Pokécheats Forum Update 0.2 Notes
Hello.
Welcome to the first Pokécheats Beta phase update thread, Patch 0.2 if you will. The purpose of this thread is to tell you guys about the changes we've done over the last few days, and to also explain what's different, how things work and why we're doing things in general. It was identified back on SS.net, that there was not a lot of communication between the Staff and the userbase about forum changes. This is something we would like to change coming out of the merge, so give us your feedback and tell us what you think!
This first update covers the new Tournament section and Tournament Proctor badge, new fancy BB codes and some changes to forum functionality.
Awesome.
Don't forget to check our Soon™ thread where you can keep up to date with the features you can expect to see implemented sometime.
Tournaments
Tournament Section
'Tournaments that never finish are back! (just like your girlfriend)'
Tournaments are a neat alternative to participate with the community; earn points; badges and undisputed bragging rights as the best Falcon main across the land.
Back on SS.net we used a tournament plugin to host tournaments with an automatic bracket and seeder. It was clunky and had many features perhaps unnecessary for our demands. For the time being while we decide what to do with the tournament plugin; our solution is a forum with restricted thread creation permissions. Here you can expect regular tournaments of your favourite games such as Smash Bros. and Pokémon. Each tournament will be created as per the rules and guidelines which you can find
here!
Tournament Proctor
'That badge UbersSuck20 has'
Creating tournaments is a privilege bestowed to unique users – Tournament Proctors. Any one can become a Tournament Proctor by purchasing access to the group through the
Market for the modest fee of 650 points. Members of this group have the power to create and moderate their own tournaments. We like the effort users put in to running previous successful tournaments, and are eager to see many of you save up your points! We also like giving users power and responsibility to create community content in an autonomous nature. Tournament Proctors are essentially 'moderators' of their tournament in creating, organising and running the whole show from sending out PM (reminders) to answering questions and updating the bracket.
It is important to remind you all that being a Tournament Proctor is a
privilege, you may have your badge and permissions revoked (with points
not refunded!) if you are inactive, fail to comply with the tournament rules or engage in heinous acts of collusion akin to MLG Summer Championship Raleigh 2012.
The first tournament is UbersSuck20's
Pokémon Showdown! OU Elimination Tournament. Go sign up if you haven't already for your chance to get in the prize pool!
Global Rules
Rule Updates
'Clarification on double accounts and piracy rules'
We've decided to change our policy on double accounts from the ancient and archaic Super Skarmory ways. We've also had questions from multiple users regarding some of our more ambiguous rules, so we're also taking this time to explain them in more depth.
Some users also couldn't find the rules, so they've been added as a sub-forum link in the Main Hub and are displayed on the index.
Here they are again!
Double Accounts
The SS.net rules featured a firm 'no double accounts' policy. For a refresher on said policy, here it is again:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Super Skarmory
6. No Multiple Accounts
There will be no registering of multiple accounts, it is that simple, you get one account, and that is it. Should you be using an Internet connection with somebody else, you need to instantly inform us so we know your IP addresses match. If you want to change your username, please us the points system. All extra accounts are instantly banned and your main account will receive a 3 day suspension.
Users have assumed this rule carried over, but much debate later during the forum downtime, we've decided otherwise. For Pokécheats is a progressive community, and so we've decided to abolish this rule. Much freedoms indeed. With great freedoms however, comes great terms of uses. You may not use an alternative account for any of the following:
- Ban evasion.
- Harass and bully other users.
- Impersonate another person.
- Break rules 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14 and 15.
So get your Janus on; make that Competitive Pokémon section only account, a dedicated account for your roleplay or a satirical persona. Just remember this isn't Anonymous Simulator 20xx. It's unnecessary to snoop with your alter-egos under proxies or VPNs to try and stay off the grid.
Piracy Policy
A lot of people have been wondering what our stance is on piracy and how this affects some controversial topics like ROM hacks and the name of the website itself. So here we go, a clarification:
Quote:
- This website DOES NOT condone piracy in any way.
- This website DOES NOT HOST or PROVIDE Warez.
