Issue #22 Feedback Poll!

[Birkal]

Good day, everyone. We at The Smog are always on the hunt for feedback and critique. As a result, we create polling threads (such as this one) so you all can express your opinions and thoughts. Furthermore, feel free to post some feedback here and we'll take it into consideration for future issues.

Here are some questions to keep in mind:

• What are your favorite articles? Why?
• What can we do to improve for future issues?
• What kind of articles would you like to see that we don't currently cover?
• Would you like to get involved in The Smog (as an idea creator, article writer, artist, or coder)? What could you see yourself doing?

If you have any more questions or things you'd like to address, please speak your mind, but remember to justify your opinions. In addition, please try to keep everything civil and polite. Only give us constructive criticism; we aren't interested in having our hard work bashed! Thanks for your time.

 

[Eagle4]

What are your favourite articles? Why? I generally like articles which contain hefty chunks of humour and entertainment, yet are well written. I'm a suck up for Top 10's and the artistic aspect of Smog.

What can we do to improve for future issues? I feel The Smog needs more balance in terms of articles. The competitive side is heavily looked upon, whilst the Entertainment is lacklustre; maintaining a balance of articles would definitely improve the Smog.

What kind of articles would you like to see that we don't cover? Honestly, the Smog has a plethora of articles, and so it is hard to point out new ideas. The one new idea I did have has become a PM to Setsuna in the hope of it becoming an article written by moi.

Would you like to get involved in The Smog?
Absolutely, I tried last time, and I'm trying again. I'm hoping to become a Journalist in the near future, and I believe that this opportunity will add to my experience as an article writer (I've written in school magazines before). I'd also love to do art for the Smog.

 

[Biobizbarto]

What are your favorite articles? Why?

My favorites in this edition were the RU normal types article, From zero to hero OU vs. ASB comparison, and most of all the Pokemon Biology article. The RU normal types article was a great read for me because I love my tauros on my RU team and it really does give normal types the credit they deserve. Second, the OU vs. ASB article introduced me to the world of ASB and I'm having a great time after only a few days. It was fascinating to see how much a metagame can shift depending on the battle format (Beedrill what?? haha). Finally my favorite article was the Pokemon biology one as I am a bio major and I've been following those articles since the series began. They have some great witty analyses of the biological side of the mons we all know and love and I love seeing stuff from my classes applied to pokemon.

What can we do to improve for future issues?

The only recommendation I would give is perhaps more tier diversity in the competitive articles. I know there is at least one per tier and I'm sure writer/material availability play huge factors in this, but I like seeing an RMT per tier and if there is an article for the rest of the tiers (like the underrated move sets for OU, UU, and NU) they should all be included! I am biased because I love the RU tier of course, and as I mentioned I loved the RU normal types article.

I also agree with Eagle4 that there should be more entertainment articles because they're always great and I enjoy the diversion from all of the competitive stuff.

What kind of articles would you like to see that we don't currently cover?

Perhaps other science related articles like the Pokemon Bio series. Can't think of much else atm.

Would you like to get involved in The Smog (as an idea creator, article writer, artist, or coder)?

What could you see yourself doing? I would love to be involved in The Smog perhaps as an idea creator or writer or if need be an editor (simple grammar stuff I'm not shooting straight for head editor or anything haha). I was an editor and columnist for my high school newspaper and had to come up with article ideas, write a few of them, and edit the rest of them and would love to extend that experience to Smogon, The Smog, and the world of Pokemon!

 

[Bedlington]

What are your favorite articles?
I absolutely love the articles about the OU meta game as a whole. In this issue I really liked the article about protect and I still refer back to the article "How it's made - defense."

I'll keep reading and supporting it as long as you continue writing articles such as those. Although I would love to get involved, I don't think there is much as I can offer.

 

[CDB-Man]

When will this poll close? I don't want to vote until I've read all the articles that interest me!

Alternatively, if I make a vote now, can I go back and change it before the poll closes?

 

[sandshrewz]

When will this poll close? I don't want to vote until I've read all the articles that interest me!

Alternatively, if I make a vote now, can I go back and change it before the poll closes?

Correct me if I'm wrong, this poll will probably close when the next issue (#23) is released and a new poll thread goes up. That's about a month from the release of issue #22 for an estimate. And no, you can't change your vote after you've voted. This applies for the entire forum :)

 

[ShootingStarmie]

I really enjoyed the Underrated OU pokes and their sets. Its great to see some creativity in this stale metagame. I'd love to be a writer for the Smog and I believe I have a pretty interesting article I've already written.

http://pastebin.com/2Zp28jtv

The guide is pretty long but I'd be honored if you considered using it in the next Smog issue. The guide is on Bluffs, how to face them, and how to use them. Here's the guide here, granted its a rough copy, and needs pictures, but the raw data is there to work with. Also it might need a grammar check.

 

[Setsuna]

I really enjoyed the Underrated OU pokes and their sets. Its great to see some creativity in this stale metagame. I'd love to be a writer for the Smog and I believe I have a pretty interesting article I've already written.

http://pastebin.com/2Zp28jtv

The guide is pretty long but I'd be honored if you considered using it in the next Smog issue. The guide is on Bluffs, how to face them, and how to use them. Here's the guide here, granted its a rough copy, and needs pictures, but the raw data is there to work with. Also it might need a grammar check.

Read this up and follow those simple guidelines if you are interested in working with us.

 

[PureQuestion]

I find that in general I really enjoy the competitive retyping articles. Something about them just makes me find them rather interesting, perhaps because they suggest typings that could be making an impact in future generations...

 

[Strategywin]

itzGator's words of wisdom- stop using protect.
I remmber a gliscor with ice fang protecting on my mence as i dd'd. Next turn, he died to a fire blast. But then his scarf rachi won 2 speed ties and flinched me with one of the iron heads. He could have just had ice punch, but whatever.

 

[Daggerfall]

This is a bit (okay, very) late, but I do have a complaint with an article. The whole Birdchievements and Blunders article is, yes, an opinion, but having the Defeatist as number one simply because he's the "First Bird Pokemon" isn't justified. Although half of it does look like a bird, the other half looks like a rodent. No real reasons for it being given the top slot are given outside of it being the first bird, with the exception of a sentence saying that there are other (ungiven) reasons. On top of that, Tornadus-T was stated to be not bird-like because it doesn't learn Roost and Brave Bird. However, upon examination, the Defeatist doesn't learn either of those moves either, despite being the "birdiest bird". I find it ironic that the Defeatist was given spot number one even though it shares the very reason the very bird-like Tornadus-T is considered to be a failure of a bird.