Views on how to make the site better - feedback appreciated

C

Celebi23

Aspiring Trainer
Advanced Member
Member
Please, nobody ban/flame/warn me for this, I'm just stating my opinion. At least I'm not just bashing the site, I've actually got a purpose behind my constructive criticism.

Anyway, I feel like PokeBeach is basically a mock site of Gym. Sure, it has the videogames and the news stories are generally better, but in the TCG Gym has all the Professors, TO's, etc. and all of the people who are considered the best players. However, I think it is possible that this could change.

I'm aware that this idea is already active in Gym, however, it is possible we could have a more effective program. I'm also aware that it's strange that I of all people suggest this, considering that I haven't been very active in the Article Submissions section lately.

Basically, we should have a feature article section. After all, what's the point of having Article Submissions if the articles are never submitted anywhere? I'm thinking we would have a team of people called something along the lines of "Master Article Writers", who would, with the writer's permission, go in and edit the articles that have any potential to become a feature article. Once the articles look as nice as they can and are free of spelling/grammar errors, aren't missing any crucial information, etc., the article could be posted on the front page.

Also, (I think this has been mentioned once or twice before) we could post the first part of the article on the front page only, then in order for the reader to view the rest of it, they would have to be a member of the Forums. Even if they are only joining to read articles, it still boosts the member population.

This system could also attract some of "the best of the best" to PokeBeach, as they might want articles posted on the front page and know theirs will be good enough. And of course, with this system, there will always be a new news story, even in months without any new promos, tournaments, etc. to report.

By no means am I suggesting this system should be limited to a few good decks, or even the TCG. The video games section has a good amount of articles too. And players who have rogue ideas or views on whatever part of the game could post articles too. Also, the Organized Play section could turn into articles. The better reports that give a good example of the metagame or some really tight games could easily be turned into articles. This would also encourage more people to post tournament reports.

Also, threads like the "Tier Thread" could eventually turn into an article if we took a lot of the debate and turned it into a discussion of sorts. This might also apply to a very small number of decks in the deck garage.

Lastly, I want to explain a bit more what I think these "Master Article Writers" should be. I don't think it's enough to be active in an article submissions section. For starters, these people should have proven themselves to be very good and capable article writers. We don't want people going in to others articles and not doing anything positive, or even making things worse. Also, poor spelling and grammar in past posts isn't a good trait in my opinion. I'd bet that only about half the people who start reading an article with bad spelling and grammar finish it. And lastly, these players should be the best at the game that we have on the site. If an average or poor player goes in and makes negative changes to a list, strategy, techs, etc. it will have a negative impact on the article and site's image.

So in conclusion, not only would this system potentially make these Forums somewhat closer to how good Gym's are, but it may also skyrocket the number of members, activity and overall posts.

So, thank you for reading. Sorry if this post offended anyone, was too negative towards Beach or if I sounded like a total know-it-all. Based on past attempts for something like this to happen, I'm not too optimistic, but please post your opinions, whatever they may be, and maybe something will happen at some point. Thanks again!
 
Articles submitted to the site is a great idea. I thought that the then-Experts submitted a few Pokemon Analyses but they've never shown up on the main page. But as for the TCG Articles, we would have to do an amazing one and have anybody and everybody see it so that the next article they see, they actually want to see, so then they sign up. We've got to attract the good players by giving them more than a couple paragraph sample if we ever want attraction. And as for the Reports, usually the best ones come from the Top players, so we would need them to come on here before we get better Reports. ;p But yeah, most of the ideas are pretty good. Of course, I can see the problems now with the Master Article Writer team...

dmaster out.
 
Thanks for actually posting after reading it. Out of curiosity, what kind of problems would arise, aside from the same kind of problems we have with the rest of the staff? And as far as that idea on the first article, I'm not 100% sure, but once we have the second article I think that people (not members) wouldn't be able to see the rest of the first one again.

