Smogon Community - Announcements in Forum : Contributions & Corrections

Rising_Dusk · Sep 20th, 2010 until Oct 20th, 2090

Ways to Help
Analysis Length
Peer Edit Thread Protocol
Queue System
Quality Control Team
Grammar-Prose Team
SCMS Information

Ways to Help:

Smogon is a competitive Pokemon community. If you'd like to involve yourself with the community, help out on the site, and maybe earn a badge (or two), never fear! There is never a shortage of work to be done on the site.

If you have...

No Badge:

Look through the site, especially the Pokemon strategy articles, and find typos and grammatical oddities to report in the Small Objective Changes thread. You may also report more controversial changes in the Small Subjective Changes thread.
Find outdated or lacking analyses and post a peer edit with your suggested changes.
Look over someone else's peer edit and post helpful, relevant critiques and/or addenda.
Involve yourself with a C&C project.
Learn HTML or analysis formatting and help convert guides and peer edit changes into a format suitable for the SCMS.
Author a guide or an article.

A Badge:

Everything before and...

Look over and commit changes by non-badged users in the typo threads, peer edits, and projects to the SCMS.
Fix obvious problems directly in the SCMS instead of posting in C&C about it first.

A Site Staff Badge:

Everything before and...

Look over and approve edits in the SCMS by non-site staff.
Coordinate C&C projects.

Remember to not waste your time. There are many aspects of the SCMS that can be mechanized, such as the replacing of e in Pokemon with é or changing - to en or emdashes. Above all else, be bold. Even if you have SCMS access, you cannot hurt the site. If you think something is wrong, fix it; don't wait for someone to tell you that you are allowed to.

Analysis Length:

There is an appropriate and an inappropriate length for analyses. They should not be too long and contain inordinate amounts of information, but at the same time they should not shirk entire chunks of valuable information just to be as short as possible. Generally, it is always easier for a user to write more, so we won't address that here. It's much more difficult to make a very long analysis more terse without sacrificing key information. Let us consider the following very fluff-ridden paragraph.

When considering Electivire for a spot in your team, it is inadvisable to assess its negative qualities. Instead, one should focus on discovering the characteristics that make Electivire useful. At certain times, it may be easily walled, but Electivire's movepool is particularly broad, and the moves it has up its sleeve can provide such exceptional type coverage that you will constantly see the words "It's super effective!" on your screen. Electivire's downfall is its lack of Speed to outrun faster opponents, but remember that Electivire's ability, Motor Drive, helps it score a Speed boost if you switch in on an Electric-type move. Also, Electivire will often find itself unable to severely harm bulky Pokemon, even with a super effective hit. However, with its fine offensive stats - an enormous base 123 Attack stat, an acceptable base 95 Special Attack stat, and enough Speed to attempt a sweep after a Motor Drive boost, Electivire can be a fearsome mixed sweeper.

This type of excessive rambling is unacceptable for the site. It needs to have all of the excess nonsense removed from it and brought down to a much more manageable level. That same paragraph could be rewritten as follows:

Although Electivire does have middling Speed when unboosted by Motor Drive and often fails to live up to expectations because of it, he is a fine offensive Pokémon. He possesses offensively oriented stats which include a great 123 Attack, passable 95 Special Attack, and enough Speed to attempt a sweep after a Motor Drive boost and fantastic type coverage with myriad options type-wise. This makes Electivire a fearsome mixed sweeper when played correctly.

The shorter version contains all of the same valuable information, but without any of the excess verbosity. It's also important to consider that the shorter version still has good prose and isn't boring to read, which is something that people often mistakenly associate with making analyses more concise. Think before you write, while you are writing, and after you write. Read your work, re-read it, and then do it again. We need to improve our analyses' qualities, and filling them with useless debris is not helping.

The OWL at Purdue University provides a useful list of techniques that can be applied to help reduce the amount of excess fluff that you put into your writing.

Peer Edit Thread Protocol:

There are a few distinct suffixes that are used in C&C to distinguish the different types of analyses that are allowed and what they entail.

