Approved by Elevator Music
(First in a series)
All right, I'm going to try to keep this brief. As I'm sure we are all aware, flavour is a contentious issue within CAP, and inevitably in every project we are saddled with posts here and there pertaining to the flavour of various options, germane to the issue or not. The difficulty, as far as I can see, is that there is no real place to discuss flavour on the forums during a CAP – or at the very least, it is difficult for a newer user to actually work out where they can and cannot post their flavour without considerable digging. At the moment, the areas in which flavour discussion is permitted are, as far as I am aware, Movepool Submissions, Art Submissions, Sprite Submissions, Dex Submissions, and Flavour Ability Discussions. Setting #cap to the side for the moment, there is no place for forum-based flavour discussion of the Pokemon as a whole, and as such, flavour discussion of the CAPs will inevitably trickle into the competitive side, which is a problem.
As such, I propose that we bring back the Create-A-Pokemon Kitchen, as detailed here. Now, as some of you will doubtless remember, the end result of that thread was the creation of a social group dedicated to the discussion of CAP Flavour and all its nuances (and still exists, here), but which is now abandoned, and few know of its existence. Certainly, there's very little . So, my proposal is thus – that we create a new thread on commencement of each CAP, the "Create-A-Pokemon Kitchen", to be the sole place for all flavour-based discussion, or at least where it would not be pertinent elsewhere (obviously comments on CAP artwork, and other situations like it, would be the exception), where the rules about posting are slightly more relaxed. Functionally speaking it would be equivalent to the thread described in the above link, but without the Topic Leader being the last word on all CAP flavour – this would just be a place for discussion, hopefully policed by some obliging mods, and those among our able contributors who are overly concerned about flavour (and you know who you are) can lead by example. It has been my opinion that if a CAP's overall flavour is discussed rather than in bits and bobs, the overall product ought to be a more complete one, as it would be for any other item of discussion, especially if we are all on the same page about it, or even better, can come to a consensus.
What do I expect we will get out of this? Well, for a start, it will give those who do not go on #cap (and let's face it, that's the majority of the userbase) a place to discuss things where they could not ordinarily do so, such as ideas for art concepts based on typing or stats, and the like. In addition, I feel it would make the CAP forum a little bit less intimidating, particularly in the initial concept stages, as there is a place that they can recognise and understand quite easily without necessarily needing a fundamental grasp of the CAP Project, and thus use it as a springboard of sorts to enter the Project proper. Thus I feel it could not only attract new users, but also to make those who still feel unsure a bit more at home and relaxed. That is the hope, anyway. I won't deny that there is a risk that these discussions could turn toxic, as such subjective arguments always do. But then on the plus side, these arguments are nowhere near the competitive parts, and more to the point, I have confidence in our moderators and contributors to, ah, keep the peace, as it were.
My hope is that the Kitchen, if it were to be successful, or even as an initial extension of its use, would then also act as a place for discussions for such things as pre-evolutions, or even as a replacement to flavour discussions in their entirety – I am talking here more as being used for discussion of flavour abilities should the point come up, so that we don't have to deal with some of the frankly dire flavour ability threads that we have seen recently (I don't know if it was just me, but for my own part I found those for both Necturna and Mollux a little trying, even without the drama of the latter). In this case, were No Competitive Ability to be selected, the Topic Leader could immediately construct a slate based on the discussion that had gone on beforehand. Well, that's my hope, anyway.
(First in a series)
All right, I'm going to try to keep this brief. As I'm sure we are all aware, flavour is a contentious issue within CAP, and inevitably in every project we are saddled with posts here and there pertaining to the flavour of various options, germane to the issue or not. The difficulty, as far as I can see, is that there is no real place to discuss flavour on the forums during a CAP – or at the very least, it is difficult for a newer user to actually work out where they can and cannot post their flavour without considerable digging. At the moment, the areas in which flavour discussion is permitted are, as far as I am aware, Movepool Submissions, Art Submissions, Sprite Submissions, Dex Submissions, and Flavour Ability Discussions. Setting #cap to the side for the moment, there is no place for forum-based flavour discussion of the Pokemon as a whole, and as such, flavour discussion of the CAPs will inevitably trickle into the competitive side, which is a problem.
As such, I propose that we bring back the Create-A-Pokemon Kitchen, as detailed here. Now, as some of you will doubtless remember, the end result of that thread was the creation of a social group dedicated to the discussion of CAP Flavour and all its nuances (and still exists, here), but which is now abandoned, and few know of its existence. Certainly, there's very little . So, my proposal is thus – that we create a new thread on commencement of each CAP, the "Create-A-Pokemon Kitchen", to be the sole place for all flavour-based discussion, or at least where it would not be pertinent elsewhere (obviously comments on CAP artwork, and other situations like it, would be the exception), where the rules about posting are slightly more relaxed. Functionally speaking it would be equivalent to the thread described in the above link, but without the Topic Leader being the last word on all CAP flavour – this would just be a place for discussion, hopefully policed by some obliging mods, and those among our able contributors who are overly concerned about flavour (and you know who you are) can lead by example. It has been my opinion that if a CAP's overall flavour is discussed rather than in bits and bobs, the overall product ought to be a more complete one, as it would be for any other item of discussion, especially if we are all on the same page about it, or even better, can come to a consensus.
What do I expect we will get out of this? Well, for a start, it will give those who do not go on #cap (and let's face it, that's the majority of the userbase) a place to discuss things where they could not ordinarily do so, such as ideas for art concepts based on typing or stats, and the like. In addition, I feel it would make the CAP forum a little bit less intimidating, particularly in the initial concept stages, as there is a place that they can recognise and understand quite easily without necessarily needing a fundamental grasp of the CAP Project, and thus use it as a springboard of sorts to enter the Project proper. Thus I feel it could not only attract new users, but also to make those who still feel unsure a bit more at home and relaxed. That is the hope, anyway. I won't deny that there is a risk that these discussions could turn toxic, as such subjective arguments always do. But then on the plus side, these arguments are nowhere near the competitive parts, and more to the point, I have confidence in our moderators and contributors to, ah, keep the peace, as it were.
My hope is that the Kitchen, if it were to be successful, or even as an initial extension of its use, would then also act as a place for discussions for such things as pre-evolutions, or even as a replacement to flavour discussions in their entirety – I am talking here more as being used for discussion of flavour abilities should the point come up, so that we don't have to deal with some of the frankly dire flavour ability threads that we have seen recently (I don't know if it was just me, but for my own part I found those for both Necturna and Mollux a little trying, even without the drama of the latter). In this case, were No Competitive Ability to be selected, the Topic Leader could immediately construct a slate based on the discussion that had gone on beforehand. Well, that's my hope, anyway.
