Announcement VGC Forum Rules, Resources, and Discord

[zee]

Welcome to Smogon VGC!
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This thread will serve as your guide to the Do's and Don'ts of our forum, an introduction to the staff and our roles here, and an index of helpful threads should you be looking for resources. VGC on Smogon is divided into 4 forums: the "main" forum, being the section you're taken to when you click here from the Forum List, as well as three subforums: Tournaments, Team Reports, and Past Format Discussion.

Before we get into any specific rules, take note that Smogon's Global Rules apply to all sections of the VGC forum. Seriously, a lot of the stuff that pertains to posting etiquette and other common topics can be found right here.

Main Forum / General Rules
- The main forum houses everything related to resources and general discussion, such as Viability Rankings, Metagame Discussion, Speed Tiers, and Role Compendiums. Let us know if you'd be interested in contributing new resources or helping maintain existing ones!
- If you wish to post a thread, you'll need moderator approval prior to doing so. Contact any of our forum moderators (this post or listed above) if you would like to post a thread in the main forum.
- Make sure your thread serves a tangible purpose. If you're asking about team ideas, Pokemon viability, or general quick questions should be asked in our Simple Questions, Simple Answers thread. Failure to follow this rule could lead to your thread getting deleted or potential harsher punishment for repeat offenders.
- Make sure your posts are meaningful. This is particularly common in our Viability Rankings and Metagame Discussion Threads. Posts such as "LOL why is Tapu Fini not B tier???" will be deleted swiftly. If you want something changed or you want to bring up a new topic, argue it effectively and respectfully.
- Be nice! We're all just trying to enjoy Pokemon at the end of the day :)


Tournaments Forum Rules
- This is for all of our in-house Smogon VGC tournaments like VGC Premier League, Dodrio Cup, or the Scramble! series.
- As such, threads should only be posted by tournament hosts. In signup threads, you will typically just need to post "in" to join, but do read all the information carefully before doing so to make sure.
- If the host asks for replays to be posted, please post them, not doing so could result in your win not being counted.

Team Reports Rules
- Team Reports is a place to show off your well-crafted teams and impressive tournament results! Threads in this forum do not typically require moderator approval and you have a lot of freedom when it comes to how you want to present it. It's your team after all!
- Feel free to comment on any team report, but use some common sense when it comes to commenting on old reports. If the team report is 5 years old the author hasn't logged on to Smogon in 3 years, odds are your congratulations won't mean much.

Past Format Discussion Rules
- Past Format discussion is mostly a way for us to archive our existing threads and preserve history from the older days of VGC for those who want a chance to browse. The forum has been thoroughly cleaned back to 2014, so most threads around then should have some information or history for you.
- We don't really anticipate needing a lot of "new" threads in this forum, but if you have an idea feel free to let us know.

Helpful Links
-Smogon VGC Discord Server Invitation
-Pokemon Showdown VGC Room
-VGC Damage Calculator by @nerd of now
-VGC Analyses Dex (Go here if you'd like to help work on Analyses!)
-Pikalytics
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[zee]

We are implementing a new rule going forward for all of our metagame discussion threads.

Over time there have been several complaints about the formatting of posts, for example.

Incineroar Rillaboom and Palafin is a very common FWG core.

Please do not add minisprites in the middle of posts like this. A better way to format would be:



This is a common FWG core!

This makes posts way more unreadable. You might think the pretty pictures make your posts more aesthetic but ultimately it’s too distracting to the text and message you’re trying to convey.

All posts before this message will be edited over the next few days. From now on, the first offense will be having your post deleted and a notification of why. Any following instances will result in an infraction. Please remember this going forward and let’s work on having the forum be more readable and having more meaningful discussion, thank you!