"Sandbox" for RMT's

Octobre

A "Sandbox" subforum for RMT section

Creating an RMT is very important for any competitive battler as it allows people to judge and make some necessary corrections or changes in it. But building a quality RMT is not a run-on-the-mill job as it is very time-consuming to create a very efficient and quality RMT. Also, seeing that the RMT subforums seem to be cluttered with illegal RMT's and those of low quality, I thought of a humble yet effective idea I would like to suggest. As such, I would like to suggest for Smogon to have a "RMT Sandbox" subforum where people will be putting up and finalizing their RMT's.

In line with that proposal, another humble suggestion I would like to make is a new system for submitting RMT's. This is how it works. No one will be allowed to post in the RMT section. However, they will first have to post in the Sandbox where they will create their RMT's from scratch. Then, if the mods see that the RMT's deem fit, they can publish it to the main RMT forums.


This idea will be prove to be successful because...

1.) Everyone will then strive to make quality RMT's. Thus people will not result to making haphazardly done content just for the sake of having an RMT.

and

2.) The main RMT subforum will not be cluttered with RMT's which are breaking the rules or those which that are of low quality.



I know that this suggestion is very ambitious for me and would mean extra work for the mods but I felt that it would have very long term benefits regarding the forums. Thank you all for understanding.
 
I agree with this because the rmt forum is often cluttered with closed topics that will open back up when the author gets around to fixing it. This makes perfectly good rmts drop down the list a lot quicker thus having to bump their topic.

For that reason I think this is a good idea.
 
I see that this could be a good idea, but it somewhat lacks practicality in one major way:

If no-one is allowed to post in the main RMT forum, how are we to actually rate the teams? Unless of course you mean banning everyone from making topics.

Then again, if only badged team raters were allowed to post in the 'main' RMT forum then the users would receive supposedly 'better' feedback on their teams.
 
I proposed a similar method a while back, but the majority of staff members were not keen on the whole idea. Sure, it prevents sloppy RMTs and unhelpful rates, but that's where rules and moderators come in: moderators simply have to do their job -- which is lock, delete and infract, when required.

At the cost of 100% legitimate RMTs with well-rounded rates from the badged members, the amount of help we can offer is restricted and the effort required is just as consuming as it is to simply moderate in the current environment.
 
This argument has come up in various forms before. To it, I've argued that such measures would be viable on a place like Pokecommunity, which gets a smaller amount of RMTs, but not smogon, the most popular place for RMTs on the internet by far. In the end, it would only work if we had a very large amount of willing moderators.
 
It sounds like a good idea on paper, but i think it would not work out in the end. I guess well just leave it to the mods then.
 
It would be very time-consuming and impractical for the mods to have to look through each of the generally very long RMT threads that are posted, and then approve or reject them.
 
you'd have to see if the rmt mods and badged raters would be willing to put in the effort. otherwise I believe in innocent until proven guilty as far as rmts go
 
Staraptor Call said:
It would be very time-consuming and impractical for the mods to have to look through each of the generally very long RMT threads that are posted, and then approve or reject them.
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They already do this. This is how people have their RMTs locked. I believe that with sufficient manpower (making more people RMT mods), this could very well happen, as it is a great idea! I'm sick of seeing half of the page filled with closed RMTs, while the great ones fall. I don't break any rules, and I make solid RMTs, yet they quickly fall to the bottom of the list due to a shitstorm of bad RMTs.
 
I'm not completely against this proposal, but I'd honestly keep the system as it is. A lot of threads that I close evey day, just need a bit of work to be fixed and, hence, re-opened. Also, if we accept this proposal and then, for some reason RMT mods stay inactive for a few hours or, say, a day, then the whole forum is going to be completely paralyzed.

I think that the locking\deleting\infracting system works well enough, and the fact that good threads go on the second page because of bad threads being posted and locked is not really a problem, as good team raters don't even rate rule-breaking threads and, anyway, you can bump your thread if, for some reason, you don't get any rate.
 
