[X] My Assistant

[Rookie Roo]

A quick TL;DR for the ones who don't want to read everything: Just pick one theme you'd like us to try and promote for the next Site Wide Shiny Hunt (SWSH), and we'll try our best to make it a reality!
And, when the time comes, consider voting for the theme that won so we can, collectively, make it a reality! Scroll a little down to the "About next month's options" to read more about the reasoning behind the options for this pre-voting stage! And, also, don't forget to check out the "Rules" part just to be in the safe side and not make an oopsie!

Anyway, without further ado:

Hah! Not late this time around! In fact, I'm EARLY writing this just to be SURE I'll be able to post it as soon as possible... -evil laughter-

So hey y'all! I hope you are all doing good! Yup yup, it's that time of the year again, where we all come together and choose the next theme to promote for September!

So hey, I have no new news to give so... Let's get into the gritty things, okay?

Right now I have 67 suggested themes! So remember, if you want to suggest anything, please feel free to do so over here or in Discord (be sure to ping me!). I can't promise it'll get chosen in the next poll because it's all REAL RNG, BUT hey, it COULD happen so...

Anyway, a small introduction for those who are new here (and, if you are a pro with these polls, this is the part where you skip to the actual themes!):

Are you tired of the SWSH being, most of the times, the last three Pokemon that have been added to the site? Are you tired of feeling as if your favorite generation doesn't get enough love, or is swept by the most recent ones? Do you wish you could have a hand in influencing the Pokemon we are going to hunt?
Look no further, you are in the RIGHT place.

For those who don't know me: I'm usually one of the organizers for past SWSH themes we've had! Particularly, I helped with a lot of 'em and, in fact, we already have more than a year with consecutive themes being chosen thanks to YOUR help and imagination! So, hooray! Honorable mentions are Moth Month (March 2021), Changing Seasons (November 2021), Sparkling Gems (January 2021), and the last one All The Rage (Mankey, Tauros, Sandile) and now, once again, I want YOU to decide which theme you'd like to see in the next SWSH!

Again, all of this effort couldn't have been made without YOUR help, so thank YOU for making them a reality! Here's for the future themes you guys decide to go for!

"Ok, sounds nice, but what do I have to do again?"

The plan is quite simple: every non-SWSH month I'm gonna post a thread just like this with 3 themes, and you just have to choose the one you like the most! Then, the next month (the SWSH one) you'll see posters or info graphics inviting people to vote for the theme that had the most votes. PLEASE, consider voting for it and help out the other people who are already excited for a certain theme!

You can also look at it this way: if they get their theme quickly, it means we can get to the one you'd like faster than if you didn't help them! Mutual help! \o/

But wait that's not all! You can also help in other ways!

Personally, I encourage people to express themselves and ask for what they'd like. So, if you have a theme you'd like to see come true, please, go ahead and comment in this thread with it!
If you can, please tell me the reasoning behind them if there's any (for example "Pidgey, Fearow, Farfetch'd, because I like Kanto AND, more importantly, BIRBS") so I can try to think of ways to make them more appealing! Be that with a brand new story like I did with Lovecraft Lovers, OR by bothering Gajeel Redfox into using thematic images related to what you wanted!

So, think of one theme and post it if you want! Be sure to check this link, and make sure that the Pokemon you want haven't been hunted before!

Currently we have 67 different themes, but you can always propose more!

About this month's options

So... SWSH month. And that means that I went ahead and used a real random number generator to choose from a shuffled list of all the themes suggested so far. I tried to make it as randomized as I could make it, so rest assured that I did my best!

This time, a theme that was proposed last month was selected so hey! Yet another reason for YOU to propose what you want, because it MIGHT get selected!

Anyway, the reason behind this month's options are:

- Deadliest Catch: Tentacool, Qwilfish, Mareanie. "Are you sure these are edible...?"
Proposed and named by Allister, description/catchphrase by me.

- Frosty Friends: Crabrawler, Vanillite, Snorunt. Just a bunch of little guys that take well to the cold.
Proposed, named AND nice description by Miracle.

