Feedback on Type Race Rules!

I agree with the popular opinion in this thread that these rules should be all changed! the first two rules I've asked for clarification on before because I read the new rules and didn't understand why they were there and it felt like there were a lot less things I was actually allowed to post about in the TR threads.. Now I understand the reasoning behind the rules but I still don't really agree with it ^^; nice to see other people think the same thing lol As for the third rule i think that should also be changed.. in my experience too much trading in the TR thread clogs it up a bit so I think the solution in the main post is a good idea. I like to give away any specials I hatch during the race that I don't need to other team members but since I saw that rule I've done that in a trade forum thread instead after the race is over which makes it feel unrelated/disconnected from the actual type race if that makes sense thanks for asking for our opinions!

I've been in multiple type race threads now where the threads have been locked because people were saying "congrats" too much or someone was trying to give away extra specials they didn't need. One of those thread locks was during the last day when we were fighting for first place. I don't think it's fair to punish teams like that for trying to be supportive of each other and friendly. Isn't that the point of the type race threads? I stopped being active at all in the type race threads after signing up out of fear that any activity in the threads would just get it locked. Which I understand is a bit of a leap in logic on my part, but I'm so tired of every team I'm in breaking some rule that no one knew existed that stops the team from feeling like a team.

Honestly, do the mods genuinely think this was a good idea? I'm very confused by the logic on so many of the changes and rules to not only TypeRace but the site itself. The game is made out to be this big community of players who have to interact with each other in order to progress. It's a community/social-based game where you could potentially do all the "goals" (full wishalloy badges, arceus rank, 3 trainer card stars, all the "quests" they give, etc) but it's nearly impossible without some form of interaction and help from the people on the site. I'm pretty sure if they keep on making forums stricter and more formal nobody is going to want to use them anymore. What's really wrong with saying just a one-word Congrats response post? Even that is a boost to morale during TR. Seeing somebody else encourage what you're doing would help make you want to hatch more for the team, most likely, right? But silencing the fun posts and shutting down the community of people is just making the site seem so dull and controlling. What's really wrong with having a "spam"-filled thread full of fun and happy users that brings in more players, activity and potential zc revenue for hunts just one time every month? The threads aren't permanent, they're deleted after the race is over. What's the point of being so strict and harsh over people being happy? It just seems overly excessive. Also, raffles. When you submit the raffle it takes a while to be approved, usually longer than TR even lasts. What is really so wrong with advertising an unofficial raffle or giveaway for the extra specials you hatch during the race? I'm glad to see this opinions thread is getting absolutely bombarded with users expressing disappointment over these excessive changes. We just want to have a fun experience again. I haven't posted in a type race thread in so long. Hoping that the mods take these responses and listen. :(

I feel the first rule should be done away with all together, Type race is supposed to be a team event, you should be able to talk about stuff other than just type race, allow us to make friends during our week together as a team. we shouldn't have to pm each other to have a discussion that doesn't need to be private and allow the rest of our team to join in on the discussion. the forums at the time are already the most strict forums i've ever been on... i've gotten several warning for spam even a 24 hour ban for spam for discussing with my team why we were getting our posts deleted for spam. I completely understand the 2 day bump on certain forums as spam but again this is a team event, allow us to actually be a team i also agree with what deer said about the spam filled thread the threads are deleted after the type race anyways... it does seem its moderated at times a little obsessively Silencing people on the forums is just a little much at times, makes me not want to use the forums at all.

I've participated in a few type races in my over a year here. I usually average around ~650 points. But when I got my personal record of 1,276, these "spam" as you call it were rampant, and encouraged me to be active and engage with my team. I do not like team participation in life in general. But taking these things away makes me sad. This is how I actually begin to get to know anyone-at-all on this website. Otherwise we're assigned to teams that seem to be an illusion of strangers. The thumbs up function should be used for voting certain things in other forums - but the team forums should be well, a team. It shouldn't matter how many posts are posted there, as it will be deleted anyway after the race is over. I am excited to figure out what type race team I'm on for October (Fire, Ground, or Poison? I'm hatching Numel in anticipation)....but if there's this many rules I don't see myself really doing my best to win for my team.

