We Are All Pokemon Trainers Discussion

silent on robots

Since it was a suggestion I made that triggered this discussion in the first place, I just wanna say a few things:

-I view the Porygon robot bodies as Porygon first and foremost. They're simply an extension of Porygon's natural ability to manipulate electronic devices.

-The spy PRBs are not going to be any more strong or durable than humans. They were built to be convincingly human in appearance and behaviour, not to be superpowered combat machines. If anything, they'd have to be very careful with anything physical they do; damage that should cause bleeding instead sending up a shower of sparks and exposing circuitry beneath the skin is... going to stick out, shall we say. In a combat situation, they would simply emerge from their bodies and engage opponents in their natural Porygon forms, which happens to possibly deal with concerns about the focus being taken off Pokemon on Pokemon battling.

-Since a Discord DM conversation said it could be important to point out, I'll repeat it here - the links these PRBs have to Rossum and Asimov are no more than tangential. They were likely reverse engineered from Rossum and/or Asimov models, but the actual connection to either of Silence's robot-loving teams is minimal at best and they have no contact at all with Rossum or Asimov-affiliated Porygon.

Silent pretty much says everything that I was thinking on the subject. I never wanted a total moratium, I just have been increasingly more offput by how recent examples have been executed. Which brings me to something I need to get out:

I very strongly am against the Rossum plot, and Rossum as an organization existing at all. From everything that has been said about it, it exists in explicit contradiction of... like, every one of those points, most importantly the "Pokemon first and foremost" one. An organization trying to abandon the need for Pokemon, that creates AI specifically for the express purpose of subverting the purpose of Pokemon... shouldn't be a thing at all, much less a major threat. There's only so much Out Of Context Villainy that is okay.

IT'S HAPPENING

IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING

HEROES AFTER ALL IS FINALLY A THING

OH MY GO-

-ahem-

Yes, after four hecking years of development hell, my WAAPT-and-Yangverse baby of a fic is finally live with its first chapter. Here's where you guys can read it.

Serebii

FFNet

Ao3

Cave Of Dragonflies

Tumblr

Second Forum

(You may notice there is no difference between the editions... yet. As with an actual Pokemon versions they become more apparent as the plot progresses.)

On another note, now the Alliplot/Yangverse plot is over I am taking another "break". For bad and good reasons:

• Bad reasons are that lately I have been bombarded with bad feels from feeling inadequate, unappreciated/unwanted, and paranoid, to just plain old anxious, depressed, and overwhelmed, and I need some space.

• Good reasons are I've got video games to play, shows to finally watch, fic to write, a secret RP project to develop, and the WAAPT + Rabbids plot to research and plan. (Also school. That's important too.)

Nevertheless I will stil be participating in the following RP plots:

• A Unanigans with Team Locke

• The Companions Plot

• The Hyul Finale

• Ultra Shenanigans with Pippi

• Maggie's Interrogation

• Maaabye Weed Team stuff with Tagg and Channah™️

• Silly (and less silly) fanfic mode posts with my chars

Same deal as before, don't expect me much in the main chat (and don't ping me there) but I can be reached in other chats and Discord and Pidgin DMs. I'll probably be back... When I'm done researching the Rabbids plot. These things tend to be shorter than I expect them to be so I should be back in the swing of things soon after that.

edited 2nd Feb '18 4:42:10 PM by Umbramatic

Also happy 7th anniversary WAAPT!

edited 7th Feb '18 1:39:22 PM by Umbramatic

May as well say it: I'm thinking of retiring.

I don't want to, of course-I've been here for five years, and I hate thinking about leaving, or stopping whatever things I'm writing. But...well, I just feel like I lack the drive I used to have, and there's so many things sucking up the oxygen and making me feel like I'm lost among everything else.

Not sure why I'm making this, but I figured I oughta say.

As Someone who only pops into the rp once a year or so- don’t be afraid to take a break. Even if it turns into you being effectively retired, this is a chill enough group that no one minds if you hop back in after a while.

Yeah, no worries, the Discord and RP will be around later if/when you feel like coming back or just hanging out. So enjoy your vacation/retirement! =3

Yeah, pretty much what Star said; take as long as you need to recover your creative juices. It's helped me a ton before.

On another note, I posted these in the chat but should probably have them here too: the WAAPT + Rabbids arc now has player notes and a signup sheet (in addition to GM notes solely for me and the select few people helping me run the plot). If enough gets squared away soon I should be able to get things started in a week or two. However...

A. What should the party's home base be, other than somewhere in Unova? Note whatever it is will be overrun with Rabbids and Rabbid contraptions.

