It's Time For Change: S&M Revival Starts NOW

[.Aero]

I feel like Black and White is just the only chance to keep the forum alive. I just realized how critical this point will be to this community in the sense that most of us regulars are on the verge of quitting pokemon for good due to "old" age. I don't know if any of us will ever really reach that age, but I feel I have a chance (especially when I go off to college in 1 and a half years I guess it is).

If we miss this chance, who's left once we all finally disappear? That's the issue, we need a new set of "us" basically to fill our places when we're gone. I'm making this sound like we're dying in real life, but I dunno how else to express it with the same amount of urgency that it requires.

:x Yeah.

 

[Anti]

Also, the regulars are too regular and too...pro almost. I dunno how to describe it, but it happened to the fanfiction section, too; the newbs just kinda got scared by the pros and didn't join in the FFL or other discussion threads (eg. seen many newbs in the Everyday Gynecomastia Talk, anyone?).

I'm glad you brought up that awful DCC that's here for no reason. I don't remember if you guys remember the campaign to make this forum more casual, but the DCC was a part of that. However, I cannot possibly justify its continued existence. Nothing productive is ever said in that thread. It has historically been a breeding ground for trolling various "inferior members" and looking like stuck up idiots. I don't see how anyone who has seen that DCC would ever want to set foot in this forum again. Nothing that is said in that thread except for server announcements is something that can't just be said on Shoddy to each other. Even though the quality has probably improved over time (I rarely visit anymore it so I wouldn't know), I still have no idea why this toxic thread still exists. Any new user who sees that will probably signaled that there is a clique of S&M regulars that they're not a part of and that is intimidating to most people. If the thread actually served a purpose then maybe this would be a little more excusable but it adds nothing to the forum. As you might have noticed, I think it hurts it, haha. I don't know if I was straightforward enough in the past, but I didn't constantly talk about how bad the DCC was to be edgy or funny--I actually meant it, lol. When my last mod action before resignation was locking the first one (for what I thought would be a long period of time if not permanently), my hope was that its toxic influence would vanish. I don't want to throw D_A under the bus here since he did ask me to bring it back and I approved on the condition that posts would be monitored for, to put in simply, saying something that Vance would have said. But you really can't moderate a thread like that since babysitting it destroys its only "positive," which is casual community chat, and you are probably just going to make people stop posting if you say "well this post isn't good enough to exist in our DCC." And there, what could possibly seem more snobbish to a newcomer (or anyone, really) than deleting or even infracting posts in a self-described casual thread for not meeting some random arbitrary quality standard? I think it would be an understatement to say that the DCC is my least favorite thread in S&M history for all of the reasons I've stated. I don't know where you guys stand on this, but I am in favor of making the "new DCC" the Shoddy chat like it was for quite some time and to get rid of that toxic thread at the top of the forum.

Also, as long as the atmosphere is clearly friendly and accepting, I think that we can make us being "pros" and positive since newcomers will feel like they're learning from people who know what they're talking about. We just have to make sure that they understand that we don't equate learning the game with inferiority as we have been rightfully accused of for so long.

Also, Aero brings up a good point. I'll stick around for another year or two but once I go to college all bets are off (enjoying everything about college or Pokeon...sorry I've got to take college here haha). For the sake of S&M two years from now we ought to fix this.

 

[wolf]

I forgot about the DCC, but just saying I agree that it serves no purpose when we have the PO chat for random topics. The thread is like a mini-firebot to me...but it could work if it was meant to actually discuss strategies and movesets since we don't talk about that enough on PO (I guess we could make a separate channel for that, but I have a feeling it will be dead and a thread would probably get more activity). Though, I don't think we have a large enough user base for that currently.

 

[Jake♫]

I'll agree on the removal of the DCC, seriously it's joke a sarcasm and troll pit, although it can be funny =P And just to clarify how you guys are feeling on the upcoming college note, take a look at my activity. That's probably what is going to happen for you guys too =P

 

[Aurafire]

Just for you people heading from high school to college, nobody really cares if you still play in college, lol. My roommates all know I mod a pokemon forum and they're like "oh...cool." My activity on PC has certainly slowed down when I'm not on break or during the summer, but managing your workload is pretty easy. I still enjoy battling and going on PC, so I don't plan on leaving anytime soon ^.^

Anyway, I agree with everyone else about the DCC. It had good intentions but it won't serve a purpose in the new S&M. I think it was there to make us feel better about ourselves when S&M was really dead, so we could say "Hey, at least there's still a little activity!" But yeah, poor attempts at trolling and the lame jokes are getting old.