It would be hard on the mods but it would do wonders for the RMT fourum,

simply looking for a good RMT to rate on the fourums take 10-15 minutes
 
Llewellyn said:
A better improvement would be a message sent to the user before they post a new thread, linking to and describing the rules, and warning them about what happens if they don't obide by the rules. I know the sticky "How to make a RMT" bit is meant to do the same job. But I can almost guarantee you that over half of the new(er) users won't read them (btw they normally are new, or relatively innactive on these forums).
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I think anyone who joins a forum knows that there are rules to abide by and that there are consequences for those who do not. Unless we single out specific rule breakers with warnings, then the general "here are our rules, please read them" messages will, like most topics related to rules, be ignored. But we're better off giving every user the chance to read the rules; if they do not, then they're dealt with accordingly.

I just don't see the need to change.
 
If anything the writer of the RMT should just have to PM their team to a forum mod where it is approved before posted (similar to the tournament process). If this were the case, clutter in the main forum would be greatly reduced, anyone wishing to rate wouldn't be bothered by insufficient teams, and the forum mods could give the user PMing them direct posting suggestions.
 
Haunter said:
I'm not completely against this proposal, but I'd honestly keep the system as it is. A lot of threads that I close evey day, just need a bit of work to be fixed and, hence, re-opened. Also, if we accept this proposal and then, for some reason RMT mods stay inactive for a few hours or, say, a day, then the whole forum is going to be completely paralyzed.
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That will not be much of a problem if RMT mods were to be increased in number as Oddish suggested . It would be highly unlikely for all of them to be inactive for such a time period.
 
Ace Attorney said:
That will not be much of a problem if RMT mods were to be increased in number as Oddish suggested . It would be highly unlikely for all of them to be inactive for such a time period.
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We don't need other mods just to test a proposal. The RMT forum has been working nicely for months now, and more mods would only generate a massive mess. As Taylor said, he proposed something similar some time ago, and the general consensus was against it, so I believe that there's nothing more to discuss here.
 
I dont see the need for an RMT Sandbox. I think the area would just lead to a whole other section needing to be moderated. Pretty soon people will come to abuse the area posting 5 pokemon teams or what have you. I would much prefer to have an OU RMT Forum and a forum for everything else. I think this would definitely insure there wasnt so traffic (obviously) so threads would have a chance to be seen by the majority of people. I would be shocked if this sandbox was implimented without this idea first.
 
Haunter said:
We don't need other mods just to test a proposal. The RMT forum has been working nicely for months now, and more mods would only generate a massive mess. As Taylor said, he proposed something similar some time ago, and the general consensus was against it, so I believe that there's nothing more to discuss here.
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I understand. Sorry for being so demanding. I guess the deal has been done. I understand the impracticality of such proposal. I guess this case is closed...for a second time that is.

EDIT: On second thought I believe that the first proposal I have stated has been left undiscussed

Creating an RMT is very important for any competitive battler as it allows people to judge and make some necessary corrections or changes in it. But building a quality RMT is not a run-on-the-mill job as it is very time-consuming to create a very efficient and quality RMT. Also, seeing that the RMT subforums seem to be cluttered with illegal RMT's and those of low quality, I thought of a humble yet effective idea I would like to suggest. As such, I would like to suggest for Smogon to have a "RMT Sandbox" subforum where people will be putting up and finalizing their RMT's.
Click to expand...
How about just having this???
 
How about a quick rates thread or something. Along the lines of the simple question/simple answer threads other forums have. Something intended for things like "This team got swept by Salamence 3 times, what should I change", or "here are 5 pokemon, who should be my 6th?".
 
Well, I'm not against making a sticky thread similar to SA\SQ in Stark Mountain, where people can ask for help into making their RMTs. It looks like a feasible proposal. I'll talk with other mods to see what they do think of it.
 
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