The Aspiring GPer's Guide to the GP Process
What is an amchecker? How is it different from a GPer?
The GP team consists of users who are approved to give official GP checks. Users who are not on the GP team but still post GP checks are called amateur checkers, or amcheckers, and their checks are called amchecks. Amchecks are not official and do not have to be implemented by writers, though they often make good changes and provide valuable insight! In fact, if a GP member believes an amcheck is good enough, they can stamp it so that it does count as an official check.
Official GPers are permitted to use placeholders (to avoid multiple GPers working on something at once); amcheckers cannot. GPers also post in the Grammar-Prose Team Queue after finishing a check; amcheckers do not do this. Finally, amchecks are not allowed on social media spotlights, but they are allowed on anything else.
How do I get started doing GP checks?
Find an analysis that is in the GP stage and is ready for a GP check. Note that if another GP check has been posted by someone else and has not yet been implemented by the writer, you should wait to do an amcheck until after the GP check has been implemented.
From there, click Reply on the OP to quote the post and begin making corrections! It is most common to use
blue for additions,
red for removals, and
some other color for comments.
If you are finding formatting to be tedious, here are some tools courtesy of past GP members that you can use to expedite the process:
http://www.aglassoflemona.de/gp/
http://sandshrewz.github.io/gpdiff
However, it seems most GPers manually format their posts.
How can I get better at GPing?
While you probably have an at least decent grasp of English grammar, you may be unfamiliar with Smogon-specific grammar. Luckily, our terminology is catalogued in the Spelling and Grammar Standards. If you're unsure of the spelling, capitalization, spacing, etc of any term, this is the place you should look first! When I was an amchecker, whenever I came across something like "revenge-killer", "switchin", or "Ghost type moves", I would check the standards to see if that was the correct way to format those terms.
Of course, it is also critical to have a strong grasp of English grammar. Official GP members are familiar with comma and semicolon rules, parallelism, and common mistakes like dangling modifiers. If these are unfamiliar to you, don't be intimidated! Practice helps, and many GP members are willing to help you out if you have any questions. Feel free to join
our Discord server and ask us questions!
Other resources for improving at GP include:
GP Workshop: The OP contains some sample paragraphs that you can try GPing. Post your amcheck in the thread and a GP member will leave some feedback!
Rate My Check: While sometimes GPers will go over your amcheck directly in the analysis thread you post it in, you can also get feedback on your checks here.
Spot the Error: This is a casual game we play in the GP Discord server. P Squared posts screenshots of text with errors, and anyone can PM them with what they think the errors are and how to fix them. Whoever gets the most points after a round of 10 screenshots wins a temporary custom role color in the server! This is a fun, casual way to practice your GP skills and possibly get a reward.
Don't be afraid to bump the GP Workshop and Rate My Check threads even if no one has posted there in a while!
I was working on an amcheck but another amchecker or GPer posted before I finished. What do I do?
If you're almost done but another amchecker snipes you, go ahead and finish up and post yours. The slight inconvenience of having to look at two amchecks doesn't outweigh the loss of having two more eyes look at an analysis or just having all your hard work go to waste.
If a GPer posts a placeholder but you're almost done with your amcheck, it won't hurt to PM them asking if you can finish and post yours. They usually won't mind! In general, just use good judgment and you'll be fine.
In any case, feel free to finish your check and post it in the Rate My Check thread linked above! Even if you don't get to post it in the actual analysis's thread, it's good to get feedback.
How do I apply to the GP team?
Once you're ready, you can send a PM to the current GP leaders (
deetah,
Lumari, and
Rabia) with a list of some recent grammar checks that you've done (preferably stamped, but this is not a hard requirement). We don't require a specific number, but for the sake of providing them with enough material to form a solid impression, make sure you're sending in at least 6 sets. The leaders will then review your application and determine if you're ready to join the team! Please do understand that the GP leaders, like anyone else, have fairly busy lives outside of Smogon and that applications require some discussion among them to finalize, and give them time to respond; overall they try to get back to you within 2 weeks. If they are taking a while, though, don't be scared to bump the PM or remind them elsewhere; just don't do this every couple of days.
Once you've sent in your application, a few things could happen.
- You get accepted! In that case, you will be added to the list of GPers in the GP Queue and can now post official checks, post placeholders, stamp amchecks, etc. Congrats!
- The leaders send you some feedback and/or a test analysis. In this case, the leaders may be on the fence and need some more information before they can make a decision.
- Your application is rejected. The leaders will give you feedback on areas where you can improve, and you can continue to do amchecks until you are ready to apply again.
Don't be disheartened if you don't make it to the GP team on your first try! Many official GPers had to apply a couple times before being accepted. It is especially difficult to strike a balance between making the required corrections and changing too much; this is the most common reason applications are rejected. While it is the job of GPers to reword and rephrase where necessary for clarity, for flow, or to fix grammatical errors, we absolutely should not be rewriting effectively the entire thing to suit our personal tastes. Think about the reasoning behind your changes. If you don't have one other than "I personally like how it sounds better", perhaps reconsider changing it. However, this does not mean GPers are only allowed to make mechanical changes like fixing spelling and punctuation. "Non-mechanical" changes are totally fine as long as you can defend your reasoning for them. Here are some examples of bad reasoning vs good reasoning if this is unclear:
Bad:
Since Cascoon is easily worn down by entry hazards, a A Defogger such as Finneon is a useful teammate, since Cascoon is easily worn down by entry hazards. (I don't like starting sentences with "since")
Good:
Since Cascoon is easily worn down by entry hazards, a A Defogger such as Finneon is a useful teammate, since Cascoon is easily worn down by entry hazards. (the past few sentences have the same structure of "Since Cascoon ___, ___ is a good teammate", so rephrase this to avoid repetition)
At the end of the day, an applicant who occasionally misses grammar errors is much more likely to be accepted than an applicant who makes unnecessary changes with shaky reasoning. Errors missed in a first GP check can be caught by the second GP check or even after the analysis or article has been published. However, someone who makes unnecessary changes may not understand the purpose of GP and, at worst, may change something that was correct to something that is not correct--the opposite of what we want.
Anything else I need to know?
Do not actively discourage writers from implementing your changes until they've been officially approved. This means including things like "don't implement this yet" in your amcheck is a bad idea. The more eyes that look over an analysis the better, and we sadly do not have the time to look over everything, potentially causing any good changes you made to go to waste. However, obviously feel free to point out to the writer that the quality of your check is not guaranteed, and naturally writers should use their good judgment when implementing amchecks.
Try to exercise some restraint tagging your GP mentor to look over every single one of your checks. Again, this is for bottleneck reasons. A note "tagging
P Squared for a check" might end up discouraging other GP members from looking over your check, and your GP mentor might not have time to look it over. However, naturally you should be able to ask someone to look your stuff over, and if your GP mentor promised they'll get to it quickly, there's no problem--as long as it doesn't end up sitting.
Do not include copypastes. Official GP members shouldn't do this either (except in exceptional circumstances, like right before deadlines in Smogon's Flying Press or if the writer's computer is broken) because this discourages the writers from evaluating their changes and effectively puts GP in control of the analysis, even though GP has no authority over the content, and we're only human, meaning errors might slip through! This goes double for amchecks, because those might include subpar GP changes as well.