No. Delete Smogon.
-
Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
-
Congrats to the winners of the 2023 Smog Awards!
(request) DELETE SMOGON NOW [decision pending]
- Thread starter Teh
- Start date
I added a report on there, but realistically I don't think the mods will take much action if they're approving the links in the first place and the mods have been light on removing external links (depending on the mod, maybe Mod_Pandaroo would be receptive), and there have been no bans since July* even for people like FlyPupKai who get a locked thread. On the other hand, nobody in the thread agrees with him and you have to read through most of the pages to even see his links again, so I think the best option is just for the thread to die out naturally. Overall it seems like the small regular userbase of the official pokemon.com forums generally don't know or care about him enough to take it seriously, so it just makes him seem foolish to anyone reading without context.
I think the new champion of the forums UnovanZorua sums it up best:
I did notice that there were these blanked out messages with no edited marker, which might be a unique censoring method.
*So I just found out that Mod_Champion got banned, and they were last active as most recently as last month on March 30th. This is very strange and raises many questions. Is there conflict in the mod ranks? Was Mod_Champion corrupt? Did a mod account get compromised? Do mods get banned if they have to retire?
The last mod edit by "Mod_Champeon" would be for keeping language friendly on the Pokemon forums.
I found this out from the "Lavos Copypasta 2019" thread where an imgur post with cursing appears to have been removed last year.
https://community.pokemon.com/en-us/discussion/6900/lavos-copypasta-2019
In more positive mod news, the story of the forums gym challenge has begun and Mod_Bee loves the start of it:
https://community.pokemon.com/en-us/discussion/10813/forums-gym-challenge-story
Ravenclawed1234 settled for the role of 2nd gym leader, while Josiah2580 gave up his guaranteed gym position to become a villain instead.
Overall I feel like the community has been pretty good at self-regulating even without mods taking direct action like before, as seen in the collective shunning response to a thread about feet which would probably fit in and be deleted back in July:
https://community.pokemon.com/en-us...that-every-game-should-have-a-barefoot-option
Nowadays the forum is mostly just brackets, though this was just a well timed screenshot and there are other occasional random topics that pop up as well, but clasingla is definitely one of the most prevalent posters and thread creators with multiple regular series. Meanwhile, TPCi_GarbageKing hasn't posted a new raid event since Luvdisc.
I haven't highlighted it much but clasingla's posting power has been growing steadily, accumulating 1190 posts in only 3 months of joining since January 18, 2024. I think this pace surpasses any of the top posters on Smogon but the meta is just different there.
This is also where I learned people are actually using the wall feature aside from that time in July when people were commenting on mod walls. I don't actually think you get notifications for these comments from what I remember.
A minor and major update with the Pokemon forums:
A recent change noticeable in the images of my last posts is that all posts now have a 3-dot icon in the top right. Previously this menu had the edit posts option in the past, but it brings up an empty menu now even on your own posts.
https://community.pokemon.com/en-us/discussion/10932/did-anyone-else-get-the-forum-feedback-quiz/p1
Apparently there is a survey for feedback being deployed on the forums today. I got it when going to page 2 but accidentally closed the window while trying to take a screenshot, but fortunately clearing my cookies worked to make the survey appear again, though incognito mode didn't. Either way, I can show you the full details of what Pokemon.com is looking for to help develop the forums further. It doesn't seem like this link is unique or account-specific as I got it right after being logged out, and they don't want to identify you anyway, so I will post it here, but I will also detail what the survey asks here as well.
https://pokemonintl.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cSeR3ep2VExOD4i?Q_CHL=si
Page 1 shows this is a TPCi operation and is specifically about the Pokemon Community Forums, which I guess is their proper title.
Page 2 asks for your age in from 10-12, 13-15, 16-20, and then in increments of 10 up to 60. Note there is no back button.
Page 3 asks for gender identity with multiple selections allowed.
Page 4 starts off by asking how you found the forums. Now technically I found the forums due to Pokemon Unite using them to post their patch notes in English officially for the first time, which was linked on Twitter in December 2022.
Fun fact: Screenshots from that time show that the default avatar wasn't always a Poke Ball and is probably some vanilla forums default avatar. And these were actually the latest topics at the time in December 2022.
But I think they're referring to the specific ingame link to the forums in Unite, so I decided to just go with "Social Media", though I feel like that refers more to people discovering the forums from when it blew up last year. I guess arguably it's closer to Pokemon.com because it's from an official Pokemon account and they have links on there too. And I've been seeing the forums and its threads come up a lot lately when searching as well, but overall I have to say social media.
