Post by Ortheore on Jun 14, 2020 1:07:19 GMT
Following the decision of Smogon's staff to force the RBY council to exclude a broad swathe of the RBY community from having a say in the fate of their favourite format, it has become abundantly apparent that Smogon's staff care little for the needs of the RBY community, instead caring more about enforcing a monopoly on competitive pokemon and power play than actually supporting our community. As such, we as a community should take it upon ourselves to forge a new home, independent of Smogon and its toxic politics.
For those out of the loop (and because I'll be c/ping this elsewhere online), it was found that the move Counter could cause desyncs in a way that players have no control over. This obviously required a response, either to patch Counter or ban it, but the community did not come to a consensus, so it was decided that a vote would be held. The initial voter list was picked by the RBY council, who are themselves active members of the community and know what's going on. This list was then scrapped at the whims of Smogon higher-ups and a new one created in order to remove players that were mostly known for their involvement with Pokemon Perfect, another forum dedicated to competitive old gen tournaments, in particular RBY.
I want to make one thing clear from the outset- I have the utmost respect for the RBY council, and I am in no way blaming them for this atrocious decision. It is very clear that this decision was rammed down their throats by some aloof and out-of-touch admin(s). With that said, there can be no excusing this appalling decision. To my knowledge, there has been no point in the history of competitive pokemon where the competitive RBY community was confined to Smogon, and for most of the 10 years or so I've been involved with competitive pokemon, Smogon has made little or no effort to support RBY. Instead, that mantle was taken up first by RBY2K10, then by Pokemon Perfect, both of which became integral community hubs during their respective eras.
Despite this, Smogon has remained relevant by force of name, propped up by the sheer weight of numbers and its prestige in other areas- its tight relationship with the only relevant pokemon simulator further reinforces this. In recent years, RBY on Smogon has seen a small resurgence, in no small part due to many active members of Pokemon Perfect also seeking to help with Smogon, no doubt under the belief that it would help the community at large (this is worth coming back to), however, with RBY apparently being the preferred choice when axing formats from large tournaments, it's clear that this resurgence is swiftly petering out, and that site staff have no interest in supporting RBY in general
It is thus we arrive at the crux of our problem, and why the actions of smogon's staff in this matter are completely unacceptable. It's a decision that robs much of the regular RBY community of a voice, but with consequences that nonetheless threaten to be imposed on the community regardless, because if the community as a whole disagrees with it, there are few alternatives. Even for a community that isn't as closely tied to smogon as other generations, decisions made on smogon carry immense weight. Nowhere else in Smogon's tiering policy does it so blatantly ignore community feedback- no other past gen has as much of its community associated with other sites, making tiering decisions based on the votes of tournament players in those generations far less illegitimate. But even that is a sub-optimal compromise- current gen suspects of course have it much better, by giving everyone the opportunity to prove themselves worthy of being involved in the decision-making process.
That smogon staff are willing to suppress the voices of people who make names for themselves on other sites demonstrates that they don't care about our community, and are totally disconnected from the reality that the RBY community was built independently of smogon, and that it's only recently that the community became less distant from smogon. Instead this comes across as an attempt to suppress what they seem to view as competition from another site. This isn't an isolated case either- site staff routinely silence users who refer people to other sites, even in cases where doing so is relevant and appropriate, as opposed to a promotional thing, never mind the fact that involvement in multiple sites has always been commonplace in the RBY community. These actions reek of a competitive mentality being applied to community management, which is utterly absurd. Developing a community isn't a game to be won or lost, it's something where positive action leads to everybody benefiting- look no further than the numerous figures from Pokemon Perfect who've stepped up to help both there and on Smogon. That's not some battle being played out, that's something that's done to benefit everyone.
Suppressing other sites that seek to co-exist with Smogon by attempting to de-legitimise them is toxic to the community in general- as exemplified above, it stifles users that would otherwise seek to contribute and build a community. Furthermore, I'd argue that having a community that spans multiple sites is a positive thing- it allows multiple avenues for users to make names for themselves or find a spot in the community, rather than being seen as a scene dominated by exclusive cliques. All of this is to say that trying to stamp out other sites does more harm than good, as it alienates and disenfranchises much of the community, while doing nothing positive for regular users.
So where do we go from here? Well one option would be for smogon's brass to reverse course to try to mitigate the damage done and not alienate much of the RBY community. Stop meddling in the affairs of our format, and leave the fate of RBY to its community, free from the influence of smogon staff that have nothing to do with us and prioritise some sort of agenda over the fate of RBY. Is that likely to occur? Who knows? But it's not something I believe we should rely on. Based on these actions, it seems smogon's staff will continue attempting to deny the existence of other forums, insist that smogon is the only legitimate hub for any form of competitive pokemon, thus stifling other forums, while steadily withdrawing support for RBY. This spells an end to RBY's community, unless we take action. Our community is bigger than any one site, and we've survived without smogon's support before, there's no reason we can't do so again. If smogon won't stop meddling in RBY and imposing their supposed hegemony over our community, then we'll have to take things into our own hands and invest fully in non-smogon communities. Pokemon Perfect is an option,though you may be surprised to find it's not my top choice for RBY's new home- many RBYers will know the project I'm referring to, but if you don't, I'm happy to discuss privately (Spoiler: it's this site). Establishing an independent home for RBY would be difficult due to the monolithic influence of smogon, but with concerted action it can be done
Please, let's take action to develop RBY, rather than leaving it to some out-of-touch staffers who have nothing to do with us and are content to let RBY start gathering dust.
