With the Gears Set in Motion

[meeker]

Oh dear. I'm going to have to start the beginner's group from scratch, aren't I?

Although I have been a wee bit less than active over the extended past, I've still been poking my head in every now and then to check in on any members wishing to join the beginner's group. I unfortunately hadn't been checking on the forum itself, however. Today I checked out front page and was startled to find three new articles up. It was after this that I proceeded to check up on the rest of the forum. I was surprised to see that within the past week or so, a surge of energy had swept through the forum. You had been hanging onto the edge for so long, and it was in this moment that you stood up and said that you would not pass quietly. Instead, you yell out that you will bring Poke farm back to the good-ol' days, if not better. Something hit me that brought me out of my own self-absorption. I stand here, now, to add my piece to this currently unraveling story.

You've taken the first step in bringing the forum back - announcing your desire of renewing the forum. Now I believe we need to explain what we want from the revived forum. If I might, I suggest that we compile a list of what we remember from the forum's heyday that we really enjoyed as both new and old members.

These are the things that left me feeling good after spending time on Poke farm.
- reading a good fan-fiction
- helping a new member one-on-one
- finding amusing posts in the game section
- enjoying fusion sprites people made
- a philosophical blog post
- a blog post with nothing much to say, but saying it well
- farm events with a good story / knowing that a farmer has put in effort into an event
- trading with a local farmer whose project I wasn't too interested in obtaining, but doing so none-the-less to give them some confidence
- those icon contests
- the knowledge that battles were going on, whether I got to be a part of them or not
- giving someone positive reputation for an act of kindness
- knowing someone was close to filling up their 'dex and helping them out with a trade here and there
[Please feel free to add to this list]


Now what we need to do is come up with a plan on how we can achieve this. Last time we did this, it worked for a bit, then ultimately broke down. From my research into our past incident, I've come to the conclusion that this was due to a lack of cohesion between the working members. I propose that we do as the pokefarm forum itself does. The forum works as a functional machine because it is broken down to bits and parts, each performing a proper function. For example, we have our 'Forum Announcements and Feedbacks', 'Pokemon League', 'Forum Farms', 'Trades', the whole shebang. If we broke ourselves into teams focused on a given area, things might perform better. I know my idea's really vague at the moment, but it would work something like this: we would have a few members attempting to keep a certain area alive, such as farm events. You could have four or so members working together on this. Assuming we have roughly a four/five week month. During the time before the new month comes, each member could be prepping for a farm event. When the first week of the new month comes, member one releases his/her event, and begin prepping for next month's event. When the second week comes, member two releases his/her event, so on and begin prepping for next month's event. This would go on as such. With the fan art section, we could have a group of three or four members, working roughly two days a week. During the days before they present any action, each artist will be able to take requests or work on any piece of their choice. Day one, member one would present what they have, then continue taking requests. Day two, member two would present what they have, then continue taking requests, so on and so forth, starting over with member one once all members have presented the first day. With battles we could have any number of members participating here. Members could take turns offering a challenge to anyone who desires one. Think of it as a 'Battle-so-and-so-Trainer-day'. What I think would work best to promote our site in this respect would be posting our battles on youtube, and narrating them, perhaps. If neither battler is able to record/narrate, the code for the battle could be posted, and a member who is capable of doing so could try their hands at it. (If needed, I could try contacting an old comrade of mine who was a member of this site at an earlier time who narrated at one point - rj61. We could even try our luck with asking good ol' Paiopa.)

What I'm trying to say is that I'm recognizing that time has dealt us all less than pleasurable hands and that we have less of it because of life beyond the screen. My strategy in this work plan is to get people to feel less restrained by time because they have other members to work with. I know it isn't the perfect system, and members would feel constrained by what they have the ability to do around the site, but I believe that having the forum constantly active is our best bet at bringing in new members. We can always have members switch off from groups to give them more freedom. Members can always do more than one area, so long as they place their committed section first. Sections that are easy for anyone to partake in, everyone should partake in - like the game section. A simple post sets the game back in motion.

This is only an idea of something that might work. Do I know if it will work in practice? Of course not. That's why I want to hear from the rest of you. What action can we take to make sure we don't fall back into hibernation?

Seems like it's really time to roll up the old sleeves and get down to business. There is serious work to get done here. Announce what you want. Propose a means to achieve that end. Test it out. Revise your means as needed. Keep making things better.

