Policy Review Policy Review - Tutoring the CaP Metagame

[tennisace]

Approved by DJD via PM.

Disclaimer:

If you are not an experienced member of the CAP community, it is strongly recommended that you do not post in this thread.

This thread is intended to contain intelligent discussion and commentary by experienced members of the CAP project regarding CAP policy, process, and rules. As such, the content of this thread will be moderated more strictly than other threads on the forum. The posting rules for Policy Review threads are contained here: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showpos...86&postcount=2

This is another idea I came up with recently, but it was ignored in the first PR thread. The general idea is to have a staff of CaP tutors to hold a program similar to Smogon's tutors.

This will accomplish many things. First, it will teach the metagame to many people who would otherwise have a hard time learning it. As everyone knows, this metagame is quite different to the standard metagame, even though we've only added 4 Pokemon so far. The tutors will also teach the forum procedures, such as how to vote, what is acceptable, and what each stage of the process means to the Pokemon as a whole. These sessions would run for 3 weeks at a time, and maybe even have a tournament at the end like the standard tutoring program. It would be strongly recommended for new battlers to go through the standard program at least once to learn the basics of battling, but more experienced battlers don't need to. This could help increase the number of experienced people in the metagame, and draw in both new and top-notch battlers.

 

[Syprus]

This idea is great! Teaching others about the CaP metagame is an excellent idea. We are going to have a totally different metagame from all the CaPs we made and going to make. It's a great oppurtinity for them. They'll learn more about our metagame and it will most likely attract players.

 

[omgthatkid]

Eh, do you have to be a new battler?
I'm not very consistent with going onto Shoddy, and every new "session" of play I start (which lasts a couple days to a couple weeks) I suck at first.
So will this tutoring program have people who are observing which Pokemon are being used more often because of the appearance of Pokemon X?
Will it have some sort of update to the metagame for people who are already familiar with the foundation in general?

 

[tennisace]

Eh, do you have to be a new battler.
I'm not very consistent with going onto Shoddy, and every new "session" of play I start (which lasts a couple days to a couple weeks) I suck at first.
So will this tutoring program have people who are observing which Pokemon are being used more often because of the appearance of Pokemon X?
Will if have some sort of update to the metagame for people who are already familiar with the foundation in general?

Yes, this will account for a constantly shifting metagame, as does the standard tutoring program.

 

[Syprus]

Question: Who will the tutors be? Mods? Experienced members in the CaP project?

Question: How will you choose the tutors? Random people? Votes?

Question: How many tutors will there be?

 

[tennisace]

Question: Who will the tutors be? Mods? Experienced members in the CaP project?

Question: How will you choose the tutors? Random people? Votes?

Question: How many tutors will there be?

Answer: Experienced members in the Project. However, most of the mods are experienced members in the project.

Answer: Same way the normal tutors do, via applications and a small panel.

Answer: Depends on how much interest this gets. Probably 10-15 to start, and more or less if needed.

 

[Deck Knight]

I wholeheartedly support this idea.

Actually, I guess I inadvertantly recommended it in the other Policy Review Thread you posted.

This increases knowledge without decreasing accessibility to the project.

If we could have an artist do up a cool CAP sig. banner for members who complete the training as a reward, it might inspire more people to educate themselves.

 

[omgthatkid]

I wholeheartedly support this idea.

Actually, I guess I inadvertantly recommended it in the other Policy Review Thread you posted.

This increases knowledge without decreasing accessibility to the project.

If we could have an artist do up a cool CAP sig. banner for members who complete the training as a reward, it might inspire more people to educate themselves.

I like this idea.
I want a cool banner.

 

[Syprus]

Yeah, rewarding the members will improve their confidence and learn more about the CaP metagame and take part in the projects.

 

[tennisace]

The problem is, only badged people can have images in their sigs. However, something for the tutors would be cool, but shouldn't be the only reason they sign up for it. The reason should be to help educate a new "generation" of CaP contributors, not for a fancy banner. (or badge =P)

 

[sbc]

If you are looking to reward tutors, then certain privileges on the CAP server could be possible, maybe not driver functions but like /lookup or something perhaps?

 

[tennisace]

I'm not really looking to reward tutors though. This should be a charity-type thing. If Doug or X-Act want to reward them, I'm fine with it, but its not what the tutoring program is for.

