Feedback on Type Race Rules!

Hello everyone! We have been looking into how we approach enforcing certain rules in the Type Race Discussion threads. While I hope you are familiar with the recently-made Type Race Rules if you have participated in those threads, there are a few we have been considering reworking in the interest of a better Type Race experience for everyone. For this, we would like to get your feedback on a handful of rules, listed below! Please vote in the polls and use this thread to discuss your opinions!

1. "Congrats"

Currently, posts that have no content relevant to the Type Race are deleted as Spam. One of the most common instances are posts congratulating other users for hatching a special, but not saying anything else of relevance to the Type Race. We encourage the use of the thumbs-up feature to offer a silent "congrats" in these instances. A little extra clarification of what is meant by congrats posts. Would you prefer if these "congratulation" posts were allowed to stay, or would you rather these posts be deleted as Spam as they currently are and require players to use the thumbs-up feature instead?

2. "Raffle/Contest Advertisement"

(I will be simply saying "contest" for the sake of brevity, but this applies to raffles as well!) Currently, only the Type Race Discussion thread host is allowed to advertise the team's contest. Any advertisement made by any other user is treated as Spam and deleted, even by the Contest's host. If you were a Type Race Discussion thread host, would you mind if the Contest host were permitted to remind team members of the contest on a limited basis (i.e. once every 24 hours until the end of the race)? Or would you prefer things be kept as they are now?

3. "PM Special Giveaways"

Currently, the only trading talk allowed in Type Race Discussion threads are things such as breeding pairs and shelter passes, as these help your team do better. Special giveaways are removed, as they clog up Type Race Discussion threads with trading talk and do nothing to help your team do better. This applies to all giveaways, even ones done by PM, if they are advertised as such in the thread. Would you prefer if special giveaways were allowed to be conducted via PM? This would mean a user could post once that they will give out specials to any teammate that PMs them for one; any responses done in the thread will still be deleted as Spam. Or, would you rather no special giveaways be allowed to be advertised in the thread, as it is handled currently?

I don't quite understand the whole "removing congratulations" thing because... Thumbs up are anonymous, and aren't a message in themselves. Was this just a common custom I wasn't aware of? I would understand if the post was one word long but otherwise it's a show of goodwill. You are a team, after all.

for that congrats thing, i feel like you should be able to say that when people hatch melans at least. s/a can be common for people who have all / most of the boosts so i agree that could clog up the threads, but melans are much rarer and deserve some praise, in my opinion ^^

Personally, I don't mind the congratulations posts. I know it doesn't directly tie into the type race, but the specials are usually the type for the race the person is involved in. I think both the type race thread host and the raffle host should be able to advertise the raffle, but they should both have a time limit for where they can post I think no special giveaways should be allowed to be advertised in the type race thread.

I think all three provide encouragement and a sense of community which help in a type race.

All three are fine by me. I was messaged by a Mod last time after I mistakenly posted that I had a special UFT. Which is fine, as if it's against the rules, I get it. But... felt strange since... I mean. It fit the type? I dunno. I like the congratulatory messages. They make me feel like I'm part of a team. ^^

I personally don’t understand the decision to remove congratulatory posts or mark special Pokemon giveaways as spam. What I liked about the type race (and threads) initially was the sense of community it fostered. People helping out their teammates, congratulating them on specials, sharing things to help each other out… it makes it fun. It’s fun to be able to interact, help, and possibly make new friends through the type race. We’re all working towards a common goal, so shouldn’t we be able to interact with each other more? With many of the new rules restricting what we can say in type race threads, it feels like we can’t interact with our team as much as we used to or would like to. It feels much too constricting and less interactive.

i don't really get the whole removing congrats/deleting "spam" posts. if you're a team, what's wrong with celebrating each other and hyping each other up? it's just good sportsmanship if you ask me. i agree that the threads should stay on topic, and congratulating someone on something that happened during/because of the race doesn't seem like spam to me? i've only had fun with my tr teammates, and making it so you can only talk about certain things or else you'll be deleted, kinda takes the fun out of it. it's supposed to be fun yeah?

I want all three of those things to say for the reasons mentioned by several of the posters above. People are excited to post in the team type race thread and if it fits the type, it seems type race relevant to me. if I hatch a melan I like to let my team dex for free ECT.

I love the camaraderie of the community during a race, and I feel like the most recent crack down of the rules was overly excessive. I think it helps build team spirit when someone hatches a special and people congratulate them. It helps to inspire others to push harder to get their own specials (and more points for the team.) I also think the raffle should be more advertised, because not everyone constantly checks the main post. It would help to make the raffles bigger, with more participants and prizes. And on the topic of trading specials.. if someone is melan hunting during the race, and wants to give away spare shinies and albinos, they should be allowed. Some participants don't hatch any specials during the race at all. I think we should, in general, be allowed to interact with each other more on PFQ, even outside of PMs. We need interaction for party clicks, but it shouldn't be a place where people aren't allowed to share their love of the game without it being considered spam.