AMA About PC5 @ The Treehouse

Started by Hiroshi Sotomura March 18th, 2015 5:06 PM
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  • 33 replies

Alexander Nicholi

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Age 25
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Seen February 15th, 2023
Posted March 5th, 2021
5,498 posts
13.5 Years
Will you be implementing usergroup colour changes as seen years ago? Can you share colour candidates at all?

Aside from TT, what other forums are you planning to overhaul?

What are the specifications for PC's box, assuming it is on a single one?

How optimized is PC's source code? How much is still leftover from VB3?

Are you guys looking at ever reformatting the avatar system, making it into a thumbnail or forcing JPEGs or such?

What things outside the scope of the forums will PC be making an endeavour for?

What are you doing to expand PC's size and scope in the interest of traffic?
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Her

Age 29
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What can we expect in terms of the postbit & avatars?

What adjectives would you use to describe the new style the forum will have?

What are the top 3 goals you hope to achieve with the update?

gimmepie

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What plans are there relative to the blogs on PC?
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Foxrally

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What's the main job of a staff administrator? I've always wanted to know :O

Any thoughts of adding a game section to PC? I've seen it happen on a few vBulletin forums before.
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Pinkie-Dawn

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10.5 Years
How is PC going to deal with continuous heated arguments by the same individuals from the Discussions & Debate section regarding touchy subjects?

What methods will be used to encourage more fan clubs from the club sections to stay active, so it won't just one or two of them?

Will there be new Emblems with specific requirements that sound nearly impossible to achieve?

blue

gucci

Male
United Kingdom
Seen September 26th, 2021
Posted August 7th, 2019
21,056 posts
15.4 Years
Moving forward is it likely that we'll see new/updated sections opening up?

Salzorrah

grassium Z

Age 25
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Floaroma Town, Sinnoh
Seen May 14th, 2022
Posted May 5th, 2022
6,376 posts
12.4 Years
What are the main features you'll release for PC5?

As for blogs are concerned, will they get a complete overhaul, or atleast features similar to posts like the css style bug, and the like system?

New beta forums for supporters to try out?

Any news when will the supporters be getting their userbars?

Will you be scrapping the vB3 base for something new, or you'll stick with it with more new features?

For styles, will we have an easier time making them and uploading them?

Will you guys be removing or adding outside-forum staff usergroups like the BSS?

Any color changes to the usergroups?

MENTIONS? HASHTAGS?
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El Héroe Oscuro

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Posted August 21st, 2021
7,237 posts
14.3 Years
What was the thought process behind renaming General Chat to The Treeouse? Not particularly talking ablut the choice of name, but rather to rename the forum in the first place.

A few days ago a concept was brought forth by administration to The Treehouse which talked about how we would experiment with a 'new forum a month.' We're you actually being serious about this, or was this just another discussion starter thread? If the former, what will be the selection process be like in deciding which forums will be test ran? Who will have the ability to moderate these sections: higher staff, current moderators, or the people who suggested the forum in the first place? At the end of each month, how will it be decided which forums will stay and which ones will be trashed?

Would you ever consider scrapping the orange Supet Moderator color and replace it with the old Assistant Admin green? Based off of my talks with Super Moderators, it doesn't seem that orange is the most popular color.

Thank you for taking the time to answer questions from the community by the way.
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Many suggestions in CQ&F right now are being brushed off on the basis that it's coming in v2 / v1.5 / v5 / whichever. This has been the case for many months. When is it expected to be done? If there is no expected date then is it still worth postponing acting on suggestions?

What's going on with the nomenclature? It's changed a number of times now and beyond the new styles (they're gorgeous, by the way) there've been no major releases.

Who is involved in designing PC5? How will you make sure that people get a say in what's going to change before it's done without considering their input or objections?

