Smogon Forum Suggestions and Feedback

[Redew]

Hello! Please read this whole OP before making any posts.

What Is This Place?

This "place" is the Suggestion Box. It is only for suggestions regarding ideas that will benefit Smogon in some way. Not for asking for team help, not for simple questions (i.e. questions that are one sentence and have to do with finding a thread or deleting a VM or the like), ONLY for ideas that will benefit Smogon in some way.

1. Be sure to elaborate on your idea. Don't just post one sentence consisting of, "i want there 2 b a forum for clans and stuff." This is the worst thing to do, and the fastest way to get your thread locked. Posting logic and reasoning behind your idea makes for discussion (in most cases) and allows you to answer questions if others have any. Generally, posts consisting of well-thought-out ideas and reasons will garner the most attention.

2. Be sure to search this forum before posting your idea. A simple search can go a long way. If your idea was suggested before and closed, it will most likely be deleted again for the same reason. If you feel that you have substantial evidence to back your claim, be sure to elaborate on your idea.

3. Don't be afraid to suggest frequently, but be sure to not suggest bad ideas. I realize that "bad" is subjective, but there is a fine line between posting for RMT thread tags and posting to have a plugin to show your favorite pony in your postbit, multiple times. If you are wondering whether or not your idea is questionable, you can always ask in THIS THREAD. If it shows promise (read: if a moderator suggests to post it in this thread), you can make a post in this thread. If not, don't bother posting.

4. Read rule #1 again.

5. DO NOT SUGGEST TO BLACKLIST SOMEONE HERE. Use the Wi-Fi Blacklist thread. Be sure to read that thread before posting in them. If you do not, you will get warned (also, a warning means an infraction). UPDATE 5/8/2014 - a custom title has been implemented indicate if someone is on the blacklist.

6. DO NOT SUGGEST A NEW METAGAME OR METAGAME CHANGES. EVER. This is the farthest forum from posting these here, so don't do it. For a new metagame, you can post here, but also be sure to read the rules of the forum.

7. DO NOT SUGGEST A MOBILE APP. Smogon works just fine on Xenforo on mobile, and is not in need of an app. If you would like to make one, though, posting in this forum with the tag (Programming) would be great.

8. DO NOT POST SUGGESTIONS FOR THE SIMULATOR POKEMON SHOWDOWN!. There is a thread for that in the Pokemon Showdown! Forum, right here.

Remember, this thread is for only posting ideas that will benefit Smogon; not C&C, not the OU tier--Smogon as a site. If you have any questions, feel free to PM skylight. If you have any general questions and don't know where to ask them, the General SQSA is your best bet (it also links to all other SQSA's that might be handy for you).

 

[Redew]

Commonly asked questions:

Can we delete inactive accounts with 0 posts?

We're not deleting inactive accounts because chances are an older user could return and want their account back. The most that'll probably be done is name changes if a user is desperate for the name. But in general a purge is very unlikely in the near future.

Can we enable likes in Smogon conversations?

This feature costs money that we don't have unfortunately. Plus, the admins are programming more important things for the site, too.

Can we have a dropbox to export older teams into?

It's currently not possible for XenForo. You can upload teams to files and then upload them to Dropbox to share with friends, but XenForo does not support this.

Can we add Tapatalk, or some other way to view Smogon better on the mobile?

chaos is currently too busy to be able to have the time to implement something like that. You can try to make something for us though!

Can we have a darker Smogon theme?

NMx13 designed one. This thread has instructions (http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/smogon-dark-skin.3502839/) to add it in.

Can the search function look for three letter words?

Unfortunately not, but you can try to search on Google.

Can we have clans?

It's generally accepted that we won't have clans anytime in the future.

Can we have a ROM hacking forum?

We wouldn't get enough activity to really need a forum, as everyone goes to the other ROM hacking forums already and we'd have nothing new to offer.

Can we edit options in a poll?

Nope, Xenforo doesn't support that unfortunately!

Will we ever change the logo?

Nope, Smogon means Koffing in German, so unless we change the name there's... not really a point.

