PokemonTrader
Active Member
Who did you hear that from?
What happened to The PokeGym?
- Thread starter TheDancingPeanut
- Start date
- Status
TheRolesWePlay
New Member
Actually regarding the condition of the VG forum. Maybe we could do some threads highlighting different Pokemon in the VG, even in different formats, (singles, doubles, specials, etc.) and have them featured on the front page.
Asking questions is nice and all, but making threads like "Here's the strengths of Aegislash" that invites discussion could be a very good way to start some activity. I personally have been considering making a few articles regarding my experience with the VGC as of late once I get some time.
Normal guy
Member
Sorry if this has been sugested or not but we could use the blogs for deck ideas and articles. Not sure if there is a rule against that or not but seemed like a good idea
P_A
Active Member
There's another great idea. Then if it doesn't take too much time, perhaps the Blog Admin might slap a blurb of that blog with a link to the original on the front page if he thought it was worth looking at. However if it adds too much to your workload, then nevermind.
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This post, along with the earlier mention that the staff only contacts him when he's been sending too many reports, indicate a serious problem with a lack of report feedback. This probably also ties into the earlier problem mentioned that the rules are often unclear.
If the moderation staff doesn't have time for any form of feedback on reports, it either indicates that the site is understaffed or the current staff don't have enough time to do their job efficiently.
Or maybe there is no need for the one who reports a post to know how or if it is handled. If something is wrong with a post that is reported the only ones that need to know what and if something was done is the one who actually made the post. There is no reason the one who reported it needs to know what or if anything was done.
Given that the entire first several pages of the thread consist mainly of complaints about moderation decisions, maybe there is. Even something as simple as a stock "thank you for reporting the issue, but it was deemed to not be a problem for _____ reason. Have a nice day" would probably make a big difference in helping people understand why such decisions are made.
PokemonTrader
Active Member
I agree wholeheartedly with "thank you for reporting the issue, but it was deemed to not be a problem for _____ reason. Have a nice day"
Absoltrainer
Active Member
WARNING LARGE POST INCOMING. It's late and I'm tired, I didn't proof read this, probably some typos and grammar errors. Sorry.
I agree completely and fully with everything you said and this is definitely a plus 1 props for the staff. I have nothing to add other than I greatly respect the staff a lot more because of this post.
I want to thank the staff for explaining the situation. I can't speak for everyone else in this thread, but I think even these small posts that say, "we're watching and listening through Prime" go a LONG way to not only showing that the staff as a whole IS communicating and listening, but also, as you said, shows increased consistency and cohesion among the staff itself, both admirable and respectable qualities.
I've been very blunt and very critical in my posts, I want reiterate that I do so not in the attempt to attack the staff, but because I feel that if I am not wholly honest in my opinion, then I cannot receive the most of a response from the staff. I very much respect and appreciate the staff response.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I said I'd post this, and I've been thinking quite a bit on how I was going to respond. To write this, I put myself in the hypothetical position of a staff member. If I was a staff member, what would I suggest to my higher-ups/peers. This might get long.....
Please note I am not experienced in Vbulliten's interface or abilities, so some of these suggestion may not be possible due to simple hardware limitations.
I'm going to be as brutally honest here as I was before. I am not attempting to attack the staff's effort on this site, this should be taken as constructive criticism. This post is going to be very BIG picture. I'm not going to go into certain details and want other members to add to what I say.
I think Pokegym needs to completely rebrand itself. I'm not saying to go as far as to change the name of the site, but Pokegym has a long history behind it. This can be both a good and a bad thing. Right now it's a bad thing. I think Pokegym can stay Pokegym and still be rebranded, but this demonstrates how much I believe the reputation of the site needs to be turned around. All comments I make, I make as if I was a moderator or admin on this site and was presenting this information to the staff. I wrote this post as if I was working on this project personally (as staff). I have created websites before, and have a good amount experience with digital presentation.
1.) Basic site maintenance
Prime, I was pretty critical of Pokegym's look. As I spend more time on it, I find myself not having as much of a problem with the colors. Yet the site still looks unfinished and beta like. I'm going to go into detail why. The site is messy and needs to be cleaned up, and I shouldn't be having to point these things out.
Shadowcard put it very nicely here:
A lot of these things are so easy to fix, it's literally a few days cleaning up Pokegym. To reiterate and review some of the issue mentioned here as well as address my own issues, I'm going through page by page, forum by forum.
Home Page:
I will say the Home Page looks nice, it's not too cluttered, it's easy to navigate, welcoming to new members no matter how literate in technology they are. There's just one problem, there are absolutely no articles, this however is not maintenance, and I'll address articles and contributions later in this post. Maintenance wise, the front page is good to go. a few suggestions however might be to have a link to the site's rules on the Front Page. I was looking for them, and I must say that announcements is not the obvious choice (I know it says rules in the description, but it's still more hidden then it ought to be), but that's nothing major.