What we need to do is acknowledge our individual limits and ask for help from other members. This is NOT a one man job. If we can work together, we can surely bring this forum back from the depths.

[BugCatcher6]

The basic need is to stay active. Like you said, no one person can do it all. I think we started slowing down people tried to get into too much.

I don't think starting the gyms back up right away would be smart. Starting leagues or a few tournaments to get things is motion.

Farming, we got flooded with events. There were like events every day and we were reproducing Pokés that were done just a month or maybe even a week previous.

I think we could have a big draw in our arts. Like stories, drawing, and even Create-A-Poké.

I want to look over some of the guides and see what needs updating. The guide I wrote on breeding is severely outdated.

Putting a spin on things is good as well. I know Steve was talking about taking Pokémon bred by farmers and beating a select game. I think we could do that with tournaments or special challenges.


I do think a makeover is needed. Going through each section and looking at the sticky threads to see what is outdated, might be worth the time.

[Bobreeder]

Going through each section and looking at the sticky threads to see what is outdated, might be worth the time.

I know my guide to building teams definitely could use some Gen V updates.. I'll try to get to that one of these days.

I like your ideas, meeker, as it is though I can't take upon me responsibility for any section requiring the game or artistic abilities. That limits my usefulness in this scheme a lot I guess.

[pokemonpal7]

TEXT WALL!!!

I completely agree. Plus, to make some points on what BugCatcher said, I know the point of the forum is farming, but maybe a restriction should be put into place on the breeding section. For example, a judge, or maybe a couple of judges could be chosen to choose which events would be allowed to be posted, by judging how good the event is.

On the art, I have a Nuzlocke waiting to be comickized, so I might start that, although it'll probably only be as good as when Nuzlocke himself first started.

[TheNinjaPhoenix]

Id we're going to need to work as teams and control forums and get them up and running again, may I suggest making moderators or admins for each forum again?

I mean, we have areas which inevtiably won't be as busy, but if we have people who can sort through things/lock threads in said areas and so on, it'll make life WAAAAAY easier.

[TheMonsterAtlas]

I was actually planning to put up a Pixel Art Contest as well as write a new Fanfic. I was planning to write it up with Vott, but he is being a butt :P

[Jats605]

but maybe a restriction should be put into place on the breeding section. For example, a judge, or maybe a couple of judges could be chosen to choose which events would be allowed to be posted, by judging how good the event is.

I would be fine with this.
Promotes quality.

I may be able to whip up some fan-fics.
I'll see what I can do.

[Sorgatani]

Encourage quality without restriction - my first 'Tani's Treasures' event was incredibly badly organized.
I didn't know how to IV breed at the time, but the movesets were inventive at least.

It was a learning curve.

You can let people know where to find the breeding guides, but you can't make them read.

Perhaps offering Peer Reviews would be a better method than 'post your potential event here and we'll decide if it's good enough'. Not only do I not wish to alienate a newer farmer, I also know that I like to keep my events quiet-ish until I post them, and I see no reason why others would not as well.

I did appreciate feedback though, and have always been happy to offer feedback or advice to others when they ask.

Farming isn't just for those of us with Subforums!

[TheNinjaPhoenix]

We have a huge section of the farm with games, other game talk, fiction/art, all in one big block. May I suggest we divide this block?

Games, Fiction and Art in one section, etc, and other things in other places.

[Jats605]

Encourage quality without restriction - my first 'Tani's Treasures' event was incredibly badly organized.
I didn't know how to IV breed at the time, but the movesets were inventive at least.

It was a learning curve.

You can let people know where to find the breeding guides, but you can't make them read.

Perhaps offering Peer Reviews would be a better method than 'post your potential event here and we'll decide if it's good enough'. Not only do I not wish to alienate a newer farmer, I also know that I like to keep my events quiet-ish until I post them, and I see no reason why others would not as well.

I did appreciate feedback though, and have always been happy to offer feedback or advice to others when they ask.

Farming isn't just for those of us with Subforums!

The review could easily be a PM, and suggestions could be offered.

We could also have a tiering system as far as events;
Good movepools only could be Beginner
Movepools + Nature could be Novice
The above + one IV could be Veteran
Multiple IV's could be Master
with one Veteran or Master (or the best of each category) event featured in the Pokéfarm Press.