(Analysis)
An analysis tag indicates that this is totally new work with no prior material to base the new work on. This is very rare in the standard tiers with standard Pokemon, and is generally used when writing an analysis for a lower tier Pokemon in a higher tier, such as Lucario (Uber Analysis). This also shows up quite a bit in the Little Cup forum, as many of those Pokemon have never been written up before.
(Update)
This suffix is used when major changes are being made to a Pokemon's analysis, be it revamping several sets or rewriting the adjoining paragraphs for the analysis.
(Set Name)
When you are posting only a single new set, you would simply put that set's name in the suffix. A good example of this would be Starmie (Life Orb).

Queue System:

The queue system for C&C is the process all analyses must undertake in their journey from being posted in Quality Control to being uploaded on the forums. The list below details each step and what is expected of the author during that step.

The Set / Analysis will be posted in the forum for the relevant tier with the (Quality Control) prefix.
After an analysis has received two QC approvals, it will be fully written by its author. Once the entire analysis has been written, it will receive one more QC review.
After it is approved by the Quality Control team, the thread will have its prefix changed from (Quality Control) to (Copyediting), and the Grammar-Prose team will start to review it.
Once the analysis has been GP checked twice and all required changes have been implemented, the analysis is complete and the author should change the thread prefix to (Done).
A member of that tier's moderating staff will review your analysis one last time, make any last minute changes, and then upload the analysis to the site.

While this process can be fast for some writeups, speed is not the most important factor, quality is. For this reason, do not feel rushed to complete the writeup within any expedient time frame. If you start dragging your feet for too long, one of that tier's moderators will bump your thread and remind you to get to work on it. If you still do not work on it for an extended period of time, you may have the analysis taken from you so that someone more active and interested can write it up.

Active C&C moderators are listed below so that you can seek them out if you need any further guidance. Administrative moderators can upload analyses for any tier by request or if the need arises and may have further specialization beyond what is mentioned below, though they are only listed once.

Administrative Moderators

Great Sage
bojangles

OU Moderators

Fifth Generation
- Iconic
- Seven Deadly Sins
- PK Gaming

UU Moderators

Fifth Generation
- kokoloko
- RT.
Fourth Generation
- Oglemi

RU Moderators

Fifth Generation
- DittoCrow
- Oglemi

NU Moderators

Fifth Generation
- Raseri
- Zebraiken

Uber Moderators

Fifth Generation
- bojangles
- Theorymon
- trickroom
Fourth Generation
- bojangles
- Jibaku
- Theorymon

LC Moderators

Fifth Generation
- Aerrow
- blarajan
- Elevator Music
- Vader
Fourth Generation
- Vader

VGC Moderators

VGC 2012
- R Inanimate
- Solace
VGC 2011
- Solace

Past Gens Moderators (RBY/GSC/ADV)

Oglemi
Jellicent

Article Moderators

macle
Nexus

Secret Boss Moderator

Fatecrashers
Jellicent

Quality Control Team:

When new sets, analyses, or updates are posted for any tier, they must be posted in the respective tier forum with the (Quality Control) prefix. This prefix will put that writeup through the Quality Control (QC) process which validates the set's effectiveness in the metagame of choice. There is a more detailed description of the QC process and team in this announcement.

Grammar-Prose Team:

Once a set or analysis passes the Quality Control stage, its prefix is changed to (Copyediting) and it will be moving into the Grammar-Prose (GP) stage of the process. After the author has finished writing the entirety of the writeup, he will mention in his thread with a bump that it is ready for GP checks. Either a GP team member or the author can then ask that the analysis be added to the respective generation's Grammar-Prose Queue, which tracks how many checks each writeup has and lists the members of the team. The analysis will then be rigorously scanned for grammatical errors, prose errors, and convention errors that are in breach of Smogon's conventions located here. Once the analysis gets checked twice, it will pass the GP stage and be ready for upload to the site. There is a more detailed description of the GP process and team in the below-linked queues.

Queues

SCMS Information:

The SCMS, Smogon Content Management System, is located here. Any user with a badge may access the SCMS and use it to fix small errors across the website. If you happen to be using Firefox or Chrome, put the following as one of your bookmarks:

Code:

javascript:window.location = %22http://%22 + window.location.host + %22/scms/jump?url=%22 + window.location.pathname

When you are on a Smogon page and you use this bookmark, it will take you immediately to the SCMS page for that article so that you can edit it. This is very handy for navigating quickly to things that need to be changed.

