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Fourth Anniversary Celebration

JFought

Sloooowly writing...
Location
HCL
Pronouns
they/them
Partners
  1. jfought-sword
  2. jfought-blue
  3. deerling-summer
  4. charmeleon
  5. vulpix
For my third companion, I'd like summer-form Deerling!
green.png
 

silurica

All shall be well
Pronouns
They/Them
Partners
  1. arceus-beta
  2. arceus
  3. arceus-shiny
I'd like a new addition to my Arceus parade, please.
shinyarc.png
 

Spiteful Murkrow

Busy Writing Stories I Want to Read
Pronouns
He/Him/His
Partners
  1. nidoran-f
  2. druddigon
  3. swellow
  4. quilava-fobbie
  5. sneasel-kate
I got in my Drabble Bingo card in time for the deadline, which I believe entitles me to a sprite buddy.

As such, I'd like a Kate:
Sneasel_with_Scarf.png
 

ShiniGojira

Multiversal Extraordinaire
Location
Stranded In The Gaps between Multiverses
Pronouns
He/him/they/her
Partners
  1. froslass
  2. zorua-gojira
  3. salandit-shiny
Can I get a shiny Salandit, please.
 

Starlight Aurate

Ad Jesum per Mariam | pfp by kintsugi
Location
Route 123
Partners
  1. mightyena
  2. psyduck
Thanks for hosting this event, Negrek!

For my companion, I'll take a lil' Psyduck this time!
 

IFBench

Rescue Team Member
Location
Pokemon Paradise
Partners
  1. chikorita-saltriv
  2. bench-gen
  3. charmander
  4. snivy
  5. treecko
  6. tropius
  7. arctozolt
  8. wartortle
I'd like an Arctozolt to join my ensemble!
 

lichhen

gay
Pronouns
he/they/ze
Partners
  1. metapod-shiny
- If you would like a Hisuian or Gen IX pokémon, you will need to provide the sprite for it! See requirements below.
- You may submit a custom sprite if you like! This should be a 68 px wide, 56 px tall transparent PNG. it does not need to be a pokémon! It can be anything fitting into that space. If you need help getting a sprite of the correct size/specifications, try asking around; we have a lot of people who know basic image editing around here.
@Shiny Phantump
 

Shiny Phantump

Through Dream, I Travel
Location
Hallownest
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. sylveon
  2. absol-mega
  3. silvally-psychic
  4. ninetales-phantump
  5. cosmog
  6. gallade-phantump
  7. ceruledge-phantump
ty for pointing that out! Did a dig into Smogon/Showdown sprite credits, which after I lost track of time turned out to take over half an hour... to the best of my ability to tell, they're open for non-profit use. They don't actually seem to track credits for minis in their filesystem nor their forums, although they do for some other things like trainers.
 

Attachments

  • temp.png
    temp.png
    1 KB · Views: 2
Partners
  1. suikaibuki
suikaibuki.png

68x56. That should do it, she'll be my companion.

Okay. So, thoughts for the site.

- I know the Blitz is a big thing and a sort of tradition here, but I always disliked the idea that being rewarded for reviewing should only happen at certain times of the year. Especially since I (and no doubt others) can be very busy when it's ongoing. Back on Bulbagarden before staff shortages pretty much killed it, they had a Review League that did just that, which allowed you to build up points for your reviews and cash them out for rewards. Maybe something similar could be implemented here? It could coexist with the Blitz, giving more or specific rewards for doing it during the event.

- Similarly, BG had a neat event called "Trainers of Fanfiction" which was basically little interviews with characters from fics (not necessarily trainers), with volunteer artists pitching in to give a graphical spin. Most of them had a theme of sorts, like parents or "professionals". There were prewritten questions to answer, although it was open-ended and more could be submitted. Readers could even ask questions as they were posted! Just an idea for people to have fic publicity and interactions, at least.