- Shelltember: Turtwig, Torkoal, Tirtouga. Turtley tubular
Proposed, named and description by Professor Eucalyptus.

So, which one will you choose and would like for us to promote? Be sure to vote in the poll!

I also can't stress this enough, but: Your participation is important, both in this pre-voting stage and in the actual voting stage! So, please, consider participating!

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

This project is, by NO MEANS, replacing the official SWSH nor officially associated with it. This is just a COMMUNITY project that focuses on trying to organize future SWSHs to give them an extra flavor.
As such, I CANNOT and WILL NOT promise that the winning theme of this stage will be the official SWSH next month, but you can BET we'll do our best to make that come true! That's why your cooperation in voting for the winning theme is also encouraged.


And that's all. Now I'll just leave the official rules just to be in the same page. Catch you soon!

RULES

- Do NOT harass people into voting for what you want. Encouraging people is okay tho', so choose your words wisely.

For example, you shouldn't say things like: "DUCK THIS, VOTE FOR THE CLEARLY SUPERIOR X THEME!", "UGH, that theme is so LAME, EVERYONE should just vote for X". Things you could say: "Oh, I like X theme! Think of all the shenanigans we could create with it!", "This thread had my curiosity, but now X theme has my attention". Heck you could even go Hailey's route and go "VOTE FOR STUNFISK YOU COWARDS", though I would suggest adding a little smiley face (because they DO help to make your tone feel less inflammatory and friendlier) or "jk" at the end so everyone can understand it's, mostly, meant as a joke.

Basically I want to diminish the opportunity of people trying to throw shade at others and just bring negative emotions to the thread. Come on guys, we are all interested in hunts in here, we CAN find a way to coexist and help each other out!

- Regular forum rules apply! So don't double post, or don't ask for clicks every time your party's full again!

- Don't post your shinies here. Rather post them over here, since more people would be able to see them! ;D

- You wanna rage about something? We actually have a place where to vent any negative feeling you might have, so click on that link so you can go there and release some tension!

- Try not to use swear words! This is a feels-good space, y'all!

- Memes are PERFECT in here, BUT do remember that they can stretch the page, so if they are big or a lot of them, remember to spoiler them so it doesn't get too bad!

- Try not to make BIG quote pyramids! Why? Because of page stretching, of course!

- We love to talk around here, so if you wanna comment something, feel free to do so and evade SUPER short posts if possible.

[Eryth Violet]

Hindsight is 20/20, but I gotta choose the theme that doesn't include Pokemon from the current event :P However, I probably would've chosen Frosty Friends otherwise.

[KitsuYuuki]

Hi! I like the idea of these themes, and had a suggestion for them. Would it be possible to include some of the pokemon that are highly voted outside of themes, in the next swsh's theme selection? For example there's a frosty friends theme. Eiscue has been highly voted the past few times, but loses out to the theme of the month. Including eiscue in the ice theme, could be good for those players.

[Isla de Monte Cr...]

Hi! I like the idea of these themes, and had a suggestion for them. Would it be possible to include some of the pokemon that are highly voted outside of themes, in the next swsh's theme selection? For example there's a frosty friends theme. Eiscue has been highly voted the past few times, but loses out to the theme of the month. Including eiscue in the ice theme, could be good for those players.

It's definitely not a perfect system right now, but Rookie only keeps the list of themes suggested by users and randomly selects three every month for the voting, they don't choose each pokemon themselves each month.

Several of us have added themes to the list recently that include some of the top voted pokemon from previous hunts as well to try and balance things a little more. Fore example - I suggested a Pingu based theme with Eiscue, Hoothoot and Seel in response to the high number of votes Eiscue has been getting. But whether or not it gets picked for the poll for the month is random chance!

Some options that might help:
- Having a cooldown period before themes can be reselected for the vote (Shelltember for example has been voted on before under a different name but didn't succeed that time)
- Increasing the number of themes per vote to 4 or 5
- Not allowing multiple themes with the same pokemon in the same vote (for example, last vote we had multiple themes with Tauros)