Sep 20th, 2010 until Oct 20th, 2090
Rising_Dusk Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 4,742	Contributions & Corrections General Information Ways to Help Analysis Length Peer Edit Thread Protocol Queue System Quality Control Team Grammar-Prose Team SCMS Information Ways to Help: Smogon is a competitive Pokemon community. If you'd like to involve yourself with the community, help out on the site, and maybe earn a badge (or two), never fear! There is never a shortage of work to be done on the site. If you have... No Badge: Look through the site, especially the Pokemon strategy articles, and find typos and grammatical oddities to report in the Small Objective Changes thread. You may also report more controversial changes in the Small Subjective Changes thread. Find outdated or lacking analyses and post a peer edit with your suggested changes. Look over someone else's peer edit and post helpful, relevant critiques and/or addenda. Involve yourself with a C&C project. Learn HTML or analysis formatting and help convert guides and peer edit changes into a format suitable for the SCMS. Author a guide or an article. A Badge: Everything before and... Look over and commit changes by non-badged users in the typo threads, peer edits, and projects to the SCMS. Fix obvious problems directly in the SCMS instead of posting in C&C about it first. A Site Staff Badge: Everything before and... Look over and approve edits in the SCMS by non-site staff. Coordinate C&C projects. Remember to not waste your time. There are many aspects of the SCMS that can be mechanized, such as the replacing of e in Pokemon with é or changing - to en or emdashes. Above all else, be bold. Even if you have SCMS access, you cannot hurt the site. If you think something is wrong, fix it; don't wait for someone to tell you that you are allowed to. Analysis Length: There is an appropriate and an inappropriate length for analyses. They should not be too long and contain inordinate amounts of information, but at the same time they should not shirk entire chunks of valuable information just to be as short as possible. Generally, it is always easier for a user to write more, so we won't address that here. It's much more difficult to make a very long analysis more terse without sacrificing key information. Let us consider the following very fluff-ridden paragraph. When considering Electivire for a spot in your team, it is inadvisable to assess its negative qualities. Instead, one should focus on discovering the characteristics that make Electivire useful. At certain times, it may be easily walled, but Electivire's movepool is particularly broad, and the moves it has up its sleeve can provide such exceptional type coverage that you will constantly see the words "It's super effective!" on your screen. Electivire's downfall is its lack of Speed to outrun faster opponents, but remember that Electivire's ability, Motor Drive, helps it score a Speed boost if you switch in on an Electric-type move. Also, Electivire will often find itself unable to severely harm bulky Pokemon, even with a super effective hit. However, with its fine offensive stats - an enormous base 123 Attack stat, an acceptable base 95 Special Attack stat, and enough Speed to attempt a sweep after a Motor Drive boost, Electivire can be a fearsome mixed sweeper. This type of excessive rambling is unacceptable for the site. It needs to have all of the excess nonsense removed from it and brought down to a much more manageable level. That same paragraph could be rewritten as follows: Although Electivire does have middling Speed when unboosted by Motor Drive and often fails to live up to expectations because of it, he is a fine offensive Pokémon. He possesses offensively oriented stats which include a great 123 Attack, passable 95 Special Attack, and enough Speed to attempt a sweep after a Motor Drive boost and fantastic type coverage with myriad options type-wise. This makes Electivire a fearsome mixed sweeper when played correctly. The shorter version contains all of the same valuable information, but without any of the excess verbosity. It's also important to consider that the shorter version still has good prose and isn't boring to read, which is something that people often mistakenly associate with making analyses more concise. Think before you write, while you are writing, and after you write. Read your work, re-read it, and then do it again. We need to improve our analyses' qualities, and filling them with useless debris is not helping. The OWL at Purdue University provides a useful list of techniques that can be applied to help reduce the amount of excess fluff that you put into your writing. Peer Edit Thread Protocol: There are a few distinct suffixes that are used in C&C to distinguish the different types of analyses that are allowed and what they entail. (Analysis) An analysis tag indicates that this is totally new work with no prior material to base the new work on. This is very rare in the standard tiers