(also guys I can't help but feel like this thread was intended for v5-only questions, not stuff like... "why didn't we have a new year get-together", haha)
s͎̭̚ ̪ͭͩy͔͚̰̻̗̩̺ͣ́ͨ̌͡ ̩̳̙̖̖̺͡m̷̱̘͎̝̘̣͒͌͒̚ ͇͖̔̐̔b̝̪͚̞̦ͬ ̢͔̱̟̞̝͙̮͌̅̈̓̿̿i͐̈̃͊ͯ̎҉̟̠͓ ͕̥̣̪̠̃͑͞ỏ̵͕̠̱̬̬̞͛̋ ̨͈̻̱̟̱͓̪n͒̒͂͊̀ ̻̰̰̜̅̃͒̂͞tͭ̍̈́ ͙͇̘͕͍̜̖ͫ̌̊̿ͫ̂̀:̵̾͒̔͂ ̟͉̜̽͒͌͜p͎͇͎̦̺̙͒͆͋́ͅ ̨̠̠̘͚͖̺ͫ͛̎̉a̲͍̫͖͗̄ ͓͖͍̯̤̼͙̿̆̂̂̄r̬̟̮͖̥̼̆̓͑̃̾ͬ̉͟ͅ ̬̼̗͊͛a̛̯̮ ̮̬͍̙̮̤́ͪŝ͊ͬ̒̎̃ ̧̝̮͎͙͆̓ì͈̹̻̱̾͝ ̘͉͕̭̊ͤ̉̓tͩͯ̉̐ͨͬ̚͏̻̺̖̮ ̞̘͂̋̋ͯ͑ͦ͗e̞͔̎̇ͫ͊͗

Aquacorde

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18.9 Years
can we expect to see any new features that could begin to let us compete with bulba and serebii? like, in terms of resources and functionality beyond social interaction
if so, what kinds?

is there going to be anything done to bring back more pokemon focus?
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Wheres da podcast :D
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Her

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Salzorrah

grassium Z

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Seen May 14th, 2022
Posted May 5th, 2022
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12.4 Years
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gimmepie

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Hope is lost Gunner.
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Nihilego

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Posted March 16th, 2018
8,874 posts
12.1 Years
right

So this has been sat here for a while and nothing has been answered yet. It's not really fair to keep you guys waiting, especially since there are a lot of questions from a lot of people who obviously care about and are interested in the inner workings of / future of PC.

Therefore, when I get a moment over the next couple of days I am going to alleviate some of the workload and answer as many of these questions as I can. As I am not part of the development team for PC5 I won't be able to answer all of them so apologies if your question gets missed - but a lot of these aren't strictly about PC5 anyway, so a good lot of them should get done. Also some of them aren't PC5-related but are things that we simply don't have an answer for right now, so again, sorry if I miss those out.

It's likely that I'll only be doing this once and not answering any subsequent questions (the others can do that) - so if you've got any last-minute things you want to ask I'd encourage you to do that now.
s͎̭̚ ̪ͭͩy͔͚̰̻̗̩̺ͣ́ͨ̌͡ ̩̳̙̖̖̺͡m̷̱̘͎̝̘̣͒͌͒̚ ͇͖̔̐̔b̝̪͚̞̦ͬ ̢͔̱̟̞̝͙̮͌̅̈̓̿̿i͐̈̃͊ͯ̎҉̟̠͓ ͕̥̣̪̠̃͑͞ỏ̵͕̠̱̬̬̞͛̋ ̨͈̻̱̟̱͓̪n͒̒͂͊̀ ̻̰̰̜̅̃͒̂͞tͭ̍̈́ ͙͇̘͕͍̜̖ͫ̌̊̿ͫ̂̀:̵̾͒̔͂ ̟͉̜̽͒͌͜p͎͇͎̦̺̙͒͆͋́ͅ ̨̠̠̘͚͖̺ͫ͛̎̉a̲͍̫͖͗̄ ͓͖͍̯̤̼͙̿̆̂̂̄r̬̟̮͖̥̼̆̓͑̃̾ͬ̉͟ͅ ̬̼̗͊͛a̛̯̮ ̮̬͍̙̮̤́ͪŝ͊ͬ̒̎̃ ̧̝̮͎͙͆̓ì͈̹̻̱̾͝ ̘͉͕̭̊ͤ̉̓tͩͯ̉̐ͨͬ̚͏̻̺̖̮ ̞̘͂̋̋ͯ͑ͦ͗e̞͔̎̇ͫ͊͗

Nihilego

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Male
scotland
Seen September 28th, 2018
Posted March 16th, 2018
8,874 posts
12.1 Years
I want to quickly note before you read any of this that if I give a personal opinion of mine then that's literally all it is - don't read into it like it's going to happen / has been discussed / is being discussed / is going to be discussed. It's more than likely just a thought bouncing around in my head.