 

[DougJustDoug]

I would really like to see something like this instituted. Perhaps the completion of this "course" could be the "certification" program I've been wanting.

Granting image rights to people's sigs is probably not feasible. But, perhaps we could make a small "avatar banner" -- a thin banner strip that can be added to the bottom of people's avatar that says 'Certified CAP Member', or something like that. It could be small enough to not overly detract from people avvy, but big enough to be noticeable. Anyone could graft it onto their avvy with any basic graphics editor. If people have trouble with it, I'm sure members of the community could help provide "avvy banner grafting services".

If anyone displays the avvy banner without being a certified member, I can smack them with a profile infraction.

With a visual indicator, it would be easy to count "certified member" votes in bolded polls by just looking at the avvy.

Anyway, it's an idea that we might want to consider.

 

[tennisace]

Hmmm... I'm starting to think that the Registered Voters and the Tutoring Program are two different branches of the same concept. I realize that outright mass certification is unfeasable, but a tutoring program like this would accomplish the same thing. What are everyone elses opinions on this?

 

[HD]

This is a great idea. I mean there are many people who are just joining the CAP and need help making a team etc. It's a different metagame with different threats than the regular metagame. And I really need help making a CAP team since I'm clue-less about the different threats.

 

[bumfacepik]

If compleating this program gett's you the certified cap user banner.. I hope this isn't the only way. I think you should be able to take a test and if you kill enough of the oponents pokemon you should get the banner. This could also be the test at the end of the tutoring program.

 

[User 12783]

Fuck, let people learn the regular metagame first xD

Anyways, I'm in full agreement with this idea, but you might wanna get a more people involved and that actually know how to play with CaPs before you start this. Or you might want to let the project progress a lot more before you install this. IMO, the CaP started what, 6 months ago? With what, like 10 people that can actually use the CaPs, out of a full 30? :/ We need to get more people actually playing before we have people tutor other people. We should also establish the regular metagame before this. I have yet to fully learn the regular metagame, and it's been like months, how the hell am I gonna learn this metagame as well?

I propose something different. I propose we get the regular tutors to play with CaP Pokemon, and then they can tutor us. Just add a branch to the tutoring porgram instead of starting a new one. I'd suggest a badge or something of the sort saying 'CaP Tutor' or something like that the way regular tutors have it. Maybe not Inside Scoop access, but a badge would be cool. I also think only the people with a badge should be the only ones able to apply for the CaP Tutor position (I'm talking to you darkie, matty, and all those tutors!!!) or those that have really gone out of there way to prove points and are respected in the CaP community (I'm still talking to you darkie, and the other people being tennis, Aldaron, Bass, Sunday, DJD, etc.). This well prove they are already good in the regular metagame and/or this one. They some could also tutor both at the same time which is better. Yeah, I know, not gonna happen, but I'll try anyways.

I stand with my first big paragraph, but am a little lenient on the second one.

 

[tennisace]

Anyways, I'm in full agreement with this idea, but you might wanna get a more people involved and that actually know how to play with CaPs before you start this. Or you might want to let the project progress a lot more before you install this. IMO, the CaP started what, 6 months ago? With what, like 10 people that can actually use the CaPs, out of a full 30? :/ We need to get more people actually playing before we have people tutor other people. We should also establish the regular metagame before this. I have yet to fully learn the regular metagame, and it's been like months, how the hell am I gonna learn this metagame as well?

The problem with that is the standard metagame will stabilize over time. However, the CaP metagame is built so that the metagame gets intentionally shook-up every couple months or so with the addition of a new Pokemon. So waiting for the regular metagame to stabilize while the CaP metagame unpredictibly spirals out of control is sorta counterproductive, don't you think?

I propose something different. I propose we get the regular tutors to play with CaP Pokemon, and then they can tutor us. Just add a branch to the tutoring porgram instead of starting a new one. I'd suggest a badge or something of the sort saying 'CaP Tutor' or something like that the way regular tutors have it. Maybe not Inside Scoop access, but a badge would be cool. I also think only the people with a badge should be the only ones able to apply for the CaP Tutor position (I'm talking to you darkie, matty, and all those tutors!!!) or those that have really gone out of there way to prove points and are respected in the CaP community (I'm still talking to you darkie, and the other people being tennis, Aldaron, Bass, Sunday, DJD, etc.). This well prove they are already good in the regular metagame and/or this one. They some could also tutor both at the same time which is better. Yeah, I know, not gonna happen, but I'll try anyways.