Forum Index
Less is more, keep it simple. There are way too much going on. Most of the forums on display are hardly in use anyways. Firstly, I think TCG Tournaments and Organized Play needs to go back to a single home forum split into sub-forums, it made the forum index much neater. I also think that the entire Pokemon Video Game section should be compressed into a single forum. You can still add sub-groups within the forum if you deem it necessary, but it doesn't all need to be in the open. I do agree that keeping general electronic threads and VGC threads has merit since the video game has become quite big in the OP area of Pokémon. When I enter the Pokegym Forum Indext, I am greeted by two picture bars. These pictures not not randomized and have not changed in ages. These pictures are not even especially amazing pictures. They just happen to be the latest ones uploaded. The idea of advertising the gallery on the forum index is itself a great idea, but it needs to be done in a MUCH better way. The banner of photos at the top looks horrible. It doesn't expand past all the way across the top, and the photos never change. The thumbnails are an eyesore and do not look professional. These need to be removed. The picture bar on the right of the forums looks very nice, but the problem is, it ONLY displays the "newest" images. This should either be removed (and yeah I know I can click the arrow to hide it, but it's there by default and that's what people see) or it needs to be set to show pictures at random, or perhaps only from specific folders. Alternatively, someone in charge of the gallery could be responsible for updating it. Right now though five photos of some random person from a BR in 09 is what represents the gallery on the forum page. As long as we're updating the forum index, why are we using the default vBulliten for new/unread posts? We had a really cool Pokemon themed Pokeball before. It doesn't have to be the same as before it can be a different icon, but it should be something that goes with the theme of the website. Not having anything adds to that "incomplete beta" look. At the very bottom of the Forum Index, there is no reason for "Spam-O-Matic Statsitics" to be viewable from the member end. It doesn't give a member any useful information, and just crowds the useful information it's sandwiched between.
Announcements
If I click on announcements, this is what I see
-The Rules
-The Staff Roles and Responsibilities
-What is expected of a Staff Member, and the reward for becoming one
-A thread from 7/22/2012 about Staff Openings
Why is the year and a half old Staff Openings thread still there (still pinned/stickied?) The post has good information for those interested in become Staff, but indicates it's no longer in effect since it was for July 2012 not March 2014. If you are still accepting Staff Member applications, make it a general post that doesn't just look like it applies to July 2012. If not, then unsticky the post because it's not relevant in its current presentation. In fact move all 3 of those "So you want to become a Staff member" posts to their own forum, they don't need three separate posts. I would change the name of Announcements to Information and Announcements since stuff like "How to apply for staff" and "Rules" are not Announcements, rather they are important site information.
Team Compendium's Hideout
Can't see any issues here, it does what it needs to do.
Victory Road
Does this even need to be visible to normal members? I mean you shouldn't need to show off that the staff have their own forum they discuss stuff in, that should be a given, or rather no one should even give that issue a thought. I think this forum should be hidden from those who are not staff. We can't access it, and you can still tell us that it exists without it being there. This also cleans up the Forum Index a bit by removing a useless link for the members
Front Page Content
On the Forum Index, this should be moved to be below Announcements (and Information). The Front Page is a major feature on Pokegym and it should be closer to the top of the forum. So when I click the Front Page Content forum, I am greeted by a lot of subforums. The first two are the most important, News Submissions and Article Submissions. I like the placement of these subforums (at the top) and the link to the submission guidelines in the description. The submission guidelines should also be stickied in each subforum in case someone misses them in the description. The Submission Guidelines themselves need to be updated. Even if not much has changed, having a date later than 2005 shows that the staff is keeping up with the articles submission rules and adapting them to fit the changing community. That said, I think the submission guidelines NEEDS to be changed in some way to encourage people to start submitting again. I don't know the process very well since I only ever submitted one article, but I remember it being a very time consuming process and a lot more hassle then I believed was necessary. It was such an ordeal, I never wanted to write another article. Featured Articles and Pokémon News are pointless because no one is contributing anything and there's almost nothing current in them. So this leads me to talk about articles themselves. When someone brings up the lack of artciles, the go to response from the staff (multiple members) tends to be "you are welcomed to write some if you want." This is the WRONG answer. First off, what's the incentive? Will I get Pokegym Dice or a shirt for writing X amount of articles? What is the standard for articles to be written. Maybe I don't have time myself to write articles and was just curious why there are none. The Staff themselves need to jump-start the front page by writing articles and inviting others to do the same. You cannot expect the remnants of Pokegym's member base to do it for you. They barely even post these days. The Staff has to take the initiative here. If done right, then member contributions will follow. There's a Poll's subforum from the short lived polls that used to show up on the front page that only staff could post and that have stopped. Use it, or remove it. It's pointless otherwise. In the actual Front Page Content Forum is a eight threads. The first one, a Guide for using Imaged and Link in feature article submission, that's still useful. The Article Requests is pointless since it appears to be a dead thread that didn't go anywhere. You could easily make use of it again, but you would be better off just making an new one. "Coming Soon to the Front Page!" is a completely pointless and empty thread. "How to write an Argument" is a good thread, keep it. " Things the New Front Page Editor is Looking for in Feature Article Submissions" is a good resource but conflicts with the "Submission Guidelines." Make it ONE thread with consistent information, not two threads with similar information. The "Article on How to Write a Deck Stategy Article" isn't terrible either. It contains good information. Finally, there's a Submission FAQ that's only point is to say "You can't make poll, you can tell us if you have an idea." Pointless, just remove it and just add that to Submission Guidelines. There is a LOT more I can say on the issue of Front Page Articles. Why didn't Pokegym cover States? Just because people posted it on other sites is no reason for Pokegym not to give major tournaments coverage, or expect the members to do it for you. Take initiative. Make submitting articles less of a hassle and a more streamlined process.