Will you be implementing usergroup colour changes as seen years ago? Can you share colour candidates at all?
No plans to right now. Recent "candidates" have been your suggestions in that one thread and assistant admin green for smods.

I personally do want to merge together the supporter group colours though. We've got too many colours right now and it's a mess. Also doesn't give us any room to introduce any more as and when we might need them. Supporters really don't need four colours anyway.

Aside from TT, what other forums are you planning to overhaul?
Since you posted this we've obviously done D&D -> The Round Table and Forum Games -> The Playground + The Underground. The other day Roleplay Corner got an overhaul too and a couple more things have been under some discussion. I believe Fan Fiction & Writing has had something in the works for quite a while now, and we also recently looked at Culture & Media too. For the most part though the direction of forums is in the hands of its moderators.

How optimized is PC's source code? How much is still leftover from VB3?
Right now, a lot of it is left over from vB3, but we're modifying a lot of it and making it much more modern. Eventually we want vB to still be the base of the forum but to operate very differently and more intuitively. It's a sort of massive project that people (mostly Audy) is undertaking to re-write a lot of what the forum's based on, if my understanding's correct.

What things outside the scope of the forums will PC be making an endeavour for?
There are loads of things we've got going for us that we could capitalise on. Right now we're working towards expanding our social media presence for example but in the whole "outside the scope of the forums" thing, I would personally quite like to work more on PC's ROM Hacking userbase. As it stands we're probably the best place there is for showcasing / finding hacks but making them is still very much down offline tools. With things like Jake's Movie tool that went up a while ago (and never really got the attention that it deserved) we could become a hub for both showcasing and developing hacks, for example. This is just something that I'd personally like to see though - I don't know anyone else's thoughts on this. We have a lot going on here that we could expand on beyond just "talk about this thing".

What are you doing to expand PC's size and scope in the interest of traffic?
As I said above, we're working on getting a better social media presence. Gavin explained this one well:

Most importantly, I think PC needs to expand beyond a forum. I’ve written a few thousand words on how I think we can achieve that in recent months, but social media utilisation really needs to happen. PC will benefit massively from becoming a more expansive brand. Getting more into the big ones like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and so on will make PokéCommunity an organisation more than a forum. If PC wants to expand, that is truly what it needs. Like I said, I’ve written a few thousand words on this already so staff have all access to that and the discussions if they wish to progress it. With that said, I will reiterate that Social Media Staff members need to come in as soon as possible. The foundations of the usergroup still need to be created (as of the date of my leave), and I think it will be very useful if the usergroup gets specific stretch goals in terms of what we hope to achieve. This means that the usergroup as a whole should aim to achieve more likes, followers, and so on, as well as post daily on Facebook/Twitter. Even if it’s a minor forum event, post it, it shows that PokéCommunity is alive. Competitions, merchandising, artist/member promotion, celebrations, it can all go on social media. Show people what PokéCommunity is all about and all the amazing things it has to offer. We all have faith in PC, let the world see why.
There's also some stuff on branding which we'll be working on. You can find the blog and read up on it for yourself.

Debate who has the biggest weener.
Evidently, me.

How hard was to make PC like now?, on how it looks and works. It's not an ordinary forum.
While I wasn't around for all of its creation and whatnot, I can see the amount of work in it and the only thing I can imagine saying here is... pretty hard. We have a ton of styles and hundreds upon hundreds of plugins to make PC tick as it does, plus more edits to PC's code itself along with all the minor things like prefixes, BBCodes, etc. In the time that it's been around a lot of modification has been made to PC and it's been a lot of work to get it to where it's at now, with a lot of work still going on.

We're going to lose our accounts when PC 2.0 arrives?.
Definitely not.

