Hello everyone,
After some discussions between the Senior Staff members dealing with Tiering Contributor requests and nominations, we have noticed some flaws with the current standards for the badge, and decided to update them to fix these issues.
The main problem comes from the subjective requirement part of the badge. We think it has produced more harm than good to the tiering discussions. Most often than not, the players aiming for the badge will post solely for that reason, and this is easily observable in their posts: they state the obvious or regurgitate other people's arguments. On top of this, the line between a "good" and a "bad" post is sometimes thin and hard to explain to someone who would get rejected. As a result, the quality of the tiering contributions has fallen.
For these reasons, we have decided to get rid of the subjective requirement and update the objective one. From now on, you will have to cast 8 votes instead of 4 to qualify for the badge. The 8 votes can be in any tier and generation. On top of that, you have to display a general interest in Smogon (read: making an account and only posting to cast your vote won't do it).
You will qualify for TC Alumnus automatically with 8 votes. Your badge will be alumned if you either plan to not vote again in the future, or don't vote in the 6 months following your last vote.
Users who currently have the badge but have voted less than 8 times are grandfathered in. They will lose their badge under the previous criteria, a.k.a. not voting in the 6 months following their last vote.
These new standards will be in application for the next Suspect test. This means you can still request your badge under the previous criteria if you qualify thanks to the latest vote (Pidgeotite - UU).
Happy laddering
__
After some discussions between the Senior Staff members dealing with Tiering Contributor requests and nominations, we have noticed some flaws with the current standards for the badge, and decided to update them to fix these issues.
The main problem comes from the subjective requirement part of the badge. We think it has produced more harm than good to the tiering discussions. Most often than not, the players aiming for the badge will post solely for that reason, and this is easily observable in their posts: they state the obvious or regurgitate other people's arguments. On top of this, the line between a "good" and a "bad" post is sometimes thin and hard to explain to someone who would get rejected. As a result, the quality of the tiering contributions has fallen.
For these reasons, we have decided to get rid of the subjective requirement and update the objective one. From now on, you will have to cast 8 votes instead of 4 to qualify for the badge. The 8 votes can be in any tier and generation. On top of that, you have to display a general interest in Smogon (read: making an account and only posting to cast your vote won't do it).
You will qualify for TC Alumnus automatically with 8 votes. Your badge will be alumned if you either plan to not vote again in the future, or don't vote in the 6 months following your last vote.
Users who currently have the badge but have voted less than 8 times are grandfathered in. They will lose their badge under the previous criteria, a.k.a. not voting in the 6 months following their last vote.
These new standards will be in application for the next Suspect test. This means you can still request your badge under the previous criteria if you qualify thanks to the latest vote (Pidgeotite - UU).
Happy laddering