Compendium Content
If the Compendium is Pokegym's shining jewel, the one thing it has that no other site has, then why is Compendium Content not closer to the top of the forum? When I click it, I see Compendium Polls, I have never seen anything in there before. There is only 7 threads, just remove it (or hide it from members). If you want to add a poll, just add it to the Compendium Notices or just make it part of the Front Page Polls, since Compendium Updates ARE newsworthy for Pokegym.
Professor Forum
I'm not a prof anymore, so I can't explore this forum very well. As far as I can tell, it's fine though.
TCG News and Gossip Discussion
Does the stickied post on Pokémon Registration still apply now? I know the Pokemon site changed recently with the change from POP to Pokemon Play. If this all still applies, great, if not, the information needs to be updated
Cards: Strategy and Rulings Discussion
The Guru Deck Challange hasn't been active since 2011, it's not very relevant information for the members and the thirteen threads in there aren't that amazing. This forum needs to be reinvigorated because it encouraged member reviews and critique of decks. The List of Text Spoilers is utterly pointless if it's not going to be updated, which considering Pokebeach has the market on card spoilers, it won't be. Just remove it. Card of the Day...make this a thing a again, it's dead, make it a thing again. Investigate why it died and fix it. I'm saying the same stuff as before, but CLEAN UP THE STICKIED POSTS. If the post is no longer relevant or useful, remove it. No one is giving "Guru Points" anymore, so there's no reason to keep those thread stickied. There's too many stickied threads in here anyways. You can preach common courtasey and mature posts, but you don't need to shove it down the members' throats with four or five stickied threads across three forums/subforums on the subject.
Deck Help and Strategy
Archtypes Outdated and not useful
Deck Contests are dead
Useless Text Spoilers link
Outdated (missing several sets), useless decklist creator
Current Premier Events
This is awesome, except it's entirely empty and has no information in it at all....
EDIT: 3-21-14 @ 9:17PM So I just clocked on the Current Premier Events link again, and DID see the information previously there, but it's all outdated, not even States are listed on there or anything past January from what I could see (edit, found some February events, but it's not organized very well). While I'm glad to see that there is actually information there, it's pretty cumbersome to use, and not very useful, it's clogged up with previous events. There are MUCH faster and more efficient ways to find that information.
All the Organized Play Event Forums
Why is there so much regulation on the who won what won stuff. If you make it work for someone to do, no one will do it, just let the members post stuff. There is no harm in that at all. Once again there are outdated and useless stickied posts that need to be cleaned up
I'm starting to get exhausted so I'm going to skip a bit here because the rest of the forums are going to follow the SAME PATTERN AS ALL THE OTHERS. Clean up the forums, remove outdated stickied posts and update information. I'll add one more down in the Random Topic Center. The Authorized Contest Tags...there's no reason for that to still be there. Clean up the forum, so many of them look dead and pointless
Rountable Podcast
This could be an AWSOME thing to restart to get people to come back to the Gym, but old podcasts don't have much values, not much reason to keep this forum here.
Archived Forums
Speaking of completely dead forums, the Archived Forums has absolutely no value. It contains two forums who themselves never gained much liveliness even when they were relevant. There is no reason to keep them there. They don't add any value to the forum, and no one is going to benefit from their continued existence.
Blogs
Click on the blogs tab up top. Even when Pokegym was still populated, these didn't produce much good that a thread can't make. Either something should be made of this area of the Gym, or it should be removed, but because right now it contributes nothing
Gallery
When I go to the Gallery, I see this
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t18/Absoltrainer/Untitled-2_zpsb4840636.jpg
Again, add some icon, make it fit the Gym Theme. Also all those "insert picture" icons give off that unfinished and broken look. If at all possible, that needs to be fixed. Also as I've stated before, go through the Gallery, and CLEAN IT OUT. It's got 10+ years of pictures, a lot of which have absolutely no relevance or value. There are a lot of photos in places they don't belong. Oh yeah also I can totally access and see the "TC Eyes Only link on there, so that's broken
Research Tower
-Spelling Errors "switch to Unimited" format
-Is there a way to add the tabs to the Research Tower for easy navigation away from the tower?
-There is a lot of untapped potential in here, it needs to be promoted and utilized more
TCG Search
Outdated, missing sets, broken images, clunky to use. Fix it, figure out how to fix it, or remove it.
Listen this was 6 pages of me pointing out the same things in individual areas...Clean up, update, and fix this website. That should be the number one concern. First impressions are important and if you want to keep members, you need to secure that first impression. You have like 30 (or so) moderators and admins. That's a lot of manpower, more than enough to find and mark all the issues with the site and get them fixed.
