Rule Updated & Possibly Discontinued Forums

[Guts]

You guys should get on chat later at night; that's where the real fun is. I am half-and-half on this idea. Slateport Market should stay, but I think we should establish a tougher system on shops, letting only those with higher-quality artistic skills (and a basic grasp of the rules and proper English) create shops. I agree with getting rid of Pokemon Trading, sadly. There are just too many people creating spammy threads that are only looking for a certain Pokemon. One thread should serve most of those needs. If, however, the forum gets more activity (I'm planning on a thread now, actually) I'd vote for keeping it. We'd still need the Trading Thread Rules, however.

 

[Cinesra]

I agree with CMP, Zyflair, and Bippa: compiling the Slateport Market into one thread would be a difficult mess. But, however, one Trade now thread for Pokemon trading wouldn't be much of a problem, IMO. I don't see a problem with "I'm looking for X Pokemon and can offer Y Pokemon for them". But, art is something different entirely.

 

[Shining Raikou]

The problem is that we can't keep around inactive forums. The quality of shops in Slateport is also lacking. If you guys would like these things to stay around, we need ideas to get things moving. Otherwise we can't justify keeping these forums. It is great that you guys are speaking up about what you think about the single thread method. I can see the cons to using the method, but it is better than not having the services at all. So what can we do?

 

[Professor Palutena]

I could see a one thread system working if each service was given its own thread, rather than all services in one thread. There would be more organization.

Another solution could be the one thread system, or the one I mentioned above, and require the artists to link to the post where they provide their services (Similar to what is done in the Trading Corner and Rep/Trade threads, only it would link to a post instead of a thread). This way, everyone would get noticed if they're active, as their signature, and thus the link to their post, would be seen more.

 

[CMP]

I could see a one thread system working if each service was given its own thread, rather than all services in one thread. There would be more organization.

But where would we put it? Playing devil's advocate, to have a thread for each individual service could potentially take up unnecessary space.

 

[Vortex]

The problem is that we can't keep around inactive forums. The quality of shops in Slateport is also lacking. If you guys would like these things to stay around, we need ideas to get things moving. Otherwise we can't justify keeping these forums. It is great that you guys are speaking up about what you think about the single thread method. I can see the cons to using the method, but it is better than not having the services at all. So what can we do?

Just an idea that may offend some people but it'd keep the place in order.
For Slateport, you could make a new system with qualified artists where Xous judges an artist's ability to draw (or make avatars/banners), and if he sees potential in their shop, they're given a userbar showing that they have been qualified as an official artist. Then it's easy to know who should and shouldn't be making them, but I can see that becoming a strain for Xous, so maybe we could have an art team of moderators or something like the Trade Council in general that does that job? Just an idea.

 

[Delta]

But where would we put it? Playing devil's advocate, to have a thread for each individual service could potentially take up unnecessary space.

Hardly.
If you put certain things in main categories and subcategories, then it wouldn't take too much space at all. And would easily cut down on all the spammy threads that is continuosly being made in the Slateport Market. Also adding on to Bippa's idea of putting all members into different services and not the other way around.
For instance, let me put down a simple layout because I think it would be the best way to describe it.

Signature and Avvy shop - Considering this is the most popular type of artwork being made on any forums pretty much, I believe they should be combined to always be at the top of the list, maybe even sticked. Subcategories could mean that this shop can animate banners and or accept visuals from people who request. So -
Main Category - Sig and Avvy making users.
Sub Categories - Animation and acceptance of visuals.

Spriting shop - Another widely popular art form. Although the main premise is spriting, this thread would probably contain most sprite makers. I myself could join because I am fairly good at spriting. Saying this anyone can join, it's just if they get requested as a sprite maker (or sig/avvy maker as this could be put into place for all threads.)
Main: Spriting
Sub: Fusions, Re-colouring, pokeballs, animations

Wallpapers and renders - Although I do think there is a rendering thread, this is just a suggestion. Wallpapers and renders can be requested by users and artists alike, to make art or have a well organised desktop. I don't think this will get much attention, but it's just a suggestion.

You don't always need a thread for every individual aspect.
So, simplified - Swap the users with the thread. In other words. Instead of many users posting different threads, have many threads with different artists contributing, this way, people can still animate, people can still request easily and those who are better at artwork ansd those who are worse, get to see it for themselfs with there request rate. I think this would lower the amount of threads being made and keep artwork around the forums up to standards.

Just an idea that may offend some people but it'd keep the place in order.
For Slateport, you could make a new system with qualified artists where Xous judges an artist's ability to draw (or make avatars/banners), and if he sees potential in their shop, they're given a userbar showing that they have been qualified as an official artist. Then it's easy to know who should and shouldn't be making them, but I can see that becoming a strain for Xous, so maybe we could have an art team of moderators or something like the Trade Council in general that does that job? Just an idea.

