What does the ‽ (interrobang) mean in Showdown?

Question

So when I was spectating a tournament battle in the tournaments room, someone kept showing up and leaving the battle and their name kept changing but it followed one pattern. their name was always ‽[insert insult to one of players here]. I was hoping if someone could find out what the interrobang is because it might be something bad...

Comments

Likely nothing profane. The interrobang simply combines the gestures of both of the original punctuation marks. According to Wikipedia, A sentence ending with an interrobang asks a question in an excited manner, expresses excitement or disbelief in the form of a question, or asks a rhetorical question. It can also be used in chess to signal a poor choice of move or strategy, which may have some connection to turn-based Pokémon battles, just a speculation.

Answer 1

If a user on PS has a ‽ to the left of their name, it means they have been locked by a moderator there. When this happens, they will be unable to chat in the lobby they got locked from. So presumably, the person you saw did something inappropriate and someone banned them.

Having your account locked doesn’t stop you from changing your alt though, so people can switch to a rude name if they want to continue being awful. Switching in and out of the room means the joining message appears in chat, and thus their new name gets shown to everyone. They still can’t post in the chat though, since locks affect the IP.

Basically, some person was being nasty and they got a ban.

Comments

Oh... that makes sense... that's how he accessed the tournament battle... but then how did he get to my battle with a friend that wasn't in the tournament...?

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You can join anyone's battle. Click in their username and all the battles and rooms they are currently is show up.