Also, another idea is that instead of strategists we have this team. Because as far as I know, that is the point of the strategists. So by actually having people submitting articles, it might be somewhat more effective. Basically, all that I can see happening is that a couple strategists get demoted and the rest get re-named.
 
Celebi23 said:
Thanks for actually posting after reading it. Out of curiosity, what kind of problems would arise, aside from the same kind of problems we have with the rest of the staff? And as far as that idea on the first article, I'm not 100% sure, but once we have the second article I think that people (not members) wouldn't be able to see the rest of the first one again.

Also, another idea is that instead of strategists we have this team. Because as far as I know, that is the point of the strategists. So by actually having people submitting articles, it might be somewhat more effective. Basically, all that I can see happening is that a couple strategists get demoted and the rest get re-named.
Click to expand...

You explained the problems in your second paragraph. The Strategists themselves. They could do nothing, there could be debates about why such and such was chosen and not them, you know. The usual problems. :F

dmaster out.
 
I think we had something like this when WPM was accepting nominees for the top article writers on the beach (that was never finished... though.) Anyways, I like the idea in the view that I write a lot of articles. People do tend to make errors, so we could fix it. Having Article Masters or something could help in the improvement and quality of these beach articles, but there could be some problems. Different players could have different perspectives and ideas on how some matchups or the decks and stuff like that. So if every person were to do it, conflicts would happen through ideas. Maybe one Article Master takes an article and corrects it themselves or something? And once they are done, it moves on to another. Then another, and so on and so forth.
 
If there is conflict, it's probably best left as is, no?

dmaster- true, but if you take the people who are already doing stuff (Lou Cypher for example), there shouldn't be too much problem with activity, and if people don't like the choices they can suck it up lol.
 
Articles here are good. The Strats (VG side, the TCG side are still doing squat) have a ton of articles ready. Problem is, WPM never has the time to post them. That "Master Article Writers" that you are talking about are loosely related to strats. What we basically need is someone WPM can trust to post the articles in the front page if his busy schedule won't allow himself to do it.
 
You people don't get it, do you? The reason there are no TCG strategist articles is because I AM THE ONLY ACTIVE TCG STRATEGIST. You really can't blame me for the fact that 90% of the staff are geared towards the video games, and on top of that, even when the strategist group was ONLY tcg based, the articles that we completed were never posted anywhere and criticized on things that the people writing the articles understood considerably better than the people who were criticizing them.

So don't make accusations in your ignorance. -_-
 
[warning, long post]

The biggest problem I see with PokeBeach is... the warning system. Someone comes in and spams a thread, and what, they get a 20% warning? I talked with a few staff members about this and they agree that the warnings are much too low. "Too loose with the leash" is the phrase I'm looking for. If they get a 20% warning for spamming, they can spam 5 times at LEAST before the moderators actually see it. In my opinion, I think the warning system should look like


  • Spamming - 40%
    Flaming - 60%
    Reviving Dead Threads - 30%
and so on.

As for the TCG aspect of the site, I think it's almost beyond repair. To be honest, the fact that there hasn't been a strategist article in 6 months says a lot. I'm not pointing fingers, because I agree with esperante, he is the only active TCG strategist (at least, the only one I see posting). I propose we scrap the current strats (the TCG ones) except the active ones (one >_<) and maybe, oh, I don't know, actually give other members a shot at becoming a strat? Ones who are on often? And actually care about the site? Member articles on the main site are also a good idea, at least until the strategist program is 'fixed'. WPM said he would post them, but I think he was just trying to calm everyone down. I understand he's busy, but... I wouldn't make promises I couldn't keep.

NO. MORE. STAFF. GROUPS. We don't need a special group to write articles. We have (had) that already - the strats. I mean, seriously, why do you think the Clan Council and TCG Rules Masters were cut? We don't need "Master Article Writers" or whatever. Here's what I'm thinking: before the article is posted, they send it to, oh, I don't know, a strategist or cheetor or whoever is in a position of power and knows a fair amount about the TCG, and wait for their approval. This way, there's less bad articles in the forum, and less staff groups. It's also much more organized and professional this way.

