Single post in PSA: Type Race threads are NOT for trading.

just gonna throw my two cents into the ring here as a host - i think the trade rule needs to be reworded, even if you just remove the word "unrelated" from the title or add some extra clarification. there are a lot of arguments to be made for what should and shouldn't be allowed as a "related" trade. for example, why is asking to buy type-matching summon items one time considered unrelated, even if people have to pm to take that offer up? not selling them to other players? i made this mistake due to thinking that summons wouldn't count as an unrelated trade. obviously things like gems, rte mons, shiny charms etc do not benefit the team as a whole - only one person - so i see why they're disallowed. but summons help the team as a whole get more points. as skiddo said, things like egg supplier passes, and other things like the red gigaremo, help the team as a whole get more points. i'm also the type of person that needs everything spelled out exactly for me or i will make mistakes like this and i'm sure i'm not the only one. even if these things are not planned on being allowed, making a definitive list of what is and isn't allowed in a hidebox in the main type race rules thread might be a good idea.

I kind of understand where you're coming from, but it kind of feels against the spirit and the culture of this site and the type race to restrict that kind of trade. Helping your team members with pairs is not fully altruistic in the context of the type race: a person with a good pair for a Pokemon they really want to hunt is more likely to earn more points, and thus contribute more to the team goal. The trade forum is massively inefficient in comparison. I like helping my team members build pairs, again because it's nice and it's easy and because it also benefits me, but I'm really not willing to scroll pages and pages in the trade forum looking for my teammates who are trying to get pairs ahead of the race. I think the shiny giveaways and special hatching announcements are way more spammy and less helpful than this kind of trading. My point here isn't that those should be banned, it's just that different people have different goals and opinions on the type race thread, and what's spam to one is cool or helpful to another. Trying to restrict it so strictly just feels kind of disheartening, I'm too worried about what's "allowed" vs having fun in a team activity.

I understand not wanting to clutter up team threads but I agree this rule feels very restrictive and against the spirit of type race. We are all supposed to work together and that sometimes means needing to do trades that aren't strictly loaned breeding pairs or shelter passes. Can our team leaders make a trade post where members of that team can post replies with what they have for trade? And then team leaders can have it linked in our team thread just as the raffle posts are? This would keep the main team post less "cluttered" but would still give us a space to make trades and with less restrictive rules needed. Is something like that within the rules or could a type race trading category be added as others have mentioned?

I don't participate in type race threads much anymore for personal reasons but are we saying that team members asking for help with breeding pairs or the likes is "begging"? That's really gross, imo, if that's the attitude we're going with. If someone's spamming a thread, I get it. But I view it rather unfair to consider one hand comments or asks for help as "begging".