Think of this as a plea and a "warning" (not a bad warning, but a "this will happen soon" warning).
This is Smogon. We are supposed to represent the elite of competitive Pokemon with thoughtful competitive discussion and theory. But with a new generation, it's inevitable that excitement and Smogon becoming more popular through social media and advertisement has resulted in new users coming here to discuss their favorite Pokemon. That's perfectly fine, but on our IRC channels and through other posters, I've heard nothing but "This forum/thread/etc is garbage". Okay, but how do you fix it? With a new generation's excitement, people lose sight of "discussion" and proceed to give one-liners that barely tiptoe the line of "content".
There's no reason why our standards should be so low. With pretty much every thread created at this point until an actual metagame and ladder for the current meta is established, we can focus on improving these threads by actually posing discussion points. I don't want to "supposedly represent" or "try to represent elite discussion", we WILL be the elite discussion.
So as a warning like I said, don't be surprised if your posts are deleted even if they provide what you thought was content, we should be looking for discussion about what it counters and why, why a particular set is best, what the actual metagame impact of moves/abilities/items/Pokemon will be, and the theory of Pokemon (why ___ is better than ___, speculation into the future of OU based on current results/mons, etc). The item clause thread is an eye-opening exercise in what constitutes posting without content or justification. I won't call anyone out there, but posting isn't a racing contest. Think about your posts and hopefully cleaning up these threads will inspire people to not get lazy with their posting content.
This doesn't mean you need to give lengthy explanations, but you need to provide actual discussion that furthers and builds upon the discussion already. We know Pokemon "A" will be awesome because of ____, but why? Again look at what I bolded of what a post should explore with legitimate points. Let's not settle for mediocrity.
List of threads cleaned up important reading:
Aegislash
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/aegislash.3489876/page-7#post-4915259
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/aegislash.3489876/page-8#post-4916629
Furfrou
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/furfrou.3490265/#post-4920959
Scolipede
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/scolipede.3490157/#post-4920777
Togekiss
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/togekiss.3489948/#post-4916799
This is Smogon. We are supposed to represent the elite of competitive Pokemon with thoughtful competitive discussion and theory. But with a new generation, it's inevitable that excitement and Smogon becoming more popular through social media and advertisement has resulted in new users coming here to discuss their favorite Pokemon. That's perfectly fine, but on our IRC channels and through other posters, I've heard nothing but "This forum/thread/etc is garbage". Okay, but how do you fix it? With a new generation's excitement, people lose sight of "discussion" and proceed to give one-liners that barely tiptoe the line of "content".
There's no reason why our standards should be so low. With pretty much every thread created at this point until an actual metagame and ladder for the current meta is established, we can focus on improving these threads by actually posing discussion points. I don't want to "supposedly represent" or "try to represent elite discussion", we WILL be the elite discussion.
So as a warning like I said, don't be surprised if your posts are deleted even if they provide what you thought was content, we should be looking for discussion about what it counters and why, why a particular set is best, what the actual metagame impact of moves/abilities/items/Pokemon will be, and the theory of Pokemon (why ___ is better than ___, speculation into the future of OU based on current results/mons, etc). The item clause thread is an eye-opening exercise in what constitutes posting without content or justification. I won't call anyone out there, but posting isn't a racing contest. Think about your posts and hopefully cleaning up these threads will inspire people to not get lazy with their posting content.
This doesn't mean you need to give lengthy explanations, but you need to provide actual discussion that furthers and builds upon the discussion already. We know Pokemon "A" will be awesome because of ____, but why? Again look at what I bolded of what a post should explore with legitimate points. Let's not settle for mediocrity.
List of threads cleaned up important reading:
Aegislash
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/aegislash.3489876/page-7#post-4915259
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/aegislash.3489876/page-8#post-4916629
Furfrou
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/furfrou.3490265/#post-4920959
Scolipede
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/scolipede.3490157/#post-4920777
Togekiss
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/togekiss.3489948/#post-4916799
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