That is a brilliant idea. I just wanted to say it outright.

 

[Vortex]

Sounds very reasonable, but I still think we need some kind of quality filter.

 

[catutie]

Secondly, there has been an internal discussion about two of PokéBeach's forums recently. Currently Pokémon Trading and Slateport Market are planned to be cut from the forum lineup before month's end and replaced by single threads. (The Trade Now Thread and an art requests thread) However, we would like to hear some feedback about this before it happens. Is it a good idea? Do you have an idea to increase activity or change something up to make these two forums better? Are you a regular visitor to one of these two forums? Tell us what makes it special to you and why we should keep it. Remember to be honest and be constructive. This may be one of many times where members get to be directly involved in forum decisions.

Don't cut the Trading area...any of them. Would you rather we have some thread that we go to and say hey I want this? You know how crazy that would get. Seriously, so many people would get skipped and it would also be a jumbled mess. Just keep the 2 different Trading areas. TCG and VG. I don't care about the Slateport Market because I have never been around there much. I guess you could have an art area and if people want they can go PM one of them for banners/avy's/what ever

 

[Xous]

Just an idea that may offend some people but it'd keep the place in order.
For Slateport, you could make a new system with qualified artists where Xous judges an artist's ability to draw (or make avatars/banners), and if he sees potential in their shop, they're given a userbar showing that they have been qualified as an official artist. Then it's easy to know who should and shouldn't be making them, but I can see that becoming a strain for Xous, so maybe we could have an art team of moderators or something like the Trade Council in general that does that job? Just an idea.

I think having a panel of judges who would deem what work is "worthy" of being posted would be a bad thing. Having a chosen group of people who get to establish some kind of "quality standard" for the artwork in the shops would just limit the diversity of the styles around the forums.

If the judges don't like the way something is done, or doesn't feel the user's skill level is "adequate for the quality standards of the forums," that doesn't make the user's artwork bad. If a user makes a shop and there's demand for their work, a panel of people shouldn't be able to step in and deem it unworthy just because it's not up to their personal standards.

Ultimately, if a user's work isn't liked, no one will make requests in their shop and the shop will die naturally. So basically, everyone should have a chance at making their own kinds of art. Whether or not people will like it and want to use it should be the only factor in deciding if their shop stays open or not, not a panel of judges. :3

 

[xxashxx]

If the Pokemon Trading forum goes away where am I going to put my thread? If you resort the Pokemon trading to the Trade Now thread it will be much harder to maintain my events that I get from other people on other forums to be able to trade here if the members want them. I would keep this forum round since we have a great deal of members here. If the Pokemon trading Forum goes it will also make it much harder to see who has what and what they are looking for. The Trade now thread I created for specific Pokemon and was meant for that ONLY and that's it. If the Pokemon trading forum goes I will have a much harder time trading since I have soooooooooo many events and still have quite a lot coming in the future. I want to be able to trade here without the worry that these forums might be going away. Because this forum is aimed at the TCG we also need to branch out into the VG area also so we get more members in the VG section too. See this site is pretty much a TCG forum. What we need to do is make it a TCG/VG forum also because we have players that go to VGC or the events and want to clone and trade them here on the forums and maintain threads just like the other dedicated players in the VG area. I hope these are great factors to consider since the Pokemon Trading was once very active here. We had a booming VG stuff about 3 years ago and now that everyone is resorting to their computers to do the battles that area is at a great loss. What we need to do is re-introduce the Pokemon trading forum so we get more active users there. We need to make it more inviting so users will want to come to that forum on these forums. We are lacking VG players and we need to do something to improve not throw away the forum. If you guys can help to improve the forum and make it more inviting maybe we could have a more active VG forum. See the programs fr the VG on the computer take away from the legit way to trade. The legit way is using a DS and Wi-Fi. File Trading and the other programs you guys use take away from that and actually are not the legit way to trade and battle. If you guys stopped using the computer programs and actually traded on your DS's we would not have to worry about if we want to keep the forums. My answer to this is yes. Keep the forums as if they go it will make it much harder. Thanks XD.

 

[Vortex]

I think having a panel of judges who would deem what work is "worthy" of being posted would be a bad thing. Having a chosen group of people who get to establish some kind of "quality standard" for the artwork in the shops would just limit the diversity of the styles around the forums.

If the judges don't like the way something is done, or doesn't feel the user's skill level is "adequate for the quality standards of the forums," that doesn't make the user's artwork bad. If a user makes a shop and there's demand for their work, a panel of people shouldn't be able to step in and deem it unworthy just because it's not up to their personal standards.

