Smogon 'News' section

[Masamune]

Just a quick, albeit very useful suggestion. Why doesn't Smogon have a news section? News on upcoming games, and so forth. If one of these were to be added to the homepage section somewhere (not forums), Smogon would be THE definitive pokemon site. Think Smogon+Serebii's news bits.

Or is it a strictly competitive site?

 

[cantab]

It does. News is on the main page, http://www.smogon.com/

Mostly it's news of happenings in Smogon itself, like CAPs and Smog issues. But game-related news that has a competitive impact is there, like event Pokemon.

 

[Masamune]

I meant game development news, like a new area of HGSS has been revealed, etc. That was a poor example - by definition, I mean logging a game that's in development.

 

[Despotar]

Just a quick, albeit very useful suggestion. Why doesn't Smogon have a news section? News on upcoming games, and so forth. If one of these were to be added to the homepage section somewhere (not forums), Smogon would be THE definitive pokemon site. Think Smogon+Serebii's news bits.

Or is it a strictly competitive site?

That would be pretty handy, I back this up!

 

[Umbreon Dan]

smogon really only cares about the competitive aspect of pokemon; if you want news of the stuff that you're talking about, i would just use serebii. i wouldn't put non-competitive stuff on the main site, especially when considering the frequency of those updates; non-competitive updates can't be allowed to outnumber the competitive stuff on the news page.

if this were to be done at all, i would say it should be in the form of a "news" sticky thread in the in-game expansion forum instead of on the main site.

 

[GAK]

Smogon's focus in on Competitive Pokemon. You're trying to turn it into Serebii, we don't want that. =P

 

[eric the espeon]

While I agree that much of the news on sites like Serebii and Bulbanews may not be appropriate for Smogon, there are many things that would be helpful to Smogon players. Wi-Fi events and other events (especially those with moves that are otherwise unobtainable), info on games before release (focused on probable competitive impact), official Nintendo tournaments if we get more of them, and various other bits of information that comfortably fit within Smogon's area of interest.

To get around issues with front page space, it would be relatively simple to split news into an internal and external section, with the internal news displayed on the main page the the external news linked to from it. I'm sure there are a dozen or more people around Smogon willing to help keep an eye out on news sites for something relevant and write up a competitive summary when something comes along.

And the argument that "somewhere else does it so we should not bother" is very poor. There are many dexes around the web, some of which have more info than the Smogon database, does this mean we should not bother to improve it? No. If something comes under competitive Pokemon, Smogon should cover it.

 

[Veedrock]

This was suggested some time ago, if you care to see what the reactions at the time were. My stance is that there's no harm in using other sites. Considering that other sites are updated way more religiously than the suggested content would be, it really isn't that useful as many of us would still rely on others. I don't think Smogon's intentions are to be "THE definitive pokemon site," nor do I believe this suggestion alone would cause it.

 

[cyberzero]

While I agree that much of the news on sites like Serebii and Bulbanews may not be appropriate for Smogon, there are many things that would be helpful to Smogon players. Wi-Fi events and other events (especially those with moves that are otherwise unobtainable), info on games before release (focused on probable competitive impact), official Nintendo tournaments if we get more of them, and various other bits of information that comfortably fit within Smogon's area of interest.

I think that the best example would have to be the arrival of HGSS, but that was heavily chronicled in Stark Mountain. The information was founded from other sites and the competitive uses were discussed in Stark, and although it's not as accessible as a the main page, it would be available to the people that care about it, ie the ones that frequent Stark. I don't think an entirely new section would be a good idea because the forums already have a good thing going by discussing the competitive effects of new games and other "less competitive" things.

 

[mingot]

The main issue with adding this sort of thing is the shear breadth of information that the other sites report on. Serebii does an excellent job documenting every nuance of the games as they are discovered and we really have no chance of competing with him, given the competitive bias of the our userbase. This leaves us with two choices: 1) "aggregate and re-report" information (in poor taste) or 2) have a half-assed in game news section. Neither of these are really optimal.

At the end of the day, we just can't be everything to every Pokemon fan.

 

[eric the espeon]

If we were aiming to cover the same breadth of information that Serebii or Bulbapedia does, then yes we would likely do it ineffectually. However if our aim is to report only information that concerns competitive battlers, not mixed with a ton of reports about the newest Pokemon Ranger game/Anime episodes/other things that a vast majority of Smogoners don't care about, then yes. We can "aggregate and re-report" specifically chosen news in a form that would be vastly more useful to the average Smogoner, and keep them on Smogon rather than wading through things that they are not interested in on other sites.

Maybe a link on the main page is not required, but a sticky in Wi-Fi (for wifi events) or Stark (for most other things) that is updated by mods with relevant info would seem like a good idea for me.

 

[cantab]

I think a focussed news section might be good. IMHO it should only cover things that are certain and have competitive impact. Event Pokemon, confirmed new moves in new games, and confirmed glitches would all count. New things concerning Shoddy and Smogon, like tier changes, CAPs, the release of Shoddy 2, etc should also be in the news.

Speculation should not be in. New Pokemon games should only be mentioned in the context of them providing Pokemon/movesets for use in the main games. Not necessarily totally new Pokemon - if the next Pokemon Ranger game were to let us get a WishBliss, or anything else pre-existing but rare, then that would be highly relevant.

We do have news already on the front page, but the above is my opinion on what should go in. Also an archive might be good.

 

[mingot]

If we were aiming to cover the same breadth of information that Serebii or Bulbapedia does, then yes we would likely do it ineffectually. However if our aim is to report only information that concerns competitive battlers, not mixed with a ton of reports about the newest Pokemon Ranger game/Anime episodes/other things that a vast majority of Smogoners don't care about, then yes. We can "aggregate and re-report" specifically chosen news in a form that would be vastly more useful to the average Smogoner, and keep them on Smogon rather than wading through things that they are not interested in on other sites.

Maybe a link on the main page is not required, but a sticky in Wi-Fi (for wifi events) or Stark (for most other things) that is updated by mods with relevant info would seem like a good idea for me.

Ok, can you give some examples from the last 30 days of the types of things that you think should have been on the front page (competitive impact), but were not?

Also, I know you are pretty involved around here, so if you see something happening that is important, but being missed you can always PM any site staff. Just want you to keep that in mind for the future.

 

[eric the espeon]

Ok, can you give some examples from the last 30 days of the types of things that you think should have been on the front page (competitive impact), but were not?

Lets take a look..
The Mysterious Crystal and 10th Anniversary Mew WiFi events started during that period. They did not change anything for the shoddy community, so maybe would be best covered on a page other than the main one (but would still be good to have covered somewhere).

The nearing end of the Yellow Forest Pokewalker course event on the 10th of Nov, which does have some competitive impact, a new source of Surf Pikachu and Fly Pika available in the fourth gen, could have been noted to remind players who were not around or did not have HGSS on September 18th. But again maybe not on the main page. I don't advocate having much of the external news on the main page, just making somewhere that the less important, but still relevant, things can be put.

Just outside your 30 day limit is the start of the Champ Road event on the 17th of Oct, which brought the first Selfdistruct Munchlax.

Also, I know you are pretty involved around here, so if you see something happening that is important, but being missed you can always PM any site staff. Just want you to keep that in mind for the future.

True, but I think that maybe the normal news section on the site may not be the most appropriate place for everything that could be considered competitive external news. And if this idea is not approved and I spot something, then I will do so.