Wait, what exactly is so wrong with this place that it requires a revamp?
"Wrong" isn't the word I'd use exactly. Forums as a medium for communication are becoming quite tired and outdated. vB3 (the software we use now) is old but later releases have been outright disgusting to use and work with. While PC ticks along just fine and has a great community, good features and design, etc. the issue is that it isn't keeping up with modern communication on the internet. To stay on the map we need to come up with something new and exciting that you can't find in any old Pokémon forum not just in terms of community but in terms of the entire user experience. The PC5 developers (from what I've heard from them anyway) very much intend to make PC a forum that's hardly even recognisable as something on vBulletin any more - something more modern and in-line with what people actually want to use. For people like you and I who are really comfortable using a forum and whatnot the necessity isn't clear, but to pool in new users (especially younger ones) we need to be modernising PC with a lot of the social tools that people who don't use forums are used to.

What plans are there relative to the blogs on PC?
We're definitely intending on integrating our newer features into them. The blog platform we use right now is absolutely horrible to work with so it's taking a while to get stuff like Likes, notifications, and even the really simple things like multi-quoting enabled in them. Also better, easier customisation (not like tumblr-level but you get the picture) and more interactivity between blogs. I would personally quite like to just come up with our own system built from the ground-up, although that's a big job. As for actually improving their visibility and activity, hopefully that'll come with modernising them in general.

are you guys gonna actually give PC a slogan?

the one we have's gettin a little stale, ya know? that's all i got for now.
Nah.

What's the main job of a staff administrator? I've always wanted to know :O
That's a massive question, haha. Each staff admin seems to be moving towards doing something different to the others in my mind. Audy and Jake are very much on the development and design side of things right now, while Sheep, Morkula and I are much more involved in the actual running of the forum. Staff admins, in general, are the only people with the actual ability to implement things and make changes to the forum, so it's a big job. Years ago it was considered one of the lighter jobs on the forum but that was more because back then the admins never did anything as opposed to had nothing to do. It's definitely not the case now - in my experience being an admin is much more work than any other position on PC because you're expected to be overseeing everything.

Any thoughts of adding a game section to PC? I've seen it happen on a few vBulletin forums before.
Not sure what you mean. We've got The Playground if that's it?

Was there any reasons as to why we didn't have a New Years Get Together as was held in past years?
No particular reason that I can recall. Just didn't end up being discussed.

Is it a possibility that the Emblem system could be replaced with something else in the future, or have it dropped completely?
Definitely. There's actually a lot of planning towards this going on right now (or rather, was going on recently). We aren't exactly going to be dropping it but we are looking at something very different.

On a scale from 1-10 how easy will navigation be for PC newcomers?
This is a really arbitrary question, haha. Obviously we'll aim for 10 but as experienced forum users we may not see things in the same way as newcomers might, so we'll be needing a lot of feedback etc. before we can actually hit that target.

Any further improvements possibly coming for the Treehouse?
The Treehouse is a very self-sustained forum which you guys are doing a good job of as it is, so no, not to my knowledge.

How is PC going to deal with continuous heated arguments by the same individuals from the Discussions & Debate section regarding touchy subjects?
Not PC5's problem. You'd want to take this one up with Livewire or whoever is modding The Round Table in future.

What methods will be used to encourage more fan clubs from the club sections to stay active, so it won't just one or two of them?
I'll decline to answer this one since there are a lot of different thoughts on Fan Clubs and I don't want to represent any one of them.

Will there be new Emblems with specific requirements that sound nearly impossible to achieve?
With the whole thing getting a revamp it's hard to say with this one but probably not.

Moving forward is it likely that we'll see new/updated sections opening up?
We opened one up just the other day, so definitely. We regularly have proposals of new sections and every now and then one of them makes it through.

As for blogs are concerned, will they get a complete overhaul, or atleast features similar to posts like the css style bug, and the like system?
See above.

New beta forums for supporters to try out?
On rare occasion, maybe. The Member Encyclopaedia is a good example of this, and the sort of experimental thing that we might try out using supporters in the future. In general though most forums can just be rolled out to everyone.

Any news when will the supporters be getting their userbars?
Done.