Page 5 asks what brought you to the Pokemon Community Forums today. As mentioned I originally came to read patch notes, but now I guess I technically browse topics for the sake of it more than anything else as most lurkers would, though most of the regulars probably fall under connecting with other fans. I imagine the TCG Live audience still mainly uses this to report bugs. As noted earlier, TPCi_GarbageKing has been late on posting about events since the Luvdisc raid event. We also have the first Other/open-ended option here.
Page 6 asks if you accomplished what you came for, and I did though I only saw the one thread about this survey before doing that instead.
Page 7 is a 1-5 scale question with all the options ranked relatively to the word easy. Personally I find it pretty easy to read new topics thanks to there being a page that shows all recent topics across the forum, though if I didn't know then it would be kind of tedious to open all the subforums with no previews.
Page 8 asks if you have an account.
Page 9 asks which topics you are interested in viewing in the forums, though by topic they actually mean the main subforums. You can select multiple options here. I imagine most people are here for either Pokemon General, Unite, or TCG Live.
Page 10 asks about your favorite features of the forums, with multiple selection allowed but being asked to select 3 (you can select more than 3 but I don't know if it lets you progress or they just invalidate your response). Personally I have to say choosing an avatar is a main pro, even with the limited selection it makes people more recognizable thanks to the brand. Adding reactions and earning badges is something that Smogon users can relate to as well, but in terms of helpful features I have to say bookmarking/following threads is pretty useful to get notifications. There is a setting to turn on notifications for all threads you posted in, but this doesn't seem to trigger anymore if your post was manually approved. Following categories on the other hand is pretty pointless as it's basically just following a subforum. And you can't really message other forum members like in PMs unless you mean on their activity page, which is something I have not explored much.
Page 11 is where it gets interesting with the survey asking which features you would like to see come. Personally I think official community events would be appreciated, though I don't know if the mods would handle it as well as the users have been making their own events already with brackets and stories, but I could see it being inspired by those and potentially engaging if not completely sanitized by company guidelines. I would like to see more avatar options, but those seem like they will happen eventually anyway and aren't make or break for me. Customizing displayed topics doesn't seem totally necessary to me right now. More ways to earn points and badges is an interesting proposal, with the current system being mostly Vanilla Forums defaults, so the mods would have to come up with something original like the community events or just add in unused reactions like Promote or Awesome. I think a new subforum for Help and Feedback would be most useful since most people use the News and Articles forum for forum feedback and requests which is the closest thing to a meta. And there's an Other option, which some used to ask for editing back. Overall I think this is a good sign that TPCi is considering positive changes to the forums for once after almost a year since it went mainstream.
Page 12 asks what you enjoy most about the Community Forums. I wouldn't say they're a go-to place for the latest Pokemon news as is, nor are they particularly insightful for strategy, but they are alright at serving their purpose of being a general community forum and also providing patch notes for specific games, so I expect those to be the main answers.
Page 13 has some more traditional 5-point Likert scale style questions, asking if the forums are relevant, active, visually appealing, easy to use, and intimidating.
Page 14 asks how you typically engage with Pokemon in terms of aspects of the franchise, coming back to demographics.
Page 15 asks how likely you are to recommend the forums to a friend or family member. This is a tough question because on one hand I'm personally fine with the site itself, but in terms of recommending it to other people it wouldn't be first on my list of Pokemon forums, and I probably would not ask a family member to sign up to one anytime soon.
That is where the survey ends, with a picture of a delivery Pikachu. I will provide further updates if any of these changes come to pass in the near future.
A recent change noticeable in the images of my last posts is that all posts now have a 3-dot icon in the top right. Previously this menu had the edit posts option in the past, but it brings up an empty menu now even on your own posts.
https://community.pokemon.com/en-us/discussion/10932/did-anyone-else-get-the-forum-feedback-quiz/p1
Apparently there is a survey for feedback being deployed on the forums today. I got it when going to page 2 but accidentally closed the window while trying to take a screenshot, but fortunately clearing my cookies worked to make the survey appear again, though incognito mode didn't. Either way, I can show you the full details of what Pokemon.com is looking for to help develop the forums further. It doesn't seem like this link is unique or account-specific as I got it right after being logged out, and they don't want to identify you anyway, so I will post it here, but I will also detail what the survey asks here as well.
https://pokemonintl.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cSeR3ep2VExOD4i?Q_CHL=si
Page 1 shows this is a TPCi operation and is specifically about the Pokemon Community Forums, which I guess is their proper title.