- Actually, pretty much any formal things like that for exploring aspects of fics would be nice. There's lots of little informal threads, but they can be a little disjointed and chaotic. Basically, little hooks that might interest potential readers. BG used to have a (bi)monthly fic spotlight event, though I don't think that would work too well here for various reasons.

- Maybe separate games/roleplay and the mafia section so last posts in the latter don't become the most recent posts in the former.

- Speaking of, more wide-scale roleplay campaigns could be neat, but of course, would require setting some up. Have some ideas myself for that matter, but need plotting to do. Never had a chance to join one here.

- More sorting options/titles for fics. There's lots of sub-Pokemon categories, journey, PMD, etc. Having them all just be under Pokemon isn't really helpful on the fanfiction forum.
 

Negrek

Play the Rain
Staff
Okay, I've been going through and giving out this year's wave of companions! If you asked for a non-custom companion, you should have yours already. Unfortunately, while adding the custom companions, I discovered that we've run up against Xenforo's limit for how many options can be included in that postbit field, which means there is no room for all of the requested custom sprites. I had not realized that there was a limit on the number of options, but I had been planning to make changes to the companion system before next year's Review Blitz anyway in order to accommodate the increasing number of companions that some people have and also to implement some requested features (ability to reorder companions, Gen IX mon, etc.). This will also eliminate the space problem. However, I wouldn't expect that to be done before August, so if you are one of the unfortunate people to be caught out by this issue, you might be waiting a bit before you receive your companion.

These are the people affected and their requested companions:

- @Cresselia92 - Shiny Celebi
- @lichhen - Shiny Metapod
- @silurica - Shiny Arceus
- @Spiteful Murkrow - Sneasel Kate
- @ShiniGojira - Shiny Salandit
- @Shiny Phantump - Ceruledge
- @System Error - Suikaibuki

If your name is on this list, you have two options: you can wait until I upgrade the companion system, at which point these will be added for you, or you can choose a different, non-custom companion for this event. The catch is that it has to be a non-custom species that someone else has already chosen (e.g. you could get a Charizard but not Venusaur or Blastoise, since no one's claimed one of the latter two yet). If you'd like to switch, just let me know what you're thinking; if I don't hear from you, I'll assume you're okay with waiting and add your companion when it becomes possible.

If your name is not on the list above and you haven't received the companion you requested, that means I missed you! Please let me know ASAP so I can correct the problem.

At this time, companion claims are closed for this event.

Also, thanks to everyone who gave feedback about the event or about the community! I've tried to answer all of you below. It's always helpful to hear what people like and dislike about the community, and what they'd like to see in the future!

Can we have a legendary or just a normal pokemon for our prize?
May I have Groudon? If not, I'd like a golden sudowoodo like these :View attachment 7104
I gave you a Groudon, but just to clarify for you: you can always request any pokémon, including legendaries! You could also have a golden sudowoodo, but you'd need to give me a sprite that fits the necessary parameters (.png 56 px high by 68 px wide).

Could I get a regular (unovan?) Zorua as my sprite reward?
And as for feedback, I haven't been here long but I really like this community. I honestly don't think I have felt more welcome in a community so quickly before, so this has been a great experience for me. I personally would love more drabble bingo events, this one was fun to participate in.
Fantastic, I'm glad to hear you've enjoyed your time on TR thus far! I can see how we might slip in more drabble bingos (or other drabble-related events) in the future. If you'd like to do some drabbling right this minute, you might enjoy lichhen's drabble RP or Drabble Tag!

I don't know what I would change for the big 5, if everything continues as is, then it's good in my book! Obviously not the most social person, but hoping that will change a bit when HA starts among other things.
Thanks, it's great that you enjoyed the event as-is. Good luck being more social, it's always fun to see your posts!

Hi! I had so much fun for my first celebration. And thanks to everyone who made it possible! I really appreciate all the work that goes into this community, its very obviously loved and well-cared for. :veelove: I would personally love more review exchanges. I'm all about those :3
Awesome, I'm glad you had fun with everything! More review exchanges is something we can look to foster... There's actually something the mods have talked about kicking off to fill this need that I just haven't gotten posted yet, so hopefully that will be ready to go in the next couple months.

