff team—many of whom have volunteered their time to PC for years (and some even over a decade!)—felt when presented with this information. It was incredibly difficult but, despite that, some of us have chosen to stay and try to make changes to PC rather than move on entirely. We've had lengthy conversations with Rukario on the actions that we feel absolutely must be taken in order for us to revitalize the forum and regain members' trust. Thus, in efforts to rebuild the PokéCommunity and keep it the welcoming community that it has always been, Rukario will be resigning from his staff post and transitioning toward relinquishing ownership of the site to staff members Laslow, adventure, Sylphiel, Sheep, and Cherrim.

This matter has also raised several concerns about PC's financial status. As members who contribute to our finances, whether through ad revenue or as contributing supporters, you deserve transparency into how it's all handled. Suggestions that finances have been used for untoward purposes have evolved largely as the result of the current lack of transparency within the staff. These concerns are understandable, but we aim to set the record straight: funds given to the PokéCommunity stay in PC's budget. A server like PC's requires a lot of resources, and as a result, a lot of money. Some months, PC runs a surplus and in this case, the extra money is set aside for the community, usually allotted to offset the costs when the budget runs a deficit in other months. Our new leadership intends to rectify these issues in several ways, and we'll have more to announce about this at a later date. While Steve will continue to support the community financially during this period of transition, we want to keep ensuring that funds are used appropriately for the continued benefit of PC and current funding will be closely monitored by the new leadership.

If you have any questions, you may respond in this thread or send a message to one of our administrators. We want to think that, despite the frustration everyone has endured these last few days (something we completely understand, as made evident to many of you in private conversation), PC is a wonderful community which we all want to see prosper for as long as possible. And it's clear that there are others who feel the same way.

The PokéCommunity is our home and we don't want to give it up like this. We truly hope those who are willing to give us another chance will consider sharing their opinion and, possibly, contributing to the growth of the community once again under its new leadership.

Thank you for reading!

I'll be honest, I didn't think it'd take such a short amount of time to have this transition begin to occur. I'd be willing to come back to the community (Albeit I wouldn't be able to get my old username back as it was taken within just hours of me stepping down from staff and requesting my old account be deleted, oh well). PC was my home for many years and I'd hate to leave it for good.

Should I decide to return, since I had a supporter tier on my old account which no longer exists, could I get a one-time transfer to move it over to this account?

I think this is what most of us were hoping for.

So this isn't el final yet, huh? That's cool. I was uncertain about what was going to happen.

Yeah, you need to go before this can be taken remotely seriously.

Hey hey,

I'm already seeing some "wtf why is Erica there", so I just wanna clarify my role here.

I volunteered my time privately, offering to help with whatever is needed while PC restructures its staff after the exodus and re-evaluates where to go next. I do not know how long I will be on staff, but I just want to help things run smoothly and I will bow out afterwards, if it seems that I am no longer needed. It has been a long time since I was last truly active here, but I have roughly 10 years of experience being an administrator at PC and can hopefully use that experience to help decide where PC goes from here.

Basically I just really love PC and I don't want to see it go, so I want to help out however I can to move it into the next phase of ownership.

I didn't expect this to happen, much less so quickly. But it's the absolute best thing that could happen for PC to have a chance to recover. Hopefully we can pick up the pieces and look toward the future.

As someone who was on staff for over a decade, I know the frustrations that a lot of the staff members faced, including a lot of questions on how to keep PC relevant in a changing internet world - and I hope the new admin team can come up with a plan to forge a path forward and make changes and enhancements that need to be made. It's fantastic to see Erica on staff again, even if it only turns out to be temporary, and I hope that all the staff can make this transition as easy as possible and make PC have a better future. There's a good combination of seasoned veterans and fresh blood there, and I really feel that PC is in good hands.

Steve caught a lot of flak - a lot of it deserved - but we do owe him a lot of thanks. Without him running the server and doing the behind-the-scenes administration and duties of ownership, PC wouldn't be here today. None of the friendships we've made, or the community that's been fostered (no matter how fragmented and splintered it is right now), or the memories we have of PC would have been possible without Steve's work and presence over the last 15+ years, so I do think we need to show him our appreciation as we close his chapter of PC's history and go forward with our new beginnings.

Although I really am not exactly a very prominent part of this community, PC has changed my life a lot ever since I became a member here even though the effects are seemed subtle before. Even though I am basically a lurker for over a decade, I do feel that I am a part of this community as I made connections from here through PMs, Windows Live Messenger, and Discord. And somehow, those connections changed my life a lot.

Without PC, I wouldn't have met the love of my life or was even motivated to pursue art and programming to the extent I've done. I got to know people and have had quality time with them. I always kept on the back of my mind if I could start being active here all the time but other forums and communities usually made it difficult to spare some time. Still, I treasure the 'Happy Birthday' emails I keep getting (even if they were automated) but I do get Happy Birthday messages on my Visitor Messages as well. It might be just the little things but they're really nice.