While I'm on the subject, let's talk about moderators and staff again. Here's Evil Psyduck's post:
As first I was upset when I read this because i perceived is as public staff fighting which is a leadership 101 nono, but then I realized he's right. There are a LOT of inactive moderators, some who no longer visit Pokegym often, and some who clearly are not doing the jobs they were assigned. Fix that, remove them of their status if they can't do what they promised to do, and enlist new ones. I am also aware of the very long process of becoming a moderator. I don't know the detail, but I know it's a very complicated task from friend's firsthand accounts. Maybe that needs to be temporarily sped up, especially if you trust the person. I understand taking caution when appointing staff, they represent Pokegym and the Staff, and that's another thing that neeeds to be addressed, but that issue has already been pointed out a lot
Everything I've pointed out is very basic site maintenance. I thinkyou guys need to treat Pokegym as a new website again. You guys have to earn your audience back, and this time you don't have the luxury of being the only kid on the block. You're competing with the other big-name sites and Facebook. The big thing is that the staff NEEDS to take the initiatve. They can't expect the members to do it for them because Pokegym has barely any committed members anymore. The members cannot be counted on as a resource until you earn them back.
Everyone has pointed out great ideas. Get the front page restarted, get Card of the Day restarted, get people interested in discussion decks. Part of that involves loosening the regulation and restrictions. You can keep the site PG, and keep it active without forcing regulation and rules on everyone to the point of chasing (yes chasing) them away.
This was a long post, and I will have more to say later. You might have noticed that I began with "1.)" and never added any other numbers. I did that because I think cleaning up and fixing the site should be the number one and primary priority. Then the the site is back to 100%, then look into unique and special ideas that make the gym stand out. I hope it provided some good suggestions and information. Pokegym staff, looking through this thread, I believe the members have given you the keys, but only you can turn them.
I agree completely and fully with everything you said and this is definitely a plus 1 props for the staff. I have nothing to add other than I greatly respect the staff a lot more because of this post.
I want to thank the staff for explaining the situation. I can't speak for everyone else in this thread, but I think even these small posts that say, "we're watching and listening through Prime" go a LONG way to not only showing that the staff as a whole IS communicating and listening, but also, as you said, shows increased consistency and cohesion among the staff itself, both admirable and respectable qualities.
I've been very blunt and very critical in my posts, I want reiterate that I do so not in the attempt to attack the staff, but because I feel that if I am not wholly honest in my opinion, then I cannot receive the most of a response from the staff. I very much respect and appreciate the staff response.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I said I'd post this, and I've been thinking quite a bit on how I was going to respond. To write this, I put myself in the hypothetical position of a staff member. If I was a staff member, what would I suggest to my higher-ups/peers. This might get long.....
Please note I am not experienced in Vbulliten's interface or abilities, so some of these suggestion may not be possible due to simple hardware limitations.
I'm going to be as brutally honest here as I was before. I am not attempting to attack the staff's effort on this site, this should be taken as constructive criticism. This post is going to be very BIG picture. I'm not going to go into certain details and want other members to add to what I say.
I think Pokegym needs to completely rebrand itself. I'm not saying to go as far as to change the name of the site, but Pokegym has a long history behind it. This can be both a good and a bad thing. Right now it's a bad thing. I think Pokegym can stay Pokegym and still be rebranded, but this demonstrates how much I believe the reputation of the site needs to be turned around. All comments I make, I make as if I was a moderator or admin on this site and was presenting this information to the staff. I wrote this post as if I was working on this project personally (as staff). I have created websites before, and have a good amount experience with digital presentation.
1.) Basic site maintenance
Prime, I was pretty critical of Pokegym's look. As I spend more time on it, I find myself not having as much of a problem with the colors. Yet the site still looks unfinished and beta like. I'm going to go into detail why. The site is messy and needs to be cleaned up, and I shouldn't be having to point these things out.
Shadowcard put it very nicely here:
..... Anyone remember Rogue Archetype tackling the problem of the staff's terrible reputation for social interaction with the members? Only at that time PokeGym had something to show for itself: a well-operated resource and activity center even if the staff was not very member-oriented. It was the only pokemon website anyone ever needed.
But now PokeGym is where it is because the staff let it go.
1) Yes, Facebook as a platform lead to people spending less time here but that is because the platform is friendlier: it isn't saddled with outdated rules. PokeGym threads/posts are a lot easier to follow than Facebook comments yet people use Facebook. Rules in the tournament boards are outdated and overbearing.
2) CotD is not updated but as a resource is antiquated. On top of that, the rules are restrictive and PokeGym has failed to adapt and so has lost both a resource as well as an activity (because CotD themes were a nice activity) and got was outpaced by other websites.
3) Deck articles and past CotD reviews are hard to find. I always thought that PokePedia was superior to Research Tower because you can search in PokePedia while Research Tower is a name filter. However, an opportunity has presented itself because Pokepedia's images don't work. If Research Tower was a bit friendlier to use, maybe incorporate links to CotD reviews, it would be a more powerful tool. Just an idea.
4) Important OP events and PokeGym resources for them are not newsworthy to PokeGym. You can't say this is lack of contributions. A look in the State Championships board shows lots of events there. LosJackal has the event locator resource ready to go.
5) Old/unnecessary posts/rules remain pinned. It makes the forum look unmaintained. If moderators are reviewing their areas, they need to take a harder look at making sure the boards are free of so much pinned clutter.