with standard Pokemon, and is generally used when writing an analysis for a lower tier Pokemon in a higher tier, such as Lucario (Uber Analysis). This also shows up quite a bit in the Little Cup forum, as many of those Pokemon have never been written up before. (Update) This suffix is used when major changes are being made to a Pokemon's analysis, be it revamping several sets or rewriting the adjoining paragraphs for the analysis. (Set Name) When you are posting only a single new set, you would simply put that set's name in the suffix. A good example of this would be Starmie (Life Orb). Queue System: The queue system for C&C is the process all analyses must undertake in their journey from being posted in Quality Control to being uploaded on the forums. The list below details each step and what is expected of the author during that step. The Set / Analysis will be posted in the forum for the relevant tier with the (Quality Control) prefix. After an analysis has received two QC approvals, it will be fully written by its author. Once the entire analysis has been written, it will receive one more QC review. After it is approved by the Quality Control team, the thread will have its prefix changed from (Quality Control) to (Copyediting), and the Grammar-Prose team will start to review it. Once the analysis has been GP checked twice and all required changes have been implemented, the analysis is complete and the author should change the thread prefix to (Done). A member of that tier's moderating staff will review your analysis one last time, make any last minute changes, and then upload the analysis to the site. While this process can be fast for some writeups, speed is not the most important factor, quality is. For this reason, do not feel rushed to complete the writeup within any expedient time frame. If you start dragging your feet for too long, one of that tier's moderators will bump your thread and remind you to get to work on it. If you still do not work on it for an extended period of time, you may have the analysis taken from you so that someone more active and interested can write it up. Active C&C moderators are listed below so that you can seek them out if you need any further guidance. Administrative moderators can upload analyses for any tier by request or if the need arises and may have further specialization beyond what is mentioned below, though they are only listed once. Administrative Moderators Great Sage bojangles OU Moderators Fifth Generation Iconic Seven Deadly Sins PK Gaming UU Moderators Fifth Generation kokoloko RT. Fourth Generation Oglemi RU Moderators Fifth Generation DittoCrow Oglemi NU Moderators Fifth Generation Raseri Zebraiken Uber Moderators Fifth Generation bojangles Theorymon trickroom Fourth Generation bojangles Jibaku Theorymon LC Moderators Fifth Generation Aerrow blarajan Elevator Music Vader Fourth Generation Vader VGC Moderators VGC 2012 R Inanimate Solace VGC 2011 Solace Past Gens Moderators (RBY/GSC/ADV) Oglemi Jellicent Article Moderators macle Nexus Secret Boss Moderator Fatecrashers Jellicent Quality Control Team: When new sets, analyses, or updates are posted for any tier, they must be posted in the respective tier forum with the (Quality Control) prefix. This prefix will put that writeup through the Quality Control (QC) process which validates the set's effectiveness in the metagame of choice. There is a more detailed description of the QC process and team in this announcement. Grammar-Prose Team: Once a set or analysis passes the Quality Control stage, its prefix is changed to (Copyediting) and it will be moving into the Grammar-Prose (GP) stage of the process. After the author has finished writing the entirety of the writeup, he will mention in his thread with a bump that it is ready for GP checks. Either a GP team member or the author can then ask that the analysis be added to the respective generation's Grammar-Prose Queue, which tracks how many checks each writeup has and lists the members of the team. The analysis will then be rigorously scanned for grammatical errors, prose errors, and convention errors that are in breach of Smogon's conventions located here. Once the analysis gets checked twice, it will pass the GP stage and be ready for upload to the site. There is a more detailed description of the GP process and team in the below-linked queues. Queues Fifth Generation Past Generations SCMS Information: The SCMS, Smogon Content Management System, is located here. Any user with a badge may access the SCMS and use it to fix small errors across the website. If you happen to be using Firefox or Chrome, put the following as one of your bookmarks: Code: javascript:window.location = %22http://%22 + window.location.host + %22/scms/jump?url=%22 + window.location.pathname When you are on a Smogon page and you use this bookmark, it will take you immediately to the SCMS page for that article so that you can edit it. This is very handy for navigating quickly to things that need to be changed.