Policy Review CAP Internship Program

[kenn]

As most of us know, the ceiling for someone that is involved in the CAP Process to feel not only comfortable but confident as well to potentially apply to be on TLT is high and therefore most casual users have a hard time really grasping the workload or what all it entails. For that reason I wanna propose a "CAP Internship Program" which basically allows a user to apply as an intern and the TL/TLT, once determined, can hire said intern and allow them to "shadow" the team, potentially giving advice/taking notes for the future should they wanna apply for TLT.

What this would aim to do is allow someone to gain the confidence and comfortability with not just the process, but how to lead within it. Right now there isn't much out there other than "getting your name around" to where people know your name and this could allow someone to put themselves into the spotlight a bit and be able to hone any skills that they may need for a future TLT position.

This also kinda stems from the fact that buff processes have been discussed as being retired, which is one of the few avenues to get someone's name out there to the general public for them to be considered for TL/TLT, so this proposal is sort of twofold as it would help ease the sting of losing buff processes as a way to showcase someone's ability to lead and/or also provide a way for those that are thinking about applying for a leadership role in the CAP Process to gather an idea on the amount of time and effort that goes into being TL/TLT.

Thoughts?

 

[shnowshner]

IMO the best way to get your name noticed in CAP is demonstrating critical thinking skills and willingness to grow, along with showing a proficiency in playing mons or the theory behind it. Moreso in recent years (gens 8 and 9 mainly) the bulk of a CAP's TLT members are made up of people who consistently provided thoughtful and nuanced discussion to the process, and were highly involved in tournaments which have long served as the lifeblood of CAP's metagames. You don't even need to be particularly good or even super active: my involvement with the metagame has largely comes down to managing tournaments and related resources, genuinely I think I learned a ton about mons just WATCHING others play when gathering replays or tuning into games live; getting drafted onto the Venoms in 2023 was also a huge help as I had a far more personal investment in games and was able to observe how disciplined Pokemon players would both build teams and then identify winpaths once in a match. My belief is that if you have a basic, grade-school diploma understanding of how competitive Pokemon is played, you're already most of the way there in getting onto the TLT.

The remaining portion is where this proposal has its merit. Leading CAP is tough because you have to weigh a lot of different opinions from a very wide spectrum of people. You need to have enough discernment to know what to listen to, because unfortunately some users are just not with it either in terms of raw skill or comprehending what CAP is about, and even more seasoned contributors can lose the plot; at the same time, you have to remain openminded and try to view discussion from the lens of those you may not agree with. There's a ton of internal conversation within the TLT channels for this reason: unless you've decided you can do no wrong, having this much responsibility over leading discussion and ensuring a smooth process by yourself isn't fun. Now this channel is private and needs to remain as such, it's far more personal and opinionated compared to what ends up on threads, and gives an avenue for the TLT to discuss matters in an environment where outside influences aren't able to creep in (sorry to break the ice, but the TLT frequently agrees that some ideas are just awful, even if popular, and having to answer to the disheartened people who support such things would be a huge mental burden, even more so once you get into matters on the individual scale). The downside of being private is that you don't get to see the TLT at work outside of their forum posts or piecing together Discord lines, and much of that internal discussion would be a huge help for those users who are actively looking to further their involvement and maturity in CAP contributing.

Now we need to consider that, in contrast to everyone else, an "intern" would be a non-active TLT member with access to an otherwise private channel, and I could see this spurring jealousy in other users, or simply skewing the thoughts of said intern in ways they wouldn't be otherwise. Consider stat submissions: if an intern had access to the TLT channel, they would likely know what the Stats Leader likes and dislikes of current stat subs, and may attempt to design their own in a way that comes off more appealing. In turn, the Stats Leader may want to keep that info more discreet, which either robs the TLT channel of more involved discussion, or pushes said discussion elsewhere out of view of the intern, which sorta defeats the purpose of having an intern at all. This isn't the desired effect, and we should avoid muddying the process with internal politics as much as possible. So, a proposal:

For any given CAP Process, users may sign up to "shadow" the TLT. This can be done via a thread which goes up concurrently with Concept Submissions.
The TLT has full discretion on who to allow as a shadow, likely via internal vote. They do not need to pick one.
Only one Shadow can be chosen for a process. If said user leaves on their own accord or is kicked out for poor behavior, the TLT can pick another user for this process.
The user shadowing will be made public, as will any departures, as addendums to the signup thread.
Any user shadowing the TLT cannot submit directly to a CAP after being accepted. They are still allowed to add to discussion, however.
(TLT members don't have these same restrictions, but I think that's fair given the community voted them into their position, which infers a level of trust)

I can see the value in a system like this but it adds a layer of complexity to running CAPs that may be undesirable to some: as I mentioned earlier, if a user wants to get more involved in CAP, the best way to do that is focus on self-improvement, so I do not think this proposal is strictly necessary, just potentially useful in giving that extra push for users on the brink.