As for feedback, I don’t have much! I thought this anniversary was fantastic and had a nice balance of many different kinds of events.

One idea I have for the 5 year anniversary: perhaps all the artists of TR can come together to collaborate on a TR banner? Maybe we can include references to one fic from each author somehow? I think that would be really cool!
Good to hear that you enjoyed the anniversary! Some kind of collaborative banner sounds like a great way to celebrate five years. The primary hurdle to be worked out there, I think, would be how to fit everybody's contributions onto a reasonably-sized banner while keeping them to a legible size... but that strikes me as highly solvable!

This was such a fun event. I had a lot of fun doing drabbles and reviews. I’m really happy that I joined TR, so many amazing people and fics I have found here. It also has made me more social, and I hope to enjoy it for the years to come!

As for the anniversary, I agree with Yellow… a banner would be amazing. I don’t have any feedback atm seeing that I am still new. But I’ll let you know if I come up with anything!
I'm glad you had a fun time during the anniversary! Thanks for letting me know you're interested in a banner project as well. I'll think more about how we could make that happen!

I wouldn’t mind seeing the same events next year, but if you accept some proposals… I was thinking of some fanzine/anthology of sorts containing drabbles and oneshot collections. Basically some kind of collaborative project where we can show the great skills of all artists and authors of this community.

We could pick themes as well, like a whump session, a WAFF session, Trainerverse and PMDverse tales, and so on.
A zine/collab is something people have been talking about for a while now, and I think it's a really fun idea! Look out for a project along these lines coming out later this summer.

hiiii this was such a cool collection of events im so happy i discovered TR just in time for the anniversary.

my favorite events were all the roleplaying games including FTQ, catnip speed dating, review blitz, and drabble bingo! more roleplay game sessions and speed catnip sessions would be fun.

i also adore Yellows idea for a banner collab
including fanfic characters! If I could add, any event that celebrates our characters would be exciting. events that encourage art and writing involving each other's characters. art exchange, drabble exchange.

negrek, thank you for your awesome pokemon website and forum. thanks to all the mods and volunteers, to name a few Jackie, Yellow, Bench, Minty, thank you for making this such a fun cool thing to have in my life!
Thanks for all this lovely feedback, and I hope you continue to have a good time on TR! I'd definitely like to see how we can run more speed catnips and roleplay events, and I think the banner collab is a great idea. Thanks for mentioning what you enjoyed most!

Events encouraging people to create works celebrating others' stories/characters sounds like a great idea, too. I'll think about what might work well there.

Okay. So, thoughts for the site.

- I know the Blitz is a big thing and a sort of tradition here, but I always disliked the idea that being rewarded for reviewing should only happen at certain times of the year. Especially since I (and no doubt others) can be very busy when it's ongoing. Back on Bulbagarden before staff shortages pretty much killed it, they had a Review League that did just that, which allowed you to build up points for your reviews and cash them out for rewards. Maybe something similar could be implemented here? It could coexist with the Blitz, giving more or specific rewards for doing it during the event.
Thanks for giving so many thoughts and suggestions! I'll address each in its own quote.

The reason I don't tend to go in for long-running reward schemes like a review league is that in my experience, these sorts of systems tend to generate a lot of interest and activity early on, but then fall off considerably in participation after a few months. I think this is because people tend to respond well to something that feels fresh and exciting, but lose interest in something that feels routine. Time-limited events are ones that people can anticipate and which feel special whenever they come around, so I think they tend to get more consistent participation. However, if you have any thoughts about how a constantly-running background system could be sustained long-term, I'm willing to consider giving it a shot!

- Similarly, BG had a neat event called "Trainers of Fanfiction" which was basically little interviews with characters from fics (not necessarily trainers), with volunteer artists pitching in to give a graphical spin. Most of them had a theme of sorts, like parents or "professionals". There were prewritten questions to answer, although it was open-ended and more could be submitted. Readers could even ask questions as they were posted! Just an idea for people to have fic publicity and interactions, at least.
This sounds like a fun event! Definitely something we could do in the future.