1. On a related note, is it OK if Unova (or at least the main areas indicated in the doc) gets messed up for a while? (No one will die or anything worse than having to deal with the Rabbids, don't worry.) Main thing I'm looking for is if there'll be anyone I need to wait on or accommodate.

edited 10th Feb '18 7:59:18 PM by Umbramatic

So yesterday I started a oneshot series on the other forum, regarding WAAPT-exclusive and adapted techniques. So far I've done:

• Soul Bite
• Rainbow Burn and related concepts (Rainbow Energy, Rainbow Shower, Rainbow Float — all imported from the TCG, and most associated with Flygon)

Thoughts, those who haven't seen them both?

"A better descriptor might have been "Rainbow Dash", but I cannot use that as its name for copyright reasons."

In all seriousness, it reads good to me!

InB4 Spectrum creates a move called "Sonic Rainboom".

Okay so we've been having discussions about the nature of the codewords in Signups. We were originally having a mod discussion about it being kinda... eh to act like you've read the essays and it's better to ask for help if you can't find them, but another voice got brought up, that maybe it's better to do away with the password system since, well, I think everyone who commented on it in the mod chat doesn't really have problems with finding it, but we have other people who do and we don't really get how the other can/can't find it, so -shrugs-.

But yeah, point of order: should we do away with the passwords in the essay because they don't really help demonstrate knowledge of having read it or do we try and maybe make more sure people have read them? It was brought up that the signup test tests the contents of stuff more than passwords. I dunno where I stand yet, I don't necessarily disagree with anything yet so I'll let y'all decide first

I'd suggest having people summarize the Essay and what it intends in a DM to one of the mods/admins to determine if they understand it.

I think we should keep the passwords, but maybe tell people there are passwords. Those essays are pretty important for getting people to write in our style (although that's not very hard in my opinion)

edited 13th Feb '18 7:56:23 AM by Buckbuck2

I can see the arguments for both sides myself. But ultimately I feel the ultimate sign of people having read the essays is... Having a good signup. (Plus people who are non-native English speakers tend to be thrown for a loop.) Ultimately I wouldn't mind if the passwords stayed and were made more obvious, but I'd mind if we did away with them less.

Yeah, my brain just tuned them out when I read the Essays so I had to go through specifically looking for them, so...

I wouldn't mind doing away with them but would like an alternate system put in place.

Full disclosure: I have never actually read both essays in their entirety. I know their content well enough, because we've had them as a reference to go back to (and remind other people about) as necessary. It's just like any other Terms And Conditions, in that very few people retain it fully the first time through no matter how pedantic we are about getting people to skim it, and that's going for people who don't have things like e.g. ADHD or dyslexia or aren't perfectly fluent in English or any other barrier they might have.

Anything anyone does contrary to the Essays, we're perfectly capable as people of saying "hey that's against the rules, here's what the rule is, please try not to do that again" and then we go on perfectly fine. A pair of words hidden in a thing, no matter how bright and flashy we make them, don't affect whether someone understands the content.

Likewise, I feel coming up with an alternate system is... unnecessary. Again, if there's a problem with someone going contrary to the Essay, whether in the signup or afterward, we should say it directly, rather than leaving it as "figure it out yourself" (which we very much do tend to do with the codewords).

tl;dr: I say get rid of it, we're fine.

edited 13th Feb '18 8:24:48 AM by BittersweetNSour

DM summarization sounds like too big of a chore on top of the standard signup test (which I'm pretty sure we're keeping).

And yeah, when I read the essays nearly 4 years ago i totally weirdness censored the codewords out because I was focusing on the content, which is kind of a lot to take in.

Yeah, the test and self policing covers issues better than looking for silly words in an essay, but. I'm slightly in favor of keeping a codeword, just putting them at the bottom of the essay with a note that says "And here's one of the phrases you need to put on your signup sheet so we know you at least know where the essay is for future reference, good luck and have fun!".

Silent!Post

If we need a code word, I like Blitz's idea — just stick it at the bottom, where it's easily seen once you scroll all the way through.

"Include this code word, as well as the one in the other essay: ________ ________"

Still feel like it's overall unnecessary, but that's a compromise I'm all right with.

Given the comparison to a EULA, it stands to reason that it's going to function basically like one- you scroll to the bottom, click "I accept", and are then actually part of the agreement you just made- that is, if you are doing things that don't tally, you can't claim you weren't given warning.

Keeping a note at the bottom of the essays might be nice- to ensure people at least bother to look- but as the person who hid the words in there in the first place I'm pretty sure they aren't a good meterstick of much.

Given the points made so far, I am swayed that we can drop the passwords. Perhaps simply ask that they give thelinks to the essays in their signup, which is proof they had access to them.

Every's reasoning is essentially what I was thinking when I made the EULA comparison, yeah. And linking the Essays sounds like a decent way of providing Proof Of Access.

Silent!Post