6) Articles stopped being contributed and PokeGym was outdone by other websites. I'm curious, if I wanted to write an article about how I was 56th at PA RC with Excadrill, would it be quick to publish or would it get trapped in weeks of editing and lines of requirements?
7) Staff on here is pointing out how they don't have time to sufficiently perform their roles and it is visible that the PokeGym is suffering as a result. News editors are taking on moderating roles. Roles are outdated or need redefinition.
8) Its decklist generator is missing 3 sets!
A lot of these things are so easy to fix, it's literally a few days cleaning up Pokegym. To reiterate and review some of the issue mentioned here as well as address my own issues, I'm going through page by page, forum by forum.
Home Page:
I will say the Home Page looks nice, it's not too cluttered, it's easy to navigate, welcoming to new members no matter how literate in technology they are. There's just one problem, there are absolutely no articles, this however is not maintenance, and I'll address articles and contributions later in this post. Maintenance wise, the front page is good to go. a few suggestions however might be to have a link to the site's rules on the Front Page. I was looking for them, and I must say that announcements is not the obvious choice (I know it says rules in the description, but it's still more hidden then it ought to be), but that's nothing major.
Forum Index
Less is more, keep it simple. There are way too much going on. Most of the forums on display are hardly in use anyways. Firstly, I think TCG Tournaments and Organized Play needs to go back to a single home forum split into sub-forums, it made the forum index much neater. I also think that the entire Pokemon Video Game section should be compressed into a single forum. You can still add sub-groups within the forum if you deem it necessary, but it doesn't all need to be in the open. I do agree that keeping general electronic threads and VGC threads has merit since the video game has become quite big in the OP area of Pokémon. When I enter the Pokegym Forum Indext, I am greeted by two picture bars. These pictures not not randomized and have not changed in ages. These pictures are not even especially amazing pictures. They just happen to be the latest ones uploaded. The idea of advertising the gallery on the forum index is itself a great idea, but it needs to be done in a MUCH better way. The banner of photos at the top looks horrible. It doesn't expand past all the way across the top, and the photos never change. The thumbnails are an eyesore and do not look professional. These need to be removed. The picture bar on the right of the forums looks very nice, but the problem is, it ONLY displays the "newest" images. This should either be removed (and yeah I know I can click the arrow to hide it, but it's there by default and that's what people see) or it needs to be set to show pictures at random, or perhaps only from specific folders. Alternatively, someone in charge of the gallery could be responsible for updating it. Right now though five photos of some random person from a BR in 09 is what represents the gallery on the forum page. As long as we're updating the forum index, why are we using the default vBulliten for new/unread posts? We had a really cool Pokemon themed Pokeball before. It doesn't have to be the same as before it can be a different icon, but it should be something that goes with the theme of the website. Not having anything adds to that "incomplete beta" look. At the very bottom of the Forum Index, there is no reason for "Spam-O-Matic Statsitics" to be viewable from the member end. It doesn't give a member any useful information, and just crowds the useful information it's sandwiched between.
Announcements
If I click on announcements, this is what I see
-The Rules
-The Staff Roles and Responsibilities
-What is expected of a Staff Member, and the reward for becoming one
-A thread from 7/22/2012 about Staff Openings
Why is the year and a half old Staff Openings thread still there (still pinned/stickied?) The post has good information for those interested in become Staff, but indicates it's no longer in effect since it was for July 2012 not March 2014. If you are still accepting Staff Member applications, make it a general post that doesn't just look like it applies to July 2012. If not, then unsticky the post because it's not relevant in its current presentation. In fact move all 3 of those "So you want to become a Staff member" posts to their own forum, they don't need three separate posts. I would change the name of Announcements to Information and Announcements since stuff like "How to apply for staff" and "Rules" are not Announcements, rather they are important site information.
Team Compendium's Hideout
Can't see any issues here, it does what it needs to do.