Thats a very interesting idea. I'm not sure about them tutoring us about our metagame, because that implies that they're demigods (not that some aren't definatly better). However, what about them teaching us tutoring techniques? That way, we can tutor the CaP people more efficiently.

 

[MonarchVV]

I really like the idea of tutoring people about the CaP metagame. I'm new to this and would really enjoy learning from the experience members of this project.
Plus, a badge/banner/whatever it is sounds pretty neat.

 

[tennisace]

I'm bumping this because I feel that this needs some more opinions, or a closing (and locking) statement from Doug.

 

[darkie]

Wow, did I really not post here yet?

A tutor program instated for the members new to CAP is obviously an excellent idea.

I like the idea of adding a banner to the avatar of our tutors, but while Doug said that, 'it would be easy to count "certified member" votes in bolded polls by just looking at the avvy', would this actually matter? Any TL that is elected should be involved with the project enough already to know which are the more experienced members.

 

[DougJustDoug]

I like the general idea of this. But, I think you should shift the goal of the program somewhat.

I don't want to use the word "Tutor". Within Smogon, "Tutor" is a badge given for Aeolus' Tutoring Program. If we start throwing the word around here, it could cause some confusion and possibly some animosity with the "real" Smogon tutoring program.

I don't think we should put ourselves in the position of presuming to teach anyone about metagame battling. Since, by definition, our metagame plays very similar to the standard metagame -- if we attempt to teach someone about the CAP metagame, we are in fact, trying to teach them about competitive battling in general. There's already a very good program for that within Smogon, and I don't want to infringe on their turf.

We should not characterize this as "teaching" or "tutoring" -- but more like "familiarizing" people with the essential information about these new pokemon, and possibly the CAP project and process. I don't know what label to put on it. Maybe someone else has a better idea. But, this program could be a way to quickly "get up to speed" with the project, without digging through all the stickies and lurking around the forum and server, trying to figure out what is going on. It's more like a "librarian" than a "teacher". A librarian helps give you information, they don't really attempt to teach you that information. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting we use the word "librarian", but that's the general type of service I see this program providing.

If we structured the program with that goal, there are lots of experienced people on the project that can help, even those that aren't the best metagame battlers. Many members of this community are very familiar with our forum rules, project goals, general behavioral guidelines, pitfalls to avoid, relevant project history, names and roles of key project personnel, etc. These people also probably know the generally preferred metagame usage of the CAP pokemon -- even if they don't battle on the server very much. If you are not trying to teach a person how to battle (they can join the Smogon Tutoring Program, if they need that kind of instruction), it's not too tough to give a decent battler a few pointers on the high points of Syclant, Rev, Pyroak, and Fidgit.

I'm really struggling with the right word to describe what to call a program like I just described above. But, I think we should stay away from calling this a "Tutoring" program, or attempting to emulate the Smogon program of the same name.

If we could structure this right, I think many members of the community might want to sign up to help. Participating in something like this could be a nice way to see if you have the right kind of knowledge and demeanor to be an actual Smogon Tutor. Since Aeolus screens Tutor applicants very carefully, past experience with a program like this would look very good on your resume when applying to become a real Smogon Tutor. If any of you have your sights on a Tutor badge, you may want to keep an eye on how this CAP program plays out.

 

[tennisace]

Hmmm what about.... SLH's? (Syclant's Little Helpers)

I agree with not wanting to use tutor though, and if this were to happen, I would put a disclaimer pointing to the Smogon Tutoring service. If you want i can come up with a rough structure by the end of the day.

 

[Darkflagrance]

You could call them 'CAP Metagame Guides', like guides to a museum, considering that they will be guiding people around the CAP metagame and giving them information on the pokemon.

Also, would someone really be comfortable being called one of "Syclant's Little Helpers?"

 

[tennisace]

I would be comfortable with that. A name is a name. I don't like guides particularly, I think of those old ladies who hang out at the museums and have no life.