 

[Reviloja753]

As someone who for a while has felt comfortable in CAP but not confident enough to try applying for TLT, I really like this idea. I think that it helps a great deal to have an intermediate step between regular contributor and TLT member for those who want such a thing. I personally would try to participate in such a system if it ever becomes a reality. However, while I think what was proposed above by shnowshner is a good starting point, I do have a couple of concerns and suggestions to address them.

Firstly, instead of intern applications running concurrently with concept submissions, I think it would make more sense for them to run concurrently with TL/TLT applications instead. Once the TLT is fully decided, they would hold an informal private discussion and vote on who should be the intern, if anyone. Concept submissions can open while they’re still deliberating, but I think doing it this way both makes the timing more intuitive (since interns would be applying at the same time the actual TLT is) and prevents any awkward scenarios where someone who has posted a well thought out/final submitted concept suddenly is made an intern and no longer is allowed to submit it. Ideally the intern decision is made and announced within 24-48 hours of the TLT being determined, but life happens and so long as the decision is made before the process gets too far into concept submissions, it shouldn’t be an issue.

Secondly, I feel that once concept submissions end, no new intern can hop in midway. Essentially, if the intern resigns or is kicked out for bad behavior, there simply will not be an intern for the rest of that process. If someone suddenly has to drop out during concept submissions, that seems early enough to make a switch if someone else the TLT would like to work with has applied, but any further down the road may put an unneeded extra burden on the TLT that I do not think is necessary.

Lastly, while this might seem extreme, I think the intern should not be allowed to make discussion posts in the competitive stages, not just be unable to make submissions. Maybe I am overly worried, but I suspect that if an intern were to post feedback or answers to questions or what have you, that some may view the intern as either a proxy or tea leaf for the TLT, thus giving their opinion in the thread more weight than the average user’s due to their insider knowledge. If we think simply having the intern clarify it’s their own personal thoughts and not reflective of the TLT is enough, then I am more than willing to accept it; I simply wanted to raise the concern. Of course, I think interns should be unrestricted regarding participation in flavor stages of the process.

Overall though, I really enjoy this idea and hope we as a community can move on it in time for CAP36 (whenever that ends up being).

 

[Zetalz]

Being blunt, the proposals in this thread feel like a solution looking for a problem.

I agree with the base ideas at play here. As someone who didn't TLT until 6 years into my CAP tenure, I sympathize with the amount of pressure signing up for it can feel to the inexperienced. But this nebulous idea of a 'extra' TLT member who exists solely to watch the TLT feels both redundant and self-defeating in a way. The questionable facets added to the TLT as a structure of this community by way of these proposals directly contributes to the established complexity and barrier-of-entry to the TLT that is trying to be addressed in the first place.

I do not want to sound harsh, but if users want to get a better grasp on how TLT operates and gain the confidence to apply for it, simply reading the TLT or modchat or whatever is not going to move the needle very far, if at all. Engaging with prior TLTs, asking them questions and reading the content and character of their posts, as well as the community response to these posts, is more a useful endeavor than being an arbitrary 'extra' TLT would be.

If we want to give people another avenue to engage with leadership positions in the wake of the likely-to-be-retired buff processes, it needs to be in a way that still allows for user agency in gaining the experience necessary, and without adding the clunky, arbitrary and potentially bias-inducing proposals posted in this thread so far.

If transparency on workload is the more pressing problem, perhaps a variation on the Council Minutes thread some official tiers use to give the public some insight on TLT on-goings could be started? Though this does add some workload for the current TLT and/or CAP mods to manage, it does allow users to get at least some insight on how the process is being run without being put into the awkward positions the proposed 'intern' positions would.