Victory Road
Does this even need to be visible to normal members? I mean you shouldn't need to show off that the staff have their own forum they discuss stuff in, that should be a given, or rather no one should even give that issue a thought. I think this forum should be hidden from those who are not staff. We can't access it, and you can still tell us that it exists without it being there. This also cleans up the Forum Index a bit by removing a useless link for the members
Front Page Content
On the Forum Index, this should be moved to be below Announcements (and Information). The Front Page is a major feature on Pokegym and it should be closer to the top of the forum. So when I click the Front Page Content forum, I am greeted by a lot of subforums. The first two are the most important, News Submissions and Article Submissions. I like the placement of these subforums (at the top) and the link to the submission guidelines in the description. The submission guidelines should also be stickied in each subforum in case someone misses them in the description. The Submission Guidelines themselves need to be updated. Even if not much has changed, having a date later than 2005 shows that the staff is keeping up with the articles submission rules and adapting them to fit the changing community. That said, I think the submission guidelines NEEDS to be changed in some way to encourage people to start submitting again. I don't know the process very well since I only ever submitted one article, but I remember it being a very time consuming process and a lot more hassle then I believed was necessary. It was such an ordeal, I never wanted to write another article. Featured Articles and Pokémon News are pointless because no one is contributing anything and there's almost nothing current in them. So this leads me to talk about articles themselves. When someone brings up the lack of artciles, the go to response from the staff (multiple members) tends to be "you are welcomed to write some if you want." This is the WRONG answer. First off, what's the incentive? Will I get Pokegym Dice or a shirt for writing X amount of articles? What is the standard for articles to be written. Maybe I don't have time myself to write articles and was just curious why there are none. The Staff themselves need to jump-start the front page by writing articles and inviting others to do the same. You cannot expect the remnants of Pokegym's member base to do it for you. They barely even post these days. The Staff has to take the initiative here. If done right, then member contributions will follow. There's a Poll's subforum from the short lived polls that used to show up on the front page that only staff could post and that have stopped. Use it, or remove it. It's pointless otherwise. In the actual Front Page Content Forum is a eight threads. The first one, a Guide for using Imaged and Link in feature article submission, that's still useful. The Article Requests is pointless since it appears to be a dead thread that didn't go anywhere. You could easily make use of it again, but you would be better off just making an new one. "Coming Soon to the Front Page!" is a completely pointless and empty thread. "How to write an Argument" is a good thread, keep it. " Things the New Front Page Editor is Looking for in Feature Article Submissions" is a good resource but conflicts with the "Submission Guidelines." Make it ONE thread with consistent information, not two threads with similar information. The "Article on How to Write a Deck Stategy Article" isn't terrible either. It contains good information. Finally, there's a Submission FAQ that's only point is to say "You can't make poll, you can tell us if you have an idea." Pointless, just remove it and just add that to Submission Guidelines. There is a LOT more I can say on the issue of Front Page Articles. Why didn't Pokegym cover States? Just because people posted it on other sites is no reason for Pokegym not to give major tournaments coverage, or expect the members to do it for you. Take initiative. Make submitting articles less of a hassle and a more streamlined process.
Compendium Content
If the Compendium is Pokegym's shining jewel, the one thing it has that no other site has, then why is Compendium Content not closer to the top of the forum? When I click it, I see Compendium Polls, I have never seen anything in there before. There is only 7 threads, just remove it (or hide it from members). If you want to add a poll, just add it to the Compendium Notices or just make it part of the Front Page Polls, since Compendium Updates ARE newsworthy for Pokegym.
Professor Forum
I'm not a prof anymore, so I can't explore this forum very well. As far as I can tell, it's fine though.
TCG News and Gossip Discussion
Does the stickied post on Pokémon Registration still apply now? I know the Pokemon site changed recently with the change from POP to Pokemon Play. If this all still applies, great, if not, the information needs to be updated
Cards: Strategy and Rulings Discussion
The Guru Deck Challange hasn't been active since 2011, it's not very relevant information for the members and the thirteen threads in there aren't that amazing. This forum needs to be reinvigorated because it encouraged member reviews and critique of decks. The List of Text Spoilers is utterly pointless if it's not going to be updated, which considering Pokebeach has the market on card spoilers, it won't be. Just remove it. Card of the Day...make this a thing a again, it's dead, make it a thing again. Investigate why it died and fix it. I'm saying the same stuff as before, but CLEAN UP THE STICKIED POSTS. If the post is no longer relevant or useful, remove it. No one is giving "Guru Points" anymore, so there's no reason to keep those thread stickied. There's too many stickied threads in here anyways. You can preach common courtasey and mature posts, but you don't need to shove it down the members' throats with four or five stickied threads across three forums/subforums on the subject.
Deck Help and Strategy
Archtypes Outdated and not useful
Deck Contests are dead
Useless Text Spoilers link
Outdated (missing several sets), useless decklist creator
Current Premier Events
This is awesome, except it's entirely empty and has no information in it at all....
EDIT: 3-21-14 @ 9:17PM So I just clocked on the Current Premier Events link again, and DID see the information previously there, but it's all outdated, not even States are listed on there or anything past January from what I could see (edit, found some February events, but it's not organized very well). While I'm glad to see that there is actually information there, it's pretty cumbersome to use, and not very useful, it's clogged up with previous events. There are MUCH faster and more efficient ways to find that information.
All the Organized Play Event Forums
Why is there so much regulation on the who won what won stuff. If you make it work for someone to do, no one will do it, just let the members post stuff. There is no harm in that at all. Once again there are outdated and useless stickied posts that need to be cleaned up
I'm starting to get exhausted so I'm going to skip a bit here because the rest of the forums are going to follow the SAME PATTERN AS ALL THE OTHERS. Clean up the forums, remove outdated stickied posts and update information. I'll add one more down in the Random Topic Center. The Authorized Contest Tags...there's no reason for that to still be there. Clean up the forum, so many of them look dead and pointless
Rountable Podcast
This could be an AWSOME thing to restart to get people to come back to the Gym, but old podcasts don't have much values, not much reason to keep this forum here.
Archived Forums
Speaking of completely dead forums, the Archived Forums has absolutely no value. It contains two forums who themselves never gained much liveliness even when they were relevant. There is no reason to keep them there. They don't add any value to the forum, and no one is going to benefit from their continued existence.