If D_A agrees, we'll lock the crap out of it.

 

[Dark Azelf]

^WAYY ahead of you lol. I locked and unstuck it. However, i would still like a casual chat thread. Its really useful when the server goes down/goes back up or there is actually something TO chat about casually or something major happens and id like to let people know. Pro "get on server" propaganda is also great lol:/

Also you dont have to quit pokes/leave pc just because of college. Aura provides a great example as to this lol.

S+M's glory days was built on a tight knit community and if people leave then its just gonna keep being be stuck in this rut. You saw what happened to this place when Abyay, Sims, Vance, <insert 07 member>, Beachy, Luke, Lala etc went AWOL. Thats silly and counter productive honestly and will just kill the community even more which we should just scrap the "get s+m active thing" if thats what you're planning to do.

 

[Opposite Day]

Just posting to say that you can still go to college and stay active on here! (well, at least if you count me as an active member) yeaaaaa

 

[Musica]

Just posting to say that you can still go to college and stay active on here! (well, at least if you count me as an active member) yeaaaaa

I think I'm a bit active. :D
Yes, I'm in college too. I travel around 50km just to go to school and it takes me 1~3 hours to go home depending on the traffic. I still have time for both school work and leisure. So yea, I guess we all need a break from everything.

 

[Vrai]

Hey guys, just saying I'm probably gonna get more active around here too. :>

/wants to help

 

[Jake♫]

I guess I should rephrase how I wrote about the college thing earlier: It is DEFINITELY possible to balance it out, I just have a hard time because I despise being in my dorm because I have an awful roommate, which ultimately leads to me hanging out with my friends and being away from my laptop for days at a time. Of course, you guys more than likely won't end up with this situation, so I don't think you have anything to worry about.

 

[Musica]

Only problems I could have in terms of inactivity are school work, friends, family, and unsuspected events.

I want to help out others too even if I'm not battling competitively for a long time.

 

[.Gamer]

too lazy to read through the whole thread but imma just make short post, well relatively short.

basically, the OP is the entire reason i left. i used to read through the archives and i loved how involved it seemed like everyone was, regardless of whether it was because of the constant flame wars or the out the ass trolling. it looked fun (could be because thats the internet style i prefer, whatever). i saw community night, the attempt to restart tutoring, shoddy tournaments, pretty much everything that could be tried was tried, they always seemed to start out with a bang, but then you could see we just didnt have the userbase or interest to keep it going. im not sure why (maybe because most of this site is 10 year olds more interested in ash x misty than knowing how to properly EV your garchomp??? [answer is always 252 atk / 252 speed jolly btw). and i kept trying to give out ideas and i was often greeted with the response "we have already tried it and it didnt work" or "that might work, but i dont think it would". i eventually got tired of trying to make a community out of nothing and i just migrated to a community that fed my interests (read: smogon). i would be willing to help out or supply ideas again but i dont really think this site as a whole shares the same interests we do in competitive battling. i mean even with black and white this subforum recieves but a sputter of activity compared to the rest of the rest of the forum. im sorry if it seems like im taking cheap shots or putting people on the site or insulting this website, its really not that bad. if we ever bring back tutoring i would be willing to offer my services, even though i dont play 5th gen, the basics do not change much from generation to generation (except GSC which was ass).

so yeah, sorry its incredibly blunt, but that is how i feel. my absence on this site wasnt because i dont like you guys, i just got sick of nothing getting accomplished. while i also know that leaving a problem accomplishes nothing, it made my time playing pokemon more enjoyable. so yeah. thanks for reading this post if you did.

 

[Dark Azelf]

Oh another thing, before i forget.

Im gonna stop deleting 'sub par rates' (unless they are obv bad like "delete everything for Hyper Beam" or just a horrific troll/spam) and just correct them by posting or editing the posts then posting after to correct them. If i do delete stuff im gonna put "VM/PM as to why and we'll discuss it" lol.

This should encourage people to post more also.

The rules might need to be edited to reflect this too if Aura wants to go through with it, but thats up to him if he wants to do this too.

 

[Vrai]

Oh another thing, before i forget.

Im gonna stop deleting 'sub par rates' (unless they are obv bad like "delete everything for Hyper Beam" or just a horrific troll/spam) and just correct them by posting or editing the posts then posting after to correct them. If i do delete stuff im gonna put "VM/PM as to why and we'll discuss it" lol.

