PSA: Regarding Competitive Discussion Rules

[Black117]

PSA: Regarding Competitive Discussion Rules

Lately we've noticed an increased of forum members here who aren't directly following the main Pokemon Forever's Competitive Rules and Guidelines established. We understand a good majority of those are newcomers who haven't caught up, or haven't read the guidelines before making a thread posts, but there are others who still don't follow the rules here.  For those seeking competitive advice here at the forums, in order to get the best possible answer, rating, or response from the community members or competitive mods here who take their time to contribute, follow these rules as they essential in helping you, the player to improve in Competitive Pokemon. For the sake of making this short, going to briefly go over the rules that aren't being followed lately.

• " Prefixes": Even before anyone makes their post, indicate what "thread" is your post focused on. Probably the simplest guideline, or rule to follow as it will indicate what type of advice the community members or forums moderates will follow. (Refer to Rule 1)
  • If the team is for "Fun", indicate that on the thread so we won't scrutinize the team, or set as much and go along with the them you centered around.
    
  • For "Rate My Teams" and "Team Reports", provide as much information for your team with the relevant information as possible. Don't have to go as far as copying the exact format of certain RMTs or Team Reports, but at least provide sets, EVs spreads, format, and of course explanation. (Will go about this further in the next point).
    
    
• "Posting a Team": Even though this topic was briefly touched on, I've notice people who haven't been "sufficiently" following the guidelines  for making RMTs posts, or Requests for Teams. (Refer to Rule 2)
  • Going to mention this again, provide set explanation, team composition, proper showdown format of the team (here's a guide on how to use Showdown Format ), playstyles, the format the team is being used, etc.
    • Recommend specify the format, or tier for each RMT as we don't know whether you follow whether its Smogon (OU/UU/RU/NU/PU), Battle Spot, or VGC. 
      
  • While replays, win/loss ratio, and damage calculations aren't required, they certainly help us evaluate core elements of the team, and see where we need to fix them, if possible. 
    
  • For those who don't follow these guidelines, community members at the forums reserve the right not to post or provide any competitive advice. The respective comp. / global moderators will close any threads until the original posters "fixes", or adds adequate information for proper review. 
    
  • Team Building Requests: While not a direct rule, or guideline, this is a issue which deserves its own attention regarding people making threads about asking others for building teams.
    • Notice: No one here is obligated to make entire teams for a requester, though can provide advise if thet wish. Its up to the original poster to follow and provide the same guidelines regarding posting RMTs and Team Reports for specified group of Pokemon (three minimum, or certain core).
      • If you are going to "request" for a team, provide a group of Pokemon, or cores (not just one, but three Pokemon minimum) in order to provide the basis for them.
        
      • As mentioned in the guidelines, we don't know what team you want. We aren't you, the player requesting for a team. Preferably we want people to work on their "full" team instead of posting for requests.
        
      • As such, the same scrutiny for requests will apply the same as RMTS/Team Reports. 
        
        
• "Build Submissions": Provided by @Eckley follow the build submission guidelines and example "templates" to when submitting individual Pokemon for specific formats. (Refer to Rule 3)
  • Provide as much details as possible such as movesets options, set explanation, teammates/core partners, checks/counters, how they are in the current metagame, etc.
    
  • Anyone can go above and beyond the team building submission as long as it 1) follows, or basis itself on the template, 2) has relevant information for the Pokemon, and 3) has minimum gramatical errors 
    • Be sure to read your own work and do proper spell checks / grammatical errors. While we aren't total grammer nazis, the build submissions are going to be "presented" not just the site, but the entire website.
      
  • Posting 4 / 252 / 252 EVs spreads, or anything similar is fine. If there's a "custom" EV Spread, highlight the benchmarks for the Pokemon and give reasoning to why this Pokemon uses this set. 
    
  • Sorta obviously to many people, even to our staff, but don't rip sets, or explanations from other sites, such as Smogon, Nugget Bridge, Serebii, etc. We do take plagiarism seriously, otherwise the build submissions from offenders will be blocked.
    

 

• "Criticism": Let me just say the main purpose of posting competitive threads is to seek out some form of constructive criticism from our community members, not just the competitive moderators. We are only trying out best to provide suggestions which best suit your team, Pokemon, playstyle, and other requirements as well. (Refer to Rule 4)
  • Be ready to read through the suggestions the people make for your teams/request if they ask. 
    
  • Don't take certain flaws / mistakes to heart. Do not overeact to certain suggestions people make regarding a team. You may chose to not follow or disregard some of these proposals mentioned, but know community members are helpful when giving advice.
    
  • For community members who post suggestions / advice, be sure to give suggestions "help" the person improve in some fashion, whether its noting the flaws of a set, or their battling skill.
    
  • Though this rule hasn't been neglected as much as the others three, we still want people to take into consideration constructive criticism when posting competitive threads.
    

That's the basic summary of the Competitive Discussions Rules, so if anyone want to review this again, well the link is here, or just about everywhere else in the post. The competitive and global mods here reserve the right to close any threads which fail to follow these guidelines or receive a warning. For any competitive advice, or further questions contact either @Black117, @"Elly" , @"Squeab" , @naitre , and the other moderation team. That's all for now.