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Interview OGLEMI

How much time usually goes into your duties as admin? And what motivates you to keep contributing to this website so consistently despite the not always thankful reception? — Cretacerus

As much as I feel like putting in, which usually depends on my level of boredom or if I have any shows to watch / books to read / boys to date. Nowadays that amounts to about an hour a night and checking in a few times a day beyond that. Over the summer I pretty much lived on the site when I wasn't working.

What motivates me is now is what's always motivated me: I want to see the site through tough times and continue to grow our site via contributions.

What inspired you to dedicate so much IRL time and effort to a pokemon server? — truedrew

Initially, my own desire to see the site content be as accurate and consistent as possible. Now, it's the community itself, the people I'm friends with, and my fellow staff members.

once you got semi involved with the community and started contributing, where did you see yourselves ending up? I can't imagine anybody thought they'd become admins and or lead huge sections of the site! — GatoDelFuego

After I became a full C&C moderator, I knew I wanted to be the head C&C mod, and I had that as my only real "staff" goal here on the site.

I very much did not intend to ever get to super mod, and I never expected to get to admin lol. Those positions kinda just came along with me just doing stuff for the site, super mod because I was leading the RU tier, and then admin because reasons(?) though Omicron and sandshrewz (and blingas) will tell you they wanted me to be an admin since the last Summer Olympics 9.9. I wasn't even asked if I wanted to be a super mod, it was really just a decision made by Synre, ibo, and others with the creation of what's now known was "senior staff" with me, aldaron, earthworm, and v being upgraded to super mod at the same time due to our tier leader status (jabba was already a smod and nu wasn't official yet) and Great Sage and ibo to admin. I'm still a little hazy on the details of how the decision came about, honestly, since I wasn't involved at all, but I was definitely excited to be able to contribute on a more intimate level.

Do you ever feel like you don't want the pressure of leading the site and would rather just be another contributor than the guys everyone looks to? — Freeroamer

Oh ya definitely, there are a lot of aspects of that status that I miss sometimes, though that feeling is usually outweighed by having the general freedom to come to finality decisions on issues now.

Is it ever a hassle trying to balance real life and Pokemon when I assume many many people are always trying to contact you and you always have stuff to do? — Freeroamer

Not really, though I've never gotten the same kind of flood that our technical leaders deal with (i.e. chaos, Zarel, Joim), so maybe it would be different then. But, I've never had any balancing issues; whenever I need an extended break on Smogon to deal with IRL stuff, I take a break, and I usually make sure that people know that I'm doing that so that any slack can be picked up.

What's more frustating? Multiple requests for simple stuff people should be able to do themselves or should be asking somewhere else (for example, people posting on your wall for name changes or PS name unlocks) or individual requests that require a ton of effort (overhauling stuff, etc.) — Freeroamer

For me, the simple stuff is more frustrating, since I spent the policy time and effort to make a place and procedure for them to get that stuff done. I wish I got more individual requests these days, since it'd give me something more substantial to do lol. Though, I'm pretty sure Joim and chaos feel QUITE differently on that aspect, considering I do not program at all for the site.

What do you do besides smogon? — anto

Work at a job that I love but doesn't pay super well (warehouse job), date boys (am currently on date 4 with my latest one, am super excited for more), eat (love food), sleep (LOVE SLEEP), hang out with friends and drink (PARTAY), and read books (GoT omg).

Any particular hobbies? — anto

Do video games count? I need to get a non-technological hobby. I was working out a lot over the summer and should probably get back into that again considering how much I like food and soda. Other than that, nothing really lol, maybe I'll find something else some day.

Interview JOIM

Who is in charge of the website redesign? Will we ever get out of web design? — DaSpoofy

Well, both chaos and Zracknel worked on that. Actually, the web world is always changing, so even when we get a "final" redesign, it will already be time to redesign again. It's a neverending story, and that's part of the beauty of the internet! But seriously, it's not the greatest priority, so all I can say is that it will be done soon™. There's a hidden preview of the work in progress, though, so you may find it and enjoy a very nice Smogon 3.0 design that's almost finished :-D

is Super Staff Bros. going to ever come back? — Brawl MK

Yes, it is. It's surprisingly going to be named Super Staff Bros. Melee, and this time it's going to feature regular users as well.

