Changing the Spoiler Embargo

Three months is too short. As was pointed out, there are people who can't get their hands on the games, themselves, and are thus at the mercy of life events. Time to play the game is also a factor. Many go to school and/or work, have a family to take care of and other interests to engage in. On the other side of that, we considered 9+ months and decided that was too long. It'll disconnect users from the previous game while the hype of a new game is on the horizon. There will still be appropriate places for spoilers during the embargo so those who really want to discuss them can go there, but we really want to stick to 6 months for this.

I feel like shortening the embargo is a good thing, especially because a lot of people like talking about the new games(I got warned once for a spoiler of a Pokemon because I didn't know I couldn't talk about the new mons).

Oh, thank goodness. This is what made Pokeheroes better. We're able to talk about stuff like our shinies as soon as the games come out over there. They're far more lenient and even do starter events.

I also think half a year is also kind of restrictive - this site has the tightest spoiler embargo I've ever seen. Another user made the comparison to FF14 Endwalker and the community spoiler embargo there, which was a month long. This was a hugely anticipated expansion pack that concluded a storyline that started almost a decade ago and still has a shorter embargo period than new Pokemon designs. Similarly with tv/books I've been late to watching or reading the longest courtesy period I've seen for untagged spoilers have been three months. Definitely not saying to implement a month embargo as that's very short, and I do think that six months is definitely nicer than the near year long wait that was attached to Arceus though (which had relatively little new content that wasn't shown in trailers iirc), but it still feels a bit odd to know you can't openly talk about the recent Pokemon games, on a Pokemon site, for half the year. I can appreciate having work/school etc - I missed out entirely on ORAS for example when I was in uni and was late to SwSh due to RL things - but unless this is the only site people are using people will see spoilers by three months, let alone six. If you go on Serebii right now, you get spoiled; if you go onto the official English Pokemon twitter right now, you will be spoiled for new pokemon and characters; if you go to a store that sells video games, you'll be spoiled as they stock new merch etc. This is just my view on it from having played other games and been into other things with community embargos. e: I am a newer user so this is curiousity more than anything as I may have missed it - is the embargo length (such as the proposed six months change) decided solely by the staff or have the community been asked what they'd prefer as users in the past?

We appreciate that you want a shorter period of time for the spoiler embargo to end but at this time the Staff feels like 6 months is a very reasonable duration compared to the current embargo period. If you'd like to vote on the start of the new policy we would welcome your input. Outside of that we aren't taking suggestions for other lengths of time. We may or may not revise this in the future but for now this is the (baby) step we're taking. Thanks!

as someone who doesn't have s/v yet and tries to avoid all spoilers I'm really grateful for pfq's spoiler policy and I think 6 months would work well! It gives people time to get and play the game without making others wait an unreasonably long time to talk about it imo I voted for "From next game and onwards" in the poll just because people are already used to the current spoiler rules for s/v, but I don't really mind XD (Edit: i also avoid all pre-release spoilers as much as possible! so I appreciate that pfq doesn't allow any spoilers for new games at All. like right now with s/v I know about the base forms of the starters and the box legendaries and thats pretty much it!)

edit: typed this while the above post was made so i have not read what was said Prefacing this by saying I appreciate the step towards being less restrictive on the embargo. I have a few questions. Please correct me if I'm wrong but the embargo also restricts public discussions on publicly released information like trailers and the like, right? There has been tons of new info that is teased in advanced (still not comparable to actual game release of course + the rampant amount of leaks of course). If that is the case, then I feel that having the embargo continue to apply for that (e.g. starters base form names) is reaching ridiculous territory to me. I respect that the people who don't want to see these spoilers are on site. I understand the frustration of being spoiled and having your experience ruined because of people running their mouths. I feel that the forum could mitigate everything with the implementation of spoiler bars like how Discord does (but this is of course easier said than done). I do not believe that the embargo has to apply so strictly to widely known information. Maybe a week of embargo (or 6 months again, to be safe) would do for these. This is just my perspective as a relatively new (~2022 player) who has never seen such a strict embargo for any media I was into ever. Agree to disagree

I just wanted to say thank you for the feedback on this, it is nice to hear back from the staff about questions left here. A shorter embargo in general is definitely a good step. I would also appreciate if this specifically can be clarified as even after reading the expanded spoiler rule I'm not sure if it applies to pre-release information AFTER the game has been released.

Going off of this, I do feel like the name rule is not good. I get not wanting to get spoiled for certain evolutions, but what about the names of the starters, which are revealed beforehand? If you go anywhere on the internet and follow a lot of Pokemon accounts, you're very likely to get spoiled for the starter names(and if any other new Pokemon names are revealed, them as well). Maybe limiting the spoiler rule to Pokemon that have been name revealed before the game's release(such as starters and certain basic Pokemon)? I don't know.

As someone who likes to go into games completely blind, I appreciate the 6 month embargo, as that is on par with other fandoms I'm in. But I'm also one of those who followed all the leaks. 6 months makes the most sense as it's enough time to play the game, and doesn't keep those of us who have played it waiting too long to discuss our new faves and battle strategies. I also voted for the S/V option as the games have been out for a month already. I do have a question regarding the games bugs. Are those are okay to post about in an effort to warn people who haven't played or haven't been affected by them yet? Vaguely, of course. I had one particularly awful one happen to me I wish I knew more about in advance >_<