So what if we make a temp trade thread that's exclusively for our team. We wouldn't be able to link it into this post instead would we? Going with we can't link it would we be able to replace or add in that we have a link to this trade thread in our signature/about me wherever we decide to post it? Also as this would be a trade thread exclusively for our team mates for the race only would we be able to give away any pokemon we wanted, loan anything we think benefits the team in our eyes like things besides the "shelter pass and pairs" that you have listed in the tr rules? Like would excluding 95% of the rest of the site from this temp trade thread be an issue with the rules? As this thread would be open to all to see and post in and many people don't read (even after reading people ignore things) I am sure someone will come popping into a trade thread wanting something who is not on the same team and will have to be told to go somewhere else as this thread is only for your teammates. Just wanting more clarity on what can and can't be done so those of us who lead and want to lead teams can have the best understanding possible to know what to report and what not to. Also so that we as players know what we can clearly do and not do. Not everyone wants to deal with a ton of PMS because of the tr so that is why I also want to know about a temp trade thread.

I am downright confused by the wording here, to be completely honest, sorry. Begging is listed as approaching other players in any way with the intention of getting something for free, but is allowed if the other player is offering it first, or if you put it in a place where everyone can see it instead. Okay, I guess. All of us have issues with that, about 7 pages here explain why, but that isn't the point here. You can't "beg," you can only offer free stuff if it's within the very specific parameters that are set (must be for pairs or shelter passes, another point with overwhelmingly negative responses but again, not the point), and you can't make posts on the thread about the free things, but you can make posts about BORROWING the free things? Am I understanding that? And requesting to buy something in your initial post, even if the transactions are dealt with in PMs, would that be considered trading and not allowed, same as the aforementioned parameters? So, this still would be begging? It has not been answered and I have the same worry. I also want to echo a previous concern again that also has not been addressed: what, explicitly, can we talk about on the type race threads? Type races feel overwhelmingly like a solo endeavour to me. There is no "team" involved, I have no sway whatsoever beyond my initial post. All I feel like I can do is just hatch my eggs for my own bonus and nothing else. I'm sure others have the same feeling. With getting so many PMs about what I am doing wrong that I wasn't aware of despite reading every dang set of rules I could find, I'd prefer to get a straight answer of some sort.

I have to second Seshielover here. The offered solution could potentially work, but like the quoted part of the post points out, it's just more efficient to just ask instead of having to go through everyone's posts and fields to see if they have anything you're looking for. The reason that people don't just PM others instead of posting in the thread is not only that unsolicited PMs are not always welcome, but that it is also easier to say "hey, I'm looking for [x]" and let people who are hunting the thing you need come to you instead of having to seek them out and potentially bother them. (Even if they have free fields, PMing often causes anxiety for some people.) Plus, if someone is trying to get pairs, and therefore looking for multiple OTs, they have to PM multiple people, whereas one post in the team thread can get multiple responses without sending a bunch of messages to different people, risking seeming spammy. Just the idea of this being considered begging in the first place rubs me the wrong way to be quite honest... And based on the responses, I think that is the biggest issue with regard to this PSA. I am aware that the official rule is: People seem to have a problem with the rule as a whole, because it lacks nuance. There is a huge difference between people asking for free shinies/hunting materials/etc. and asking not only for regular pokemon that are going to be released anyway, but putting it out there as a request to a group of people that can be ignored if someone doesn't have any to spare. At least in my mind:

• PMing someone out of the blue, asking for their hunt extras when they haven't offered them, especially if unrelated to TR: Begging.
• Making a forum post in type race forums, mentioning that they're trying to make a breeding pair and that they're looking for hunt extras to make one: Not begging.

Why? The main reason, from my POV, is that one of them is a one on one interaction with a person that potentially puts them into an awkward situation if they say no, which is a big part of the discomfort of someone begging you for something. A post in the TR forum, on the other hand, is a blanket request, usually used to help the team earn points. It isn't singling out any particular person, and as far as I've seen when people request hunt extras, it's not someone going in with an expectation of getting anything. It's completely optional whether or not anyone chooses to respond. Often people do! Posting like that in a TR forum seems to follow the same rules as why you're allowed to "beg" in your TC, about me, or signature: it isn't singling anyone out, it is a request people choose to respond to if they're feeling generous. Which is exactly why it seems illogical to me that it's okay in a signature, which shows up on every forum post anyway, but not an actual post. Honestly, if the reason were that it's seen as spammy, I'd get it. I wouldn't want the TR thread to be bombarded with trade posts that could easily be done in PMs either. But it being seen as begging and against the rules when it isn't against the rules to do that exact thing in your signature? Ehhhh. Personally that comes off as an arbitrary line being drawn between the two, when they aren't very different at all.