What cannot the ~ do on the simulator ? — Teclis

There are different kinds of admins actually. Not all administrators in PS can use the dev console (that's why it's dev), and not all admins can access the servers. What you can be sure of is that a user with the tilde can perform absolutely any action that can be done with a command in the simulator.

What are your most pressing concerns about PS! as of now? — truedrew

To get the perfect mechanics from past gens right, to get a past gen teambuilder, and to show the Poké Ball type when you send out a Pokémon in a special one. Those are the main ones, but there's much more to do still. Sadly, working hours are scarce, but we work hard to get everything alright. I should get back to work on the issues found on Gens 1 and 2 and, of course, on perfecting the Random Battle format for all past generations. All of that will be available in due time!

Will you ever reveal all the easter eggs on PS! to non-coders? — truedrew

What's the point in openly revealing easter eggs? :^)

Does anyone get paid around here or is all this volunteer work? — DaSpoofy

Of course. I get $120k a year for the double admin position plus a really nice medical insurance. Don't you?

what is the funniest thread you've had to delete? — Brawl MK

I don't think I've even deleted a non-spambot thread ever.

Whose idea was it to implement the konami code? — Esidisi

That would be me.

How do you describe your work style? — The Pokemon Engineer

Hectic, chaotic, with random bursts of strong energy and activity and periods in which I feel like doing nothing. I've improved it a lot, though, thanks to work methodology I learn at the office (the real one where I have my actual job).

Interview TENNISACE

How much time usually goes into your duties as admin? And what motivates you to keep contributing to this website so consistently despite the not always thankful reception? — Cretacerus

when i'm "active" usually i put in a couple hours a day. right now i'm just trying to put in whatever time i have free, which really isn't much until winter break. i keep contributing because i believe i can make positive changes and see them through. i learned a long time ago that you will never get all the people happy all of the time, so that part doesn't bother me much.

Can you get a custom avatar on showdown whenever you feel like getting one? — TheSkyAboveUs

i assume so, but i play PS extremely infrequently, and when i do play, it's generally on a ladder alt testing teams.

once you got semi involved with the community and started contributing, where did you see yourselves ending up? I can't imagine anybody thought they'd become admins and or lead huge sections of the site! —GatoDelFuego

nowhere really. i contribute to things because i find them interesting or enjoyable. being in a leadership role was a side effect, not the main motivation.

Do you ever feel like you don't want the pressure of leading the site and would rather just be another contributor than the guys everyone looks to? — Freeroamer

well, i've quit twice because of the pressure in the past, so been there done that. nowadays, when i start feeling overwhelmed, i take a step back and try to figure out how to work more efficiently instead of just dropping it wholesale.

Is it ever a hassle trying to balance real life and Pokemon when I assume many many people are always trying to contact you and you always have stuff to do? — Freeroamer

it used to be back when i would put pokemon > real life. nowadays my one rule is real life > pokemon, no exceptions. yes, pokemon is fun and all, and yes i do enjoy contributing, but at the end of the day i'm just babysitting a bunch of kids on a mongolian dogfighting simulator fan site, not saving the world.

What's more frustating? Multiple requests for simple stuff people should be able to do themselves or should be asking somewhere else (for example people posting on your wall for name changes or PS name unlocks) or individual requests that require a ton of effort (overhauling stuff, etc.) — Freeroamer

i usually refer small requests to my secretary Birkal, so the overhauling stuff is a lot more frustrating. as a site leader, trying to get 30 or so people to agree on something is like herding cats at times.

what do you do besides smogon? — anto

well, i don't play tennis, that's for sure.

how does being an admin affect your irl? — anto

a nice old lady at the 2015 vgc world championships recognized me from the grand slam cast i did and said i did a good job.