Are these in-game team questions allowed?

Question

I'm talking about questions like this one.
This is Fizz's argument for allowing such questions.

The problem with in-game team rates is that they are opinionated and open-ended, which is why we take them down. However this post, like the ones above, is far more restrictive, because it has prescribed guidelines, ie. the Pokemon should fit within the team. An objective argument can be made here as to why any given Pokemon is better, so I will allow this type of post.

This is my argument for disallowing such questions.

Pokebase is for Pokemon questions, so I thought questions about specific teams wouldn't be allowed because they're more about the specific team than they are about the Pokemon game itself.

This is a quote from Yin's PSA.

If there comes a time where there are questions asking for "Is this a good moveset for ___" or "Final member for my team in XY?", do not answer those questions, as they are not allowed.

Are there any more arguments? Can we resolve this issue?

Answer 1

I said I'd make a post explaining how I go about this, but I've been busier this week than I'd anticipated so I'll have to apologise that never came about. I might elaborate on this further when I have time, but for the moment, here is a simple version of how I make decisions based on these posts. This can be a temporary guideline until Pokemaster offers some insight into this, but obviously I think this is fair enough:

If it is open-ended, a duplicate post or for MovesetBot, it is not allowed.

What is open ended? If someone makes a post like one of the ones Mike described in the post you quoted (where they've just posted a team or moveset and openly asked for advice), it is not allowed because there is no focus there. Advice could be anything -- it could be changing one move or replacing an entire team, and none of it is inherently any less valid as an answer, if there are few to no guidelines at all as to what is valid. This is why those posts are not allowed, they are directionless and do not make it clear when the post is resolved. Hence they are "open-ended".

However, if someone has posted a team or moveset and asked with some specific guidelines, like "which move is better on this moveset?" or "which Pokemon satisfies [a, b, c] requirements for my team?" then we can allow it, because there is a clear point at which that post is resolved: when someone has explained which move is better or shown the Pokemon that best fits the criteria, to use those examples. We could allow questions like "is [x] move better than [y] move?" and "what Pokemon can do [a, b, c]?", so why can't we allow them in a team or moveset context too? If the asker doesn't ask for team advice and that's what people post as an answer, then we can take those people's answers down, because they didn't respond to the actual question. If people also ask for team advice trying to skirt the rule, then we can edit that out.

So long as the question has provided a basis for someone to make objective arguments to resolve a clear prompt, it is fine. This way, the question can be "resolved" and not answered endlessly -- this same principle same applies for every other question that we get here. The post you linked satisfies this guideline by including the team and the game, so you could potentially justify one Pokemon over the other if it fits the team better or is more helpful for the storyline. I don't like rules for the sake of rules, that isn't helpful to anybody. These posts harm nothing and don't contradict any of our other rules, so I don't see any problems with them.

Does this make sense? If you have any questions let me know, and I'll try to answer them when my classes are finished today.

Comments

The question on which you cleared the flags asked to compare Togetic and Golem. Those two are so different neither can be better than the other, so I think that question is too open-ended. Why do you think it's not open-ended?

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If I may, I think that kind of question is fine because both Pokémon have strengths/weaknesses against certain bosses in the game, and depending on the rest of their team, there is an objectively better Pokémon to combat those bosses. For example, if their team gets destroyed by Electric types, Golem would be a better choice than Togetic. However, if they are going to have trouble against Fighting-types, Golem probably isn't the best option, whereas Togetic's Fly/Extrasensory could be very useful. Saying that one cannot be better than the other is not true, because depending on the variables, they can be. It can be answered objectively with a little bit of research on the answerer's part.

Of course, a question asking "Is Togetic better than Golem" is too open-ended, but if there is adequate context, I don't see why it would be considered open-ended.

There might be other reasons, but those are my two cents.

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I'm going to copy/paste this for the second time.
Pokebase is for Pokemon questions, so I thought questions about specific teams wouldn't be allowed because they're more about the specific team than they are about the Pokemon game itself.

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Astro is spot on basically, I have nothing to add. If there's a basis to make an objective argument as to why one Pokemon is better, I am fine with the question. The team and the game both provide that context.
I don't really agree that specific teams aren't about the Pokemon games -- they're made to play said games so they are related, the way I see it. Though I don't see any reason to enforce a rule like the one you mentioned, regardless of how you see it. So long as the question relates to Pokemon it is fine, and Pokemon teams absolutely relate to Pokemon. Assuming your logic that anything that doesn't relate to the actual games should be banned, then should we disallow questions about the TCG or anime? There isn't any reason to restrict the site to just the games.

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^ What fizz said has been the generally accepted practice. Most questions on teams are taken down because they're too broad - rather than a comparison of two Pokemon, they want an entire team from nowhere.

A large portion of Pokebase don't actually refer to the events and activities of the actual games themself, but focus on specific characteristics of certain Pokemon, or branch products of the Pokemon brand. As long as questions are somewhat relevant to the broader franchise of Pokemon, are legal, and are generally specific enough to be answered adequately there's no point in filtering them out.

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How are Pokemon teams irrelevant to a Pokemon game? I would have thought that since a team is made of Pokemon creatures, it would relate perfectly to a game founded on Pokemon creatures. But teams are even more relevant because unlike contests for example, you can only progress through a game with a Pokemon team. Using your team in battle is the most significant aspect of a Pokemon game - you can't discover any other aspect of a Pokemon game without a Pokemon team, it is the drive of the game.

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So they have to be Pokemon-related, have an objective answer, and be legal? I think I get it now.