Meta-PokéBase Q&A
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With this thread I'm hoping to start a discussion regarding questions that ask us to provide advice on an in-game team or a moveset, and which of these threads are ones we should allow.

We're quite stringent on questions that ask 'What is a good moveset/team for [x]?', as these are supposed to be for movesetbot (reminder!) or a moderator to cover. I am not asking about these questions: I want for us all to decide whether questions that supply an in-game or moveset and ask us to provide some sort of advice are allowed.

Bear with me on this: you might already be thinking 'no', but I want to go over some of the variances of these threads that under our current rule set, I don't think I can justify taking down. You have probably encountered posts like these:

  • 'What move would be best to finish this moveset?'
  • 'What Pokemon would be best to finish my team for [game]?'
  • 'What Pokemon can do [a, b, c] for my team?'
  • 'Which team member should I replace for [Pokemon]?'
  • 'Which Pokemon of [a, b] would be best for my team?'
  • 'Does [Pokemon] fit my team well enough?'
  • 'Would this moveset/strategy work?'
  • 'Is this team good enough for [game]?'

In my opinion, these questions differ from your vanilla 'rate my stuff' kind of post, where someone asks you broadly and generally to rate their moveset or team. Those posts I take down without question: they're directionless as to what the asker wants you to address and therefore it's impossible to answer them 'correctly'.

But the ones I listed above aren't directionless: they prescribe a team or set and ask you to make a specific assessment of what the best option is -- even better when they restrict those options for you, like many of those above actually do. They are not asking, 'rate my team/moveset': they have specifically outlined one part of their build they want advice on. In this way, I don't think we can lump them into the same category: we need to make a separate decision for them.

As you might have anticipated based on my making this thread in the first place, I am personally advocating that we actually allow these types of questions. In my opinion, the whole issue with in-game team and moveset-rating posts is supposed to be that they're directionless and non-specific, which makes them difficult and annoying to answer. But again, the questions listed actually prescribe what they want you to do, which means they're not open-ended and can be answered objectively. If I'm not mistaken, this is the basis of our entire Q&A platform.

I've heard it said that these questions are a waste of time because in-game is easy anyway and anything can work, but to me this is such a non-argument: if people are asking these questions and others answering them, then clearly people care. It would be on poor grounds for us to simply take them down because our perspectives don't align.

I've also heard it said that we should ban any question where there is more than one response that could be correct, but then we'd be banning all kinds of different questions that I think bring quality content to the site. (For example, threads like 'Is Quagsire or Swampert better?' are often really great to read and answer.) I also think it's unhelpful to arbitrarily pick a number and say, 'any amount of options above this amount is banned'.

I'm sorry this ended up so long lol, but I want this whole issue to be over with. In my opinion the rule should be that if the question limits the options enough that it has a direction and isn't just 'open-ended', then it should be allowed. But obviously I don't run this place, so I want to know what you all think :)

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Among the examples you listed, I think these should be allowed.
'What move would be best to finish this moveset?'
'Would this moveset/strategy work?'

Among the examples you listed, I think these should be not allowed.
'What Pokemon would be best to finish my team for [game]?'
'What Pokemon can do [a, b, c] for my team?'
'Which team member should I replace for [Pokemon]?'
'Which Pokemon of [a, b] would be best for my team?'
'Does [Pokemon] fit my team well enough?'
'Is this team good enough for [game]?'

My reasoning is that the first category asks about specific Pokemon, while the second asks about specific teams. Pokemon are created by the first party, and they usually have so few good movesets that the "best movesets for each Pokemon" can be considered determined by the first party as well. Teams, however, are created by the players. When someone asks about a team, he/she/it is asking a question about him/her/itself, rather about Pokemon in general. This seems to go against the purpose of this site and should not be allowed.
I have asked a similar question in the past: https://pokemondb.net/pokebase/meta/45372/pokebase-vs-rmt although it is a bit outdated now and is more along the lines of what questions belong on PokeBase and which ones belong on RMT. If you don't feel like reading the whole thing, basically the answerer believes that these questions are fine as long as they don't become too open-ended.
Your question doesn't seem very related to this one. Yours is about competitive; this is about in-game.
Like I said, it's not an exact fit, but I think the overall concept is the same: what to do with questions asking for advice on team composition. I thought my question would be a useful reference for this subject matter, but it's fine if you don't agree with me. I did originally write the question with the competitive scene in mind, but some of the examples I gave could also apply to in-game.
@sumwun I'm not sure I quite follow the distinctions you're making, but if the implication is that team centre more around the individual's preferences, I guess that's one issue that arises with threads like these. But if any sort of favourites-choosing get brought up by the asker then I'd probably just take the thread down -- personally I just assume the asker wants an objective assessment when they start a thread like this.
Most of these questions can be answered objectively. I have no problem with that. It's just that when someone decides to play a Pokemon game with a specific team, he/she/it sort of creates a game of its own that's not "purely" Pokemon. Being a Pokemon QA, I don't think we should allow this.
Not sure I understand how making a Pokemon team doesn't relate enough to Pokemon for us to allow it. But point taken, individual preference can muddy the aim of the thread I guess.
I'm going to try explaining it another way. I'm pretty sure Pokebase is where people ask for Pokemon facts, and their answers contain the facts they were looking for. "What is a good Pokemon for my team?" is not asking for a fact about Pokemon.

1 Answer

1 vote

As usual, everything you've said makes a lot of sense. I have no problem with questions that aren't open-ended or have great answers. However, it is difficult to make rules for, because in the end it's up to the discretion of mods (or users flagging the question) whether something counts as objective enough.

It's also important how the question is asked. Just saying "Is Quagsire or Swampert better" isn't great. Better at what? Most Pokemon are good at some things and not good at others. Sometimes these questions can border on just asking for opinions of your favourite.

Do you have some specific examples of questions that have been hidden, which you think should have been allowed? (You can describe the question or title and I'll try and find it, or if you have a link in your internet history that's great.) Maybe we can figure out some rules that work for everyone.

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Do you have any opinions about the rules Fizz and I are proposing?
Fair points. I alluded to a way this could be formalised in the last part of my write up -- maybe this could be added to the existing rule about opinions and polls, as a side note that team/moveset threads are subject to the rule too.
As for examples, there may not be too many as I've tended to just approve most of them, which means I'll just be trudging through activity lists to find any. But nearly all of them follow the formats I listed and supply a team to go with, sometimes with some extra direction as to what they want. (Maybe we just ask that this description be provided?)
However, there is this thread linked here which is what prompted this thread. It serves as a good example of what I mean. There's validity on both sides which is why I wanted to get this discussion going. https://pokemondb.net/pokebase/292847/what-pokemon-should-i-get-for-my-last-in-platinum