Questions and Answers - Ask the Admins

Lately, and particularly in this issue, there has been a load of questions that seem to miss the point of Ask the Admins. That's why, for this issue, we will try to outline the purpose, and elaborate on some questions we normally would not answer, to get this across.

For this, let's take the very first post about Ask the Admins. It was made by Aeolus in a private forum.

I've been told over and over that the admins are out of touch with the community. Since The Smog is supposed to be closer to the individual users, soliciting their participation, etc... then I thought I'd suggest an article series here titled: "Ask the Admins".

Users would be welcome to submit questions regarding the site or whatever else they wanted, and a member of the administration would select the best questions and write up answers to them. I haven't talked to the others, so I'll obviously volunteer to do them, at least for now.

I think this might be an interesting way for the community at large to connect with the upper levels of this organization... because as of now, there is no mechanism for them to do that. Thoughts, comments, suggestions, and concerns are welcome.

The bolded part is what it's all about: a connection between the large userbase and the small administrative core of Smogon. It was made to shorten the distance, and to give the public a better insight on what we do, and how we do it.

During the very first attempt at this, there was already disappointing question quality. We hope we can improve that with this article. —Mekkah

My personal favorite is Circus Maximus, because, while I do not play Pokémon as much anymore, I do really enjoy games.

This question is a very typical example of what I outlined in the introduction. You could hit almost any of us up on IRC, and if we feel like talking about what forums we like, or our lives, or something Pokémon related, then we probably will. —Mekkah

Just like nearly everyone else: I played the cart, then sometime I found more of Pokémon on the internet. Something like GameFAQs or IGN often ends up being the start of a connection all the way to the Smogon community over the years.

Again, you could just ask people on IRC. Or even better, you could do a search through this thread, or any of those linked in it, to find out the answer to this question for about anyone who checks the forums. —Mekkah

Not only could this question be asked via another medium, but you could ask almost anyone who has been around for a while. Heck, checking Wikipedia would give you an answer so much earlier!—Mekkah

Every period where we're working on an issue, there's a sticky that tells you exactly what to do if you have an idea for an article you would like to write, or would like to have written. What makes it a good idea to instead submit this idea in a different sticky? —Mekkah

While this may not necessarily be the sort of question "Ask the Admins" was designed for... I'd be happy to answer. In the past, certain admins have met in real life. I personally met skarm (a former admin) in Chicago during JAA and we had a great time. The point is, however, that the necessity of a real life meeting to actually "get to know" someone diminishes to almost zero for our purposes since many of us have known each other for years and years online. I've spoken on the phone, via text, and other means with other admins on this site... and I think I know them reasonably well and certainly well enough to cooperate together to administer this great site we've all come to love. —Aeolus

It means you're a fucking idiot.—chaos

We got there first! As childish as it sounds, that's how it is: many of our members pioneered competitive Pokémon, and right now, we're pioneering several aspects of it: analyzing, discussing, and even simulating. The fact that our Suspect Test results seem to impact other communities to a great extent, even though they have the choice to ignore the results and play under their own rules, is a testament to the magnitude of Smogon. —Mekkah

Smogon is on the right track towards where I'd want it to be: a site, system, and community that rewards contributions that make it improve, whether it's about the discussion, the analysis, the simulation, or just the community itself. My main gripe with Smogon nowadays is that there seems to be quite a bit of segregation, both in the userbase and in the different "hard" aspects of it. There's Shoddy Battle, there's the forums, there's the website, and there's IRC. I wish those could be closer together, and I know that's what several of the other admins have in mind as well. —Mekkah

It will be much like Generation 4. There will be a new subforum, with a lot of discussion and speculation on that tiny bit of new info that's revealed every x days. I hope it is called Uncharted Territory again, as that's what Stark Mountain used to be. There might be a lot of old-timers returning to try their hands at the new generation, and obviously there will be a lot of new people as well. The start of a new metagame is always the most exciting part, in my opinion. —Mekkah

Can't stress it enough: use the Battling 101 Program! The tutors are encouraged, almost obligated, to integrate the tutees. Another way would be to visit the Contributions & Corrections forum. There's often a lot of grunt work lying around that has to be done, and can be done even if you know little of Smogon or competitive Pokémon. —Mekkah