The Deck Garage is fine. Everyone who bashes people there seem to be forgetting that there are some that ARE new to this game. You were once, too, I'm sure. It could use some more moderation because I still see horrible posts such as "LOL -NRGY +CLAYDO!L!!!QASX *RICKROLL LINK* KTHNX" ._.

As for comparing PokéBeach to Pokegym, there is no comparison. PokéBeach has a friendlier atmosphere, while the Gym is obviously meant for much more competitive players. Do you see Gino Lombardi or Ness making an account on PokéBeach? While the Beach definitely has worse members, the good members are great people who do great things. I'm not saying the Gym doesn't have great members, too, but many feel uncomfortable there because of the harsh judging of others. PokéBeach is different from PokeGym, and always will be. The fact of the matter is, we're different in good and bad ways, as stated previously. I personally prefer Beach over Gym any day, but that's only because it's more organized (for the most part), and it's easier to get advice from the better members of the site than on PokeGym.

We could get into a long argument about how I'm bashing the Gym or whatever, but I'm not. I'm not bashing Beach either. I'm saying each has their bad areas, but that's a website for you. We are vastly superior in the VG aspect, and are slightly inferior in the TCG aspect. The problem is that when a good player joins Beach, they're driven away by the "infestation", if you will, or, in Layman's terms, idiots.

People are also concerned with the state of the chat room. Here's what's wrong with it (and what's wrong with most of the forums): enforcement. There was a certain member who I myself like and am only using as an example because he's the best one, Rory, who had sort of, shall we say, trolled the chat. This went on for a year. The mods kept bringing him back. This happens for many of the other members who troll. They come back. I don't know why, and this doesn't have to be addressed, and I'm not saying anything bad about Rory or the mods, but I'm saying that there should be no exceptions to who gets banned if they broke the rules. Chat or forums.

SO, to sum it all up


  • Make warnings more severe
    NO MORE STAFF GROUPS. PM a strat or cheetor or whoever is appointed to the position your article and they can maybe correct it in a few areas or just decline it if it's that bad.
    Deck Garage needs more moderation
    Beach > Gym
    Enforcement in the chat

*waits for someone to bash my post*
 
Galefail said:
[warning, long post]

The biggest problem I see with PokeBeach is... the warning system. Someone comes in and spams a thread, and what, they get a 20% warning? I talked with a few staff members about this and they agree that the warnings are much too low. "Too loose with the leash" is the phrase I'm looking for. If they get a 20% warning for spamming, they can spam 5 times at LEAST before the moderators actually see it. In my opinion, I think the warning system should look like


  • Spamming - 40%
    Flaming - 60%
    Reviving Dead Threads - 30%
and so on.

As for the TCG aspect of the site, I think it's almost beyond repair. To be honest, the fact that there hasn't been a strategist article in 6 months says a lot. I'm not pointing fingers, because I agree with esperante, he is the only active TCG strategist (at least, the only one I see posting). I propose we scrap the current strats (the TCG ones) except the active ones (one >_<) and maybe, oh, I don't know, actually give other members a shot at becoming a strat? Ones who are on often? And actually care about the site? Member articles on the main site are also a good idea, at least until the strategist program is 'fixed'. WPM said he would post them, but I think he was just trying to calm everyone down. I understand he's busy, but... I wouldn't make promises I couldn't keep.

NO. MORE. STAFF. GROUPS. We don't need a special group to write articles. We have (had) that already - the strats. I mean, seriously, why do you think the Clan Council and TCG Rules Masters were cut? We don't need "Master Article Writers" or whatever. Here's what I'm thinking: before the article is posted, they send it to, oh, I don't know, a strategist or cheetor or whoever is in a position of power and knows a fair amount about the TCG, and wait for their approval. This way, there's less bad articles in the forum, and less staff groups. It's also much more organized and professional this way.

The Deck Garage is fine. Everyone who bashes people there seem to be forgetting that there are some that ARE new to this game. You were once, too, I'm sure. It could use some more moderation because I still see horrible posts such as "LOL -NRGY +CLAYDO!L!QASX *RICKROLL LINK* KTHNX" ._.

