You mean the community of people who were unwilling or unable to attend Nationals.
Because the community of people who DID attend Nationals, the main thing they wanted was online pairings and 75 minute top cut rounds.
Yes, I mean the community of people who did not attend nationals. Guess what more USA players did not attend than did attend. Not to mention the foreign players who very much like to keep stock of the USA metagame because it will directly affect worlds more than any other country.
Heck, even the people at the event bemoaned the fact there was no stream.
Technically no, but legally perhaps yes. We just don't know. What I do know is I sign more paperwork for Steven Reich's PokePress radio interviews than anyone I've ever seen for broadcasting their match on The Top Cut. So it makes sense that the community of streamers is being more cavalier than the company can, or is at least willing to do this year. Structuring Sunday to run as it did was hard enough, I can imagine, without having to worry about satisfying the folks at home.
This is more of them being overly cautious than anything else. A simple consent-release form is all that is needed for the masters division. They really are not that hard to come up with. The "we just don't know" line is a cop out. It's not that hard. All most all masters would be just fine signing on the dotted line to be on the stream. They streamed world's finals, they can make it happen. They just chose not to.
As an active participant who regularly tries to bring logic to the mob mentality, the HeyFonte posts and comments are barely conducive to good "discussions". PokeGym has a purpose: to be a well-moderated forum that is safe for families and kids to participate. HeyFonte and the other sites serves a different demographic. No one site has to "win" by being all things to all people.
And you think the 'Gym's threads are much better? They are not. I get that the 'Gym is the family-friendly option. But the real reasons why people are leaving in droves to discuss things in more depth elsewhere are 1) logic is often not tolerated in these threads and 2) the forum rules/enforcement are way more overbearing than they need to be to provide a family friendly environment.
I mean I apparently can't even type out the name of a site that starts with hey and ends with trainer without it getting censored.
Answers in bold.
As for the improvements, by all accounts they were great. I applaud the company for making those things happen.