Page 2 asks for your age in from 10-12, 13-15, 16-20, and then in increments of 10 up to 60. Note there is no back button.
Page 3 asks for gender identity with multiple selections allowed.
Page 4 starts off by asking how you found the forums. Now technically I found the forums due to Pokemon Unite using them to post their patch notes in English officially for the first time, which was linked on Twitter in December 2022.
Fun fact: Screenshots from that time show that the default avatar wasn't always a Poke Ball and is probably some vanilla forums default avatar. And these were actually the latest topics at the time in December 2022.
But I think they're referring to the specific ingame link to the forums in Unite, so I decided to just go with "Social Media", though I feel like that refers more to people discovering the forums from when it blew up last year. I guess arguably it's closer to Pokemon.com because it's from an official Pokemon account and they have links on there too. And I've been seeing the forums and its threads come up a lot lately when searching as well, but overall I have to say social media.
Page 5 asks what brought you to the Pokemon Community Forums today. As mentioned I originally came to read patch notes, but now I guess I technically browse topics for the sake of it more than anything else as most lurkers would, though most of the regulars probably fall under connecting with other fans. I imagine the TCG Live audience still mainly uses this to report bugs. As noted earlier, TPCi_GarbageKing has been late on posting about events since the Luvdisc raid event. We also have the first Other/open-ended option here.
Page 6 asks if you accomplished what you came for, and I did though I only saw the one thread about this survey before doing that instead.
Page 7 is a 1-5 scale question with all the options ranked relatively to the word easy. Personally I find it pretty easy to read new topics thanks to there being a page that shows all recent topics across the forum, though if I didn't know then it would be kind of tedious to open all the subforums with no previews.
Page 8 asks if you have an account.
Page 9 asks which topics you are interested in viewing in the forums, though by topic they actually mean the main subforums. You can select multiple options here. I imagine most people are here for either Pokemon General, Unite, or TCG Live.
Page 10 asks about your favorite features of the forums, with multiple selection allowed but being asked to select 3 (you can select more than 3 but I don't know if it lets you progress or they just invalidate your response). Personally I have to say choosing an avatar is a main pro, even with the limited selection it makes people more recognizable thanks to the brand. Adding reactions and earning badges is something that Smogon users can relate to as well, but in terms of helpful features I have to say bookmarking/following threads is pretty useful to get notifications. There is a setting to turn on notifications for all threads you posted in, but this doesn't seem to trigger anymore if your post was manually approved. Following categories on the other hand is pretty pointless as it's basically just following a subforum. And you can't really message other forum members like in PMs unless you mean on their activity page, which is something I have not explored much.
Page 11 is where it gets interesting with the survey asking which features you would like to see come. Personally I think official community events would be appreciated, though I don't know if the mods would handle it as well as the users have been making their own events already with brackets and stories, but I could see it being inspired by those and potentially engaging if not completely sanitized by company guidelines. I would like to see more avatar options, but those seem like they will happen eventually anyway and aren't make or break for me. Customizing displayed topics doesn't seem totally necessary to me right now. More ways to earn points and badges is an interesting proposal, with the current system being mostly Vanilla Forums defaults, so the mods would have to come up with something original like the community events or just add in unused reactions like Promote or Awesome. I think a new subforum for Help and Feedback would be most useful since most people use the News and Articles forum for forum feedback and requests which is the closest thing to a meta. And there's an Other option, which some used to ask for editing back. Overall I think this is a good sign that TPCi is considering positive changes to the forums for once after almost a year since it went mainstream.
Page 12 asks what you enjoy most about the Community Forums. I wouldn't say they're a go-to place for the latest Pokemon news as is, nor are they particularly insightful for strategy, but they are alright at serving their purpose of being a general community forum and also providing patch notes for specific games, so I expect those to be the main answers.
Page 13 has some more traditional 5-point Likert scale style questions, asking if the forums are relevant, active, visually appealing, easy to use, and intimidating.
Page 14 asks how you typically engage with Pokemon in terms of aspects of the franchise, coming back to demographics.
Page 15 asks how likely you are to recommend the forums to a friend or family member. This is a tough question because on one hand I'm personally fine with the site itself, but in terms of recommending it to other people it wouldn't be first on my list of Pokemon forums, and I probably would not ask a family member to sign up to one anytime soon.
That is where the survey ends, with a picture of a delivery Pikachu. I will provide further updates if any of these changes come to pass in the near future.