As for comparing PokéBeach to Pokegym, there is no comparison. PokéBeach has a friendlier atmosphere, while the Gym is obviously meant for much more competitive players. Do you see Gino Lombardi or Ness making an account on PokéBeach? While the Beach definitely has worse members, the good members are great people who do great things. I'm not saying the Gym doesn't have great members, too, but many feel uncomfortable there because of the harsh judging of others. PokéBeach is different from PokeGym, and always will be. The fact of the matter is, we're different in good and bad ways, as stated previously. I personally prefer Beach over Gym any day, but that's only because it's more organized (for the most part), and it's easier to get advice from the better members of the site than on PokeGym.

We could get into a long argument about how I'm bashing the Gym or whatever, but I'm not. I'm not bashing Beach either. I'm saying each has their bad areas, but that's a website for you. We are vastly superior in the VG aspect, and are slightly inferior in the TCG aspect. The problem is that when a good player joins Beach, they're driven away by the "infestation", if you will, or, in Layman's terms, idiots.

People are also concerned with the state of the chat room. Here's what's wrong with it (and what's wrong with most of the forums): enforcement. There was a certain member who I myself like and am only using as an example because he's the best one, Rory, who had sort of, shall we say, trolled the chat. This went on for a year. The mods kept bringing him back. This happens for many of the other members who troll. They come back. I don't know why, and this doesn't have to be addressed, and I'm not saying anything bad about Rory or the mods, but I'm saying that there should be no exceptions to who gets banned if they broke the rules. Chat or forums.

SO, to sum it all up


  • Make warnings more severe
    NO MORE STAFF GROUPS. PM a strat or cheetor or whoever is appointed to the position your article and they can maybe correct it in a few areas or just decline it if it's that bad.
    Deck Garage needs more moderation
    Beach > Gym
    Enforcement in the chat

*waits for someone to bash my post*
Click to expand...

Welcome back Chris.


Anyways, I agree partially with you on your view with warnings. I completely agree with you on flaming, but certain warnings can happen based on mistakes. Sometimes, I'll accidentily post in a dead thread, and delete it a sec. later when I relize my mistake. If a mod saw that, That would set me at a painful 30%. I think penalties that were fully intentional should be cracked down on, and that is OK because intentional penalties are caused by people who want to cause trouble, but things that even Veteran members could accidentily commit shouldn't be as harsh.
 
^ thanks :3 And if you explain to the mod who warned you that the post was deleted after you realized your error, I'm sure the warning would be lifted.

I just want the site to be clean. Not too loose, but not too harsh. After spamming 3 times, I think that this person shouldn't be allowed to post again until they've learned their lesson with a temp ban.
 
Galefail said:
^ thanks :3 And if you explain to the mod who warned you that the post was deleted after you realized your error, I'm sure the warning would be lifted.

I just want the site to be clean. Not too loose, but not too harsh. After spamming 3 times, I think that this person shouldn't be allowed to post again until they've learned their lesson with a temp ban.
Click to expand...

I also think that permabans should be given out VERY hesitantly. When I first joined, I set the record for fastest temp banned (according to staff sources), and had been temp banned 70-80% of my first month on the beach (according to memory). I remember being so excited one day. My ban was finnaly gone! I had made a post, and it said I wasn't aloud to post. I checked, and I was banned again :(. I personally think I've come far from those days. I think that people who commit careless penalties should be giiven flexibility, while troublemakers should be convicted.
 
You people really need to let go of the tight neck choke hold you are putting some of the strategists in. :/ As you know we have an Article Submissions Category for BOTH the TCG and Video Games. Both of them have grown little and have been put to a hold for the time being. The reason for the Video Games from what I heard is that all the articles that have been finished as Dmaster mentioned haven't showed up yet, that reason being because of the html coding not being put on and WPM's busy schedule he can't get this stuff up. I am guessing the same issue exists for the TCG section, but I could be mistaken.