Blogs
Click on the blogs tab up top. Even when Pokegym was still populated, these didn't produce much good that a thread can't make. Either something should be made of this area of the Gym, or it should be removed, but because right now it contributes nothing
Gallery
When I go to the Gallery, I see this
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t18/Absoltrainer/Untitled-2_zpsb4840636.jpg
Again, add some icon, make it fit the Gym Theme. Also all those "insert picture" icons give off that unfinished and broken look. If at all possible, that needs to be fixed. Also as I've stated before, go through the Gallery, and CLEAN IT OUT. It's got 10+ years of pictures, a lot of which have absolutely no relevance or value. There are a lot of photos in places they don't belong. Oh yeah also I can totally access and see the "TC Eyes Only link on there, so that's broken
Research Tower
-Spelling Errors "switch to Unimited" format
-Is there a way to add the tabs to the Research Tower for easy navigation away from the tower?
-There is a lot of untapped potential in here, it needs to be promoted and utilized more
TCG Search
Outdated, missing sets, broken images, clunky to use. Fix it, figure out how to fix it, or remove it.
Listen this was 6 pages of me pointing out the same things in individual areas...Clean up, update, and fix this website. That should be the number one concern. First impressions are important and if you want to keep members, you need to secure that first impression. You have like 30 (or so) moderators and admins. That's a lot of manpower, more than enough to find and mark all the issues with the site and get them fixed.
While I'm on the subject, let's talk about moderators and staff again. Here's Evil Psyduck's post:
As first I was upset when I read this because i perceived is as public staff fighting which is a leadership 101 nono, but then I realized he's right. There are a LOT of inactive moderators, some who no longer visit Pokegym often, and some who clearly are not doing the jobs they were assigned. Fix that, remove them of their status if they can't do what they promised to do, and enlist new ones. I am also aware of the very long process of becoming a moderator. I don't know the detail, but I know it's a very complicated task from friend's firsthand accounts. Maybe that needs to be temporarily sped up, especially if you trust the person. I understand taking caution when appointing staff, they represent Pokegym and the Staff, and that's another thing that neeeds to be addressed, but that issue has already been pointed out a lot
Everything I've pointed out is very basic site maintenance. I thinkyou guys need to treat Pokegym as a new website again. You guys have to earn your audience back, and this time you don't have the luxury of being the only kid on the block. You're competing with the other big-name sites and Facebook. The big thing is that the staff NEEDS to take the initiatve. They can't expect the members to do it for them because Pokegym has barely any committed members anymore. The members cannot be counted on as a resource until you earn them back.
Everyone has pointed out great ideas. Get the front page restarted, get Card of the Day restarted, get people interested in discussion decks. Part of that involves loosening the regulation and restrictions. You can keep the site PG, and keep it active without forcing regulation and rules on everyone to the point of chasing (yes chasing) them away.
This was a long post, and I will have more to say later. You might have noticed that I began with "1.)" and never added any other numbers. I did that because I think cleaning up and fixing the site should be the number one and primary priority. Then the the site is back to 100%, then look into unique and special ideas that make the gym stand out. I hope it provided some good suggestions and information. Pokegym staff, looking through this thread, I believe the members have given you the keys, but only you can turn them.
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I disagree. When the mods don't take action against a post, they shouldn't have to explain themselves to the member who reported it. Besides, usually the reason for not taking action is simply that there's no reason to take action.
ShadowCard
Active Member
This speaks to the arbitrary rules and enforcement. Moderators are willing to tell us why something deserves an infraction but then when we, the members, report posts we think are in violation of the rules we don't hear why it isn't. This leads to more reporting of similar posts. Being told "stop reporting these posts" makes it look like the moderator is ignoring the rules.
Benzo
Front Page News Editor<br>Forum Moderator
^ Polls are determined by content and to the extent of the issue for a polls purpose. Deriving information for improvement to a community's advance in up-grading a site IMO could warrant a poll-- unlike a person posting a question such as "What's your favorite Pokémon?"--
Questions with substance vs one-line inquiries that leave room for no gain is what gets a click or not.
Reported posts: To thank or not thank the reporter. I find it situational. If a person reported something such as a porn site link that got past radar and posted in a thread- I would thank the member. But, a reported post that is personal towards another member- I would not thank the reporter. It is tough to explain my reasoning and thoughts on that. I just do not see how it would benefit either member, and it could (which shouldn't, as per the phrase "it is business, nothing personal" aspect in treating all members fair/equals)(which, being human is tough at times to not be/or taking something personal)-- be a tough call to do what is right at times.
I am 50/50 on the matter of thanking members or not for reporting- if it does benefit the members, I am for it only under specific conditions.
P_A and Prime= passion is good, do not let it consume your efforts in a community effort. I like your levels of passion, just please enjoy a breather when you are trying to bring a point across I appreciate you both as I do with all the members on here- we all know Rome was built in a day, lol- right?
Questions with substance vs one-line inquiries that leave room for no gain is what gets a click or not.
Reported posts: To thank or not thank the reporter. I find it situational. If a person reported something such as a porn site link that got past radar and posted in a thread- I would thank the member. But, a reported post that is personal towards another member- I would not thank the reporter. It is tough to explain my reasoning and thoughts on that. I just do not see how it would benefit either member, and it could (which shouldn't, as per the phrase "it is business, nothing personal" aspect in treating all members fair/equals)(which, being human is tough at times to not be/or taking something personal)-- be a tough call to do what is right at times.
I am 50/50 on the matter of thanking members or not for reporting- if it does benefit the members, I am for it only under specific conditions.