- This website DOES NOT LINK to other websites that contain Warez.
- Users may NOT REQUEST or PROVIDE INFORMATION and/or LINKS to other websites that contain Warez.
- Users may NOT MENTION locations that contain Warez or torrents by name.
- This website is strictly a DISCUSSION ONLY forum.
"Warez": an internet term to describe copyrighted software, game, film, music and data piracy. This includes (but is NOT limited to): ROMs, WADs, ISOs, Apps, Cracks, e-books, magazines, illegal torrents, code, games, keygens, movies, audio, MP3s/FLACs, music videos, RIPs, Portable software, scripts, subtitles, serials/keys, templates, TV/DVD RIPs and pornography.
For more information, click
here.
Users breaching any of the above can find their accounts terminated and access permissions suspended indefinitely. Depending on the severity, information may be passed on to law enforcement as necessary.
That's the crystal clear version. So what does this mean for your ROM hacks and cheat codes?
As long as you don't do any of the above; everything else is fair game.
BB Codes
New BB Codes
'DAE Runescape 2007?'
To enhance your Pokécheats experience that much more. New BB Codes are a fun and exciting way to increase the creative capacity of posts. We've been impressed at what you guys have come up with so far!
To help you use them, Garth/Kyohack has written a guide with the new codes which you can find
here.
Mention Tagging
An interesting plugin added to Pokécheats pre-merge. Really simple to use, just put a '@' symbol before the
exact username of a user you want to name drop. Useful for those members who don't like quoting in their posts
or to bombard someone's inbox.
Banned Chatbox BB Codes
'This was really annoying'
Turns out seeing 'SONRIO IS GAY AF' in size 7, bold, glowing bright orange font scrolling sideways in the limited space of the chatbox is obnoxious.
So we disabled the following BB codes in the chatbox:
Take that toxicity to PFG...
New Forum Features
Prefixes
'Organisation!'
You can now select prefixes on thread creation in the
Super Smash Bros. forum. Easily find which game of the series you're looking for by displaying threads of a certain prefix only. Check them out!
The available prefixes are:
- [ALL]
- [64]
- [Melee]
- [Brawl]
- [Project M]
- [SSB4]
Dynamo Badge
'Pay 2 Win'
The Dynamo Badge has been added as a donor exclusive along with the other perks. Show everyone your support with this trendy badge!
Once again, thank you to all those that have donated, your support helps to maintain server costs. Donating is and always will be optional, with all funds going fully to maintaining the website.
For details on how to donate and support the website, click
here for more information.
If you have donated and not yet received your badge, please contact either @
Zachgoose or @
Kyohack.
Bugfixes
Posts in Introduce Yourself no longer count to your post count
'Okay this wasn't really a bug.'
Certain users whom shall not be named were found to be rapidly gaining post count by posting multiple idiosyncratic posts in introduction threads, dangerously close to the minimum character limit.
We found most people were just saying a variation of 'Hello' followed by memes, so we've disabled post count across the Introduce Yourself forum. Don't let this deter you from greeting new members and getting to know them, we just don't want you going full Melchior and grinding post count, that's all.
We may revert this change in the future as things progress.
A bug in the word censor has been fixed
'You know who you are.'
Certain users whom shall not be named were found to be relishing in the discovery of a bug in the word censor by ceremoniously posting cuss words in threads, in profile fields and in signatures. This bug has been fixed.
A reminder that this is a SFW PG-13 forum. Regardless if the word is censored or not, please do not use language that is profane or inappropriate for a civil atmosphere. I've noticed a lot of users' posts being caught in the word censor. Even if the censor does its job properly, consider many more, alternative SFW words in the English language.
The chatbox archive no longer lists messages in reverse chronological order
'We don't know why this happened either'
A bug allowing users to gain market points in Pointless Forum Games has been fixed
'Grinding points to ban Sonrio from the forums with the recall bug'
Despite having post count disabled, users were still gaining points for posts and threads in Pointless Forum Games. This led to some pretty crazy exploits to gain massive amounts of points in a short space of time with the Crystal Kit, so we quickly tidied this one up.