Anyhow just cut back, things happen when they happen. You cannot control the speed of things, and the staff have lives outside of pokebeach and are just as busy individuals as you or I. But some people I know on this site this is basically there home, they don;t have a life or at least not much of one. I know many of the staff work hard to attend to there duties, both here and in real life. But this load can certainly run an overflow in the dryer. Sometimes it is to big of a task for a single person to work on by themselves but with the split time zones, and free time this is just not an idea we can work on right now.

We already get news ahead of schedule and that is probably harder then it seems. The coding for things such as the articles can be tough especially considering the fact that we would need new "site pages" for the site for every nock and crannie in the articles. Such as Pokemon Pages, Moves, Types, etc. every little bit. We have to remember those things and how much time they consume of other peoples lives. So just sit back and relax, things will come, when they come.
 
esperante said:
You people don't get it, do you? The reason there are no TCG strategist articles is because I AM THE ONLY ACTIVE TCG STRATEGIST. You really can't blame me for the fact that 90% of the staff are geared towards the video games, and on top of that, even when the strategist group was ONLY tcg based, the articles that we completed were never posted anywhere and criticized on things that the people writing the articles understood considerably better than the people who were criticizing them.

So don't make accusations in your ignorance. -_-
Click to expand...

Ignorance? Dude, I've on this site long enough. I've seen strat programs fail over and over again. Though I don't blame you, I can see the situation but the thing is, if that's the problem then why don't you ask your leader to get you members who are ACTIVE enough to help then? That way we won't keep on calling the TCG strats as "people who do jack squat" Also, I'm repeating this, WPM go get someone who can post the articles on the main page on a weekly basis. A ton of articles in this forum are good enough.

@Gliscor: Here is the big difference of VG and TCG strats

VG Strats
-Eight Members who aren't mods (around 3-4 of the mods are also VG strats) Two are inactive
-Canalave Library already is loaded with articles that just need to be polished and they're good to go.
-Their leader is actually being competent.

TCG Strats
-Four Members and only esperante is active
-I haven't seen the Strat hidden forum so I won't know how many stocked articles are there but since esperante can't be a one-man team and he surely has a life as well, I don't know if it will sum to plenty.
-Their leader basically hires inactive people
 
Galefail said:
^ thanks :3 And if you explain to the mod who warned you that the post was deleted after you realized your error, I'm sure the warning would be lifted.And I did that with Cheetor, but he still warned me, AFTER I DELETED IT

I just want the site to be clean. Not too loose, but not too harsh. After spamming 3 times, I think that this person shouldn't be allowed to post again until they've learned their lesson with a temp ban.
Click to expand...

Well, I agree with Galefail, wb btw.
 
Sorry I haven't posted here; I came down with strep.

So what I'm getting here (if a mod/WPM ever posts) is that we need this:
-Someone who can post on the main page and can put the articles in the right coding.
-More mods who are active in the TCG section and can help write articles.
-More TCG strategists and the chosen ones should be active.
-Remove inactive strats.

Also, I think it would be a good idea if the TCG Articles section had as much emphasis as the VGs ones. As a new member, I'm pretty sure it took me about two months to discover that sub-forum. I think it would be good if it got moved out of General TCG Discussion and had its own Forum. This would also open up the option of having the same system the VGs has. Post an article, have the writers fix it up, move it to a sub-forum.

I know WPM and the mods are busy, but that doesn't mean there isn't someone else who isn't busy (nobody comes to mind lol, but I'm sure there's someone). They could make these articles have a purpose and stuff.
 
Hmm I agree on the strats not doing there job.

I think the whole site needs to be redone but the super mods(those are the smart ones). Take everyone that has something besides a member bar and redo it. They should put people who go on tons as the new strats and things like that or people at 1,000 posts over should have something done to them. We also need some offcial rules like they have on gym. That might help.

Ovrall the site is in deep need of repair it would take a month to do it but when it does happen then we will be better than GYM hopefully.
 
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