Just chiming in with this bit - "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 get the thought behind it, however let's say you have some nature/berry collectors or some type of collector in the groups. It gets a bit frustrating getting 6+ Messages from TR members saying "I'd like this pokemon" and they all link the same pokemon. If it's a bit more public it is easier on everyone, it should definitely just be allowed on the thread honestly. Stating that giveaways don't help your team in any way, in my opinion, is incorrect. It can motivate a lot of new players (Or really anyone), they're excited about the special they got - maybe it was ironically a pokemon they had been wanting for a long time, so they are more motivated to participate not only with hatching eggs but in the thread itself. Perhaps this will also get them to participate in future threads, maybe they'll be the person to giveaway some pokemon or even items. Really the rules here should just be more lax than they are or even what is being suggested here. It's a community event, it's all about interacting with other users and competing with other users. The fact that the rules here are so strict, just makes no sense in my opinion. I feel like the rules could become really lax and change quite heavily, and if it doesn't work out or if there are a lot of issues it can always be looked at again. Also as a side note even if someone just says "congrats" that can lead to more chatting, the poster can say something back to them and can create a conversation. While I understand that 1 word responses may seem "spam" due to not really adding anything to the conversation, upvotes don't really feel as interactive as someone congratulating you for finally getting a pokemon you want. They feel very impersonal in this instance of a team oriented event. Overall, I appreciate the users input being brought into these decisions. I look forward to seeing some type of changes to the rules.

I read through this entire thread and it does not seem like anyone protest for keeping the 3 rules... which makes me think they were not all that popular ideas to begin with. So I have to wonder, why they were implemented in the first place? Are the forum moderators busy of having to read many threads to moderate and therefore try to supress the site quiet as possible in order to have less work to do? (Not accusation, just wondering in general) The discussions forum of this site is the quietest I have ever seen it on games with this many people. No threads get people talking in it except for the melanistic hatch thread. The type race forum was the one place where the people could still be chatting to each other. This site feels like such a lonely and isolated place. For a game about interaction and fun, there is not very much interaction at all and all just seem to be trying to drive that down even more. It is sad...

I haven't participated in a Team Race yet so please take my opinion with a grain of salt. From someone looking at the events from the outside I find the rules backwards and confusing. If I had joined a event I likely would have accidentally broken a couple of the rules. I would argue that the existing rules set in place are counter intuitive and doesn't make sense for a community that's supposed to be based on interaction. I can agree that you want to keep things on topic, but to me that means not posting what I ate for breakfast that day, or discussing how awesome my Alfa Romeo is to drive, not being enthusiastic with my team that (I) or (They) hatched a shiny ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Again, I havent participated in a Team Race so plase take what ive said here with some allowance. Reading through what others have said though it seems that i'm not the only one with these opinions.

Ok i have a few things to say about the Spam rule I understand ive been on hiatus for a while but i thought TR's were to help us make new friends and meet new people. Why are we making it so we cant say congradulations? It makes me feel like the site will become boring. Yea some people may consider it spam but if you dont want to get notifications for people saying "Congradulations on the Shiny/albino/melan/etc" then why not turn off notifications if it bothers someone that much? Type Race is something that alot of people especially newer people get hyped over and alot of people like to encourage the newer players. By taking this away its going to take the fun out of the type race. You might as well to the TR alone without the threads if we cant start small talk over a special you just got. you dont know who is congradulating you or who is activly participating in the TR thread. Sometimes all it takes for someone to get a new record is seeing other peoples shinys and albinos and thinking "Hey, this person got a Shiny from the type race. I want to try and get one as well." Especially newer people who have never had a shiny before Im sure alot of people are upsetted by the new rules and I am also upset that i come back to find out we cant hype our team up without it being considered spam. Its not like alot of people talk in the Type race Threads to begin with. The most ive had subscribed to my thread has been 30 maybe 40 people. If were upset with spam why not set up reaction roles in the discord for each team. every month we chose our team role and wed get a new color and wed have access to a chat that only our team can see. This is just my thoughts though.

I'm chiming back in again, as now I'm much more awake than my last reply. I'll add in saying that yes. I have really wanted to stop doing Type Races all together just because of those more strict rules (Heck, I've almost just went on Hiatus tbh...). Call it extreme thinking if you will, it is... but it was like "Why even bother saying anything outside of what I'm hunting? It'll be seen as spam probably anyways." And that's just... not good. It essentially has just led to a majority of the users here it seems to feel unmotivated, bored, and most importantly? Fearful. That's not what you want your userbase to be like. You want to be stern, but approachable. As of now, it just feels like everyone has to be on their best behavior or risk some sort of punishment. I literally had a very good friend QUIT the site due to a very, in my opinion, not so fair spam accusation on their Race Thread. It's depressing, as they really enjoyed this game and community... but those rules make community feel as though it is fading away anymore. So I do appreciate the time you all took into asking the userbase our opinions on this. I'm not really mad at all, nor is anyone from what I've seen. Just a bit disheartened and bummed out if anything else. It's a social game. I understand rules have to be in place, that's absolutely fine... but yes. I really do feel some rules need tweaking or abolished all together every now and again. So again, thank you for asking our opinions on this. Hopefully we can boost moral and type race enthusiasm again.