The only time I was ever really active here was back in 2006-2008 and I could've sworn I made way more posts than I did since I spent a lot of time here (maybe it was just the dial-up connection). I did spent a huge block of time in 2016 on Discord though Life got in the way again and I lurked again. With the recent events, I was worried that PC might go away because it's one of the only sites that still exist online of my childhood memories (other communities have either disappeared or banned me) but I'm glad it's here to stay when I need it.

I won't promise to be more active, at least on the forums, but I'm all in for helping the growth. I have some community management skills from being admins/mods elsewhere that might help. I also have some skills in programming and art though I know people better than me who can do it better. I am also on Discord all the time and will be more active on there (I'm not sure where the PC Discord is going though).

All in all, I'm hopeful on how things are heading towards now and if anything, I'll always lurk here till forever. :D

As someone who's been watching this unfold from a distance, I gotta commend the remaining staff for being open and transparent and not giving anything up.

I have my own opinions formed on the side of all this but the opinions are generally positive.

You guys've been a staple of the Pokemon fandom for a long time and I am quietly glad that you aren't going anywhere.

I think... it's a little too soon or all of this. Although, at least one thing has gone right in all this with Rukario's resignation. If you're going to try to rebuild the forums, please try to take it slow.

im typically just a bystander but I can't ignore all logical reasoning here that most likely Steve didn't resign. also why you would announce such important info on an account where only those members who are in the loop know who this is is hilarious and a testament to how short sighted you are

I absolutely love -as in feel personal affection for- the new batch of admins (not so much Jake aka "Laslow" but eh), so I can only say I'm so infinitely glad you're taking care of the mess and I wish you the absolute best. I believe in you.

Ivysaur said:

I absolutely love -as in feel personal affection for- the new batch of admins (not so much Jake aka "Laslow" but eh), so I can only say I'm so infinitely glad you're taking care of the mess and I wish you the absolute best. I believe in you.

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Hey Went!

If you have any concerns or grievances to air about me or the team I pushed really hard to get together, I'll happily hear them out.

- Jake

I'm just hoping that whatever the problems is would be solved soon, I don't want to see PokéCommunity going down the hill like this... It has been my very first forum that I joined, and I was hoping that it wouldn't get ruined... until that incident coming by :(

So, with due respect, I hope all of you would fix all the damages that are affecting several members on this Community, and regain our trust and sense of safety as the members here. And by that, I meant a LOT of it because I'm not feeling comfortable in this forum anymore... But I hope PokéCommunity will become better, if that's one wish I want right here.

Firstly, good luck to those who are trying to push it through. Also appreciate the early post, Cherrim.

I strongly encourage more information as you resolve it, and feel you could be more clear already to the public on how things currently stand. There's currently one line about Steve resigning (notice the tense) but in reality it is I feel a long way to go, especially in resolving finances. I understand this is hard to quicken, let alone resolve, for numerous reasons, but your best chance to regain trust - including mine - is to be totally open about it, and constantly. Not been convinced nor feeling that positive by what I've heard thus far outside of this thread.

Outside of that, what about other platforms given the exodus in areas like SMT, Daily staff and Discord, the latter whose link has been outright removed from the top menu? Are reboots, dropping support, etc expected or planned, and on that note what about development plans on the UI, and beyond with a much more limited team able to code now around in staff? I know other people have different concerns, but I'll let them voice them.

I hope it goes well, but various things still leave me sceptical, and I can't morally come back until there's further clarity and Steve is fully gone, in access and in financial matters. It may be a while, so good luck again. I'll stay in touch at least while also helping with the separate site development given how it's progressing. I joined for fics and loved the community, and hopefully this side can maintain it; the other one just also has it without the Steve baggage.

Bellsprout said:

im typically just a bystander but I can't ignore all logical reasoning here that most likely Steve didn't resign.

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He has resigned (well, no, he's been demoted), and is only listed as a platinum supporter now. He's no longer part of staff at all, but we're talking with him on Discord.

I had no idea about this, and it devastates me. Personally have been around for more then a decade(yes a decade, don't look at my current join date), and this place has been here from the start of my activities on various forums. I hope to god this gets sorted out and I would love to help out in any way I can. Of course it seems that there where major issues and no one sees eye to eye about things are handled.

I think this is the right course of action, a revolution on pokecommunity, let this be a new day not the end of days. I don't have much money, but I would happily donate something to help rebuild my home. I come here almost every day and reap its benefits, and am ready to put in time and resources because I love Pokemon and I love you guys.

I know that not everyone is satisfied, but it is just step 1. I am sure that we will continue to move forward. My most sincere prayer is to see the faces of those we have lost feel safe and proud to come to pokecommunity again.

What happened that made the Pokecommunity be nearly closed?

This is absolutely fantastic news. Very maturely handled and absolutely maximum respect for all the staff whom decided to stay on. The pressure to leave must have been overwhelming at points but that fact that you didn't bow to it and kept pushing through is incredibly respectable; kudos to you all!

(Would just like to make clear that I don't intend any disrespect to those who didn't stay; I fully understand why that would be the case and that everyone has their individual reasons.)