What happened to The PokeGym?

[tutti]

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.

Of course this is my opinion, I figured that was obvious, even though I didn't wave a giant "this is an opinion" flag. I also can't quite connect your inference that I don't think others' "aren't worth considering". I put in the second post to clarify why I had that opinion, as I felt it hadn't come across well enough in the first one.

I've never been a mod here, but I have elsewhere, and I've dealt with reported posts. Usually when I decided not to do anything to a reported posts, it was simply because the post didn't break any rules. Of course I can't know for sure that this is what happens here as well, but I can make an educated guess.

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.

I don't respond to a post unless I believe I have something meaningful to contribute. In my experience, since I live in a different time zone than people in the US, by the time I see a thread there's usually very little left that needs to be added.

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.

I never responded to your idea of a poll (which I actually think is a good idea). I responded to the idea of having decided reports always give a response to the reporter with the reason why the post was deleted. Note that I'm not against each and every possible way to give the reporter feedback on the report; I'm against that particular idea implemented that particular way.

 

[P_A]

Just like old times eh guys? Even when a mod also agrees a poll would be useful (Benzo), it doesn't happen. How long does it take to set a poll up compared to setting up a whole new forum section? And if that can't be done in a week, then I have the feeling nothing's gonna change.

Posted 6 days ago (so obviously there was some discussion of this at least a week ago):

I will be working with staff to open up a new forum called PokeGym Feedback, a public forum for members to post their opinions, ask questions, and offer feedback on topics. We will be sharing our projects and goals on that forum.

Until then, continue on with the discussion, but please don't expect replies from me.

I get the feeling there never was a discussion. Whatever we all suggested (or discussed) fell on deaf ears, and yes, this thread has run it's course ..... Just like old times. Yeah, I'm done here too Prime.

 

[Absoltrainer]

I get the feeling there never was a discussion. Whatever we all suggested (or discussed) fell on deaf ears, and yes, this thread has run it's course ..... Just like old times. Yeah, I'm done here too Prime.

I disagree P_A. There was a lot of discussion, and I think the evidence of that lies in three forms.
1.) Prime's constant replies to most of the points that people made. Even if not everything he said we agreed with (and I disagreed with a lot of what he said), the fact of the matter was that open debate was sustained. Even though Prime ended up walking away, he stayed and listened for most of the thread as we more or less took every shot we could at Pokegym and the staff. Any normal human is going to get frustrated when every major and minor flaw in their group or organization is pointed out. Especially if they see validity in those points.
2.) This thread became open-season for bashing the staff, and remained open, unaltered, and for the most part civil and mature. There weren't even any threats of closing the thread. In fact some of the staff expressed a hands-off purpose in order to keep the thread civil.
3.) On page 5, when several staff members joined the discussion, however briefly, to explain their lack of posting in the thread, I believe shows that they were at least interested in what this thread produced.


Now maybe I'm naive, or over optimistic. You've been in the chain of command of the staff, so you know them better than, but I believe that the ideas in this thread were at least read by and received by the staff. Does this guarantee change? Not at all. It's their site and it is their prerogative to do with it as they wish. Only time will tell how much that was said in this thread is taken to heart. In the end, we all shared similar goal in this thread.

If Pokegym is like any other semi-bureaucratic chain of command, then discussion and consensus takes time. Obviously the final decision lies in the senior staff, and administrators. That said, I think that if Prime does not return to this thread, then another staff member needs to step in and be the communication line between members and staff. If Prime has withdrawn from this thread, then he takes with him the direct line of communication we had established, and it needs to be re-established.

 

[EeveeLover]

I am not really seeing what the specific poll question is.

Is it whether the Staff have to explain every action that they take or choose not to take or was there something else that the members felt needed to be a poll of the community?

P_A, as you well know, things do not happen at the speed of light on this site, more like the speed of a dead sloth. Just because something was discussed six days ago does not mean that the folks that are the final vote have had a chance to weigh in with their thoughts or opinions.

As has been stated many times before, the owners of the site are all PTO's and I know 3 of the 5 of them all ran State Championships this part weekend. Several of them are also prepping for Regionals in a couple weeks.

So I would not count on a huge change before the end of April. Let events calm down, that is where their priorities have to fall right now.

 

[ShadowCard]

Absoltrainer, I think you may not remember how these threads go. Staff engages in the conversation but then no changes are implemented. It is like a company who asks its employees for feedback but does nothing with that feedback, may it be recognizing people who received high marks or addressing concerns. True that the staff did not actively ask for this feedback. We were correcting the staff's misunderstanding in thinking that other social media sites were more to blame for declining participation on this site than a lack of upkeep of the site.

How does it take a month to unpin old threads? Does it take weeks to type a quick news post about PokeGym Labs State Championships List and a link on the front page so as to give an appearance that the site is keeping up with OP events? Does it weeks to find a noteworthy card and get a CotD started? If staff wanted to show any sign that they have been receptive, there was a lot of little things that could have been done. Major projects, like reorganizing archived articles and fixing the research tower, are understandably daunting when you are also staring down huge events to plan. But come on, one of the owners has to be the one to unpin a thread? If that is actually the case, it re-highlights the inefficiency in the tasks and structure that Benzo's first post brought to light.

EeveeLover, I think your poll should be "what areas of PokeGym would you like to see updated first?" Absoltrainer and I provided a lot of options you can use for selections.

 

[SMP88]

What saddens me more than anything is the lack of actual news that's posted here. If someone were to use PokeGym as their only source of info into what's going on in Pokemon they'd be missing out on so many things.

Just in the last week or so we've had
- Pokemon Trozei released
- New Japanese TCG set announced
- New TCG Tin announced

On top of a bunch of smaller TCG/Anime/VGC newsworthy things.

At the very least each of these should have a post in the "News" section along with a corresponding thread. You can also give the whole "Well why don't you start a thread." speech, but these types of things should be handled by some sort of news moderator, it shouldn't be required for members to make the thread if they want to talk about it (since members might not even know about the news without it being posted here).

 

[PokemonTrader]

I am always one of the first to know about things related to the Pokemon Center regarding plushies and stuff too...
I don't want to deal with the hassle of news forum though... Too many hoops to jump through.