- Actually, pretty much any formal things like that for exploring aspects of fics would be nice. There's lots of little informal threads, but they can be a little disjointed and chaotic. Basically, little hooks that might interest potential readers. BG used to have a (bi)monthly fic spotlight event, though I don't think that would work too well here for various reasons.
When you say "formal things for exploring aspects of fics," do you mean catchall kinds of threads like "What have you been reading?" or "Looking for a Name"? Or more threads where people could talk about specific aspects of their fics or characters?

- Maybe separate games/roleplay and the mafia section so last posts in the latter don't become the most recent posts in the former.
For the most part I think the rarity of having a mafia game and large roleplay running simultaneously means this isn't a big problem, but it's something to consider if that changes.

- Speaking of, more wide-scale roleplay campaigns could be neat, but of course, would require setting some up. Have some ideas myself for that matter, but need plotting to do. Never had a chance to join one here.
I would expect more large-scale roleplays to occur in the future, and in fact I would be looking for one to start up sometime this summer! If you'd like to host one yourself, that should be an option down the line as well. You'll have some time to get things prepped; I'd expect the best time to start one would work out to be a couple years in the future at this point.

- More sorting options/titles for fics. There's lots of sub-Pokemon categories, journey, PMD, etc. Having them all just be under Pokemon isn't really helpful on the fanfiction forum.
Are you looking for more subcategories within the fanfic forum, or more thread prefixes (currently Pokémon/Non-Pokémon/Original)? Something else?

I have to admit last few blitzs i lost a lot of review time due to said timing of the events. So i can definitly second the time crunch complaint.
It does suck that having Blitz once a year means that people who aren't free when it's going on end up missing out. If we were going to run a second review event in a year, is there any particular time you think would work well for it?
 

lichhen

gay
Pronouns
he/they/ze
Partners
  1. metapod-shiny
thanks @Negrek

my choice in order of preference, hoping one might be available! :

1. metapod
2. shroomish
3. sunkern
4. flaaffy

thanks for handling all this, it can't be easy
 

Negrek

Play the Rain
Staff
Unfortunately none of those are available at this time; final evolutions tend to be the most popular, and we only have around 100 options all told. From these four evolutionary families the only mon available is butterfree, unfortunately.
 
Partners
  1. suikaibuki
I'll wait until August for my companion.

The reason I don't tend to go in for long-running reward schemes like a review league is that in my experience, these sorts of systems tend to generate a lot of interest and activity early on, but then fall off considerably in participation after a few months. I think this is because people tend to respond well to something that feels fresh and exciting, but lose interest in something that feels routine. Time-limited events are ones that people can anticipate and which feel special whenever they come around, so I think they tend to get more consistent participation. However, if you have any thoughts about how a constantly-running background system could be sustained long-term, I'm willing to consider giving it a shot!

Yeah, I can get where you're coming from. It shows in a couple of the informal (and even some formal) event topics. When you look at it one way, it makes sense. But here's the consequence: it also means there's no incentive to review when the Blitz isn't happening. Which means there's very likely some people silently holding off on reviewing until Blitz time because of it. That's certainly not healthy for a community. Like, I feel that way for one (on top of that time being busy), and more importantly, if I do a bunch of reviews over the year, what's left by the end if I've already read/reviewed all the things I've wanted? In a sense, the Blitz format also indirectly punishes consistent reviewing. Because the more reviews you do before, the less you can do then. This is especially bad since the Blitz rewards you for volume!

That's why I feel there needs to be something persistent in place. So people who can't make the Blitz, want to review en masse earlier, or want to go at their own pace rather than cramming it all in can still get something like Blitzers.

