The Philosophy of Smogon

[GTS]

I have no counter arguements, or suggestions, but I can say that this was a great read, and a wonderful thread.

A lot of the topics brought up were very insightful, and some have really got me thinking.

[Lee]

I did write a tl;dr post here but just decided to delete it all and go straight to the point.

Smogon is here for us specialised bunch who like spending hour after hour perfecting our IV's or inventing new movesets. There is definately a market for us; this is one of the more active forums I frequent so that is proof in itself. If people think that we are too competitive or are missing the point of Pokemon, then that's just fine. There are dozens of other Pokemon fansites out there where they can use Fly or discuss which Pokemon is the cutest.

The elitism rumour is bullshit too. As long as a new member conducts themself sensibly and shows basic knowledge of the game then they will recieve as much help as they require. The RMT forum is testimony to that fact. There is no discrimination in the rating, regardless of whether the OP has 1 post or 10000 posts.

[chaos**]

There really isn't much of a way to make Firebot unambigious... not that it matters, you can't get infractions there like you can in other forums just for that reason.

[ANinyMouse]

Oh man, I used to fuck up in Firebot so bad that I finally left it the hell alone. I've been pretty much hanging out in Stark Mountain exclusively, like has been mentioned in this thread, because I felt like whatever "magic connection" the most prominent members shared I lacked. Nowadays I doubt that's actually true, but if any aspect of Smogon is intimidating for the Pokemon-enthused, it's certainly not Stark Mountain, but everything ELSE.

But, hey, I'm trying.

I got into competitive battling back when GSC was all the rage on Net Battle, and I somehow got by on Serebii before the huge turning point around 2002 or so when the place exploded. I have no idea how the hell I found Smogon in the first place, but it's been fun so far. I, like many here, have learned so much about Pokemon (and even life, maybe) just by trying to be a part of your lives. I'm grateful.

I think you really need to shed your "me me me" attitude if you ever want to be a respected member of an online community, though, and that goes for anywhere. Even in the depths of postwhore hell (including /v/ and the worst parts of GFAQs), you won't get far without turning your focus outwards to others, because it gets them involved with you, plain and simple.

Excuse the run-on sentences. It's late.

Thanks a fuckton chaos, Misty, blackshellbowser, and Cat-Gonk for making this the fucking BEST thread on Smogon I've ever read that for whatever reason also didn't make me laugh!


So, like, "cheers!", or some shit! Cool.

[Fire Electric Cat-Gonk]

Haha, only just saw this and had to comment..

Originally Posted by Fat ForumAddict

GameFAQs recently had a thread complaining about a number of Smogonites on Shoddy refusing to accept anything other than the standard (such as shunning Substitute Weavile).

My Weavile had Substitute for the Connection Tour due to the crazy ruleset. I'd open with a Naive Scarfed Azelf that, in the event of a lead +Spd Scarfed Gengar, could U-Turn to Weavile (disabling a potential Focus Sash) who would eat the Hypnosis with its Lum Berry (assuming it hit). The game then would hinge on whether or not the second Hypnosis hit (49% chance of them both hitting), and this implies that the Gengar was Scarfed as if it wasn't Weavile would go first.

A Weavile hiding behind a Substitute makes short work of Focus Sash Garchomp, any of the Latis, Gengar, and basically the entire metagame. Unfortunately for me, despite it being overused in all the other states, no-one in Perth used Gengar(aside from the guy who won Day One (whom I never got to fight). Oh well.

[Kier]

Originally Posted by Fat Jackal

wow holy fuck this got tl;dr please someone say they read that :P

Haha, yeah Jackal, I read the entire thing.

Anyway, great read Misty. Smogon is the best resource for competitive Pokemon on the internet, and a sense of professionalism -- and, not to mention, entitlement -- goes with that title. This can easily be misconstrued as elitism for those who are unfamiliar to how things are run around here, and it often is.

It frustrates me when people develop vendettas against Smogon because of this perceived elitism. I see a lot of people at GameFAQs bitching about Smogon because they didn't feel well-received when they posted a "new" moveset or a shitty RMT, and had their topic locked or ignored. Hopefully this article will clear things up for them.

[Articuno64]

Originally Posted by Fat ANinyMouse

Oh man, I used to fuck up in Firebot so bad that I finally left it the hell alone. I've been pretty much hanging out in Stark Mountain exclusively, like has been mentioned in this thread, because I felt like whatever "magic connection" the most prominent members shared I lacked.

The best way to understand that "magic connection" is probably to come to the IRC channel #smogon. It is basically Smogon HQ.

[UnicronEX]

I like Pokemon. Smogon is a good website/forum about Pokemon. Therefore, I like Smogon.

[Carl]

Originally Posted by Fat Articuno64

The best way to understand that "magic connection" is probably to come to the IRC channel #smogon. It is basically Smogon HQ.

Ditto that statement. I think a lot of people don't realize that part of the reason this community is pretty close among certain people is that those are the same people who are also chatting in real time via IRC. I try to pop in everyday on IRC as sad as that sounds because if I don't I sometimes feel out of the loop with some jokes and I was only gone a day! I'm not sure if it's necessary to add anything about the IRC chat to Misty's thing but this is just a general encouragement to join #smogon on irc.dejatoons.net. You'll gain a lot of insight into the "humor" of Smogon.

[chaos**]

Hopefully more people will come when the site gets back up

also would people be interested if maybe i authored a non-tldr version of this to compliment this? basically, it'd just be like a FAQ with common misconceptions

[ZinkOxide]

I want to add that IRC can be intimidating as well, not only because of the way it seemingly contains the essence of Smogon, but the fact that on the mIRC homepage it's plastered all over that there's a registration fee after 30 days, and I only found out yesterday on shoddy that you don't actually need to pay it.

[chaos**]

then use a different irc client like xchat

[Vyacheslav]

Originally Posted by Fat chaos

then use a different irc client like xchat

what server is the smogon channel on?

[chaos**]

irc.dejatoons.net #smogon

[skarm]

I am just posting to say that this is a fantastic post and I certainly couldn't have worded it any better myself.

[Miao]

I seem rather new here, but I've been lurking awhile.

The attitude here on smogon seems pretty much like all of the professional communities I've been too. While things can get pretty elitist at times, it's more people are interested in the competitive edge than what pokemon looks the cutest, although looks may play a part in what you prefer to play with among your options.

[Synre]

in discussing smogon in shoddy battle I feel like more people should be reading this topic