This should encourage people to post more also.

The rules might need to be edited to reflect this too if Aura wants to go through with it, but thats up to him if he wants to do this too.

I think that's a really good idea. If people keep getting shut down when they're trying to rate, there's absolutely no way for them to improve at all. Leaving the posts up and allowing RMTs to even just build up the skills of the raters will only improve the community, I think. Early on, when I had started actually getting better at battling, I was kind of afraid to rate because I felt that a) I would be wrong and thus get my post deleted or worse, made fun of or b) whatever I said wouldn't help at all. I really think this should be an amendment to the rules, imo.

 

[Dark Azelf]

S+M isnt scary new people. I am a big pussy cat really here and irl (just dont get personal, thats when i have to bite, but thats another story and not relevant at all lol!)

Anyway;

(22:02:07) +Dark Azelf: an idea i had
(22:02:28) +Dark Azelf: was like a tutor takes an apprentice
(22:02:35) Vrai: okay
(22:02:41) +Dark Azelf: and is given a time scale
(22:02:45) +Dark Azelf: to help make them better
(22:02:51) +Dark Azelf: then we all come together at the end of the time scale
(22:03:04) +Dark Azelf: and the apprentices have a tourney to see who has improved the most, with our guidance of course
(22:03:08) +Dark Azelf: and prizes are given
(22:03:15) +Dark Azelf: and emblems
(22:03:20) +Dark Azelf: Ovb they can apply again if they feel they need to improve more but yeah. I really think this can motivate people and improve them too.
(22:03:24) Vrai: because emblems get the most people to come
(22:03:25) Vrai: :<
(22:03:28) +Dark Azelf: XD
(22:03:31) Vrai: but yeah that's a good idea
(22:03:31) +Dark Azelf: prizes too lol
(22:03:39) +Dark Azelf: i also want contributor emblems
(22:03:51) +Dark Azelf: so people write guides etc

^

 

[Aurafire]

I feel like we don't delete a lot of posts in the first place, but the only time I'll actually delete a rate is if it's a troll/spam, or the advice is just utterly awful.

I don't mind favoring correcting/editing over flat out post deletion. Like Elf said, this would encourage people to post more and it doesn't seem as harsh.

Oh and I like the changes to the the tutoring system and the emblem ideas. ^^

 

[.Aero]

Yeah, seems like our biggest issue is how blunt we are. I can definitely see a post deletion scaring members away in the past.

 

[wolf]

Oh another thing, before i forget.

Im gonna stop deleting 'sub par rates' (unless they are obv bad like "delete everything for Hyper Beam" or just a horrific troll/spam) and just correct them by posting or editing the posts then posting after to correct them. If i do delete stuff im gonna put "VM/PM as to why and we'll discuss it" lol.

This should encourage people to post more also.

The rules might need to be edited to reflect this too if Aura wants to go through with it, but thats up to him if he wants to do this too.

Editing the post and removing the bad parts of the rate, then say "VM/PM as to why and we'll discuss it" (what you said). Replying in their thread about it would be off-topic and clutter their RMT I would think.

(22:03:39) +Dark Azelf: i also want contributor emblems
(22:03:51) +Dark Azelf: so people write guides etc

^

I agree, but you know I already do lol (I'll reply to the rest later in the other thread).

 

[Anti]

Maybe I'm just a cynic, but why are we acting like emblems mean something to anyone?

Maybe I'm in the minority but they've always seemed like a joke to me. It's not like badged members on Smogon where you see the badges with every post. The only think like a "badge" we have here is PC supporter buttons. And hey, those actually have benefits.

It's not like I really oppose emblems since "what is the harm really" but it seems incredibly naive to me to think that it will actually matter.

 

[wolf]

Maybe I'm just a cynic, but why are we acting like emblems mean something to anyone?

Maybe I'm in the minority but they've always seemed like a joke to me. It's not like badged members on Smogon where you see the badges with every post. The only think like a "badge" we have here is PC supporter buttons. And hey, those actually have benefits.

It's not like I really oppose emblems since "what is the harm really" but it seems incredibly naive to me to think that it will actually matter.

Well, the Get-Together tour was a huge success, and the reason could have been the emblems that we gave out to everyone who participated. Or because it was different than a standard bracket tour, or that it was in a forum where all PC users looked. I don't think we should rely too much on them though, but it's worth a try. And as said before, adding a flawless Pokemon to the reward would be better for people who don't care about emblems.