 

[Lumari]

Sort of convenience complaint here: naturally, whenever somebody replies to a watched thread, the user get an alert. However, if a watched thread receives multiple replies and the first one of those - i.e. the one that triggered the alert - gets deleted, the alert doesn't go through at all, no matter how many posts have been made afterwards. This has caused me several times not to be notified of several (good) posts in a watched thread, which of course isn't optimal.
This also applies in a situation like this one here. I did a GP check on this analysis; I first posted a placeholder, then did the check in a new post, and then deleted the placeholder - which was the post that triggered the alert, causing the writer not to be notified of me gping his analysis and to notice it only weeks later. I usually just edit my placeholder with the check, so this can most certainly be circumvented (dunno why I didn't do it here actually - I also realised literally five seconds ago that I could have circumvented it by tagging the writer in the actual check). I also remember similar cases where a writer didn't get an alert for a GP check (don't recall any specific ones though, and I wasn't the one who did the checks in those cases), and I assume something similar was the case there.
Theoretically a fix should be possible (e.g. make the alert notify someone of unread posts in a watched thread altogether, or have every unread post generate an alert and only display the earliest one), but it would require tinkering with the alert settings and I don't know if that's feasible :(

So, yeah, the missing out on replies is only a minor annoyance and the GP problem can be worked around, but if there's an easy fix conceivable for this problem, I'd appreciate it ^_^

 

[a fairy]

The Dutch Plumberjack threads you watch with unread posts show up here http://www.smogon.com/forums/watched/threads when I was more active I'd look at it ever so often, SQSAs and other post-heavy threads sometime slip by, but they're always there

 

[Ranger Mike]

Ok so my idea is that you can watch for threads by their tags this would help out the team raters a lot because they can watch for uu ru etc. Albeit it doesn't have much merit outside of the rmt forum but it should still be taken into account.

 

[Ununhexium]

Can we credit analysis writers on-site. I know a lot of the competitive Pokemon population doesn't care about who wrote it, but the little bit of recognition would be nice. Also, the Smog does it, so why can't C&C (I know nothing about HTML so if this is difficult or whatever please excuse my ignorance).

 

[Redew]

Can we credit analysis writers on-site. I know a lot of the competitive Pokemon population doesn't care about who wrote it, but the little bit of recognition would be nice. Also, the Smog does it, so why can't C&C (I know nothing about HTML so if this is difficult or whatever please excuse my ignorance).

We are (at least, we were) working on this. Don't worry! We have been talking about this!

 

[g]

Can we credit analysis writers on-site. I know a lot of the competitive Pokemon population doesn't care about who wrote it, but the little bit of recognition would be nice. Also, the Smog does it, so why can't C&C (I know nothing about HTML so if this is difficult or whatever please excuse my ignorance).

There is also a credits page! http://www.smogon.com/credits

 

[Ranger Mike]

I have another suggestion, basically we should be able to click on a user's badge to see everyone else that has that badge/just have a list of all of the badgeholders for each badge. This would be very handy for newer users possibly knowing who to go to for things in cap/rmt because you can no longer click the mentor banner. You can also possibly add a starting pm giving them a guide of all the things they need in order to have a successful smogon experience.

 

[a fairy]

http://www.smogon.com/forums/pages/badgeholders/

 

[JuniBoy]

Hi guys:

I was wondering if maybe we can add in the tutoring program a mentor that just teach how to build a competitive team and can explain this campus very well, like all the playstyles, individual roles, synergies, cores and frameworks. I know that for some people this is very easy but alot of guys including myself struggle alot making competitive teams. If I learn this very well I could volunteer to teach this to other guys that struggle at this, if the staff of course permit it.

 

[a fairy]

Battling 101?

edit: god fucking shit i forgot i didnt want to hit 4k

 

[JuniBoy]

yeah i know but my idea was that newbies understand this things very well before they learn any tier, because alot of guys join a round for example ou tier and the first thing they ask is how do I build a team instead of learning from the first day of the round how the tier works, they could be more focus on the tier than basics of building a team, just a suggestion either way I'm gonna respect the system.

Edit: Lets forget about this I think the series that Plus is doing is better :D

 

[Redew]

The Mentorship program is designed to teach new players the very basics. B101 refers the newer players to us before they accept them into the program.