So how to deal with the problem of keeping it fresh? I'd propose the following. It's by no means inclusive, just some things off the top of my head.
- Monthly review challenges. Set a goal for members to fulfill for extra points. Like read X chapters or X fics of a genre you normally wouldn't touch, read X amount of chapters of a longfic you haven't before, and so on. Basically the themes in the Blitz. This would give some direction and encourage people to check out different things.
- Give bonus points for checking out a featured fic. This would also encourage people to check out more and different things. The only problem I can see here is how to balance this and how to define a feature fic. BG used to do Fic of the Month way back then, but that could easily get into clique or favoritism-based selection (i.e. not give lesser fics exposure). Maybe tie it into the forum events like Trainers of Fanfiction I suggested?
- A early review points bonus, rewarding for reading chapters faster. Bulbagarden had this in their iteration. I'd give way more leeway than they did however: say up to a week after posting, and partial points for two. This would encourage active readership.
- Maintain the Blitz. There is nothing stopping the two from coexisting. They could be entirely separate events, and participating in the Blitz would net you points in the persistent thing as well. It could even be the review challenge, do X number of reviews during it. Still, there's ultimately no getting around the problem of "reviewing before the Blitz means less for the Blitz". Kind of a flaw inherent in the system, really. :P Both being around would fix some of the problems at least, and it'd be up to the reviewers to figure out which balance they'd want to strike.

Just some ideas. Really, I'd certainly go hog-wild on reviews like I used to on BG if there was something year-round here.

When you say "formal things for exploring aspects of fics," do you mean catchall kinds of threads like "What have you been reading?" or "Looking for a Name"? Or more threads where people could talk about specific aspects of their fics or characters?
Basically, staff-hosted events that feature elements of a fic. Like the Trainers of Fanfiction thing. You can see how the previous edition (2020...) ended up here. Don't have it be like a free-for-all, because anyone can post anything in Fic Discussion, and those tend to suffer from the problems of being more about people posting their stuff with not enough discussion in-between postings.

I would expect more large-scale roleplays to occur in the future, and in fact I would be looking for one to start up sometime this summer! If you'd like to host one yourself, that should be an option down the line as well. You'll have some time to get things prepped; I'd expect the best time to start one would work out to be a couple years in the future at this point.
So translation, there will be one in the summer? :>

Are you looking for more subcategories within the fanfic forum, or more thread prefixes (currently Pokémon/Non-Pokémon/Original)? Something else?
Yeah, more prefixes for Pokemon fics specifically.
 

silurica

All shall be well
Pronouns
They/Them
Partners
  1. arceus-beta
  2. arceus
  3. arceus-shiny
I don't mind waiting for the companion update. Thanks for letting us know!
 

Negrek

Play the Rain
Staff
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you on this! Some good suggestions here for sure.

Yeah, I can get where you're coming from. It shows in a couple of the informal (and even some formal) event topics. When you look at it one way, it makes sense. But here's the consequence: it also means there's no incentive to review when the Blitz isn't happening. Which means there's very likely some people silently holding off on reviewing until Blitz time because of it. That's certainly not healthy for a community. Like, I feel that way for one (on top of that time being busy), and more importantly, if I do a bunch of reviews over the year, what's left by the end if I've already read/reviewed all the things I've wanted? In a sense, the Blitz format also indirectly punishes consistent reviewing. Because the more reviews you do before, the less you can do then. This is especially bad since the Blitz rewards you for volume!

That's why I feel there needs to be something persistent in place. So people who can't make the Blitz, want to review en masse earlier, or want to go at their own pace rather than cramming it all in can still get something like Blitzers.

