Names, Passwords, Rooms, and Servers: Contacting Upper Staff

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Pokemon Showdown has a large and varied staff, but not everything can be easily handled by our lovely mods. This is for information on how to request anything that needs a Pokemon Showdown Senior Staff member to handle, including Name resets, Private Room Requests, Server Registration and Complaints.

When making a post, please state clearly in the subject what you are requesting if you are not directed to a form so the appropriate staff member can find your request. This can be as simple as "Name Request" "Server Registration" "Room Request" or "Complaint".

If you post a request on the Admin Requests forum and then immediately admins or leaders in any way for them to read it, it is going to be denied and you are going to be blocked from making admin requests. There are other people waiting for their requests to be answered, and they are generally handled in the order received. Keep in mind that the process can take days to weeks sometimes. If you fail to reply to your admin request within 1 month after a staff member has posted, it will be closed and you will need to make another one.

 

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Name / Password Resets​

Lost Passwords
If you forgot your password to your account, fill out the Password Reset Form. Only do this if the account was originally yours. We'll need to verify this information before resetting the account. Alternatively, you can message a staff member on PS who can relay your request to a leader or admin in real time, provided one is online.

Claiming Inactive Names
As of late numerous users have been contacting us in order to get certain "inactive" accounts reset on PS!. Please, from now on, before getting in contact with us, make sure you fulfill one or more of the following conditions:

1. you are a contributor to Smogon (badgeholder) or Pokémon Showdown! (coder - spriter);
2. you are a global driver-moderator and/or a Room Owner of a public room.

Exceptions to the above cases will be granted to:

1. particularly helpful global voices;
2. established community members who've owned the corresponding Smogon account for a long time.

Keep in mind that if you're requesting for a name change, you will not be able to switch back for a minimum of 6 months, so be sure that when making a request you are positive this is what you want to do.

Under any circumstance, account resets will only be granted if the applicant provides convincing reasons. For instance: "I really like the name" is not a valid reason to request a reset. Likewise, owning a newly registered account or having had a recent name change on Smogon doesn't qualify you for a name reset on PS!.

If you want an account reset and you think you're qualified for it, then feel free to post a motivated request in the Other Admin Requests Forum. (Don't do this for lost passwords to accounts you already own because it slows down your request; use the reset form instead!)

 

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Room Requests

Pokemon Showdown has a great many topical, public rooms but that's not always what people are after. If you want to request a Private Room on Pokemon Showdown, please make sure you fulfill the following criteria.

Requirements for Requesting a Room, Please Read Carefully​

1. The originator of the request must hold global voice (or higher) or room driver (or higher) in a public room.
2. Back up your request with proof that there is an active userbase interested in the concept room. This can include an active PS groupchat, Discord group or forum. Note that we look for consistent interest and activity, so please provide examples over an extended period of time.
3. Neither you nor any of your Co-Owners have been punished for anything on Pokemon Showdown recently.
4. You must have a Smogon account you can post with.
5. The room must have a distinct and well-defined concept. Rooms with concepts that overlap with existing rooms are less likely to be approved.
6. The room must have a reason to exist besides just being a casual hangout for your friends. You need to be able to answer "yes" to these questions: "Does this room have the potential to go public at some point under the right circumstances?" And if not, "Does it satisfy demand for a large, established community currently unaffiliated with PS?"

If you cannot fulfill these requirements, don't request the room and use a groupchat instead. See the Help room on Pokemon Showdown for assistance with making a groupchat.

The Rules for Private Rooms and What We Expect of You​

In private rooms, enforcement of Chat Rules section of the rules is up to the room's staff. However, the Main Rules section still applies, and you need to ensure that the room does not disrupt the rest of PS!.

In particular, this means:

1. Nothing sexually explicit, nothing illegal in the US.
2. Don't organize disruptions or harassment of other rooms, events or users.
3. Don't encourage or promote people who are evading a global punishment.
4. While the chat rules will generally end up being more lenient, hateful or intolerant speech should not be a regular topic of discussion.

Violation of these guidelines may result in the deletion of your room.


If you are able to meet these requirements and are willing to follow these rules, please post a request for a room with at least 30 unique users in the Room/Server Requests Forum.

 

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Server Requests
IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND ANYTHING MENTIONED BELOW, DO NOT CONTACT AN ADMIN BECAUSE YOUR SERVER WILL NOT BE REGISTERED.
THIS IS SPECIFICALLY FOR PEOPLE WHO ALREADY HAVE A SERVER RUNNING.​

If you are already hosting a server and want it registered with Pokemon Showdown, feel free to fill out the Server Registration Form to request it.

Note: You are allowed to have your own rules: you don't have to use the official PS rules. But in addition to your rules, you MUST ALSO follow these global rules:

1. Do not break US laws and do not have any sexual content. This includes any content on your server that would be illegal to show to children (no porn, no hacking, no DDoSing, etc).​

2. Do not impersonate usernames you don't own. Don't change the code to give yourself an account you don't actually have, don't use Unicode in usernames to impersonate, don't use /a to pretend to be someone you're not, etc.​

3. Do not impersonate staff. Don't claim to be speaking on the authority of PS global staff unless you actually are.​

4. Follow the privacy policy. Keep IP addresses and alt information secret, don't use them for anything other than enforcing bans/punishments.​

5. Don't piss off the Pokémon Company or Google. No charging money for anything, no scamming, no doxxing, etc.​

6. You are expected to be technically competent. Our staff do not have time to be your tech support.​

7. You are expected to have good judgment. If someone you set as server owner takes over your server, your server will be deleted.​

8. The following cannot be used to host your server: Cloud9​

9. We reserve the right to change these rules in case something serious comes up, but we promise that we'll be as fair as possible and we'll pretty much always give you fair warning and opportunities to change.​

10. Do not lift permanent global punishments from the main PS server.​

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We also recommend not changing Config.backdoor; allowing us to control your server helps us deal with accidental rule breakage without having to ban your server.​

Please note that Pokemon Showdown expects all of its registered servers to maintain consistent and reliable uptime. For this reason, do not ask to register a server without having at least 36 hours of continuous uptime.

If you've read all that and still want to register your server, fill out a Server Registration Form!​

DO NOT contact chaos or Zarel to get your server registered. They don't deal with server registrations.

 

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Complaints​

If you have a problem with a Global of any rank (Voice, Driver, Moderator, Leader, Admin) or Room Owner and have not been able to find a solution, you can submit your complaints to the Other Admin Requests Forum. In your report, you should thoroughly explain the problem, what exactly happened, and who was involved. Provide as much proof as possible of any wrongdoings. Be assured that ONLY Pokemon Showdown Senior Staff are able to view the posts in that forum, and confidentiality is assured.

We take all complaints very seriously and will investigate any problems to the best of our ability. False reports are not appreciated and if we are able to identify them, will be dealt with harshly.

 

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We have expanded the section about private room requests with a short outline of the minimal rules/standards that we expect private room owners to uphold. This is not really a policy change, but rather a clarification of the standards we were already using.


The Rules for Private Rooms and What We Expect of You

In private rooms, how you wish to enforce the Chat Rules section of the rules is up to the room's staff. However, the Main Rules section still applies, and you need to ensure that the room does not disrupt the rest of PS!.
In particular, this means:

1. Nothing sexually explicit, nothing illegal in the US.
2. Don't organize disruptions or harrassment of other rooms, events or users.
3. Don't encourage or promote people who are evading a global punishment.
4. While the chat rules will generally end up being more lenient, hateful or intolerant speech should not be a regular topic of discussion.

Violation of these guidelines may result in the deletion of your room.