 

[Ununhexium]

Bring back the Smogon Hangout room

 

[colours]

Bring back the Smogon Hangout room

While I'm not an RO or anything of the Mentorship Room, I can most likely shed some light as to why the room was removed (I'm sure Antemortem would elaborate on any points that I've missed):

First and foremost, while the room had purpose and had a general direction, most of the users didn't seem to value it anymore. The SH room seemed like an idea that would normally be fine on paper--but that's about as far as it went--because most PS people didn't seem to really be that interested in learning about Smogon or wanting to contribute to it (that I've noticed, at the very least). They seem more concerned with battling and laddering and the likes. You can say that, in essence, PS! is kind of its own population, and the existence of SH only further proved that point. I'm not going to make any absolute judgments on any mentoring or lack thereof in the room (since I've largely been inactive), but from when I have poked in there, there wasn't much going on, and it was just general chatting here and there. Nothing really wrong with that, but it also says that there wasn't much to do on the mentor end. I also saw less and less mentors on, as presumably they lost interest, as well (I only saw like, fleurdyleurse, Lord Alphose, and maybe some other people icr).

Another thing to consider is the existence of the Help room. This was actually a pretty important factor to consider alongside the SH room, because the Help room exists for those who not only need help regarding PS, but by a small extension, Smogon, as well. To prevent a more tangential explanation, the best way to put this is that the Help room rendered the SH room pointless alongside the above factors (user disinterest). It seems that most users just care about having their questions answered, and nothing past that.

There is a possibility that the room may be back in the future, but it'll take a fairly large amount of demand for that to occur, to my knowledge.

 

[TheBlueFiretruck]

I was thinking about a kind of Pokemon oriented story telling thread, that I guess would go in this forum (idrk where else it would fit). It would just be for fun, but I think it could improve the overall Smogon atmosphere and allow people to feel general community within the common interest of Pokemon. Here's an example story.

Story Title: Opening Kick Off

Go Kicker!
Go The Defense!
Go Receiver!
Go The Blockers!
Kicker used Mega Kick!
Receiver used Snatch!
Receiver used Return!
The Defense is confused!
The Defense used Pursuit!
The Blockers used Block!
Receiver used Run Away!
Receiver used Pay Day!
The Blockers used Celebrate!

The moves obviously don't have to make sense with Pokemon mechanics, but I can see some really creative/funny stories coming from this. Maybe a martial arts/wrestling fight scene or the landscape of a beautiful valley would be good ideas to get started with. Thoughts?

 

[TheBlueFiretruck]

Sorry for the double post, but I thought of another helpful idea. If it's possible, I think it would be cool if when you highlighted a certain area of a post and clicked "Reply" it would automatically create a quote, just like it normally does, but this time only within the highlighted area of text. It would probably save time and would definitely save space since people normally just quote the entire post for the sake of not caring enough to shorten it down. Not highlighting anything and hitting the "Reply" button would obviously allow it to function as it currently does, if that's what the poster wants. Can this be accomplished, or am I talking nonsense? lol

 

[skylight]

There's nowhere it'd really fit TheBlueFiretruck other than in Anime Style Battling forum? Other than that there's kind of nowhere else honestly that it'd fit easily here. And that sounds kind of complicated to code, if anything it'd be easier if you just c/p the rest out or c/p the part you want. For the most part coders are working on the dex and site and things like that rather than the forum and replies unfortunately :(

 

[KeldeoJustified]

make a music sub fourm under smeargles artroom and add a music badge cuz when we do boring stuff we need music

 

[antemortem]

make a music sub fourm under smeargles artroom and add a music badge cuz when we do boring stuff we need music

Badges are tied to site contributions, and the social forums are typically for discussion/relaxation rather than work.

 

[KeldeoJustified]

i use music to relax..?

 

[a fairy]

he was talking about the idea of adding a badge for music

there is nothing on smogon right now that requires a music contribution

 

[ryo yamada2001]

As for in the new Strategy Dex ( http://www.smogon.com/dex/ ), I get slightly annoyed we can't sort Pokémon on stats and that you can't see a Pokémon's BST.

 

[BlueLobster]

Could we have a forum to share interesting/helpful/amusing PS! Replays? Currently there is no where to post good replays. Watching good battles can help newer players with teambuilding and funny replays are good to share, but there's no real place to share them.