For something that's supposed to be such a fun, cooperative, team based event, it seems to be very headache inducing and causing so much confusion. I think that in and of itself is definitely a big problem, and all the posts before mine is clearly stating such. I've just recently returned around a month ago, and this is the first time I've actively participated in a TR thread. I already suffer from a lot of anxiety and triple and quadruple, and maybe even more, check the rules just to be certain I won't get into trouble or anything. To just find out that basically a lot of us are rule breaking and it's the must mundane things that doesn't...seem like it should. I feel like we're conducting business and the like over just taking part in a fun, community event. It really makes me not want to participate in future threads because it just seems so restrictive. As others have asked...what are we supposed to use the threads for then? As I've just returned and seeing what's new and planned, Niet clearly has a vision for helping each other and being a community, because of all the things being implemented so that we talk and trade and such with people more and click others opposed to sitting in our own corners and doing things ourselves. And then we get to a fun, community event to find out there's just so many restrictions and rules. It's just...kinda tiring and unclear. I've been reading this thread as responses come in and the like, and as rude as it may sound and I'm sorry if it does, I can't help but just roll my eyes at how ridiculous this seems. Like if I have to put in so much effort just be sure I'm being helpful without breaking rules or anything, it's just gonna make me not do anything at all. The rules definitely need to be a lot more clear.

I agree wholeheartedly. I was honestly under the impression that Begging was against the rules because it pressures people and pressuring people is incredibly rude. That is what I thought. If I read someone in a Type Race thread mentioning, "hey I'm looking for spares of [mon that matches Type Race team] of [preferred nature] so if anyone comes across any and wants to send them I'd really appreciate it" that is quite literally just... stating that you might be looking for something specific for Type Race that imo is not at all pressuring. In fact, I personally am someone who loves helping people with this! In fact sometimes I will quite literally offer to make breeding pairs for people on my team if they're struggling to find a pair or someone to lend them that pair. I actually like helping people during a collaborative event. And sometimes I forget to make that offer in my team thread, and even when I do some people might not need a whole pair and might just be looking for spare mons to make the pair themself, some people may not want to PM for whatever reason, etc. And in that case, how would I ever know that I could send someone a mon that will help them if they're not allowed to ever ask? heck sometimes I myself put in a "hey I'm trying to put together a [nature pref] pair of [this mon I might hunt later], so if anyone has any extras I'd appreciate if you consider me and if I come up with extra pairs from these, I'd be willing to give them out to other team members to keep!" As it stands, at this point, unless I'm leading the thread, I only ever post in my team thread to get myself on the click list, tell people if i run out of adopts for the day and can offer my pass, hatch a melan, or if I have a surplus of specials left over I make my one allotted post offering to my team that they can PM me for a single special. For a collaborative team event, I hardly actually "interact" with my team (with "interact" in quotes as of course I interact in the sense that a click in gameplay is an interaction, but in terms of TR team community, I hardly ever do). Collaboration is in my opinion, the very spirit of type race. The restrictions make it hard to make that happen.

I like the idea mentioned here of having a TR specific Trade Subforum. It would make it so any trades are "in the correct place", while also having the visibility aspect that we currently get from posting in the main TR thread. (Even if we apparently aren't supposed to have the ease of interaction.) Also because PMs give me all the anxiety and I know it's like that for a lot of other people too. These TR trade threads could even be made by SYSTEM! Since we wouldn't technically need to rely on the first post for everything. It'd be a lot easier to deal with team trading if it's all in once place, and so it doesn't become "clutter" in the main thread. (Some people have mentioned the issue of having non-team members asking for stuff in other team threads, but that's technically also an issue for the main threads, and solved the same way: ignore the intruder, or even report them if it becomes a bigger issue. So that's not really any more of a problem that it would be now.) Idk, I just really like the idea of a separate forum for trading, if it's such a problem to have it in the main thread. It'd be a lot easier to add a single "All trades can be done here [link to TR trade thread], so be sure to subscribe to that too!" instead of this very complicated system of linking to everyone's intro post from the 1st post.

I agree with a lot of people that these rules are getting stricter making people not want to use the forums or be worried about offering help or be generous because theres so many rules and hoops to start jumping through now making it harder to publicly be generous to others. over the years I have been on and off of pfq recently has been the most I keep getting messages I did this wrong or that wrong and it would be simple things like offering something to someone, trying to get something someone else was offering, or quoting people even. Like what are the forums turning into at this point that I feel every time I make a post I'm going to get in trouble again. I do like the idea of an additional tr trade thread category

Because of the type race for this month is soon to begin, I was just wondering if there would be a follow up to this or if everything is just set in stone for this.

is it okay if i pm someone for a pair?