Will you be scrapping the vB3 base for something new, or you'll stick with it with more new features?
See above. We're sticking with it and heavily modifying it.

Will you guys be removing or adding outside-forum staff usergroups like the BSS?
I won't say too much on this at the moment but it's very likely, and possibly coming soon, that we'll be adding more non-forum staff usergroups. I touched on this a little earlier in the post.

Any color changes to the usergroups?
None planned as of right now.

MENTIONS?
Definitely.

HASHTAGS?
Not planned right now and very unlikely. For hashtags to be effective you need a much bigger, more active, less content-focussed base. Twitter and facebook are fine but they've got no place on a forum.

What was the thought process behind renaming General Chat to The Treeouse? Not particularly talking ablut the choice of name, but rather to rename the forum in the first place.
People found "General Chat" a bit awkward and bland so wanted something a little more relaxed and fun. "The Treehouse" seemed as good a way as any to achieve that.

A few days ago a concept was brought forth by administration to The Treehouse which talked about how we would experiment with a 'new forum a month.' We're you actually being serious about this, or was this just another discussion starter thread? If the former, what will be the selection process be like in deciding which forums will be test ran? Who will have the ability to moderate these sections: higher staff, current moderators, or the people who suggested the forum in the first place? At the end of each month, how will it be decided which forums will stay and which ones will be trashed?
As far as I can recall this was never really expanded upon, although I was on leave a while back and still haven't caught up everything I missed out. I quite like the sound of it though.

Would you ever consider scrapping the orange Supet Moderator color and replace it with the old Assistant Admin green? Based off of my talks with Super Moderators, it doesn't seem that orange is the most popular color.
Recently discussed and rejected.

can we expect to see any new features that could begin to let us compete with bulba and serebii? like, in terms of resources and functionality beyond social interaction
if so, what kinds?
See above, for the most part. Compared to those forums we're absolutely miles ahead of them already in terms of features (Serebii is on virtually the base version of vB if I remember rightly) - we just need to capitalise on what our community's able to do to make ourselves more than "just a forum". We're not really looking to compete with other forums though.

is there going to be anything done to bring back more pokemon focus?
Pokémon focus comes and goes with the franchise, for the most part. It's extremely difficult to push interest in a video game when the franchise isn't making releases. I can't think of that much we could do that we don't already try to do on this front.


Sorry if some of these got brief after the first few, I noticed that time's getting on. If you've got more questions or want elaboration then post them and I might be able to get to them at some point, not making any promises. Anything I left out you'll have to wait for Jake and Audy for.
s͎̭̚ ̪ͭͩy͔͚̰̻̗̩̺ͣ́ͨ̌͡ ̩̳̙̖̖̺͡m̷̱̘͎̝̘̣͒͌͒̚ ͇͖̔̐̔b̝̪͚̞̦ͬ ̢͔̱̟̞̝͙̮͌̅̈̓̿̿i͐̈̃͊ͯ̎҉̟̠͓ ͕̥̣̪̠̃͑͞ỏ̵͕̠̱̬̬̞͛̋ ̨͈̻̱̟̱͓̪n͒̒͂͊̀ ̻̰̰̜̅̃͒̂͞tͭ̍̈́ ͙͇̘͕͍̜̖ͫ̌̊̿ͫ̂̀:̵̾͒̔͂ ̟͉̜̽͒͌͜p͎͇͎̦̺̙͒͆͋́ͅ ̨̠̠̘͚͖̺ͫ͛̎̉a̲͍̫͖͗̄ ͓͖͍̯̤̼͙̿̆̂̂̄r̬̟̮͖̥̼̆̓͑̃̾ͬ̉͟ͅ ̬̼̗͊͛a̛̯̮ ̮̬͍̙̮̤́ͪŝ͊ͬ̒̎̃ ̧̝̮͎͙͆̓ì͈̹̻̱̾͝ ̘͉͕̭̊ͤ̉̓tͩͯ̉̐ͨͬ̚͏̻̺̖̮ ̞̘͂̋̋ͯ͑ͦ͗e̞͔̎̇ͫ͊͗