P_A and Prime= passion is good, do not let it consume your efforts in a community effort. I like your levels of passion, just please enjoy a breather when you are trying to bring a point across
I appreciate you both as I do with all the members on here- we all know Rome was built in a day, lol- right?
P_A
Active Member
Thank you Benzo for the polite reminder.
However, just so you know that I wasn't entirely trying to put down the mod community - the fact is, on at least one occasion that I know of, and it may have been more, the higher ups have made a unilateral and entirely arbitrary decision for or against a particular stand taken by the general public membership regardless of their input .... just because they can, and they hold the power. Believe me, as a former Global Moderator who has had access to everything except the TC-only part of the forum, I've been there to see it, so I know it to be true. I'm hoping that this is one occasion where they offer that poll, regardless of how they personally feel about it, since that will show their willingness to bend.
Most normal, rational people don't really want to see or hear that a person gets into trouble due to a post. However, if a bad post gets through, and it gets reported, most people would like to know that their efforts to report a post are warranted. If they reported a post in error, they'd most likely want to know why the reported post continues to stay on the gym. That's why it might be reasonable to ask that someone explains why a post is ok, when it is reported in error, and not a potentially snarky comment to stop reporting posts. I think that's all people are really looking for here. If we had a poll to ask what the members want done when a bad post is reported, then the Admins could make an informed decision based on their, and the member's preference. However if they don't care what the members want, and plan on doing things their way regardless, then the poll is unnecessary. That's all I'm sayin'. Hopefully this post explains things a bit better with a bit more of that tact that may be missing from the last post.
Thanks for clarifying that. Perhaps the rules should be updated to reflect that it's not black and white?
http://easycaptures.com/fs/uploaded/680/6317085047.png
I think having an automatic response with a mod's reasoning for not removing a post would create a sense of entitlement, that the mod has to have a good reason not to do as you ask. I wouldn't mind a generic response telling you that the post wasn't removed, but I don't think including the reason it wasn't removed would be a good addition.
If I wanted to know why a post I'd reported wasn't removed, I'd PM a mod and ask. That way it's me requesting the information, instead of having an expectation of getting it just from the report.
If I wanted to know why a post I'd reported wasn't removed, I'd PM a mod and ask. That way it's me requesting the information, instead of having an expectation of getting it just from the report.
PokemonTrader
Active Member
Okay. So then we should just get rid of the report button is what you are getting at tutti? I see what you are saying regarding not asking for them to do it every time which I understand. HOWEVER I've done the way you've suggested in the past only to be told to stop reporting posts period. There needs to be a revamp of rules OR something regarding the whole reporting situation that adds clarification to why not some posts are not dealt with. IE I used to report people with a reply and 3 bumps until one day I got a really rude message from o e of the mods (won't slander them publicly) saying to stop reporting that issue because it wasn't a rule broken. Mind you I was reporting those posts for MONTHS and hadn't been told not to. It would be beneficial to both mods and posters if they did let us know why some reports aren't dealt with Re: grey areas So we don't keep reporting similar issues until they snap at us and make it seem like they aren't appreciative and deter members from reporting
P_A
Active Member
If Jason K wants to help work out some of the bugs and contribute some to the re-invigorating of the gym, then I and many other members would be more than happy to read about it. However, not to put Jason down or anything, but I think it might take more than Jason to be our savior. Just sayin'.
Umm, I gotta ask ..... how could you possibly know that with any certainty? Have you been there, as a mod, without anyone else here realizing it? Do you all of a sudden have access to the Victory Road part of the forum? Or perhaps one of the mods (perhaps one of your friends) have shown you it? Or is that just your opinion? Do you think that other's opinions aren't worth considering? Sorry I didn't pick up on all the implications of your post earlier, but it just sort of hit me just now.
Interesting, asking for what some might consider common courtesy is now linked to engendering a sense of entitlement. As an illustration, I'm just wondering if it might be a good idea to stop saying please and thank you, opening doors for strangers, not spitting/picking my nose (or God forbid - urinating) in public, and let women, children and weaker people be tormented, since it might give them a sense of entitlement otherwise. Don't be foolish. Not only is it courteous, but it is also respectful. Those who are mods deserve some respect for what they do, but not blind ignorance. Don't forget, the members also deserve respect - otherwise there would be no need for the mods services.
If you personally would rather not know if your reports are of any use - which may indeed be the case, since you have had very few posts in the 2 years you have been a member here (in fact at first glance at your profile it looks as though you haven't made any remarkable efforts to make the gym a place you are proud of), then either don't report any posts, or please ignore any pm's you might get IF by chance you ever report a post in error. However the rest of us, .... well, lets say we might do things differently.
No one is asking the mods to take an extra 5 hours out of their day just to write reports for every little thing. In fact, no one is even suggesting any of that at the moment. However, I'm just suggesting/requesting a poll to see what can and should be done about this question. Don't forget - mods and admins also have the ability to vote on this issue, and have their say. I'm positive that if a poll is even given a week, only a small portion of the gym's members will even see it, or care enough to vote for that matter, however at least those who are interested in the future of the site should have some sort of an opportunity to have their point of view heard and reacted upon. I think that's the least we can ask for.
- Status