For those out of the loop (and because I'll be c/ping this elsewhere online), it was found that the move Counter could cause desyncs in a way that players have no control over. This obviously required a response, either to patch Counter or ban it, but the community did not come to a consensus, so it was decided that a vote would be held. The initial voter list was picked by the RBY council, who are themselves active members of the community and know what's going on. This list was then scrapped at the whims of Smogon higher-ups and a new one created in order to remove players that were mostly known for their involvement with Pokemon Perfect, another forum dedicated to competitive old gen tournaments, in particular RBY.
I want to make one thing clear from the outset- I have the utmost respect for the RBY council, and I am in no way blaming them for this atrocious decision. It is very clear that this decision was rammed down their throats by some aloof and out-of-touch admin(s). With that said, there can be no excusing this appalling decision. To my knowledge, there has been no point in the history of competitive pokemon where the competitive RBY community was confined to Smogon, and for most of the 10 years or so I've been involved with competitive pokemon, Smogon has made little or no effort to support RBY. Instead, that mantle was taken up first by RBY2K10, then by Pokemon Perfect, both of which became integral community hubs during their respective eras.
Despite this, Smogon has remained relevant by force of name, propped up by the sheer weight of numbers and its prestige in other areas- its tight relationship with the only relevant pokemon simulator further reinforces this. In recent years, RBY on Smogon has seen a small resurgence, in no small part due to many active members of Pokemon Perfect also seeking to help with Smogon, no doubt under the belief that it would help the community at large (this is worth coming back to), however, with RBY apparently being the preferred choice when axing formats from large tournaments, it's clear that this resurgence is swiftly petering out, and that site staff have no interest in supporting RBY in general
It is thus we arrive at the crux of our problem, and why the actions of smogon's staff in this matter are completely unacceptable. It's a decision that robs much of the regular RBY community of a voice, but with consequences that nonetheless threaten to be imposed on the community regardless, because if the community as a whole disagrees with it, there are few alternatives. Even for a community that isn't as closely tied to smogon as other generations, decisions made on smogon carry immense weight. Nowhere else in Smogon's tiering policy does it so blatantly ignore community feedback- no other past gen has as much of its community associated with other sites, making tiering decisions based on the votes of tournament players in those generations far less illegitimate. But even that is a sub-optimal compromise- current gen suspects of course have it much better, by giving everyone the opportunity to prove themselves worthy of being involved in the decision-making process.
That smogon staff are willing to suppress the voices of people who make names for themselves on other sites demonstrates that they don't care about our community, and are totally disconnected from the reality that the RBY community was built independently of smogon, and that it's only recently that the community became less distant from smogon. Instead this comes across as an attempt to suppress what they seem to view as competition from another site. This isn't an isolated case either- site staff routinely silence users who refer people to other sites, even in cases where doing so is relevant and appropriate, as opposed to a promotional thing, never mind the fact that involvement in multiple sites has always been commonplace in the RBY community. These actions reek of a competitive mentality being applied to community management, which is utterly absurd. Developing a community isn't a game to be won or lost, it's something where positive action leads to everybody benefiting- look no further than the numerous figures from Pokemon Perfect who've stepped up to help both there and on Smogon. That's not some battle being played out, that's something that's done to benefit everyone.
Suppressing other sites that seek to co-exist with Smogon by attempting to de-legitimise them is toxic to the community in general- as exemplified above, it stifles users that would otherwise seek to contribute and build a community. Furthermore, I'd argue that having a community that spans multiple sites is a positive thing- it allows multiple avenues for users to make names for themselves or find a spot in the community, rather than being seen as a scene dominated by exclusive cliques. All of this is to say that trying to stamp out other sites does more harm than good, as it alienates and disenfranchises much of the community, while doing nothing positive for regular users.
So where do we go from here? Well one option would be for smogon's brass to reverse course to try to mitigate the damage done and not alienate much of the RBY community. Stop meddling in the affairs of our format, and leave the fate of RBY to its community, free from the influence of smogon staff that have nothing to do with us and prioritise some sort of agenda over the fate of RBY. Is that likely to occur? Who knows? But it's not something I believe we should rely on. Based on these actions, it seems smogon's staff will continue attempting to deny the existence of other forums, insist that smogon is the only legitimate hub for any form of competitive pokemon, thus stifling other forums, while steadily withdrawing support for RBY. This spells an end to RBY's community, unless we take action. Our community is bigger than any one site, and we've survived without smogon's support before, there's no reason we can't do so again. If smogon won't stop meddling in RBY and imposing their supposed hegemony over our community, then we'll have to take things into our own hands and invest fully in non-smogon communities. Pokemon Perfect is an option,
Please, let's take action to develop RBY, rather than leaving it to some out-of-touch staffers who have nothing to do with us and are content to let RBY start gathering dust.
