Rejected Privacy Feature Suggestion

[LarryBetraitor]

Something on Pokemon Showdown that has been bothering me is that your ladder rankings are public! I understand that some people are proud of their scores and all that, but to others, it is just straight-up annoying and generally does more harm than good.

Why?
Here are a couple of reasons, actually.

1. It isn't necessary for people to look at my scores. I shouldn't be pointing this out, but apparently, it's normal for people to pry into my personal information for no rhyme or reason.
2. Most Important: Whenever I have a valid reason supported by logic and evidence, people are quick to point out, "Doesn't matter, you have a low GXE and ELO", which is completely irrelevant to the conversation.

Example:
Me: "In my opinion, Dragonite needs to be banned from National Dex OU. It takes zero effort to win with this, and I shouldn't have to center my entire team around one Pokemon. Who cares if your Mono-Ghost team blocks its Extreme Speed? They're all getting OHKOed with Earthquake thanks to one Dragon Dance. Even Rocky-Helmet Landorous (one of its only counters, by the way) doesn't stand a chance since it gets Inner Focus and Ice Spinner. Therefore, Dragonite should be banned."
Chat: "Bruh, shut up! You have low GXE and ELO, you have no idea what you're talking about!"
Me: "That's... not relevant... were you even listening...?"
Chat: "Dragonite isn't even that good! Sounds like a you problem!"

"But GXE and ELO are Measures of Skill!"

1. No, they're not. They're measures of luck, not skill. You could be using the best team in the world and still get owned by monotype teams, stall, and other gimmick teams that take you by surprise. No team is perfect, no team is prepared for every possible contingency, and the opponent you fight is completely random.
2. Not everyone with a low score is inexperienced. Some people like to take challenges, spice up the game, and make it more interesting! Whether they aim to sweep with a Furret or take on the Trick House (which I totally recommend you try out, just go to any chat and type in /join th), sure their scores are gonna lower. BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT!

Should GXE and ELO be Eliminated?
Of course not! This is a competitive website, and erasing scores would take away so much hard work and ultimately defeat the whole purpose of the ladder.

But should we be allowed to hide our scores?
Yes, absolutely! My scores are my business! I don't want people digging into my scores just because they disagree with me. I could also see this benefiting High Score players. Maybe they want to be modest. Maybe they just want to keep their scores private.

Bottom Line: Give us the Option to Keep our Scores a Secret!

 

[Mathy]

I don't want to write a whole essay arguing against your reasoning here so here's a quick few bullet points

• I think elitism is cringe to a degree but arguments about a metagame don't really hold water if you can't prove yourself capable of winning the game. like, if you want to show everyone how dragonite is a 0 skill mon just use it on a team. if you get #1 that's enough proof for me. if not then there's probably something wrong with your argument, and the battles you lose will tell you what they are.
  • the Tiering Policy Framework is required reading for anyone who wants to make arguments about tiering.
  • also, what does inner focus have to do with rocky helmet? i don't play competitive nearly enough to respond to the argument as a whole but those 2 things do not interact at all.
• not everyone with a low score is inexperienced, but if you spend all your time just handicapping yourself instead of playing just to win, then it will be equally hard to take you seriously. it will seem like you're just trying to make your own pet challenges easier.
• rating is obviously not completely luck-based, the point of having a skill rating is to accurately predict the chances of a player winning against another, these numbers have mathematical formulae made for this purpose. this is exactly why we are confident using GXE as a requirement for suspect voting.

aside from that, there's frankly no point in hiding a statistic that determines who you play against. if someone is 1600 and gets matched with you instantly, they can already guess your rating within 100 points. rating is not "personal information" by any reasonable definition.

for those reasons i will be rejecting this, have a nice day.

 

[LarryBetraitor]

This reply is not a rebuttal. It is merely meant to address your concerns.
To be clear, Rocky Helmet is meant to punish Extreme Speed, and Intimidate is meant to lower Dragonite's attack stat. But Inner Focus negates this.

And the reason why I don't use Dragonite is because I didn't want to become the person I swore to destroy. Dragonite is very annoying, and I didn't want to become annoying myself. And if you "play to win" instead of "play for fun", what's the point in winning? I still don't get the point about the rating "Obviously not being luck based". Also, how can I fight back against elitism?

 

[dhelmise]

That isn’t really relevant to the suggestion at hand so I’m going to lock this if nobody has anything else to add. Mathy’s reply summed up why this won’t happen pretty well.

unrelated: when people use the elo argument just stop engaging with them. They can’t hold a discussion without assuming they’re the correct opinion anyway.