I have an idea for a recurring article that I would like to see. I don't know if this (or something similar) was proposed before, so if it was, please excuse me. Lots of text below, and I do repeat or change words often. Bring up any parts that need to be clarified, if there's any confusion.
As you all know, competitive play for Pokemon itself is a deep matter. Many strategies are developed, many ideas are thought up of, and many discussions are made. Many members have made their mark on the forums and if one took the time to look, you'll find an incredible amount of information. However, the truth is, a good amount of thoughtful posts are either ignored or not seen by enough people. Either that, or just great posts need to be seen out in the open. Also, for those who do shift through forums, since there are so many places to look, you might not find what you were looking for. Thus, it would seem be appropriate for The Smog, an easy to view and access feature of the site, include such posts/replies.
To the actual idea itself. What I'd like to see is a "Question of the Issue" column in which a specific question ( that is chosen before-hand) be discussed about in the sub-forum and several of those answers/arguments be included in the article. The question could be about anything whether it's your opinion on 5th Gen metagame, whether a certain set on a Pokemon is useful, or even comments on the site itself.
Who gets to run the project or decide which replies be included for the current issue? And how do we go on about deciding what question should be featured? I don't know how to do it exactely, but here's roughly what I had in mind:
For the former, we could do two things. First would be to appoint someone to head the project. After the question is decided, they start the topic which will be open for a period of time. Anyone can submit their responses in it and discuss them with each other. When the topic is closed, the TL/Project "header" must decide what posts should be included in the article with the question. Any amount of posts can be included but it would be best to stick with around 4-6. If short answers are included, then more can be added. If users spent time discussing in the thread and made more than one reply, than the "header" could combine them if they wanted to. Deciding which replies to be included in the article would be up to the judgement of whoever is running it, so we should keep this in mind.
The second thing we could do to decide is somehow appoint someone different to head the project each issue. However we choose these people, I don't know. Maybe nominations and or voting. As for deciding on the questions, it could be either up to whoever is running it, or what I would prefer, a vote by the community. The TL can think of different questions/topics and everyone else can vote on the one to be discussed. Either that or the questions/topics can be submitted by everyone else in the first place with the voting afterwards. Again, if something similar was ever proposed then excuse this, heh. And if it's decided to use this idea, then the ideas above are just suggestions, they don't have to be strictly followed.