Smogon Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is an alert?

Alerts are notifications that you receive in the dropdown in the top right corner of the forum index. You get an alert if you've posted in a thread and there are new replies, you've been tagged by someone in a post, you're watching a forum and there are new threads, you're watching a thread and there are new replies, if you receive a "Like" on a post, if someone follows you, and if you receive a visitor message on your profile. Furthermore, if you don't want to receive alerts for all of these things, you can toggle your preferences in the Control Panel.

Q: What are followers and how do you get them?

Followers are a very minor quirk of the forum system that Smogon uses. Following someone is simply a way of seeing whether or not their online more easily, as they appear on the index underneath the "Staff Online Now" list. Furthermore, you can use the news feed to see what the people you follow are doing around the forum, from when they change their avatar to what post they just "Liked". You don't gain or lose anything from having a lot of followers or following other people, but it can be a fun way to connect with other users and keep up with your friends on Smogon.

Q: Why do only some staff appear on the "Staff Online Now" list?

The "Staff Online Now" list exclusively shows forum Super Moderators and Administrators.

Q: Where can I find damage calculations?

You can find the most recently updated damage calculator here.

Q: What's "Anything Goes"?

Ubers was officially deemed a tier by Smogon, and Mega Rayquaza was immediately banned. In the process of the banning, Anything Goes was created as a banlist and means to allow players to continue playing with Mega Rayquaza in some manner. Anything Goes is very close to in-game battle, as there are few clauses and limitations; however, it should not be mistaken for Balanced Hackmons, which has several restrictions to keep the metagame balanced.

Q: How do I find a mentor?

That's the easiest part! Simply open up and fill out the official help form, giving a few details about yourself, your interest, and what you're looking to be mentored in. Soon after, you'll be assigned a mentor via private message by skylight where you can talk about the topic at hand and dedicate future times to sit down and be properly mentored by your adviser.

Q: Where can I trade Pokemon?

The primary place on Smogon to find others to trade Pokemon with would be the Wi-Fi section, as there's tons of shops there to choose from, and quick/minor trade can be posted in this thread. If you want live interaction with other traders/breeders, you can check out the Wi-Fi room on Pokemon Showdown! Remember, hacking is strictly frowned upon on Smogon and most places promoting otherwise legitimate trade practices. Have some integrity.

Q: How do I see past Smogon bans/suspect tests?

There is a listing of threads that contain past suspect tests in the Blind Voting forum, but there's no currently existing compendium of suspect tests or bans for most tiers. You can, however, find recent histories for XY / ORAS UU, RU, and NU.

Q: What is hyperlinking and how do you do it?

Hyperlinking text or images means that you are assigning a URL to said text or image so that it redirects you to the URL when you click it. To hyperlink something, wrap URL tags around the text or image, like so:

[URL=URL HERE.com]text you want to hyperlink[/URL]

Alternatively, you can highlight the text or image, click the chain icon in the post format toolbar, and paste your link in the text box. This will automatically embed the link the selected content.

Q: How do you tag someone in a post?

You can tag users by putting an "@" before their username, e.g. @Username123 . You can also use the member id found at the end of the profile URL and place it between the following tags:

[USER=MEMBER ID HERE]Username[/USER]

So to link Vacate's profile, it would look like the following:

[USER=189371]Vacate[/USER]

Q: How do you get a name / profile details change?

You may post in this thread, and wait for a supermod or admin to tend to your request.

Q: How do you post an image?

If you have a URL ending in a valid file extension (.png, .jpeg, .gif, etc.), you can paste it within [IMG][/IMG] tags, disregarding the period in the first tag. This will embed an image in your post. Alternatively, you can click the portrait icon in the post toolbar and paste your link there, which automatically embeds your image in a post.

Q: How do you change your avatar?

Hover over your username in the top right corner of the index and click "Avatar" in the dropdown. If you click the "Browse" button in the pop-up, you can upload an image from your computer to Smogon. Furthermore, if you have a Gravatar account, you can simply input your email and activate your Gravatar on Smogon.

Q: How do you private message someone?

On Smogon, "private messages" are just known as conversations, and you can start them with multiple people at once! To do so, hover over the "Inbox" button in the top right corner of the index and click "Start a New Conversation". In the new window, type your participants in the first box; if you have more than one person you want to send a private message to, separate their usernames with a comma (,). In the next box, you can choose a title for the conversation. In the last box, just type your message, then click "Start a Conversation" and your PM will be sent.

Q: What is a "CT"?

"CT" is an abbreviation for "custom title", the term the Smogon forum uses to identify the text underneath a member's username and avatar in their postbit. Regular members don't have the ability to edit their CT, but once becoming a badgeholder (a member that's been awarded a badge for their on-site contributions), a member can freely edit their CT. There are some cases in which non-badgeholders have a CT, such as if a member gets a username change and the CT is "formerly [their old username]".

Q: How do you post a YouTube video?

To post a video, all you have to do is take the part of a YouTube URL after the "v=" and put it in [media.=youtube][/media] tags, disregarding the period in the first tag. For example, to post this video, you should take what's at the end (1yw1Tgj9-VU) and place it between the aforementioned tags, like so: [media=youtube]1yw1Tgj9-VU[/media].

Q: How do you use hide tags?

Hide tags, or "spoilers", as they're referred to on other boards, are exactly what they sound like: a hidden message. These hidden messages will appear with an orange background a gray text box which will either say "Show Hide" or "Example (open)". The code to create this box is [HIDE][/HIDE] or [HIDE=Example][/HIDE], alternatively. If left without an equal sign, the box will read "Show Hide" - the example area is where to put your hide tag's title. For example, a tag for all Gen 1 Pokemon would be [HIDE=Gen 1][/HIDE].

Q: How do you quote a post?

Clicking the "Reply" (button at the bottom right of a post will automatically quote the post for you. Wrapping [QUOTE][/QUOTE] around text will also quote the post, but it won't tag the user of the post. You can click "Reply" on multiple posts to respond to more than one quote at once.

Q: What does "fat" in a quote mean?

Don't worry, the forum is not mocking you when it does this! It simply is adding the "fat" because of an old joke in which the quote box was changed to say fat, and it just kind of stuck. This naturally happens, no matter the quote, and there is no need to put any additional tagging to add it. This also means that this is unable to be removed, but don't let it bug you too much!

Q: What is a VM?

VM is a "Visitor Message" and is the equivalent to posting on somebody's wall for FaceBook, or any social media along those lines. This is where easy interactions and communication will occur. Every user has a page for VMs, but privacy settings can be set to turn this ability off. To do exactly this, click account -> privacy -> unclick the box next to "Post messages on your profile page". Simply clicking on a user's name will pull up this page and where it says "Write a message" is where the post will go when this privacy setting is not activated.

Q: What are badges and what do they do?

Badges are rewarded to users that contribute to the site. Having a badge allows you to have a larger filesize avatar and access to a discussion board for contributors to the community. More information about badges and how to earn them can be found here.

Q: What are trophy points?

Trophy points are part of Xenforo, the forum software Smogon uses. There is currently no use for it.