So how to deal with the problem of keeping it fresh? I'd propose the following. It's by no means inclusive, just some things off the top of my head.
- Monthly review challenges. Set a goal for members to fulfill for extra points. Like read X chapters or X fics of a genre you normally wouldn't touch, read X amount of chapters of a longfic you haven't before, and so on. Basically the themes in the Blitz. This would give some direction and encourage people to check out different things.
- Give bonus points for checking out a featured fic. This would also encourage people to check out more and different things. The only problem I can see here is how to balance this and how to define a feature fic. BG used to do Fic of the Month way back then, but that could easily get into clique or favoritism-based selection (i.e. not give lesser fics exposure). Maybe tie it into the forum events like Trainers of Fanfiction I suggested?
- A early review points bonus, rewarding for reading chapters faster. Bulbagarden had this in their iteration. I'd give way more leeway than they did however: say up to a week after posting, and partial points for two. This would encourage active readership.
- Maintain the Blitz. There is nothing stopping the two from coexisting. They could be entirely separate events, and participating in the Blitz would net you points in the persistent thing as well. It could even be the review challenge, do X number of reviews during it. Still, there's ultimately no getting around the problem of "reviewing before the Blitz means less for the Blitz". Kind of a flaw inherent in the system, really. :P Both being around would fix some of the problems at least, and it'd be up to the reviewers to figure out which balance they'd want to strike.

Just some ideas. Really, I'd certainly go hog-wild on reviews like I used to on BG if there was something year-round here.
Unfortunately it is true that there isn't a lot of incentive to review outside of various events and review exchanges, and people, as a result, largely don't. It's something I'd like to change, so that would be my primary interest in setting up some kind of ongoing review event. Fortunately I haven't seen much evidence of people hoarding reviews for Blitz time/running out of stories to review during Blitz--even people who write a lot of Blitz reviews seem like they often don't catch up with all the stories they've been meaning to review during the event.

Bonuses for early reviews, around a monthly theme/for a particular featured fic, etc. are all good starts. I don't know that they're enough to maintain activity long-term, though, at least not alone. It doesn't seem to have worked for other review leagues/leaderboards that have tried it. But they're definitely things I would incorporate just to keep things feeling fresh and to encourage people to e.g. work on catching up on chapterfics they've fallen behind on or support new authors' works.

If we started any kind of ongoing review event, I'd definitely keep Blitz around. If nothing else, I think the two would probably be helpful to different kinds of readers/reviewers, although plenty of people would no doubt take part in both. Cross-promotional elements between them (e.g. bonus points for a certain number of Blitz reviews completed) would definitely be a thing.

In setting up an ongoing review event, my primary concern would be creating a sense of rhythm and seasonality even though the event is going on continuously. People get tired and overwhelmed if stuff is Always Happening (and no one can go hard all the time), but on the flip side they lose interest if there's a prolonged lull where nothing changes. Adding some internal deadlines and mini-events would help keep people engaged, I think, and help lend a sense of completion urgency for people who work better in well-defined chunks of time. Having time-bounded elements would make for more natural hopping-on points for new people to join, too. A hypothetical example would be a "league challenge" with year-long "seasons," with a champion being crowned at the end of each season and the points being wiped clean as the next season begins, possibly with some special bonuses/achievements carrying over for people who completed them in previous seasons.

In some ways you've kind of anticipated something I've been thinking about for a while, so it's good to hear there would be interest in this sort of system! I can't promise that it will be ready to go soon, but I am hoping to introduce some fun stuff in 2024, when the community will turn five.

Basically, staff-hosted events that feature elements of a fic. Like the Trainers of Fanfiction thing. You can see how the previous edition (2020...) ended up here. Don't have it be like a free-for-all, because anyone can post anything in Fic Discussion, and those tend to suffer from the problems of being more about people posting their stuff with not enough discussion in-between postings.
Got it. I can see what sort of small events we might be able to put together like that--encouraging people to discuss their stories in more detail.

So translation, there will be one in the summer? :>
Correct!

Yeah, more prefixes for Pokemon fics specifically.
That makes sense. My initial thought would be something like "Pokémon - Mystery Dungeon," "Pokémon - Trainerverse," and "Pokémon - Other." There are definitely more granular genres within those or that can be combined with those, like journeyfics or pokémon POV stories or canon characters vs OCs. I don't know if we need to get as granular as that with prefixes at this point, though, considering the number of stories posted here--at the moment those strike me more as information that could be supplied by tags, but I'm open to getting more granular if people think it would be helpful!
 
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