Ultimately, if a user's work isn't liked, no one will make requests in their shop and the shop will die naturally. So basically, everyone should have a chance at making their own kinds of art. Whether or not people will like it and want to use it should be the only factor in deciding if their shop stays open or not, not a panel of judges. :3

I really appreciate seeing your views. It's always good to know that super mods have been considering my ideas, and all of your points are good. I was trying to think of ideas that would make the flow consistent and the thread not having unneeded posts, but now I look back on it the next day (and with your views added), I can easily see the flaws. I'm sure that there are other ways of filtering or, as you say, just letting them naturally dry up.

 

[Shining Raikou]

@ xxashxx: The problem is though, there has been a downward trend in trading for a while. There are only a handful of active threads in the forum.

We're considering reintroducing these two forums in a neater and more organized way and giving that a shot before we completely give up on them. How does that sound, and any ideas to promote activity?

 

[Chillarmy]

Perhaps we could do a report every 2 or so weeks from every shop and trade thread, similar to Pokebeach groups. CMP and JaySee would provide a form, and we shop owners could PM the application. If the application is'nt sent, and the owner hasn't explained his/her reason for leaving, the shop would be considered dead.

 

[xxashxx]

@ xxashxx: The problem is though, there has been a downward trend in trading for a while. There are only a handful of active threads in the forum.

We're considering reintroducing these two forums in a neater and more organized way and giving that a shot before we completely give up on them. How does that sound, and any ideas to promote activity?

That is because people are resorting to File Trading which is already illegal anyway. Is there a way it can be a sub forum of another forum since it is not poular? If it becomes popular you can always make it a regular forum if it becomes more active. Completely phasing out the trading forum will make it very difficult for me and other members to keep track of what they have for trade. If you make it so no one can make a trade thread then no one will want to trade. Work towards beefing up the trading area to make it more inviting. Deleting the trade forum would be pointless as members use their threads on other boards as some sites restrict certain data to be traded. To bypass that people use these forums to still have everything listed. If you make it a subforum that will work XD. EDIT: Making a report every 2 weeks would become annoying. We need to make it look cleaner by deleting inactive threads that have been inactive for over a year or just delete all locked threads and work from there. If members want to keep their thread they better keep it active and stay active. I am one of the few that tries to keep my thread active without breaking the bump rule. I used to bump it more than 3 times a week but now that everything has changed I try to do it once a week. We need to work on re-doing the trading rules and get some serious traders in here like me. I have gotten serious in the past year and I don't fool around much when I trade now. I have turned over a new leaf and have become more strict. That is what needs to be done here.

 

[Professor Palutena]

We're considering reintroducing these two forums in a neater and more organized way and giving that a shot before we completely give up on them. How does that sound, and any ideas to promote activity?

I like this idea. It gives everyone a chance to learn about the new system. as well as lets the forum staff receive some feedback about the new system, and if it doesn't work, the old ones will still be around as a failsafe.

 

[xxashxx]

If the re-introducing does not work then just make them sub forums. If things pick up THEN you guys can revert them back. Fair enough? Sounds fair to me. EDIT: Major Breakthrough. I just had a Brilliant idea. If the re-introducing does not work just put Pokemon Trading under Pokemon Gaming Activities. There you go. Problem solved XD.

 

[Nengeni]

That is because people are resorting to File Trading which is already illegal anyway. Is there a way it can be a sub forum of another forum since it is not poular? If it becomes popular you can always make it a regular forum if it becomes more active. Completely phasing out the trading forum will make it very difficult for me and other members to keep track of what they have for trade. If you make it so no one can make a trade thread then no one will want to trade. Work towards beefing up the trading area to make it more inviting. Deleting the trade forum would be pointless as members use their threads on other boards as some sites restrict certain data to be traded. To bypass that people use these forums to still have everything listed. If you make it a subforum that will work XD. EDIT: Making a report every 2 weeks would become annoying. We need to make it look cleaner by deleting inactive threads that have been inactive for over a year or just delete all locked threads and work from there. If members want to keep their thread they better keep it active and stay active. I am one of the few that tries to keep my thread active without breaking the bump rule. I used to bump it more than 3 times a week but now that everything has changed I try to do it once a week. We need to work on re-doing the trading rules and get some serious traders in here like me. I have gotten serious in the past year and I don't fool around much when I trade now. I have turned over a new leaf and have become more strict. That is what needs to be done here.

Might be off topic, and sorry if it is, but file trading isn't actually illegal. Actually, as long as you have a legal program to create the files, the pokemon are exact copies, and it's much easier to trade and keep track of what you have. Many people are switching to file trading because of this.

Oh. And if it's because of activity, couldn't we do what ash said and put it in a sub-forum for now?

 

[dmaster]

Sub-Forums don't fix the core problem. In a business, you don't just hide the trash in another building, you take it to the dumpster lol. Or try to recycle it and make it better. Sub-Forums don't achieve what we want to see here.

dmaster out.

 

[Nengeni]

But I just don't really see the point of removing it all together. It's not like it's hindering Pokebeach's development, it's providing an opportunity to grow.